The Outlander 3 26
#27 of The Outlander
Book 2 Chapter 26
26
The next day in Takashiro, one of Ikkit Claws' patrols had been summoned to police the town. They heard of an incident involving a mouse been caught defacing a statue of Jagee in the square. All of the villagers were summoned to witness the justice of Ikkit Claw. The mouse they caught was burried up to his neck in sand while his friends were taunted and pressured into the macabre task of carrying out his execution. Those who refused were executed themselves. The leader of the patrol, the Stormvermin captain Fang, enjoyed his task of intimidation. One of his guard grabbed a villager out of the crowd. "So, you there. Do you live or die?" The villager, a hedgehog, pleaded with the stormvermin. "No! Please!" Fang swept dramatically in front of Jagee's statue as his soldiers paraded the unfortunate creature in front of the whole town. "Are you ready to show your loyalty?" "I'll do anything you want, just please don't kill me!" "Look at 'ow yer friend has vandalised the statue of yer lord and master. An act of treason against Lord Jagee is a crime against the 'Onoured Claw. One might even think this 'hole village was disloyal. Now is yer chance to prove yerself. Tell me, who's yer master?" "L, Lord Jagee," the hedgehog stammered. Fang started applauding and urged his Stormvermin to do the same. "Well done," he said mockingly. "Well your definately no traitor mate! I can see yer keen to follow the 'Onoured Claw. All you need to do is one little thing for us." "Name it and I'll do it," replied the hedgehog growing bolder. "It's easy, you see yer friend in the sand there?" "Oh, he's no friend of mine, sir." "Glad to hear that, mate. All you need to do... is chop his head off!" With that, Fang forced his sword into the hedgehog's grip while the patrol's wearet stood over him to ensure he did the task. The hedgehog fell to his knees in shock and stared painfully into the eyes of his victim. The wearet kicked the hedgehog coldly. "Wot yous waitin' for? Do it!" The hedgehog held the blade ready to make a slash, but overcome by grief he dropped Fangs' sword and started sobbing piteously. "I can't do it, I can't do it!" "Ya call that loyalty? You had yer chance and you did nothing," sneered Fang as he passed a nod to the wearet. The huge creature then brought his club on the back of the hedgehog's skull. All present looked away shielding their eyes from the gruesome scene. The air was broken when an old mouse shouted his concern from the crowd. "Why? Why would the beast who said he would protect us send these monsters here to kill us? I cannot believe Lord Jagee would do such a thing!" Fang turned his gaze towards the old mouse and pointed, "It looks ter me that this 'ere town is populated by traitors. If you've got so much ter say, you can plead for life with this un." Then the hulking wearet advanced on the old mouse picking him up and bringing the mouse to eye level. Just as the wearet growled ferociously another voice called out. "Put him down!" The crowd parted and stood there was a dormouse in a turbun. "Who are you?" Fang demanded. "My name is Farlo and I am looking for the beast you have just described. The steward of Mochizuki." The wearet released the old mouse and was readying himself for an attack when Fang halted him. "Tojo, No! Come forward." Farlo paced slowly to where Fang and the others were standing. The rat sheathed his blade, "I'll tell you this much. You've got gall coming here and flapping yer snout, so in all fairness I believe you should be the one ter cut this mouse's 'ead off." "I wouldn't want you lot to miss out on all the fun. Are you sure about this?" "Ah, wat're mates fer, eh?" Farlo drew his scimitar and embedded it in Fang's head. The shock of pain hadn't sunk in at first, "You idiot!" Fang said pointing to the mouse in the sand with a trembling paw. "I meant him!" "I'm sorry I can't believe I made such a foolish mistake," said Farlo, his voice dripping with sarcasm. As Fang slumped to the ground, the Stormvermin readied their weapons and were about to make a lunge at Farlo. Suddenly, multiple hissing shafts thudded into Tojo's head and the massive creature was subdued. "For the red dawn!" "Redwall!" "Mossflower!" Elmtail jumped down from the roof of a nearby house whilst Sandokhan and Cheek appeared behind the stormvermin and the others leaped out of the crowd of villagers. The two Stomrvermin paused for a second before making their move. One made a charge at Mattimeo but was put down by Elmtail's bow, whilst the other charged Sandokhan. As their blades grinded against each other, Sandokhan made a query, "One question; satisfy my curiosity. That statue in the town square, who's it supposed to be?" "Lord Jagee, you wretched vulpine!" Annoyed by the insult, Sandokhan easily killed his opponent. As he wiped his sword clean and sheathed it, he walked around the statue studying it closely. "It's a very, very good likeness, but it's not Jagee. The sculpter missed his glass eye." Whilst Wataru and the others helped to free the mouse in the sand, Elmtail stood over the dead wearet and stared long and hard. He knew he saw bests like him before, back in Malkariss. * Back at Jagee's palace news had reached the steward of what had occurred in Takashiro. There was no doubt in his mind that the interfering fox was Sandokhan himself. Only one memory plagued his mind, the day Sandokhan fought him in the dojo. He ate his carp dinner automatically, not bothering to savour the fish's flavour. Deadpaw on the other hand was eating as if he survived a famine. "Mmmm! That was nice," he commented patting his distended stomach. Deadpaw looked up and saw Jagee hardly eating at all. "Sire?" "What?" Jagee replied coldly. "You're not eating sire. Is something wrong?" "You say that as if I actually enjoy your company, rat!" "Please forgive me lord. I, I, I didn't mean to..." Jagee raised his paw to silence the captain of his guard. "That's quite alright, I know now that you Stormvermin are weak of mind. I take that you enjoyed the mansion's carp?" "Oh I did sire. I never 'ad any fish with so much flavour." "I'm glad you appreciated it. You see, they get their flavour due to their diet of dead meat." "Sire, what exactly did yer mean by dead meat?" "The corpses of those who displease me. After I have them executed I feed them to my fish!" Deadpaw started to tremble nervously, "Don't worry Deadpaw," said Jagee reassuringly. "You're far too important to me at the moment. However, my ninja have failed miserably and failure can not be tolerated. I must be sure that this fox wandering about the domain is Sandokhan." "Who is this 'ere Sandokhan anyway, Sire?" Jagee threw back his head and roared with maniacal laughter. "Hahahahaha! Why, he's the next corpse to be fed to my carp!"