XXXV.

CASTLE FLORET

Of a piece with his demonstrated manner so far, King Fael kept Urthblood waiting another day for the private meeting the badger so urgently wanted.

If Alex had started to worry about wasting away due to denial of breakfast and lunch before the Liberation Day pageant, the nonstop banquet lavished upon Floret's guests in the wake of that presentation ameliorated his concerns. After taking a brief leave during which attendants cleared the Royal dais of scenery and reset it with dining table and chairs, Fael bounded back into the Grand Hall decked out in a fine silk tunic of blue, purple and black, making him look regal and businesslike at the same time, the image he seemed to most prefer. Circulating about the various tables - whilst pointedly avoiding the one occupied by Urthblood and Alexander - Fael chatted up and glad-pawed all his most important and esteemed visitors while Saqueena and the Prince and Princesses took their places at the elevated table, this time without bellowed prelude from Nicholson Badger. At last Fael joined the rest of his family on the dais to preside over the parade of appetizers, entrees, side dishes and desserts which would last well into the evening.

Alex also couldn't help but notice how spirits flowed far more liberally than during their previous meal here, the result being that a good share of King Fael's guests were feeling no pain long before the evening was over.

The Squirrel King would not, of course, allow himself to remain pinned down to one spot for so long, not even his exalted place raised above non-royalty, and was back making the rounds of his now less-inhibited, looser-lipped guests, even though it seemed readily apparent to the clear-eyed Alex that Fael himself had taken care not to excessively partake of any stronger drink, and thus remained fully in control of his sensibilities. It all fit with the overall picture emerging of Fael so far; what better way to know what your subjects truly thought of you than to get them drunk while you stayed sober, and then encourage them in a cheerful manner, drawing them out and exposing sentiments kept hidden at all other times?

With so many of the celebrants in various stages of inebriation, and some even drifting out of the banquet hall as the night wore on to seek amusements of various kinds in other parts of Floret, Fael was left little inevitable choice but to interact at least glancingly with the representatives of Redwall and Salamandastron. But their host kept their occasional collisions brief and on his terms, forcing all conversation to the banal and inconsequential as he continued to deflect all of Urthblood's requests for serious discussion and took thinly-veiled delight in doing so, almost as if going out of his way to bait the Badger Lord. At last Urthblood simply stopped trying, coming to accept who was the master here and forcing himself to sit back and let the evening play out as it would.

Alex gave thanks at the lack of further dancing, all of that having been gotten out of the way the night before, so this spared the Redwaller any more forced, prolonged standing about on weary legs. And with the more relaxed and less regimented atmosphere now holding sway over the celebrant gathering, with beasts wandering away at whim to pursue their own pleasures in their own way, the Abbey squirrel had no trouble finding a willing attendant to show him back to his chamber. Two days at Floret had taught him to be ready for anything, and he figured keeping well-rested would help in that regard.

This foresight served him well, for Alex found himself being roused out of bed very early next morning by a summons to attend the Squirrel King promptly, upon pain of death.

"Pain of death?" Alex repeated in disbelief, pausing in his washing and smoothing of his fur.

"I'm sure it was a touch of humor on His Majesty's part, sir," the stone-faced squirrel guard assured the Redwaller. "He's like that, especially around celebration days."

"Yeah. I've noticed."

Alex also noticed, as he was led through corridors and down stairs to a different part of the castle than he could remember being in before, that no sun shone through any of the windows he passed, and all that could be glimpsed of the outside world was the silvery sheen of a predawn summer morning. "His Majesty certainly has me up early. What does he consider so urgent that it had to be addressed before sunrise?"

"He did not say, sir."

"Hrm. After his energetic performance yesterday, and all the socializing and entertaining he did afterward, I'd have thought he might want to sleep in this morning."

"Oh, he very well may, sir. I never said His Majesty would be waiting on you. It may be some time before he joins you."

Alexander's eyes widened in surprise, although inwardly he told himself he ought not be taken aback by anything he encountered at Floret anymore, or by anything the unpredictable Fael did. Still, he was more than a little piqued by the possibility that Fael might have him rousted out of bed only to keep him waiting for some indefinite period until the Royal squirrel felt like making his appearance.

This worry proved unfounded. When the guard ushered Alex into the modest-sized conference room, he found King Fael and Urthblood already there, along with a third squirrel in senior guard uniform. The badger's presence surprised him, since Alex shared the same hallway with his stripe-furred nemesis and hadn't heard any castle attendant calling on Urthblood before him.

"I have been up since before midnight," Urthblood explained upon Alexander's inquiry on the matter.

Which means you probably never went to bed at all, Alex thought to himself, further fueling the widespread speculation that the Badger Lord never, in fact, slept.

"Now that you're both here," Fael began, "we can discuss the matters you've been so insistently pressing me on. And since I presume they pertain to aspects of state and security, I made sure Tammion Tesque was here too." He motioned toward the other squirrel, who stood regarding the two visitors while Fael remained seated at his desk. "Tammion's head of the Palace Guard, even above Thrubble and his otters, and sees to affairs outside Floret, in wider Southsward. I'm sure he'll be interested in whatever you had to say as well. So, shall we begin?"

Urthblood opened his mouth to speak, but before he could Alex said, "Your Majesty, this badger is not to be trusted. He has betrayed and violated the friendship, hospitality and sovereignty of Redwall, engaged in treacherous actions which have led to bloodshed and death on both sides, and placed wide parts of Mossflower under his tyranny, terrorizing segments of its population and subjecting them to displacement, arrest and death if they resist. He's no friend of Redwall, or of Mossflower. Make no bargain or agreement with him, sign no treaty, and concede nothing for which he asks."

"Well, that's a glowing endorsement, isn't it? Why don't you tell us how you really feel?" Fael looked to Urthblood. "And I take it you're going to agree with him one hundred percent, hm, Lord?"

"He speaks of rats," Urthblood rumbled in smooth, unperturbed tones. "One provision of my Accord with King Tratton calls for surrendering all the rats of the lands to the Searat Empire. I take it from what I saw during your historical re-enactment yesterday that your own opinion of this species ranks none too high, and that you might agree with me that our lands would stand better off free of them. Apparently Redwall disagrees, taking in many scores of rats in violation of the Accord, and has sought to interfere with this resettlement campaign in other ways as well. I bear no ill will or malice toward Redwall, or toward any other honest folk of Mossflower, and I most certainly have not subjected any part of that region to anything that could be called tyranny. But neither will I tolerate interference in what must be done. The only creatures who have suffered my displeasure in Mossflower have been those who intruded where they should not have, and sought to disrupt a peace which has saved thousands of lives on both sides."

"Ah, yes," Fael said, placing his paws at his lips, "the Accord. I have heard something of this."

"No doubt from Viceroy Korba, when he's not being forced to play a fox," Urthblood surmised.

"Hush, badger, and keep to your place. And no, actually, I had heard of it before then. some news of the outside world does reach us here, much as that might surprise you. A peace between Salamandastron and the searats - not the kind of thing which would go unnoticed, not even down here. But this business with the rats of the lands, now, that's a new one. That does strike me as rather a bold undertaking. Are you sure you're not overreaching?"

"In seasons past, I tamed the Northlands, and brought peace and stability to wide swaths of that region which had only ever known war and strife. Now those same Northlands stand cleared of rats, almost to the very last one. Would you not welcome the same for Southsward, Your Majesty?"

"Ah. So you'd just send in your army to scour my kingdom clear of them, and have me trust in you to leave once the job's finished?"

"Not if your own forces are willing to do it, to our mutual benefit. Then it would only be necessary for me to assign a token oversight contingent of my own to Southsward, to serve in an advisory capacity and make sure everything proceeds in accordance with the larger peace. And once all your rats have been delivered to Tratton, it will be up to you whether you wish any of my forces to remain in Southsward at all, or whether you even care to establish formal relations with Salamandastron."

"So, let me see if I am getting this right, Lord. I can spare myself from having your invading hordes swarming over Southsward and running roughshod over my subjects by agreeing to commit all of my own forces to carrying out a policy worked out between you and the searats, which I had nothing to do with, and none of which affects me directly. How enticing you make it sound."

"Do you not wish to be free of your rats, Majesty? I alone can make it happen."

"You alone? Oh, I doubt that. I doubt that very much. Would it surprise you to learn that yours is the second such proposal I have received of late?"

"The other coming from the searats, I presume?"

"It seems both of you are most eager to sink your claws into my Kingdom, and both put forward the same pretext for doing so."

"Except that I am no searat, nor are any of my forces. I already possess my own seat of power, Your Majesty, and I do not seek another. I have brought with me the kinds of creatures you would be working with if you agree to cooperate with me in this endeavor, so that you might see them for yourself. Squirrels, mice - far preferable to searats, I'm sure you'll concur."

"Ah. But you came here seeking more than that, didn't you?"

"You are most perceptive, Majesty. The establishment of formal relations between Floret and Salamandastron, entailing perhaps an exchange of ambassadors and the signing of mutual defense agreements would, I feel, prove a boon to both of us."

"Mutual defense agreements?" asked Tesque, speaking for the first time.

"The forces I command are vast, and not limited to the furred species alone. My bombardier gulls contributed to the annihilation of nearly half of Tratton's naval power in the war that left him no choice but to treat with me. If you sign a defense pact with me, those forces will stand ready to defend you as well. If Southsward ever comes under attack by any hostile force, I will be honor-bound to come to your aid, since an attack on you would constitute an attack on me as well."

"And what leads you to believe we're not perfectly capable of looking after ourselves, and repelling any threat on our own?" Fael asked with a hint of affront.

"Threats may lurk beyond your borders which are also beyond your imagining, Majesty. Nearly thirty seasons ago, I received a prophecy, one I carved into the rock walls of Salamandastron to join those of my predecessors. This prophecy, which has driven me in all my choices and actions from that day to this, foretells of a great crisis in our lifetimes, a period of tumult and upheaval unparalleled in all the history of the lands. The urgency of that prophecy drove me to tame an untamable region, to forge alliances no other could have achieved, and to fight to a standstill the most powerful Searat Empire to ever arise. All I have done has been in preparation to meet this crisis. I took vermin into my service and put them under arms so that they could not later be turned against me. I wrested a peace from a reluctant searat foe so that I would not be bogged down in an endless war with Tratton in the event that an even more dangerous adversary should emerge. And now I clear the rats from the lands, in part to appease Tratton and keep our peace intact, and in part to remove from our midst another potential source of trouble. And now, Your Majesty, I beg an alliance with you, so that Southsward too may be protected from whatever disaster is about to break upon us."

"Don't believe him!" Alex warned. "Yes, there is a prophecy - I know, because I have seen it with my own eyes - but we at Redwall are convinced that prophecy names this very badger sitting here as the crisis his own prophecy foretells."

"A most incorrect and dangerous misreading of my prophecy," Urthblood asserted. "Do you even read Badgerscript, Alexander of Redwall? If not, you have never in truth read my prophecy at all. And I have never heard any Abbot or Abbess of Redwall tell me to my own ears that they hold me to be the crisis I foresee. So perhaps yours are merely the rantings of one disgruntled malcontent, and not the views of the Abbey at all."

"Oh? Then tell His Majesty what you told me at Salamandastron about Martin the Warrior - if you dare."

"I believe my prophecy names me as the greatest fighting beast of the ages, while many in Mossflower would grant that title to Martin the Warrior. Clearly, a discrepancy exists. I am not sure what else you would have me say."

"That you plan to fight Martin, and defeat him?"

"Those would be the words of a madbeast, would they not? Redwall's founding Warrior has been dead for countless generations, so I can never face him on the field of battle in any conventional sense. If I am to be proven greater than he, such a judgment of history will have to come out in its own time, for what mortal beast could duel with a spirit?"

"That's … that's not what you said," Alex pressed.

"Then perhaps you chose to misunderstand me, just as you have my prophecy. Your Majesty, this is all a distraction to what must truly be discussed. I assume Viceroy Korba came to you seeking some manner of alliance with Southsward. From what I saw yesterday, I can only surmise that you rejected his overtures outright, as I would have urged myself, had I been here to do so. Still, some confirmation on your part would be greatly appreciated, to reassure me that you would never consider such an alliance with Tratton."

Fael displayed clearly feigned and exaggerated surprise. "But if the two of you are now allies, Lord, why should you care whether I sign a treaty with him or not?"

"We are at peace, nothing more. If we were allies, why would we compete to see who could win your favor at the expense of the other?"

"Ah. But perhaps I don't care to favor either of you? Southsward has always gotten along fine without the help of any outside power to bolster us, and I remain unconvinced we need any such thing now."

"Did you not only yesterday present an historical play detailing how King Gael depended upon the help of outsiders to rid Southsward of Urgan Nagru?"

"Not really," Alex muttered under his breath. "He left most of that part out."

"King Gael was a fool," Fael spat, in a break from the reverence with which his forebear had been spoken up until now. "If he'd not let that fox and his rats into Floret in the first place, Southsward's own forces would have proven more than sufficient to repel that rabble from our lands. That's one reason we stage our yearly pageant: as a reminder to never drop our guard like that again, and to remain ever-vigilant against outsiders with armed followers promising their friendship to mask darker designs, be they fox, rat … or badger."

"I am neither Nagru nor Tratton, Your Majesty, and I sit here at my insistence but also your pleasure. If it be your will to spurn me and send me away from Floret this very morning, I will be disappointed, but I would also comply without protest. But it is my hope that you will hear me out further and grant my words due consideration in light of the stakes involved. Have your guard staff speak freely with Captain Abellon and Sergeant Witko, and any of my other soldiers, to gauge their spirit and honesty, and you will find we are neither conquerors nor tyrants - merely fellow woodlanders who seek mutual alliance to strengthen ourselves against the coming crisis."

"Perhaps we don't need any strengthening. We haven't just become more suspicious since the days of Nagru; we've taken other measures too, as Captain Tesque here will attest. We send out frequent scouting parties from Floret to gather reports from every corner of the Kingdom and to keep connections with the local populations strong. My otter and squirrel Palace Guard stand as more than sufficient to not only turn back any enemy who might seek to take this castle but also to pursue them in retreat and decimate their numbers - and they would not be alone. We have arrangements in place to raise a militia on very short notice should any such threat as Nagru ever again appear within our territory."

"And what if the threat is greater than Nagru ever was?"

Fael narrowed his gaze at Urthblood, and Tesque too regarded the badger with intent interest. "Just what does your prophecy foretell, Lord?"

"As I have said, times of strife and upheaval, death and destruction, on a scale never seen before. It may be from one source, or several, or even many. I was forced to fight and slay my own brother for the rule of Salamandastron, and Badger Lord had never fought Badger Lord before in all the history of the lands. And then I fought a war with Tratton which left thousands of his rats dead, and many scores of my own soldiers as well. These unprecedented events may stand as part of the crisis I foresee, but if so, I fear they are only the opening acts, as it were. Much worse may still be to come."

"And now he's trying to start a war with Redwall, and take over all of Mossflower," Alex cut in. "Forget all his empty talk about not bringing tyranny to Southsward, Your Majesty, because that's exactly what he'll do. It's what he does … and why we at Redwall are convinced he's the crisis his prophecy foretells."

"I have done nothing to start a war with Redwall," the badger calmly protested. "Indeed, their interference in my campaigns has proven far more provocative than anything I have done, and I would maintain I have demonstrated admirable restraint in my dealing with them, even if their actions have warranted a stronger response. I do value relations with Redwall, regardless of what this malcontent sitting here might spew in his personal and unsupported umbrage."

Alex sat too flabbergasted by Urthblood's audacity to speak. As it turned out, Fael picked up his argument for him.

"It sounds to me, Lord, as if our Abbey friend here may be right about you after all. By your own admission, you fought a war against your brother and slew him, and then started another with the searats, and now make moves which seem to be antagonizing Redwall, much as you may deny it. Your own words seem to paint you as the instigator of all the recent strife in the lands."

"On the contrary, Your Majesty. As the older brother, the throne of Salamandastron was mine to claim whenever I cared to, and yet when I did, my maddened brother denied me. He and his hares could never have held the mountain against Tratton by themselves, and Salamandastron would have fallen and now sit under Tratton's flag - either that, or it would have taken a monumental effort and hundreds of woodlander lives to have liberated it again. And had I never forged my alliance with the seagulls, Tratton might still have captured the mountain in spite of my own power, and be at full naval strength rather than half what it was. Without my own campaigns, the searats might even now be encroaching upon Southsward with weapons you would stand powerless to counter. It may well be due to me that Tratton approached you with a diplomatic mission instead of explosive stormpowder to blast your castle walls."

"Well isn't that a dire picture … and quite a claim for yourself as well. Tell me, does your prophecy tell of any threat from the south specifically? South of Southsward, I mean?"

"Not specifically, no. But the events at which it hints will be so sweeping that they could come from any direction, or perhaps several at once. Why do you ask?"

Fael and Tesque exchanged a long, wordless glance before the Squirrel King returned his attention to Urthblood. "You came here to talk about rats, but those creatures are not uppermost in my mind just now. Lately we've had something else to occupy our thoughts."

"Yes, during our journey here we heard Skipper Dawton hint at some menace. In fact, providing us with a protective escort may have been one of his reasons for joining us. But so far, nobeast has clearly spelled out the nature of this menace to us."

"Ah yes, the good Skipper! Think I'll have him roused for this as well. Only fitting, since he organized the capture expedition."

"Capture expedition?" Alex probed.

"Oh yes. Fairly successful it was, if at a high cost. Yes, he'll definitely want to be there when I show you."

"Show us what?" asked Urthblood.

"What I have to show you, of course." Fael allowed himself a secretive smile, even if Tesque at his side showed no trace of amusement. "You see, it seems that lately, we've been having ourselves a bit of a dragon problem."