CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWO

Alexander supposed he should have counted himself lucky not to have been cast in irons or locked away in a cell without a key upon his arrival at Salamandastron - a scenario he'd pondered as a distinct possibility during his journey to the mountain with Palter. But if he undoubtedly fared better in this respect than his now-shipbound former companion, he still didn't feel entirely free himself.

After his unsettling meeting with Urthblood, he was shown to quarters whose adequacy left no cause for complaint. And while, during his first restless foray from his assigned chamber to test the limits of his hosts' hospitality, he might almost have believed he was welcome to wander where he would, he quickly learned what Ambassador Erzath had found out long before: that his ever-present escorts excelled at unobtrusively guiding him away from wherever they didn't want him to go. Alex may indeed be free to leave Salamandastron and return to Redwall whenever he wished, as his guardians strongly intimated, but here inside the mountain, he enjoyed less choice of movement than the Abbey leverets under Mother Maura's watchful eye.

And on the subject of that searat diplomat, whose existence had been reported and verified by the freed slaves upon their arrival at Redwall, Erzath may as well have been a figment of their collective imaginations for all that Alex saw of him. Clearly, his escorts had orders to keep the two of them from meeting, which only confirmed his suspicions on any number of matters. The invisible Ambassador would likely be able to refute once and for all Matowick's cover story of a proposed searat delegation visiting Redwall - not that this fabricated proposal hadn't already been thoroughly discredited to any astute beast's satisfaction, but a little independent confirmation might have been nice. More to the point, Alex strongly suspected Urthblood sought to keep the two of them separated to hide just how much the searats didn't know about the situation in Mossflower. Were they even aware that Redwall had taken in nearly two hundred woodland rats, or how this had strained relations with the Badger Lord to the breaking point? Did they have any clue of the mission to snatch Latura, and how that ill-conceived operation had led for the first time to bloodshed and open battle between the two sides? Did they suspect that so many of Urthblood's gulls had been slain in that confrontation, including their captain, or that a new Badger Lord had entered the game, one who might be able to tip all of Mossflower against Urthblood?

All of this and more Alexander could have shared with Ambassador Erzath. Small wonder that he was unlikely to set eyes on the rat for as long as he tarried at Salamandastron.

As for the scheming, duplicitous Gawtrybe commander himself, Matowick was making himself as scarce as Erzath, if for different reasons. Perhaps some modicum of shame kept him from desiring the presence of one of the Abbeybeasts he'd so egregiously wronged, although Alex tended to doubt that, based on their only encounter here so far. More likely, the sight of Alex would bring back traumatic memories of the disasters which had claimed the lives of his five team members; seeing close comrades smeared into bloody streaks or cast into a lethal abyss could affect even seasoned campaigners and conniving rat-snatchers. And then there was the most obvious and least nefarious reason of all, the desire to spend time with his wife and newborn son, a natural instinct anybeast with half a heart could relate to. The thought of his squirrel adversary getting to enjoy such a respite caused a pang in Alexander's heart, but he could not dwell overlong on how he and Mina had so far been denied such a blessed gift, in spite of their best efforts.

Then again, he preferred not to dwell on Mina very much at all just at the moment.

Thus it came to pass that he found himself seated that morning in the dining hall of Salamandastron with no rat Ambassador or Gawtrybe Captain in sight, surrounded instead by his constant escort of constantly-rotating mice, hedgehogs and squirrels, the expression on each face more blandly noncommittal than the next, neither offering offense nor relaxing their watchfulness. But other creatures joined this breakfast as well, beasts not a part of Urthblood's forces, and their presence, far from cheering the Redwaller, made Alex feel as isolated and alone as he did shadowed and scrutinized.

"Saw it with me own eyes, I did," Whiskersalt declared over his bowl of kelp porridge as Wakefern and Ramjohn and Chobor nodded in agreement. "Lord Urthblood, 'ee had his blade out an' ready t' strike down that sorceress, remove her threat to the lands forever, but 'ee held 'is paw, an' let 'er live. Greatest act o' mercy I e'er did see."

Alex, while glad to finally hear exactly what had happened to Latura from creatures who'd been there to witness her face-off with Urthblood themselves, nonetheless bristled at the way the badger had already colored these events to his advantage in the eyes of his nautical guests, casting himself as the venerable protector of the lands and shores while presenting the helpless ratmaid as something far different.

"Sorceress, huh? Is that what he called her?" Alex didn't try to keep the acid bitterness from his voice.

"Aye," affirmed Whiskersalt's fellow otter Wakefern, "an' after hearin' Cap'n Matowick's tale o' how she brought th' mountainside down on his team an' made th' rock ledge underpaw crumble an' fall away, can there be any doubt?"

"You were followin' 'em all th' way here," Ramjohn added. "You musta seen the aftermath that rat witch left in 'er wake."

"Did Urthblood neglect to mention that Latura, and her family and fellow rat villagers, were protected guests of our Abbey, the sanctuary of Redwall granted them, and she was stolen right out from under us by deceit and force of arms, violating our time-honored ways and customs?"

"Why would you even want a beast like that in yore midst?" Ramjohn's otter first mate Chobor asked in genuine earnest. "After seein' what she c'n do, I'd think you'd be thankin' Lord Urthblood for takin' her off yore paws."

"Aye," concurred Wakefern, "if she c'n cause rockfalls an' ledge collapses, 'magine what damage she coulda done t' yore fair Abbey."

Alex stared the otter captain down. "She wouldn't have done anything to damage Redwall, because we weren't trying to hurt her. And you can bet every squirrel of Matowick's team would still be alive if they'd left well enough alone and not infiltrated our home, dragging Lattie off someplace she didn't want to be."

"Lattie, huh?" Whiskersalt twitched the distinctive facial feature that gave him his name, licking clinging drops of porridge from the overhanging fur there. "That's a bit of a cute name fer a beast who can command such dark powers. Shore ye ain't a liddle too close to this t' see the true picture nice 'n' clear?"

Alexander's unyielding gaze shifted from Wakefern to Whiskersalt. "We knew what Latura could do. She's a prophet, just like Urthblood, not a practitioner of some darker arts, and right now there are eightscore rats at Redwall who wouldn't be there if Lattie hadn't warned them of our badger host's merciless, cruel campaign of sweeping up blameless rats from their homes and enslaving them to be delivered to Tratton, where fates too terrible to contemplate undoubtedly await them. Or hasn't Urthblood told you of what's going on in Mossflower, and what's already happened in the Northlands?"

"He's told us," Whiskersalt answered unsympathetically. "An' most rats I've had th' displeasure o' meetin' 're anything but blameless. Not shore why yore even stickin' up fer 'em, bein' a woodlander who's likely suffered at their paws sometime or other over th' seasons ... "

Unbidden memories of Wolfrum arose in Alexander's thoughts - then he remembered that even that murderous rat wouldn't have seen the inside of the Abbey if not for Urthblood. "It's not like that. Those rats came to us to escape a fate worse than any decent creature should know - or any rat either, if you want to be that way about it. I've seen the Purge in action. I know evil when I see it. And this campaign is just plain wrong, in every moral sense I've ever known. Since granting them safe haven, they've observed our rules and done nothing to violate our ways - unlike the Gawtrybe. As for Latura, she possesses some link or bond with our founding Warrior, who clearly wanted her to come to Redwall, and may even have aided her in reaching our gates."

Wakefern chortled in spite of himself. "Well then, 'ee didn't do a very good job o' keepin' her, now did 'ee?"

Alex narrowed his eyes at all of them. "Did Urthblood tell you that Redwall and Salamandastron are now at war?"

Abellon, who'd thus far sat in silence, content to let the Redwall squirrel vent, could no longer hold his tongue in the face of this assertion. "At war? If that's really true, do you suppose we'd allow you to roam free throughout our own fortress?"

"Free? I'd call myself about as free as a fish in a barrel right now, with the way my every step has been guided during my time here. But that's beside the point. If we're not at war, what was the battle in the Western Plains all about?"

The mouse captain answered Alexander's challenge without hesitation. "I'd say it's about creatures not knowing their place, stepping out of line and paying the price for their temerity. Lord Urthblood briefed all us captains last night, and he impressed upon us how it was the Long Patrol hares - acting on their own - and the Guosim shrews - also acting on their own - who defied Redwall's Abbess to force the issue, all under the sway of an interfering badger who had no direct stake in these events, and should have stayed in his southern homelands."

"A legitimate Badger Lord and friend of Redwall's," Alex countered, "who throttled the life out of Urthblood's gull commander with his own paws after those winged terrors slew several members of our rescue party - a Badger Lord, I might add, to whom I would gladly swear allegiance in the face of a greater threat to my Abbey home. And as for anybeast being 'under his sway,' if you believe that, then you don't know the Long Patrol very well - or the Guosim."

Abellon grimaced. "And yet you're our guest and not our prisoner, contrary to whatever claims you may care to make. But our hospitality goes only so far, as does our tolerance. Try to poison the atmosphere with your misguided umbrage too much, and you'll find yourself expelled from this mountain - and possibly marched clear off the coastlands and back to Mossflower, to keep you from making any trouble on our watch. I'll escort you myself, if Lord Urthblood commands it."

"You'd do anything Urthblood tells you to, wouldn't you? Maybe it's time some of you stopped."

Abellon scoffed at the Redwaller. "You try wagin' a seasons-long campaign to tame a wild region like the Northlands, an' then fight a war with a whole empire of searats, an' tell me how well you fare. But it's alright, I'll not hold it against you; Lord Urthblood urged us t' keep in mind that you're here on your own too, an' you don't speak for Redwall. It's only a war if the Abbot or Abbess says it is, and so far, as far as we know, that's not the case. Matter o' fact, your own Abbess ordered you to disengage and return to Redwall, and not try to rescue the rat, didn't she? Sounds like somebeast here could use lessons on how to follow orders - which leaves you as the last one who ought to be lecturin' us on whether we should disobey our own orders!"

"Better to disobey an Abbess who's only recently returned to her senses and may not be entirely in command of herself, than to blindly follow a mad tyrant. Do you know that Urthblood believes it's his destiny to face Martin the Warrior in battle? A mouse who's been dead for scores of generations!"

Abellon made no comment, scowling as he returned to his breakfast. It was Chobor who said, "But, weren't ye just tellin' us you berlieve yore Warrior helped this rat sorcerer - er, ratmaid - get to yore Abbey? Why's it reas'nable fer you t' think that, but Lord Urthblood's mad fer thinkin' he might hafta face that selfsame, long-dead Warrior?" The otter first mate shrank in his seat as Alex glared daggers at him. "Hey, just sayin', is all."

"War or no war," Whiskersalt weighed in with the mantle of the seasoned negotiator and peacemaker among them, "there's been strife, an' bloodshed, no matter what name ye give it. Seems t' me that's the important thing here - that, an' how t' keep any more o' it from happ'nin'. Where do we go from here, friends?"

"Urthblood gets Latura back for us," Alex pounced, "and releases all other rats from Mossflower he's taken into custody this season."

"Ain't happening," Abellon muttered.

"And then he puts an end to this Purge of his," Alex plowed on as if the mouse captain hadn't spoken, "and withdraws all his Gawtrybe from the region of Redwall."

"Also not happening," Abellon said resignedly.

"If Urthblood wants peace, this is what he must do," Alex concluded. "If he presses on with his present course, I fear further clashes are inevitable." Pausing a moment, he added, "I'll make sure of it, in fact."

Abellon leaned forward at this. "Watch yerself; talk like that could land you inside a cell, and then maybe you'd appreciate just how much freedom we've allowed you so far."

"Do to me what you will; this won't come down to any one beast. My second-in-command of the Mossflower Patrol is perfectly capable and qualified to take my place there, and you'll find he'll not hesitate to take you on any more than I would. And my best friend happens to be Skipper of Redwall's otters; should anything happen to me, just watch how quickly he and his crew would turn against Urthblood. But then, he knows a thing or two about otters turning against him, doesn't he? Did you know one of the rats we currently shelter is an old comrade of yours? A captain by the name of Truax? Did you know it was another old comrade of yours who helped Truax escape to Redwall? Saybrook apparently thinks so little of your master's actions that he actively worked against them. Wonder how he'd feel if he knew Urthblood was slaying Redwallers and besieging our Abbey? Don't think it would take too much to tip him and his powerful Northlands holts into open opposition against Urthblood. Redwall and Noonvale share a powerful ancestral link; perhaps it's time to renew those ties, and bring Saybrook along for the ride. And for that matter, let's bring in that meddling Badger Lord from the south while we're at it, because Lord Sodexo is the stalwart friend of Redwall that Urthblood only pretends to be, and after what he saw on the Western Plains, he and the hundreds of willing fighters he can win to his cause from his realm will not I suspect hesitate in standing fast with us. Perhaps this is what we'll have to do, now that you've forced us to it: forge an alliance stretching from the Northlands all the way down through Mossflower to the Big Inland Lake and the Dancing Cliffs, a unified bladed shield to stand against Urthblood's spreading encroachment and turn back the tide of his tyranny."

"And why would you wish to do such a thing, Alexander of Redwall?"

During his righteous tirade, Alex grew so fervent that his voice carried far throughout the dining hall, and so wrapped up in what he was saying that he failed to notice the red-armored badger coming down one of the stone staircases and crossing the floor toward his table in time to hear the second half of the squirrel's speech. Alex turned to face Urthblood, still flushed from his outburst and taken by surprise at his hulking host's abrupt arrival, but in no way chagrined or abashed at being caught badmouthing Urthblood in the warlord's own fortress.

"Because you frankly seem incapable of knowing your own limits and boundaries, or respecting ours. Mossflower does not belong to you."

"Nor to you, as I understand it - which leaves me free to conduct any operations there I deem necessary for the safety and security of the lands. I trust you slept well? I would have you be comfortable during your stay here."

"I slept just fine. Your claims of working for the security of the lands have worn very thin with me and my fellow Redwallers. You abducted Latura because of the threat she posed to you, not to anybeast else. It was a move of naked aggression against us, to preserve your own power and not to help any other creature but you."

"But, if all my efforts have been to head off the great calamity my prophecy foretells and prepare the lands to deal with it, are they not one and the same thing? If the ratmaid truly could undo all my works, would that not be a disaster for all the lands? If she succeeded in bringing me down, might that not bring doom down upon us all? You cannot accuse me of acting only in my own self-interest - not if you knew what I know."

Alex was no more ready to back down than Urthblood was. "That may or may not be true where Latura's concerned - we have only your word on that - but then there's your wider campaign against all rats, and the atrocities being committed under the banner of your forces. I myself have witnessed no fewer than four instances of outright murder, and that was in the immediate vicinity of Redwall; I can only imagine what's gone on in other parts of Mossflower, or in the Northlands. I say the things I say now because your guests here have so far heard only your slanted version of events, and I felt I owed it to them to let them hear what's actually been going on in the inner lands."

"Then I must remind them that you do not necessarily speak for all of Redwall. If you did, where are your fellow envoys? Why did you come not in the presence of your fellow Abbeybeasts but a fugitive destined for resettlement? A companion, in fact, of the ratmaid who would have been my undoing? That is hardly diplomatic. Where is your note or dispatch from the Abbess? I can only conclude you are not here in any official capacity whatsoever - that, indeed you are a disgruntled renegade acting on your own, whose slanderous accusations are not to be taken at face value. I know more of the situation than you may realize. I know the Abbess did not approve your coming here. Did not, in fact, approve of any efforts to rescue the ratmaid whatsoever. Or would you deny that?"

"Do you deny that you confided to me, yesterday in this very chamber, that you believe it's your destiny to face Martin the Warrior in battle? A beast who's been dead since the first generation after Redwall's founding?"

"I said no such thing, and I would respectfully enjoin you from putting words in my mouth. What I said was that I believe my prophecy suggests my destiny may be that of the greatest warrior who ever lived, but since many will always regard Martin as holding that title, there will be no practical way of claiming it for myself. No reasonable creature would think I actually mean to test my skill against that of a ghost. That would be ... most farfetched, would it not?"

Alex scowled. "That's certainly not how you made it sound yesterday."

"Then you are perhaps as impetuous in jumping to erroneous conclusions as you are rash in embarking on fool's errands. But things between me and Redwall are settled - for now. I have only just dispatched a note to the Abbess, a special thank-you for her part in this. I am sure that once it reaches the Abbey, there will be no further troubles from that quarter."

"Why? What did you say to her?"

"It is a message intended for certain eyes only. But I think you may find some surprises awaiting you upon your return."

"What do you mean?"

"If I revealed all, it would not be a surprise, would it? And on the subject of revelations, that was a surprising one you divulged regarding Captain Saybrook. I must say I am most disappointed to learn of his activities involving Captain Truax; I had thought better of him than that. Perhaps I will have to have a word with him when I am next in the Northlands. But for now that shall have to wait, for more immediate and pressing matters demand my attention at this time."

Urthblood's gaze shifted to Whiskersalt. "I realize we have not concluded our talks here, but I am wondering if you and Captain Wakefern would object to continuing them while in transit? Now that the affair with the ratmaid has been resolved, circumstances compel me to travel south, and I would like to engage the Stronganchor for that purpose, to speed me on my way. How soon can you be ready to sail?"

This announcement surprised everybeast at the table; Alex had learned, before the breakfast conversation turned to Latura, that Wakefern and Whiskersalt were here at Urthblood's invitation to discuss an alliance between the Badger Lord and the sea otter holts of the western shores. (Ramjohn and Chobor, by contrast, had come to Salamandastron of their own accord, to complain about continued searat harassment of oceangoing trader vessels, and possible violations of the Accord in that regard, and to seek redress for the situation.) Given the loss of his otters the previous summer, Urthblood clearly - and logically - sought to bring the sea otters into his fold to make up for Saybrook's defection, and Alex could not imagine what new business might trump such negotiations in Urthblood's eyes - a sentiment voiced by the old chieftain as well.

"Reckern we could be off by day's end, Lord, if it be yore will," Whiskersalt replied, "but what matters would ye see as so urgent that ye'd disrupt our banter here t' put us all on th' move?"

Urthblood gave a sidelong glance at Alexander. "While this misguided dissident to his own Abbess speaks of forging an ill-advised and likely impossible alliance against me in Mossflower, I must see if I can forge an alliance of my own with Southsward."