Matthias was running with a basket of nuts near the tapestry of the abbey warrior,Martin the warrior,when he tripped on his robe.he heard a voice ghostly voice saying”I am that is!My sword shall wield for me. Matthias stared at the picture of his warrior on the tapestry.”Martin?” he said, when the abbot, and old mouse wearing glasses and an old brown robe walked in. “Abbot Mortimer!” Matthias yelled.”hello Matthias.is anything the matter?” He asked”I think Martin spoke to me.”

Matthias followed Abbot Mortimer out of the tapestry room. His green robe dragged on the stone floor. He caught the hem in his paws and hurried to keep up. The old mouse walked slowly, hands folded behind his back. Matthias needed his permission. Without it, he could not leave his duties. Without it, he could not search for the warrior's sword. "Father Abbot, please," Matthias said. "The voice was real. Martin spoke to me. He said his sword shall wield for me." Abbot Mortimer stopped. He turned and looked at Matthias over his small glasses. His brown robe hung loose on his thin frame. He smiled the way old mice smile at small ones. "Martin the Warrior has been gone for many seasons, young one," he said. His mustache twitched. "You tripped and knocked your head. That is all." "I did not knock my head," Matthias said. "I heard him." "You heard the wind in the rafters." The Abbot patted his shoulder. "There is no sword. There is only work. The nut baskets need carrying. The garden needs weeding." He kept his voice soft, but the words closed like a gate. "Put this dream aside. Go back to your chores." Matthias felt his face grow hot. He wanted to argue. But the Abbot ruled the Abbey, and Matthias answered to him. He lowered his head. "Yes, Father Abbot." The old mouse nodded, pleased, and walked on. His sandals slapped the stone. Matthias watched him go until he turned a corner and was gone. Matthias did not go to the garden. He stood alone in the cold hallway. The Abbot had refused him. There would be no permission, no help, no search. He knew now that no elder in Redwall would believe a young mouse about a ghost. He looked toward the great doors of the Abbey. Beyond them lay the red brick wall and its wooden gates. Beyond the gates lay Mossflower, wide and green and full of forgotten places. The sword was out there. He was sure of it. Matthias made his choice in the empty hall. He would not ask again. He would go himself, without leave, and find what the voice had promised. If he was caught, the Abbot would be angry. He might lose his place at Redwall forever. He gathered his oversized robe in both paws and walked toward the doors. His small heart pounded. He was one young mouse against a whole forest, and he had no map and no plan. But asking had failed. Only leaving remained. He pushed the heavy door open a crack. Cold morning air touched his face. The wooden gates stood ahead, shut and waiting. Somewhere a bell rang for morning chores. Matthias slipped through the door and let it close behind him. He had stopped asking for permission. Now he only had to find a way past the gates.

Matthias stood in the shadow of the wooden gates and stopped. Mossflower spread beyond the wall, green and endless. He had no map. He did not know where the sword lay hidden, or where to begin. The forest could swallow a small mouse and leave no trace. He could walk for days and find nothing but tired paws. Then he thought of the voice. "I am that is." The words made no sense to him. But someone in the Abbey might know their meaning. One mouse would. Methuselah was the oldest creature at Redwall. He kept the Abbey's records and read the old scripts no one else could. Matthias had sat at his feet as a small mouse, listening to tales of Martin. If any riddle had an answer, the ancient one held it. Matthias turned from the gates and slipped back inside. He found Methuselah bent over a table in the dim record room. Dust hung in the light. The old mouse squinted through small glasses that rested low on his nose. His long mustache brushed the page. Brown sandals showed under his robe. He did not look up. "Doors are for closing, young Matthias," he said. "The draft finds my old bones." Matthias shut the door and came close. "I need your help. I heard a voice by the warrior's tapestry. It said, 'I am that is. My sword shall wield for me.' What does it mean?" Methuselah set down his quill. His eyes sharpened behind the glasses. "Say it again." "I am that is," Matthias repeated. The old mouse rose and shuffled to the wall. He ran a paw along the stone below the great tapestry, where Martin stood woven in armor with sword and shield. "Those are not idle words," he said. "They are older than the Abbey. A rhyme hides in them." He tilted his head and studied the woven mouse. "Look at the picture, not the words. Martin points the way himself." Matthias looked. Martin's woven paw held the sword. But his eyes stared past it, upward, toward the roof of the Abbey. "He looks up," Matthias said. "To the towers?" Methuselah smiled. "'I am that is' names a season and a place. The riddle sends the reader to the north tower loft, where the old records rot. Something waits there. A verse, I think, cut into the wall long ago. I read of it once and never climbed to see." He tapped Matthias's shoulder. "You have young legs. Go up. Read what Martin left. That is your first true step." Matthias's heart lifted. He no longer faced a blind forest. He had a place to begin, inside these very walls. He gathered his green robe and turned for the stairs. But the loft lay high and locked behind the Abbey's heavy doors. To reach it unseen, he would have to climb past the very elders who must never learn he had stayed.

Matthias was walking up the stairs when he heard Cornflower and Methuselah running after him.”Matthias!” They said”come back! Look what cornflower found!” Matthias went back to them”what is it?” He asked”Cornflower,tell him!” Methuselah said” behind the tapestry! Look!”there it was. On the wall there was a riddle saying: “am that is”.then it said:The same as the steps ‘twixt the Hall,Remember and look to the center.My password again is Redwall,Am that is,you alone are to enter.”what can it mean?” Asked Matthias.old Methuselah said”more importantly,where did the tapestry go?

“Matthias,where did the tapestry go?” Asked Methuselah. Matthias gasped.”No!!it can’t be gone!!” He exclaimed. Suddenly the abbot walked in. “Come look at this”he said. They walked to the gates.there by a nearby bush,was a black rat laying dead on the ground. “I recognize this one.he’s one of Cluny the scourge’s. He took the tapestry! I know it”said Methuselah. Cornflower ran over.”Matthias! I found out what am that is means!”she yelled.” What does it mean Cornflower?” Methuselah asked.” Matthias!” Suddenly old Methuselah started laughing” Matthias!” He said. “What?” Asked Matthias. “Am that is, rearrange the words and you get Matthias!” Shouted cornflower