as for the crabs. That pool has to be one of his secret escape routes.’
Masha thought, ‘Oh, no!’ and she rolled her eyes. Was this fat fool really
thinking about trying to get inside through the pool? SL. ‘How could the mage
get out this way if the crabs would attack Bum?’
‘He would throw poisoned meat to them. He could do any number of things. What
matters just now is that he wouldn’t have bothered to bring their eggs along
from Sharranpip unless he had a use for them. Nor would he have planted them
here unless he needed them to guard this pool. Their flesh is poisonous to all
living things except the ghoondah fish.’
He chuckled. ‘But the mage has outsmarted himself. If I hadn’t noticed the
bengil, I would never have considered that pool as an entrance.’
While he had been whispering, another group had emerged and run for the river.
He counted them, thirty in all.
‘Now is the time to go in,’ he said. ‘They’ll all be feeding. That crab you
first saw was their scout. It found a good place for catching fish, determined
that there wasn’t any enemy around, and returned with the good news. In some
ways, they’re more ant than crab. Fortunately, their nests aren’t as heavily
populated as an anthole.’
He said, however, that they should wait a few minutes to make sure that all had
left. ‘By all, I mean all but a few. There are always a few who stay behind to
guard the eggs.’
‘Smhee, we’ll drown!’
‘If other people can get out through the pool, then we can get in.’
‘You don’t know for sure that the pool is an escape route!’