CHAPTER NINETY-ONE
That night found Vanessa firmly installed as the head of Redwall's Infirmary once more - whether Turma liked the idea or not.
Latura's fellow villager was now the only new mother occupying the Abbey's sick bay; upon hearing from the Sparra how many Long Patrol and Guosim casualties to expect, Arlyn and Vanessa asked Areti if she would mind being discharged from the Infirmary, having had plenty of time to recuperate from the trials of childbirth. Areti had agreed - perhaps as much to be away from the warlike Abbess she'd seen slay her abusive husband and three other horderats as anything - so she and her babe were relocated to a free dormitory bed on the third floor, one of the few available on the premises.
The main body of the dead and wounded - helped along by the Northland shrews, who saw the party to Redwall's main gate but begged off entering the Abbey themselves - showed up in the hour before midnight, and the Abbeybeasts scrambled to receive them. Sergeant Peppertail and Fawkwell and the slain Guosim were laid out in Cavern Hole for later attention while those for whom there was still hope were conducted up to the Infirmary for immediate treatment.
The hare Pumphrey and a battered, gashed shrew named Mongak turned out to be the most grievously wounded, and commanded the main attention of Vanessa, Arlyn and Metellus, the badger and two mice rushing between the pair of beds in their efforts to save both patients. Only after Pumphrey and Mongak had been stabilized for the moment could time be spared for the less seriously injured - and there was certainly no shortage of them, filling every bed in the chamber with two placed in chairs when the beds ran out.
"Abbess," the bandage-eared Mina volunteered from her own bed, "I'd be more than willing to yield my place here to somebeast in greater need. I'm feeling recovered enough that I deem I'll be fine if I return to my chambers. I might not even need anybeast to help me get from here to there."
Vanessa shook her head. "Not that I doubt or distrust the care given you by Arlyn and Metellus, but you were treated quite harshly by those rats yesterday. I'd prefer that you remain where you are for close observation. Most of the other injuries I see here seem superficial, and I suspect many of these patients can be sent on their way once I've seen to them."
"As you say, Abbess. I'll abide here then, until you say otherwise."
"Yes. You will." But Vanessa's dismissive tone of finality didn't stop Mina from following her every move in the late lamplight with a keen and assessing gaze. From mischievous (and malicious) simpleton to domineering presiding Abbess to adroit, merciless ratslayer to benevolent and nurturing healer, all within the space of less than two days, the Gawtrybe Lady could not fully fathom what was going on with Vanessa. Her last memory of the "old" Vanessa had been of the badger-painted mouse standing over her, chastising her through the pain of a pierced abdomen for trying to slay Latura. Then had come word of the commotion Vanessa had instigated, allowing that very same ratmaid to be so improbably delivered into Matowick's custody, followed almost immediately by further word of a Vanessa miraculously returned to her senses and asserting her rule over Redwall once more. And then had come the four rats trying to hold Mina hostage for Latura's return, and their dispatching by the restored Abbess - a development as ludicrously unlikely as anything else to transpire in the unreeling of these mad events. Mina herself failed to witness the slayings, but had heard the accounts from the one waking beast who had ... and was it any wonder that the rats at Redwall viewed Vanessa with such trepidation after that, refusing even the benefit of her demonstrably superior healer's talents?
And Mina knew that, if she were ever again granted a place at the table among Redwall's leadership - a proposition questionable in the extreme, in light of recent events - she would demand answers from the once and current Abbess, and demand them far more forcefully than anybeast had apparently shown the spine or the wherewithal to insist upon so far.
Finishing up with the bedridden and sedated Pumphrey, Vanessa was waved away from Leftwick and Buckalew by her two fellow healers who insisted they had things well in paw with those hares, so she turned her attention back to Mongak and the other shrews - and almost ran smack into Mother Maura, whose domineering presence could fill a room wherever she went.
"Maura. You're hovering."
"Er, sorry," the Badgermum apologized as she shuffled aside. "I just wanted to see if there was any way I could assist."
"Assist? We have Sisters Jimmery and Hazelton and Brother Ronby for that, and those willing mice are all we need. You take up more space than Metellus, Arlyn and I put together, and this chamber doesn't have the room to spare. Not this night."
Maura showed reluctance at being dismissed. "I didn't feel you should be left ... unguarded."
"Unguarded? Amongst war casualties who happen to be our friends and allies? And my fellow healers and helpers? That's an odd thing to say."
"I just thought - "
"Won't the Abbey youngsters require your attention in the morning? You ought to be getting to bed soon, so you'll be fresh and at your best for them. After all, you're no spring badger anymore."
Maura harrumphed at Vanessa. "I'm still a lot younger than some beasts here!"
Several within earshot gazed at Maura in puzzlement over what she might have meant by such a statement.
"If you must remain up and about, go play tiddlywinks with Sodexo's family, or find some other such diversion. But there's no reason for you to be in here. I must insist that you remove yourself from this Infirmary. It's simply too crowded, and we have too much work to do to have you in the way."
An alarmed call from Arlyn at Buckalew's bedside urged Vanessa back that way, and the Abbess hastened to answer the summons, her conversation with Maura seemingly relegated to the back of her mind in light of her more pressing obligations. The dismissed badger ponderously turned and plodded from the chamber, leaving the healerbeasts and their assistants to their labors.
She found Geoff waiting in the corridor beyond, and settled onto the wall bench next to him, her badgery bulk dwarfing the mouse. "So, how are things going in there?" he inquired.
"Busy, but they seem to have everything under control. It doesn't look as if we're likely to lose anybeast else tonight, thank fates. But I've been chased out for taking up too much space, it seems."
"I can't imagine that," Geoff remarked drolly as he regarded the massive creature alongside him. "But why did you even feel the need to be in there at all? You were never a healer yourself, and none of our youngsters are involved in this."
"I thought I might be able to help somehow, but Nessa made it quite clear that my assistance was neither needed nor wanted."
"Ah, I can see how they might think such a thing. Vanessa does seem to have taken full charge of the Infirmary, just like before she was ever Abbess. Makes me wonder if she might be content to return to that position full time, and step down as Abbess ... "
Maura eyed Geoff. "Is that what you're secretly hoping for, so that you can be Abbot again?"
"Well, it would only make sense, wouldn't it? We need a dedicated healer now far more than we need two Abbots AND an Abbess!"
"There's no reason Nessa can't do both. It's not as if the Infirmary's going to get hit by waves of patients all the time like it is tonight."
"I'm not so sure about that, Maura. After today's battles, strife with Urthblood might be unavoidable. I can see our Infirmary being kept quite full by skirmishes, even assuming all-out war doesn't result from all of this. And I can't help but feel you might know more about the prospects for such a possibility than you're letting on. Are you sure you weren't in there just so you could stay close to Vanessa? You seem to be doing that an awful lot since last night in the study."
"Geoff, we've been all over this already. When there's anything worth telling to your ears, you'll hear it. In the meantime, I just don't think Nessa should be left alone."
"Well, she's hardly alone in there, with all that bustle going on - and I doubt she's in danger from her own patients, or brothers and sisters of Redwall. Or, did you mean she might pose some danger to herself?"
Maura was silent for some time. "Keep in mind, she's not too far removed from those frightening fainting spells of hers. She may be acting wholly in command of herself once more, but she had three seasons of wild antics to tell on her. And I for one would hate to lose her again, either through a relapse to her impaired self or in some manner more dire - especially now, after returning to us the way she has."
"Yes, but ... has she really returned to us? I can't put my paw on exactly what it is that perturbs me so about her present state, but something's different about her ... and I don't just mean her newfound proclivity for slaying rats. It's more the air of entitled arrogance she exudes, like she's lording it over us - that was never Vanessa, not even remotely. And invoking the will of Martin every time she turns around is hardly helping matters either."
Maura's brow knit. "Whatever else you may think of this situation, Geoff, Vanessa's connection to a realm beyond ours cannot be denied. She told us the moment Sergeant Peppertail lost his life, and proof of that clairvoyance lies down in Cavern Hole right now, in the form of that hare's body. Maybe Martin has something to do with that and maybe he doesn't, but it's clear Nessa can know things none of the rest of us can. And in times like this, that might prove an advantage we'll sorely need."
"Maybe so, but ... at what cost? There's something ... harder about her, for want of a better word. The gentleness is gone. She shows the strength of an Abbess, but none of the compassion. The kindness that was always there in her is missing. In some ways, she seems almost as distant from us now, in terms of the Vanessa we always knew, than when she was a simple-minded troublemaker. I can't quite shake the feeling that Vanessa still isn't herself these days."
"I know what you mean, Geoff. I know exactly what you mean."
00000000000
It was actually well past midnight by the time Clewiston and Log-a-Log returned to the Abbey ... and they were heard by the walltop lookouts long before they could clearly be seen in the otters' lantern light. To keep themselves awake and their pawsteps following one after the other, they'd taken to joining in with their otter escorts in song, embarking on their latest set of verses even as they crossed the roadside ditch via the sturdier board laid over the trench to replace Vanessa's flimsy planks.
"O, me father were th' keeper of th' Broadstream Pier
Standin' watch one night he saw a sight most queer
Frolicking down in the currents below
A frog and a pike put on a whale of a show
O hi, o ho, swing high and low
That's what you get doin' river patrol!
The pike snapped its teeth and gnashed its jaw
The frog darted clear with a great guffaw
'You'll never catch me, you ugly old fish
To dine on me you can only wish!'
O hi, o ho, catch a fire newt's toe
That's what you get doin' river patrol!
Into a fine frenzy the fish did fly
And frothed up the Broadstream from side to side
Up from the beds the watershrimp joined in
Nipping at the big pike's gills and fin
O hi, o ho, get the moor ropes stowed
That's what you get doin' river patrol!
The frog and the shrimp flitted to and fro
'Til tired and weary the pike did grow
So off down the river the pike did head
To find itself a guppy to gobble instead
O hi, o ho, that's just the way it goes
Night after night on the river patrol!"
The otters on the ramparts grinned in recognition of the jaunty old shanty, and the hares and shrews grinned too, picking out the voices of their respective leaders intermingled with those of the escorts. In no time at all a welcoming group had spilled down from the walls and out into the road to greet the weary travellers.
Amongst the otters and shrews and hares were a few of the Abbey squirrels as well, not least of whom was Elmwood, waiting eagerly on the return of his chief Alexander. And when no squirrel materialized out of the night along with the other returnees, he knew even before being told that things had not gone as expected with the head of the Mossflower Patrol.
"Where's Alex, Colonel sir?"
"That's a bit of a tale, chap. I'll give you the shortpaw version before I head up to the Infirmary for some much-needed patchin' up."
Melanie stepped forward, bestowing upon her husband a welcoming if ginger hug, mindful of any bruises and unseen injuries beneath his tunic and fur. "Clewy, is Alexander all right? He's not in any danger, is he?"
"He was doin' a fair sight better than I am, last I clamped peepers on him. Far as I know, he's still fine."
"Good. Then any further explanation can wait while we get you upstairs. Your poor ear looks like it'll never be the same again. I hope that's the worst of wot you brought home to me."
"Seems t' be, Mel. Tho' I s'pose I oughta wait an' let our miracle Abbess pass judgment on me in that respect, hadn't I?"
While Clewiston bore himself into the Abbey with his wife, Log-a-Log gritted his teeth upon realizing it would fall to him to tell the rats about Palter's decision to press on westward. But Pirkko lay fast asleep at this late hour, unable to to keep himself awake for his father's return, and with no other immediate family demanding his attention, the shrew chieftain decided he might as well get this obligation out of the way.
Already informed by the Sparra and the previously-returned members of the ill-fated rescue party that Latura would not be coming back to Redwall, the rodents were in a dour mood, and most didn't care one way or the other about the skinny, weasely rat who'd decided to throw his freedom away to fulfill some vague prophecy of Latura's. Only Palter's villagers - and not even all of them - took the news of his fate with anything close to worried concern.
The otter Floressa, informed that her bed had been claimed in her absence by the rat mother Areti and her newborn, shrugged and headed back out of Great Hall. "Well," she reasoned, "may's well join my mateys up on th' walltop for lookout duty. There's enuff of 'em up there that they'll not mind if I nod off, an' I can nap just as well there as anywhere!"
Clewiston arrived at the Infirmary with Melanie still at his side, as eager to check on the other injured hares and shrews as he was to have his own wounds tended. His first impression upon stepping into the sick bay, even before looking to any of the numerous patients, was the incongruous sight of Vanessa presiding over all. This was his first time laying eyes on the restored Abbess, and while he'd heard much spoken of her miraculous recovery, being told about it and seeing it for himself were two entirely different things.
The mouse came right up to him upon seeing him enter. "Hello, Colonel, and welcome home. Your timing is fortuitous; I was just about to head down to Cavern Hole to see about preparing Fawkwell and Sergeant Peppertail for burial, so that we could get to that first thing in the morning. But the living take priority over the dead here, so they can wait a bit longer while I tend to you. My condolences to you on their loss; I know how close you are to all the hares under your command."
"Thank you, Abbess," Clewiston accepted with a gracious nod. "It's ... odd seein' you back to yourself like this. How're you doin', ma'am?"
"Better than you look, if you don't mind my saying. Don't you worry about me, and let's have a look at that ear of yours, and see how much of it we can save. We happen to have one open bed left, and I'm sure Lady Mina will be delighted to have you as a neighbor."
Clewiston grunted and grumbled at this prospect as Vanessa led him down the center aisle past all the occupied beds on either paw, more out of habit than anything, since at this point in his overdriven exhaustion he would welcome any chance to be off his aching footpaws, and sharing the proximity of his squirrel Lady nemesis would count as a small price to pay for the desperately-needed rest his overtaxed body demanded.
Nearly every patient slumbered at this late hour, succumbing to either sedation or weariness according to the severity of their individual states. Clewiston paid special attention to Buckalew as they passed the unconscious hare, inquiring in a subdued voice, "Meant t' ask after Lew there. Discovered late in th' game there might be special cause for concern in his case."
"Oh, you mean the simple flesh wound that turned out to be a case of poisoning?"
Clewiston and Melanie regarded Vanessa with some surprise. "How'd you figure that one out, ma'am?" he asked.
"It wasn't difficult to deduce when he suddenly took an inexplicable turn for the worse, exhibiting all the signs of some manner of poisoning. Since I couldn't know the exact nature of the toxin involved, I made my best guess and treated him accordingly, and it seems to have improved his condition. Gave us all quite a scare before we got it sorted out."
"Hmm. Then I guess he made it back here just in time - an' to just the right healerbeast too." The Colonel related in brief what they'd discovered in the desolate, abandoned valley of the Flitch-aye-aye, finishing his concise tale as Vanessa got him settled down onto his mattress, Melanie taking a seat at his side.
"I'd assumed it must be something like that," Vanessa said, "since it didn't seem to be acting like any regular internal poison, and the worst effects seemed to center around the site of the lacerations, suggesting a more topical agent at play. He's still not entirely out of danger yet, and even if he does pull through, he may end up losing enough flesh and muscle to render him lame for the rest of his seasons."
Clewiston snorted in derision. "Leave it to Urthblood, comin' up with such a fiendish weapon that it could still maim or kill seasons after its first use. If that doesn't say it all ... "
"Yes, we'll have a lot to say about Urthblood in the days ahead ... and I'll have a lot to say to you, about defying my recall order and going ahead with this disastrous effort anyway. But for tonight, we'll just concentrate on getting you all better. One moment, and I'll be back with what I need to mend that ear, and poultices for your other injuries."
While the Abbess padded over to the Infirmary's desk and cabinet area, hastily conferring with Metellus there while Arlyn slumped snoozing in his chair, Mina regarded the Colonel. The Gawtrybe Lady had come awake as Clewiston recounted his report of the poisoned dale out on the Plains, and seemed engrossed by the subject.
"You say the Flitch-aye-aye are all gone? Are you sure? How thoroughly did you explore their lair?"
Clewiston coolly regarded the squirrel, whose bandaged ear looked almost to be in worse shape than his own. "Jolly well thoroughly, marm, an' I'm happy to report not one of 'em appears to've made it out of that rat trap alive, as aggrieved as I am to acknowledge the manner of their extermination, or who was behind it."
Mina smirked. "Disappointed you didn't get to claim credit for their eradication yourself, Colonel?"
He turned a hard stare on her. "You didn't happen t' know anything about this little affair, did you?"
"Captain Custis may have mentioned something about it, when he first arrived at Redwall. One of our winter operations - he had much news to share, and that was hardly the most pressing of it. You're right to refer to it as a little affair; in the grand scheme of all that's going on, the fate of one small tribe of cannibal weasels is hardly of great concern."
"Except His Bloodiness went an' used th' same hellish stuff he used against Snoga, even after receiving the censure of every goodbeast who's heard about that atrocity. You just admitted yourself that Flitchaye slaughter took place in the winter, which places it far after the Snoga incident of last summer. Shows he's not capable of learnin' his bally lesson, an' doesn't care wot any decent creature thinks."
"Not every decent creature condemned the strategy employed against Snoga. Lord Urthblood's shrews and moles and Gawtrybe all took part in the operation against the Flitch-aye-aye, even knowing what it involved."
"I rest my bally case. An' you do seem t' know an awful lot about wot went on out there last winter, right down t' which creatures took part in it. Might've been nice of you to share that with us. But then, ol' Bloodface isn't into sharin' such important things with simply Abbeybeasts like us, is he?"
"I would expect that attitude from you. Lord Urthblood has never been able to draw a breath without you Long Patrol jumping down his throat and finding some fault with his actions. When the liberated slaves return from the quarry, let's ask some of them how they feel about the fate of the Flitch-aye-aye, and see if they have any words of condemnation for Lord Urthblood."
"Can't speak to those slaves, but after wot went on here yesterday, an' today out on th' Plains, I'm guessin' words of condemnation toward His Bloodiness is about all you'll be hearin' from any bloomin' lips at this Abbey."
Vanessa returned at that moment, Metellus at her side helping to bear the needed surgical materials. "Now now children, no fighting in our Infirmary, if you please. We've had quite enough of that for one season."
Mina couldn't resist one last dig at the Colonel's expense, now that a perceived ally and supporter had rejoined them. "Even the Abbess here had the good sense to see what needed to be done - to let that threat to Redwall go, and not chase after her. If she and I can be on the same side in this, Colonel, maybe you're the one who needs to re-examine your position on this matter."
Vanessa paused in her medical preparations to turn a hard stare upon Mina. "We are not even close to being on the same side, Lady. So please do not presume to speak for me again."
Thoroughly castigated by the Abbess's simple yet scathing rebuke, Mina sank back into her pillows, clamping her jaw. Clewiston, wincing as Vanessa swabbed at his ear, couldn't keep a satisfied smirk from his face at seeing Mina once again put in her place.
The Gawtrybe Lady glanced toward the Infirmary doorway. "What's keeping Alexander, I wonder? I would have thought he'd be up here by now, to show solidarity with the Colonel if not to see me. Is he consulting with Elmwood on tactical matters, or is he simply too conflicted to bring himself before me until he sorts out his feelings?"
Clewiston opened his mouth to deliver his much-anticipated verbal blow to Mina about her estranged husband, suddenly more reluctant to relish the moment now that it had arrived, but to his surprise, Vanessa spoke first.
"Alexander is not at Redwall."
Squirrel and hares stared at the Abbess in startlement, but for different reasons. "But, he emerged from the battles on the Plains unscathed," said Mina, confused. "Our Sparra scouts observed as much, and the main return party confirmed it. Why would he not be here? Where else would he be?"
"I know only that he is not at this moment anywhere within this Abbey. Perhaps the Colonel can better answer why - although I can make a pretty good guess."
Clewiston nodded, the gesture limited by the care being lavished upon his torn ear. "It's true. Once he'd seen wot Urthblood was capable of - both on th' field of battle, where he was willing to slay Abbeybeasts an' their allies to get his way, as well as down in the Flitchy warrens, where he exterminated an entire tribe like they were no more'n grain beetles - Alex got it in his tufted-eared head that he's gotta go face that badger himself, an' demand some answers as to wot that brute's all about - an' maybe make it clear to Urthblood that Redwall no longer views him as any sort of friend or ally."
Mina's eyes widened in shocked alarm at this revelation. "No ... no, he can't! He can't do that!"
"He seems to think otherwise," Vanessa stated as she took up fiber and needle. "And while I might not approve of him placing himself in such jeopardy, I didn't approve of his efforts to recover Latura either - and I suspect I would meet with equal frustration in trying to talk him out of this course of action as well. Maybe you could be out there on the Plains with him now, trying to talk sense into him, if only you hadn't tried to murder a guest of this Abbey."
"Abbess, he must be stopped! This can't be allowed!"
"Allowed? My authority as Abbess does have its limits, as I've been forced to face these past two days. Alex has chosen his path, and it lies beyond my control now. But I find it telling that he chose storming off to confront Urthblood over returning to your bedside. He would rather yell at your Lord than be with you - and that rather says it all, doesn't it?"
"I thought he was your childhood friend, Abbess. We must stop Alexander in this fool's quest. If we don't, he may never return to Redwall again."
Vanessa leveled a cool gaze Mina's way. "You are way outside your place lecturing any creatures on their fondness toward others. And as for your dire prediction regarding Alexander's fate, I will only conclude that if Urthblood would slay or imprison so noble and decent a beast as Alexander for daring to speak a contrary viewpoint that badger may not care to hear, then that says everything about Urthblood we need to know, doesn't it?"
Clewiston winced anew as Vanessa applied herself to her suturing duties upon his ear. "I say, Abbess, for somebeast who forbade us from goin' after Lattie, you sure are unleashing on Urthblood. Makes one regret missin' that council you called when she was snatched; I'd have liked to hear wot you had to say there."
"Nothing I'm sure you won't be hearing repeated again in the days to come, Colonel. Urthblood's finally revealed how little regard he holds for Redwall; now it will be up to us to decide what to do about it."