Chapter 14
The first thing Mattimeo felt as Weylan pulled him under was how cold the water was, and reflexively tried to curl up to hold in body heat. But as Weylan swam forward at a very fast rate with Mattimeo in tow, and the water rushing past both of them made it impossible.
Mattimeo had also failed to close his eyes in the short notice he had to prepare to go underwater, and the last gulp of air he had gotten wasn't nearly enough either. His eyes burned with the contact of stream water and saw nothing but blurry dark shapes in the water, the darkest and most detailed of them being Weylan.
It felt to Mattimeo that they were underwater for an eternity, far longer than they should've been in his opinion. The air in his lungs going stale, Mattimeo tried to resist the temptation to breath, but ended up with a water flooded mouth anyway. Just when he thought he could not hang on any longer, they broke the surface.
While Mattimeo began gulping in deep breaths of air, Weylan quickly pushed the mouse against a nearby object, which Mattimeo's grouping paws immediately latched onto, coughing up the water he had swallowed. He was dimly aware of Weylan diving again momentarily and reemerging with a handful of river pebbles, which he began throwing with his sling.
It was then that Mattimeo remembered the vermin that were pursuing them and turned to look back upstream. The sudden swim they had taken had left the vermin far behind, back at the point where the water began to deepen. The leader was already wading towards them, regardless of the deepened water, and was urging the others to follow. They held back, looking nervous of the deep water, and Mattimeo had the sneaking impression that they couldn't swim.
Mattimeo suddenly realized that the object he held onto was a large tree, stretching from one bank of the stream to the other. It was holding back the water, but the water had swelled up high enough that it spilled past both ends of the tree, sloshing back into the original streambed behind it. A few more days, and the water would probably push the tree aside by itself, allowing the water to run freely again.
An arrow suddenly slipped into the water next to Weylan. "Dunno how much longer I can 'old 'em off mate!" he exclaimed, letting fly another stone. "Got any ideas?"
"Yeah, actually, I do." Mattimeo replied, studying the tree. Taking a deep breath, he slid underwater, groping for the bottom.
It took two tries to finally reach it, and when he did, Mattimeo had to resurface to get more air. But now knowing where to go, Mattimeo dove for a fourth time, and began digging away at the mud and dirt the tree had sank into.
It was very tedious work, all the while the vermin slowly began to inch closer, slowed down by the deep water and Weylan's constant slinging. Resurfacing, Mattimeo found an arrow floating in the water, and grabbed it as he went back under again, using it as a shovel until it snapped in half.
Cursing as he broke the surface of the water, Mattimeo knew that an otter would be better suited for the job, but the only one around was Weylan, and he was the only one with the sling. It was true that Mattimeo had Martin's sword with him, but it did him no good unless in close quarters with the enemy, and in this case, he didn't want that.
Wait, the sword!
Unsheathing the magnificent blade, Mattimeo drove it downward, and felt it sink into the muddy bottom in just the right place. Then, upon saying a quick prayer of forgiveness to Martin in case this completely backfired, Mattimeo put all of his body weight on the sword, trying to push it downward. Mattimeo knew that the sword was very strong, and had never broken under extreme stress before now, but never in Mattimeo's memory could he recall it being used in such a manner and feared it'd be too much for even Martin's sword.
His worries increased when he thought he felt the blade start to bend, but then Mattimeo made progress. The tree suddenly shifted slightly under the makeshift lever Mattimeo had created, and Mattimeo saw one more good shove would do it.
"Get ready, Weylan!" Mattimeo shouted.
"Get ready fer wot?" Weylan shouted back, hurling off another stone while dodging a vermin arrow.
Mattimeo didn't answer, but threw all his weight on the sword again. The effect was instantaneous. The tree came clear of the muddy bottom, and the water began to push it forward. Martin's sword suddenly dropped to the bottom of the stream, taking Mattimeo along with it, who hung on tightly.
They both hit the streambed briefly, but were quickly pulled up and away from the spot, being pulled backwards at an alarming rate. When Mattimeo's head reached the surface again, he saw the tree being carried along on the newly recreated stream, slowly getting pushed to one side. Mattimeo was being pushed along beside it, and Weylan being carried along beside him. The shouts and yells that could be heard from behind told Mattimeo that the vermin had also suddenly been swept away in the speeding current of a broken dam.
They had already been swept a great distance away, and Mattimeo had no clue where exactly they were, and couldn't keep oriented long enough to figure it out. Suddenly, one end of the tree touched shore and stopped. The other end swung around and also ground onto shore, effectively stopping the tree.
Mattimeo reacted quickly, pulling out Martin's sword and driving it into the tree's trunk, using the sword's hilt as a handle. Weylan also reacted quickly and grabbed the first thing in reach, which was Mattimeo's tail. Pushed onto shore by the current, they watched the group of vermin get swept on past them in the current, fighting with each other to stay afloat.
Abbot Mordalfus surveyed the squirrel Marigold before him in earnest.
"You say that you are here to help us." Mordalfus spoke. "That I can accept. What puzzles me is how you got into Redwall without getting noticed by Toka's forces."
"I'll admit that I did run into one guard, but I was quick to escape." Marigold replied automatically.
Swayner arrived and placed the plate of food Marigold requested in front of her. The squirrel gladly accepted and calmly began eating.
Mordalfus used the moment to organize his thoughts. "Escape as you may have," he began, "Toka is going to be alerted of you're presence now."
"It is to be expected." Marigold admitted. "This Toka sounds like he is a very thorough creature, regardless of the fact that he is vermin."
"I'm assuming you have an idea, then, judging from the tone you're taking." Constance spoke, who was watching the conversation from another table in Cavern Hole.
"Yes." Marigold answered, taking a sip of cordial. "Toka may suspect that I am here, but he'll eventually focus on more important things if he finds no more evidence to support that theory."
"Meaning?" Mordalfus pressed.
"I'll stay here in Redwall for the time being until we're sure that Toka is not on the lookout for me, or in an emergency." Marigold explained. "Once we're sure of that, I'll leave to go rally help."
"Seems too simple to me." Constance muttered audibly.
"I like it." Swayner was quick to defend. "I think it's a very clever idea."
Constance muttered something else, this time inaudibly, but it was clear she had negative thoughts about that as well.
"Well, it's not like we can do much else." Mordalfus admitted. "Besides, Constance, we could probably use another squirrel about. Marigold here may prove to be invaluable."
Marigold grinned sheepishly at this remark.
"Swayner, why don't you find the good lady a room she can rest in?" Mordalfus went on to say. "Undoubtably she could use it."
Swayner was quick to react, and almost pulled Marigold away and out of the room, Marigold laughing gently at Swayner's eagerness.
"That should keep them busy for the time being." Mordalfus stated, then turned to Constance. "What do you think, old friend?" he asked once they were alone.
"I don't like it." Constance answered bluntly. "Something doesn't add up."
"You think the escape Marigold claims she did was too easy too?" Mordalfus asked.
"More than that." Constance replied. "You'll note that she avoided going into too great a detail about that escape. I think she's hiding something, but what I can't tell."
"Of course, you are right." Mordalfus agreed. "She might be a squirrel, and a very quick and speedy one at that, but there's only so much that can get her. I find it very unlikely she got past Toka's forces so easily."
"Agreed." Constance grunted. "Either Toka made a huge oversight, or he let her through."
"Which could suggest that her being here is an endangerment to the abbey." Mordalfus added.
"I'm more worried about Swayner." Constance said.
"What about him?"
"Well, isn't it obvious? He's fallen heads over heels for Marigold, but is too shy to admit it." Constance paused, then added, "Yet. And the problem with that is that if Marigold is in some way an imposter, she might use that to her advantage."
Mordalfus nodded understandingly. "It is a problem, but it's like I said, there really isn't anything else we can do about it."
"So we're going to play along?" Constance asked.
"Yes, and keep our suspicions quiet." Mordalfus added. "It's bad enough that the creatures within this abbey have to worry about the vermin outside. They don't need to have this hanging over their heads as well."
"Okay." Constance said. "But when the times comes to act, as it surely must, what will we do?"
"Leave that to me." Mordalfus answered.
Weylan pulled himself onto dry ground and shook the water off of his fur and looked around. "Well, mate, I estimate that little swim took about a 'alf day's march off our trip."
Mattimeo wiped the mud off of Martin's sword, amazed that it was perfectly unscathed. He glanced up at the sun. "It's late afternoon." he noted. "We should reach your home by night fall then."
"Actually, sooner than that, mate." Weylan said, and jogged off into the woods.
Mattimeo took one last glance at the shrinking stream, and followed, sheathing the sword. The traveled for a little ways, then Weylan suddenly stopped. They stood at the edge of a small pond. On the opposite side of the pond was a moss covered cave.
"Home." Weylan said, happy.
But as they neared the cavern's entrance, they saw the damage.
"Great seasons, what a mess!" Mattimeo remarked, stepping around the remains of a stone oven.
"Toka must 'ave come through 'ere." Weylan murmured. "Huh, now I'm glad me and Ma left when we did."
"There's not much left." Mattimeo said, picking up the remains of a clay pot. "The horde must have taken what they needed and destroyed the rest." he kicked at the shattered remains, slightly frustrated. "How can we be sure that this dagger of yours is still here?"
"It's 'ere." Weylan assured Mattimeo, running his paws against the walls of the cave.
Finally, they stopped, and Weylan dug his claws into a small crack and tugged. A small slab of stone slid onto the floor.
"If it wasn't, that wouldn't be there." Weylan said, and reached into the small pocket the slab had covered a moment before.
The otter pulled out two things. One was the dagger, small, but deadly, and very beautifully made. It's blade glistened in the dim light, and like Martin's sword, it had a pommel stone, only with a cobalt blue sapphire instead of a red ruby. The other item was a rolled up piece of parchment.
While Weylan stared in awe at the dagger that was now to be his, Mattimeo took the piece of parchment, unrolled it, and studied it with interest. Slowly, his eyes began to widen.
"Weylan, this is exactly what we need!" he said, not taking his eyes off the parchment.
Weylan, however, wasn't taking his eyes off the dagger. "I suppose." he answered, thinking Mattimeo was talking about his dagger. "But wot we really could use is a map showin' us where to go to find this reward."
"Then look no further." Mattimeo said, taking Weylan's empty paw and pressing the parchment into it.
Weylan examined it, then looked up at Mattimeo. "This is..." he began.
"A map showing exactly were the reward is." Mattimeo finished.