[Redwall 18] - High Rhulain by Brian Jacques

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

with a big fluffy feather, which he kept blowing upward to stop it flopping into his right eye. His left eye was hidden beneath a musselshell patch. A brass ring, large as a barrel stave, dangled from his good ear.

He wore a tattered pink silk frock coat, tied with a broad yellow sash, into which were thrust two cutlasses, a knife, fork and spoon. His outfit was completed by an enormous pair of folded-down seaboots, which

beggared description.

The hare winked dramatically at them with his uncovered eye. “Stap me stays’ls! Vittles, an’ prime

ones, too! Come an’ fill yore beak, matey!”

Pandion, who had been trundling along in his wake, settled down by the fire. The hare launched into

the food as if he had not eaten in days, tossing choice morsels to the osprey. Salad and crumbs sprayed the company as he addressed them.

“Vittles, where’d we be without ’em, eh, I ask ye? So then, young Tillie, me otter, are ye the one I’ll be battlin’ alongside when we gets to this Green Isle place? Speak up, me liddle periwinkle!”

Tiria tried hard to keep a straight face as she replied, “Aye, Cap’n, providing we make it to Green

Isle.”The hare sprang up. Grabbing for but missing his cutlass, he brandished a spoon instead while roaring out, “Make it? Haharr, o’ course we’ll make it, Tillie me darlin’, or my name ain’t Cap’n Cuthbert Frunk W.

Bloodpaw, Terror o’ the ’Igh Seas. We’ll set sail at first light tomorrer, ’ere’s me paw an’ ’ere’s me ’eart on it. A sea otter pirate can’t say fairer’n that now, can he?”

Tiria realised that Cuthbert was now in the role of a sea otter pirate captain. Life was certainly going to be complicated, sailing with a hare whom she had met as a shrew but was now transformed into an

otter! How many other identities did he possess, she wondered. The one cheering fact was that she was

now guaranteed a passage to her destination.

That night, Tiria went to sleep with the Rhulain’s words echoing through her mind: “Trust in the fool

of the sea.”

17

Holt Summerdell was still some distance off as the otterclans and their families made it into the start of the high country. It was early evening, not quite dusk, as they skirted the rim of a vast crater. The otterbabe riding on Leatho’s shoulders gazed, sleepy-eyed, down the steep shalestrewn sides at a big lake. Flat and dark, it covered the bottom of the crater, its water dull and lustreless, its slate-hued surface without a ripple.“H’is dat Suddermell down dere?”

The outlaw smiled up at the little one. “No, me beauty, that’s the place they call Deeplough.

Summerdell’s much nicer, just the right place for otterbabes.”

Deedero looked away, shuddering. “I should hope it is. Zillo, how much farther to Summerdell?”

The bard pointed inland. “See the rim beyond this ’un? Well, there’s a valley covered in woodland with

a waterfall runnin’ through it. Holt Summerdell’s right there, marm, hidden amongst the trees. A grand

secret place ’tis.”

Big Kolun picked up a chunk of rock from the crater rim.

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