High Rhulain

13

Riggu Felis, an able general and a cunning tactician, deserved the title of warlord. He sent six scouts out, ahead of his main body of catguards, to comb the woodlands and hills for traces of his enemy. It was midnoon when they picked up the trail, pursuing it to the bank of a wide stream. Being cats, and not overly fond of water, they waited by the shallows for the wildcat and his command to catch up with them.

In the bushes on the opposite bank, the otters lay hidden, watching the catguards. Big Kolun Galedeep and Banya Streamdog crouched alongside the outlaw Leatho Shellhound. After grasping the oar, which was now his favourite weapon, Kolun nudged his friend.

“You were right, mate. They’ve arrived, though there ain’t many of ’em. Wot d’ye think their next move’ll be?”

Leatho never took his eyes off the scouts. “Let’s wait an’ see, Kolun. I wager Felis’ll be along with the rest soon enough. I want to count how many he has with him.”

Banya volunteered her services. “I’ll do that, Shellhound, but wot d’ye want ’em counted for?”

The outlaw explained his strategy. He was the wildcat’s equal when it came to planning ahead. “I know that Felis has two hundred or more catguards in his army. If they’re all with him, then we’ll make this place our battlefield. We could chop’em to ribbons afore they cross the water. Now durin’ the fight, I’ve got a job for you, Kolun. When I gives the word, take yore clan an’ all the Streambattle clan out of here in secret. I’ll hold the cats off with what I’ve got left. You circle round the back, get clear away, then march for the fortress. The slaves’ll be unguarded if Felis has all his guards with him. You can hit the place hard an’ free all our friends.”

Big Kolun grinned. “Good idea, matey, but wot if’n Felis don’t have a full force along with him?”

Leatho nodded. “I’ve thought o’ that. If Banya counts less than the full number, then we’ll decoy ’em. We’ll pull out an’ make a lot o’ noise, so they can follow us easily. I know a good hill, it’s inland, an’ any beast on the high slope can give a good account of themselves there.... Stow it, mates, here comes Felis an’ the rest!”

The catguards gathered in four ranks on the opposite bank; their warlord stood to one side, sheltered by a large willow tree. Weilmark Scaut took the tracker’s report before joining his master.

“Lord, the tracks ended at this stream. The otters ’ave a far greater force than ours.”

A satisfied hiss came from behind the chain mail mask. “Good, just as I had hoped, Scaut. Send six of your guards to cross the stream. Take a score of archers back into the brush. I know they’re waiting for us on the other side of this water, I can feel it. Listen now, they’ll send lances and slingstones at the six in the stream. Check what direction the weapons come from and send your arrows over that way. Then we’ll see what happens.”

The six guards were not too happy to enter the stream, but they had their orders. Immediately as they entered the shallows, a fusillade of slingstones and light javelins dropped four of them.

Big Kolun brandished his oar. “Well, ’ow many of the scum did ye count, Banya?”

The tough Galedeep maid flung off a slingstone. “About fivescore, give or take a few. . . . Look out!”

A volley of arrows hummed viciously down among the otters. Leatho saw two clanbeasts fall, and another injured. “Kolun, give the order to fall back, but keep slingin’. Don’t retreat too far, then cut off into the trees to yore left. Make sure they know we’re runnin’ away.”

A scorecat named Fleng hurried to Riggu Felis and Scaut beneath the willow. “Lord, the otters are beaten, they’re abandonin’ their position!”

Abandoning the cover of the willow, the warlord watched intently as the undergrowth and bushes swayed. He heard the shouts of the fleeing otters. “They’re travelling inland. What do you make of that, Scaut?”

The weilmark’s voice was heavy with scorn. “We’ve got’em beaten, Lord. Otters can’t stand up to yer catguards. Look, they’re well on the run!”

Chain mail chinked as the wildcat shook his head. “It’s just as well that I’m in command and not you!”

Ignoring Scaut, he turned to Scorecat Fleng and issued his commands. “Take your squad and pursue them from this side until you can find somewhere easy to cross the stream. Keep after them, and make as much noise as you can to let the otters know they’re being pursued. Go now, we’ll follow up before dark.”

Fleng saluted smartly with his spear. A moment later, he and his twenty guards were dashing along the bankside, shouting aloud.

Riggu Felis shouldered his war axe. “Get the rest of our force and follow me, Scaut.” He strode off in the opposite direction, to the right.

Issuing orders to his scorecats, the weilmark got everybeast under way. He trotted forward to the warlord’s side, obviously bewildered. “Lord, twenty guards aren’t enough to defeat all those otters. Aren’t we going to follow an’ defeat’em, like you said you would?”

Riggu Felis moved his axe haft sharply, catching Scaut’s bandaged jaw. He gave the puzzled feral cat a contemptuous glance. “Listen, and see if this sinks into your thick head. I will defeat the otters in my own way. I know twenty guards won’t defeat them—they’ll probably all be slain. But I will have won a great victory over the otters. Do you know why, Scaut?”

Keeping his distance from the axe haft, the weilmark stroked his injured jaw ruefully. “No. Why, Lord?”

The wildcat gave a hissing laugh. “Why, indeed! Pay attention, my idiot friend, and I’ll tell you. Those otters have families, the same as any otherbeast. They want to keep their loved ones safe, so they try to fool me by drawing us off inland. I don’t know of any otters who live at the centre of Green Isle. They make their homes and dens in rivers and along the coast.”

Scaut temporarily forgot his aching jaw. A slow smile spread over his brutal features. “So we’re goin’ to the coast to attack their families, Lord?”

Riggu Felis let his tongue slither out to lick at the gold metal chain mail that masked his lower face. “Aye, Scaut. Imagine how the one called Shellhound and his followers will feel. Picture them coming back, crowing about how they slew a score of my guards, then finding their own families—who I’m sure number a great deal more than twenty creatures—lying dead amid the scorched ruins of their homes. Who will have won the victory then, eh?”

The feral cat officer gazed at his leader in awe. “Truly you are the Warlord of Green Isle, Sire!”

The cruel eyes of Riggu Felis narrowed to slits. “Anybeast who does not agree with that is a deadbeast, Scaut. That is why I left my faithful Atunra back at the fortress today. She will make certain that no upstart brother-killer will ever usurp his father.”

Pitru was still young, but he was a quick learner. Revelling in his position as the fortress commander, he went about his devious plans gleefully. His first task was to seek out minions who would serve him well and obey orders without question. These came in the form of three feral cats: Yund, an old and experienced scorecat; and two of his guards, Balur and his sister Hinso, who were not much older than Pitru. Lady Kaltag largely kept to her tower chambers, allowing her remaining son the run of the fortress, which he took full advantage of. Atunra was not taken into the new commander’s confidence. Pitru and the pine marten had disliked each other for a long time. Pitru knew that Atunra lived only to serve his father.

In the late afternoon, Pitru sat out on the pier with Yund and the other two cats. They basked in the sunlight, nibbling at cooked lake trout and sipping wine. Yund, an intelligent scorecat, knew how to please his young new master. Pitru was delighted with the latest plan they had hatched up together. It concerned the defence of the fortress. They had emptied the catguard barracks and had housed the guards inside the fortress. Half of them were on day duty, some standing by the windows and some up on the sentry posts, armed with bows and arrows. The half who were off duty idled their time away, eating, drinking and sleeping indoors. Each night the rota was changed, and they took the place of their comrades on guard duty. But the master stroke against otter attacks, which Pitru and Yund had devised, was the slaves themselves. They were also taken out of the compound, into the fortress, but only the parents. The young ones and elders were forced to camp in the shade of the fortress, all the way around the building. They would be first to receive the brunt of any assault on the place.

Yund glanced over the shoulder of the slave who was serving the wine. He alerted Pitru. “Look, Lord! Atunra is coming out of the main gate.”

Pitru winked at the scorecat and settled back with his eyes closed. He waited until the pine marten was close before addressing her. “Still skulking about, eh? What do you want now?”

Atunra knew it was wise to keep a civil tongue in her head. “Your father would not approve . . .”

Before she could finish, Pitru sprang up, whipping out the large, broad-bladed scimitar which he now carried at all times. “Silence! You will begin again by addressing me as Commander. That is my title until I become Warlord.”

After a moment’s silence, Atunra bowed stiffly. “Commander, your father would never permit all the guards to be inside the fortress, and all those slaves, too. Lord Felis would never allow it. Guards have always lived in the barracks, and otterslaves in their compound. It is your father’s law.”

The young cat placed his swordtip against the pine marten’s shoulder, pressing forward and then pushing her backward as he sneered in her face. “What some old, half-faced cat chooses to do is none of my concern. I make the rules now as commander of this fortress. Now get out of my sight, you spying lickpaw!”

Atunra did not stop to argue. She turned on her paw and strode silently back indoors. Pitru put up his blade and swaggered back to his seat.

Yund raised his goblet in salute. “That’s the way to deal with your father’s spy, Sire, though I’d watch my back while that ’un’s around if I were you.”

Pitru spread his paws appealingly. “Perhaps if I had three good friends, then they would watch my back for me. And who knows, mayhaps those three friends would know how to deal with a spy in our midst?”

The scorecat replied, with a look of enquiring innocence, “Indeed, Commander, and mayhaps such friends would be well rewarded when your time comes to rule as warlord?”

Pitru closed his eyes and stretched out luxuriously. “A new warlord of Green Isle would need a fortress commander and two trusty weilmarks to serve him. He would remember his loyal friends.”

Yund looked at Balur and Hinso. Both nodded wordlessly. Laying his spear at Pitru’s footpaws, Yund bowed deeply. “We live only to obey your commands, Sire!”

Fleng and his squad had kept up their noisy pursuit of the otters from the far streambank. As darkness fell, they found a narrow rocky outcrop and forded the stream. The otters’ trail was not difficult to pick up. Leatho had halted the clans on a stony hilltop he had chosen to await the arrival of the cats.

Fleng arrived shortly at the base of the hill. He hid his guards in the bushes, ordering them to fire a volley of arrows. The heavy barrage of rocks, javelins and slingstones that came back at them left Fleng’s squad pinned down so hard that they could not raise a paw to retaliate. The scorecat kept glancing back over his shoulder, waiting for his warlord to arrive with reinforcements. Leatho’s forces continued to batter the bushes relentlessly. It took Fleng only a short time to realise that half his squad lay slain around him. If he stayed, he would be killed along with the remainder of his guards. For some reason unknown to the scorecat, both he and his squad had been left abandoned. Signalling a retreat to his catguards, Fleng crawled backward from the bushes and fled.

Big Kolun Galedeep, standing out in full view, lifted a boulder above his head and hurled it downhill at the enemy position. He complained to the outlaw, “Ain’t much goin’ on down there, Leatho. Those cats don’t seem to be puttin’ up a decent fight at all. Wot d’ye suppose is goin’ on?”

Leatho slung a stone and peered downhill. “I’m not sure, mate. Either we lost ’em along the way or some are still tryin’ to cross the stream. Maybe we should take the fight to them an’ see wot happens.”

That was all Big Kolun needed. Seizing his oar, he thundered off downhill, roaring, “Galedeeps to me! Yaylahooooo! Chaaaaaaarge!”

Leatho could not halt Kolun and his clan, but he called out to the rest, “Watch yoreselves, it might be a trap. Follow me!”

Leatho and Banya arrived on the scene together, only to find it devoid of foebeasts apart from ten slain guards. Kolun and his clan looked thoroughly disgruntled.

The big otter hailed the outlaw. “Huh, just as well ye didn’t charge with me, Shellhound. There wasn’t any fightin’ t’do, they’ve gone!”

Leatho rolled up his sling. “There’s somethin’ wrong, Kolun. It was all too easy. Wot do you think, Banya?”

The tough ottermaid was a short distance away, supporting the head of a badly injured catguard until it drooped limply back and she let it go.

“I got to that ’un just afore his lights went out. He managed to say that there wasn’t more’n a score of catguards. Said they was ordered to follow us an’ t’make the most noise they could, so that we’d think it was a full troop.”

Leatho interrupted her. “But where’d Felis an’ the rest of’em get to?”

Banya touched the dead guard with her footpaw. “He said they stayed back at the streambank where we first met up with the cats. I was goin’ to question him a bit more, but he just drifted off.”

Kolun gritted his teeth. “Huh, lyin’ cowards, they won’t admit we beat ’em fair’n’square. That’s cats for ye!”

Banya did not agree with him. “No, he spoke the truth. Look around, there was never over a hundred catguards here. Wot d’you think, Shellhound?”

But Leatho was already on the move as the chilling realisation dawned on him. His voice was tight and urgent. “Kolun, get the clans on the move. Quick, at the double!”

The big otter saw the alarm in his friend’s eyes. “Why, mate, wot’s goin’ on?”

Leatho was running as he shouted out his explanation. “Felis outsmarted us. He’s gone the other way, t’the coast where the families are hidin’!”

The outlaw was out ahead of everybeast, speeding like an arrow. Kolun and his brother Lorgo, together with Banya, headed the main band as they sped through the night. The big otter’s chest was heaving.

“That scummy cat, goin’ after our families like that!”

Banya steadied him as he stumbled against a tree. “Aye, ’tis just the sort of thing Felis’d do. Save yore breath, an’ let’s hope we can stop ’im, mate!”

Word had passed through the clans of what might happen. The packed mass of otters increased their speed. Regardless of rock, bush or shrub, they stampeded madly toward the coast.