Part Three: The War

Chapter Twenty-eight: Fires and Shouts

Swike the rat lay on her bed. Though she had spent enough time in Redwall to be known, at least by sight, by all of its inhabitants, nobeast currently inside its walls would have recognized her now.

The sound of a bell startled Swike awake. Her eyes scanned the room quickly. The first thing that hit her was the lack of light. Gyis was ringing the bells for midnight. Getting out of bed, Swike felt her way to the door. Her chair was still jammed under the knob. After reassuring herself that it wasn't about to move, she sat back down on her bed.

Peeking out the window, Swike gazed upon the scene of a nighttime war. She could spy the flickering of candles on the battlements, and in their pools of light, the night sentries moving about. Torches and campfires burnt throughout the vermin camp, their abundance almost more than Swike's eyes could take. They must have built fires even outside of the camp, to make themselves appear bigger, thought Swike. They must have! The army can't be that big!

Light filled the scene below. Looking up, Swike gazed upon the nearly full moon. Clouds filled the sky, but for the moment, none covered the moon. Returning her gaze to the vermin camp, Swike squinted out at the furthest campfires. She couldn't be positive, but she thought that there were no tents near those fires. Sighing with relief that the army was only trying to appear unending, Swike lay back down on her bed.

What should I do now? I should probably spy or search for a response from Lord Koron. But I look like myself. I think it's too dark to make a convincing disguise. Swike grinned. Yes, it's too dark. Nothing left to do except sleep. Turning away from the window, Swike yawned and drifted back to sleep.


Swike opened her eyes. Light filled the room. Daylight. She felt like, as a spy, she should be concerned by her late rising, but Swike was done with spying. She had killed a fellow rat the day before and hated herself for it. Stretching and yawning, she stumbled out of bed. She could hear yelling down on the grounds and also from the floors below her, but considering Redwall's current war status, she dismissed them and slumped in front of her mirror in the corner. Seeing her own reflection brought a sudden smile to her face, and she stared openly at her own beauty.

Swike took a deep breath and reached out toward her satchel. She became instantly alert, frozen with her paw resting on the strap of the satchel, no longer the least bit asleep.

"I shouldn't be able to smell the kitchen fires from up here," she said softly. She turned her head first toward the window, open to sky, then toward the door, closed to what should be an empty hallway.

Swike bit her tongue. Fire. I can smell smoke. Where is the fire? Feeling her chest tighten with apprehension, Swike rose slowly and made her way to the window. Standing within the shadow of her room, she stared out on chaos. Redwallers were running everywhere; some of the sentries even looked like they were abandoning the battlements. Most of the goodbeasts were looking or pointing at the abbey building and the overcast sky above. Feeling her insides squirm, Swike shot a gaze at the heavens. Black crows could be seen against the gray clouds, too high to be ensnared by nets, and in their claws they held ropes. Ropes with fireballs dangling at their ends.

Swike watched with horror as one ball came hurtling earthward, it's rope a flaming tail which whipped in the wind. The ball crashed into the side of the abbey a few floors above her. With a shout, Swike stumbled back from the window.

Her mind in a whirl, the rat hastily pawed through her satchel. Within moments, she had everything out that she would need; she got to work on her face. Her room was no longer safe, but in her current guise, the rest of Redwall would be just as dangerous.

With unsteady paws and a pumping heart, Swike finished her task. Looking at her reflection, Swike did her best not to scream. In the mirror was a mouse, but this mouse wasn't Rosethorn. Wetting a rag, Swike closed her eyes. Focus! Focus on the disguise! Focus on Rosethorn! She opened her eyes and scanned her face once again. Spotting her mistake, she hastened to wet her ears and the fur on her cheeks which brushed toward her ears. As she reapplied the gel-like substance which made her fur sleek and caused the fur just under her ears to stick out slightly, she focused on breathing lightly, to keep her face still (and also to keep her nose from picking up too much of the smell of smoke, which was growing steadily stronger).

Rosethorn stared at Swike from the depths of her mirror. The rat stuffed all of her things back into her satchel and readied herself to leave the room. She approached the door and pulled the chair away. As she did so, she brushed her right paw against the doorknob.

"Ayiiii!" she yelled, letting the chair rattle to the floor. She cradled her paw to herself, blinking her eyes to hold back the tears. "Bad," she muttered. "Very bad. Hot doorknob. Fire." The room was much stuffier than it had been when she first woke up and it was growing hazy as well. Swike went down on all fours and tried to see under the crack of her door. The hallway, which was normally dark, even at noon, seemed lit by an orange glow. Retreating to the open window, Swike took a deep breath of fresh air and commanded herself not to panic.

I took too long. It took me too long to become Rosethorn. Now the fire is in the hallway. I don't know how much of it is on fire, but I can't leave now. I'm trapped. All so that I could become a stupid mouse!

Mouse! What would a mouse do?

Abandoning all sense of pride, Swike stretched out her arms and began to wave them. "Help!" she yelled. "I can't get out!"

After a few minutes of calling for help, she could tell that she had been spotted. Two squirrels that were already scaling the walls made for her room. The first one to reach the window was a pretty young maid named Besse.

"Rosethorn, right?" she asked.

"Yes!" said Swike, sighing with relief.

"It's alright," said Besse. "You'll be fine now." She glanced over Swike's shoulder. "Is there anything you need to keep?"

Swike turned around. Of course, I'll need my satchel! Crouching down to avoid the smoke which now filled the upper half of the room, Swike ran over to her satchel. She opened it up and stuffed her mirror inside before swinging it over her shoulder. Now she just needed her bow and arrows which were resting, as usual, by the window.

Swike stumbled back to the open window, eyes squinted against the smoke. She stuffed her head outside, coughing and trying to breathe at the same time.

"Careful, Rosethorn," said a familiar voice. Swike looked up into Spyn's face. He was her second rescuer. He took hold of her under the arms and heaved her bodily out of the window.

"My bow and arrows!" called out the rat.

"Where are they?" asked Besse, sticking her head into the room. "Oh, I see. Right here. I've got them Rosethorn."

Swike nodded her head and inched along the ledge she was standing on, trying to get away from the window which was now spewing smoke. Her satchel felt overly heavy and quickly unbalanced her. With a yell, she grabbed onto Spyn, draping her arms around him.

"I've got you," the squirrel said. Swike could feel his arm wrapped snuggly around her waist. "Just hold onto me and I'll help you down. Remember the gatehouse roof, how easy that was? This is a bit higher, but it's the same thing." The soothing sound of his voice filled her and Swike forced a grin.

She barely remembered the descent, she was coughing so much. When they touched the ground, paws reached out to help her. Her bow and arrows were pressed into her grasp. Before she knew it, Spyn and Besse were gone, scaling the walls again. A few other squirrels were also acting to rescue any and all trapped Redwallers. To her surprise, Swike even recognized Gyis among them, the bell ringer finally getting into the action which this war was providing.

There were more than just squirrels active around the burning abbey though. A long line of creatures extended from the pond to the abbey building, passing buckets of water toward the flames. Many quick youngsters were on the abbey-side of that line and raced the water to where it was most needed. As quickly as one fire was being put out though, four more seemed to spring up in its place. The crows, untouchable by nets and nearly out of firing rang, continued to wing high above.

Most of the beasts around Swike made their way to the line, to help put out the fires, but Swike knew she couldn't help them. She couldn't risk getting wet. Still, she felt like she should be doing something. Without a second thought, Swike ran to the gatehouse, storing her satchel inside, and then made her way up to the battlements.

The real war was being waged here. With most of the Redwallers busy putting out fires and rescuing those trapped by the fire in upper stories, Lord Koron's army was finally overwhelming the walls. A siege tower taller than the battlements was only ten paces away and advancing. Grappling hooks were flying faster than the sentries could cut them and the arrows never ceased. Swike found a fairly long stretch of wall between two sentries, a mouse named Pim and a squirrel named Teeto. She only knew Teeto by name, but Pim, whose chosen weapon was a bow, greeted Swike warmly. "Glad of the help!" she called, smiling. She was drenched in sweat and there was no way to know how long she had been fighting, but she took the time to talk and even smile at the rat while setting an arrow to her bow. Swike found herself admiring the mouse, a mother of three. I was gone after two hours up here! How can she talk so civilly?

"Keep up the work!" cried out the deep voice of Brandy as Swike strung her bow. "Watch the tower! Shoot the beasts in front of it! They can't roll it over dead bodies! Shoot the beasts inside it!" The hedgehog was barreling her way behind the sentries, spinning a stone out of her sling every few paces, expertly always hitting her mark. "Why isn't Gyis ringing the bells?" she asked in exasperation. "Redwall might be burning, but we need more help up here!"

Swike watched a ferret fall out of the siege tower, her arrow in his chest, before turning around to hail Brandy. The hedgehog approached her swiftly.

"What is it Rosethorn?"

"Gyis isn't in the bell tower," spoke the rat.

"What!"

"She's climbing Redwall."

"Oh no," said the hedgehog. "Only one thing for it then." She raised her voice and began to jog back across the line. "Set up a yell as never before! Everybeast together! Let all Mossflower know of our battle and our need! REDWALL!"

In the next few moments, all of the sentries were calling the battlecry, shaking Redwall with their combined voices. Swike had never heard such a thing in all her life; the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. The siege tower had stopped moving and even those vermin who were climbing up toward grappling hooks stalled a moment in fear. Swike took a deep breath, letting the cry fill her. "Redwall! Redwall! REDWALL!"

To the east, thunder boomed. As if on cue, birds rose up from the trees of Mossflower. Owls, robins, sparrows, and hawks. The sudden, unexpected reinforcements filled the sentries with hope and they valiantly kept up their battlecry, Swike just as enthralled as the next beast. The skies quickly became as much of a battlefield as was being fought on land. Birds on each side plummeted to earth. Fireballs rained down as well, but the crows were now being forced to drop them mostly over the vermin army. As one exploded onto the siege tower, the sentries let up a cheer. Adrenalin filling her at the sudden shift in the battle, Swike loaded her bow and shot arrow after arrow, her mind on the living bow in her paws, barely even taking in the yells in her throat or the fire raining down all around her.