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Chapter Fourteen: Tunnels
"Grumm!" Brome raced to the new hole that his mole friend had vanished into. To his relief, the old mole looked up from the hole in the earth, shaking earth off his grey snout. "Well, stan' on moi tunnel! It bees a carvernen!"
Brome leaned over Keyla's shoulder to get a better look down the dark tunnel. "It goes on forever!"
"This isn't going to-" Keyla began, but before he could finish, the ground at his paws crumbled like old cheese and he fell with a shout, taking Brome, who had been leaning over his shoulder to see, with him. The otter twisting in midair to avoid crushing his friends and landed on his back, the wind knocked out of him.
Brome helped him up and looked up at Tullgrew, twenty feet above their heads. The pit was about four times as deep as Keyla was tall, but the ground was soft, due to a lot of fungus growing on it. "I don't suppose we have any rope?"
The javelineer dug through her bag, searching for the sturdy coil of hemp rope she had stowed in her pack. She frowned and dumped the contents on the ground, but it was evident that her rope was missing.
"I can't find it!" she shouted down frantically, "it's not here!"
Celandine sat up and winced as her arm exploded with pain, brushing the dirt out of her tail with her other paw and forcing the tears from her eyes. I will not cry... I am stronger than this! It's only a bruise, only a bruise. Rope, where did you see the rope? The winds had been horrible... they had tied their supplies to a rock to keep them flying off... it was her job to coil the rope... oh, no.
"I think we left it at the campsite!" she called up.
Keyla muttered a curse under his breath as he looked up to the sunlight. "We'll have to stack ourselves- like Brome, Martin, and Felldoh did in the Prison Pit." He scrutinized the group. "Grumm, get on my shoulders- I'm the heaviest, and you're stronger than Brome. Brome, get on Grumm's shoulders."
"Celandine, you're the lightest, and the best climber, so you'll climb to the top," Brome added. "Ahoy, Tullgrew," he shouted up to the ottermaid, "Help her up when she gets there!" The others winced and put their paws in their ears.
"Hoi, zurr Brome, ee needs to'um keep it down a bit, bo zurr. Who'm knows whurr ee vermin villyuns be, boi hokey."
Keyla knelt by the wall and braced himself against the wall of the cave. The mole, still limber despite his age, climb onto his back. Keyla slowly stood up, careful not to disturb Grumm's balance, and Brome clambered up onto his mentor's back. It was only when Celandine went to climb that trouble struck. She gave a shout and lost her grip, falling back onto the earth.
"What's the hold up?" Tullgrew called down.
Celandine sat up, tears coming to her eyes, clutching her arm with her other paw. Brome peered over his shoulder and, seeing her expression, jumped down to help her. "What's wrong?"
"Celandine!"
Brome knelt by the squirrelmaid, feeling her arm gently. "It's broken," he announced, unslinging his bag, "There's no way you can climb with that arm."
"Broken?" Keyla moaned, "How can it be broken? The ground's soft." He thumped his rudder for emphasis, the moss and fungi making a squelching sound. "Ouch!" He twisted his head back and saw a protrusion of solid rock sticking up through the mushrooms and moss about where the squirrelmaid had fallen.
Brome got out his bandages and borrowed two of Celandine's spare shafts, getting ready to wrench the bone back in to place. "OK, Cel, this is going to hurt."
Grumm climbed off Keyla's back and the otter stood, leaning backwards to stretch his spine.
"What's the hold up?" Tullgrew shouted down.
"Celandine broke her arm in the fall," Brome yelled in response, "I have to set it."
"Hey Brome," Keyla said, wincing as he rubbed his ear, "Why don't you let me call up to her from here on?"
The young mouse ignored or didn't hear the otter's question. "Hey, Keyla- can you hold her arm in the right position? Yeah, like that! Ok, on the count of five. One, two, five." Brome tugged the bones into place with a sudden jerk. Celandine cried out in pained shock and tried to pull away, but Keyla held her arm secure.
"Hurr, it bees alroight Celandine. Zurr Brome's got ee covered."
"What do we do now?" she asked through clenched teeth, "I mean, there's no way to get back up, but we can't leave Tullgrew alone up there and who knows where those tunnels go."
Keyla sighed. "She'll have to go on alone to Redwall. We can follow those tunnels, they have to lead out somewhere."
"Can you be sure of that, Keyla?" Brome asked.
"Hurr, zurr Brome, ee wullz be stonework." Indeed, the mole was right. Brickwork showed plainly through what little of the wall that wasn't covered in fungus or moss. The mole sniffed, then furrowed his brow in puzzlement. "Et beez marble. Burr okey, these cavernens smell loike clay. Whurr ee marble cum from, Oi wunder?"
Dirt crumbled down and they ducked as Tullgrew landed among them. "Tullgrew, what are you-"
"Shh!" she hissed sharply. Turning to Keyla, she made a few hand motions frantically. The male otter's eyes widened and he scooped Celandine onto his back.
"What is it?" Brome whispered.
"Vermin!" The otter mouthed,
"We have to go in the tunnel- they may look down here," Tullgrew added.
The five woodlanders quickly scuttled out of sight. Just in time. They could hear the bickering of the vermin as they approached, arguing amongst themselves.
"I tell ye, I saw something!"
"Ach, yew was seein' things- as usual!"
"I was not!"
"Quiet!" Ripred ordered, "Stop yer arguing and keep yer eyes peeled!"
Keyla glanced back out to the hole and his eyes widened. One of Celandine's arrows had slipped out of its quiver and lay in the fungi, its red fletching loud and obvious among the sea blue and pale green.
He leaned out, holding a paw up to stall the other's hisses of "Keyla get back here!" He clung to the shadow, finally within reach of the arrow. He grabbed it and looked up.
His blue eyes met dark, vermin brown orbs high above. Darkfire! Keyla straightened and drew his dagger. No way to hide now, had to fight-
Ripred looked away and stepped back from the edge of the hole. "There's nothing here," he said loudly, "Let's go!"
"Maybe that otter jumped down that big 'ole!"
"Stupid, it's over twenty paws deep! Nobeast could survive a fall like that- now let's go."
Keyla lowered his dagger in puzzlement, staring up at the vermin. A rock stung his rudder and he looked back to see Tullgrew signing frantically at him in the silent messaging system the slaves at Marshank had employed. Keyla, get back here! What are you doing? They could have seen you, idiot!
He joined them and handed Celandine her arrow, ignoring the question. Did that vermin just... save our lives? he wondered, That can't be possible... why would a vermin do that? What could he possibly gain from it?
"Keyla, come on!"
Shaking his head in bewilderment, the otter joined his friends, looking back once as he branded the event into his mind. He knew that they would cross paths again.
Reality twisted and warped around her. Her back... arched with pain... She could hear voices swimming around her, washing over her like cool waves. Is this Dark Forest?
"She's is out of danger, but her back will give her trouble for the rest of her life."
She felt a paw slip into hers. "Maris?"
Jeod? Her eyes cracked open and she looked her brother in the eye. "Jeod... where..."
Water, saltwater stinging her back. Falling, dying, roars of rage behind her...
"Maris, lie still."
She sat bolt upright, realizing that she was not dead, that her older brother still lived. "J-Jeod!" she gasped, staring at him, all the blood draining from her face.
"It's alright, Maris- I'm here now."
She stared at him in shock. This couldn't be. Jeod was dead- dead! He had been killed, she had accepted his death long ago and here he was, not dead, not dead...
Emotions welled within her- too many to count, swirling within her like a whirlwind. "Jeod- how-"
"Shh, Maris get some rest."
"Why?" she whispered, feeling the dark close in on her, "why didn't you come for us?" Then all was consumed in shadow and fire, and her last thought was that despite everything, she was glad he lived.
Urran Voh stood in the rain, watching the coffins get lowered into their holes. How had it come to this? From peace to war in the blink of an eye. He had failed his people, bringing them to naught but destruction and despair. Noonvale was falling to ruin, and nothing was left, nothing save this endless war. What could he have done- no, what could he do now- to prevent it! He was the leader of Noonvale, and as he lived he would not see it destroyed by war.
He straightened up and walked to his house, limping slightly from his badlybruised leg, but his eyes were hard with resolve. His wounds had mostly recovered from when the wall platform collapsed, but it would still be better if he had a staff. He shouldn't go completely defenseless, after all- but he wanted to show that he meant them no harm.
He could see only one way out of this that wouldn't cost more life: Parley with the vermin leader herself. He would go alone, to lessen the risk of being caught, and to keep his friends safe.
Moonlight shone on him as he slipped out of one of the concealed exit tunnels, before slipping away toward the vermin camp
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