High Rhulain

31

Leatho Shellhound was bone weary for want of sleep. All night the catguards had been trying to get inside the high tower chamber to capture him. Luckily the stout door held, barricaded as it was by a heavy table and thick wooden benches wedged firmly in position. The outlaw otter stood at the open window, breathing deeply of the cold predawn air to keep himself awake. Below him, the pier and lake were still in darkness. Behind him, the spears and pikes of his enemy battered ceaselessly on the door.

Leatho threw back his head and roared at his tormentors, “Don’t stand there knockin’, fools, come on in! Ye whiskeryfaced, droolin’, tabby-pawed cowards! Come on, step inside an’ meet the Shellhound! I’ll rip the heads’n’guts from the first ten of ye who come through that door! Ee aye eeeeeeeeh!”

The banging ceased, as it would for a while. Leatho laughed tiredly, turning back to the window. He knew the cats feared him; none of them was overanxious to enter the chamber and see him carry out his threats. But he also realised that they had their orders and would soon begin trying to break in again, driven on by thoughts of what their warlord would do to them if they failed in their mission.

Outside the sky was still dark, though as Leatho watched he began to distinguish the soft grey twinge which heralded a new day. This was reinforced by the first birdsong, a lark beginning its ascent, and far off, a thrush warbling throatily. Leatho’s small amount of drinking water was long gone. He would have given anything for one brief, cool dip in the lake far below. During the night, he had considered a high dive from the tower window. But stretched out beneath him lay the pier; the lake was too far off for him to possibly reach. Unconsciously at first, the outlaw began humming an old otterclan warsong, thinking it had merely popped into his head. When he stopped humming, however, he could still hear the tune—distant, yes, far off maybe, but nevertheless real. Dawn’s first rays seeped in from the right. Leatho leaned out over the windowsill, trying to reassure himself that the sound was somewhere present. Then the banging on the door started afresh. He howled out another challenge.

“Next one who knocks on my door, I’m comin’ out t’see who he is! Ee aye eeeeeeh! If’n yore a mate of his, I’ll leave his hide to make ye a cloak, an’ his teeth for a necklace. Ye can do as ye please with his eyes!”

The banging stopped abruptly. In the silence which followed, Leatho heard the warsong clearly. It was coming from the banksides and the lake. He saw the long shape approaching in rising daylight—some sort of craft, headed straight for the pier. Bursting out in a great howl of joy, the outlaw otter began marching around the chamber, bellowing out the warsong of the otterclans.

“Wildloughs, Wavedogs, Streambattles, too,

Riverdogs, Streamdivers, Galedeeps true.

Death rides the wind, tell the enemy,

the clans have risen, ee aye eeeeeeeeeh!

Show no quarter, stand up an’ fight,

blood and steel be our birthright.

Oh Rhulain, set your children free,

the clans have risen, ee aye eeeeeeeeh!

Foebeast, weep for all you’re worth,

curse the one that gave you birth.

Red the streams run to the sea,

the clans have risen, ee aye eeeeeeeeeh!

In the times to come I’ll say,

I was one who fought that day.

Gave my family liberty,

Ee aye, ee aye, ee aye eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!”

The sound of the warsong rose to a bloodcurdling roar, echoing and reverberating around the shores and over the lake. Wakened by the eerie din, Riggu Felis burst from his chamber, donning his war armour and kicking at guards who got in his path. He arrived at the barred fortress gates. Removing his helmet and chain mail half-mask, the warlord pressed his eye to a spyhole. He could not yet see anything clearly, but the otters’ warsong was getting closer, growing in volume.

Weilmark Scaut came stumbling up, his coarse features blanched with fright. “Lord, they’re coming!”

He reeled sideways from the blow Riggu Felis dealt him.

“I can hear they’re coming, idiot, but where exactly are they? Do you know?”

Holding his aching cheek, Scaut whimpered. “Sire, the upstairs guards say they’re on both banks, an’ they’ve got a big raft comin’ up the middle o’ the lake. It looks like they’ve come t’do battle, Lord!”

The wildcat eyed his trembling weilmark coldly. “And the Shellhound, haven’t they dragged him from that chamber yet?”

Scaut tried to back off, but his shoulders were already against the wall. He shook his head fearfully. “No, Lord, he’s barricaded the door with some furniture. They say it’s impossible to reach the Shellhound.”

The warlord licked his flayed gums, hissing savagely, “Take all the upstairs guards and go to the slave compound. Bring me two, no, three families of otterslaves. Make sure they have young ones with them. Fetch them here to me. We’ll see if those rebels feel like rushing into a fight when they witness what I’m going to do!”

As Scaut hurried off, the warlord shouted to the guards who were packed in the hallway, “Open the doors, and follow me out onto the pier!”

Lady Kaltag had her ear pressed to the door of the chamber in which she was imprisoned. Outside, she heard Scaut bellowing at the four guards who were standing sentry on her door.

“You two, follow me to the slave compound! You others, go an’ get the ones who are tryin’ to capture Shellhound. They ain’t goin’ to get him out o’ there, leave him. Meet us at the compound. Move yoreselves!”

Kaltag waited until it was quiet outside before coming out of her room. Holding two blazing torches, she ascended to the antechamber at the top of the tower stairs and hid until she heard the catguards running downstairs to the slave compound. Now nobeast was outside the chamber which held Shellhound. Chuckling to herself, the demented cat crept along to it.

She tapped on the battered door, calling in a singsong voice, “Are ye coming out, murderer?”

Leatho’s voice came defiantly back at her. “No! Are ye comin’ in to get me?”

She cackled insanely. “Heeheehee! I can reach you without having to enter the room. Now you must pay for the death of my son Jeefra. Heeheeheehee!”

Leatho’s reply sounded puzzled. “Wot Jeefra? I don’t know anybeast named Jeefra!”

Kaltag screeched. “Liar! You and your otters slew him! Now you will roast before you reach Hellgates!”

More crazy laughter followed. Then something struck the door. The timbers were bone dry and heavily splintered from the guards’ axes and spears. In a trice, flames were licking at the door. Kaltag was screaming like a madbeast as she tore down wall hangings and flung them on the blaze. She had dropped the other torch on the floor. Standing back from the blazing door, she went into a crazy shuffling dance, her eyes glittering in the firelight as she crooned, “Burn! Burn! You cannot escape a mother’s vengeance! Hahahaheeeeheeee!”

The entire fortress was built of timber, mainly pine and spruce logs, all old and dry. Flames raced unchecked along the landing, ignored by Kaltag, who was screeching and dancing as tongues of flame licked greedily at her tattered cloak and gown.

On the other side of the door, Leatho felt the heat. He could see smoke billowing in under the door. A moment later, the fire broke through, making him realize that the whole place was about to go up in flames. Dashing to the window, he climbed out onto the sill. Waving his paws, he began shouting frantically to the raft on the lake, which was still a good distance away.

“Ahoy! Can somebeast help me, the place is afire!”

Both Tiria and Banya saw the figure high up on the windowledge. They could hear his shouts but were unable to hear his exact words. Banya suddenly realised what was happening when she saw smoke and a burst of flame, driven on the updraught, leap from the conical tower roof. She gripped Tiria’s paw.

“It’s Leatho, he’s locked in up there an’ the place is ablaze!”

Other otters saw Leatho and heard his shouts. They stared in horror at the outlaw, who was edging out on the high windowledge from which smoke and sparks were belching.

Banya Streamdog bit her lip, looking to Tiria. “Leatho’ll be burned t’death up there. Ain’t there anythin’ we can do, Lady?”

Every otter aboard the raft was watching their queen. Tiria knew she had to do something—and quickly. A vision of Martin the Warrior flashed through her mind. Then she heard him say just two words: “the birds!”

She must have said the words out loud, because Banya echoed them. “The birds, marm? Wot d’ye mean?”

Tiria beckoned to the osprey and the goose, both hovering down close to her. She pointed at the figure on the ledge. “Can you get him down from there?”

Brantalis replied, “I could not do it alone, I am thinking. Mayhaps we could do it together, this one and myself. We could only lift him a short way, but far enough to drop him into the lake. I will help Shellhound, he once saved my life. Will you do it, hookbeak?”

Pandion glared at Brantalis. They had never been the closest of friends. He snapped back at the goose, “Kayarr! I have lifted many big fish in my talons. Anything a honker can do, I can also!”

Tiria’s patience was wearing thin. She spoke abruptly. “Then don’t just bicker and argue about it, get him away from there and drop him into the lake. Do it now!”

Both birds sped off toward the blazing tower.