‘I was very honoured. I’d seen my father use Surestrike once, but it was the first time I’d been allowed to touch it. I made five bronze arrowheads with it, and they were the finest things I’d ever crafted. They just seemed to flow out of the metal: perfect they were, and they shimmered like some unseen light was shining on them …
‘Well. We fitted them to arrow shafts and we waited. Sure enough, the Gorm did come. Scramashank himself, pretending to talk truce, and then his warriors tunnelled up from the ground, right into our longburrow.’
Podkin shivered at this point, and cuddled in close to Paz. That was exactly what had happened to their own warren, not long ago.
‘There was a lot of fighting. A lot of screaming and shouting. It was hard to see what went on …
‘I did see Chief Brae fire those arrows, though. Five shots, and each one tore through that Gorm armour like it was wet lettuce. Five Gorm fell down dead, but they were the only ones. All our other weapons just bounced off the monsters.
‘That was when Brae knew it was over. He tore Surestrike off the wall and gave it to Comfrey, our priestess. She grabbed me and together we ran, through a secret tunnel in the fireplace and out of the warren. Others were running too, but the chief stayed until the end. He stayed to make sure we’d escape with the hammer …’
Sorrel’s voice faltered, and he laid his head in his burn-scarred hands. Tansy moved to stand beside him, and placed a reassuring paw on his shoulders. After a few moments of quiet sobbing he managed to continue.
‘Comfrey ran with me. It was dark, but she knew where she was going. There were Gorm outside the warren too, but we dodged them. Applecross is by a lake – she led us down to the water’s edge and we ran along it until we were standing across from the island. Ancients’ Island, they call it.
‘She did something then, I couldn’t see what. A bridge appeared, from the shore to the island. I’d lived all my life by that lake, and I never knew a bridge existed, hidden or not.
‘Comfrey told me to wait, to guard the bridge, and then she ran across with Surestrike. There are ruins on the island: a tomb, an old, old stone thing. Older than time. I can only guess she hid the hammer there, because when she came back, it was gone.
‘She closed the bridge, or hid it again. I don’t know – one minute it was there, and the next it wasn’t. “Don’t tell anyone about this,” she said to me. “Swear it by the Goddess.” I promised, and then we ran again.
‘We didn’t get very far. There were Gorm everywhere. I tried to fight them, but it was like punching an anvil. They knocked me down, hurt me bad. Then they hauled me off along with some others. Took me to that camp you found us in.
‘As for Comfrey, the last I saw they were dragging her back to Applecross. They knew she was a priestess, I expect. They must have wanted her to give them Surestrike. Either that or to make her one of them. Who knows how those monsters think?’ Sorrell jumped to his feet suddenly, punching one meaty fist into his other hand. ‘If only I’d been stronger! If only I could have fought them off—’
Crom stopped him with a gesture. ‘You have nothing to be ashamed of. We’ve all been beaten by them, at some time or another. This thing you have told us – it could help make a difference. I think you escaped for a reason.’
‘You’ll go back for the hammer then? Even though the place is full of Gorm? Are you mad?’
‘I don’t know what we’ll do,’ said Crom. ‘But we all need some time to think. Let’s get some sleep, and we can plan in the morning.’
I hope I’ll be included, thought Podkin, crossing his fingers as the rabbits all wandered off to their burrows around him. He was the last to go, and was very surprised when Crom knelt beside him.
‘Podkin,’ he said. ‘I think you should have this.’ He reached out and pinned Moonfyre on to the little rabbit’s jerkin.
‘I can’t …’ Podkin began to say, but Crom held up a hand to stop him.
‘It chose you,’ he said. ‘And besides, I have no right to it. I gave up my place as chieftain here a long time ago. It’s enough that the Gift has been found again. It gives me hope that one day, with the right chief, this warren might be whole again.’
Crom walked off, smiling to himself, leaving Podkin alone in the longburrow holding not one, but two of the Twelve Gifts. His brain was whirling with all that had happened in one evening. It was too much for a little rabbit’s head to take in.
Maybe that was why he saw, or thought he saw, his dagger and the brooch twinkle at each other before he headed off to his room to sleep.
*
Podkin was indeed included in the meeting the next morning, but so was every other rabbit in the warren. It didn’t stop him feeling pleased with himself, though. After all, this was all down to him finding the brooch and hearing the Applecross rabbits.
They all stood in a rough circle, ears pricked and arms folded, as Crom explained the situation.
‘You’ve probably heard by now,’ he began, ‘that we’ve come across some new information that might help us in our fight against the Gorm.’ There was a quiet murmur amongst the rabbits, but nobody looked very surprised. Word travels fast in a small warren, Podkin remembered.
‘We’ve discovered that one of the Twelve Gifts – the hammer of Applecross, to be precise – is hidden away in the ruins on Ancients’ Island, at Woodcross lake. Sorrel here knows where the tomb is, although not quite how to get into it.’
All eyes turned to the big blacksmith, who flicked his ears and kept his eyes fixed on the longburrow floor.
‘We could leave it there, safe in the knowledge that the Gorm will never find it. That would be fine, except for something else we’ve discovered: Sorrel can use the hammer to make arrowheads that will pierce Gorm armour.’
This bit of information clearly wasn’t well known. There was a gasp of shock, and then a babble of voices all talking at once. Crom let it continue for a few minutes, then raised his hands for silence. When it was quiet enough, Sorrel spoke first.
‘It’s true. I know where Surestrike is, but to find out exactly where it is hidden and how to open the tomb you would have to speak to Comfrey, our priestess. The last time I saw her, she was being dragged back into Applecross warren by the Gorm. She wasn’t at the camp with the rest of us, so I guess she’s still there. Either that, or she’s dead.’
‘What would they be doing with her?’ Mish was standing at the front, not far from Podkin. ‘Why wasn’t she at the camp?’
‘Our guess is they have been torturing her,’ answered Crom. ‘They want the hammer, just like they wanted the dagger from Munbury. Either they’ll be using pain to make her speak, or turning her into a Gorm with one of their metal pillars.’
‘But that was two months ago,’ said Mish. ‘How long can a rabbit withstand either of those things?’ ‘She was strong,’ said Sorrel, his voice quiet and sad. ‘Much stronger than me. She’d die before she told them anything, I know it.’
‘So if we were to try and find the hammer, we would first have to get inside a Gorm-infested warren, find this priestess – if she’s even still alive – and get directions to where it’s hidden?’ Rill shook her head in disbelief. ‘It’s madness. A total suicide mission.’
Mash was standing on a table so he could see over everyone’s shoulders. He was jiggling up and down with excitement. ‘But if we did get the hammer,’ he said, ‘we could make arrows that would kill Gorm. We could forge thousands of them. We could wipe out the whole Gorm army!’
‘Surestrike can’t make that many,’ said Sorrel. ‘Every time you use it, a little bit of it wears away. I could make hundreds, maybe, if we dared to use it up. Or spears instead. Swords. Daggers …’
There was more excited chatter between the rabbits. Gorm-killing swords? What about axes? Could they all have one? Crom raised his hands again.
‘This is an important day,’ he said, using his general’s voice. ‘We have to choose our course, and choose it carefully. Do we hide here from th
e Gorm for as long as we can? Do we run south like the other rabbits, and hope they don’t follow? Or do we use this chance to take the fight to them? What is our future going to be?’
‘Fight!’ yelled the piebald rabbit next to Podkin, and many others joined in, including Mash and Clary. Some were silent, others looked around with scared eyes. Podkin stared up at Paz who frowned, flicking her eyes back to where their sickly mother lay. What was the best thing to do? Every instinct he had told him to run, just as it always did in the face of danger. He was a rabbit, after all. Running was what kept them alive. But he’d overcome that instinct before, and when he did it usually led to surprising victories.
‘Fight!’ Podkin yelled, not realising that everyone else had finished shouting. His little voice rang out across the longburrow, drawing stares from all around. Under his fur, he blushed crimson.
‘I’m glad Podkin feels the same as I do,’ said Crom. Several rabbits chuckled. ‘This is a chance we can’t miss. What do you say, Brigid? You always seem to know what we’re going to do anyway …’
Brigid took a long look round the circle of rabbits, her twinkling eyes coming to rest on Podkin. ‘They say the best form of defence is to attack,’ she said. ‘And the Gorm won’t be expecting an attack from a little slip of a rabbit like Podkin. He should lead the mission, although he will need some help, of course.’
‘Lead? Mission?’ Podkin whispered. He hadn’t been volunteering for anything, just joining in with the moment! What was Brigid talking about?
Some of the other rabbits were as surprised as him. Most of them had been too sick or confused to see what had happened when Podkin fought Scramashank at the camp they were imprisoned in. The idea of a child rabbit going on such a quest was a joke to them.
‘What’s that mad old crone talking about?’ Sorrel shouted. ‘If we are going back, then I should be the one to lead. I was there when Surestrike was hidden, remember?’
‘Can anyone use the hammer?’ a young voice came from behind Podkin. It took him a moment to realise that it was Paz.
Sorrel blinked for a few moments, then shrugged. ‘I was shown how to use it when I became master smith. There’s a special knack to it, special words to speak – it works differently to any other hammer. But I could train someone else, I suppose. If they were skilled enough.’
Paz made a show of looking around the rag-tag bunch of rabbits in the longburrow. ‘But we don’t have anyone skilled enough, do we? We don’t have anyone who knows the first thing about smithing. If we lose you to the Gorm, then the hammer is useless, even if we do manage to find it.’
‘An excellent point, from a clever young lady,’ said Brigid. ‘Such intelligence will be needed on the mission as well.’
‘You are joking, aren’t you?’ Sorrel couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘Someone tell me she’s joking? The next thing you know, she’ll be saying the little baby has to go as well!’
Crom sighed. He already had experience of Brigid and her knowledge of the future. ‘You’re going to tell us to take Pook, aren’t you?’
Brigid shook her head. ‘He’s but a baby, although it will be hard for him to be parted from his brother and sister, especially with his mother still sick. No, he will stay here and I shall care for him. The other two must go, however. This thing has been foreseen, and the children must be there, otherwise the hammer will be lost. I can’t tell you much else, except that there will be time to speak to the priestess if you hurry. My senses tell me she is still alive and still herself. Her connection to the Goddess was strong, and will last a little time yet. But you must be quick, and you must take Pod and Paz. Who else goes is up to you.’
‘You’re all as crazy as a nest of weasels!’ Sorrel yelled. ‘Well, you can suit yourselves. Charge into Applecross riding a shaved badger if you like. You’re all going to end up dead. I’ll wait here for two weeks, just in case there’s a miracle and you do bring back the hammer. After that, I’m heading south to Thrianta. The rabbits there can’t be as mad as you lot.’
The blacksmith stomped out of the longburrow, shaking his head. But Podkin was too dazed to notice he’d gone. Had Brigid just said they were going into Gorm territory? To find a lost hammer on a mystical island? He yanked the fur on his arm to see if this was some kind of a nightmare he was stuck in. He’d wanted to be part of things, but not an insanely dangerous mission of doom.
‘Oh, Pod, what have we done?’ Paz whispered in his ear. There was a flurry of shouting and gesturing all around the room: rabbits asking to go, rabbits saying the idea was stupid, and in between them all, looking at Podkin with a knowing glint in her eye, was Brigid the witch-rabbit.
Not again, thought Podkin, remembering once more the horror of the Gorm: fleeing them, dodging them, fighting them.
Not again. Not again.
INTERLUDE
‘This looks like a good spot,’ says the bard, breaking off the story.
They have walked all day, along a worn track weaving its way across the top of the Razorback downs. After following it down a slope, they have come to a sheltered little valley full of hawthorn trees, all bursting into fresh leaf.
‘A spot for what?’ Rue asks. ‘What about the story?’
‘Plenty of time for that in a bit,’ says the bard. ‘We’re camping here for the night. Can’t you see the sun going down?’
Lost in the tale about Podkin, Rue hasn’t noticed the sky beginning to blush pink. In an hour or so it will be dark.
‘But I have lots of questions! Important questions!’
‘Don’t you always,’ says the bard. He drops his pack to the floor under one of the hawthorn trees and begins to take off his cloak. ‘Can’t they wait until dinner’s cooked?’
‘No, they can’t! For example: why do Podkin and Paz have to go on the mission? They’ve only just escaped Scramashank and the Gorm. Podkin’s obviously terrified. Why does the Goddess want to put them in danger again?’
The bard puts his paws on his hips and stares down at his new apprentice with his sternest glare. ‘Who are you to know why the Goddess does things? Hasn’t it been clear from the start that Podkin is doing her will? He’s the bearer of two of her Gifts now. Don’t you remember all the battles Podkin and Paz have won already? Of course she would choose them.’
‘But poor Podkin …’
The bard sighs and ruffles Rue’s ears. ‘I’m glad you’re worried about Pod,’ he says. ‘It shows I’m telling my story well. But look out there.’ He points away from the downs to the land beyond. A vast, open plain of green with no trees, hills or buildings in sight. ‘That there is the Sea of Grass. Not just ordinary grass, you know, but long stuff that grows taller than your ears.
‘There are rabbits that live out there. They make big wheeled craft: kind of wagon carts crossed with sailing ships. Like boats in the grass, they are. And they build warrens on stilts, higher than the treetops.
‘They never touch the ground. Do you know why?’ Rue shakes his head. ‘Because there’s snakes out there too. Adders with bodies as thick as oak trunks that could swallow you whole. Sometimes they slither on to the ships and eat everyone aboard. Sometimes they even go into the treetop warrens and bite rabbits with their poison fangs.’
Rue gulps. ‘What has this got to do with Podkin?’ he says.
‘Do you know what age those grass rabbits start driving the sailcarts? Before they can walk, that’s when. I’ve seen them zipping around, racing about like lunatics, giant snakes be damned. At first, though, they’re terrified. Screaming, wailing, “don’t-make-me-go-on-that-cart-mummy” terrified. Anyone in their right mind would be.’
‘How do they learn to drive then? If they’re so scared?’
‘They face their fears, little one. And bit by bit, they master them. It doesn’t mean they get any less scared of snakes – snakes are flipping horrifying – but they can get on with their sailing and put their worries somewhere they won’t bother them. And that’s what Podkin has to do in order to b
eat the Gorm. He doesn’t think he can do it, not right now, but the Goddess knows he can. How do you think he becomes a hero, after all?’
Rue stands silent for a while, staring out at the rippling grass. ‘Well, I don’t think it’s fair,’ he says. ‘If I were the Goddess, I’d choose someone older to do my tasks. Picking on little rabbits is mean.’
The bard is very tempted to tell the little brat that he is really Pook, that he was actually there and that being picked on didn’t do him any harm.
But that is a secret for another time. Instead he gives Rue a clonk on the head with his staff. ‘Lesson number two, little bard-to-be. It’s my story and I don’t care what you think. Now, get the fire lit and cook up some soup. I’ll carry on the tale while you’re working.’
CHAPTER SIX
Surprise
The rest of the day saw lots of hectic planning and preparation for the mission ahead. This included both of the little rabbits, no matter how scared Podkin was about facing the Gorm again.
Pook knew something was up, and he wasn’t happy. Even though nobody had said anything to him, he had worked out that Podkin and Paz were going somewhere, and so spent most of his time clinging to one of them, or following them around like a chubby little shadow.
As for the rest of the expedition party, it had been decided that Crom should definitely go along, and Tansy too. After all, she knew Applecross and how to sneak into it. Mish and Mash both wanted to go, but Mish was needed at the warren to run the council and the scouting parties. The twin rabbits were very upset to be leaving each other, but Mash could hardly contain his excitement at having something to do other than spooning soup into sick rabbits.
Several others wanted to come as well, but eventually they agreed that it was best to keep the group as small as possible. There was less chance of being spotted by the Gorm that way.
Podkin wanted to make the group even smaller. He made a point of catching Brigid on her own one morning, when the others were counting out supplies. He crept up behind her and tugged on her cloak.
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