“Roight yurr be’ind ’ee, marm!”

Startled, the squirrel swung round. There was Foremole, the Abbess to, and Columbine – everyone that had gone into Kotir, down to the last mole and mouse.

“By the fur, where did you lot spring from?”

Columbine stroked her friend’s gray head. “It was Old Dinny—he found a secret way out. We went beneath the cells. It’s a sort of cavern with a lake in it. We, or should I say Grandpa Dinny, found a moving slab, and underneath it was a tunnel that traveled along for a while then went up. We followed it and came up into a hollow oak stump—that one right behind you.”

Lady Amber curled her tail in amazement. “Well, I’ll be treebound!”

The Abbess gave a wry chuckle. “If we put your discovery together with Old Dinny’s plan, we may have a final solution to the problem of Kotir.”

Columbine could not help interrupting. “I’ll bet Gonff, Young Dinny and Martin will have the solution too when they return from their quest with Boar the Fighter.”

“No doubt they will, child,” the Abbess nodded. “But they have been long gone. Who knows when they will return. Bella has said that it is a long journey fraught with danger. Besides, how do we know that Boar the Fighter still lives? I do not wish to alarm you by saying this, but, all things being equal, we must have plans of our own. Merely sitting waiting on Boar’s return will not help Mossflower; we must all act to the best of our abilities. Wherever your Gonff is at this moment with Martin and the young mole, you can wager that they will be giving of their utmost. Let us hope that they will be both safe and successful in their quest.”

They made their way back to Brockhall that fine spring noon, unaware that they were passing on a parallel course to Tsarmina and her returning army.

* * *

The wildcat Queen was in a foul temper. “I wouldn’t give a pawful of mouldy bread for the lot of you, standing gawping while your Captain gets slain by an otter.”

From somewhere in the jumbled ranks a voice murmured impudently, “Huh, I noticed you didn’t leap forward to help Cludd.”

Tsarmina whirled on the troops in a fury. “Just let me catch the one who said that! You bunch of buffoons couldn’t even get a single arrow off at that badger. Oh no, you stood there like a load of frogs catching flies.”

As she turned to press on, the voice continued muttering, “Well, you’ve got the biggest bow. Why didn’t you use it?”

Tsarmina grabbed her unstrung bow from the pine marten and flailed indiscriminately about her.

“Ashleg, I want that cheeky beggar found,” she shrieked. “I’m the Queen, d’you hear? I’ll make an example of whoever it is.”

The pine marten dropped back. Marching at the rear, he bobbed up and down to see if he could catch the cheeky one unawares.