BooksBarbecue
Back Marlfox
Chapters (79)
  1. CHARGE!
  2. THE REDWALL BOOKS
  3. Dedication
  4. Map
  5. PROLOGUE
  6. ACT ONE
  7. 1
  8. 1
  9. 2
  10. 2
  11. 3
  12. 3
  13. 4
  14. 4
  15. 5
  16. 5
  17. 6
  18. 6
  19. 7
  20. 7
  21. 8
  22. 8
  23. 9
  24. 9
  25. 10
  26. 10
  27. 11
  28. 11
  29. 12
  30. 12
  31. 13
  32. 13
  33. ACT TWO
  34. 14
  35. 14
  36. 15
  37. 15
  38. 16
  39. 16
  40. 17
  41. 17
  42. 18
  43. 18
  44. 19
  45. 19
  46. 20
  47. 20
  48. 21
  49. 21
  50. 22
  51. 22
  52. 23
  53. 23
  54. 24
  55. 24
  56. 25
  57. 25
  58. ACT THREE
  59. 26
  60. 26
  61. 27
  62. 27
  63. 28
  64. 28
  65. 29
  66. 29
  67. 30
  68. 30
  69. 31
  70. 31
  71. 32
  72. 32
  73. 33
  74. 33
  75. 34
  76. 34
  77. Epilogue
  78. Epilogue
  79. What’s next onyour reading list?

The logboat drifted on into the calm summer night.

17

17

A luminous white figure, with black pits for eyes and a gaping bloodstained mouth, drifted spectrally around the bedchamber of the High Queen Silth. Its voice seemed to come from afar, like the spirit of one lost upon a dark and distant shore.

“Siiiilth! I see you, I hear you, I will not rest until you are dead. Die, Siiiiilth!”

From within the curtained palanquin, which served her every purpose, Queen Silth’s voice screeched hoarse with terror. “Go away! Leave me in peace, White Ghost! Guards! Guards!”

Immediately the bedchamber door started to open, the figure vanished upward. Water rat guards bearing torches dashed into the already brightly lit room. Obediently, they searched every corner as the Queen ranted on. “It was here again, the White Ghost! Where’s my daughter Lantur? I want her here right now! Lantur, Lantur!”

In the room directly overhead, the vixen Lantur hauled up a sheet through the wide floorboard joints. It was heavily flecked with fish scales to make it appear luminous, with black charcoal and red dye marking out the face. Folding the sheet carefully, Lantur stowed it in a corner cupboard. The vixen replaced some loose boards in the cupboard’s bottom, but before doing so she directed a final spine-chilling moan into the bottom section, which connected with a similar cupboard in the Queen’s bedchamber below.

“Ooooohhhhuuuuurrrrrhhhhh!”

Closing the cupboard carefully, Lantur listened to the commotion set up by her mother as it echoed upward.

“There it goes again! I told you, fools, the White Ghost has been in this room, not a moment back. Find it! Lantur! I want Lantur!”

A moment later the vixen strolled calmly into the Queen’s bedchamber. She dismissed the guards, who were only too glad to get out of Silth’s presence. “Now what is it, Mother? Bad dreams again?”

“Don’t talk to me like that. How can I have dreams if I don’t sleep? The White Ghost was here again, just before you came in.”

“If you say so, Mother.”

“I am Queen here, you will address me as Queen! It was here, I saw it through the gauze curtain. You don’t believe me, do you?”

“O Queen, if you say it was here then it must have been. But where is it now? Why does nobeast save yourself see this White Ghost?”

“I don’t know! Do you?”

“Perhaps, O Queen, it is something from your memory, some enemy you slew long seasons ago, a restless spirit coming back for vengeance upon its killer . . .” Lantur narrowly dodged a drinking chalice that was hurled out at her from between the curtains. Silth’s voice was shrill with rage.