“Ah now, ye’ve no need to be helpin’ us in, sir, we’ll be after scrubbin’ ourselves, thank ye, yiss yiss!”

Morning sunlight streamed through the cabin’s two unshuttered windows as they took breakfast with Gawjo Swifteye and the hedgehogs. The food was good: hot cornbread with hazelnuts and apple baked into it, and a salad of celery, lettuce, shredded carrot and white button mushrooms, with beakers of hot mint and dandelion tea to wash it down. Megraw took himself out onto the river for a fish breakfast. Gawjo peeled a fat pear with his dagger, outlining his future plans to the reunited friends.

“Everybeast I’ve come across has a score to settle with the Marlfox brood, meself, Torrab an’ the family, Megraw an’ yoreselves. So I’ve decided that the time’s come when we travel over to that island. Queen Silth an’ her offspring have come to the end of their bullyin’, thievin’, murderin’ rule. I’m out t’clear the earth of their blight!”

Torrab stared at Gawjo over a steaming beaker of tea. “Thou hast tried it before, Father. ’Tis too difficult.”

Gawjo tapped the tabletop with his dagger. “Aye, we’ve always been defeated. Not by the Marlfoxes, but by the lake, a day and night’s long sail, with the water teemin’ with pike an’ that Athrak an’ his magpies patrollin’ the skies. The Marlfoxes were always waitin’ with their water rats once we’d been sighted by magpies, an’ they could stand us offshore with arrow an’ sling until we were forced to turn back. By the fur an’ fang! If only I could get onto that island an’ free the slaves, we’d overrun Silth and her forces. I never figured how t’do it, until my pretty Song arrived with ’er secret weapon!”

The squirrelmaid put aside her food. “You mean our eagle, Megraw? But, Grandpa, he can’t fly!”

Gawjo’s lazy hooded eyes flickered. “Are you sure, me young beauty? I’ve been watchin’ yore eagle. There ain’t a pinion feather missin’ from his wing, an’ ’tis not broken anywhere along its length, that wing. I’ve studied the way Megraw carries it, sort o’ flopped down an’ still. Now, I know more about fixin’ injuries than mostbeasts, ask Torrab an’ her crew. The fish eagle’s wing’s not broken, ’tis dislocated, where it meets the bird’s body. I can reset the wing, put it back in its right place so he can fly again!”

“Do ye no say, Gawjo? Weel, ah’m willin’ tae try et if it’ll mek mah wing able tae fly again!”

Megraw had been standing near the cabin door, listening to what Song’s grandpa was saying. He ambled in, his savage golden eyes flashing. “Ah’d like et fine tae get mah beak an’ talons intae yon maggypies whit did this tae me. So, tell us the rest o’ yer gran’ plan, ye auld treehopper.”