Seated at the desk in her office, Abbess Tansy stared at Garnet, Amethyst, and Tammo as they related their story. Pearl and Major Perigord were also in the room.

"I should have gone with you," Pearl kept saying.

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Amethyst told her. "Somebody needed to stay behind and guard the Abbey."

"But I never would've forgiven myself if anything had happened to Tammo!" Pearl cried.

"Hey, it's all right," said Tammo. "I'm just fine, see?"

Tansy leaned forward. "How many Rapscallions d'you estimate Damug has on call?"

"Looked like over a thousand to me," said Garnet. "They were like leaves in an autumn gale."

"Oh dear," said Tansy. "I never imagined there could be a vermin army that large."

"Well," said Perigord, "There was half that number again when the Rapscallions came at Salamandastron, but we still managed to send the rotters packin'."

"Yeah, but you had your Badger Lady with you then," said Amethyst.

"Yes," said the Major. "Cregga Rose Eyes must be informed. Tomorrow morning, I'll send Riffle back to Salamandastron to fetch her and the rest of the army. He's our fastest runner."

"Even if Lady Cregga can get here in time, we won't stand much chance against the vermin with our north wall destroyed," said Tansy.

"Well, we got the materials to rebuild it," Tammo said.

"I know, but it'll take time, and the Rapscallions could come marching up any moment!" the Abbess said.

Garnet spoke. "Unless…"

"Unless what?" said Tansy.

"Unless someone puts a word in his ear."

Perigord frowned. "What sort o' word?"

"The sort o' word tellin' him how unlucky it would be to look upon Redwall before the battle is won, an' maybe suggesting a different site for the battle that would be lucky for a certain Rapscallion leader."

"But who could possibly do that?" Perigord asked.

Garnet then splits apart, separating into two smaller Gems! One was red, the other blue.

"Who are you two?" Tansy cried. "And where did Garnet go?"

"We are Garnet," the red Gem said. "My name is Ruby and this," she gestured at the blue Gem, "is Sapphire."

Sapphire said, "We loved each other so much we became one person."

Ruby and Sapphire joined hands and fused back into Garnet for a second. Then they unfused again.

"Oh my gosh!" Tammo exclaimed. "I can't believe you were a fusion all this time!"

"We were going to tell you eventually," said Sapphire.

"We were waiting for your next birthday," said Ruby.

"That's okay," said Tammo. "You can still do it. I'll just pretend I didn't know."

Major Perigord gazed at Ruby and Sapphire. "I say, I wish I could experience a love as strong as that."

"So, anyway," Sapphire said. "Sapphires have the ability to see the future. Every Gem knows this. Damug Warfang has a Gem working for him. She must have come from Homeworld. I will go to the Rapscallion camp and introduce myself to Damug. The two of us met him once when he was a teenager, when we fought against his father Gormad Tunn, but we were fused into Garnet then. He's never seen us unfused. I'll tell his Gem accomplice that the Diamonds sent me to help her, and she will be able to vouch for my soothsaying abilities. Then I'll feed Damug a bunch of lies about how I've foreseen him fighting the Redwallers at someplace other than Redwall, and he'll go to meet the Redwallers there and won't attack the Abbey directly."

"And while Sapphire works as a double agent, I can act as her link between her and Redwall, sending messages back and forth," Ruby added.

Perigord twitched his whiskers. "It's a risky scheme, but it just might work."

Pearl asked, "Where should we tell Damug to go?"

Perigord thought for a moment, then the answer came to him. "Otter Ridge!"

"Where's that?" Tammo asked.

"Just west o' here," said the Major. "It's a great hill with a rock atop of it shaped like an otter's tail."

"Sounds perfect," said Amethyst. "We'll have the advantage of higher ground there."

"When will you leave?" Pearl asked Sapphire and Ruby.

"Might as well go right now," Ruby said. "We don't wanna waste any time."

"But it's dark," said Tansy.

"That makes no difference to us," said Sapphire.

"All right," said Pearl. "Be careful out there!"

Sapphire giggled. "I think we'll be just fine."