Basil Stag Hare pulled Cheek back as he tried to bound forward. “I agree with you, old scout. Got to take the chance, wot? Faint heart never found fair young uns.”

“Then we’d best stick t’gether in case of a trap,” Jabez Stump cautioned.

Jess Squirrel chattered her teeth angrily. “Trap! I’ll give them trap if I lay paws on the filthy scum.”

Matthias silenced them with a wave of his sword. “Keep your voices down, sound echoes in a place like this. We’ll push forward fast and see if we can’t spring our own ambush, but Jabez is right, stay together.”

A half-moon threw its pale light down into the hilly canyon, making eerie shadows as it played with the breeze stirring the stunted trees that grew amid the rocky foothills. Matthias marched silently in the lead, the fur at the back of his neck rising stiffly with the feeling of hidden danger. Orlando dropped to the rear and walked with a sideways shuffle, checking behind them as he gripped his huge war axe low on its haft, ready to swing like a deadly scythe at any back stabbers.

*   *   *

Perched high on the tor of the hill beside a large mound of rocky rubble, Slagar whispered to Bageye, “Where are they now? Can you see them?”

The stoat nodded. “I can make out the shape of their group. They’ve entered the canyon now. See, by those juniper bushes, and they’re heading this way.”

The Cruel One pulled the eyeslits of the silken hood wide around his eyes. “Ah yes, that’s our little friends, all right. Now keep perfectly still and have those poles ready to paw. When I give the order, follow my lead.”

Skinpaw crouched behind Slagar with his paw resting on the long pole that was lodged beneath the rocky pile.

Without looking back, Slagar hissed. “Get your scurvy paw off that pole, you idiot. I don’t want even a speck of dust to fall and betray our position.”

The weasel withdrew his paw swiftly.

*   *   *

Down in the canyon, Cheek made a bound forward. Jess grabbed him by the tail. “Where are you off to, little waterdog?”

“It’s a river. See the moonlight glinting off it? Lemme go.”

Basil wagged an admonitory ear at the garrulous otter. “Steady in the ranks there, young Cheek. This is no time to go swimmin’. Where d’you think you are, at an otters’ divin’ gala?”

Jabez cast around by the river’s edge. “They camped here, for sure. See, some of the damp pawmarks are still visible. Now, let’s see where they’d be movin’ from here.” The untidy hedgehog rummaged about, snuffling and grunting quietly. “There! Yonder cave is the perfect place to stay the night.”

Matthias peered at the dark cave entrance silhouetted against the lighter hillside scree in the thin moonlight.