Urchin and the Heartstone Page 20

  As animals tramped through the dunes, swishing through coarse grass, calling to each other, a sudden rage rose in Urchin, helpless simmering fury at the unfairness of it all. Why couldn’t they leave him alone? He’d never asked to come here. All he wanted was to go home!

  He took a deep breath. There was no point in thinking like that. Never mind if this was fair or unfair, it was real, that was all. Vividly, he remembered something he had once said to Needle, on another shore. There’s more that I have to do. And more that I have to be. It’s not as if you can do one special thing, and that’s it. It’s what you go on being that matters.

  He was here. He couldn’t change that. He had talked about doing something to help this island, and Flame had said that he would, if he was meant to. Perhaps it was only by being here, hiding and hunted, that he could see what to do. His father had died for this island. He might be able to make a difference to it now, to continue the work his father had begun.

  Paws hurried about above them. He heard guards calling to each other.

  “If you find the Marked Squirrel, don’t kill him,” said a voice. “The king wants him for Smokewreath—if the king’s happy, Smokewreath’s happy, and then everyone’s happy. Except the Marked Squirrel. Oh, and Commander Cedar. The king wants her alive. By the time he’s finished with her, there’ll be nothing left for Smokewreath.”

  Urchin rolled over and hugged his knees, gazing ahead of him. There was only one thing to do. He stood up, taking off his cloak and brushing soot from his fur so his true color would show clearly.

  “Get down!” ordered Cedar.

  Urchin took Juniper’s paw. “Thanks for everything you’ve done,” he said. “For staying with me. I wish you were my brother—you are my brother, as far as anyone can be. Cedar, Flame, thanks for everything.”

  “We’re not beaten,” said Cedar. “Get down.”

  “They’ll be here soon,” said Urchin. “Sooner or later the chances are they’ll find me, and that means they’ll find you, too. I’m the one Smokewreath wants. If I give myself up, they won’t come looking for you.”

  Juniper gripped his paw. His eyes glowed with an intensity that astounded Urchin and frightened him.

  “No!” he snarled. “Don’t you dare! I came all this way to save you, and you think you can just walk out and get yourself killed!”

  “If I really am meant to do something for this island, maybe this is the way,” said Urchin.

  “Don’t be stupid,” said Juniper. “How can this help anyone?”

  “I just think it might,” said Urchin wretchedly. Juniper was making it much harder. “This will give you a better chance to get away and save Mistmantle. Silverbirch’s moles are on their way. If I go to the king, freely, now, you can slip down to the bay, take the small boat, and get home before the moles. Warn Crispin. You too, Cedar, it isn’t safe for you here. They’ll be so busy dragging me off to Smokewreath, they’ll even forget to hunt for you, at least long enough for you to get away. You can have my place in the boat. Tell them what happened to me, and tell them what Whitewings is like. Give everyone my love—Crispin, Padra, everyone. Hug Apple for me, and tell her I said thanks for everything.”

  Cedar looked beseechingly up at Flame. “Tell him he’s wrong!” she pleaded. “Urchin, I won’t let you.”

  “You can’t stop me,” said Urchin.

  “I will,” said Juniper. He confronted Urchin with fierce eyes and outstretched claws. “Don’t you take one more step. I’ve seen that dungeon Smokewreath works in, and it’s foul, and I won’t let you go there. What if he really can make evil magic out of you? Magic that can endanger Mistmantle? Had you thought of that? Tell him, Brother Flame!”

  But Brother Flame’s eyes were heavy with sorrow. He laid his thin paws on Juniper’s shoulders. He looked wise and strong, and reminded Urchin of Fir.

  “Urchin is right,” he said sadly. “I wish he weren’t. He has seen the thing he must do, and he will do it. Whatever Smokewreath can do, he can never make evil magic out of such a true heart. The Heart is stronger than all Smokewreath’s sorcery. The Heart creates, evil can only destroy. Urchin, we’ll give time for Cedar and the others to get away; then if the Larchlings can rescue you, we will. Perhaps this will make the islanders stand up to Smokewreath at last.”

  “Thanks,” said Urchin, but there didn’t seem much hope. He lowered his head. “May I have your blessing?”

  “The Heart keep you, warm you, and receive you,” said Flame. “And forever may the Heart be with those you love, Urchin of the Riding Stars.”

  Juniper hugged him, then Flame, and at last Cedar embraced him like a mother before she reached into the satchel under her cloak.

  “Your mother’s bracelet,” she said. “Do you want to take it with you?”

  He looked at the pale circle on her paw and touched it gently. It mustn’t fall into Smokewreath’s paws, but it was good to see it once more.

  “Take it to Crispin, please,” he said. “Ask him to keep it for me.”

  It hurt that he couldn’t say more. But there wasn’t time, and no words were strong enough. Juniper could have become a tower squirrel too, and they could have worked together, taught each other new skills, skimmed stones, and messed about in boats—that couldn’t happen now. He wriggled to the burrow entrance.

  “Heart keep me,” he whispered as he stepped from the burrow. “Father, Mother, if you can see me, help me.”

  He crept, staying close to the ground, until he was at a safe distance from the burrow where his friends sheltered, and quite alone. Then he stood up, squared his shoulders, and lifted his head. Finally, he left his cloak lying on the ground and gave his fur one more brushing, so that everyone could see who he was. Climbing the dunes, he held up his paws. The singing of arrows stopped.

  “I am the Marked Squirrel,” he called out, “Urchin of the Riding Stars, Companion to Crispin the King. Do you want me alive?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  EAR THE TOP OF THE DUNES, he turned to look about him. At every second he had expected rough paws to grab at him, but nobody had touched him.

  All about him, hedgehogs and squirrels stood and stared. Those who didn’t wear helmets were glancing uncertainly at him, then at each other, as if they didn’t know what to do. Wondering if this were all a dream, he marched on. He wished somebody would do something. It was as if they were watching to see if his courage would hold. It was almost a relief when two hedgehogs ran to his side and took hold of his arms and shoulders, but it felt as if they wanted to apologize for arresting him.

  They marched him onward. Other animals gathered around them and followed, but it seemed to Urchin that he was the one leading the way until they stood at the highest point on top of the dunes, the point from which he could see as far as the Fortress and beyond it to the crags. On this bare winter day, the Fortress was clearer than ever.

  The hedgehogs holding him were gaining confidence. They’d arrested the Marked Squirrel and he wasn’t resisting, and, gripping his arms tightly, they quickened the pace. Archers and guards, keen to share the glory, ran to help them. Paws grabbed at Urchin, elbowing each other aside to reach him, pushing and dragging him.

  “To the Fortress!” shouted one, grabbing at his shoulder. “Tell the king we’ve got him!”

  Bundled across the landscape of the island, Urchin looked up to the Fortress. Dawn was spreading across the sky with an early, wide-awake light of pale gold over the bare trees and the harsh outlines of the battlements. Three figures stood there, and even at a distance, their shape and size and their way of moving identified them. Granite, tall and broad in his armor, his feet apart, one paw on his sword. The king, swishing his cloak and raising his clenched paws in triumph. Smokewreath, hunched, darting and dancing. He’d be funny, thought Urchin, if he weren’t about to kill me.

  For a moment he wished he wasn’t doing this, but then he was ashamed for wishing it. He was giving his friends the chance to escape and to warn Mistmantle, an
d if anything was worth dying for, that was. He walked on, not resisting the hedgehogs as they pulled him, his eyes now on the sky beyond the three triumphant figures on the battlements. This would be his last sunrise, and he was glad it was a good one.

  Smokewreath was beating his staff on the battlements. The others were joining in, stamping; and armed animals and archers clapped their paws and took up the chant, louder and harsher. It carried in waves across the island until Urchin could hear the word clearly, and feel the pounding of the earth.

  “DEATH! DEATH! DEATH!”

  What have I done! What have I done, that they’re all chanting for my death? thought Urchin, but he knew it wasn’t anything he’d done. It was the wave of greed and fear that made them scream for his blood. But there were other voices, too, and a different chant that was hard to hear clearly. He twitched his ears.

  He could hear his own name. Somebody was cheering, calling his name and cheering! He twisted and stretched to look over the heads of the animals dragging him onward, straining to see what was happening.

  The Larchlings were cheering him. Some he recognized from the underground party, but all were clear by the way they stood, more and more of them with their paws raised, some saluting, all calling out his name—“Urchin! Urchin the Marked Squirrel! Urchin!”

  “DEATH! DEATH! DEATH!” came the chant.

  Run, Cedar, run, Juniper, he thought, and prayed with all his strength for them to get away. Live. Get to Mistmantle. The animals holding him were running him forward now, hurrying in their eagerness to get their prize to the Fortress, and there was hardly time to see anything that was going on, but he could see enough. With cries of “Urchin of the Riding Stars!” the Larchlings were running to help him. The animals dragging him turned, ready to defend themselves, determined to keep their prize as the Larchlings called out his name and rushed forward.

  They’ve found their courage at last, thought Urchin with a surge of joy. They’ve turned against the king! But his next thought was a terrible one: They’re going to fight, the king’s guards will destroy them, there will be a bloodbath, and all because of me.

  Arrows sang, swords flashed, and from the Fortress the chant became louder, higher, and wilder. The stamping was so hard, so rhythmic, so fierce that the earth shook. As Urchin looked up, the Fortress seemed to be moving.

  There was a noise like thunder, but it couldn’t be thunder. It came from underground. Then, from far off, came such a violent splintering and cracking that Urchin ducked and wanted to run. Everyone was looking up in terror at the Fortress. The chanting and stamping had stopped. The hedgehogs holding Urchin let go and ran.

  “The trees are falling!” screamed someone. The winter trees around the Fortress tilted stiffly, jerking, wrenched one way and then the other as if they were in pain. Animals ran for cover. Screams came from the Fortress, its doors were flung open, terrified animals ran and scrambled to escape. On the moving battlements, Smokewreath and the king clung to each other. Granite was trying to climb down the side, but the Fortress was rocking. Then an appalling cracking sound hit Urchin’s ears like pain, and covering his head with his paws, he tore back up the dunes. There was rumbling, creaking, screaming, and a furious rending crack that became a roar and thunder of falling stones. Then it was over, except for some deep, growling rumbles from under the earth, and the dust that filled the air as Urchin raised his head.

  He coughed and squinted. Dust filled his mouth and stung his eyes. Clouds of it hung in the air, and slowly settled around the emptiness where the Fortress had been. It covered the fur of animals with awed faces. It caught in his throat and made him cough until his eyes watered, as he scrambled to the burrow, trying to call for Cedar and Juniper.

  “Urchin!”

  He heard the hoarse call among the cries and calls of frightened animals. Juniper was hurrying toward him, rubbing dust from his eyes with one paw.

  “Juniper!” cried Urchin, stumbling forward. “Are you all right? Are you all all right?”

  “We’re all here,” said Cedar, and her eyes were pink with dust or tears. They all looked like that—Juniper, Cedar, Flame, Lugg, Larch, as they struggled toward the beach.

  “We mustn’t stop,” said Larch. “There might be more quakes. We need to get everyone to the beach. If you see any animal that needs help to get there, help it.”

  They coughed and staggered and slithered down to the beach, picking up and giving a paw to hurt and frightened animals on the way. Then at last they were on the beach; everyone seemed to be hugging each other and throwing down weapons, and Urchin’s head was spinning. He couldn’t really be free, the Fortress couldn’t have just vanished—the only thing that made sense was the voice of Captain Lugg.

  “Told you!” he said, and coughed. “Too much tunneling, too much mining. Had to happen sooner or later. Watch them dunes don’t go next.”

  “We’ll have to go back for the injured,” croaked Flame.

  “Not yet, Brother, I wouldn’t advise it,” said Lugg. “Let things settle. Don’t want you falling down a hole; they need you. And they’re all looking out for each other.”

  Animals were hurrying down to the beach, the walking supporting the injured. Larch was going from one group to another, giving orders—“Somebody go and help that squirrel, I think it has broken a paw—You, you, and you, carry that hedgehog down here”—while helping Cedar and Flame to attend the wounded. Juniper and Urchin went with them to give whatever help they could, and Lugg organized the unharmed animals into bringing water from the nearest spring. Juniper and Urchin were just discussing the possibility that most of King Silverbirch’s supporters must have been in the Fortress when it fell, when the voices around them faded and stopped. Animals were watching them.

  An old, gray-muzzled squirrel stepped forward and said in a deep, strong voice, “Hail, Marked Squirrel, deliverer of Whitewings. Do you come to be our king?”

  “Of course not!” said Urchin quickly. “I mean, I’m sure it would be a great honor, but you already have a queen. Queen Larch.”

  A slow beam of joy spread across the old squirrel’s face. His eyes brightened.

  “Then it’s true?” he said, and his voice trembled with excitement. “What they’ve been saying, it’s true? She’s alive, and on the island? Little Larch?”

  Urchin stretched up on his hind claws to survey the crowd, as Larch was too small to be found easily. He caught sight of her washing dust from a young hedgehog.

  “There she is,” he said. “Looking after that little hedgehog. That’s Queen Larch. And you have a priest, and the animals who’ve kept them safe all these years.”

  There was a lot of scurrying about and chattering among the animals, while everyone pointed at Larch and whispered and agreed “that she had the look of the old royal family about her, and yes, this really was Larch. And was that Brother Flame? We always wondered what happened to him. Still white and gray with dust, still coughing, squirrels and hedgehogs knelt. On the sandy beach, on the snowy slopes, in the dust, bruised and disheveled animals proclaimed Larch their rightful queen.

  “Is it over?” said Urchin. “Are they really dead?”

  “Everything caved in,” said a breathless and very dusty squirrel, wriggling through the crowd. She rubbed her eyes and blinked. “They were all on the roof. I was in a treetop. Everyone was shouting and stamping, and it all caved in, and they just vanished, with everything falling on top of them—and I ran, sir. What do we do next?”

  “Ask your queen,” said Urchin. “I have a king to go home to, and my own island needs me. I have to go home.”

  The snow had stopped falling, but leaves, twigs, and dust still drifted through the air and settled on the shore. Juniper and Urchin picked their way through to Cedar.

  “You’ll have to go now,” she said, “if you’re going to catch the tide. They’ll want to give you festivals and celebrations and goodness knows what if you stay any longer.”

  Urchin sprang to his paws. All he wa
nted to do was to get home as quickly as possible, but the little boat at the jetty looked smaller than ever.

  “Lugg will have to come by boat, too,” said Urchin. “He can’t go down a tunnel now, with the ground unsteady. And there’s the swans. Will the boat carry us all?”

  “Why take the little boat?” said Larch. “Take the ship! There’ll be no shortage of volunteers to crew it for you.”

  “But there’s a problem with the swans,” said Flame. “Something we hadn’t thought of. Because they’ve been chained up all their lives, their wings aren’t strong. I’m not sure if they can get themselves over the mists, let alone carry someone.”

  “Well, they can try!” said Urchin. “By the time they reach the mists, at least they will have exercised their wings! They could carry a message to Crispin!”

  “And Lugg didn’t leave by water,” said Juniper. “So if the rest of us can’t go through the mists, he could lower the ship’s boat and try to row through. Please, we can’t wait and talk about it now.”

  Urchin gazed up at the ship. Proud and graceful on the water, she looked as lovely as an enchanted ship in a story.

  “We’ll send her back here,” he said eagerly, “with a cargo of Mistmantle earth, to give the island a chance to be green again, as you wanted. And…” He hesitated. Knowing how much Cedar wanted to go to Mistmantle, he wanted to invite her, but he should ask the queen’s permission first. “Cedar always wanted to come to Mistmantle.”

  “I can’t leave now,” said Cedar, though Urchin had seen her gaze stray wistfully to the ship. “You’ve only just come into your own, and there’s so much to be done,” she said to Larch.

  “Cedar,” said Larch, “you have taught me well, and you know the quality of the Larchlings. Flame and I can cope here.”

  “And,” said Urchin brightly, as a thought occurred to him, “if Lugg can’t get through the mists, you might be able to. You could be the only one who can get through, and warn Crispin, and tell him where we are, so we can’t go without you.”