Author's Note: Hooray, we broke the review pattern:)
IX: The Court (II)
The court of King Kirrent was the grandest building he had ever seen. The army of King Kirrent was an army that had conquered what so many larger, better trained armies had been unable to conquer. King Kirrent himself strutted proudly, admiring his new home.
He had gotten Darkscale to tell him how they had managed to conquer it, but the story had been mostly unintelligible and King Kirrent found that he didn't really care either way.
General Davian was still sleeping, and King Kirrent decided to let him sleep. The lizard had done amazingly. The rat decided that it was he, not Kalzmar, that was his most trusted general.
He was walking around, taking in everything about his new castle, when suddenly, and unfamiliar voice said from behind him, "Y-you aren't a lizard! Please, you gotta help me!"
King Kirrent wheeled around. In front of him was a ferret, with three long diagonal lines down his face. "Who are you?" the king demanded.
"M-my name is Limptail. The lizards, they captured me, and they won't let me leave. I hafta get out of here!" the ferret exclaimed in a hushed whisper.
King Kirrent laughed. A ferret! Finally, his dream of having a real horde was beginning to come true, as well. Not even noticing what Limptail had said, he replied, "Limptail, eh? How about this? How about you be a general in my army?"
Limptail was caught completely off-guard. "Um…"
"Whaddya mean, um? This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance! Have you ever been a general before?" King Kirrent smiled, not maliciously, but almost grandfatherly. Limptail shivered a bit.
"N-no, I've never been a general…" The ferret was deciding that this rat was crazier than the lizards. But at least the rat seemed to like him, enough to make him a general the first time they met…
"Good! Then you'll be one now! General Limptail!" King Kirrent continued to smile. Now his army was actually starting to be a real army, not just these stupid lizards! Once the stories of King Kirrent the Great spread around, he was sure rats, weasels, stoats, ferrets, and foxes of all shapes and sizes would line up at his door!
"Um… O-okay," Limptail stammered. Then, without warning, King Kirrent turned and marched off.
Limptail wheeled around, wanting to get away from all the madbeasts he was trapped with. Unfortunately, he simply came face-to-face with Marclaw, who was not smiling, but frowning, which was even worse.
"What he say?!" Marclaw demanded, shaking Limptail, "What he say?!"
"H-he said that I'm a general now!" Limptail whimpered, "A-and I order you to stop shakin' me this instant!"
Surprisingly, it worked. Marclaw released the ferret, who scampered off in fright. The lizard was suddenly very, very angry. Marclaw had been trying to impress King Kirrent, showing off his blade with no subtlety at all. He had gotten a taste of command when he had to go save Davian, and he liked it. Of course, King Kirrent hadn't even noticed him, instead admiring his new castle. That had made Marclaw angry enough. All the lizards were impressed by his sword! How could King Kirrent be so immune? And then, as if to add insult to injury, he had made that stupid ferret a general!
Marclaw stormed off. Already, the beginning workings of a plan were forming in his mind…
---
It came to King Kirrent's attention that he had prisoners when he walked past Greenwart and asked her what was behind the door she was guarding. Darkscale hadn't told him about any prisoners (actually, he had, King Kirrent just hadn't been able to understand him), so King Kirrent was naturally curious.
"Ehh… I be careful, they very mad," Greenwart told him when he ordered her to open the door.
King Kirrent drew his cutlass. He wasn't scared of a bunch of prisoners.
Greenwart opened the door. King Kirrent walked into a poorly lit room, where a large amount assorted woodlanders were crammed in together. King Kirrent stood in the doorway, with the sunlight pouring in behind him.
The Redwallers strained their eyes, almost blinded by the bright light. The door hadn't been opened all day, and they were worried that the lizards had forgotten about them. Many were hungry and thirsty.
"Hello, my prisoners!" King Kirrent exclaimed, overly cheery. Behind him, Greenwart slunk out of view.
"Who are you?!"
"Let us out of here!!"
"I'm hungry!"
"Yes, yes, yes," King Kirrent announced, "I am King Kirrent the Great, slayer of thousands, and conqueror of this great fort! Bow to me, now!"
The prisoners all stared at him dumbly. One shouted, "King Kirrent the Blowhard is more like it!"
King Kirrent was embarrassed as the prisoners all began to laugh at him. "Fine, then! I was gonna be merciful, give ya food and water, but it appears that ya still need a bit of straightening out. Ya get nothin' for the rest of the day! Maybe tomorrow we can try this again. Hahaha!" The king turned and was bombarded by the same insults and threats that General Davian had been bombarded with. The door shut, and Greenwart latched it again.
The rat continued his stroll through his castle, completely unperturbed by his prisoners. He had it all now!
Kalzmar approached him. "King Kirrent, the longearz izz waking up."
King Kirrent smiled devilishly.
---
Colonel Caldwell woke up, his head throbbing. He was bound to a chair at a table in a small room, with only one door. He was alone, and if he had had more time, he might had been able to wriggle free of his binds- they weren't tied very well.
However, almost as soon as he awoke, King Kirrent burst in, followed by Kalzmar. The rat was laughing fiendishly. Caldwell rolled his eyes.
"Look what we have here, Kalzmar!" King Kirrent exclaimed, a wild fascination in his eye, "It's that mean hare that insulted us an' killed our friends!"
"Your bunch of newts attacked me first, you bally nincompoop!" Caldwell shot. King Kirrent laughed some more.
"I'm a bally nincompoop! Hahaha! Yet I'm the one who's got the giant castle, aren't I? And you… Why, you're tied to that chair there!" King Kirrent stopped laughing and merely smiled. Kalzmar simultaneously frowned behind him.
"How about you let me out of these bonds, and we'll see who'd win in a fight?" Caldwell demanded angrily.
"How about… no?" King Kirrent drew his cutlass and slashed across Caldwell's face, leaving a long bloody gash similar to the ones on Limptail. Caldwell recoiled in pain. "Hahaha! I'll just leave ya here to think about that. I'll be back tomorrow. I'm gonna draw this out as long as possible! You'll be begging for death by the time I'm done with you!"
"Not a chance!" Caldwell shouted through the pain.
"You'll be singin' a different tune in a few days, I'm sure of it. Kalzmar! You are to guard this hare. If he does anything suspicious, stop him! But don't kill him. This is much too fun for it to end so quickly!" King Kirrent laughed again, then departed. Kalzmar and Caldwell stared at each other from the opposite ends of the room.
Kalzmar was still frowning. "Why do I have to guard the longearz?" she grumbled to herself, "I'm a general! I don't have to do boring jobz like theeze!"
Caldwell said nothing. Kalzmar, like Marclaw, was beginning to get a little angry. General Davian only had to sleep all day, the lazy lizard! Kalzmar wanted to sleep, too. Kalzmar wanted to be able to enjoy the amazing castle, much like how King Kirrent was doing.
The door opened again. Kalzmar expected it to be King Kirrent, saying "I'm sorry, you can go to sleep now, I'll just have some other lizard guard the hare," but it was not. Instead, Marclaw stormed in, clenching his sword tightly.
"That sword isn't yours," Caldwell said. Marclaw gave him an icy glare, but said nothing. He had business with Kalzmar.
Kalzmar knew Marclaw fairly well. He had always wanted to be a general, and had grumbled about it quite a bit to Kalzmar, but had never done anything about it.
"Kalzmar. King Kirrent made stupid ferret thing a general! Not me! Not with my zword! It makez me angry!" Marclaw made an angry face, as if trying to emphasize his point.
"Yeah, he makez me guard longearz, while Davian zleepz all day. It not fair," Kalzmar sighed. In the background, Caldwell groaned. He didn't want to hear the whines of a few disgruntled lizards.
"I know," Marclaw sympathized, "I wuz liztening from behind the door, yez."
"There izz nothing we can do about it, though. You zhould leave now," Kalzmar yawned. She also didn't really feel like hearing Marclaw grumble.
"There izz zomething we can do, though," Marclaw suddenly smiled his toothy smile, "We can kill King Kirrent!"
There was an uneasy silence. Marclaw smiled. Kalzmar looked absolutely aghast. Caldwell was suddenly interested.
"K-kill King Kirrent?!" Kalzmar gasped, "But… But… But… We can't!"
"Why not?" Marclaw hissed, "I can kill anything with new zword, anything!"
Kalzmar said nothing. She was afraid. She was afraid that King Kirrent would kill them, she was afraid that they'd fall apart without King Kirrent, and she was most of all afraid of Marclaw. He had a mad glint in his eye, and his smile seemed… omniscient. It was very frightening. Still… What did King Kirrent think he was doing, forcing her to guard the hare while Davian slept? And what had happened when the hares first showed up in the swamp? King Kirrent had run, and sacrificed most of his army in order to do so! But… Killing King Kirrent… it just didn't sit well.
"We kill King Kirrent… And then we in charge!" Marclaw persuaded. He sounded foggy and distant to Kalzmar, but she heard him all the same. Yes, they would be in charge… Then Davian could guard the hare while she slept all day… In fact, they wouldn't even need to guard the hare! They could just kill him, along with all the other prisoners! Still, it just didn't seem feasible.
"I… I will think about it, yez," Kalzmar said, "Give me a few dayz."
Marclaw smiled. "Yez, a few dayz. I give time." Then, he left.
Kalzmar stood there, staring at nothing. She didn't even acknowledge Caldwell's presence.
The hare pondered what to do. An insubordination could be both good and bad. If a lizard was in charge, it was more likely that they'd mess up, make a mistake. However, as Marclaw had said, they would also slaughter the prisoners. The colonel couldn't let that happen. He hated to help out that lowlife rat, but the next time the king walked in, Caldwell would have to tell him all about what Marclaw and Kalzmar were planning behind his back.