CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

As it happened, the Gawtrybe ended up taking the Infirmary beds, sharing the chamber with only Abbot Arlyn and a ratwife who'd recently given birth to a healthy daughter - the first of her species to be born at Redwall in many generations, if ever, but she would not be the last, since at least three other expecting mothers were also due by season's end, including Turma.

Metellus, who normally would have slept in the Infirmary along with Arlyn and any of their patients, opted instead to spend the night out on the lawns in the presence of his newly-rediscovered cousin; Sodexo's arrival and revelation of distant kinship with the young badger had taken everybeast by surprise, not least of all Metellus himself, and when the healer-in-training realized he could make room in the Infirmary for Matowick's Gawtrybe if he overnighted with his fellow badgers, he elected to do just that.

One might have thought Matowick would sleep most soundly, favored at last with a comfortable Redwall bed after days camping on open ground under the stars during his journey from Salamandastron. But the ringing in his ears made his slumbers fitful, and he found himself coming repeatedly awake as he tossed and turned. At the mountain fortress by the sea, there was always the faint hum of onshore breezes brushing past the open windows and the lulling roar and rumble of waves on the tideline on all but the most becalmed of nights, not to mention the attentive ministrations of a loving wife to transport his mind to other places. Now, with only gentle snores around him, the incessant whistle asserted itself deep inside his ears without relent, demanding his focus and robbing him of the relaxation required to surrender to blissful unconsciousness.

Or maybe it was something else keeping him awake, and he merely blamed his malady as a convenient scapegoat.

Thus it was that he was easily roused sometime after midnight by the soft touch of a paw on his recumbent shoulder. Looking up in the dim light, he saw Lady Mina bending over him. He knew from her gaze not to speak, and rose from his bed so stealthily when she beckoned him out into the hallway that nobeast else stirred as the two squirrels stole from the Infirmary.

Out in the corridor, Mina whispered, "You had something to tell me earlier that you wished to say in private, Captain?"

"I did, My Lady," he replied in a voice equally hushed.

She started down the passage. "Then come let us speak in my chambers, where we'll not be overheard."

Falling into step alongside her, making sure to muffle his footfalls as much as she was, he asked in surprise, "Your chambers, Lady? What of Alexander?"

"He's out on the walltop. On this night, he made it very clear he preferred lookout duty to being with me."

"Oh."

Presently they reached the bedchamber without encountering anybeast else along the way, and Mina ushered Matowick inside. The Gawtrybe captain stopped just past the threshold, taking in the room while Mina secured the door behind them. He'd expected the High Lady of his tribe to reside within a grand and opulently-appointed suite befitting her royal stature, but instead a modest and quaintly-furnished chamber met his gaze, of the sort he might have expected a simple Abbeybeast or brother or sister of the Order to call its own. "My Lady, is this ... where you live?"

"It's where I sleep, most nights," she formally corrected him. "I live at Redwall, and all the Abbey and its surrounding lands are mine to roam as I please. It's a richer life than anybeast in the Northlands enjoys, even in Noonvale."

"Ah. When you put it that way ... "

"Now, what did you wish to discuss with me, Captain? Was it something to do with your negotiations with Redwall, or did it concern some other matter?"

Matowick kept his voice low. "Lady, are you absolutely certain it is safe to talk here?"

"As safe as anyplace in the Abbey, especially at this hour. We'll not be overheard - particularly if you keep with the tone you're using now."

Matowick ignored her droll jab. "My Lady, I am not here to negotiate anything at all. That is just my cover story."

Mina instantly turned more serious. "Explain, Captain."

"Lord Urthblood has charged me with a mission of the highest urgency: To seize one specific beast and deliver it back to Salamandastron to stand before him. And after our dinner conversation this evening, I've a pretty clear idea which creature that is."

Mina couldn't imagine what Matowick was talking about. "Surely you don't mean a Redwaller?"

"No, not an Abbeybeast. Lord Urthblood spoke of a creature whose powers of prophecy rivaled his own, a beast so heavily weighted with fate that its mere presence in Mossflower might threaten all he has worked to achieve." Matowick stared Mina in the eye. "A rat. He told me I would know which creature I sought when I found a rat with prophetic sight."

Mina's jaw went slack. "You .. you can't mean ... no! No, that's not possible! Not her! We don't even know whether or not she's just a fraud!"

"If it's not this Latura we spoke of over dinner, then it's some other rat out there. But Lord Urthblood was most emphatic that the rat he seeks is currently at Redwall. Have any others of their company made claims of second sight, or knowledge of future events?"

Mina shook her head. "No. Only Latura. And everybeast around here seems to believe her, even some of the Redwallers. But remember, I spent several days away at Foxguard during all of this, and the reprimands which met me upon my return were so frosty that I've had to keep to myself as much as I can, so I've not had nearly as much direct interaction with her or the other rats as somebeasts here. You might be better off speaking with some of them - especially the otter Recorder Winokur. He seems to have taken an especial interest in her." She snorted. "I've even heard him assert that the spirit of Martin the Warrior guided her here!"

"Is it possible it did?"

She looked at him askance. "If you're going to entertain that preposterous notion, then you might as well also swallow that Martin and Lord Urthblood are off fighting each other in the spirit realm even as we stand here!"

"Is that what they're saying?"

"What? Surely you don't believe such nonsense, Captain!"

"Please keep your voice down, Lady. And what I believe is irrelevant; it's what these creatures believe, both the rats who might rally to their prophet's defense and the Redwallers who might choose their side over ours. I am concerned with such things only insofar as they will make my task here easier, or more difficult."

"I'd say the Redwallers have already chosen to side with the rats over us - and I don't see anything easy about this situation. For you, or any of us."

"Be that as it may, I have my orders, and I am bound to carry them through. Fortunately, Lord Urthblood placed no time frame on accomplishing this mission. I have days here, if need be. I thought I might have to determine my target on my own, without help from anybeast else. Your knowledge of Latura, shared with me this night, has likely spared me a great deal of effort in that regard. Nevertheless, I must make absolutely certain I have the right rat before I proceed with this mission and return to Salamandastron with her. Therefore I will stick with my original plan to tarry here a day or two and speak with both the rats and the Redwallers, just to be sure."

"Latura has been extended the protection of Redwall, as has every rat here. Relations with the Abbey are already strained enough. Forcibly abducting a creature the Abbot has granted sanctuary could lead to serious repercussions. And I do mean serious."

"It doesn't matter. Lord Urthblood impressed upon me that this matter takes priority over all else - even relations with Redwall. Latura, if she truly be the rat I seek, must be taken to the mountain. It is crucial. Nothing must get in the way."

"Well, even overlooking the state of relations, there's a lot in the way right now. Several hundred Redwallers, rats and Guosim, none of whom will just calmly stand aside and let you drag Lattie off to the coast. This surely is a challenge Lord Urthblood has set for you. Just what does he fear from her? What does he think she'll do?"

"I'm not entirely sure she needs to do anything, Lady. The mere fact of her power is what seems to trouble His Lordship so. But he left no doubt that she is more dangerous to him than anybeast alive - even Tratton - and if left unchecked, she might just be capable of undoing all his works and destroying everything he has built. She might not even have to lift a paw to do so - fur, she might not even intend to do such a thing - but it might happen anyway, just because of who she is."

Mina mulled this over in the still hush of the enclosed chamber. "Then she must die. At once."

"No, Lady. Those are not my orders."

"Maybe not yours, perhaps, but I am not bound to them as you are. After what you have told me here, how are we to suffer her to live?"

"It is not our decision to make."

"Again, what binds you does not bind me. And it would be better if I do it anyway. The worst the Abbot can do is declare me outcast, in which case I'll simply relocate to Foxguard and bide my time there until such time as relations improve. I can claim I was acting on my own, and that way relations between Lord Urthblood and Redwall might be spared further damage."

"Lady, I cannot allow you to do this - "

"Spare me your declarations of chivalry, Captain. I'll not have you fall on your sword to protect my reputation or station here. Save such treacle for somebeast who lacks a spine."

Matowick's stance hardened. "Lady, I am ordering you to take no action against Latura. That could jeopardize everything."

"What do you mean?"

"Lord Urthblood was most emphatic that this rat prophet, when uncovered, was to be brought before him, not slain. While he did not come right out and say it, I was left with the impression that if this beast's life were to be taken in any but the proper manner, it could unleash the very disaster we seek to avoid."

Mina digested this. "You mean, Lord Urthblood is the only one who can slay her as she's meant to be slain?"

"Maybe. If he means to slay her at all - I don't know. But she is to be taken to stand before him, so that he may examine her for himself, and then determine what is to be done. And I am bound to make sure that happens."

"If it's so important that he inspect her, why didn't he come to Redwall himself? That would be far simpler than trying to abduct her and bear her all the way back to Salamandastron, out from under the noses of the Abbeybeasts protecting her."

"Think about it, Lady," Matowick said, for he himself had given the matter much thought during the days of passage over the mountains and across the plains. "What if Lord Urthblood were to come to Redwall, and stand before Latura, and determine she was to die? If you think my own mission stands to erode diplomatic conditions, just imagine if His Lordship drew his sword and slew her right in Great Hall, in front of all the Abbeybeasts. Or hauled her outside and slew her before the Abbey gates. The chance of any alliance or friendship with Redwall might be destroyed forever."

"Hmm. I suppose you're right. But I can't see your own strategy being viewed as any great deal better by the Redwallers. And whichever rat turns out to be the one, whether it's Latura or somebeast else, you'll still have to figure out some way of getting safely away with them before anybeast notices and raises the alarm. Otherwise, they'll give chase."

"That's where I was hoping you could come in, Lady."

"Me?"

"Yes. Some manner of distraction may be necessary, so that we can get her outside the walls while everybeast else has their attention diverted. We could try to create one ourselves, but that might look too suspicious. It would be better if you could arrange it somehow, which would free up my entire team to be off at once without delay. I might also suggest that it be at night, so we'll be less likely to be spotted from the walltop. We'll have to get our weapons back somehow, again without calling attention to ourselves or raising awkward questions; perhaps you could aid us in this as well. If not, I can send part of my team out ahead of time, with all our weapons, under the pretense of assisting with Sergeant Chetwynd's patrols, and we'll rendezvous with them once the rest of us are outside with our target. Of course, if your husband continues to insist upon taking out teams of his own squirrels on patrols, that could complicate matters. All the more reason to stage the snatch at night, when such interference is less likely to be a factor."

"Captain, you seem to be overlooking one thing ..."

"And that is, Lady?"

"I am a Redwaller as well as High Lady of the Gawtrybe."

Matowick regarded her for long moments. "Have I made a mistake in confiding this to you, Lady?"

"Oh, don't worry - I'll not reveal your true intent to anybeast. But at the same time, I am not certain how much assistance I can - or should - lend you. And I still think it might be best if I removed this threat myself, no matter what Lord Urthblood may have implied to you. If she really does pose such a danger ... "

"I do not think that would be wise, Lady - for any number of reasons. And it would directly violate His Lordship's orders."

"Sometimes creatures of high station must exercise their own judgment in matters of great import. Did Lord Urthblood lay out to you what the consequences for the lands would be should your mission fail?"

"He gave me the impression that failure was not an option."

"I see."

Matowick sighed. "This will not be decided tonight, or even tomorrow. I will stick to my original plan, and spend at least a day or two observing the situation and interviewing various various Abbeybeasts ... and the rats too, if I can, including Latura herself. Perhaps some ideas will occur to me during that time, or some new opportunities present themselves. And if the Abbey leaders start pressing me on opening negotiations, I have a cover prepared for that contingency as well - although I hope they spare me this, since it would take time and energy away from my true purpose here."

"And what is that cover?"

"I'll reveal it if I am forced to. But for now, Lady, the hour is late, and I'm sure you are in need of sleep nearly as badly as I am. I will say that being able to share all of this with one other creature at Redwall eases my own burden considerably, so I am grateful that you summoned me as you did. Let me return to the Infirmary before I am missed there, and we will speak more of this when we may, if circumstances warrant. Until then, I will bid you a good night, Lady."

"And to you as well, Captain. You have given me much to think about."

Matowick turned to reach for the door handle, but paused before opening it. "One last thing, Lady. I don't suppose Redwall happens to have any wind chimes lying about, does it?"

00000000000

Mona regarded Tolar as the Sword sat down across the table from her to join her and Trelayne for breakfast. "Guards, Tolar?" she mildly chastised her mate as he settled onto the bench, between two other foxes who shunted aside for their chieftain. "Do you really think that's necessary?"

"Owing to the fact that you've obviously already been down to Trelayne's work area this morning to have seen them, yes, I would say they are."

Mona sniffed. "For your information, I was passing by on the way to my surgery to prepare for some researches I expect to perform later today, so I couldn't help but notice them. Do you really trust me so little?"

"In this matter, I am taking no chances. One inadvertent slip, one moment's miscalculation, and you could lose everything - and I could lose you. I have no idea what you were trying to prove to yourself by the vitriol tub yesterday, but consider it proven. You'll need no further access to it now."

"On that much, at least, we agree. I just wish you'd shown a little more faith in me, and in my own judgment."

"What exactly were you doing down there, Mona?" Trelayne inquired of the healer vixen through the bustle of the crowded dining hall. "I'm still not clear on that myself."

"I needed to study it - up close. Yes, maybe part of it was that I did have something to prove to myself, as Tolar states, but that was hardly my main purpose. It has to do with my studies of the living - and the dead. There may be an intimate connection. And that is why the vitriol fascinates me so."

"Your studies?" Trelayne asked in puzzlement. "But, the vitriol doesn't leave anything to study. Unless you're referring to sad cases like my assistant Tolomeo, at Salamandastron. Is that what you mean?"

"No, that was actually not what I meant at all." Mona paused, seeking the right words. "What is the definition of death?"

"Why, the end of life, of course."

"That seems overly simplistic to me. Can death not also be defined as the moment life leaves the body, leaving behind an empty, mortal husk?"

"Well, yes, I suppose ... "

"And you've made quite a study of examining these 'empty, mortal husks' during the course of your career," Tolar interjected. "So much so that you've gained quite the reputation amongst the woodlander population of these parts."

"A large part of those studies have revolved around determining just when death occurs - at what point of physical injury, at what moment of time, does a sick or wounded creature pass beyond the threshold of all salvation, where there is no hope or chance of recovery or continued life, no matter what methods are called upon to revive it or prolong life? With the total physical destruction the vitriol can wreak, that question takes on an entirely new dimension. What if there IS no point of death? No single moment that can be pinpointed at which life ends, and death takes over? What happens when the living body is annihilated so rapidly, so completely, that death can't really be said to have occurred at all, at least in any traditional sense? Where then lies the boundary between the two?"

"Now we're verging into the realm of the philosophical," Trelayne weighed in. "Obviously, a beast consumed by the vitriol is clearly dead, since it no longer exists anymore ... "

"That such a creature no longer lives we can agree on," said Mona. "But has it truly died? Or has something happened to it that transcends death? Is that beast destroyed so rapidly that what we think of as death - our basic notions, our concepts of it - has no chance to occur?"

Trelayne shook his head. "It's all just counting straws from different ends, Mona. Clearly there must be some moment at which death can be said to have occurred, even if we can't observe or measure or know it ourselves."

"But what if there's not?" Mona pressed. "I have always remembered the story you told of your first assistant, the rat who tripped and spilled a basin of the vitriol on his footpaw, burning it off. If such limited exposure can cause a beast to die of shock as he did, what must full immersion entail? Even a creature pulled out of it after just a few heartbeats would almost surely die. That means any creature who meets such a fate is doomed from the instant they go in - but, between that moment and their total dissolution, what if there is no death? If death is when life leaves the body, but there is no body left to leave, then maybe it's not really death at all."

Tolar gave an indulgent smile over his mug of honeyed tea, noting how much quieter it had grown in the small commissary now than a few moments ago, as more of their fellow breakfasters halted their own conversations to listen in on this macabre discussion. "One might almost conclude you're chasing after a new form of immortality. Destruction of the physical form, but no death to go along with it?" His head swayed slowly back and forth. "I hate to break this to you, but that makes it no different from any other manner of passing, as I see it. Either way, the beast leaves this world, and moves on to Dark Forest - or Hellgates, if you follow vermin beliefs."

"But that's what I'm saying," Mona countered. "What if being committed to the vitriol is not like any other form of death? Or end of life, to be more precise? What if the physical destruction occurs so quickly and completely that the life has no chance to leave the body, and both perish together?"

Trelayne shuddered, and he was not alone in doing so among the multiple listeners. "In that case, you're not talking about immortality. Just the opposite - you're speaking of the destruction of the spirit along with the flesh. The total and utter annihilation of a creature right down to its very soul, leaving nothing to go to Dark Forest."

Mona nodded. "Yes, that is precisely what I'm getting at. That's what I believe happens to anybeast committed to the vitriol."

The glassmaker marten shuddered anew, more violently than before. "Mona my dear, that positively ranks as the most ghoulish thing I've ever heard anybeast say. And not to be considered. Not to be considered for even one moment. Nobeast has it within its power to create a substance capable of destroying the soul. I certainly do not, and refuse to credit even the suggestion of such a thing! The vitriol is highly corrosive, and incredibly destructive, and exceedingly dangerous - but it affects only the material of this world. It cannot harm the living spirit. It simply cannot!"

"And you wanted us to keep weapons stockpiles of it at Foxguard?" Tolar grilled Mona. "Would you have us use a weapon that destroys a foebeast's soul along with its body?"

"Now you've overstating things," Mona shot back. "Of course the vitriol used under battle conditions - as Lord Urthblood himself has used it against the searats - would not have such an effect. It would inflict mortal wounds, or maiming and disfiguring ones at the very least, but still leave corpses ... which means an ordinary death, if a painful and gruesome one, with passage to Dark Forest as a result. Of course they would not be robbed of their souls. Just ask Trelayne whether he thinks Tolomeo was robbed of his soul when he lost his legs."

"This is true," the marten admitted. "Exposure to the vitriol as a weapon is an entirely different affair than total immersion in the fluid, which leaves virtually no remains at all. And Tolomeo's spirit once he recovered from his injuries was as strong as ever. The loss of his limbs stung, of course, but in terms of personality, he was the same mouse he always was."

Mona gave Tolar an emphatic I-told-you-so nod. "See? This is not magic we're talking about here - it's science."

"Not when you drag the soul into it, it's not," the Sword maintained.

"I wasn't implying that the vitriol possesses some kind of mystical soul-destroying capability - only that it might be able to dissolve the body so quickly that the spirit has no time to properly depart, and both perish together. It's very different."

"It sounds very much the same to me," insisted Trelayne, while onlookers to either side of them rose from the benches, some with half-finished plates, appetites lost over this bizarre speculation.

"And if you truly feel the vitriol is capable of utterly destroying a beast, body and soul," Tolar picked up, "that only casts your actions of yesterday as all the more inexplicable. Why would you expose yourself to such a mortal risk, when an accident could have ended your existence entirely, leaving nothing even to move on to Dark Forest? After all the good you've done for the creatures of the lands, that would have been an ignoble end indeed."

"I was perfectly fine until that clod Kyslith came along and startled me. Even after he did, I probably would have been able to catch myself with no harm done."

"Probably?" Tolar repeated. "Probably is not good enough, not where the vitriol is concerned."

"And Kyslith is convinced you would not have been able to steady yourself," Trelayne added. "He told me he's certain that his catching you saved your life. He was really quite shaken up over the whole thing."

"Then he remembers things differently than I do. I'm the one who was up on that bench, so I think I would know better than he how steady my balance was."

"Maybe so, my dear. But Kyslith is anything but a clod. He and I work with the vitriol all the time, and with furnaces and molten glass as well. If he was the slightest bit clumsy or accident-prone, I could never have him as my assistant."

"I'm sorry. I misspoke. Please pardon me, Trelayne. Kyslith seems a fine fox, and I have enjoyed my conversations with him. But as you both say, I shall have no more close calls, now that my morbid curiosity has been satisfied. The guards will stand watch over the workshop for as long as Trelayne is here, and when his task is complete and he moves on, Tolar has made it clear that the vitriol has no place at Foxguard, and he will have none of it here. So, this dilemma has essentially solved itself, has it not?"

"I still question how this dilemma came to be in the first place," said Tolar. "You showed a side of yourself I'd not previously suspected, Mona."

She smiled coyly. "Still waters do run deep."

Captain Custis ambled over from the food line, helping himself to the recently-vacated spot of the bench next to Trelayne. The Gawtrybe commander skipped commissary meals as often as not, frequently preferring to snack on the move out in the courtyard or up on the walltop, or wherever each day's business took him. But Foxguard was abuzz over some matter which had involved its sole vixen the day before, and Custis was keen to glean more details directly from the source if he could. "So, what are we talking about this morning?"

"The nature of life and death, and the virtues of the soul," Tolar replied airily, eliciting a dour grimace from the squirrel, who took the Sword to be teasing him. Turning back to the vixen among them, Tolar said, "I am especially surprised to learn of your theories about the vitriol for one other reason, Mona."

"Oh?"

"By your own hypothesis, your sister would have been totally obliterated by the vitriol, without so much as the wisp of a ghost left to move on to the next world. Would you really wish such a fate upon your own sibling?"

Mona stared at him, struck speechless, as if the notion had never crossed her mind until that very moment.

Tolar paused as he raised a morsel of cheese omelet to his mouth. "So, if you stick to your assertions of this morning, I guess this means you'll not be having any more conversations with Sathara, will you?"