A/N: This is the final instalment of The Assassin's Bride- hope you liked it! Thank you so much for reading (especially to those of you who reviewed!) and I hope I'll have something new to offer you soon. :)

"Ferahgo!" One of the cloaked ones came in again, interrupting them. Marelda thought the rat would be hurt, judging by the look on his face, but the worst the leader ended up doing was snapping at him.

"What is it this time, you blubbering buffoon?!"

"A riot. An uproar. They say you're going soft and I think that they may try to replace you. You need to get out here now if you want to keep your control."

The weasel leapt up, refusing to even wince, pushing past Marelda and getting dangerously close to the messenger of bad news. Marelda held Klitch tightly in her arms and murmured a lullaby to keep the babe distracted, while her own eyes were glued on the potential confrontation.

"No one tells me what to do so as not to lose control over my horde. I always have control. And if any of them think I'm weakening, they are going to be sorely mistaken." He snarled, pushing the rat backwards and muttering curses. He left the tent with a flourish and neither Marelda nor the cloaked villain waited for an invitation to follow him.

A crowd was outside his tent, still sitting down and discussing the details of their plan. Most looked at their leader with horror- the rest with simple shock at seeing him standing before them again, looking just as strong as ever. One thing was for certain, he was still as vicious and tenacious as ever.

"Anyone who thinks I'm going soft because of a pathetic shrew, a fox maid and a runt can come up and challenge me to my face now! If any of you think that you have the brains and the brawn to take control of this horde, don't act like the pathetic cowards you are and shoot me through the back- come face me and we'll settle this like decent beasts! There is honour among thieves, my friends! Step up if you dare."

The vermin looked nervously at each other, all of their confidence suddenly evaporating under Ferahgo's deep blue stare. He grinned when no beast stepped forward. He raised his eyebrows and turned to go back in the tent, muttering to Marelda to start packing for the march. They were continuing on to Redwall. The deception would have to continue.

The march North was easy going- they stopped often at Marelda's command, with Ferahgo pretending the entire time that he was strong enough to continue. His wound was constantly infected and was reopened half a hundred times, but there was not a grimace from the tough hearted leader. She found it one of his very few admirable qualities. And even though they were never alone, she caught his glances and saw his thoughts through his piercing orbs of blue. Every night as she pretended to doze, she thought of the day he invaded and hated him for it, yet every morning her heart would melt. He was cruel and heartless, but, he didn't know any different. And he did have the capacity to care for another creature. She could only hope that changing him wasn't impossible.

Little Klitch seemed to grow on him, too. He would have the little guy sit up on his shoulder sometimes and teach him the names of all the different kinds of weapons one could see looking over the Corpsemakers. It wasn't a great thing to teach a babe, but, Marelda had all the faith in the world that Klitch could turn out better than his adoptive father. Besides, Ferahgo had never held any beast so fragile so close in his life. It was a new experience for them both. It was almost like the three of them were some kind of...family. Something that made the hole in Marelda's heart slowly start to get smaller.

Until the day they came across a tribe of squirrels. They were only a few days from getting a good look at Redwall. They had already seen the tips of it's towers and Ferahgo was practically drooling over the thought of it being his. It would be a castle you could see for miles. A proper headquarters. Of course, he'd have to conquer every beast in every direction reaching as far as necessary as fast as possible. But that was only a minor detail.

The tribe was somewhere in between wild and primitive and having civilized conversation and ideas, leaning more towards the former. There was no way around them and usually a horde of thousands could not go through a tribe without a little reaction. No prisoners and no survivors was the way Ferahgo tended to operate, having given up on the slave/servant idea. The plan was simple- go in, create a massacre, get out. No more complicated storming and surrounding ideas. The assassin wasn't about to waste time and mind power on a bunch of wild fluff tails.

Marelda had a harder time figuring out how to defy her newfound fiancee this time. It was easier with the shrews, who weren't dangerous. The squirrels were unpredictable and she couldn't risk much more than she was already giving to talk to them and warn them about their impending doom. Not to mention she was not given very much notice. They were storming the next morning, after the scouts returned to tell them that the tribe was just ahead.

It was all she could do to sneak out of the camp once Ferahgo was finally asleep. The babe was strapped tightly to her back, because she couldn't risk him crying for her and waking anyone up. No beast could know that she had gone or she'd be exiled. She was not afraid of being killed anymore. She didn't think Ferahgo could bring himself to do it after he'd admitted his feelings for her.

She arrived just outside the camp at near midnight, by her estimation. She could see them all sleeping restlessly on crude makeshift blankets made of soft, wet, river reeds. She was in the process of quieting Klitch and figuring out who their leader was, when she heard a noise behind her. A giggle. She whirled around and found herself at spear point.

She didn't act surprised or alarmed, though she was both. Since joining the Corpsemakers, her emotions had been as easy to hide as the diamonds that still lay underneath her clothes. She was face to face with a strange looking reptile creature and who she assumed to be the squirrel cheiftan.

"Hello, friends. I mean you no harm." she said cordially. The squirrel gave a high pitched laugh that set Klitch to tears. Marelda held the babe close.

"Ssshe isss from the horde- she liessss!" hissed the reptile. The cheiftan poked the stick at her, jestingly. She didn't move. Her captors frowned.

"I do not lie, but yes, I am from there. I am here to tell you that he is coming, and his battle plan so you can defend yourselves. If you are willing to listen, that is."

"Ha! So you know all of the assassin's secrets, is that what you claim? Liar! No beast gets to him."

"This beast does. Why do you think I am holding his son if he did not trust me? I am here to help you. Would you mind putting the spear down? I'm not going to try to hurt you."

The squirrel looked at the lizard, and the lizard looked at the squirrel. The one started chattering in a dialect she couldn't follow and the reptile continued to hiss back it's replies. Finally, the two looked back at her and grinned. She tried to dodge, but the blunt end of the cheif's weapon still caught her and she blacked out.

She woke up to the crackle of a fire, ropes around all her limbs and for a second she thought that everything she'd gone through had just been a mysterious dream and she was still tied in Ferahgo's slave line, the night after her family had been slaughtered. But as she opened her eyes, she found herself in Ferahgo's tent, with the squirrel and lizard looking over her.

"She's awake! She's awake! Now what are you going to do with her- the traitor? Heeehee!" they giggled with delight. It made Marelda sick.

"Our deal has been finalized. You may leave." He said, his voice neither calm nor furious. The words were almost slurred and muttered, as if he didn't have the energy to open his mouth. She looked up at him and slowly sat up. He turned to her once they had left.

"They say you were trading in secrets. You'd better have a good explanation for this."

"They say I was doing what?! That's ridiculous! They kidnapped us! I would never-"

"Those buffoons would not have the sense to strap a babe to you and take Klitch too! Tell me the truth!" He yelled. He had never yelled at her like that before and she found herself starting to shake. She desperately tried to figure out an excuse, but there was none. He had to find out sometime. She looked up at him, sadly.

"What do you want me to say, then? I am not a vermin and I never could be." She said softly. Ferahgo slapped her hard across the cheek and she almost fell into the fire. Even she had to admit, she did deserve that. She looked back up at him from the ground where she lay, with Klitch crying in the background as if he understood what was going on.

Ferahgo's eyes were empty and that hurt Marelda more than his sorrow or his hatred. She was unsure as to what he was going to do, but she couldn't imagine him doing anything worse than telling her to get out of his sight. Turns out she was wrong.

"You...you are a kniving little wench and I...you stooped lower than even I dare to go and betrayed me. No one- male or female, bride or not- gets away with back stabbing Ferahgo the assassin!"

"Ferahgo...You could be so much better. I am not sorry, but I wish with all my heart that you would see that it is not you I despise enough to do this to. It is the fact that you have killed too many innocent creatures for me to ever be able to stand here in this place of power and not do anything about it. You and me, we could walk away from this?"

"No. Only you will walk away from this. You will take a long walk away from this. All the way to the happy little forest that no creature has ever returned from." One swipe of the knife blade hidden underneath his clothes and Marelda was back with her family, sipping from a cold spring and crying with joy. Her corpse, however, laid motionless at Ferahgo's feet. He turned around and left the tent, almost unable to speak through his fury and frustration.

2 Seasons Later...

They had not gone to Redwall. He never intended to see that horrible place of red stone. It would remind him of her, he could feel it. They had just arrived back home. In the southern lands, where people cowered constantly before him, afraid of his terrible might. It was still not the same. Klitch was at his side. He couldn't bear to get rid of the tyke. Not to mention he did need someone to carry on his legacy. One that would keep growing. His reign of destruction had widened since Marelda's murder, due to his rage. No one dared come close any more. He preferred it that way.

He returned to his home, for the first time in several seasons. It was a small stone hut. Easily destroyed and easily rebuilt. The rest of the horde slept in tents unless they made their own shelter near by. But when Ferahgo opened his door, he was blinded by his own reflexion.

It glared back at him via innumerable diamonds of every, shape and size, shimmering in the light. A simple note was left behind, it read:

Remember her, you murderer. Remember her child. And remember that she did it all for what you did to me. I'll be watching you. You can count on that.

the last survivor,

Klitch

--

The room was still as the fox stretched in his chair, looking around to see the effect of his story. The dubbins looked confused, the older ones looked intrigued, while the adults just sat there in solemn silence. The older ones only seemed to be trying to remember something long forgotten.

"Ferahgo never kept the diamonds. They were thrown into the river and are probably at the bottom of a lake bed by now, or in the paws of some kind of otter tribe. Either way, they are not in the paws of any vermin of any type any more. Ferahgo is long gone and that is all the tale has to offer."

"But why did you go to all that work of giving him the diamonds, then?" asked a well built hedgehog, wisely.

The fox smiled. "You have put the facts together correctly. I am Klitch. I was the only one left alive who knew where all the diamonds were hidden and I figured I would use my young mind to my advantage, lest I forget later, or trip over a rock and fall off a cliff. I gave them to Ferahgo to show him something. I had no need of being rich. I had nothing to do with pounds and pounds of shiny rocks. But Ferahgo, he would see that what he got was not what he really wanted, and might put them to good use. The diamonds are just rare stones. There are other stashes in the world."

"Why did you never tell her you were there, though? She was doing it all for you." asked a young mouse, wise beyond his years. Although it was a question everyone had burning in their minds.

"Because she never would have done it had it not been for me. Her pain was a small price to pay, considering the lives she saved, don't you think? Sometimes brave people have to give a lot to give others even more..."