‘We will strike,’ said Crom. ‘But the time has to be right. We need more allies, more weapons.’
‘Which we will find in the lands to the south,’ said Dodge. ‘We must leave for Thrianta or Orestad, places the Gorm haven’t yet reached.’
Here we go again, Podkin thought. Their daily discussions just seemed to go round and round in circles. He desperately wanted to come up with a genius idea that everyone agreed with, but his brain remained empty no matter how hard he racked it. Maybe I shouldn’t have been included on the council after all. He had been thinking that more and more lately. If only the Goddess would pop an answer into his head, so he could prove his worth. He muttered another little prayer but it didn’t seem to do any good.
The sound of the warren doors booming echoed down the entrance tunnel, interrupting the meeting (much to Podkin’s relief). Then came running feet, chattering voices, and then Mish and Mash burst into the room, accompanied by the brown- and green-clad rabbits who made up their scouting party.
‘Gorm!’ Mash shouted. ‘At the forest’s edge!’
‘That’s nothing new,’ said Crom. ‘They’ve been patrolling there for months.’
‘This isn’t a patrol,’ said Mish. ‘It’s an army. And they’re here to destroy the forest.’
This last statement drew everyone’s attention, and soon there was a crowd of rabbits around the scouts, all asking questions at once. Voices grew louder and louder, attracting more and more rabbits to add to the hubbub until there was so much noise that—
‘Quiet, everyone!’
Crom had his mouth open, ready to shout, but the bellow that silenced the longburrow came from Lady Enna, Podkin’s mother. All eyes turned to Crom in shock, as the whole burrow had become used to him taking the lead. How would he react to someone else stealing his thunder? Was there going to be some kind of fight?
There was a beat or two of silence, then the blind warrior simply shrugged. Eyebrows were raised and ears twitched, but Podkin himself wasn’t too surprised. He knew Crom had no interest in running the warren anyway. It could have been his if he’d wanted, back when his father died, but he’d chosen a different path. He would still be on it too, if Podkin hadn’t met him back in Boneroot all those months ago.
Lady Enna wasn’t surprised either. She was more than used to getting her own way. ‘Now,’ she said to Mish and Mash. ‘Go on with your report, please.’
‘Well,’ said Mish, ‘we were out looking for more refugees, not far from the forest edge, when we heard this horrific sound—’
‘Grinding and tearing,’ said Mash. ‘Screeching and cracking and wailing.’
‘So we crept closer to investigate,’ Mish continued. ‘We poked our noses out of the trees and saw them down by the crater, where Boneroot used to be.’
‘Gorm,’ said Mash. ‘More than I’ve ever seen before. But this time they had something with them.’
‘Big wheely turny things,’ said Mish. ‘With blades and knives and choppy bits. They were using them to pull up trees, and crunch them and smash them.’
‘Wheely turny things?’ Yarrow the bard spoke up. He was obviously collecting snippets for his epic yarn about the Gorm. ‘Could you describe them in a bit more detail? Do a little sketch, perhaps?’
‘A sketch? They’re ripping up the whole forest!’ Mash finished, pulling his own ears in fright. ‘There’s going to be nothing left but mud and splinters soon! This isn’t the time for doodling!’
‘I think you’ll find there’s always time for doodling, dear,’ Yarrow said, making the little rabbit hop up and down with rage.
‘Calm down, calm down,’ said Crom, stepping up to put a soothing hand on Mash’s shoulder. ‘Grimheart is the biggest forest in the Five Realms. It’s not going anywhere, whatever the Gorm do to it.’
‘Why are they tearing it down?’ Paz asked. ‘Are they looking for us?’
‘Ridiculous,’ said Lady Enna. ‘Surely they would just walk in if they were.’
Podkin sometimes forgot his mother had been asleep, on the brink of death, for so long. She had missed out on lots of things they had discovered about their enemy.
‘The Gorm are scared of the forest, Mother,’ he said. ‘It belongs to Hern the Hunter. They don’t like to come in here. That’s what’s kept us safe this long.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Brigid. The witch-rabbit had joined the throng and was nodding her head in that knowing way of hers. ‘But they’ve worked out a way to get to us. Their metal machinery can tear down our hiding place and weaken Hern at the same time. It’s another blow against the Balance and will help them grow in power. Two berries on one branch.’
Podkin remembered her telling him about the Balance. The ancient agreement between the goddesses and Gormalech that kept each side in check. The Gorm were trying to destroy it so their god could take over the world again.
‘I think we need to get a good idea of what they’re up to,’ said Crom. ‘Mish and Mash can take some councillors out for a better look.’
‘I’ll go,’ said Rill immediately.
‘Me too,’ said Podkin. This was his chance to do something worthwhile as part of the council. He’d spied on the Gorm lots of times before, and it was much more interesting than sitting in a meeting.
‘No you jolly well won’t,’ said his mother, crossing her arms. Podkin sighed. He really wished she would stop being so protective. If she’d seen half the things he’d done while she was asleep …
‘I’ll go with him, Mother,’ said Paz. ‘My sickle will keep us safe. I can grow leaves and branches around us so the Gorm won’t see us.’
‘Both of you? Never! Next you’ll be saying you’re taking your baby brother Pook as well!’
Podkin didn’t like to mention that Pook had been in several near-death scrapes alongside them over the past few months. Instead he decided to try a different tactic.
‘Brigid will tell you it’s fine for us to go. If anything bad was going to happen to us, she’d know already.’
Brigid was a soothsayer who knew things before they took place. She was also the only rabbit in Dark Hollow that Lady Enna would listen to, probably because the old witch-rabbit had saved her life. Everyone turned to look at her but she just twitched her ears.
‘I haven’t had any signs that they shouldn’t go,’ she said, finally.
‘Great. That’s settled then.’ Podkin grabbed Paz’s arm and pulled her away, towards their room where their cloaks and packs were stored. Their mother might have argued further but Pook was scrabbling at her robes and asking for soup, and the babble of questions for Mish and Mash had started again. If they were quick, they could get out of the warren and away before their mother could do anything about it.
‘Who’d have thought we’d actually be running towards the Gorm for once?’ Paz said as they dashed into their room and began tying on their cloaks.
‘Just goes to show how dull council meetings are,’ said Podkin, but he too was surprised. Not long ago he had been living in constant fear of their iron-clad enemies. Now he couldn’t wait to be doing something about them again.
He hoped he wouldn’t regret being so keen.
*
Within half an hour a small group had gathered outside the warren doors. There was Podkin and Paz, Mish and Mash, Rill the shield maiden and Yarrow the bard. The descriptions of Gorm war machines had sounded too intriguing for him to miss out on.
They were all dressed in shades of brown and green, with long hooded cloaks. Mish and Mash were adding some extra fern fronds and vines of ivy for camouflage.
‘Do I have to be draped in this stuff?’ Podkin asked as a fat spider dropped from the greenery on his head and scuttled across his shoulder. ‘I do know how to hide from enemies, thank you very much’
‘Stop moaning,’ said Paz. ‘It could be worse.’ She closed her eyes for a moment and drew on the power of Ailfew. The ivy on Podkin’s hood began to grow, twining itself around his head like a crown.
�
�Stop it!’ he shouted, clawing the stuff off. Paz and her turnipping sickle. He wished one of his Gifts had a power that could get back at her, but his brooch only worked in the light of the moon and his dagger would slice her into bits. That was probably a bit extreme.
‘Knock it off, you two,’ said Mish. ‘We’ve got a long way to go and you can’t be bickering the whole time.’
With everyone ready, they set off into the forest at a jog.
When they first arrived at Dark Hollow – frozen, starving and scared – the trees of Grimheart had seemed thick and impenetrable. But in the past months the scouts had been hard at work, and now there was a network of paths spreading out from the warren in all directions.
They had been marked with symbols carved into bark here and there. Some led to spots where they could forage for mushrooms, nuts or berries, some led to lookout posts or other warrens. Mish and Mash read them easily, and even Crom could feel them with his fingers, allowing him to find his way about the woods without help.
Summer was now in full swing, which also helped to make the forest seem more pleasant. Dark green leaves rustled overhead, birdsong echoed between the trees from all directions, and the air was filled with buzzing, flittering insects and drifting seed pods, all glinting and sparkling as they passed through slanting beams of light.
I’m turning into a forest rabbit, Podkin thought as he wove his way in and out of roots and trunks. The quiet hum of life all around him, the shelter and solidity of the trees – it all made him feel safe and protected, almost as if Hern himself were looking after him. Were the Gorm really powerful enough to destroy all of this?
They stopped at lunchtime for a quick meal of dandelion leaves and acorn bread, and then they were off again, following Mish and Mash as they darted from path to path.
Podkin found he could only just keep up with the twin rabbits. Paz was also struggling, and poor Yarrow was lagging further and further behind, muttering things about suffering for his art and how everyone had jolly well better like his saga.
Even at that pace, it was early evening before they began to near the edge of the great forest.
That was when they heard the noise.
Podkin tried to describe it later but found he had no words. Even Yarrow was hard pushed doing justice to how awful it was.
It started as a low rumbling that shook the trees all around them. As they got closer to it, they could hear screeching metal and distant crashes. Nearer still and they could hear crunching, grinding and tearing and finally moans and screams of terrified, tortured creatures.
They were at the forest edge now, where the trees were younger and thinner. Bramble bushes, heavy with ripening blackberries, filled the gaps between the young oaks, rowans and elms. Dodging through these, they crept forwards, trying to get a glimpse of just what could be making such a hideous racket.
Podkin was the first to see it, and he drew a sharp breath. Paz did the same, while Rill muttered a soldiers’ curse that would have made even Crom’s whiskers curl.
‘By Clarion’s sacred harp strings,’ whispered Yarrow. Their eyes were all wide, their mouths open. Even knowing first-hand how evil the Gorm could be, nothing could have prepared them for this.
They had emerged from the trees a hundred metres or so from the crater, where Boneroot had once been hidden. The giant hole was clearly visible, and on the far side of it were the Gorm.
Podkin had seen as many as fifty together before, but here there were far more. A hundred at least, their hulking iron forms easy to identify. But it wasn’t the number of them that shocked him, rather what they were doing to the forest.
Mash was right when he spoke about mud and splinters. The Gorm were tearing the whole place down.
At the front of their line, half hidden by the forest itself, were ten contraptions built from the same rusted, jagged iron as the Gorm’s armour. Like some kind of hellish giant insects, they had an array of blades, spinning teeth and crushing jaws at the front. At the back, each had a massive wheel, taller than five rabbits, which spun steadily round, powering the cutting equipment before them.
The constructs were being pushed by teams of Gorm and driven into the trees and bushes. The blades tore through trunks and roots, iron mandibles crushed and chomped branches into pieces, and teeth crunched wood into splinters. Behind them was a swathe of torn-up ground. Piles of gouged mud and pieces of tree were everywhere, and the trail stretched back half a kilometre or more.
The devastation was awful, and it was made worse by the fires. Teams of giant rats were pulling the fallen trees towards colossal bonfires to be burned. Centuries upon centuries’ worth of growth was being eaten up by the walls of flame and rising into the sky in pillars of ash that must have been visible for miles around.
The smoke, mixed with the stink of grinding iron and ripped-up earth, stung the rabbits’ eyes and caught in their throats.
‘Now do you see what I mean?’ said Mash. ‘The whole forest will soon be gone. They’re tearing through it so fast.’
‘Why?’ Podkin managed to say. ‘Why do this? Just to get at us? Do they really hate us that much?’
‘Well, you did chop off the Gorm Lord’s foot,’ Paz said. ‘And you cut Surestrike out of his hand. He’d probably grind down the whole Five Realms to get his revenge.’
‘What makes those … things … move?’ asked Rill, peering at the iron juggernauts. ‘Is there something inside the wheels?’
Podkin looked closer, trying to spot what was making the wheels turn. There was definitely something living inside them. He could see Gorm handlers swinging barbed whips at them and yelling. Some had spears, which they were prodding between the spokes. His first thought was rats, until he glimpsed an arm poke out from the nearest machine. A rabbit arm, stretching out for mercy.
‘By the Goddess,’ he said, his voice choking. ‘They’ve got rabbits in there.’
Judging by the horror on Mish and Mash’s face, they hadn’t noticed that fact before. Rill was shaking her head and Paz was quietly crying. Yarrow just stared at the scene, not even blinking, before he finally spoke.
‘I’ve heard stories before, horrible ones, about a place called Hell, where all the evil of the world lives. I thought they were just fables, made up to terrify little rabbit kittens. Now I know what Hell must look like.’
Podkin wasn’t listening. He had spotted something else down there, amongst the fire and torn wood. One of the Gorm wasn’t poking slaves, pushing machines or feeding the bonfires. It was just standing there, hands on hips, rocking back and forth with what looked like laughter. It was taller than the others and had mismatched horns of iron curving up from its head. One of its feet was a jagged mass of iron shards, and rabbit skulls hung from its belt.
Even though he had faced that Gorm twice before and bested him, Podkin’s blood still ran cold.
Scramashank. The Gorm Lord who had killed his father and hounded Podkin across the country. He was here, causing all this devastation. And he was actually enjoying it.
Podkin ducked back into the forest, pulling Paz after him, and started to run for home.
CHAPTER FOUR
Leaving
Back at Dark Hollow, they were huddled around a map of the forest, spread out across one of the longburrow benches and marked with carved wooden pieces to represent their warren and the approaching Gorm. The whole council was present; also Yarrow, Brigid, Podkin’s mother and even Vetch, the rabbit from Golden Brook they had met when rescuing the hammer, Surestrike. It was unusual to see him out of the kitchens these days, but Podkin was too worried to think much of it.
‘That’s it,’ Dodge was saying. ‘There’s nothing for it this time. We have to leave. Get away from the forest completely.’
‘We still have some time,’ said Crom. ‘How fast do you think they were going? It might be months before they reach us.’
‘We can’t wait that long!’ said Lady Enna. ‘What about our sick rabbits? What about my children? We must keep th
em safe!’
‘We could counterattack,’ said Rill. ‘Blow up those machines with some of Mash’s bang dust. That would buy us time.’
‘There are still refugees coming in,’ said Mish. ‘Word is out about us now. We can’t just vanish when we’ve worked so hard to give rabbits hope.’
‘Where would we go to, anyway?’ said Paz. ‘Even if we find another warren on the other side of Grimheart, we’ll have to run again if the Gorm really are going to mow the whole forest down.’
A warren on the other side of Grimheart. That gave Podkin an idea. ‘What about Uncle Hennic?’ he said. ‘He’s the chieftain of Sparrowfast warren.’
Paz tutted. ‘I just said, there’s no point running to another warren on the other side of the forest. Weren’t you listening?’
‘But he has a Gift, doesn’t he?’ Podkin continued. ‘I remember Father saying. Isn’t it a bow?’
‘A bow, yes, but—’ his mother began, then was interrupted by Brigid chuckling.
‘I was wondering when someone would remember that,’ she said. ‘I should have seen it would be you, Podkin.’
‘Of course! A bow!’ Paz kissed Podkin on the cheek. ‘We need a bow to use the three special Gormkiller arrows! We can escape from the Gorm and find a way to fight back!’
‘But what about the refugees?’ Mish said. ‘And Sparrowfast is a long march away. We still have poorly rabbits here.’ She looked over to the fireside where Podkin’s Auntie Olwyn dozed, along with two other rabbits.
‘What about sending an advance party?’ Podkin didn’t recognise the voice at first, then was surprised to see it was Vetch. ‘Some could go on ahead and the rest could follow later, at their own pace.’
‘Would you be volunteering to go, by any chance?’ said Crom. He had never trusted the ginger-furred rabbit much.
‘I don’t mind,’ said Vetch, fiddling with the golden thread on his embroidered cloak. ‘If I could be spared here. I do know the way, as my warren used to trade with them in the past. They breed the best messenger sparrows in the Five Realms.’
The Beasts of Grimheart Page 3