The Golden Flight by Michael Tod Read Free Book Online Page B

Headquarters.’
    ‘That doesn’t sound like my Rowan the Bold,’ said Meadowsweet. ‘I’ve never known you to ‘slip away’, as you put it. Are we just going to abandon all the good work we’ve put in there? If we’ve done a worthwhile job the Greys won’t harm us – we’ve taught them most of the Kernels.’
    Rowan looked ashamed. ‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘I panicked – not like me – sorry.’
    ‘What should we do then?’ asked Spindle, hoping for firm leadership from his hero, Rowan.
    ‘I’ll go and talk to these new colonists – find out all I can.’
    ‘I’ll come with you,’ said Spindle.
    Rowan turned to Meadowsweet. ‘Go down to the Little Pool, all of you. Stay out of sight. We’ll be back by High-sun.’
    High-sun passed and Rowan and Spindle did not return. The females waited through the long afternoon, their concern growing as the shadows of the trees grew longer.
     
     
     

CHAPTER NINE
     
    ‘I think we should pray,’ said Meadowsweet as the sun dipped below the horizon and there was still no sign of Rowan and Spindle.
    The five squirrels bowed their heads and followed Meadowsweet as she said –
     
    ‘Oh great loving Sun
    We are in need of guidance
    Please enlighten us.’
     
    They sat as though expecting something to happen immediately.
    ‘We will have to wait until morning,’ Meadowsweet said brightly. ‘We mustn’t worry. Several of the Greys are friends and Rowan is good at overcoming challenges.’
    She had herself taught Leadership Kernels to the Greys, but had never imagined herself in this situation.
     
    When the cones are down
    Even if you doubt yourself f–
    Hide all your concerns .
     
    The squirrels crouched together on a branch. It was a warm and slightly moist night, typical of early August. Each dozed a little but they were uneasy, listening hopefully for the sound of Rowan and Spindle’s return, but also fearing the approach of danger in the darkness.
    ‘What’s that?’ whispered Bluebell.
    ‘I didn’t hear anything,’ Meadowsweet replied.
    ‘No. Over there – what is it?’
    Meadowsweet sensed the direction her daughter was facing and peered into the darkness. On the far side of the Little Pool something was glowing greeny-white in the darkness.
    All of them were alert and apprehensive now, and each could see the mysterious light. They watched it, all the while whispering to each other, but it did not move nor seem to threaten them in any way. As long as it stayed on the ground on the far side of the pool they knew it was safest to stay where they were until daybreak.
    Dawn came with a light mist obscuring the sun and Meadowsweet was thinking of a break-fast meal when she heard a rustling of pine needles in the next tree.
    ‘Rowan?’ she called tentatively.
    ‘No, it’s me – Hickory.’ A grey face with rounded ears peered out of the foliage.
    ‘Where are Rowan and Spindle?’ Meadowsweet asked, the other females all sitting up in a row on the branch beside her.
    Hickory leapt across to their tree and looked behind him before speaking.
    ‘They’re being held while it is decided what to do with them. I don’t think they’re in danger at present. They are under guard in the Warren Ash.’
    Meadowsweet knew the Warren Ash tree. It was the over-mature ash tree in the North-east Wood, so named because it grew out of a sandy bank riddled with rabbit holes, which, since the Rabbit Plague, were now deserted and empty. There was a squirrel-sized hole in the trunk of the ash tree which the Reds had used as a weather-proof storage chamber in the past and as a refuge in the Great Storm of that spring.
    Greys had enlarged the hole to allow their bigger bodies to squeeze through when they had pillaged all the Reds’ reserves in the days of Crag the Temple Master. The large cavity inside was floored with powered punkwood which filled the trunk to a couple of tail-lengths below the entrance.
    ‘I must go now, or I’ll be missed,’ Hickory said. ‘If