High Rhulain - 18 by Brian Jacques

Author:Brian Jacques [Jacques, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Old Quelt made a suggestion. “Snowdrop, why don’t you and I ponder on this awhile? Meanwhile, our

young friends can pop down to the kitchens and ask Friar Bibble to pack a picnic lunch for five. Then we can all meet up at the Abbey pond to do our work. Perhaps the open air will do us good.”

Cheered up by the idea, the three young ones were already making for the door. Brinty called out

happily, “That’s the stuff, Mister Quelt. We’ll ponder by the pond!”

The ancient Recorder thought for a moment, then chuckled. “How very droll, ponder by the pond. I

like that!”

Many other Redwallers had the same plan. Taking lunch by the pond was quite popular on warm summer

days. They spread out around the bank, ever watchful of the Dibbuns, who were drawn like magnets to

water. The little ones frolicked gleefully in the shallows.

Hillyah Gatekeeper and her husband, Oreal, were constantly calling out warnings to their twin babes.

“Irgle, come back here. Don’t go too far out, d’you hear me?”

“Stop splashing that water about, Ralg, you’ll soak us all!”

Quelt opened the hamper that the three young ones had brought. “Oh, I say, Bibble’s done us proud!

Damson pie, hazelnut crumble, sage and turnip pasties, celery cheese and dandelion cordial. Hmm, I would have enjoyed a cup of tea, though. Cordial always makes me dozy at lunchtime.”

Molemum Burbee came promptly to Quelt’s rescue. “Yurr ole zurr, ’ave summ tea out of our new

h’urn!”The Abbess and Burbee had replaced their lost teapot with an ingenious new invention. It was a small copper boiler, which Brother Perant had donated to their cause. Lycian and Burbee had cleaned it up and mounted it on a little trolley. The urn had a small charcoal heater in its base, enabling them to have a constant supply of hot tea wherever they went, always on tap.

The five puzzlers had plenty of help from the pondside diners. Interest was aroused as they gathered

around to hear Girry read again the two relevant lines from Tiria’s letter.

“‘Leave thy Redwall friends to read that tale of ancient life, when Corriam the castaway took

Mossguard maid as wife.’”

Brinty opened up the discussion to their audience. “Well, does anybeast understand that?”

Sister Doral put forward a timid enquiry. “Er, excuse me, but who is Corriam the castaway?”

Tribsy replied through a mouthful of pastie. “Us’n’s doan’t be knowen, marm. That’s whoi we’m

arskin’.”

Snowdrop leafed slowly through the Geminya Tome. “Let’s see if there’s any reference to it in here,

shall we?”

As they waited on Snowdrop’s study, Hillyah Gatekeeper began rocking back and forth, eyes shut and

paws clenched.

Oreal, her husband, looked quite concerned for her. “What is it, dear, are you feeling ill?”

Hillyah opened her eyes. “No, it’s just something that flashed through my mind a moment ago. Ralg,

I’ll not tell you again, stop splashing that water about! Oh dear, I’ve gone and lost it again, just when it was right on the tip of my tongue. Most annoying!”

Abbess Lycian poured tea for the harvest mouse mother. “What was it, Hillyah? Were

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