“That makes sense,” Rabbit said.
“Then, if I want my friends to stop right where they are, I wave the flag back and forth at about the level of my knees. You need to exaggerate quite a bit if you’re some distance away, because once you get more than a half mile off, your friend’s going to have trouble seeing you.”
“That might be all right in the daytime, Keselo,” Rabbit said, “but after the sun goes down, you’re out of business, aren’t you?”
Keselo laughed. “Actually, it’s easier at night. We use torches when it’s dark, and torches are very visible. Stay sort of close, Rabbit. I’m sure we’ll be passing a lot of signals back and forth across the ravine, and I’ll translate them for you as we go along.”
“Isn’t it sort of dangerous to use these signals during a war?” Rabbit asked. “I mean, if the signalers in every army know exactly what each signal means, won’t you be giving things away that you’d rather they didn’t know about?”
“That’s no problem, Rabbit. There are only so many signals, but each Trogite army has its own set of meanings. I might see an enemy soldier waving a flag, but I’d have no idea at all about what he’s saying, and we usually change the meanings of the signals quite often—particularly during a war.”
“You Trogites just love complications, don’t you?”
“It makes life more interesting, Rabbit. Doing things the same way over and over gets sort of boring after a while.”
4
A very tall Maag was standing beside the white snag Keselo knew to be just above the enemy’s village. “What are you doing up here, Tree-Top?” Rabbit asked the lanky sailor.
“The cap’n told me to run on ahead,” Tree-Top replied. “I’m supposed to keep a lookout for Trogite flag-wavers on the other side of the ravine. There’s one over there right now, and he’s flopping that flag back and forth about something. Maybe your young friend here can figure out what he’s trying to tell us.”
Keselo shaded his eyes with one hand and peered across the ravine. “He’s trying to tell us that the ruins are directly below us,” he explained.
“We sort of knew that already,” Rabbit said. “That dead tree’s right here.”
“Yes, I know,” Keselo said, still peering across the ravine, “but we need to know where the edges are.” He raised his flag and pointed inquiringly to the west with it.
The signalman across the ravine turned to face the west and jabbed a few times with his flag.
Keselo began to pace off some distance to the west, keeping a close eye on his counterpart across the ravine. When the signalman on the south rim sharply struck the ground with his flag, Keselo stopped. “Mark this spot, Rabbit,” he instructed. Then he went back to the snag and moved east until the signalman on the other side told him to stop.
“Mark this place too, Rabbit,” he instructed. Then he passed his flag back and forth between his hands.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rabbit asked.
“I was thanking him,” Keselo explained. “It’s a way to let him know that I’ve received his message and that I’m ready if he wants to tell me anything else.”
“You can say a lot more with that flag than I thought you could,” Rabbit observed.
“That sort of depends on who’s waving the other flag,” Keselo replied. “The man across the ravine was my teacher, Sergeant Grolt. He was a bit rough, but when he teaches, you learn. A few cuffs along the side of your head tend to get your immediate attention.”
“I can imagine,” Rabbit replied. “Here comes Longbow and the cap’n.”
Keselo turned and saw the archer and the pirate coming down the rim of the ravine.
“Is this it?” Hook-Beak called.
“This is the place, sir,” Keselo replied. “The eastern edge of the village is directly below this marker, and the western edge is below the marker on past the dead snag.”
“You’re sure?”
“The man across the river is, and he can see the village from over there.”
Sorgan went to the edge of the ravine and peered on down. “I don’t think we’ll be able to go down right here, Longbow,” he said. “It’s too steep. We’ll have to find a place a bit farther back up the rim.”
Longbow nodded. “See what the man on the other side has to say, Keselo,” he suggested.
Keselo raised his flag and made several signals. Then he added a sort of circular motion.
“What’s that one mean?” Rabbit asked.
“It tells him that I’m asking a question,” Keselo replied. “My teacher over there invented the signal himself, and I always try to use it at least once during every conversation. It doesn’t cost me anything, and it makes him feel good.” Keselo was carefully watching the signals Sergeant Grolt was passing over to him.
“He tells me that there’s a place where we can go down the bank about a hundred paces to the east, Captain Hook-Beak,” Keselo advised. “He says that we should be able to slip into position without alerting the enemy.”
“Why don’t you go on down to the west marker and see if he can spot a good place for our people to go down on that side, too?” Hook-Beak suggested.
“Right,” Keselo agreed.
“Rabbit,” Hook-Beak said then, “go on back up the rim a ways and then drop on down to the bench. Tell Ox to hold up. We don’t want him to come into sight until we’re all in place. Then get back up here. I think I’ll need you with us.”
“Aye, Cap’n,” Rabbit agreed.
The pirate Hook-Beak led his men down along the narrow creek bed Longbow and his archers were following to reach the position the signalman across the ravine had chosen for them. Keselo stayed close to Hook-Beak and intently watched Sergeant Grolt for further instructions. As he moved along, he realized that the term pirate might not really be appropriate in this particular situation, but all throughout his childhood and early years in Commander Narasan’s army, he’d heard the word pirate in all references to the Maags. Hook-Beak had some rough edges, there was no question about that, but he cared for his men and did all that he could for them. That was the mark of a true leader, as Commander Narasan always said.
“Let’s hold up here,” Sorgan said quietly. “Let Longbow’s archers get into place first. Then we’ll move into a good position to protect them. Our job here’s to keep the enemy soldiers away from the archers, since they’re the ones who’ll do most of the killing—right at first, anyway. Keselo, I want you, Rabbit, and Longbow to stay close to each other. We’re going to be passing messages back and forth between several groups over here, and probably some from this side of the ravine to Narasan’s flagman over on the other side. So I want you three all in one place where I can find you in a hurry. Ham-Hand’s in charge on the other side of this enemy fort, and we’ll want the arrows to start flying all at the same time. When everything’s ready here, I’ll give you the word and you can wave your flag for our friend across the ravine, and somebody over there will give Ox a toot. Narasan and I worked that out before we started. We don’t want any toots coming from this side until we attack. When Ox hears the horn, he’ll come marching down the bench like he didn’t have a care in the world. That should set off the enemy charge. We’ll let Longbow decide when to start shooting arrows, and if your friend over across the ravine sees any enemies charging in our direction, he can signal you, and we’ll be ready for them. Have you got all that straight?”