When they reached the ferret camp, Vannan ordered Ascrod to stay concealed nearby in the woods with Allag and his patrol. Using all the considerable wiles of a Marlfox, she made her way through the ferrets unheeded. Drawing as close to Raventail’s fire as she could while remaining undetected, the vixen tossed a pawful of special ingredients from her belt pouch into the flames. Raventail shot up in alarm when the fire burst into a green sheet of flame, followed by a thick column of smoke. He was even more astounded by the appearance of Vannan, who materialized out of the haze. The ferret staggered backward, drawing his scimitar.

“Kye arr! Where comma you from, foxbeast?”

Vannan made a fearful sight, paws akimbo, revealing the ax she carried beneath her cloak, from under which the smoke still wreathed and curled. Her strange pale eyes narrowed as she glared at the ferret, calling out in a sepulchral voice, “Be still and know that I am the Marlfox! The power of great magic is within me!”

Raventail wavered, not sure what to do next. He looked to an old toothless ferret, reputed to be wise, and the old vermin nodded his head vigorously. He too was impressed by Vannan’s appearance.

“Yehyeh, meknow ’boutder Marlfoxes. Rakkarakka! Muchmuch magic!”

As if to confirm his statement, Ascrod stepped out from a tree behind Vannan, causing widespread consternation among the ferrets.

“Kye arr! See twobeast now! Shallakaaaah! Marlfox’n’Marlfox!”

Vannan’s lips scarcely moved as she whispered to Ascrod, “Well done, brother. We’ve got these ignorant savages’ attention.”

She raised a paw imperiously, pointing beyond to the woodland. “Behold the warrior servants of the Marlfoxes!”

Allag and his patrol marched out of the trees in double ranks. The ferrets turned around to watch the smartly clad water rats. By the time Allag’s soldiers arrived at Raventail’s fire, both Marlfoxes had disappeared. Raventail circled the fire, utterly astonished. “Kye arrrrrrr! Wherego Marlfoxes?”

Ascrod and Vannan had circled back to where Allag’s patrol had been previously hidden. They emerged from the trees, walking very slowly and looking mysterious. The ferret Chieftain grabbed the paw of the ancient one he had consulted before.

“Yehyeh! Allmagic Marlfox be bigmagic!”

Vannan muttered out the side of her mouth to Ascrod as they approached the awestricken Raventail, “Let’s sit down and do business with this one, now that we’ve convinced him Marlfoxes are really magic!”

*

Florian was also impressing an audience at that moment. Armed with a soup ladle and a large wooden salad fork, he pranced about wildly in front of the Abbeybabes, performing a victory ode he had composed in which credit for the rout of the vermin was due largely to the fighting prowess of one Florian Dugglewoof Wilffachop.

“Armed to the dirty mangy teeth,

Ten of ’em came at me,

Hoho, me buckoes, here, sez I,

Only ten of ye?

So I boxed their ears an’ blacked their eyes,