CHAPTER EIGHTY

Having seen Binch off to issue the recall orders to his Sparra comrades - and to deliver that same message to the two errant Abbeybeasts as well, for all the good it would do in Clewiston's case - Vanessa made straight for the Infirmary, where an undetermined number of Harth's rats had barricaded themselves inside, piling empty beds up against the door to keep other beasts out and holding Lady Mina ransom for Latura's return.

Hastening through Great Hall on her way to address this latest crisis in an ongoing season of crises, the revived Abbess happened to pass near Harth, who favored her with a fang-filled, smug grin. Vanessa paused before the former horderat. "I'm rather surprised to see you down here, General. Were you behind this business with the Infirmary?"

"Seizin' yer sickbay? I gave no such orders, Abbess. I'd never abuse Redwall's hospitality that way."

"Then some of your rats showed surprising initiative, for toadies who normally don't move until you say jump."

"Ahrmm - what can I say? I guess Lattie's capture's gotten those 'toadies' riled up enuff t' take matters inta their own paws - an' who could blame 'em, after learnin' some o' the things you said down at yer council?"

"Just so you are aware, General, if any harm comes to Mina - or to any other Redwaller - as a result of this incident, all rats at this Abbey will find themselves on very thin ice. Very thin ice indeed."

Some of Harth's baiting confidence fell away, as the Guosim and otters and squirrels surrounding Vanessa stood alert and ready. "That's hardly fair, holdin' ev'ryrat responsible fer the actions of a few."

"If you really feel that way, perhaps you'd care to accompany me upstairs as a gesture of good faith to help negotiate an end to this standoff and persuade your fighters to surrender Lady Mina, and our Infirmary, peacefully. If they stop this foolishness now, I may be willing to overlook this transgression and suspend any punishment they might otherwise receive."

Harth recovered a little of his bite. "No thanks, Abbess. Just 'cos I didn't order 'em to do it doesn't mean I entirely disapprove. Mebbe they're doin' 'xactly what needs to be done. Mebbe holdin' their precious Queen hostage is the one thing that'll get through to Lattie's kidnappers an' convince 'em to let 'er go."

"Doubtful, if they're acting under Urthblood's direct orders, and those orders are to bring Latura to Salamandastron at any cost. All you'll achieve by threatening harm to Mina is to make the Gawtrybe even more virulently anti-rat, and even more resolute in removing all rats from Mossflower."

"Which is happenin' anyway, no matter what we do about it."

"Maybe not for much longer."

Harth regarded Vanessa with curiosity. "Whaddya mean?"

"If Urthblood falls from power, his Gawtrybe might not be so inclined to continue this Purge with their current ardor. Presumably that badger is going to these lengths because Latura poses a threat to him. If true, then who's to say he's not engineering his own downfall, and bringing the very cause of his undoing into his presence where she will be able to fulfill such a destiny? A self-fulfilling prophecy, if you will. But it can never happen if we bring Latura back to Redwall."

"That's an awful lot o' supposes y' got goin' on there. Here's another: Mebbe that brute'll just slay 'er, an' then our one an' only true weapon we could hold against 'im will be gone, an' all th' rest of us left at his mercy."

"You need to worry about my mercy before his, since I'm not all the way out on the coastlands, and I decide who gets to remain inside these walls. I could argue this with you all day, General, but one thing I will tell you is that hostage-taking will not be tolerated at Redwall. Now I must go let those numbskulls upstairs know that in no uncertain terms. Elmwood, you're in charge here while I see to the Infirmary. Please do your best to keep order down here."

The Forest Patrol interim leader glanced around in some trepidation, not accustomed to holding the command position in any situation so fraught with potential unrest. "Um, where's Log-a-Log, and the rest of the Guosim? We could use them here ... "

"I suspect they're even now filing out through the north wallgate, along with half a dozen of the Long Patrol, in their ill-advised attempt to rescue Latura."

Harth reared back in surprise. "So, you are goin' after her after all! Why didn'tcher say so 'fore now?"

"Because they are doing so of their own accord, against my explicit wishes - and it is never wise for an Abbot or Abbess to loudly advertise when anybeast so flagrantly flaunts their authority. But yes, a rescue mission for Latura has been mounted, in its own fashion, much as you urged. You may wish to share this news with your fellow rats down here. As to whether it will succeed, that is quite another matter."

Taking leave of the rat and squirrel, Vanessa strode across Great Hall and mounted the stairs to the Infirmary level. At the end of the hallway there she found Maura, Geoff and additional otters and squirrels camped in the corridor outside the barricaded entryway. The Badgermum greeted her newly-restored Abbess with what she clearly deemed a promising announcement.

"Nuttery here thinks he and some of his fellow squirrels can scale the outside of the Abbey and go in through a window, hopefully take them by surprise and catch them off guard before they can rally a defense. Perhaps we can coordinate this with the Sparra too, and send some of them in that way as well. We'll need creatures who can either climb of fly if we are to - "

"We will do no such thing," Vanessa countermanded. "These are no undisciplined bandits we're dealing with here, but trained horde soldiers. They'll know to watch the windows - they've dwelt among us long enough now to appreciate what our birds and squirrels can do - and they could well be holding a blade to Mina's throat even as we speak - a blade which could end her life before we could lift a paw to save her."

"What blade?" Maura argued. "We've made sure to keep these rats unarmed from the day they marched in here."

"Arlyn and Metellus may have taken all their salves and ointments down to Great Hall to treat the hornet stings, but they left behind all the scalpels and surgical instruments. A scalpel's blade might be small, but it's keen enough to lay open a beast's jugular with the merest of swipes. And if those rats have found them, you can be sure there will be one pressed to Mina's neck the moment they see or hear anybeast trying to rush them."

"Then what are we to do?" Geoff fretted, utterly at a loss; from his expression, one might have inferred that he was, in a way, relieved to no longer be Redwall's chief decision-maker under these circumstances.

Vanessa stalked right up to the closed door and pounded on it with her fist. "This is the Abbess! Open up and let me in! I want to talk to you!"

A muffled voice came from the other side of the wood. "We ain't openin' up fer nobeast 'til Lattie's brung back t' Redwall!"

"Your grammar is atrocious, but we'll discuss that some other time," Vanessa yelled back at the door. "The decision not to rescue Latura was mine, not Lady Mina's. If you agree to release her, I will surrender myself to you in her stead. Then I will hear you out, and agree to abide with you until this matter is settled."

Geoff stood shocked into apoplexy at this stated intention, but Maura still had her voice. "Abbess, what in the name of Martin do you think you're doing?"

"Exactly, Maura."

Momentarily confused at this cryptic rejoinder, the badger went on, "We're not about to let you give yourself up to those barbarians. If they're desperate enough to storm the Infirmary and take Mina hostage, there's no telling what they'd do to you if you put yourself in their clutches!"

"I know what I'm doing. We need our Infirmary back ... and those rats in there need to be taught a thing or two about how things are done at Redwall." Vanessa turned back to the sealed door. "Well, I'm waiting! Do we have a deal or not?"

"It's a trick!" the muted, disembodied voice replied. "You'll rush us if'n we open this door!"

"It's no trick. I mean what I say. If you agree to this, I alone will enter, and nobeast else. You have my word on that."

A faint muttering of terse debate seemed to come from within the blockaded Infirmary - it was hard to be sure - followed by the scraping and banging of the upended beds being slid aside. Or at least partly aside, just enough for the rats within to crack open the door a paw's width and peer out into the corridor beyond. Vanessa made no move, standing her ground in plain sight for the skeptical, measuring gazes to get a clear view of her, and see that she was who she claimed. After a few moments' scrutiny, the door closed again and further murmurs were heard from behind it as some final deliberations took place.

"If they admit me," Vanessa warned Geoff and Maura, "nobeast else is to interfere. I must take care of this on my own, in my own way. Do I make myself clear?"

"Do you really place such stock in your negotiating abilities?" Geoff asked.

"If it was solely negotiating I had in mind, I could do that just as easily from out here. I must be able to look them in the eye, meet them face to face."

"I don't like this, Nessa," said the badger. "It's too dangerous."

"Maura's right," Geoff seconded. "You've only just come back to us - we can't risk something happening to you that takes you away from us again. What if you go in there and then they still refuse to release Lady Mina anyway?"

"Then they will have demonstrated their untrustworthiness. Mina may not even be in any shape to leave the Infirmary; I mean this more as a test of their intentions. But I still intend to abide by my side of the bargain. Nobeast else is to come barging in after I enter, am I understood?"

"I will make no such promise," Maura said grimly. "If I sense you to be in peril or distress, I will tear that door down with my bare paws, and I'd like to see you or anybeast try to stop me."

"Then I shall strive to avoid both peril and distress. I've given my word as Abbess that nobeast else will intrude until after we are finished speaking, and that's one promise I have no intention of breaking."

The door opened again, this time wide enough to admit Vanessa. "In y' come, then," growled the rat at the threshold. "An' no tricks, or th' squirrel princess gets it!"

As Vanessa stepped through, the rat stunned Geoff and Maura by bringing out from behind him a sword and holding it up to the Abbess's neck whilst giving a wordless snarl of warning to those in the corridor. Roughly pulling Vanessa all the way into the Infirmary and out of view, he retreated as other unseen paws slammed the door shut again and pulled the beds back into place against it.

Maura stood with fur bristling - a truly frightening sight - but feeling utterly impotent. "Where the fates did they get a sword from?"

"This is terrible," Geoff fussed and fretted. "They never said they were armed! They're holding Vanessa at swordpoint! Surely that violates any agreement she made with them!"

"Yes, it probably does," the badger grumbled in return. "And I half-suspect Vanessa was expecting them to pull something like this. But she entreated us not to interfere, and I will abide by her wishes for as long as I can. Let's be quiet now, and see if we can hear what's going on inside. If it sounds like Nessa's in serious trouble, then we'll go in. Until then, let's give her a chance to do whatever she means to try."

On the other side of the closed door, Vanessa's captor indelicately bustled her toward the center of the room. A quick survey revealed the complete tableau: the recent rat mother cradling her newborn in the bed tucked back in the near corner, looking on with wide-eyed alarm; the two rats stationed by the door to oversee the barricade; and the last rat sitting on Mina's bed with her, holding her from behind with a scalpel to her throat, just as predicted. The Gawtrybe Lady wore an expression less of fear than of frustrated annoyance, acutely aware that her injury left her in no position to exert herself fighting back, as much as she might want to.

Eyeing the empty scabbard by the squirrel's bedside, Vanessa drolly scolded, "That was rather careless of you, Lady, allowing your sword to be taken from you."

"I was wearing it when my bow broke and I was borne up here," Mina retorted, clearly unhappy with the situation herself. "Nobeast thought to remove it from the Infirmary during my treatment. Abbess, it is a relief to see you returned to your senses, but you should not have placed yourself in such jeopardy for my sake. Now they're not likely to give up either of us."

"Oh, I didn't do it entirely for your sake, Mina. This is my Abbey, and putting such things right falls to me."

"Lissen up, you two!" sneered the rat pointing Mina's sword at Vanessa. "We got Redwall's Abbess now, along with this prissy royal bushtail! An' y' know what that means? That means ye're gonna do what we tall ya, if y' know what's good for ya!"

Vanessa gave no hint of concern over her predicament. "You said you'd release Lady Mina in exchange for me, and I expect you to hold up your end of our agreement."

"In case y' ain't noterced," said another rat, moving away from the bed-barricaded door, "you ain't 'xactly in any position fer layin' down terms! We'll be hangin' on to both o' you, 'til our demands 're met!"

"And those demands would be?"

"You know what they are, Abbess! Don't go back t' playin' idjit, like you been doin' all season 'fore today! We want Lattie back, an ye're gonna make it happen."

"Very well. And here are my terms: I will do no such thing. Latura must not return to Redwall."

The rat with the sword scowled at her, showing his fangs as he prodded her none-too-gently through her habit. "Hey, you think we're playin' here?"

Vanessa stared into his anger-twisted face with a cold gaze. "You may want to put that blade down, before you hurt yourself."

"Harr! Lissen t' this mousie! Thinks she's talkin' to a clumsy ratbabe, an' not a soldier who knows from seasons how t' handle a blade - an' carve up an enemy!"

Vanessa didn't so much as blink. "I know what I'm looking at - and I'm hardly impressed."

"Abbess!" Mina hissed around the claw gripping her jaw. "These rats aren't bluffing! And now that they've got two of us, they might decide one's all they need."

"Oh truly? And what would they hope to gain that way? The expulsion of every rat from Redwall?"

The color drained from the rats' faces. "You ... you wouldn't!"

"Try me. I'm the one who gives the orders around here now, in case you'd failed to notice."

"That you are," granted the rat with the sword, a dangerous tone to his voice. "So here's what ye're gonna do - an' it won't even mean sendin' out a rescue party. Send just one o' yer birds - just one - out t' tell those thievin' squirrels we're holdin' their queen here hostage, an' that we ain't lettin' her go 'til Lattie's back safe inside Redwall. An' that mebbe we'll deprive her o' more than just her freedom if they don't meet our demands fast enuff t' suit us."

"They won't do it, not even for Lady Mina's sake. Latura is too important to Urthblood - and hence to them - for them to consider such a thing. They might not even believe you're holding Mina hostage at all, thinking it a ruse on our part to recover Latura - but even if they do, they'll rightly suspect you dare not harm her in any way, due to the repercussions you and your fellow rats would face. So you see, Mina is worthless to you; you dare not harm her, because the moment you do you will have called your own bluff, and then you will get nothing."

"Seems t' me nothing's what ye're promisin' us right now," accused the swordsrat.

"Precisely. Perhaps you're not as stupid as you look after all. Now let Mina go, give us back our Infirmary, and maybe - maybe - I'll entertain the possibility of not booting you out of my Abbey over this."

He raised his blade again, bringing its tip against Vanessa's windpipe as he stared her down. "Ye're fergettin', Abbess, we got you too. Mebbe you'd be fond o' keepin' all yer own parts, hrm? Get Lattie back fer us, or mebbe we'll see about relievin' you of some o' them."

Her reply was frosty. "Do not threaten harm to Redwall's Abbess, not here. That can only end badly for you."

"Enuff o' this!" exploded the rat holding Mina under the scalpel. "Ain't but one thing that'll convince those squirrels t' bring Lattie back to us, an' that's this 'ere royal prize o' theirs! An' if they need proof we're actshully holdin' her, an' that we've no qualms 'bout harmin' her, let's send 'em a liddle trinket provin' both!" Releasing Mina's jaw and grabbing her ear instead, he slashed away at the base of it, clearly intending to sever it from her scalp entirely.

Mina yowled, rammed her elbow hard into the rat's belly, and twisted to bite down viciously on the paw wielding the scalpel. Now it was the rat's turn to scream, the blood streaming from Mina's partly-severed ear mingling with the blood of his own that her teeth now drew. He pulled at her wounded ear, forcing her to open her jaw and release him. The soldier rat followed up with a brutal punch to Mina's stomach, enough to drive the wind out of her and make her collapse back onto the bed, momentarily stunned.

"I see now how you want this to go," Vanessa said with a resigned air, and ducked out of the sword's way, faster than the rat holding the weapon had ever seen anybeast move before. One moment she stood sedately with the blade's tip resting at her throat, and the next she was past it and upon him, wresting the sword from his grasp.

The four rats never knew what hit them.

The screams and shouts from within the Infirmary stirred Maura to terrible action. "I'm going in!" she bellowed, hurling her formidable bulk against the door like a huge furry battering ram. "If those villains have harmed so much as one whisker of Vanessa's ... RRRAAAGH!"

Geoff and the other Abbeybeasts stood back, knowing the wisdom of keeping clear from an enraged badger. In fact, most there had never seen Maura so enraged, and found the spectacle both terrifying and unnerving.

The crude barrier of upended beds yielded almost at once to Maura's massive body blows, and in no time she'd breached the makeshift barricade and pushed her way into the Infirmary, mattresses and bed frames and sheets and blankets scattered before her, the door hanging half off its hinges.

Vanessa stood calmly before her, to all appearances unharmed.

The four rats lay slain at various points throughout the chamber, Mina's bloody sword laid across the foot of the squirrel Lady's bed as Mina herself lay moaning in groggy pain.

In the nearer corner, the rat wife sat clutching her babe in trembling paws, transfixed and ashen-faced over what she'd just witnessed.

"What ... what happened here?" Maura stammered, Geoff and the others crowding the doorway behind her to see for themselves.

"Mina's ear needs some stitches," the Abbess announced. "Will somebeast please fetch Arlyn and Metellus from Great Hall to tend to that? They'll also want to check her sutures from yesterday, to make sure none have come loose. She took a pretty heavy blow to her stomach, and she was twisting and turning more than she probably should have been, given her condition."

Nobeast moved.

Vanessa sighed. "Very well. I'll go do it myself." And with that, she made to walk right past Maura and out of the Infirmary.

The badger caught her by the arm, gaze going from Vanessa to the slain rats and back again. "Nessa ... what happened here?"

"They refused to listen to reason. While I'm downstairs gathering up our two healers, could you at least assemble a burial detail to see to the bodies? I don't want then fouling up my Infirmary any more than they already have. On, and make sure the graves are dug outside the walls. With their actions here today, they've forfeited the right to be laid to rest on our grounds. Thank you."

This time, Maura was too stunned to restrain the Abbess further. The equally stunned onlookers parted to let Vanessa pass, out of the battle-scarred Infirmary and into the corridor beyond, where she resolutely strode down the hall and disappeared from view without a backward glance.

00000000000

The ringing followed Matowick across the Plains, even if Redwall's Sparra did not.

"No sign of those Abbey birds for awhile now, Captain," Nixalis observed. "Almost looks like they've disengaged. Wonder why that is?"

"Could be Klystra scared them off," Matowick speculated, glad to be talking to help drown out the constant whine ravaging his inner ears, more distracting now in the wake of the belltower incident than ever before. "He's a more formidable warriorbird than Saugus, especially in the daytime. He may have said something to convince them to break off their pursuit, or his mere presence may have intimidated them into a retreat. Between an armored falcon and Scarbatta's aggressive gulls, those Sparra have to realize Lord Urthblood is deadly serious here."

Brisson paused a moment to gaze back behind them, paw to brow, before running to fall into step alongside his fellow Gawtrybe again. "Well, they may be gone, but it looks to me like that hare and squirrel haven't given up the chase yet."

"They're too far behind us to pose any immediate threat," said Matowick. "And as long as it's just the two of them, it's not anything we can't handle. If we stop for the night, we'll post watches to make sure they don't try anything under cover of dark, and we'll have Saugus back with us by then too, so they'll not be catching us unawares."

"If we stop, sir?" Brisson prompted.

"Depends on how we hold up, Briss ... and how our prisoners here hold up. One thing's for sure: We'll not be attempting that treacherous high pass in anything but full light. Some of those sheer drops along narrow paths were enough to give even my squirrel's stomach a few turns. Trying that at night, with bound captives? No thanks. But I can see us pushing straight through until we reach the base of the mountains, as long as our strength endures."

"Won't leave us in much shape for fighting, if it comes to that," Nixalis worried.

"Then let's hope it doesn't come to that - for our sakes, and the Redwallers' as well."

"If we do march through the night," Nixalis went on, "this terrain concerns me. These Plains may look flat and smooth from a distance, but as we found out on our way to the Abbey, up close they can be as pitted and uneven as any rougher region. Goin' on at night, it'd be very easy to step wrong and twist an ankle, or even break a leg." He glanced at Latura and Palter. "'Specially if you're not the most graceful of beasts to begin with, and have got your paws bound too."

"Saugus should be able to assist us in that area as well," Matowick maintained. "He'll see obstructions and impediments at night that we'd miss, and hopefully steer us clear of the worst of them. The sun's still high in the sky, so we've got some time yet before we need to worry about all of this. Let's see what the rest of this day's march brings, and then we'll make our plans based on that."

Those plans came in for a change sooner than Matowick would have anticipated or hoped, for just a short time later Klystra dropped out of the sky and alighted before them, his avian manner bespeaking urgency. "More creatures left Redwall," he reported. "Half-dozen hares, score shrews, crossed ditch and moving into plains, moving fast."

Nixalis looked to Matowick. "Now that's a rescue party."

"And a battle group too; six Long Patrol hares would be a match for any twoscore ordinary hordesbeasts, and the shrews may be even worse news. Those pugnacious little scrappers wouldn't be coming along if they didn't think they'd get a chance to test their shrewsteel against us. Add in the squirrel and hare who are already on our tail, and that's a force that could give us some serious trouble. The only way this could be any worse would be if there were badgers chasing us."

"Um ... "

Matowick looked at Klystra. "What?"

"Badger among pursuers too. Was getting to that."

Nixalis joined the others is displaying shocked alarm. "You mean Redwall's sent their Badger Mother out after us too?!"

Klystra shook his head. "Male, not female. Not Redwall badger either."

A grimness settled over Matowick's face. "Sodexo. It must be Sodexo. Great seasons, we've got a Badger Lord hunting us."

Brisson said to his captain, "Yes, but it's not like he's a real Badger Lord, is he? Not like Lord Urthblood."

"You got as good a look at him at Redwall as I did. He may have been playing the part of a family beast and honey trader and peaceful guest of the Abbey, but he's still just as much badger as any I've ever seen. Would you welcome going up against him, if he gets his hackles up? Or, worse yet, if the Bloodwrath overtakes him and turns him into a berserker?"

"This isn't even his battle!" Nixalis exclaimed. "And he certainly didn't strike me as any great friend of rats. What's he even doing putting himself in the middle of this?"

"It appears we've rubbed more fur the wrong way than we'd realized. As much as I hate to say it, if it looks like they're about to charge us for close-quarters fighting, I want all shafts aimed at Sodexo. We've got to try to drop him first if we want to have any chance at all in such a contest - although even with him out of the way, that would still leave seven hares and a score of shrews to contend with, and they won't be any picnic either, even if the Sparra sit this out."

"Yeah, sir, but first they've gotta catch up with us, don't they?" Brisson said. "Shrews can't hope to keep up with hares at full lope, and that's got to be true of the badger too. So unless the Long Patrol intend to engage us on their own in a first waves ahead of the others, we've still got a wide lead they'll be hard-pressed to close. We might even reach the mountains before they can overtake us."

"That may be true. But still, the fact that they're pursuing us at all troubles me. I'd like to have some other strategy besides just trying to stay ahead of them, and girding for battle if we can't." Matowick stared back the way they'd come, Clewiston and Alexander just two vague dots in the far distance, and Redwall itself all but vanished now near the horizon line.

"It would help if this burden of ours wasn't so easy to spot," grumbled Nixalis, regarding Latura in her bright peach dress, not yet tattered and soiled by her forced march. "This fluffery the Redwallers made for her must be visible halfway across the Plains!"

"Maybe that was part of their thinking all along - make Latura too visually obvious for anybeast to move against her easily ... " Matowick's words trailed off as his gaze at Latura and Palter narrowed. "Wait a moment ... do the Redwallers even realize we have two rats with us, and not just one?"

"Well, they must," said Brisson. "If the land beasts on our tails haven't spotted it for themselves, their Sparra have been flying right over us, and the first one dropped right down to say hullo!"

Matowick looked at Nixalis askance. "That may be true - but have you ever tried to hold a conversation with one of those birds? Did you spare a moment during our time at the Abbey to listen to how they speak? Except for their eloquent leader, they're almost unintelligible - and I suspect that's as much a reflection on their scattershot way of thinking as their verbal expression. Birds in general tend to be somewhat, er, flighty in their personalities." He glanced Klystra's way. "Uh, no offense intended, Captain."

"None taken, Captain. You correct: Most birds more birdbrained than me. Hence, expression. Is certainly true of gulls, and most Sparra too."

"In any case," Matowick went on, "I'll wager even odds that the Sparra haven't even let anybeast know we took two rats, and not just one."

"Well, wouldn't they have both been missed by now?" Brisson reasoned.

"Not necessarily. We left a lot of confusion behind us at the Abbey, and besides, in all the time I spent there keeping a close eye on our target, I noticed this other one was almost always shunned and marginalized - practically a refugee among refugees, as it were. His absence might not even have been noticed yet." Matowick gazed back along their path through the Plains. "And tied up the way they are, they've had to march single-file, one behind the other, all this way ... which means even if our pursuers are paying attention to our tracks, it might not be immediately apparent that there's more than one rat in our company."

"That's an awful lot of ifs, sir," said Nixalis. "And even if that's the case, what would it avail us anyway?"

"We can at least play around with their expectations - maybe use that to our advantage, and even buy us some time, too." Matowick scanned the skies, then strode over to their captive, drawing his knife. "Still no sign of those sparrows returning, and I want to get this done quickly in case they do." He cut the line connecting Latura and Palter, then sawed through the rope knots binding their individual paws.

His companions begrudged even the scant moments this activity was costing them. "Sir," Brisson urged, "those Redwallers aren't falling any farther behind while we're tarrying here ... "

"Don't worry, Briss - if my hunch is correct, this'll be well worth a short delay ... and might make all the difference if we are overtaken." Fully liberating the two rats from their bonds, restoring unrestricted freedom of movement to them, he pointed his knife first at Latura, then Palter. "Both of you - take off your clothes."