“No, over there. Look, the big door is open. See, something moves!”

Slowly emerging from a patch of deep shadow, a ghostly figure glided into a shaft of moonlight.

The two rook sentries stood thunderstruck.

It was a mouse in gleaming armour, the mouse from the big cloth!

The spectre turned to face them, but it had no face! There was just a grey misty area where the face should have been. Raising a fearsome-looking sword, it pointed directly at the fearbound birds and intoned in a deep booming voice:

“Death comes if you stay in Redwalllll!”

Before the echoes had finished rebounding around Great Hall, the panic-stricken birds had fled in terror, tumbling and bumping into each other in their haste to get away from the ghastly sight.

*   *   *

Ironbeak was shocked into wakefulness by Grubclaw and Ragwing. The infirmary door banged open wide as they hurtled through, feathers flying in all directions.

“General, Yaggah! Whoocaw! A ghost, a ghost!”

“Death, it said. Death! Kraggak! Save us!”

Ironbeak struck out with both wings, belaboring the rooks. “Silence, you thickheads! Mangiz, come with me. You two, quickly, show us where you saw this thing.”

The four birds hurried through to the sentry post in the galleries.

Ragwing pointed a quivering claw. He was shaking uncontrollably. “Th-there-th-there-th-theretherethere!”

Ironbeak pushed him aside roughly. “Fool, I see nothing.”

“We were here and all of a sudden there it was. Right there!” Grubclaw tried to explain.

Ironbeak stared down at the spot they were both pointing to. “Kraak! There isn’t anything there! Right. You, Ragwing, tell me exactly what you saw, or I’ll make you more frightened of me than any ghost you’ve ever seen. Now stop yammering and stammering and talk slowly!”

“Well, Chief, me and Grubclaw were standing right here on sentry. We weren’t sleeping, oh no, we were wide awake. Then I says to him ‘What’s that moving down there?’ and he says to me, ‘It’s only shadows.’ Kraakh! When we looked again, there was a mouse, just like the warrior mouse on the big cloth, except this one had no face. It waved a sword at us, a big long sword, and it said, ‘Death comes to you if you stay in Redwall.’ That ghost spoke in a voice like no mouse. It was like thunder over the northland mountains, it was like, like—”

Ironbeak waved his wing threateningly. “Enough! I have heard enough. A ghost of a mouse, eh?”

Grubclaw could not help himself calling out, “A m-mouse all in armour, Chief. With a big sword!”

Ironbeak zoomed over the galleries. Winging downwards, he landed on the floor.

“And this is where it stood. Well, do you see any ghost now, do you?” he asked, his voice echoing around Great Hall.

The two sentries shook their heads numbly.

Ironbeak called out, “Kraggah! Ghost! I am General Ironbeak, greatest fighter in all the northlands. Come, ghost, see if you can scare me!”