Chapter 5: May Eve

Winter passed slowly, but pass it did. The moles finished Martin's tomb and set to work on the tombstone. The Rambling Rosehip Players continued to perform for the Abbeydwellers. Martin finished his ring. He took to wearing it around his neck on a length of twine, tucked inside his tunic so that nobeast could see it. He had three more dreams.

After a time, the snow melted, and the grass started to grow back. In mid March, the acting troupe announced that it must be on its way the next day. A grand feast was planned for that night to see them off. The feast lasted well into the night, and everybeast went to bed exhausted.

Martin dreamed again that night.

This time, the dream felt far more vivid and real than ever before. This time, he knew that he was dreaming. He was standing at the edge of a great evergreen forest. A path stretched before him, but it was lost in the gloom between the trees far ahead. He started forward. The scent of the pine needles crushed under his footpaws wafted up to his nostrils. The forest was cool and shady, and the Healer mouse found himself greatly enjoying the walk. The path wound on for a while through the trees, and then stopped in a clearing.

Martin stepped into the open space. Starlight and moonlight filled the glade with a silver glow. A gentle breeze wafted through the air. But all the beauty of the scenery was lost on the Healer as a creature stepped from the trees on the other side of the clearing.

It was Rose.

She took a few steps forward, beamed at him, and held out her paws in welcome. Martin gave voice to a strangled exclamation of joy, and the two mice ran to each other. Martin buried his face in Rose's shoulder and wept shamelessly. She slipped her paws around him, and murmured,

"Oh, my love, don't cry. Please. I came to you tonight because I wanted it to be a happy occasion."

The Healer wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his tunic and looked at her. The sight of her eyes in the starlight dazzled him. "Rose, is it really you?"

"Yes. I decided that since I needed to get back to Redwall anyway, I'd come south with the troupe. I also supposed that since you probably hoped that I came with the Players, tonight would be a good time to visit you." She smiled. "This isn't just any old dream, you know."

"Back to Redwall?" Martin tried to stop himself from hoping that she meant what he hoped she meant.

"Yes, of course. In addition to watching over Noonvale, I'm one of your guardian angels. Didn't you guess?"

He choked up again. "I didn't dare to hope! Oh, Rose, I love you so much." Martin hugged her close again, and this time Rose cried as well. After a moment or two, the mice pulled apart from each other, linked paws, and began strolling around the clearing.

"So it was you behind the dreams all along?" Martin's glance was a little hurt.

"No. It was not me. Just your sense of guilt playing tricks on your mind. Your completely misplaced sense of guilt, I might add." The mousemaid grinned. "You should know I'd never torture you like that. And I forgave you long ago."

"What about Lily? Does she really see ghosts?"

Rose laughed. "Once in a while, yes, I do appear to her. But usually she's just hallucinating. There's something not entirely normal about her mind, I think, but it's in no danger of hurting her or making her hurt others." She glanced at him. "You won't tell her, will you?"

"No. I won't tell anybeast."

They passed a happy few hours, sometimes talking quietly about this or that, sometimes just savoring each other's presence. After a while, they sat down at the base of an ancient spruce.

Eventually, it drew on towards morning. Rose sighed happily and snuggled close to Martin, commenting, "I wish that I didn't have to go back soon."

"I wish that, too. I wish we could stay here forever." Martin put his arm around her. "Back where?"

"Back to the Between-The Worlds. As one of your guardians, I float around about three meters above your head and make sure you're OK. Or if you need a bit of privacy, or if you're asleep—the number of dreams that your other guardians let me give you is strictly limited—or if in general I'm bored because you're in no immediate danger, I go back to that nice little room off of Cavern Hole that you so kindly had built for me. Then I just daydream, or sleep, or talk to your other guardians. Often I go up to Noonvale, too." She smiled, a little smugly. "I'm good at being in several places at once, you see."

Martin stared at her, shocked. "You were behind the abandoning of that room?"

Rose's smile only widened. "Yes, I was. I did it for two reasons. First of all, when you're the guiding spirit of Redwall and I'm your deputy, I'm going to need someplace to stay. We don't want to be the objects of scandal, now, do we? Second of all, you're going to need a tomb that's easily forgotten, and has more than one door."

"Why?" The Healer was completely perplexed.

"Because you're going to die childless, you dolt!" She glared at him in mock anger. "Or at least you'd better die childless, because I wouldn't be the mother. Anyway, your heir, whomever he or she ends up being, is going to live long in the future. And I for one think that a nice long quest is going to be just the right thing to test his or her worth. So you can have a set of puzzles or riddles or something leading to your tomb, and then another set to the sword."

"Hmm." Martin nodded, impressed. "I like your idea. Do you mind if I use it?"

"Do you think I would have told you otherwise? I can even tell you a little bit about this creature."

"Seriously? You have visions of the future? What can you tell me?"

Rose was looking at Martin, but her eyes suddenly seemed strangely distant. "I can tell you that he—it will be a he—will be a mouse. A distant cousin of yours, in fact, from someplace in the far reaches of Mossflower. I don't know where his family lives, or how they're related to you, except that it's through your father's side. Don't go looking for them. He will be very much like you, in both appearance and character. And—" the mousemaid stopped talking, as if a vision was playing out before her eyes even as she spoke. "His name will be I-am that is."

"I-am that is? What kind of name is that?"

"It is in truth an anagram for his name, a mixing up of the letters. The 'I' stands for you, Martin, and the 'am that is' is his name." Rose shook her head as if to clear the vision. Her gaze suddenly focused again. "And that's all I can tell you, my love."

Martin had to fight to not completely fall into her eyes. "Well, thank you, Rose. It's better than nothing, that's for sure. So you think that I should write some riddles or something for him to find."

"Yes." She paused, and them smiled faintly. "But enough of this talk. It's not long until dawn, and I have to be off soon."

The Healer sighed and leaned on her shoulder. As he moved his head, he felt the ring on its chain slip a little beneath his tunic. He fished it out with his free paw, untied the string, and took Rose's paw in his.

Rose looked at the ring with its quartz crystal gleaming in the moonlight. "What's that?"

"Laterose," Martin breathed, looking into her eyes again, "will you marry me?"

"Oh, Martin." The mousemaid kissed him on the cheek. "I wish I could. I truly do. I would marry you in an instant. But bonds like that are forbidden between the spirit world and the living world. It is…necessary that you be free from any official vows that bind you to me, so that you have full leeway to…to live your life to the fullest." Her eyes filled with pain. "To marry another, if you wish, or if circumstances require it."

"But I don't want to."

"I don't want you to, either. I'm just explaining why we can't be wed until your time has come."

She took his paw again. "For another thing, wouldn't it be harder for you in the long run? Wouldn't it make you feel a little…constrained to be so tightly bound to a creature whom you couldn't see? You'd probably fall in love again just as an act of subconscious spite! There's a good reason that the wedding vows contain 'Till death do us part.'  No, Martin, I cannot marry you yet. I've sworn to myself privately that I'll always love you. But we cannot be wed under the laws of Mossflower or Noonvale or the Dark Forest, or anything like that. Not yet."

 "Then I'll swear the same oaths to myself—even to you, if you'd like."

"If you want to. I'd like that very much."

"Will you at least keep this as a…what do they call it, a promise ring?"

Rose laughed. "I'm a ghost, silly! I'm not solid enough! Even if I took it now, you would wake up with it around your neck. But I will try it on."

Martin slipped the ring onto her paw. The rose quartz shone pinkish white in the fading starlight. Rose's eyes glittered with tears. "Oh, Martin," she whispered. "It's beautiful."

He put his paws around her shoulders. "Pretty it may be, but it isn't nearly  as beautiful as you are." Slowly, awkwardly, the Healer mouse moved to kiss her. This time, their lips actually touched for the briefest instant.

All of a sudden, a swirling, tearing sensation ripped them apart. The sun had risen, and Martin would not be allowed to sleep in. He half-heard and felt some Dibbun or other shaking his shoulder and calling, "Marthen! Marthen!" The Healer had just enough presence of mind to pull the ring off of Rose's paw before he succumbed to awakening.