Seabane hurried behind Abbot Micah as he led the way to the infirmary. Samuel followed him, careful not to step on the rat's tail. Eli and Sergeant Danburr trailed Marrow as he carried Crooksnout and Fenril. The group hadn't run into many beasts on their way to the infirmary, but the Redwallers had eyed them with animosity.
"So, what was Foremole Grumm having you do today?" Samuel asked the rat.
Seabane was so preoccupied with his worries about Ruddy that he didn't hear what the addlebrained mouse had said. After a few moments of silence, the mouse looked away, attempting to hide his embarrassment.
"Answer the question, vermin!" Eli barked at Seabane.
"Ehh? What was the question mouse? I didn't hear ya." Seabane snapped, annoyed to be forced into worthless conversation.
"Foremole Grumm, what did he have you do today?" Samuel asked with a slightly renewed confidence.
"Yar matey, I don't know. He was blabberin' on about his tools for the whole mornin' then Marrow an I were tossed in yer dungeon."
"He can be a bit long-winded at times, but he cares for his tools like they were his kin." Samuel smiled at the cold rat.
"He about clobbered Marrow when he touched his mallet." Seabane spat back.
Thankfully for Seabane's patience, the group made it to the infirmary. Fighting beasts dawdled about or played with cards on the bed in the infirmary waiting room. They jumped to attention when the Abbot entered. Several nasty looks passed towards the vermin as they followed him. Captain Santain raced toward the vermin, his paw clutching the hilt of his rapier.
"What are they doing here!" He hissed.
"The weasel needs our healer. It looks like he's rebroken his arm or somehow made it worse."
"He can find a healer outside the gates to help him, all ours are unconscious or not in a position to render aid." Once again, the hare gave Seabane another reason to strangle him.
"Captain Santain," Abbot Micah snapped. "Not another word."
The hare bit his tongue and pointed down the hallway to the end of the infirmary. "There are some open beds there. Call for Sathe to attend to him."
With that Marrow scooted by the hare and hurried toward the end of the hall. In the exaggerated silence, Seabane could hear Sathe's grating voice echo through the infirmary. She fell silent the moment the white giant vanished from view.
"I do think we deserve an explanation for what this scum is still doing here." Captain Santain snapped.
"I doubt any explanation will satisfy you." Abbot Micah responded with more bite than Seabane expected.
"You're probably right Abbot but one would help all of us get a sense of how bad things will get before you do anything to stop this madness."
A ring of beasts had formed around Seabane and Abbot Micah. Everybeast save Seabane, Samuel, and the Abbot were armed with some kind of weapon. The hares, mice, hedgehogs, squirrels, and otters, watched for any sign of animosity or potential deadly threat from the rat.
"The weasel was mad, and he's no longer a threat. We can move beyond this if we all try and get along with eachother."
"Move past this?" A mouse who leaned against the door snapped at the abbot.
"Sister Beryl and Mildred were half dead when we arrived. And that weasel almost killed Sister Lilac when he fell from the window. She's as stiff as a stone and you want us to just move on as if nothing happened!"
A crescendo of voices agreed with him, each beast talking over each other in an attempt to convey their anger. Seabane held his tongue despising them as they pelted him with insults. For the good beasts of Redwall, Seabane noted that they weren't any different than vermin when things didn't go their way. Seabane hoped that his observation wouldn't hold true because if it did then he would be a dead beast quite soon.
"Sister Beryl and Mildred are being taken care of by their healer. If you have an issue with the way she has handled herself then you should've removed her from the infirmary instead of sitting on your tails playing cards." Abbot Micah's accusatory voice cut through the noise like a knife. "If your priorities are to play games and doddle about when the ferret of all beasts is doing her best to solve our problem then perhaps you should reconsider your place in this abbey."
"Our place in the abbey!" The mouse shrieked leaping from the door. "We've opened our doors to these vermin but have to cower in fear that they might try an kill us! You'd rather protect these murderers than our dibbuns!"
"That's not what the Abbot is saying, Maslow!" The meek Samuel raised his voice amongst the tumult.
"Then what is he saying you spineless worm!" Maslow shouted back as he charged toward the grey-furred mouse. Jutting a claw into his shocked face.
"How are you going to explain this to Brin or Mildred when they wake up? I'm sure they'll be quite happy to be told that they should reconsider their place in the Abbey by the Abbot of all beasts!"
"That's enough lad." Eli stepped between the two mice. Maslow didn't flinch under the warrior's withering glare. Seabane was certain that the two beasts were headed towards blows and didn't want to be the source and target of their anger. He decided that now would be an ideal time to use his secret talent: groveling.
"Arrr, aye can't change what's happened," Seabane chittered, hoping to shift attention away from the Greyfur brothers. "But I can speak for the rest of me bedraggled crew and say this was never somethin' we craved. Herrik was mad, and we truly didn't reckon he'd wake up again. Sister Beryl was just in the wrong room at the wrong time, and I'm sick to me whiskers because of it."
"I'm sorry for the trouble Herrik caused," Seabane squeaked after a long pause. "I hope that something like it never comes from me crew again."
Seabane found that he felt a sense of relief as he finished. It was a strange feeling, and something told him that he was right to feel that way. He supposed that he, for a very rare moment, was being completely honest. Maslow laughed at him.
"HA! A bunch of useless dribble, am I supposed tah believe yew rat! You've probably got more blood on yer paws than both Captain Santain and Eli."
Seabane was furious that his attempts to be 'good' in their eyes were being tossed aside.
"Well, whaddaya want me tah do?" Seabane tried to curve his tongue, it partially worked. "Sathe's tryin' tah mend everybeast's wounds. Crooksnout would do just about anything tah protect his family. All I want is to make sure that the fox is still alive and won't snap like Herrik."
"I want ye out of the Abbey! But because we have fools in charge, I want ye out of my sight! Dokkur will make sure he doesn't wake up and decide to kill."
At the mentioning of the otter, the hair on Seabane's neck rose with alarm. Why would that vile creature pay any attention to the fox? It was certainly for nothing good.
"Where is he!" Seabane demanded. The ring of beasts tightened around him.
"Why would I tell you, rat!"
Seabane wanted to call Marrow in and have the rat tear this mouse's lips off. Of course, the two rats would be slain, but Seabane toyed with the thought.
"Maslow, tell us please." Eli's cool voice cut through the tension building in the room. "Then he'll no longer be of your concern."
Maslow refused to look at Eli and set his jaw. The disappointment on Eli's face was only eclipsed by his anger.
"Captain Santain where's Dokkur?"
"I don't know Eli, I've been too busy directing beasts around to keep track of that one."
"Yarr this is taking too long!" Seabane snapped pushing past Maslow who tried to stand in front of the rat.
A paw grabbed the corsair from behind, but the rat shrugged it off as another beast tried to grab him from the front. Seabane attempted to throw this new assailant off but was unable to as Marrow had managed to pick his way through the crowd of beasts to restrain him. Before Seabane could reprimand Marrow, a scream echoed through the infirmary.
As soon as it started it stopped almost as if it were cut off. Seabane recognized Ruddy's voice almost instantly. In the quiet that followed he shouted back to him.
"Ruddy where are ya lad!" Seabane strained against the white rat's iron grip.
In the terrifying silence, there was no response. Seabane thought the otter had to be doing something vile to mute the fox. Horrible memories cascaded through Seabane from finding the bodies of vermin who hadn't escaped the wrath of a furious otter. There was a fox who had been turned into a pin cushion by javelins, a ferret whose skull had been bashed in with an oar, and a mink who had been drowned in the mud on the banks of the River Moss. With whatever injuries Ruddy had he would be easy prey for the bloodthirsty creature.
"Leggo I gotta help Ruddy!"
Sensing the danger, Marrow loosened his grip on the corsair.
"Ruddy, where are you!" Seabane boomed as he shook free of the giant rat's clutches. He bolted toward one of the doors whipping it open. Twinetail and Ripeye watched him with tangible apprehension as they lay curled up on the same bed as their mother. Before Silvertongue opened her mouth to speak Seabane slammed the door.
"Dokkur where are ya lad!" Eli snapped as he pushed his way through the crowd of beasts. The Redwallers appeared to be too stunned to respond or didn't care. After no response, Eli shouted with more authority.
"Dokkur tell me where ye are! That's an order!"
Again, there was no response. Seabane snapped about looking for the source of the noise. The infirmary hallway was lined on both sides with doors to private rooms. There were five doors on both sides and each looked the same on the outside as they did on the inside. The Redwallers dawdled about not knowing whether to help or hinder the search. Eli started opening random doors but with no success in finding the fox and otter. Out of the corner of his eye, Seabane saw Maslow leaning against the door at the end of the hall. The rat stormed to him, elbowing beasts away in a mad rush.
The mouse didn't acknowledge the rat's presence. Seabane didn't care if he did or not as he grabbed the small beast's shoulders and tossed him aside before grabbing the handle and trying to force the door open. It wouldn't budge.
"Dokkur yew slimy riverdog open this door 'fore I gut you like a fish!" Seabane snapped, not worrying about the consequences. Seabane tried to bash the door down slamming his shoulder into it twice to no avail. Before he could ram the door once more he was knocked off his paws by a blur. Small fists landed sharp blows across Seabane's body. There was another garbled scream from behind the door further enraging the rat.
"Vermin scum!" Maslow screamed as he continued to attack Seabane. With a roar, Seabane caught one of his paws and twisted it, before kicking the mouse off him and scrambling to his footpaws.
"Stop fighting this instant!" Abbot Micah shouted but no beasts seemed to listen to him. Marrow was swarmed by four Redwallers who had attacked the giant white rat. Marrow didn't retaliate and didn't even seem to notice the creatures struggling to bring him to the ground, but looked toward Eli for assistance. The warrior, seemingly understanding, unsheathed his sword and tried to prevent other beasts who wanted to join the fray. Seabane noticed Captain Santain rushing toward him.
In desperation, Seabane grabbed the handle of the door nearest to him hoping it would open. It did and Seabane leapt into the room slamming it shut behind him.
Seabane pressed against the door as the hare tried to open it from the other side. Sister Beryl watched him with a confused expression from the bed in the center of the room. The room was oddly cold when Seabane noticed that the window was broken and realized that this was the room where Herrik had been staying.
"Sorry lass. I'll be just a moment." Seabane said as he rushed to the window, hoping that he sounded genuine to the injured badger. Looking down he saw several beasts on their knees attempting to scrub a red splatter off the stone path. There was another garbled grunt from the room to his left, Ruddy didn't have much time left.
"Stop vermin!" Captain Santain shouted as Seabane began to crawl out the window. There was a small ledge just wide enough for Seabane to dig his claws into and hang from. The wind howled as dark clouds rolled toward Redwall, whipping through the small window frame as Seabane clung to the rough surface of the ancient stone building. The narrow ledge felt treacherous beneath his fingertips, and a glance downward revealed the dizzying drop to the unforgiving ground below. Slowly shimmying along the nearly flat face of the wall, Seabane half clung to a small foothold with his right footpaw as his left remained hooked in the broken window plane.
Seabane's claws were like fishhooks sticking into the small outcropping of stone as he cautiously shifted his left footpaw from the windows ledge. Being an expert climber was a skill that many sailors including himself had managed to master after several seasons at sea climbing up and down the masts of The Damnation. With a deep breath, he continued shuffling across the wall of the infirmary. Each foothold was a precarious gamble, and Seabane's heart raced with each calculated step. The winter wind howled, threatening to dislodge him from his precarious perch. He pressed himself against the cold stone, the chill seeping through the layers of his clothing.
Suddenly a paw grabbed his leg. Captain Santain's torso hung from the broken window, his face an angry grimace as he attempted to pull the rat free from the wall. Fueled from the adrenaline coursing through his veins he kicked free from the hare's grasp and quickly shimmed to the window to Ruddy's room. Without a second thought, Seabane kicked the glass with all his might. It shattered and with the last of his remaining strength, he threw himself through the window.
Seabane landed with a soft thud. The room was identical to the other rooms in the infirmary, aside from the glass on the floor and the otter who was attempting to strangle the fox. Dokkur let go of Ruddy in shock at the sight of the rat. The otter wore the same bright steel breastplate and red cape the identical color as the abbey's walls that he had worn yesterday. The two beasts stared at eachother for a moment, the only noise was the pained gulps of air coming from Ruddy who lie between the two of them. The fur around the fox's neck was torn and ragged, purple and black welts could be seen under his fur.
"You shouldn't be in here!" Dokkur hissed.
"You're a monster!" Seabane snapped at the otter.
"And you're vermin! Vermin who tried to kill our healer and won't stop until we're all dead!"
"We don't what ye dead! We just want to survive and leave this place!" Shouting from the beasts outside the door could be heard as well as a loud banging.
"No, no, no, you don't! You want us dead! You tried to kill Sister Beryl!"
"You tried tah kill Ruddy! You're no better than Herrik!" Seabane slowly moved toward the door. It was blocked by a large dresser about half the rat's height and a tail length longer than him. Seabane hoped he could move it so that Eli or Abbot Micah could put a stop to this.
"No, I'm not! I'm protecting Redwall! Do you think that you or your crew can stay here after today? I'm helping get rid of you scum!"
Seabanes' gut twisted in agony. He had acted on instinct and did whatever he could to get to Ruddy. He didn't consider how he was making a mess of things. He expected the Abbot to have his side and because of that Eli, but after attacking Maslow and Captain Santain he had broken the most important of the Abbey's rules. Dokkur held the advantage and had every reason to be a smug bastard. He wanted more than anything to slay the otter but that would seal the deserter's fate. The hopelessness of the situation dawned everclear on Seabane. But some stubborn parts of Seabane refused to change.
"We've done nothing wrong. You and your abbot know that."
"I'm done trying to explain this to you scum." Dokkur pulled a flat knife from his cloak. "You can grovel when you're at the gates of the Dark Forest!"
Dokkur leapt across the bed, his knife trained at Seabanes' heart. Yelping Seabane jumped toward the door. He tried pushing the dresser out of the way, but it was far too heavy for him to move while avoiding the otter's attacks. Seabane spun around just in time to dodge a swipe from the knife. Seabane swung a sharp claw at the otter slashing him across the face, eliciting a howl of pain. Enraged, Dokkur slashed at Seabane, catching his forearm with a wicked roar as he rushed forward. Reacting on instinct, Seabane pushed the otter's arm aside and slammed his knee into Dokkur's midsection. There was a clang and a grunt as Seabane's knee slammed into the metal. The blow was enough to stun the otter for a moment as Seabane danced away. Seabane hopped about on one leg as tiny knives stung numbing pain into his knee. Looking back at Dokkur he crouched with his paw over his midsection. With a roar, he lept at the rat tackling him into the dresser that blocked the door. Panicked Seabane fumbled about scrabbling for the knife. With a heavy fist, Dokkur smashed Seabane's face, opening a cut on his lip as the rat began to see stars. The otter raised his knife above his head and drove it down for the killing blow. Seabane grabbed his wrist and pushed back with all his might as the knife slowly inched its way toward his heart.
"Marrow! Open the door!" Seabane screamed as he buckled against the otter's strength.
There was a clomping of pawsteps behind Seabane before a quiet clicking of claws as they bit into the wood. A primal roar filled Seabane's ears as the heavy oak door was ripped from its iron hinges with a mighty crack. Seabane couldn't see Marrow, but the momentary shock strewn across Dokkur's face horrified the corsair. A white blur ripped the otter off the rat as Seabane squeaked in terror. There was a thrashing about as the two beasts wrestled on the cold floor.
Seabane scrambled to his footpaws and pulled the dresser away from the door with the help of Eli and several other beasts. After a great struggle, the barricade to the room was removed. Eli rushed in and slugged Seabane in the face sending the rat spiralling to the floor. Seabane received an unintentional kick in the stomach from Dokkur as he struggled to free himself from beneath the white rat. Marrow had wrapped his legs around the otter's chest at the shoulder and heaved his arm back at an unnatural angle. The giant rat's claws wrapped around Dokkur's wrist and paw preventing the knife from moving.
"That's enough!" Abbot Micah ordered and for a moment everybeast stopped.
Every blade in the infirmary pointed at the two vermin. The white rat looked furious, his blood-red eyes staring daggers at Abbot Micah who stood aside from Eli. Dokkur thrashed about, trying to kick the albino giant. Marrow pulled his arm back even further eliciting a cry of pain.
"Let him go, rat!" Eli ordered.
Marrow ignored him and with his massive paw wrenched the knife from Dokkur's grasp. He slid it across the floor towards Abbot Micah who stooped over to pick it up. Only then did Marrow release his grip on the otter. Dokkur yelped before curling into a ball on his side and cradling his arm.
"Kill'em them where they lie!" Maslow shouted.
"Silence! That's the Abbot's decision, not yours!" Eli snapped at him.
"He tried tah kill me! Slay them now before they harm anyone else!" Dokkur barked through tears as he cradled his arm.
"Yew was gonna strangle Ruddy tah death yew vile riverdog!" Seabane snapped, sending spittle flying from his mouth. "Abbot Micah and Eli called for you, but yew was too busy killin' Ruddy!"
"Shut up rat! Yew tried to kill me and Dokkur!" Maslow cracked.
"Yew knew where he was, yew liar and you did nothing! Ruddy's got claw marks across his throat!"
"He tried to slay me the vermin scum!" Dokkur screamed, there was a maddened look in his eyes.
"Enough!" Abbot Micah shouted, and the room fell to a tense quiet.
"You!" Abbot Micah pointed a weathered paw at Marrow. "If you ever cause such a raucous in this abbey again, I'll have Eli slice you to pieces! The abbey's falling apart as it is. We don't need you to make it worse!"
"Again!" Maslow snapped at Abbot Micah. "What do you mean again? They've tried tah kill half a score of beasts today and you're going to cast a blind eye to them again! You're more of a threat to this abbey than they are!"
"Shut your mouth, Maslow!" Eli snapped at the brown and white mouse.
"Maslow's right Eli." Captain Santain interrupted. "How many beasts have to get hurt before these vermin get what they deserve, wot?"
"You're not making the decisions Captain!" Eli snapped at the hare. "An the lot of ye attacked Marrow for no other reason than the fact he was there!"
"The fox was a threat, Eli! Your apprentice knew that!"
"Was he going to kill you Dokkur?" Abbot Micah asked adjusting his spectacles.
"Yes, Abbot!" Dokkur responded breathlessly. "He knocked me unconscious which was why I didn't respond when ye called. When I came too, he barricaded the door and was about to slit my throat. I turned the tide against the villain when this searat scum burst through the window and tried to kill me!"
Angry voices of agreement were shouted between the Redwallers. Abbot Micah folded his paws under his robes and walked toward the bed. Ruddy watched everybeast with eyes as large as bucklers as he continued to gasp for air. He trembled like a leaf in an autumn wind as the abbot approached him.
"Eli, how many beasts did it take to move the dresser?" Abbot Micah asked with a calm voice.
Redwall's champion took a moment to respond. "Err, I needed several beasts just to swing it away from the door. Five or six I reckon. May I ask why it matters?"
"The dresser was heavy enough that it needed several beasts to move it." Abbot Micah stopped at the edge of the bed and pulled the blanket off Ruddy. "How could this fox move it on his own with a single leg?"
There was a gasp from the beasts in the room as Ruddy began to cry. Seabane's stomach dropped. The fox's left leg was cut off just below the knee and was wrapped in layers of bloodied bandages. Abbot Micah cast a disappointed glare at the irate Dokkur. Eli's face darkened as he pulled his sword away from Seabane. The rat scrambled over to Ruddy's side cradling the fox's head in his arms as he too began to cry.
Again another tough chapter. This will probably be the last of the year. Thank you so much for reading and supporting the story this year! I have enjoyed writing it and I hope to continue to improve in the new year!
As always please let me know what you think and what I can improve on. Any and all feedback is appreciated!