Sorry this chpt is a little later than usual. It was a really busy last week for me, trying to apply for a term of college, my mom harvesting our garden and canning it all, and me getting a laptop (which I'm posting from right now). But, hopefully it'll be worth the wait. Anyway, in this chpt, the riddle is solved even further (but not completely), I establish that Toka's still around (he's been kind of ignored the past few chpts), Weylan catches up with Matti and Valia, and there is a cliffhanger ending. I also refer to my fanfic "I Am That Is" mostly for kicks.
Chapter 36
The door swung open slowly. Curious, Tess, Cornflower, and Violet all peered into the room. They saw nothing that seemed special at all, at least, not for what they were expecting. As this was Swayner and Marigold's dormitory, it contained all of their belongings. In the center of the room, under the window, was a two-person bed, it's covers nicely laid out and tucked in. It was not likely that Swayner had slept in it since he and his wife were separated by Toka's siege.
Sitting at the foot of the bed was a hand-carved baby crib, clearly intended for Kaeth's use. But like the bed it sat next to, it had not been used. It hadn't ever been used, in fact, as Kaeth had never had the chance to leave the Infirmary before Toka laid siege to the lower levels of the abbey. Feeling saddened at that thought, Tess ran a paw over the smooth curves of the crib, feeling sorry for Swayner and his family being divided like this.
Meanwhile, Cornflower and Violet were searching the room for more clues to solve the riddle with. Looking in the cupboard the occupied the room as well and sifting through a few other things as well, they hoped it would jump out at them. But they ultimately found nothing.
"Well, I'm at a bally loss at where the bloomin' thing is at." Violet finally muttered, placing her paws on her hips.
Tess pulled out the parchment with the riddle on it. "'Find the clue engraved there, in a place of remembrance.'" she read aloud. "'It will lead you to the one treasure Redwall will ever have.'"
"But there aren't any bally clues engraved on anythin'!" Violet exclaimed in frustration.
"Now don't give up just yet, Violet." Cornflower told the hare. "Now, let's think. It says to find a clue engraved somewhere. But it doesn't say where, exactly. Hmm..."
"And what's this business about 'a place of remembrance'?" Tess asked. "What is so special about this dormitory?"
"I jolly well don't get it either, Tess." Violet agreed, who looked ready to give up. "Nothing special about Swayner an' Marigold's dormitory."
Cornflower suddenly brightened. "Aye, that's right!" she exclaimed, turning to look at her friends. "There isn't anything special about Swayner and Marigold's dormitory, because it wasn't always their dormitory!"
"Of course, the room would've changed during the time of Martin to now!" Tess exclaimed, slapping her forehead.
"So wot?" Violet asked. "Just means that it was someone else's dormitory back then."
"Not so, Violet." Cornflower said. "You haven't been at Redwall long enough to know, but this room wasn't always a dormitory. Back when I was nought but a dibbun, this room used to be a storeroom. But then we had a new family move into the abbey, and we didn't have a dormitory to house them in at the time. New ones would be built at a later season, but until then, they took this seldom used storeroom and turned it into a dormitory. I remember, because I liked to play in the bricks they pulled out of that wall there to create the window, and my mother always scolding me about it."
"But this doesn't get us anywhere at all." Violet said. "If it was a storeroom back then..."
"...then we have to think of it as such." Tess finished. "Cornflower, you said that this room was originally windowless."
"Aye, that's right." Cornflower said.
Violet finally caught on. "Then maybe this clue we're lookin' for was here, where the window is now." she put her paws on the sill. "But if that's so, then it's probably long gone now."
"So now what?" Cornflower asked. "If it's gone, how can we finish the riddle?"
"Maybe there's more to this than that." Tess said, looking through the riddle once more. "The riddle calls this room 'a place of remembrance.' now, that tells me that there was something special about this room to Martin. So if we can figure that out, maybe we can figure out the rest of the riddle without the clue."
"Easier said than done, Tess." Cornflower said. "Martin had many secrets that he never shared with many beasts."
"Aye, like the time of his life before he came to Mossflower and founded our order." Tess agreed. "That business at the village of Noonvale. No one found out about that here at Redwall until many seasons after Martin had passed on to the Dark Forest."
"So this theoretical secret could b just about anything." Cornflower reasoned. "Violet, what do you think?" Violet didn't reply right away. "Violet?"
The two mousemaidens turned and saw that Violet was studying the nearby wall intently.
"Violet, what are you doing?" Tess asked, puzzled.
"I'm examinin' the wall." Violet replied, like it wasn't obvious.
"Why?" Cornflower asked.
"Because, I noticed it had been jolly well rebuilt at some point in it's life." Violet replied. "Not recently, either."
"I think Marigold remarked once a couple of seasons ago about that." Tess said. "I remember finding it funny, because Tim had just told me a story..." she trailed off suddenly and slapped her face. "By the fur and claw, why didn't I think of that sooner?" she exclaimed.
"What?" Cornflower asked.
"Last season, just before Tim was made recorder, he told me a story that he had found in a recordbook." Tess explained. "It was brief, and I think Tim was using it as part of an object lesson or something of the sort. But anyway, it talked of a time, during Redwall's construction, of a room collapsing due to a faulty brick, and trapping Martin and his friend, Gonff, in the room for a period of time. Tim wasn't sure if the story was actually true or not, but when Marigold told me of her observation that this room had been rebuilt, I had speculated this was the same room the story spoke of."
"So if it's true..." Violet began skeptically, not seeing a connection.
"...then maybe that's what Martin means by a room of remembrance." Tess concluded. "He and Gonff were trapped in this room for a long period of time, and neither spoke much of the incident afterward. They were both injured, too, so they couldn't do much. They probably got talking to each other. So the question is, did they bring up something important?"
"Something that made them remember something." Cornflower said.
"Or, more specifically, Martin remember something." Tess said.
"So now all we have to do is figure out wot that somethin' is." Violet reasoned.
"Which still remains to be easier said than done." Cornflower pointed out.
Toka stared up at the location in question. "You're sure that is the place Judd used to get his gang up into those upper levels?" he asked skeptically.
Which was saying something, because it was Grim, Toka's most trusted captain, who had made this deduction.
Grim signed out his reply, his paws waving about animatedly.
"I know that!" Toka said, annoyed. "But how do we get up there?"
Grim made a quick motion with one paw.
"The Redwallers have all of our rope." Toka said. "It was captured when that accursed Judd sent his followers up there with it."
Grim suggested something else in his peculiar form of sign language.
"Yes, that would work, but it's too obvious." Toka said. He pointed up at the balcony that stretched above them in Great Hall. "They can see what we're doing from up there, and they have been watching us. More so, after the incident with Judd. And there isn't anyplace else that would give us enough room to build such a thing in this abbey."
So Grim signed out what he thought to be an obvious answer.
Toka was silent for a moment. "Yes, that could work." he admitted. "It would be away from prying eyes. And, furthermore, that would be the last place they'd expect it to come from." he grinned. "Grim, I want you to get to work on this project immediately. If this works, we could finally have a chance to end this matter with the Redwallers once and for all."
Once Weylan started to swim away from the site of the vermin camp, he didn't stop, not even to surface long enough to breathe, until it felt like he was miles away from the encampment. Yet, when he finally did surface and crawled out of the creek, he saw that he couldn't even be a quarter of a mile away. Blowing water from his whiskers in frustration, he picked himself up and stood.
Mattimeo and Valia, who had watched Weylan's narrow escape from where they had been hiding, arrived soon thereafter.
"Weylan!" Mattimeo exclaimed when he arrived, rushing right up to his otter friend. "Are you all right? We saw that your cover was blown, and the whole group going to attack you. When we saw you swim off, we hurried right here."
"I'm fine, mate, thanks fer askin'." Weylan said, patting Mattimeo on the shoulder as a sign of gratitude. "Thought they nearly 'ad me there fer a second there, but I'm fine."
"Ye lost yore tunic, though." Valia noted, pointing at Weylan's bare chest.
"Aye, right." Weylan replied distractedly. "But I did it, I found out wot that lot's up t'. Check this out."
He pulled from his pocket a soggy mess that was once a parchment containing the plans Kaon's gang had. Mattimeo and Valia both gave Weylan a look.
"Oh." the otter said, frowning at the unreadable mess. "Heh, kinda fergot swimmin' would ruin it." he muttered. "But they were plans mate, t' take Castle Floret!"
"Impossible!" Valia exclaimed. "No four creatures could take Floret."
"Well, this lot could." Weyla said. "Th' plans 'ad everythin' thought out. I wish I could remember it all, but...sink me rudder, it was all very complicated. Not only that, but I 'ad bigger things on me mind. Like livin' t' tell ye two about this."
"An' losin' yore tunic." Valia added with a smirk.
Weylan gave her a look.
"That'll have to be good enough." Mattimeo said, looking around urgently. "When you swam off, the others followed, that Marlfox leading. They could get here at any moment."
Weylan paled. "By the paw, mate, why didn't ye say so sooner?" he asked, turning to run away. "Let's go!"
"But wot about yore tunic?" Valia objected, following.
"Like I'm really gonna go back just t' get my stupid tunic!" Weylan exclaimed over his shoulder. "If they wanted it so bad, then they can 'ave it!"
Having already arrived at the shore, where Ferrin was killed and picking up on Mattimeo, Valia, and Weylan's trail, Ardra and his party had arrived at the camp of Kaon and his gang.
"Well, sink me rudder." Trey exclaimed in amazement. "Guess they did 'ave a reason fer comin' out 'ere."
"Just as I thought." Ardra said, looking worried. "Which means Weylan and his friends are probably in trouble by now."
"Aye, why else would that treacherous gang o' mercenaries leave their camp like this?" Trey asked, looking around. "But where did they go?"
"Downstream it looks likes, sir." one of the otters from the guard piped up.
"Right, let's spilt up." Ardra reasoned. "I'll take one otter an' go down this bank 'ere." he motioned to the bank they stood upon right now. "Trey, you take the other and go down that bank. Creek's small enough that we should 'ear each other if we get in a scuffle."
"Aye, understood." Trey said, motioning to one of the two otters that was with the two captains, and started wading across the stream.
Ardra waited until they were safely on the other side before taking the remaining otter and heading on down their bank. The two creatures jointly scouted the land, searching for either party of creatures they knew to be somewhere around here.
"Looks like we're on th' trail of th' vermin, sir." the otter accompanying Ardra remarked.
"Good, I've got a score t' settle with 'em." Arda said, drawing his rapier, and holding it at the ready.
They continued on for a little while, then the tracks suddenly stopped, vanishing without a trace beyond that point. Ardra and the otter shared puzzled looks.
"Where'd they go?" the otter asked aloud.
"Right here."
Both Ardra and the otter accompanying him whirled around, one to look ahead of them and the other behind them, doing so in time to see Kaon, Leesis, Tay, and Jay, drop down from the treetops. Before either otter could react, Tay and Jay had drawn their scimitar and stabbed both in the middle. Letting the otters fall to the ground, the party regrouped.
"Two down." Kaon observed.
"But an unknown number more to go." Leesis added.