CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE

"We're missing Trelayne's glassblowing demonstration, you know."

Mona shot Vanessa a bemused look as the vixen escorted the mouse into the Infirmary for the examination to which she'd finally consented. "Given what I've heard of your conduct during his last one, Abbess, I suspect Master Trelayne is just as happy not to have you there."

"Oh, pish. He knows I'd never do anything to so egregiously disrupt the festivities like that again! I'm a new mouse, take my word on it!"

Arlyn and Metellus had conceded to Vanessa's request to vacate the sick bay for the duration of this one-on-one exam, and with Turma and her newborn having recently been discharged as well, that left the convalescing hare Pumphrey and the Guosim shrew Mongak as the only other creatures occupying the long chamber. Slumbering soundly under the effects of a sleeping draught Vanessa had prepared for them earlier, they snoozed and snored sedately away against their pillows in two of the beds off to the left, so the two waking beasts chose a bed in the opposite row several spots down, to lessen the risk of disturbing them.

"Yes, you do seem vastly changed from the misfit you've been ever since the incident at Foxguard," Mona conceded, as the two of them sat down on the edges of adjacent beds, facing each other. "Which is precisely why I feel it's vital I have a look at you. But even in your present recovered state, I daresay your presence outside might have made Trelayne a tad nervous - or at the least distracted him, remembering what happened last time."

"Oh, I'm sure he's far too much a master of his craft to let anything like that intrude upon his concentration. But I was thinking more of you, Mona. I know you and Trelayne are very close, and I thought you might be disappointed at missing his demonstration yourself."

"Trelayne has been laboring at Foxguard for a large part of this season, and I have had ample opportunity to observe him at work there. And in the Northlands, where I first got to know him, he entertained me and others many times with his impressive artistic skills. I'm sure he's not doing anything down there right now that I've not seen him do a hundred times before. Now, if you would - "

"Did your sister ever see him work?"

Mona started at Vanessa in silence for some moments. "My sister did see some of Trelayne's masterpieces before the searats murdered her. But that is not what we're here to - "

"How did she die, anyway? I don't believe you've ever told us."

"It is a personal matter to me, Abbess, and a painful one at that. Now, please remove your habit."

"I beg your pardon?"

Mona showed surprise at her patient's surprise. "Now, Abbess, you knew what we were coming up here for. In order to perform a full physical, I will naturally need you to disrobe."

"A full physical? I thought it was only my head you were interested in."

"The brain might be the seat of the personality and intellect, but that organ rules and commands the entire body; as a healer yourself, you should be only too well aware of this. There are certain various reflexive tests I'll want to perform, and your habit will only be in the way." The vixen paused. "Perhaps, if the matter of modesty bothers you now that you once again serve as Abbess - because it certainly didn't before - I can wait while you go fetch a nightshirt for yourself?"

Vanessa toyed with her habit cord. "Oh, I don't think that will be necessary. I'll remove my robes - but only if you agree to take off your shirt and skirt as well."

This request struck Mona momentarily speechless. "But ... why?" she stammered upon finally regaining her voice.

"I'd feel more comfortable if you did ... if I wasn't the only beast sitting around in just her fur for this. It makes sense, don't you agree?"

"No, it doesn't. I need you to be ungarbed to properly examine you; I don't need to be ungarbed myself to conduct the examination."

Vanessa resolutely crossed her arms over her chest. "Those are my conditions. If you won't meet me halfway on this, I'll walk out of here right now, and we can just forget about the whole thing."

Mona chewed on this seemingly-frivolous ultimatum in frustration, then gave a conceding nod as she undid her skirt at the waist. "Very well ... and I'm almost tempted to consider this part of the exam, since this strikes me as far more the kind of request you'd have made before returning to your senses, when you were full of silly mischief." Carefully laying out her doffed skirt on her bed beside her, then pulling off her blouse and spreading it atop the first garment, she turned back to Vanessa with a wry smirk. "Just so you know, Tolar is the only one I usually do this for."

"I imagine." Vanessa undid her waistcord and lifted off her habit, leaving herself similarly unclad. "And how are things between the two of you these days?"

Mona gave the latest in her series of sour looks. "Once again, Abbess, I need to remind you that is not why we're here."

The mouse smiled demurely. "But if I'm placing myself in your paws, I'll want to be confident that you're entirely at ease, with nothing troubling you, won't I?"

Mona folded her paws in her lap against her white belly fur, her red tail swooped over her knees as if suddenly more self-conscious of her ungarbed state. "Why would I be troubled about anything to do with Tolar?"

"Well, you never have actually married him, have you? I haven't been so out of it these past three seasons to know that Geoff has offered on more than one occasion to perform an Abbey ceremony for you and Tolar, either here or at Foxguard. Why did you never take him up on that?"

"Our current arrangement suits us both just fine. We are not Redwallers. Now, hold still and let me look in each of your eyes."

"Of course." Vanessa relented from further questioning as Mona leaned forward to make her ocular inspection, coming so close that she actually had to turn her head slightly to avoid bumping noses with her patient.

"Look left. Look right. Left again. Now up. Now down. Now close your eyes. Keep them closed, please. Just a few moments more. Now open them and look into the brightness of the window. Very good."

"I hardly needed to doff my habit for that."

"I am not finished, Abbess. Now ... " Mona reached out and held her left paw up to Vanessa's right ear, very close, and snapped it sharply several times, then repeated the procedure with the right paw and left ear.

"Well, that was annoying," the mouse opined.

Mona maintained her clinical aloofness. "Have you noticed any ringing in your ears?"

"Only when the Matthias and Methuselah bells ring."

"Any other sounds, or pressure, or internal aching? Any spots before your eyes, blurriness of vision, painful sensitivity to bright light or night blindness?"

"No, no and no."

"Any unpleasant smells, or bad taste in the mouth? Any trouble detecting normal odors, or tasting your food and drink as you normally would?"

"Again, all no's. I hate to disappoint you, Mona, but I do think you're yipping up the wrong tree."

"Hmm." Mona touched Vanessa on the temple, gently but insistently probing around the three-seasons-old slingstone wound. "There's still a bump there, under the fur. Feels almost like the bone may have cracked, and not entirely knit back together quite right. Do you suffer any headaches, or general soreness or tightness in that area?"

"Not that I've noticed."

Frowning at her subject's cavalier tone, Mona said, "This only works if you're entirely truthful with me, Abbess."

"I honestly don't know what you want me to say. If I'd experienced any of the symptoms you've mentioned, I would have consulted Arlyn and Metellus about it long before this. And speaking of that young badger, are you planning to have him come study with you some more at Foxguard? I know he finds your tutelage most ... unorthodoxically instructive."

"He is of course welcome anytime he cares to visit. However, considering where things stand now in Mossflower, I think prudence might forestall any such excursions by Redwallers to Foxguard for the near term."

"How are things between Tolar and Custis currently?"

"They are just fine, Abbess. They've overcome any initial differences to work together closely in the interests of the present campaign. Both serve Lord Urthblood faithfully."

"Do you not deem the affair with Captain Matowick and Latura might renew tensions between them again?"

"I don't see why it would. Neither Tolar's swordfoxes nor the Gawtrybe stationed at Foxguard played any role in those events, before, during or after the fact. We have been quite busy with other things. But then, you've already heard all of this from Tolar."

"But not from you."

"I'm just a healer, and about the last creature you should be asking about political matters. Now, if we may continue ... " Mona reached aside and withdrew from the pocket of her doffed skirt a smooth oak wand. "Now, to test some of your reflexes ... "

The vixen tickled Vanessa's whiskers and eartips, taped lightly on elbows and wrist, stroked and poked along the tail in various places, had Vanessa lift each leg to run the short baton along each sole in turn and finally ended with the age-old tradition of having the mouse cross each leg over the other to tap below the knees.

"I still don't understand why you needed me to disrobe for any of this. Were there any other parts of me you wanted to poke and prod, or are we done?"

Mona sat back on her own bed, clutching her wand at the ends with both paws. "Tell me what happened when you returned to your senses, Abbess."

"What do you mean?"

"Did it happen all at once, like waking up from a deep sleep, or a dream? Or did it happen more gradually, over the course of part of a day, or even several days? Was it a continuous coming back to yourself, or did it come in spells, where you would remember who you were for a bit, and then forget again? And once you were fully recovered, how much could you remember of the time before?"

"It was Latura. You've surely heard that by now, or at least you should have. Her powers went far beyond seeing the future. The closer she got to Redwall, the more I remembered. And once she was here - and, more to the point, once she touched me - that was all I needed to fully return."

"Hmm. May I be frank, Abbess?"

"I would pray that you do so, Mona."

"I have spoken with a number of other Redwallers, ones who well remember you before your wounding at Foxguard, and they maintain that you are not entirely your old self at all. That you are different somehow. Changed. What do you say to that?"

"I can remember everything from the life I led before Foxguard, down to the smallest details and incidents which had grown dim in my memory. But as for my current demeanor, things do change, Mona. Did you expect me to emerge unaffected at all from such a prolonged period of trauma, even with Latura's assistance? Redwall needs me now, and I must be the leader these times demand."

"Ah. But I fail to see how even that ratmaid could account for what happened in this very Infirmary on the day she was stolen away. The slaying of those four rats holding Lady Mina hostage - that's something you should not have been capable of, from both a moral and a physical standpoint. How were you able to do such a thing - and how could you, given an Abbess or Abbot's pledge to pursue only the ways of peace?"

"I had a very good teacher - one who taught me a few lessons during my 'absence' about the exigencies of necessity."

"You speak of Martin?" Mona's question came off as one step short of disdainful.

"If you've been discussing my situation with other Redwallers, this should not come as news to you. Martin had a very definite paw in the events of this season, from helping to guide Latura to us to making it clear she'd not be able to remain here. I would not dismiss his role in this so quickly."

"I've no doubt the spirit of your founding Warrior did influence events here to some degree or other - but he was a fighter, not a healer. I am concerned here only with your physical state and well-being - with this world, not with the realm of ghosts."

"Then you are making a mistake; the two cannot be separated, at least not in this case. Do you really believe I'd be sitting here talking to you like this if not for Latura, and Martin?"

"I did not say that. But prophets cannot mend an injured brain with a touch, and ghosts cannot knit bone."

Vanessa stared hard at the vixen for many heartbeats. "You are going down the wrong path, my child. There is more to this world than we can see with our eyes, or touch with our paws. Your sister was right; you should not turn your back on your own unique talents, the ones you were born with that make you so much more than just an ordinary healer."

Mona gaped at Vanessa, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, before shuddering as if from a sudden chill. She stood, reached for her shirt and skirt, and hastily redressed as if in a hurry to cover up. Clasping the skirt band at her waist, she leaned in toward the mouse and said, in almost a snarl, "Stay out of my mind, Abbess!"

Vanessa responded with a calm, demure smile. "We all have our secrets, Mona. I'll not tell yours if you don't tell mine."

Mona's glare faded from affronted to mortified. "What happened to you, Abbess?"

"The same could be asked of you, my dear. But at least you've given me some inklings."

The vixen drew back, turned and strode toward the Infirmary door.

"Oh, and Mona?"

The shaken healer paused near the threshold, looking half-back over her shoulder.

"I must agree that these are not good times to be sending Metellus to Foxguard. I will have a word with him, and let him know that any further visits to study with you will have to be suspended for the time being."

Mona neither spoke nor nodded, facing forward again and striding out into the corridor. The mouse on the bed sighed and reached for her green habit.

00000000000

It was perfect.

The replacement figurine of Geoff had been the first piece crafted by Trelayne during that day's demonstration, finished with the deft alacrity and artistic flourish that was a hallmark of the marten glassmaker's work method. Once completed to the satisfaction of Trelayne and his audience, the miniature sculpture was placed in the annealing chamber built into the side of the main oven to properly cure while the artist moved on to other endeavors. Now, several hours later, as the spring sun dipped below the walltop and the first traces of evening shades began to assert themselves upon Abbey and grounds, Geoff returned to the kiln at Trelayne's bidding to collect his prize. A few moments outside the annealing chamber exposed to the outside air was all the time needed to cool the figurine enough to safely touch it, and soon thereafter the former Abbot could be seen walking across the lawns toward the main Abbey, deep in contemplative amazement as he marveled at the tiny representation of himself cradled so gingerly in his paws. So intent was he upon this miracle of glass that he barely noticed the group of exercising Long Patrol running through their routines as he passed by them off to his left.

This time, there'd been no bratty afflicted Abbess to spoil everything with one well-timed swipe of a malicious paw. This time, Trelayne's breathtaking artifice had survived its original creation and would endure to grace Geoff's private chambers for seasons to come.

Two-thirds of the way to the main building, excited shouts of alarm from the west ramparts made both Geoff and the hares pause and glance up.

"Bird! Bird! Bird coming in!"

For a moment a sense of dutiful action stirred in Geoff's breast. The alarm would not have been raised for any of the Sparra returning from their daily scout flights and foraging, nor for any local bird like a robin or swallow or thrush, so it must have been something out of the ordinary - either an unusual species or else one of Urthblood's winged servants, or a recognized hostile species like a crow or jackdaw. But Geoff took a deep breath and forced himself to quell such impulses. He was no longer acting Abbot, and Redwall had plenty of brave defenders to deal with anything like this - including the knot of attentive Long Patrol standing not twoscore paces from his own position. Still, curious to see what this was all about, he tarried rooted to his spot, the glass craftwork cradled in his protective paws as he gazed skyward.

The winged creature presently came into view above the west battlements, flapping and fluttering with such haphazard disarray that for a moment Geoff thought he must be looking at Highwing, the only bird he'd ever seen successfully fly in such a lopsided, twirling manner. But this was no Sparra, nor was it a bird unknown to the Redwallers.

"By my whiskers, it's Captain Saugus!" Geoff muttered to himself - and he needed no seasons of healer's training to realize that the owl clearly showed distress, and was most likely injured.

The walltop lookouts, cast into uncertainty by the owl's state, raised no weapon against him as Saugus cleared the wall and entered the Abbey airspace - and the next thing Geoff knew, the Northland bird was spiralling down out of the sky, apparently out of control, headed straight for him.

Geoff made it exactly two steps in a panicked attempt at a dodge before Saugus crashed right on top of him. Hardly a great owl, Saugus nevertheless weighed nearly twice what Geoff did, and the impact drove the mouse forward into the ground. Geoff felt the soft concussion as he slammed belly-first against the lawn, along with a sharp, uncomfortable jabbing into his chest. And, as if from a far distance, the sound of a muted, snapping, breaking sound reached his ears.

But this was no attack, that much became obvious immediately as Saugus rolled off Geoff and continued to flap around on the grass in pain, panic or both. Geoff found himself being pulled up to his footpaws by a hare at either arm, while others took up a defensive formation encircling the stricken owl, ready to act against him if he displayed any hostile intent.

"Abbot, sir, are you all - aw, strippled whiskers, look wot's happened!"

Geoff glanced down at his paws; somehow, through all of this, he'd succeeded in holding onto the glass figurine Trelayne had presented him - except now, the wondrous artifact lay in his clutches in several cracked pieces, softly shattered by his fall upon it. And if it was not quite the thorough job of total destruction Vanessa had wrought upon the previous statuette, it was still damaged beyond repair, and no longer recognizable as anything which had once resembled a mouse.

A sad, wan smile came to Geoff's face. "Maybe I'm just not meant to have one of these .. "

"Not wot I'm talkin' 'bout, Abbot sir. You're bleedin' - that glass's cut into you."

Startled at this observation, Geoff glanced down at the breast of his brown habit, and saw several tiny spots of blood staining the garment where the shattered fragments had penetrated the fabric. "Oh dear ... I wouldn't even have realized ... "

Gallatin stepped in to take over the situation. "Right, we're gettin' you up to the Infirmary, an' snappish, so Nessa can have a look at you an' make sure it's no more'n a flesh wound."

"Oh, it can't be serious," Geoff protested, his attention shifting to the downed Saugus. "It was just a tiny sculpture, it can't have gone very deep. Captain Saugus appears to be in far worse shape; I think he may be bleeding himself, and he's clearly lost feathers. I'd say he's been attacked!"

Gallatin leaned over the avian officer, his stern Long Patrol countenance uncolored of any traces of empathy. "That true, chappie? You been attacked?"

"Crows ... crows ... " Saugus managed to croak out. "Delivering message ... to Lady Mina ... ambushed ... "

"Ambushed, eh? Serves you bally right for wot you helped those deceitful Gawtrybe pull over on us. Guess your gull friends weren't around t' save your feathered, worthless hide, wot?"

"Happened ... out over ... Plains. No gulls ... nearby ... "

Gallatin's gaze dropped to the message tube strapped around the owl's leg. "Well, let's see wot this's all about then, shall we?" He reached for the cylinder, but Saugus regrouped his faculties enough to lash out at the hare with talon and beak.

"No! For Lady Mina only! Lord Urthblood's orders!" Then, seemingly exhausted by this momentary display of resistance, Saugus fell back on the grass, quivering and looking not entirely aware of where he was.

Gallatin gestured to Telemaque and Baxley, who stepped forward, one clamping the owl's bill shut with both paws and the other immobilizing the bird's legs while Gallatin bent down to remove the communique from the talon. "We've had enough bloody secrets back an' forth 'tween Urthblood an' his Mossflower minions this season, an' each one's led to worse trouble than the last. Won't be any more under my watch, you just watch."

Saugus struggled anew, fixing the recently-promoted hare captain with a baleful glare, but Baxley and Telemaque held him fast.

"Captain, I must protest!" Geoff shouted. "This is no way to treat an injured visitor to our Abbey!"

"Now now, Abbot, it's hardly as if he's welcome here after the events of this season, wot? Now, let's just see what this latest scheme's about, shall we?" Gallatin twisted off the end cap of the message tube and withdrew the furled parchment from within.

Saugus twisted anew, and managed to liberate his beak. "No! No! For Lady Mina only! Her eyes only!"

"Oh, hush now, featherbottom, an' don't go gettin' your dander in a dander." As other creatures, including some of the swordfoxes, drifted toward the scene to see what was going on, Gallatin unrolled the message and read it.

A mere three dozen words decorated the scroll, but Gallatin needed to read them all three times to fully absorb their significance.

"Well, wot's it say, sah?"

Gallatin rolled the parchment tightly again. "Tells, Bax, get the Abbot up to the Infirmary. Rest of you, keep a double guard 'round this beaky Abbey crasher, an' make sure he doesn't go anywhere. This is serious."

"And I'm serious too," Geoff insisted. "I'm not going anywhere until Captain Saugus is properly tended to. I want us both taken up to the Infirmary together! And I don't care what was in that message!"

"You will." Gallatin sighed, deliberating. "Very well. Hares, take 'em both up to the sick bay, But keep a sharp eye on that bird, an' a sharp ear out for anything he tries to tell our resident squirrel queen - or the Abbess, either."

"Um, yes, sah! Cap'n, sah!"

As his underlings shifted themselves to carry out his orders, Gallatin raced off to find Colonel Clewiston, or Traveller. Or, ideally, both.

00000000000

Geoff, always a tad prissy about matters of modesty going back to his novice days, insisted that Arlyn and Metellus see to his chest lacerations, leaving Vanessa to tend to the injured Saugus two beds down, the owl occupying the blanket-covered mattress in an unruly sprawl.

The quartet of hare escorts now stood clustered around the owl's bed, long ears cocked to pick up any statements of interest from the Northlands avian.

Vanessa shot them an irate glance as she and her helpers ministered to Saugus. "Do you mind? This is an Infirmary, not a prison cell, and we're trying to work here."

"Sorry, Abbess ma'am, but Cap'n Gallatin's orders. We're t' be on paw in case he pops off with anything incriminatin', don'tcha know."

"Incriminating in what way?"

"Guess we'll know it if we hear it, won't we? But this one was carryin' a private message for Lady Mina, an' Cap'n thought we've had quite enuff of those this season."

"On that at least I would agree. Where is the message now?"

"Cap'n seized it, ma'am. Threw this beakbuster into a right old tizzy when he did so, too."

"Well, what did it say?"

"Dunno. But Cap'n Gallatin thought it was important enuff to run off with it - going to show it to th' Colonel, I s'pose."

Vanessa sighed and turned back to her feathered patient. "If it's anything the rest of us Abbey leaders ought to know about, I trust he'll inform us in good time. Until then, this owl demands my attention."

Two beds away, the disrobed Abbot received the twin attentions of his fellow malebeasts, Arlyn and Metellus taking turns winnowing through his white chest fur to inspect the cuts underneath. The area had been gingerly washed clean and the wounds didn't seem to be bleeding much anymore, but the two healers wanted to make absolutely certain of things.

"I certainly don't think any of these will require stitches," the elder Abbot reported. "They all seem fairly shallow, and superficial. It appears you landed atop your sculpture right in the center of your breastbone, which must be what broke it so thoroughly, even upon the lawn. But you were very lucky in that regard; half a paw's width farther over, hit at just a slightly different angle, and one of the larger shards could very easily have pierced you far deeper ... maybe even to your heart."

Geoff's eyes widened in alarm at this very notion. "Why, that hadn't even occurred to me. Do you really think ... I mean, the hares who helped me up seemed a lot more concerned about my state than I was ... "

"I think Abbot Arlyn is right, sir," Metellus seconded. "You dodged an arrow this time, and you're very lucky it wasn't worse. I don't even see any glass fragments or splinters stuck in any of these cuts, and that cold have been a serious complication too. Although the daylight coming in these windows isn't as bright as it could be, this late in the day. I'd really like to have a lamp to examine the areas more closely - and a magnifying lens would help too."

"I'll leave that to you, since your young eyes are so much better than my tired old orbs." Arlyn rose from his seat. "One moment, and I'll fetch the lens and lamp for you."

Meanwhile, Vanessa needed no lamp nor lens to conduct her examination of Saugus; the patterns of disarray in his plumage clearly showed where hostile beaks had struck to do their damage, and where feathers had been pulled clear out of the flesh altogether. Delicately working her way through the avian coat to locate and inspect each wound for treatment, the Abbess addressed the owl's hurts with painstaking thoroughness, her helpers supplying her on demand with daubs of ointment and salves and healing poultices to be applied according to the needs of each bruise, pluck and piercing.

"At least you don't seem to have suffered any broken bones," Vanessa told Saugus, "although if you had I suppose you'd not have reached us at all. Fractures and breaks are always especially tricky to treat in birdfolk; our Sparra leader flies lopsidedly to this day from a wing break endured as a chick. I'm glad we didn't have to put you down."

"Ha ha," Saugus responded entirely without humor.

"You say it was crows who attacked you? No other birds?"

"Only crows."

"Most curious. And where did this take place again?"

"Out in the Plains, Abbess, as I've said."

"Must have been quite far out into them, not to have been seen from our walltop. I'm surprised you were still able to fly all that way after being attacked in such a manner."

"I had my message to deliver to Lady Mina. Lord Urthblood impressed upon me it was most urgent."

"And what was the nature of that message?"

"I don't know. It was for the Lady's eyes only."

The waiting Long Patrol leaned in at this juncture, eager to hear whether anything suspicious might be about to be uttered, but they were bound to be disappointed, for all that they could tell.

"I'm sure she'll be getting her message in good time, once we've all had a chance to look at it to satisfy ourselves of its innocence. I'm sure she'll also be up here in even better time to hear whatever news you can tell us of Alexander - a subject I too, along with every other Redwaller, am most curious to hear about."

"Alexander is a guest of Salamandastron, free to leave whenever he pleases. He fares well."

"Well, that is a relief. We were worried about him - just as we were worried about Latura. Just what kind of reception did Lord Urthblood give her? He went to an awful lot of trouble to get her."

"He dealt with the ratmaid as he saw fit."

"Oh? By sending her to sea, into Tratton's clutches?"

The owl's head swivelled around, Saugus regarding Vanessa with eyes wide in surprise. "How did you know that?"

The mouse's expression remained demure. "Oh, we have our sources, just as Urthblood does. Still, it does seem odd, after the lengths he went to to secure her ... " Two of the hares, equally curious as to how Vanessa could have known of such a thing, exchanged a few rapid whispers, prompting the Abbess to chide, "Now you know that's not polite. If you're going to display such poor manners to me and my patient, I would ask that you leave."

"Er, sorry, ma'am."

"Now, Captain, spread your wings as much as you are able, and let me get a better look at them."

Partly hidden as Vanessa was between the curtain of Saugus's extended flying limbs and the window, Mina and Mona almost failed to notice her as they marched into the Infirmary past Geoff, Arlyn and Metellus to head right for their avian ally. Spotting the Abbess behind the living drapery, each competed to be the first to speak with their most urgent business.

"Abbess, I must insist you stand aside and allow me to take over the treatment of Captain Saugus. I've treated a great many birds in the Northlands, no doubt many more than you have, and the Captain deserves my level of expertise."

"And I demand that you order Colonel Clewiston to release the message he seized from Captain Saugus! That dispatch was intended for me, and he had no right intercepting it! No right whatsoever!"

"Now now, Lady, no need to get your hackles up; I'm sure your message will be shared with you eventually - one way or the other. I would have thought you'd be more concerned about word regarding Alexander."

Mina reared back at this effective verbal slap. "Well, yes - yes, of course I am. Does the Captain bear such news?"

"He does. And Alex is fine, or so he says. I'll let the two of you discuss it more, once his healing needs are addressed. And no, Mona, I have everything well in paw, although you're more than welcome to check my work once I've finished, to make sure it meets your standards."

Mona too drew back at this verbal barb directed her way, although after her earlier encounter with Vanessa in this very chamber, she was not so quick as Mina to press her point or argue her case, and thus remained silent.

"Well, this is interesting," Vanessa observed, her delicately-probing paws working free from Saugus's disrupted wing feathers a quill which most certainly was not that of an owl. She held it up for her assistants to mark it with expressions of surprise. Saugus turned his head to see what had elicited such a reaction, but by then the Abbess had already stashed the foreign feather down the front of her habit and out of sight.

"What? What was it?"

Vanessa favored him with that maddening smile again. "Captain, are you sure there's not anything you'd like to tell us?"

"I ... don't know what you mean."

"Ah. Mona, I've changed my mind; please do take a look at the Captain's injuries for yourself. I've never seen crow's beak marks quite like these, and I'd value your opinion on the matter."

Saugus looked like he desperately wanted to tell the vixen something, but dared not in front of everybeast else. As Vanessa stepped back to give the other healer room to work, she murmured into the owl's ear hole, "Mona's not the only sly one around here. You'll find I can be as crafty as any fox - and far more resourceful!"

Even as Mona leaned in to inspect the bir'ds peck marks - those not already covered by poultices and bandages - the sound of the Matthias and Methuselah bells reached the ears of everybeast in the Infirmary. Vanessa cocked her head to take in the toll, then turned to the watching Long Patrols. "You hares have certainly wasted no time in raising the alarm. Just what is the Colonel up to?"

Telemaque gave a mystified shrug. "Couldn't say, ma'am. Cap'n Gallatin never did say wot was in that note he confiscated - just said t' keep a close eye on this feathery Abbot-smashin' nuisance, an' a sharp ear out for anything incriminatin' he might say."

"Captain Saugus has already incriminated himself, whether he intended to or not. Or perhaps I should say the physical evidence has done the incriminating for him."

Saugus glared at Vanessa with a mix of ire and despair, helpless to utter a word in his defense while Mona surveyed his wounds with mounting surprise. "The shape and pattern of these beak marks ... they don't look like ... "

Down on his own Infirmary bed, Geoff listened to the tolling himself in consternation, deciphering it a few moments after Vanessa did as Metellus scrutinized his chest with magnifier and lantern. "Why, that's the call to order for a general council of Abbey leaders!" the former Abbot and current Recorder declared. Glancing down toward Vanessa, he wondered, "Who could have called it? It doesn't appear it could have been Nessa, and it certainly wasn't me!"

"If it's for real and not just a false alarm or miscue, we should both be there." Arlyn regarded Geoff. "Are you feeling up to it?"

"I feel fine, mostly. A little bit sore, a little bit ... prickled, I suppose."

"I can't see any traces of glass in any of these cuts," Metellus informed the two mice. "Give me a few moments to dab some salve on the worst of them, and you should be all right to attend the council."

"It will mostly just be sitting anyway, I imagine," Geoff said as the young badger set to work on applying the tincture.

"And talking," Arlyn added with a smile.

"Although I don't get to do too much of that these days, since my demotion," Geoff went on. "Mostly just sit there and ... say, what's all that commotion outside?"

Vanessa, drawn by the noise from the corridor beyond, tore herself away from Saugus and Mona to stride the length of the Infirmary to the doorway, with Mina following at her heels upon glimpsing Clewiston lingering in the hall amongst a large knot of his fellow hares. Stopping before them just beyond the portal, the mouse lightly demanded, "Why have you called a council of Abbey leaders, Colonel?"

"How'd you know it was me, marm?"

"Because it couldn't have been me or Geoff, and it didn't seem like the kind of thing Maura or Winokur would do. And with Alexander and Montybank both away, that narrowed it down a bit."

Mina, staring over Vanessa's shoulder, took note of the parchment clutched in Clewiston's paw. "Colonel, is that the message you intercepted from Captain Saugus? I must demand that you give it to me at once!"

Clewiston regarded the Gawtrybe Lady with no trace of frivolity. "Do you have any idea what it says, ma'am?"

"Not a clue. But it was addressed to me, and I want to see it. Now."

"No you don't."

Geoff, adjusting his habit around him as he and Arlyn came up behind Vanessa, asked, "What's going on here? Who called a council?"

"That was me, old bean - an' glad I am to see you back on your paws an' none the worse for wear, apparently. We'll need you to take the Abbot's chair again, at once."

As the others looked on in stunned silence at this proclamation, the armed Long Patrol closed in to encircle Vanessa at a signal from Clewiston.

"Don't try anything funny, Abbess - or whoever you are. I'm placing you under arrest, in the name of Redwall!"