Blacktooth seemed to ignore her. He knocked the loaves from Splitnose’s paws, then turning to a weasel he issued orders. “Pick that bread up, and no sly munching. Deliver it to the stores when we get back to the garrison.”

Waving his spear he signaled the patrol out of the hut. As Blacktooth left he called back to Ben and Goody, “I want to see those four hogs out in the fields tomorrow. Either that, or you can all spend the rest of the winter safe and warm in Kotir dungeons.”

* * *

Urthclaw kept an eye to a crack in the door, watching the patrol make its way toward Kotir. Ben wasted no time; he began wrapping the young ones in all the blankets they possessed. “Right, that’s it! Enough is enough. We go tonight. You’re right, old girl, we should have left to live in the woods with the rest long ago. What d’you say, Urthclaw?”

The mole stood with his eye pressed against the crack in the door. “Yurr, cumm ’ere, lookit thiz!”

While Ben shared the crack with his friend, Goody continued swathing her young ones with blankets. “What is it, Ben? They’re not comin’ back, are they?”

“No, wife. Hohoho, lookit that, by hokey! See the punch he landed on that weasel’s nose? Go on, give it to ’em, laddo!”

Ferdy, the little one who had spoken up, scuttled over and tugged at Ben’s paw. “Punch? Who punched a weasel? What’s happening?”

Ben described the scene as he watched it. “It’s a mouse—big strong feller too, he is. They’re tryin’ to capture him . . . That’s it! Now kick him again, mouse. Go on! Hahaha, you’d think a full patrol of soldiers could handle a mouse, but not this one. He must be a real trained warrior. Phew! Lookit that, he’s knocked Blacktooth flat on his back. Pity they’re hangin’ on to his sword like that. By the spikes, he’d cause some damage if he had that blade between his paws, rusty as it is.”

Ferdy jumped up and down. “Let me see, I want a look!”

Urthclaw turned slowly away from the door. “Baint much use, liddle ’edgepig. They’m gorrim down now, aye, an’ roped up too. Hurr, worra pity, they be too many fer ’im to foight, ee’m a gurt brave wurrier tho.”

Ben was momentarily crestfallen, then he clapped his paws together. “Now is the time, while the patrol’s busy with the fighter. They’ve got a job on their paws, draggin’ him back to the cats’ castle. Come on, let’s get a-goin’ while the goin’s good.”

* * *

A short while later, the fire was burning to embers in an empty hut as the little band trudged into the vast woodland sprawl of Mossflower, blinking water from their eyes as they kept their heads down against the keen wind. Urthclaw followed up the rear, obliterating the pawtracks from the snowy ground.