Ungatt Trunn had pretty much taken over Salamandastron. His horde had killed most of the hares, and the rest had been taken prisoner, kept in a cell high in the mountain. However, Lord Stonepaw and some of his high-ranking officers were nowhere to be found. Ungatt was sure they were hiding somewhere inside the mountain caves, but he wasn't too sure.

He had ordered his guards to bring the female hare Sailears in for questioning. As two rats carried Sailears in between them, she kicked and fought like mad. "Rotters! Cads! I hope to see the day you're all chucked from the mountaintop, wot!"

"Come on, you've got to be tough with her!" Ungatt Trunn shouted at the rats. "In my day, beasts knew how to deal with the lower orders!"

It ended up taking six more vermin to subdue Sailears. In the end, they tied her up with a rope and knocked her to the floor roughly. Ungatt stood over her, staring down into her face with menace. "Where is the stripedog?" he eviled.

Sailears stuck out her chin stubbornly. "I don't jolly well know, an' I wouldn't tell you if I did!"

"You are remarkably persistent in your loyalties," the cat said. "But you don't seem to understand. This is my mountain now! You will obey me!"

"It's not your mountain, and it never will be," Sailears said calmly. "We are all free, in our minds an' in our hearts."

Ungatt Trunn smiled a grim smile. "Let me tell you a story. When I was a kitten, I was building a tower with blocks. But I didn't have enough. So I asked my younger brother, Verdauga Greeneyes, for some of his blocks. He said I could borrow his blocks, but only if I returned them to him when I was done. Well, I used all of my blocks, and then all of his blocks. Then I glued them all together!" He laughed coarsely. It was a grotesque sound. "Verdauga never got those blocks back. The point is, I've always gotten what I want, even when I was a child. And if you continue to resist me, you'll find that out to your cost. Now, where is Lord Stonestripe?"

"Stonepaw," Sailears corrected him.

"Whatever! Where is he?" the cat snapped.

"I already told you, I've no flippin' idea. That's the truth, wot."

Infuriated, Ungatt Trunn stomped on the hare's face, breaking her nose. Then he turned to a tall fox who was standing nearby. "Karangool! Waterboard her!"

The hard-faced fox saluted. "Yarr, Mightiness!" He picked Sailears up and shoved her face into a bucket of water. She couldn't breathe. She was terrified. Drowning had always been her greatest fear.

As her lungs started to fill up with water, Ungatt Trunn called out, "That's enough, fox! We don't want to kill her right away!" To Sailears' relief, Karangool released her. She fell to the ground, gasping for breath.

"Are you going to tell us where the badger is now?" Ungatt demanded.

If she had actually known Stonepaw's whereabouts, Sailears might have been tempting to give in at this point. But the plain fact was, she had nothing to tell. However, she was determined not to show weakness. She sat in stony silence.

"I think she be needin' another drink, Might'ness," said Karangool.

"Very well," said Ungatt Trunn. "We'll see if that loosens her tongue."

The fox pressed the hare's face into the water again, but this time he held her under for too long. Very soon he saw the mistake he had made. "Might'ness, she dead!"

"It's her own fault," the cat snarled. "She should have come clean with the information. Bring in the next one!"

"Yarr, Might'ness!" Karangool said as he left.