The Golden Flight by Michael Tod Read Free Book Online

lot of your kind then. Did your father have no tail?’
    ‘Yes,’ Meadowsweet replied. ‘One of your kind broke it.’
    Silica stepped forward. ‘If we told you to go to the sea, what are you doing here?’ he asked fiercely.
    Meadowsweet did not answer, but moved behind Rowan, who asked, ‘If you are those same Three Lords how did you escape the Power Square? Marble told us that he saw you overcome by the power-waves at the Clay-Pan.’
    ‘Is Marble Threepaws here?’ Silica asked, looking round. ‘I thought the Grey Death would have got him.’
    ‘He died helping us destroy your Power Square,’ Rowan replied. ‘How did you escape?’
    ‘We were caught by the waves and thrown down the bank,’ Obsidian told him, ‘but we crawled into a rabbit hole and found a way out through a bolt-hole to the Heath. We’ve been resting since then. What is going on here?’
    Hickory came forward and explained.
    ‘Sirs, the new Great Lord Silver directed all of our kind to learn the ways of the native Reds and live like they do, but when we got to this place there was a misunderstanding, and we fought with Rowan and his companions. They used a weapon called a Woodstock and beat us. Since then we have been learning native ways and teaching these to all the colonising Greys passing through.
    ‘You let natives teach you!’ exploded Malachite. ‘Natives!’
    Rowan looked offended, then, realising that these three had been in isolation and were out of touch, he relaxed. They did not look fit enough to be a danger.
    The Greys whose class was being disrupted, giggled and nudged one another as they saw this overweight and aged grey squirrel making a fool of himself. All that the Reds had taught them so far was very sensible and in tune with how things were, here in New America. The Kernels of Truth they had learned held subtle messages to guide behaviour, and Rowan and his companions were able and patient teachers. No doubt this fat stranger and his paunchy friends would soon be sent away.
    ‘Would the three of you like to join our class?’ Rowan asked. ‘We are discussing Leadership. This morning we learned the Kernel–
     
    ‘In any crisis
    A Leader’s first duty, is –
    To keep hope alive.
     
    ‘Did you know that one?’ he asked Silica.
    ‘Of course I did, we all do,’ Silica mumbled. ‘Get on with it.’
    Meadowsweet moved forward. ‘Today I am going to tell you a story that makes an important point about leadership. It is one my great grandfather used to tell in the old days at Wolvesbarrow before…’ she paused, ‘before things changed.’
    The three settled on the branch, the sun hot on their backs.
     
     
     

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    Meadowsweet started her story. The Three Lords appeared to be dozing and she thought that Silica was snoring, but it might just be that he was having difficulty breathing. She had seen this problem with elderly squirrels before.
    ‘Once upon a time,’ she started, using the time-honoured wording, ‘at a place called Gaudier, where the leaves were a brighter colour than anywhere else in the world, the old leader was Sun-gone and no other squirrel had been selected to succeed him. In Gaudier they had a Kernel that said –
     
    Whichever squirrel
    Solves the challenge of the Knot,
    Will be the leader.
     
    ‘The Knot had been made many years before by their Bard and Sage, who was also Sun-gone. Before he died he had tied stringy cherry-bark into a great tangled knot, and left it out to weather.
    ‘By the time it came to choose a leader no squirrel could undo that knot no matter how hard they tried.
    ‘Then a bright young squirrel called Zander came along and asked what they were doing. No one has ever explained to me why a squirrel was named after a fish rather than a tree, but that’s not the point.
    ‘Young Zander took one look at the Knot and bit it through and so they made him their leader.
    ‘He was very successful, because it is important in a leader to see different ways