The Lutra - Jacques, Brian - Redwall 09 - The Pearls Of Lutra

The high window in question was the one in Fermald's attic. It was filled by a large chunk of translucent rock crystal. Tansy reached it by standing on the back of Fermald's armchair. Craklyn climbed up to help her, whilst Rollo and Piknim held on to the battered old chair, steadying it.

The hedgehog maid gave a cry of delight as she felt the lump of crystal move beneath her paw. "Haha! It's not even cemented in. Mind your paws, Craklynlook out below!"

She pulled it loose; the crystal sent up a cloud of dust as it thudded onto the cushioned armchair seat. Craklyn crawled into the window space and poked her head out to look around.

Piknim danced up and down with impatience. "Can you see the house martin's nest, is the pearl there?"

Only when Tansy and the squirrelmaid were safe back on the attic floor did Craklyn make her report. "Phew! I felt awfully dizzy looking out of the window. D'you realize how high up we are? But I could see the nestit's on a narrow stone parapet, wedged in a corner."

Rollo was obviously trying to keep calm as he asked the vital question. "Hmm, did you see the ... er, pearl?"

Craklyn perched on the chair arm, looking at her friends' expectant faces, framed in the sunlit shaft from the window. "I saw the nest, a typical house martin dwelling, almost like a round ball with a small hole for an entrance. But I don't think any birds have used it for some seasons. It looked empty."

Tansy nodded thoughtfully.

"Exactly as the rhyme says. 'Below the mouth of a mouse looking south, all in a deserted dwelling.' The nest is the deserted dwelling. But the thing that really mystifies me is, how did a very old squirrel like Fermald manage to get the pearl into the nest?"

Piknim clapped a paw to her mouth, but could not stop the giggle that bubbled forth. "Teeheehee! Ask mister Rollo, he's pretty ancient. Heeheehe should know!"

Quite unexpectedly, the old Recorder smiled and made a slight bow to the mousemaid. "Thank you, Piknim, nice to see you showing some respect for your elders. As a matter of fact the question has been puzzling me. However, I think I know how Fermald managed to place the pearl in that house martin's nest."

It was the three Abbeymaids' turn to look surprised. Rollo seated himself in the armchair and explained in three words. "Fermald's fishing rod!"

Tansy clapped her paws in delight. "Of course! I'll go and get it!"

Craklyn lay in the window space, leaning outward, while Tansy and Piknim held tight to her footpaws as she fished for the nest. It was a lot simpler than they thought. With a triple-barbed hook attached to the line the nest was easily snagged. Craklyn reeled it up carefully, as Rollo paced the floor chatting away to himself, highly pleased with his own wisdom.

"Quite basic, really. Fermald hooked the nest, reeled it up here, placed the pearl in it and lowered it back into position again. Hah! You can't beat an old head on old shoulders!"

Craklyn swung the nest inside, and Tansy caught it skillfully. Seasons ago a clever little house martin had formed the circular structure of grass, leaves and mud, leaving a round opening. She had probably used it several times to rear her eggchicks.

Rollo grinned broadly at the three eager faces as he upended the nest and shook it.

“ Just as the rhyme says. 'My fourth tear I shed, for the Abbey Redwall, laid where it never should hatch or fall.' Behold, here is our fourth pearl, young maids!"

But only an acorn shell fell out onto the attic floorboards.

In complete silence Tansy took the nest from Rollo. The hedgehog maid rummaged inside it with her paw, then she shook it and held it up to the light, her face a picture of disappointment. "There's no pearl! It's gone!"

Piknim and Craklyn were both shocked. They too inspected the empty nest, but no amount of looking could conjure up a pearl that was not there. All four friends slumped on the attic floor, totally dejected.

Tansy picked up the acorn shell and looked closely at it. "This is an empty shellit's been cracked and stuck together again. See!" She split the shell and drew forth the scrap of parchment which had been rolled up inside. "Here's the clue to our fifth pearl, though I don't intend opening or reading it until we find the fourth pearl. Agreed?"

Rollo spoke for himself and the other two maids. "Agreed, it would not seem right. We must discover each pearl in the order that Fermald intended us to. Come on, cheer up, friends, let's go to the grounds below and try to find that pearl."

Auma sat with Gerul and Skipper at the table in Great Hall. Late evening sunlight streamed through the stained glass windows onto a table that did full justice to the culinary skills of Redwall cooks. Neither beast had let injury blunt his appetite. With no great interest in the elderberry tart or the small beaker of plum cordial before her, the badger Mother turned to Skipper, saying, "No news of Martin and Clecky yet?"

The brawny otter looked up from his summer salad, took a draft of October ale and wiped his mouth on the back of a paw. "I'm afraid not, marm, though I expect the otter patrol I sent out to be back with some information before dawn tomorrow. Who knows, may'ap they'll bring Martin an' Clecky with 'em, the Abbot an' Viola too with any luck."

Auma sniffed hard, blinked back a tear and sighed. "Poor Durral and Viola. I hope they're not still in the clutches of that foul lizard thing and those scurvy searats."

Gerul demolished a wedge of celery and mushroom turnover with all the ease of a seasoned trencherbeast. "Ah now, don't be a worryin' yerself over things y'can't control, marm. Sure, as me ould mother always used t'say, ten seasons from now y'll be wonderin' wot you were bothered about today, if yer still around t'bother. Will y'look at ould Rollo an' those young maids over there, they've got faces on them like frazzled frogs, so they have. Hi there, Tansy! Bring y'friends over here an' join the Redwall worriers."

When the four friends had joined Auma, Skipper and Gerul, the owl applied himself back to a chunk of heavy fruitcake. "There now, aren't we the grand ould miserable tablemates. What are you lot lookin' so down in the whiskers about?"

Tansy explained in detail about the house martin's nest. Gerul listened carefully as he helped himself to Auma's tart. "Hmm, so there was no pearl in the nest, eh? Well, wot d'yer suppose happened? Did it fall out, have y'searched the grounds below the nest?"

Rollo picked at a slice of apple pie. "Oh yes, we went over the area with a fine-tooth comb. There was no sign of anything resembling a pearl."

Gerul picked crumbs from his chest as he talked. "So, where in the name o' faith d'ye think the pearl went?"

Rollo pushed away his apple pie and shrugged. "How should I know?"

The owl blinked his enormous eyes. "Tchah! Me ould mother wouldn't be too pleased with you, Rollo. A beast of yore long seasons an' wisdom not bein' able to see wot's starin' ye in the whiskers. If the pearl never fell, then sure it was taken by some-beast or other, that's clear enough!''

The Recorder of Redwall Abbey stared indignantly at Gerul. "Oh indeed? Somebeast took it, eh! From over halfway up the Abbey wall in a nest on a tiny ledge? Pray be good enough to tell me, sir, what sort of creature was it?''

Gerul finished his crumb-picking ablutions and hopped down to the floor, chuckling at the angry Recorder. "Ah, sure, yer gettin' y'whiskers in a tizz over nothin' at all. I hate leavin' a luvly table o' vittles like this, but if y'll be kind enough t'follow me good self I'll try t'help yer!-"

The four friends followed Gerul up to Fermald's attic. He waddled around the abandoned martin's nest, touching it now and again with a hefty talon as he enquired, "An' this is exactly as y'found it, just like it is now?"