The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

said Maurice.
    'Only the… only the… that's where…' The ratcatcher's mouth opened and shut. His eyes bulged. 'Can't say,' he said. 'Er. There's nothing. Yes, that's it. There's nothing in there, just the old cages. Oh, and plague. Don't go in there 'cos there's plague. That's why you shouldn't go in there, see? 'Cos of the plague.'
    'He's lying,' said Malicia. 'No antidote for him .'
    'I had to do it!' Rat-catcher 2 moaned. 'You've gotta do one to join the Guild!'
    'That's a Guild secret!' Rat-catcher 1 snapped at him. 'We don't give away Guild secrets' He stopped, and clutched at his rumbling stomach.
    'What was it you had to do?' said Keith.
    'Make a rat king!' Rat-catcher 2 burst out.
    'A rat king ?' said Keith sharply. 'What's a rat king?'
    'I - I - I' the man stuttered. 'Stop it, I - I - I don't want to-' Tears ran down his face. 'We-I made a rat king Stop it, stop it… stop it…'
    'And it's still alive?' said Malicia.
    Keith turned to her in amazement. 'You know about these things?' he said.
    'Of course. There's a lot of stories about them. Rat kings are deadly evil. They-'
    'Antidote, antidote, please ,' moaned Rat-catcher 2. 'My stomach feels like there's rats running round in it!'
    'You made a rat king,' said Malicia. 'Oh, dear. Well, we left the antidote in that little cellar you locked us up in. I should hurry if I was you.'
    Both of the men staggered to their feet. Rat-catcher 1 fell through the trapdoor. The other man landed on him. Swearing, moaning and, it had to be said, farting enormously, they made their way to the cellar.
    Dangerous Beans' candle was still alight. Beside it was a fat twist of paper.
    The door was slammed behind the men. There was the sound of a piece of wood being wedged under it.
    'There's enough antidote for one person,' said Keith's voice, muffled through the wood. 'But I'm sure you can sort it out-in a humane sort of way.'
    Darktan tried to get his breath back, but he thought he'd never get it all, even if he breathed in for a year. There was a ring of pain all around his back and chest.
    'It's amazing!' said Nourishing. 'You were dead in the trap and now you're alive!'
    'Nourishing?' said Darktan, carefully.
    'Yes, sir?'
    'I'm very… grateful,' said Darktan, still wheezing, 'but don't get silly. The spring was stretched and weak and… the teeth were rusted and blunt. That's all.'
    'But there's teeth marks all round you! No-one's ever come out of a trap before, except the Mr Squeakies, and they were made of rubber!'
    Darktan licked his stomach. Nourishing had been right. He looked perforated. 'I was just lucky,' he said.
    'No rat has ever come alive out of a trap,' Nourishing repeated. 'Did you see the Big Rat?'
    'The what?'
    'The Big Rat!'
    'Oh, that,' said Darktan. He was going to add 'no, I don't go in for that nonsense', but stopped. He could remember the light, and then the darkness ahead of him. It hadn't seemed bad. He'd almost felt sorry that Nourishing had got him out. In the trap, all the pain had been a long way off. And there had been no more hard decisions. He settled for saying, 'Is Hamnpork all right?'
    'Sort of. I mean, we can't see any wounds that won't heal. He's had worse. But, well, he was pretty old. Nearly three years.'
    'Was?' said Darktan.
    'Is pretty old, I mean, sir. Sardines sent me to find you because we'll need you to help us get him back, but-' Nourishing gave Darktan a doubtful look.
    'It's all right, I'm sure it looks worse than it is,' said Darktan, wincing. 'Let's get up there, shall we?'
    An old building is full of pawholds for a rat. No-one noticed them as they climbed up from manger to saddle, harness to hayrack. Besides, no-one was looking for them. Some of the other rats had taken the Jacko route to freedom, and the dogs were going mad searching for them and fighting with one another. So were the men.
    Darktan knew a little bit about beer, since he had gone about his business under pubs and breweries, and the rats had often wondered why humans sometimes liked to switch their brains off. To the rats, living in the centre of a web of sound and light and smells, it made no sense at all.
    To Darktan, now, it didn't sound quite so bad. The idea that, for a while, you could forget things and not have a head buzzing with troublesome thoughts… well, that seemed quite attractive.
    He couldn't remember a lot about life before he'd been Changed, but he was certain that it hadn't been so complicated . Oh, bad things had happened, because