Dinny knelt beside him, burying his face in the earth. “Hoa nay, letten et doant be true!”

The two friends wept bitterly.

Timballisto would not, could not, believe that after the short period they had been reunited, his friend had been taken to the gates of Dark Forest.

Timballisto turned Martin gently over, laying his limbs straight. Swiftly he hurried to the water and filled Martin’s helmet. Soaking a cloth, he dabbed feverishly at the fearsome wounds that covered his friend’s body.

“Who could have done these awful things to a living creature?”

Gonff wiped his eyes. Picking up a long broken claw from the earth, he held it out to them. “Tsarmina, that’s who,” he said grimly.

Dinny squinted at the claw. He cast about, sniffing and sifting with his paws, finding many traces of blood on the ground. “They’m fought a gurt battlefoight yurr. Lookit, catbludd on Marthen’s sword, ground all a-ploughed up.”

Gonff followed the tracks to the water’s edge. “You’re right, matey. The cat went backward, into the lake. I think our warrior won the battle.”

Once more the tears sprang to the little mousethief’s eyes. “Martin, we went through everything together. Why couldn’t I have been here to help you, matey?”

Bella was cradling Martin’s head, when suddenly she leaned closer to the warrior mouse’s lips.

“He’s alive! His mouth is moving!” she exclaimed joyfully.

T. B. began dabbing furiously at his friend’s paws with the wet cloth. “He’s alive! My friend is alive! Bella, is it true? Oh, please say yes!”

The badger’s eyes were misted. “He’s talking to Boar my father at the gates of Dark Forest,” she said in a strained voice.

“Don’t let him go there, please. Do something to help him!” Timballisto begged, seizing Bella’s paws.

Bella thought hard for a moment. “Wait, I have not got the knowledge as a healer for something as serious as this. But I know one who has—Abbess Germaine.”

Gonff paced up and down, shaking his head. “But she’s taken the little ones over to the east of Mossflower. It would be too late by the time we found her.”

“Then send Chibb. He can fly there,” T. B. said in a desperate voice.

Even in the urgency of the situation, Bella of Brockhall took command. Restoring order and good sense, she provided a solution.

“Friends, here is the only way we may save Martin. Listen carefully. Gonff, hurry back to our camp and send Chibb east. He must tell the Abbess to gather her medicines and herbs together. Meanwhile, you will get blankets and bring them back here. Do not move Martin, just keep him warm and dry. Abbess Germaine is old and cannot travel fast, but I will follow Chibb and bring her back from Gingivere’s farm as speedily as I can.”

Without another word, Bella dashed along the shore with a speed surprising for a badger. Cutting to the east, she crashed into Mossflower Woods like a juggernaut, disappearing in a welter of churned-up ground and flying foliage.