56

An hour later, bright rising sun had burned off the dawn mists and everybeast was aboard the big ship as it bobbed on the incoming tide. Martin, Viola and Abbot Durral held on to the paws of Tansy, Rollo, Craklyn and Higgle as if they would never let go again.

“Rollo, old friend, how good to see your face!”

“Father Abbot, you’re really back! And Viola too; we thought you were lost in the woods!”

“Friar Higgle, I’ll wager you missed me in the kitchens?”

“Missed you? Good job Teasel ain’t here, or she’d be throwin’ her apron o’er her face an’ cryin’ buckets. Oh, Durral, my friend, sometimes I doubted I’d ever see ye again!”

“Tansy, Craklyn, is it really you? Give me a kiss, friends!”

“Friends, that’s what we are, Viola, forever friends!”

“Martin, it does my old heart good to see our Redwall Warrior returned safe and well! How are you, friend?”

“All the better for having the honor to shake the paw of a great and wise Recorder, Rollo. You’ve grown younger in my absence.”

“Martin, Martin, all seagulls gone’d inna water, swimmed away?”

The Warriormouse untangled Arven from his footpaws and lifted him onto his shoulder. “They’re not seagulls, they’re called seals. Gone, you say?”

Clecky and Gerul looked over the ship’s side. Arven had spoken truly, there was not a sign of sealfolk or their Hawm anywhere.

The hare munched a chunk of warm shrewbread reflectively, and said, “Without so much as a farewell or a toodle-oo! Still, I s’pose there’s only me would’ve understood them, seein’ as I’m the only one jolly well up on their lingo, wot. Very odd, though, very odd indeed!”

Gerul attempted to disguise snorted laughter as a cough. “I’m thinkin’ ’tis no odder than yoreself with a red velvet ear, me ould mate. I don’t know wot me ould mother’d’ve said if’n she’d seen a lug like that!”

The hare straightened his red velvet ear and posed heroically. “Rather good, doncha think, wot! Distinctive, stylish, yet with that touch of roguish dash about it. Wish I had two, really!”

Martin turned to stare seaward, shaking his head sadly. “I wish the Hawm and his sealfolk had stayed longer. They were proper friends, good and true. Still, I suppose they had their reasons for leaving as they did. What are you staring at, Skip?”

“Yer neck, matey, that’s a rare ole scar you’ve got there!”

The Warriormouse ran his paw across the wound. “Aye, but you should see the other feller. I’ll tell you all about it when we get back to Redwall.”

Plogg and Welko told their father about Grath, how she had found Inbar and gone to live at Ruddaring with him. Welko clapped his father’s back and said, “But Grath said that she’d never ferget ’er friend the Guosim Chieftain Log a Log. Ahoy there, are you cryin’, dad?”

Log a Log did not attempt to wipe away the tears which rolled down his face. “Of course I am, ye great buffer, that otter was like a daughter t’me, the one I never ’ad. I’m glad she’s ’appy, though I’ll miss ’er.”

Plogg pulled an object from his belt and placed it in Log a Log’s paws. “Grath said t’give you this to remember ’er by.”

It was a green-feathered arrow.

The Abbot stood on the forepeak with Tansy, Rollo and Craklyn.

“Did you solve your riddle?” he asked.

Rollo nodded. “Indeed we did, all six of them. Six riddles to lead us to six perfect pearls. They were to be your ransom.”

“Ah,” cried the Abbot, “now all is clear.” He folded his paws into his habit sleeves. “Good! Who holds them at this moment?”

Tansy produced the scallop shell case and opened it to reveal the six rose-colored pearls, each one lying in its niche. “Here they are, Father. Martin tells me that they belonged to the family of Grath Longfletch. How can I return them?”

Abbot Durral stared at Tansy a long time, then he said, “I have been told the pearls now belong to you!”

Tansy looked at the rose-colored orbs. “But what about Rollo and Craklyn? They helped me to find them.”

The Abbot of Redwall’s voice was clear and firm. “Yet still they belong to you, who found the remains of that corsair which led to the first clue. The Warrior of our dreams told me they were yours. Now think carefully, young one, what are you going to do with them?”

A silence fell over the whole ship, and every eye turned upon Tansy holding the pearls. She stared at them, her mind racing back to that first day in the woods and the corsair’s skeleton, over the many hours spent searching painstakingly to gain each one, the puzzles, riddles, joys, frustrations and sorrows of the entire quest. Now it had all come down to this, a half-dozen round objects encased in a scallop shell. Her voice rang out, clear and certain.

“These pearls are said to be rare, precious and beautiful, yet when I look at them now I see only bloodshed, greed and death. There are many creatures lying dead because of them, from the family of Grath down to countless searats and corsairs. But one touched our own lives deeply, a young Abbeymaid who was friend to us all. Piknim was slain because of these six pearls. Truly they are called the Tears of all Oceans. We have no need for things such as these at Redwall Abbey, life is a far more precious and beautiful thing. I give back to the oceans these six tears, so that they will never cause grief or sorrow to any living creature!”

Tansy climbed to the bowsprit of Seaking, which had turned on the tide and now was moored to the shore, facing the open seas. Scooping the pearls from their case she flung them high and wide. Like six rose-tinted raindrops they flashed briefly in the sunlight, then they hit the waves and were lost to sight for ever. Tansy let the scallop shell drop from her paws. It fell with a gentle splash and sank under the keel. Slowly the hedgehog maid descended to the deck, where she apologized to Rollo and Craklyn.

“After all the days and nights we spent searching together, see what I’ve done! I am sorry, my friends.”

Craklyn grinned ruefully. “Fermald the Ancient would be furious if she were here now. Just think, with one sweep of your paw you hid the pearls far better than she did with all her clues and scheming!”

Rollo nodded his head admiringly. “Indeed, you certainly don’t mess about when you’ve made up your mind to do something, miss. What do you say, Father Abbot?”

The good Father Abbot had quite a bit to say.

“From the time our ship left Sampetra to sail back here, I have had the same dream over and over. Martin our Abbey spirit kept telling me this message.

Abbot Durral took Tansy’s paw. “Many times Martin repeated those words to me in my dreams. I was puzzled as to their meaning until today. Abbess Tansy!”

The enormity of what Durral had said caused Tansy to move away from the Abbot in bewilderment. She stood alone on the forepeak, scarcely noticing the sea, sparkling as wavelets caught midmorning sunlight. Total silence reigned aboard the vessel.

Martin stole silently up alongside her. Drawing the great sword of Redwall, he laid it on the rail in front of her and said, “I am yours to command, Mother Abbess. What is your wish?”

Tansy picked up the sword. She had not realized it was so heavy. She presented it back to Martin, then, a smile hovering on her face as the depth of the honor conferred upon her sunk in, she turned to face the assembly. Trying hard to keep her paws and voice from trembling, she addressed them all.

“Er, listen, what I’d like to say is, er . . . Oh, let’s go home and have a great feast to celebrate our friends’ safe return!”

A resounding cheer split the air and everybeast crowded round to congratulate Tansy.

“I say, old thing, you’ll make a jolly good Abbess if y’keep chuckin’ out orders like that, wot!”

“Ah, ’tis right, an’ as me ould mother used t’say, may yer shadow never grow less, an’ it won’t if y’keep it well fed!”

“Well done, young missie. Oops! I mean Mother Abbess, but when nobeast’s listening I’ll still call you Tansy and I hope you’ll still call me Craklyn, your old pal!”

“Tansy pansy, worra h’Abbess mean? Ole Rollo call you muvver, heehee, you norra muvver, they hooj an’ big like m’Auma!”

Wellwishers continued to flock round and shake Tansy’s paw. She was very touched by Rollo’s simple words.

“If I had been choosing an Abbess, my choice would have been the same as Durral’s. This is the best thing to happen to our Abbey in all of my seasons. Rule well, young Mother!”