“The sun is nearly set, Tsarmina. Remember the ultimatum I gave you this morning?”

The wildcat Queen played for time as she fumbled with bow and arrows beneath the window ledge.

“Tell me again, mouse. Refresh my memory.”

“The message has not changed. There is still time for you to take your army out of here and leave us in peace,” he said reasonably. “You will not be harmed if you leave before the sun is down.”

The arrow came speeding through the air and struck Martin in the side. The warrior mouse flinched and swayed with pain, but he stood firm. Tsarmina bit her lip until blood flowed.

Martin turned and painfully mounted the ladder, with the shaft still sticking in him. As he went, his words were like a final knell:

“Then it is finished. I will bring this place down around you stone by stone. You will travel to the gates of Dark Forest.”

The troops sitting in the mess hall heard every chilling word in the failing light.

“We should have got out of here long ago,” a ferret called Ditchpaw snarled at Brogg. “With an army our size we could live off the fat of the land anywhere.”

Others joined him.

“Aye, why should we fight for this old ruin? It’s hers, not ours.”

“I was with Bane. He let us fight and keep our plunder sacks filled. There isn’t even enough to eat in this stinking place.”

“I don’t know what the mouse has planned, but you can bet he really means business.”

“Aye. We must have been mad ever to think woodlanders were soft.”

“Right. Look at the mates we lost today, and where was she?”

“Hiding on the other side of the wall like a worm from a fish.”

“More like a cat from a mouse, hahaha—”

Tsarmina stood in the doorway. “You were saying?”

Silence fell across the mess hall.

“Well?” Tsarmina’s eyes narrowed.

The rat called Whegg stood up. “We want to get away from this place,” he whined.

Tsarmina prowled across to him, her face almost touching his nose. “Too late, rat. The sun has set. However, there is one way you could get out: by the gates of Dark Forest. Do you want me to send you that way?”

Whegg stood trembling with fear as Tsarmina slid back to the doorway. Turning, she smiled disarmingly.

“Look at you. All of you panicking because of a mouse in armor and some woodland creatures. You’ve heard what they want. They don’t want a war, they wish to leave us in peace. Why?”

The troops gazed dumbly at her.

“I’ll tell you why, because they cannot get us out of here! Kotir is too strong. Take no notice of mouse threats,” she urged. Ditchpaw swallowed hard and dared to speak. “But the mouse said he was going to destroy Kotir stone by stone. We all heard him.”

Tsarmina beckoned to Ditchpaw and a hefty-looking fox.

“You and you, push against that wall,” she ordered.