Further building to the end. I estimate about four to five chapters remaining until we reach the end, but that's not a final number. I am highly anticipating the next chapter, as it will be the fanfic's more or less last hurrah. :)
Chapter 62
It was well after midnight and heading on into very early morning about an hour or so before sunrise, and the guards stationed at Midnight Castle were rather surprised to see that it had been a very quiet night.
"It's very odd, so it is." one guard remarked to a cohort, both of them stationed on a balcony that sat just above the castle's main entrance. He looked out at the village. "I would've thought they would've tried something by now. They have all of the odds on their side now."
"Instead, the whole lot of them are just being silent now." the other guard remarked, studying the oddly silent village himself. "Maybe they got a little carried away with their celebrating, and decided to sleep in."
"Hmpf, wish we had something to celebrate about." the first guard grunted irritably.
The second guard shrugged. "Well, Lord Kani has returned, that's something." he pointed out. "and Lord Kani beats Lord Methusael any day."
"Can't argue with that." the first guard agreed. "But Methusael isn't going to just give up the throne that easily. For some reason I will never understand, he apparently sees Lord Kani as a threat to fight and ward off. His lordship would have to stage a coup in order to get the throne back under his possession."
"Where it rightly belongs, of course." the second guard agreed. "I think Methusael had it all wrong about him. Maybe Lord Kani was a source of our troubles before, but those troubles only got worse once Methusael took charge."
"The idiot can't see when he's beat, either." the first guard said. "No way in all of creation could we beat the mice now. They've practically won already."
"Aye, about that..." the second guard said, "I've been thinking...whose side do you think we should be on now? Methusael's, Lord Kani's, or neither?"
The first guard gave the matter a moment of thought. "Well, it certainly has to be one of the two." he confessed after a moment, "I can't see any reason why there should have to be a third side." he was silent for a long moment, looking uneasy about the conversation suddenly. "This is treason talk, but I don't think we should be on Methusael's side either."
The second guard grinned, relieved. "Me either." he said with a sigh, "Treason or not, Lord Kani is the better creature to side with."
"All right, now that we've got that settled, it does leave us with one little problem." the first guard remarked, looking and his companion. "What do we do when we have to fight his lordship and the mice? Because you know it's going to come to that sooner rather than later."
The second guard nodded. "Aye, I see your point. If we both agree that we should really side with Lord Kani and his forces, it doesn't make sense when we have to fight them to actually fight them. But what else are we going to do? Just not fight them?"
"Maybe what we need to be doing is do more than just talk of switching side, but actually do it." the first guard reasoned, "I mean, get out of this castle, and into the village."
The second guard blinked in surprise. "You mean become rebels?" he asked.
"Aye," the first guard said, his bushy fox tail beginning to swish back and forth in mild excitement. "And maybe, if we make the first move, the others will start to follow. I mean, they can't be anymore happy with Methusael's choice of actions than we are."
"Aye, I could see that." the second guard. "And maybe, if enough start deserting, we would be robbing Methusael of what little defensive power he has less, and would be totally defenseless." his eyes widened in gleeful surprise at this thought, starting to get excited himself, "He'd be forced to surrender without anyone every having to stage another battle! Not another drop of blood would be spilt!"
"Shh!" he companion quickly urged when the guard's voice started to rise too high, but he, too, was grinning at the very desirable thought, "That's how I'm thinking it will work, too. We just have to make our move, and hope others follow."
"Okay," the second guard said, with the nod of his head, then looked around for a moment, "Just how are we going to do that?"
The first guard hesitated for a moment. "Well...um..." he stuttered, unsure how to answer.
"Unfamiliar creatures approaching the gates!" a voice suddenly shouted out from below them.
The two guards turned to look, and sure enough, a party of mixed creature wearing copper-colored armor were steadily approaching the main entrance of the castle, armed and at the ready, but their weapons were not raised. They did not bother with stealth either, and simply, fearlessly, marched towards the castle, heading up the well-worn path up onto the plateau it sat upon. In front of the castle's gates, the guards stationed there prepared themselves for a fight, but did not raise their weapons either. They wouldn't until they were either given the order to, or they were fired upon first. On the balcony above these creatures, the two guards exchanged glances.
"I guess we're going to find out." the first guard remarked to the second.
The Quorum of Warriors arrived in en masse at the gates of Midnight Castle and spread out, taking up defensive positions to surround the gates. Their numbers only totaled to a few score, but it was enough to put the guards stationed at said gates on alert. The guards stationed along the front of the castle all quickly grouped together in front of the gates, ready to defend them. The two guards positioned on the balcony also took up defensive positions. Weapons were raised, ready to fight.
But no fighting began.
Melody and her forces had been given specific orders that they were not to attack until they were attacked upon first. But among the members of the royal guard stationed at the gates, the order was not given to attack. And as they would not disobey that order until they were attacked first as well, they did not move to attack either. So both sides ended up just silently staring at each other, waiting for the other to make their move, not attacking. It was like the world's biggest staring contest.
Running alongside the castle, against the side of the mountain, was a row of leafy green trees, evenly spaced apart, that had been planted for mere decoration purposes. Because of the fairly rocky and infertile soil that existed this close to the mountainside, their growth had been stunted somewhat, but they stood tall and healthy enough that they fulfilled their purpose. In daylight, they wouldn't have begun to provide shelter enough for anybeast to slip past behind them undetected. In fact, they barely provided enough cover during the nighttime. But as the royal guard stationed at the front of the castle was currently focusing all of it's attention on the trespassing Quorum of Warriors, it was more than opportune time for a party of creatures to slip past behind these trees, completely unnoticed it seemed.
So Kani, the Redwallers, and Captain Moroni and his party all quickly made use of the opportunity, staring with interest at the proceedings at the castle's front gates. Or rather, the lack thereof.
"Quietest distraction I ever did see." Skipper Rowe remarked whimsically, chuckling at the sight.
"This plan might just work out better than any of us expected." Moroni remarked from behind the bigger otter, also amused at the sight and the ease of their intrusion.
"Good, I daresay there's been enough bloodshed over this matter." Mathoni remarked from beside Kani, who was leading. He a little less enthused about the matter, knowing there was still a chance for all of this to end badly.
Kani felt the same way, a look of determination on his face and he silently led the party to the side of the castle that faced the mountainside, completely unguarded as no one thought any attacks could possibly come from this side. He knew that the matter wasn't over yet, and anyway, he completely planned on at least one certain creature to not survive this incident.
It wasn't long before they arrived at the wing of the castle that housed the barracks, a simple structure only about two stories tall, and housed mostly simple dormitories for the individual members of the royal guard. Moving even more stealthily now, Captain Moroni signaled to his mice, and two parties broke apart and approached the castle from either side of the barracks, where tall windows led into the corridor that ran past it's entrance. Forcing the windows open, the two parties discreetly entered the castle and cut off the barracks the only exit. Sentries were posted at this exit, but they were located on the inside, and as the doors leading into the barracks were currently closed for the night, they remained unaware that enemy beasts had the exit surrounded on the outside.
This done, the rest of the group gathered at the end of the barracks, where three windows sat on the bottom floor. On the other side of these windows was a small dining room reserved for the royal guard's use. Connecting to the side of the room opposite from the windows was a hallway that stretched down the entire remaining length of the wing, lined with dormitories on either side, broken only by two staircases located on either side of the hallway's middle that led up to the second floor.
The dining room was empty, and void of anybeast, but two sentries were posted at the room's entrance. So they couldn't help but see when the invading party outside started working at forcing open the locks to the windows from outside. As they were only armed with spears, though, there wasn't much they could do but stand ready for a fight once the intruders got inside. Further down the hall, where the sentries posted at the barracks entrance, they too were alerted, but they stayed at their post to guard the door, with the idea of working to prohibit any intruder to get past those doors, unaware that there were already intruders on the other side.
They all stayed silent until the first windows were opened, and the mice and Redwallers started pouring into the dining room, armed, and heading straight for the entrance into the room, then both of the sentries posted at that entrance raised their voices to send out the alarm.
"Intruders!" they both called out. "Intruders in the castle!"
The reaction was almost instantaneous. Immediately, doors all along the hallway burst open, and members of the royal guard who had been presumably off-duty and were sleeping and/or passing their time came rushing out into the hallway. One look at the creatures filing into the dining room, pointing their weapons at the sentries and having enough numbers to easily overpower them sent a ripple alarm through the alerted foxes.
One, apparently having some authority over the others, quickly took charge of the situation.
"Someone run and get help!" he ordered, grabbing a spear from his room and hurrying forward to help the sentries attack if need be.
A nearby fox, wearing naught but a pair of trousers, was the one who turned and ran for the barracks exit, the sentries stationed there, moving to open the doors for him, only to find that the party of intruders who had been waiting out there were present and armed. This party quickly pushed into the barracks, driving back the would-be messenger and the two sentries, threatening with their weapons, but otherwise doing little to attack. The same was happening up at the dining room. The intruders, a mix of mice and Redwallers, were threatening the royal guard members that approached with their weapons to keep them at bay, but doing little to actually attack.
"Break into two parties and head upstairs and capture the second floor!" Moroni called to the intruders infiltrating the hallway from the other direction.
"Stop them, stand in their way, and don't let them through!" the fox who had taken charge quickly ordered back in response.
"Stand down, and this can all end peacefully." Moroni pressed, addressing this creature.
"Stand you ground, everyone!" the fox called to those responding under his commands. "Give me one good reason why any of us should stand down!"
"Samuel, stand down, that is an order!" Kani exclaimed as he clambered through one of the dining room windows, the last to enter (at Moroni's insistence).
The fox, apparently called Samuel, looked in surprise at Kani. "Lord Kani!" he exclaimed, then grinned.
Then, no only did he and the other members of the royal guard stand down, they also went the extra measure and bowed down in respect before their lord, mildly stunning the intruders at this sudden change of attitude.
Tobias laughed, and clapped Kani on the back. "Looks like yore reputation is preceedin' ye, mate!" he exclaimed.
Kani managed a grin, but slightly puzzled, he approached Samuel's bowing form.
"Head upstairs and have the beasts up there stand down as well!" Moroni commanded again to his troops.
"Have members of the royal guard head up as well and confirm the order!" Samuel added, righting himself suddenly as he gave the order to his own troops.
He then noticed Kani approached, and turned to face him. "We are at your disposal, your lordship." he announced quickly.
Kani merely shook his head, and grinned for a moment. "Not that I'm not happy for this, Samuel, but why?" he asked.
"Because of several things, your lordship. One, you outnumber us. Two, our defeat was inevitable either way. Three, it is clear that you wish to harm no one, and finally, many of us would prefer to answer to you than Methusael now."
Kani merely laughed, and wasn't quite sure how to respond.
"What are your orders, your lordship?" Samuel prompted happily, grinning himself.
Kani nodded, turning serious again. "We need to have the rest of the royal guard stand down as well, you can help have them do that. If they see fellow creatures standing down, then they will likely follow."
"It will be done, your lordship."
"Also, I wish to speak with the creature who should be currently in command of the royal guard, June...Jube..." Kani started snapping his claws as he sought to remember the name.
"Juniper, sire?"
"Yes, Juniper, where is he?"
"I do not know, no one has seen Juniper all evening, milord."
"All right, we'll need to find him, then. And somebeast will need to let the Quorum of Warriors into the castle to assist, as well was Amulek and Adah and their forces who are standing by at the end of the path outside."
"Yes, your lordship."
Kani turned to Moroni. "Captain, you continue here." he said, then turned to leave, "Give out commands as you see it fit."
"Yes, your lordship." Moroni replied, as all the creatures in the barracks began bustling about to carry out these orders. "Do I dare ask where you are going?"
Kani gave him a glance. "You really have to ask?" he replied, then continued for the barracks exit.
"Kani," Mathoni called, hurrying to catch up with his friend, "What can I do to help?"
"You can hand me that shield for one thing," Kani replied, drawing the Sword of Martin. "I'm probably going to need it."
Mathoni handed him the shield that was lying in one of the dormitories without hesitation. "What else?" he asked, anxious to help Kani, already having an idea what the fox planned to do.
Kani wouldn't go for it, though. "You stay here and help Moroni and the others tell the royal guard to stand down." he told the otter, ruffling the younger beast between the ears with one paw quickly before proceeding on. "I need to do this alone."
"Do what?"
"One last thing to end all of this."
Methusael was busy pacing in his study, not even bothering to sleep, awaiting for the report he would knew would eventually come, when that report finally did come.
"Milord," a fox loyal only to him reported as he hurried into the study, "Unfamiliar creatures have arrived at the front gates, and are threatening attack. They haven't yet, but they could begin at any moment."
Methusael nodded to himself, unalarmed. "And so it begins." he remarked, turning to face the fox. "Have you sent for support at the barracks?"
"Yes milord, I sent a messenger to call for added support, but he has not returned, and no support has come."
"They're already in the castle then." Methusael immediately deduced. "The last battle for this castle, and the land of Angola, has begun."
"Yes milord." the fox replied with a nod.
"Forget the creatures and the gates, and the barracks. I want you to find every creature in this castle, and have them rally here outside the study. I want you to defend that corridor with your very lives. Nobeast is to get through your blockade unless I say so, understood?"
"Yes milord."
"And if you meet anybeast who refuses to come, or is not one of our own, or, heaven forbid, Lord Kani himself, kill them where they stand."
"Something's happening out there." Sais remarked, one ear pressed against the door. "Dunno what, though."
"It should not be very hard to guess, Sais." his weasel companion remarked from across the room, shouldering his bag. "Whatever the case, it is no longer our concern. We have overextended our stay anyway." he turned to look at the ferret. "Are you ready to leave?"
"Been ready for several minutes now." Sais replied, who had been very anxious to leave. "But I thought we were going to wait until morning."
"We can no longer wait." Grim said, heading for the door. "Methusael's rule is crumbling already, and we will not want to stay here when it does. Furthermore, Methusael is no doubt going to try everything in his power to keep us from leaving. Therefore, whatever creature stands in our way, regardless of who it is, subdue them as quickly as possible."
"Gotcha." Sais said, arming himself, and stepping away from the door so Grim could open it.
But before Grim did, he suddenly stopped, and pressed his own ear against the door, hearing somebeast coming their way. Listening to the pawsteps, he identified the creatures as mice, who were armed, and judging from the shuffling around they were making, they were checking out every dormitory in the hallway, one by one. Their shuffling overlapped too much for Grim to get a clear count of their numbers, but there was easily more than five. They were at the far end of the hallway still, but they were steadily coming closer to them.
Grim inwardly debated his options for a moment, then released the latch to the door, and stepped away from it, deciding it was better to play it safe.
"Creatures are approaching, it would be ideal if we could find another way out of here." he told Sais, who nodded and hurried to the window and threw it open. Grim looked around, calculating. "However, seeing we are in a tower room, this could prove to be problematic.
"Nah, not a problem at all." Sais said, heading back over to the two beds in the room, and began stripping the bedsheets off of them.
Grim watched him for a moment, eyes narrowed as he wondered what the younger ferret was up to. "What are you doing?"
"Tying the bed sheets together." Sais replied simply, taking two ends o f the sheets he had stripped and tying them together with a knot. Upon seeing Grim's genuinely questioning look, he added, "What, didn't you ever try to sneak out of your parents's hut without them knowing when you were a whelp?"
"I did not have parents or a hut when I was a youth." Grim replied matter-of-factly.
Sais frowned, and handed some bedsheets to Grim. "Just tie." he said.
Before long, tying their makeshift rope to a bedpost, they shimmied down the tied-together bedsheets out the window and down the better length of the tower. Their makeshift rope wasn't long enough to get them down the tower all the way, but it was far enough for them to jump the rest of the way. Landing on the roof of one wing of the castle below was tricky; one slip would mean a fall likely to their death, but being the highly skilled mercenaries they were, neither Grim or Sais had any trouble with that, and were quickly on their way, working out a way to escape...
Kani hurried through the castle, heading further and further up it's many floors, as he sought for the one creature he knew he had to confront. He checked every location he anticipated the creature to be at. The kitchens, the throne room, the royal bedchambers, the library, and the armory. He wasn't in any of these rooms. That just left one location for Kani to check. The royal study.
His study.
Hurrying onward through the surprisingly empty corridors, Kani moved as fast as his footpaws would carry him, getting more and more anxious the closer he got to his destination.
Soon, it would all be over.
Soon, his family would be avenged.
He rounded one corner, and saw a couple members of the royal guard at the other end of the hallway, about to turn a corner themselves. They turned to look at Kani as he rushed into the corridor, while Kani looked at them. They both hesitated for a moment, pondering how to react, then two royal guard archers raised their bows and fired off arrows at Kani, while another hurled their spear. Kani dodged the shots by ducking back around the corner, the two arrows clacking off the edge of the wall that made the corner, and the spear not quite coming far enough to reach him.
Once Kani was out of sight, however, the turncoat members hurried on around their own corner of the hallway, and out of sight. Realizing that they must be among the few creatures that were still loyal to Methusael, Kani hurried after them, giving chase.
The chase did not lead far before Kani rounded another corner in the hallway, footpaws skidding on the smooth stone floor, claws scraping at it accordingly, and found himself face to face with a whole blockade of royal guard members, totaling just under fifteen, all perched on the brief flight of stairs that stood just before the entrance into the study, all armed with bows and arrows, which they notched and raised the moment Kani came into view.
And standing at the top of the stairs, behind the blockade but completely within sight, was Methusael.
"Kani." Methusael greeted with a grin, wrapping his paws tightly around the sword he carried, point down. "Took you long enough to get here."
"Still a coward like before, though, hmm?" Kani replied, unperturbed. "Why hide, Methusael? It's me you want."
"And I know that you want me dead, Kani." Methusael replied calmly, also unfazed.
"I want you to surrender." Kani corrected, though they both knew that Methusael was right too. "You can't win, Methusael. You've lost. This is just delaying the inevitable."
"This isn't about winning anymore, Kani." Methusael said. "This is about guaranteeing that I have the last say in the matter. To ensure that if I'm going down, I'm going to take you with."
Kani narrowed his eyes and snarled at Methusael. "So long as you fall in the end." he vowed.
Then, with a yell, Kani threw himself at the blockade, ready to fight.
