Tess stood up, looking a bit more like her old self. “Oh, I think we’d better just stay with the rest and have a nice ramble,” she chuckled. “What about you? Would you like to play follow my leader – or should I say, follow my Slagar? Come on, mouse, pick up your daisy chain and let’s go.”

Bageye checked their manacles, muttering in a sullen voice, “Huh, don’t know what you two have got to laugh about.”

*   *   *

Orlando waded ashore towing the raft behind him. It had been a hard and dangerous night, fighting their way out of the main current back into the shallows. The crew had poled the raft into a small bay. Wet and weary, they stumbled onto dry land in the pale dawn light, shivering after their nightlong ordeal on the swift choppy river.

Basil slicked water from his long drooping ears. “Whaaw! Here’s one old soldier who won’t complain when the sun starts getting hot. No chance of a bite o’ breakfast, I suppose?”

Matthias dried his sword carefully on a tussock of grass. “No chance at all, old soldier. Those rats will be dashing along the banks right now, hoping they’ll catch up with us. We’d better move fast if we want to stay alive. Log-a-Log, you and Cheek tow the raft out a bit. The current will carry it away; no sense leaving it here as a marker where we came ashore. Jess, Jabez, would you take the rear and try to cover our tracks from the bank? Leave them as few clues as possible; it may buy us a bit of time.”

Jess Squirrel bounded up a nearby tree, took a quick look around and descended speedily.

“Matthias, we’d better hurry,” she urged. “I could see movement in the bushes further up the bank. If we stay here much longer we’re going to have company.”

“Right, Jess. Come on, everybody. Keep me in sight. I’m going to take a curving sweep into these trees, then with a bit of luck we’ll circle south and miss the rats. Hurry now, let’s get out of he—”

An arrow bedded in the ground. It stood quivering a fraction from Orlando, who kicked it into the river.

“That’s the trouble with being my size, you make a good target. Let’s run for it!”

*   *   *

The rat advance scout fired a whistling arrow upwards to alert the main body. Stonefleck turned in its direction.

“They’re trying to head south through the trees. Follow me, we’ll cut them off.”

He set off at a tangent, cutting into the woodland to outflank Matthias.