The Newcomer of Redwall
Book 2 Combustible: The ability to burn (or Wolf's bane)
Chapter 12
--Simon Gilnom--
He scanned the inside of the Abbey quickly and gave them a silent all-clear signal. They filed in quietly, Rallah and Basil immediately pressing into the shadows. Simon and Kilel, having less combat experience, inadvertently stepped out into the fading light. Far off in the distance, thunder rumbled ominously.
"Well," Simon started, scanning the skyline of the Abbeybuilding, "The jig is up, as the Brits say. He's here."
Rallah stepped forward, looking about nervously, eyes shooting from main door, to the parade grounds, to the AbbeyBuilding, to the ramparts, and back, whispering, "Here? Where? I can't smell him."
Simon raised a finger to indicate to uppermost spire of the Abbeybuilding. "There. Don't worry, we can get to the Abbot and form some sort of plan before he gets to us. I hope."
She glanced up at him, brows furrowed. Simon saw, out of the corner of his eye, the other two start to move towards the entrance to the cellar. "You don't know?" She asked.
He shook his head. "No. I wish I did." He waved an arm at Basil and Kilel, stage-whispering, "Get back here!" They came back, Kilel oddly calm, Basil surveying the area around him with the cold eye of a trained killer. Simon brought them into a close circle. "Rallah and I will search the guardhouse. Kilel and Basil, go to the cellars and secure them. Regardless of which group finds the Abbot, IF we find the Abbot, we'll make the cellars our headquarters for the time being. Understood?"
Basil and Kilel simply left, the hare giving Simon a quick glace over his shoulder. Simon gave him a small shrug in return.
As the two neared the cellar door, Simon took Rallah's paw in his own with a small squeeze and tug, "Come on. Let's go." She gave a small start and then a bashful look, like she had been in a small trance and was ashamed of it.
The two hugged the shadows of the Abbey's outer walls, leading towards the main entrance. "I don't like this." He said.
Rallah looked towards the nucleus of the Abbey thoughtfully, murmuring, "How do you mean?"
He released her paw uncertainly, not at all liking the dreamy quality her voice had taken since they came into the Abbey. "It's far too quiet. I don't see any of the other Abbeybeasts around here, sane or otherwise." He pointed to a clutch of dark shapes near the opposite corner of the Abbey's outer wall. They hadn't seemed to notice the pair. "Except for those three. Where are they all?"
Rallah shook her head, as if to clear it. Simon's concern grew. He looked up at the ramparts of the outer wall and then at the door approaching on his right, pausing before it. "Alright. Are you ready?" She nodded, eyes dull. Simon eased the door open, using it to block his body from view as peeked into the room. He eased himself into the gloomy room, Rallah trailing.
--Rallah Kheme--
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Rallah had been in the Guardhouse once before, when the kind mouse Cornflower had waived her in. They had had tea and talked of pointless things, and Rallah had envied her in a quiet way. How much this old mouse loved her husband while Rallah had never in her life had a lover. She felt an empty sense of hopelessness as she left that home for the first time, realizing for what could have been the first time in her life what she had always quietly feared, that she would forever be alone, live alone, chase the Wolf alone, and finally...die alone.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ But the house was different now. The air was thicker, almost, humid with more than just water, but also a thick and muddy feeling of dread. Tables and chairs and lanterns were overturned, some shattered on the floor, as if some creature in a red rage had torn through the place. Curiously, the sword that had hung above the fireplace was gone. There had been something important about it, but Rallah could not remember what. It drew the eye, and she had been able to...Sense, that the blade was still sharp, sharp enough to cut through-
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Rallah!"
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ She started again, almost jumping this time, and turned to Simon with a thick, "Huh?". His eyes narrowed. "I said, what are you doing?" She touched her forehead with the tip of her index digit and closed her eyes, shaking her head. The thick fog of the room seemed to have permeated her brain, making cognitive thought almost impossible. Is this what it feels like?She thought, To catch the Wolf's illness? Am I going to be his? Am I going to die? She almost screamed out, just as the blade whistled past her nose.
--Basil Stag Hare--
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He didn't trust the otter. She was too convenient. How could SHE have known exactly how and what was needed to cure Simon's fever? And, something else...A certain, feral wrongness about her that he didn't like.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The two of them had gotten into the corridors of the lower Abbey with surprisingly little resistance. A mole and a pair of mice, easy to slip past, had been in the main hall. They went through the kitchens and into the back door, down the dank steps to the basement door, Basil behind Kalil. Now, the two were standing abreast in the doorway of the basement, looking down the corridor of branching paths and doors. "Where now?" She asked, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest. Basil's eyes scanned over the various portals.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ His finger raised and started counting them off. "Kitchen supply storage. Wine aging rooms one, two, and three. Ale aging rooms. Cheese storage." And on it went, until, "…Armory."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Her paw grabbed his wrist. The line from his fingertip to the fourth door on the left was unmistakable. "There," She said, almost hissed.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He looked at her and jerked his arm out of her grasp. A second passed, before he asked, "Why there?" She looked at him as if he had apples for a mind, "Why, they would refuge with the most weapons." He thought about saying something, about cutting her down to size, then decided that she just might be right and turned towards the door.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Slowly, wary of attackers, he crept down the hallway. Halfway there, he pulled one of the torches from the wall. Holding it out in front of him, he nudged the door open, stuck the torch in, and saw...nothing. Nothing but a stockpile of swords, arrows, slingshots, bows, useless weapons of pointless wars, silly artifacts of-
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ ALBA ROE!
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Basil whirled and braced the torch at just the right second. Kalil's knife, meant for his heart, buried to the hilt in the wood. She shrieked, and landed a solid kick in Basil's abdomen, sending him stumbling back into the armory. The torch clattered to the floor and went out. Which didn't matter, because Basil had slammed his head against the hilt of a sword, and was rather unconscious. The otter slammed the door shut and bounded down the hallway.