Chapter 4- Revealed
It had been a week since Cainwen and Martin had last spoken to each other. Cainwen had been avoiding Martin and everyone else. She was suspicious of every shadow and was rarely seen. She didn't eat with everyone, living instead on the sparse leftovers. No one had seen her in the dormitory since Martin was in the Infirmary. She had almost disappeared. When any one asked where she was, no one seemed to know. Martin had a feeling of her where- abouts, but since only she could get there, he doubted it would do little good to tell anyone.
Martin sat at the breakfast table, eight days after his encounter with Cainwen the Warrioress, who had then reverted back to just Cainwen. He helped himself to a large helping of porridge and began to eat when he saw a fleeting glimpse of Cainwen heading towards the door. Martin hurriedly excused himself and followed her. When he reached the door however, Cainwen was nowhere to be found. Martin's keen eyes roved over the whole door and frame. All the locks were still locked, but Cainwen had vanished. Pinned to the doorframe was a small scrap of paper. Written on it in a hurried hand was the message, "Went out to forest. Will come back later. Cainwen"
Martin sighed. He really had hoped to catch her before she got out. Now she was somewhere in Mossflower and probably wouldn't be back for hours. And he was supposed to go see to the tunnels today. She might return while he was out and disappear for who knew how long.
Martin shrugged and went back to the table. It was no use trying to catch Cainwen. She was a Warrioress and if she didn't want to be seen, then nobeast would see her. It was a shame really, thought Martin. She's a wonderful warrior and camouflage expert. She would be invaluable to the war effort as another capable warrior and spy. But she is more stubborn than anything on this earth. She could hold out forever if she took it to mind.
******************** Martin walked through Mossflower surrounded by Bella, Trubbs, his hares, and the half of the Corim army. They were headed to the rivers to see how the tunnels were going.
Suddenly, they caught a fleeting glance of Tsarmina and two rats hurring towards the river. They swiftly ran to the tunnel sight to see if she was heading there. When they reached there, however, they discovered that Tsarmina had not been seen. Nor did she show up the entire time they were there.
They returned to Brockhall in time for supper. As they arrived, Martin suddenly remembered that Cainwen had gone out to Mossflower, but he hadn't seen her. He conveyed his fears to Bella, who immediately called for a search of Brockhall. When no trace of Cainwen was found, Martin sat outside the door, waiting for her return until dark. Eventually he had to conclude that Cainwen was spending the night at her old cottage, and went inside to supper.
However, something kept him at the table, not letting him go to bed. So he sat and waited for what ever he was waiting for to arrive. It was very late when he heard the outside door close softly and the bolts slide into place. He turned toward the entrance hall and watched as a hooded and cloaked figure can out of the shadows. It came unsteadily towards him, veering from side to side until it reached the table and sat down slowly. Martin tried to peer under the hood and see the face.
"Cainwen?"
"Yes, Martin?"
"Where in the name of fur and cringe have you been? Don't you realize that the woods are full of vermin? Tsarina was spotted today and when you didn't show up for dinner we were all worried sick. You-"
"They weren't all worried. Just you and Bella," Cainwen said softly.
"What are you talking about, we all were worried! We- Cainwen, are you okay? Cainwen?"
Cainwen rocked back and forth, and fell off the bench, senseless.
"Cainwen!"
Martin shoved back his chair and knelt down at Cainwen's side. He slowly turn her over, her head rolling limply, knocking off her hood and the cloak, which had only been tied on loosely, slipped off, revealing what she had been concealing.
Martin gasped. Her face was raked and bloody. Her gown was torn, revealing deep gashes and wounds. Martin looked at his paw; it was stained crimson from Cainwen's blood. His tunic was also stained scarlet from holding her. Martin swept Cainwen into his arms and hurried towards the Infirmary. He laid Cainwen gently on an empty bed and shook awake the mouse on duty.
"Quick, get some bandages. Cainwen's just returned and she's badly wounded!"
The mousemaid leapt up, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She stared around dazed as Martin continued to shake her.
"What 're ya talking about Martin? There was no battle today. Besides, everybeast knows Cainwen ran away this morning,"
"She didn't run away and she's hurt! Can't you see that?"
"Martin, what is going on here?"
Martin spun around, releasing the mouse at the same time. He stared at Bella, who stood framed in the doorway, surrounded by all the creatures at Brockhall who had been awakened by his cries.
"Bella, I was waiting for Cainwen and she came in, covered in a cloak and walking unsteadily. She sat down and I started to tell how worried we'd been when she fell over. Her cloak fell off, and this is what she looked like!"
Martin walked over to the bed he had deposited Cainwen on and pulled back the cloak that covered her. A collective gasp arose from all within sight of her. Abbess Germaine rushed forward surrounded by three of her Loamhedge mice and started to attending to her wounds.
"Poor thing, I wonder what happened to her?"
"I don't know. I didn't get a chance to ask her," admitted Martin. "She blacked out too quickly. The last thing she said to me was that only Bella and I cared were she was. I told her it wasn't true but- Bella, what's the matter?"
Bella shook her head sadly. "Martin, you haven't been in Mossflower very long. Cainwen is, well, see, um."
"She's supposed to be dead!"
Murmurs at the outcry prevailed until Trubbs restored order.
"Steady on, chaps and chappesses. Explain yaself sah, who ever you are. Why is said creature supposed to have met her demise?"
A hedgehog stepped out of the crowd. He stood with paws akimbo at the hare's ignorance.
"Everybeast who's ever lived in Mossflower knows about the Curse of the Steel-eyes!"
Whispers of agreement to the Hedgehog's cryptic words went around the room. Martin banged the wall, re-establishing silence.
"Excuse my ignorance," he said irritably, "But what in the world is the Curse of the Steel-eyes?"
Lady Amber stepped forward. She faced Martin with look of ashamedness.
"Martin," she said softly," you haven't been in Mossflower long. Long before you came, when Verdauga was ruling, Cainwen's parents came to Mossflower. Her father was a Steel-eyes, a fearless warrior from far up north. His eyes, just as all of the Steel-eyes, had dusky blue gray eyes. When he got mad or his warrior blood rose, the blue left and turned to steel. The whites of his eyes turned flaming red, making them look like metal in forage. Her mother came from the far southwest; also a fearless warrior, with beautiful hazel eyes. They felt that the best way to protect Mossflower was to help Verdauga protect it. They became spies, and they kept more than four wars from starting. We rejected them, thinking that they were working with the enemy.
"When Cainwen was born, Verdauga let her mother retire from service. As Cainwen grew, he seemed to grow a soft spot for her. Tsarmina hated the idea of a woodlander helping her father. She hated Cainwen more than anything. When Cainwen was barely three seasons old, her mother died, rest her soul. She really was a wonderful mouse, always helping. Anyway, when Verdauga heard about her death, he allowed Cainwen's father to retire to raise her, on the condition that he brought her to see him once a season. Not long after that, Verdauga got sick, and Tsarmina started to rule. Cainwen's father joined the rebellion, leaving Cainwen. He was massacred, and Cainwen mourned for two days, finally falling into a ditch on the far reaches of Mossflower. In past seasons, it had been filled with huge thorn bushes and falling in there meant sure death. We witnessed her falling in, Bella, Skipper and myself. She disappeared after that until she turned up early last spring. She's cursed, Martin. So we were a bit cold to her, we thought she might bring bad luck to us."
Martin rolled his eyes and looked at the assembly with a fatherly look.
"Bad luck?" he said incredibly," How could some beast who survived something like that be bad luck? Now, do any one know what happened to Cainwen today?!"
A young shrew stepped forward.
"Excuse me sir, but she saved our lives today."
"Pardon?" said Skipper.
"She saved our lives," repeated the shrew. " Me and some of my friends. We were fishing by the river today, hoping to have some fish for supper tonight, when that wildcat Tsarmina comes tearing through the woods. She got us backed up against the river and was about to start killing us when Miz Cainwen comes roaring out of the woods like a whirlwind, armed with a dirk and a dagger and starts attacking Tsarmina. She tells us to run, she had a score to settle. We ran and didn't see her since, until now."
"Well, that explains a lot," said Lady Amber. "But I don't get one thing. What score would she have to settle?"
"Maybe she's just plain a lunatic!"
"Maybe because Tsarmina hated her?" ventured forth Columbine who had just started to bind a wound on Cainwen's right paw.
"I don't think so, somehow," said Martin. "She seemed too sensible to want to do something like that for hate alone. Maybe there's just something we plainly don't know about her."
Foremole scratched his nose. "Ho, Burr, oi do think that she do have more to hoide than the sea."
Abbess Germaine wiped some blood off Cainwen's face with a damp cloth. "Poor thing, she must be mad to do something like that."
Bella shook her head. "I don't believe so Abbess. She has a good, sensible head on her shoulders. But she is a warrioress and can be irrational when fighting her enemies. Just like her mother."
Bella looked around at the assembly. "Come now, it was time we were all back in bed. I'll see everyone tomorrow morning. Good night."
Slowly the creatures left the Infirmary for their beds. Martin went to the other end of the Infirmary and crawled under the covers. What a strange day, he thought. A sad, strange day. Good creatures had almost been lost to Tsarmina, and then there was Cainwen. What score did she have to settle with Tsarmina? And there was still the question of what was on her head that he had seen that night? Sleep slowly enveloped his senses and claimed the warrior mouse.
*****************
Martin was called sharply back to consciousness as a muffled shriek from the other end of the room, followed by a roar like that of a wounded wolf. He fell out of bed in a tangle of sheets. Tearing the sheets from himself in his hurry, he ran helter-skelter to Cainwen's bedside where the screams had come from. Abbess Germaine and her helpers stood with their paws over their mouth and staring horrified at Cainwen. One of her assistants pointed a quivering paw at Cainwen's head.
Martin followed her paw and gasped. Now that he saw what he had glimpsed in the corridor that night, he wished that he had never seen it. Running from the base of her left ear to the beginning of her neck, there was a huge, red scar. It looked like a jagged river of blood. It glinted in the dim torchlight. Suddenly, as if awakened by some inner alarm, Cainwen's eyes shot open, and she struggled upright, pointing an accusing paw at Martin, and trying to cover her scar with the other.
"You!" she growled, her eyes becoming like metal in a fire. "I should have known you'd do something like this! You swore to find out my secret! It will cost me my life and happiness now you, you, you." she began to breathe heavily; he eyes clouded and she fell back onto the pillows, a pained look etched on her face.
Martin stared in dumb shock. So that's what she was hiding. But why did it cause her so much pain? Scars weren't supposed to hurt. Or was it her scar? Why would it cost her her life and happiness?
Martin shook himself out of his stupor. He turned to Abbess Germaine.
"I think you have done enough tonight. Go to bed all of you. I'll discuss this with Bella on the morrow."
Germaine rose and beckoned her aides to follow. Martin watched them go. He turned back to Cainwen. Her face even in sleep, was troubled, pained and upset. He sighed. Nothing in Mossflower was clearly black and white. Every thing was grey and cloudy.
It had been a week since Cainwen and Martin had last spoken to each other. Cainwen had been avoiding Martin and everyone else. She was suspicious of every shadow and was rarely seen. She didn't eat with everyone, living instead on the sparse leftovers. No one had seen her in the dormitory since Martin was in the Infirmary. She had almost disappeared. When any one asked where she was, no one seemed to know. Martin had a feeling of her where- abouts, but since only she could get there, he doubted it would do little good to tell anyone.
Martin sat at the breakfast table, eight days after his encounter with Cainwen the Warrioress, who had then reverted back to just Cainwen. He helped himself to a large helping of porridge and began to eat when he saw a fleeting glimpse of Cainwen heading towards the door. Martin hurriedly excused himself and followed her. When he reached the door however, Cainwen was nowhere to be found. Martin's keen eyes roved over the whole door and frame. All the locks were still locked, but Cainwen had vanished. Pinned to the doorframe was a small scrap of paper. Written on it in a hurried hand was the message, "Went out to forest. Will come back later. Cainwen"
Martin sighed. He really had hoped to catch her before she got out. Now she was somewhere in Mossflower and probably wouldn't be back for hours. And he was supposed to go see to the tunnels today. She might return while he was out and disappear for who knew how long.
Martin shrugged and went back to the table. It was no use trying to catch Cainwen. She was a Warrioress and if she didn't want to be seen, then nobeast would see her. It was a shame really, thought Martin. She's a wonderful warrior and camouflage expert. She would be invaluable to the war effort as another capable warrior and spy. But she is more stubborn than anything on this earth. She could hold out forever if she took it to mind.
******************** Martin walked through Mossflower surrounded by Bella, Trubbs, his hares, and the half of the Corim army. They were headed to the rivers to see how the tunnels were going.
Suddenly, they caught a fleeting glance of Tsarmina and two rats hurring towards the river. They swiftly ran to the tunnel sight to see if she was heading there. When they reached there, however, they discovered that Tsarmina had not been seen. Nor did she show up the entire time they were there.
They returned to Brockhall in time for supper. As they arrived, Martin suddenly remembered that Cainwen had gone out to Mossflower, but he hadn't seen her. He conveyed his fears to Bella, who immediately called for a search of Brockhall. When no trace of Cainwen was found, Martin sat outside the door, waiting for her return until dark. Eventually he had to conclude that Cainwen was spending the night at her old cottage, and went inside to supper.
However, something kept him at the table, not letting him go to bed. So he sat and waited for what ever he was waiting for to arrive. It was very late when he heard the outside door close softly and the bolts slide into place. He turned toward the entrance hall and watched as a hooded and cloaked figure can out of the shadows. It came unsteadily towards him, veering from side to side until it reached the table and sat down slowly. Martin tried to peer under the hood and see the face.
"Cainwen?"
"Yes, Martin?"
"Where in the name of fur and cringe have you been? Don't you realize that the woods are full of vermin? Tsarina was spotted today and when you didn't show up for dinner we were all worried sick. You-"
"They weren't all worried. Just you and Bella," Cainwen said softly.
"What are you talking about, we all were worried! We- Cainwen, are you okay? Cainwen?"
Cainwen rocked back and forth, and fell off the bench, senseless.
"Cainwen!"
Martin shoved back his chair and knelt down at Cainwen's side. He slowly turn her over, her head rolling limply, knocking off her hood and the cloak, which had only been tied on loosely, slipped off, revealing what she had been concealing.
Martin gasped. Her face was raked and bloody. Her gown was torn, revealing deep gashes and wounds. Martin looked at his paw; it was stained crimson from Cainwen's blood. His tunic was also stained scarlet from holding her. Martin swept Cainwen into his arms and hurried towards the Infirmary. He laid Cainwen gently on an empty bed and shook awake the mouse on duty.
"Quick, get some bandages. Cainwen's just returned and she's badly wounded!"
The mousemaid leapt up, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She stared around dazed as Martin continued to shake her.
"What 're ya talking about Martin? There was no battle today. Besides, everybeast knows Cainwen ran away this morning,"
"She didn't run away and she's hurt! Can't you see that?"
"Martin, what is going on here?"
Martin spun around, releasing the mouse at the same time. He stared at Bella, who stood framed in the doorway, surrounded by all the creatures at Brockhall who had been awakened by his cries.
"Bella, I was waiting for Cainwen and she came in, covered in a cloak and walking unsteadily. She sat down and I started to tell how worried we'd been when she fell over. Her cloak fell off, and this is what she looked like!"
Martin walked over to the bed he had deposited Cainwen on and pulled back the cloak that covered her. A collective gasp arose from all within sight of her. Abbess Germaine rushed forward surrounded by three of her Loamhedge mice and started to attending to her wounds.
"Poor thing, I wonder what happened to her?"
"I don't know. I didn't get a chance to ask her," admitted Martin. "She blacked out too quickly. The last thing she said to me was that only Bella and I cared were she was. I told her it wasn't true but- Bella, what's the matter?"
Bella shook her head sadly. "Martin, you haven't been in Mossflower very long. Cainwen is, well, see, um."
"She's supposed to be dead!"
Murmurs at the outcry prevailed until Trubbs restored order.
"Steady on, chaps and chappesses. Explain yaself sah, who ever you are. Why is said creature supposed to have met her demise?"
A hedgehog stepped out of the crowd. He stood with paws akimbo at the hare's ignorance.
"Everybeast who's ever lived in Mossflower knows about the Curse of the Steel-eyes!"
Whispers of agreement to the Hedgehog's cryptic words went around the room. Martin banged the wall, re-establishing silence.
"Excuse my ignorance," he said irritably, "But what in the world is the Curse of the Steel-eyes?"
Lady Amber stepped forward. She faced Martin with look of ashamedness.
"Martin," she said softly," you haven't been in Mossflower long. Long before you came, when Verdauga was ruling, Cainwen's parents came to Mossflower. Her father was a Steel-eyes, a fearless warrior from far up north. His eyes, just as all of the Steel-eyes, had dusky blue gray eyes. When he got mad or his warrior blood rose, the blue left and turned to steel. The whites of his eyes turned flaming red, making them look like metal in forage. Her mother came from the far southwest; also a fearless warrior, with beautiful hazel eyes. They felt that the best way to protect Mossflower was to help Verdauga protect it. They became spies, and they kept more than four wars from starting. We rejected them, thinking that they were working with the enemy.
"When Cainwen was born, Verdauga let her mother retire from service. As Cainwen grew, he seemed to grow a soft spot for her. Tsarmina hated the idea of a woodlander helping her father. She hated Cainwen more than anything. When Cainwen was barely three seasons old, her mother died, rest her soul. She really was a wonderful mouse, always helping. Anyway, when Verdauga heard about her death, he allowed Cainwen's father to retire to raise her, on the condition that he brought her to see him once a season. Not long after that, Verdauga got sick, and Tsarmina started to rule. Cainwen's father joined the rebellion, leaving Cainwen. He was massacred, and Cainwen mourned for two days, finally falling into a ditch on the far reaches of Mossflower. In past seasons, it had been filled with huge thorn bushes and falling in there meant sure death. We witnessed her falling in, Bella, Skipper and myself. She disappeared after that until she turned up early last spring. She's cursed, Martin. So we were a bit cold to her, we thought she might bring bad luck to us."
Martin rolled his eyes and looked at the assembly with a fatherly look.
"Bad luck?" he said incredibly," How could some beast who survived something like that be bad luck? Now, do any one know what happened to Cainwen today?!"
A young shrew stepped forward.
"Excuse me sir, but she saved our lives today."
"Pardon?" said Skipper.
"She saved our lives," repeated the shrew. " Me and some of my friends. We were fishing by the river today, hoping to have some fish for supper tonight, when that wildcat Tsarmina comes tearing through the woods. She got us backed up against the river and was about to start killing us when Miz Cainwen comes roaring out of the woods like a whirlwind, armed with a dirk and a dagger and starts attacking Tsarmina. She tells us to run, she had a score to settle. We ran and didn't see her since, until now."
"Well, that explains a lot," said Lady Amber. "But I don't get one thing. What score would she have to settle?"
"Maybe she's just plain a lunatic!"
"Maybe because Tsarmina hated her?" ventured forth Columbine who had just started to bind a wound on Cainwen's right paw.
"I don't think so, somehow," said Martin. "She seemed too sensible to want to do something like that for hate alone. Maybe there's just something we plainly don't know about her."
Foremole scratched his nose. "Ho, Burr, oi do think that she do have more to hoide than the sea."
Abbess Germaine wiped some blood off Cainwen's face with a damp cloth. "Poor thing, she must be mad to do something like that."
Bella shook her head. "I don't believe so Abbess. She has a good, sensible head on her shoulders. But she is a warrioress and can be irrational when fighting her enemies. Just like her mother."
Bella looked around at the assembly. "Come now, it was time we were all back in bed. I'll see everyone tomorrow morning. Good night."
Slowly the creatures left the Infirmary for their beds. Martin went to the other end of the Infirmary and crawled under the covers. What a strange day, he thought. A sad, strange day. Good creatures had almost been lost to Tsarmina, and then there was Cainwen. What score did she have to settle with Tsarmina? And there was still the question of what was on her head that he had seen that night? Sleep slowly enveloped his senses and claimed the warrior mouse.
*****************
Martin was called sharply back to consciousness as a muffled shriek from the other end of the room, followed by a roar like that of a wounded wolf. He fell out of bed in a tangle of sheets. Tearing the sheets from himself in his hurry, he ran helter-skelter to Cainwen's bedside where the screams had come from. Abbess Germaine and her helpers stood with their paws over their mouth and staring horrified at Cainwen. One of her assistants pointed a quivering paw at Cainwen's head.
Martin followed her paw and gasped. Now that he saw what he had glimpsed in the corridor that night, he wished that he had never seen it. Running from the base of her left ear to the beginning of her neck, there was a huge, red scar. It looked like a jagged river of blood. It glinted in the dim torchlight. Suddenly, as if awakened by some inner alarm, Cainwen's eyes shot open, and she struggled upright, pointing an accusing paw at Martin, and trying to cover her scar with the other.
"You!" she growled, her eyes becoming like metal in a fire. "I should have known you'd do something like this! You swore to find out my secret! It will cost me my life and happiness now you, you, you." she began to breathe heavily; he eyes clouded and she fell back onto the pillows, a pained look etched on her face.
Martin stared in dumb shock. So that's what she was hiding. But why did it cause her so much pain? Scars weren't supposed to hurt. Or was it her scar? Why would it cost her her life and happiness?
Martin shook himself out of his stupor. He turned to Abbess Germaine.
"I think you have done enough tonight. Go to bed all of you. I'll discuss this with Bella on the morrow."
Germaine rose and beckoned her aides to follow. Martin watched them go. He turned back to Cainwen. Her face even in sleep, was troubled, pained and upset. He sighed. Nothing in Mossflower was clearly black and white. Every thing was grey and cloudy.