Sela the vixen had lived on her wits for many years. She was a counterspy by nature. In any dispute or conflict, she invariably sold secrets to both sides. It was a dangerous game, but one that she had played well thus far.

Now she did a hopping little dance around Cluny's sickbed, muttering charms and spells in a singsong voice, while her son Chickenhound played a tambourine.

"Enough!" Cluny yelled. "Give me the herbs."

Sela stopped dancing. "The herbs without the magic may not have the desired effect, o great one."

"If you and your idiot son want to leave here alive, give me the herbs now!"

Sela bowed. "As you wish, my master." She started placing herb poultices and healing salves on all the Warlord's wounds.

Cluny's captains came in. "Where are the plans?" Cluny asked.

Fangburn stepped forward. "Right here, Chief, just like you ordered." He handed Cluny a scroll.

Cluny unrolled it. "This is how we get inside. A battering ram. Work on the ram is to start immediately. Construction is to be completed by sunup. Redwall Abbey will be in our paws by midday tomorrow, or breakfast may be the last meal you ever eat. Am I making myself clear?"

There was a chorus of affirmative answers.

"Got it, Chief."

"Aye, Chief."

"Absolutely!"

"Yes, sir!"

A sneaky look passed between Sela and Chickenhound.

The other rats left, but Sela and her son stayed with Cluny until he fell asleep. Then Chickenhound picked up the secret plans and the two foxes sneaked out of the room. "Who's the idiot now?" Chickenhound said.

When they were gone, Cluny's eye opened. He hadn't been asleep at all!

"They took the bait," he muttered. "Someday I gotta learn to play chess. I'd be unbeatable."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Matthias, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie walked down the secret tunnel until they came to a door. The door had forty-nine iron spikes sticking out of it. There was no knob.

"How do we get in?" Pinkie wondered.

Twilight studied the spikes. "I read about something like this in a Daring Do book once. I think you open the door by pushing on one of these spikes."

"Okay!" Pinkie reached out a hoof, but Twilight grabbed her arm.

"We don't wanna press on the wrong one, because they might be booby-trapped. That's what happened to Daring Do in the book. She put her hand on the wrong spike and a big boulder started rolling toward her."

"Look, there's some writing above the door," Matthias said.

Twilight read it aloud.

"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."

"Look to the center," Matthias repeated. "This door has forty-nine spikes in it. Seven rows of seven. That means the center spike is the fourth one, up, down, or across. That's this one here."

He placed his paw on the spike right in the middle. The door swung open.

"Well done," said Twilight. "You're as smart as Star Swirl the Bearded."

"I don't know who that is, but I'll take it as a compliment," Matthias said. "Come on, friends, we go in together."

"But the rhyme says that only you may enter," Twilight protested.

Matthias answered in a strange, full voice. He seemed to grow in years and stature. "I am that is. Martin is Matthias. As my trusted friends and faithful companion, I say that you may enter with me."

Twilight felt herself in the presence of one many times older than she. The two ponies and the mouse advanced through the doorway.

It was a small, low ceilinged chamber. A stone block rested squarely in the center with a life-sized statue of a mouse carved on top.

"Martin's tomb," Matthias breathed.

"Look!" Pinkie pointed. "A shield and belt hanging on the wall!"

Matthias took down the shield. It fit well in his paw. He took the belt and put it on. It felt as if it had been made just for him.

"Where's the sword?" he wondered.

"There's another poem written on the wall where the shield was," said Pinkie.

They read it.

"By the moonlight, on the hour,

In my threshold space lay me.

Watch the beam reflect my power,

Unite once more my sword with me.

I am that is, stand true for all.

O Warrior Mouse, protect Redwall."

"The threshold," Matthias mused. "Could that mean the gatehouse?"

"So maybe if we lay the shield on the wall above the gatehouse in the light of a full moon, it will somehow reveal where the sword is hidden," Twilight said.

"I think you're right," Matthias said. "That ties in with the line in the first rhyme we found. 'Look for the sword in moonlight streaming forth.'"

The three friends beamed at each other. They were making real progress.