Danni darted between everybeast around her, dodging between friend and foe
and thrusting her dagger at any vulnerable hare. None had fallen to her
attacks so far, but the blows she struck were meant to be crippling rather
than fatal. Seeing a trio of hares making their stand and defending each
others' sides, Danni ran forward, ducked under a ferret's arm, and sliced
her dagger across one of the hare's legs. She was pleased to hear her
target inhale sharply as the
The vixen whirled around and sprung back into the ranks of her own troops before the hares could catch her. Only a second after beginning her retreat, she spun around yet again and beheld the battle around her. Although it was hard to tell among the commotion of battle and the darkness of night, Danni felt that she and the other vermin were slowly being pushed back by the hares. If they were to succeed, Sunai's plans would amount to nothing. Gritting her teeth, Danni glided between the vermin moving forward to meet the hares. Something would have to change.
"For the Stormbringer!" A sharp cry cut through the shouts of fury and clash of blades that echoed across the black night. Snapping her head in the direction of the call, Danni witnessed the weasel she had spoken to before the battle had begun rushing forward to meet the Long Patrollers, brandishing a stout wooden staff with an iron tip.
Esmiel, as she remembered the weasel was called, was accompanied by about five other vermin. They moved swiftly, bringing their weapons to bear against the awaiting hares with deadly efficiency. Here, the hares faltered in their charge, brought to a halt and turned around by Esmiel and his companions. If Sunai's other soldiers were like him, the vermin would be able to take the fight to the hares. There was no question in Danni's mind - if both she and Esmiel survived the battle, Sunai was hearing about this weasel.
The vixen darted forward again, this time to lend aid to four of her troops fighting against a greater number of hares. The Long Patrollers fought perilously, slicing with their blade and lashing out with their limbs in an insane flurry of blows. Danni was amazed that Sunai's vermin could stand up to this.
Despite the blind fury of both sides, not many beasts had yet fallen. An occasional blow forced its way through some unlucky Long Patroller or vermin's defenses, delivering a fatal blow. But for the most parts, both sides were evenly matched - the hares might be driving Danni's forces back, but not many beasts were dying. A few of the vermin had even managed to worm their way among the hares in groups of five or six.
It was the hares, not Sunai himself, who told Danni that the tide had turned. "Stormrat!" came a cry that the vixen could barely make out through the fighting. She couldn't see what was happening, but she could imagine it in the eye of her mind - Sunai leaping over the edge with Stormbringer in paw, followed by over a score of soldiers. That was the plan, and it had worked!
Danni felt fresh hope arise in her heart. The hare's surprised call brought on a fierce spark of determination in the vixen; she was filled with the need to slay her opponents, and yet she wanted to skip with joy. Their time has come! she wanted to scream, and it took all her will to keep from doing so. Their time has come at last!
All this emotion was released in a whoop of triumph, and Danni dashed among her troops and charged the foe. Thrust, slash, dodge, dance back. The process never seemed to end, but she didn't care. Danni was lost to the thrill of battle, and her mind had been overrun by a rush of fierce emotion. With each blow she dodged, she became faster. After every lunge and stab, she became more precise. In this state of mind, Danni couldn't know that her troops were rallying behind her, inspired by her passion. Nor could she know that her blows, although not swift enough to strike her foes dead, had pushed the hares back, with their weapons raised in front of their faces in an attempt to defend themselves.
Danni had just reeled back. A hare's scimitar missed the side of her face by less than the breadth of her paw. She wasn't fazed in the least. The vixen ducked her head down and sprung forward, her dagger gripped in both paws. She shoved the blade into the hare's stomach, and felt blood spill onto her paws. Without pause, she pulled the blade upward. There was a sickening slicing noise as the dagger cut through the hare's fur and flesh.
Danni's foe let out a scream of pain, and fell to his knees. She danced out of his reach, almost tauntingly. Freeing one hand from her dagger and grinning darkly, the fox prepared to end this hare's life with one thrust.
The mindless haze that had overcome Danni was broken in an instant. "Redwall!" came a shout from behind her. Heedless of the hare kneeling on the ground behind her, she turned to stare at the source of a noise. It was a group of woodlanders, faintly visible through the shadow. "So close," she hissed, and squeezed her dagger with the one paw that still held it.
As if to confirm her growing dread, the woodlanders called out again. "Redwall!" they howled, and sprung down to engage the suddenly trapped vixen and her soldiers.
Gormin had been willing to halt at the end of the tunnel as Redwallers gathered around him, surveying the situation and waiting for his troops to gather. The fighting didn't seem to be swinging either way, so he was content to let the Long Patrol do their work.
That changed when the vermin scrambled over the edge of Salamandastron. Redwallers were still filing out of the tunnel in a neat, orderly line - nowhere near ready to assist the hares fighting off the Stormrat's horde. Gritting his teeth, Gormin put a paw on the hilt of his longsword, telling himself over and over again to wait. To charge now, before the Redwallers were prepared, would be a mistake. He knew this.
The squirrel warrior shoved his doubts to the back of his mind, and raised his free paw into the air. The other Redwallers saw his signal. Paws loosened their grips on weapons, and tense beasts let the thrill of battle seep out of their consciousness to a place just outside their hearts, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice. But even Gormin, one of the most disciplined of the Redwallers, couldn't completely contain this feeling. His tension was invisible to the beasts around him, but the squirrel felt as if he were going to leap out of his skin. Thankfully, none of the other beasts were able to detect this - with the possible exception of Skipper and the few beasts who had let the experiences of the Stormrat War harden their will, the Redwallers were held in check by Gormin's calmness.
And so Gormin stared at the fighting as the tide turned in the vermin's favor, accompanied by warriors who were itching to rush into battle. With every blow that he witnessed, the urge to charge forward grew. But he held himself in check, and under normal circumstances, would have been able to stay calm until all the Redwallers had exited the tunnel.
It was the carelessness of a young hare, new to the Long Patrol and in her first real battle, that caused Gormin to charge early. The hare was cut down by a weasel as she turned to make a remark to one of her companions. In truth, Gormin's focus was elsewhere, and even if he had seen this he probably would not have charged. But Candice saw it.
"Eulalia!" howled Candice. The enraged hare shoved past Gormin and dashed toward the battle. She was a blur of movement as she ran, empty-handed one instant and wielding a dirk in the next. "Eulaliaaa!" she cried again. It was the cry of a beast who had lost all sense of self-preservation and would die without a second thought just for the chance to plunge a dirk into the chest of her foe.
Gormin didn't even try to remain calm - his resolve snapped. Drawing his sword with one paw and then raising it above his head, gripped in both paws, he turned to the rest of the Redwallers. "Redwaaaall!" he screamed, his voice louder than Candice's cries of vengeance had been. Woodlander eyes met Gormin's, and there was no doubt about what their leader wanted them to do.
"Redwaaaaall!" they cried, and descended on their foe.
Merlin felt Mianel's weight slump against his back, and for a moment he thought she had been killed. But then he felt Mianel draw herself up and lash out at yet another enemy. Grimacing, the young hare parried a blow with his dirk. His instincts told him to press the attack, but with Salamander on his back such an attempt would be futile.
Not to mention that doing that would leave Mianel defenseless. Merlin pressed himself against her back, parrying yet another blow with his blade. He could feel her smooth movements, parrying blows more effectively than him. Although they were surrounded by vermin, only a few scratches had penetrated their defense. Giving himself a moment of reprieve, Merlin stopped concentrating on the weasel stabbing at him long enough to allow one thought to flash across his mind: I'm invincible!
The thought vanished in a haze of pain as the weasel in front of Merlin stabbed him in the side. The hare's eyes widened, and he let out a gasp of surprise and pain. Mianel tensed up and fought even more fiercely when she heard Merlin's gasp. An amused smile came to his lips - her redoubled efforts wouldn't make any difference at all to him unless they were directed against his attacker. Then he saw the weasel's scimitar slicing through the air in front of his head.
Merlin swung his free paw out to grasp the weasel's wrist. Miraculously, the hare's firm grip was enough to stop the scimitar from striking him. Then he kicked the weasel in the stomach, sending the beast sprawling. Pressing himself more firmly against Mianel's back, Merlin continued to fight.
Not even half a minute had passed before he heard the sound of steel slicing through flesh. Mianel cried out in pain, and Merlin winced at the sound. He continued to parry the blows directed at him by vermin, and hoped fiercely that his companion would be able to fight off her opponent.
A rat pierced Merlin's shoulder with the tip of his rapier. The hare howled, and lashed out at the vermin's arm with his dirk. The blade pierced the rat's fur and skin, ripping a gash down his arm. Merlin's foe pulled away and closed his eyes, tears of pain seeping through the lids. Blood began to spill out of the wound left b the rapier, but the pain was pushed to the back of his mind when he felt Mianel fall to the ground behind him.
Disregarding his own safety, Merlin spun around to see the female hare faceup on the ground, staring up at the vermin around her. Only her forepaws held her up, and her dirk was on the ground next to one of them. As Merlin watched, Mianel lashed out at the vermin around her with her footpaws. Her left footpaw connected with a stoat's stomach, and the surprised beast landed on his back. In the same second, her right footpaw shot up and connected with a ferret's wrist, sending the dagger the vermin had been holding flying out of his grip.
"Watch it!" yelled a voice from behind Merlin. Instinctively, he ducked, and felt the air where his neck had been part before a sharp blade. Turning his ducking motion into a whirl, Merlin put his back to Mianel and brought his dirk up in time to see a scimitar pierce the stomach of the weasel he had kicked away from himself earlier. The vermin fell to his knees, and a gallant hare withdrew his blade from the corpse.
"Keep your guard up, wot wot!" said the hare. The rescuer and his two companions pressed forward, driving away the vermin who had been surrounding Merlin and Mianel.
Mianel stopped her flurry of kicks and let herself slump to the ground. With one paw, she grabbed her dirk. Then she rolled over and pushed herself up with her free hand. Once again, she pressed herself up against Merlin's back, prepared to defend herself. But to the great relief of both hares, their rescuers had drawn the attention of the vermin to themselves.
"We ought t' help them," said Mianel breathlessly.
Merlin nodded, and when it dawned on him that she couldn't see the gesture, he responded, "Alright. Let's drive those flippin' vermin off our mountain!"
The pair made ready to assist their rescuers, but before they could move, a voice shouted out to them. "Come over this way!" called out a voice Merlin could barely manage to identify as Colonel Jeffrey's. Merlin glanced in the direction of the voice, and was treated to the sight of the Colonel and three other hares fighting off a small group of vermin that was harassing them. As Jeffrey shoved a vermin away from him, he turned to Merlin and gestured urgently.
He didn't need any more encouragement. Merlin tugged Mianel's arm urgently and ran toward Colonel Jeffrey. With only a second's hesitation, Mianel turned around and followed Merlin.
In less than ten seconds, the pair had joined the Colonel and the hares who accompanied him. Mianel flew into battle alongside one of those hares, catching a ferret completely by surprise and shoving her dirk into his chest. Merlin, on the other hand, moved cautiously, eyeing the vermin and waiting for them to attack him.
"Eulaliaaa!" whooped Colonel Jeffrey, waving his rapier in the air in front of his face. "Charge! Attack! Show those rotten blighters no mercy!"
Merlin forgot about waiting for an attack from the vermin, and charged forward, dirk in hand. Mianel redoubled her efforts, ducking, weaving, kicking, parrying, and slashing with her dirk. Foebeasts backed away from her, holding up their weapons uncertainly.
Colonel Jeffrey's hares also fought on fiercely and recklessly, leaving themselves open to attack in their efforts to drive the vermin away. One hare thrust his rapier forward, hoping that the tip of his weapon would slip through the ribs of the searat he fought. His foe, quicker than the hare had anticipated, sidestepped the attack and brought his cutlass down on the hare's back. The Long Patroller fell to the ground, letting out a gasp of pain. He tried to struggle to his feet, but the searat shoved his cutlass through the hare's back and into his heart.
It was the Colonel who turned the tide of this skirmish. Letting out dark, guttural howls that one would expect to hear from the wolf tribes and Navura vixen that lived in the north, Jeffrey lunged forward, abandoning all sense and caution and letting his fighting skills and Long Patrol reflexes rise to the surface of his consciousness. He ducked and kicked, stabbed and bit, and paid no heed to the vermin steel that sliced through his fur and flesh.
Jeffrey's foes stood their ground and tried to defend themselves, but Jeffrey would not be deterred. Completely thrown off by this unstoppable storm of fur, the vermin first backed away slowly, and then turned tail and ran. Colonel Jeffrey took several long strides in pursuit of his enemies, but as his senses flooded back and drove his warrior's spirit away, he came to a halt.
When Colonel Jeffrey turned to face the other hares, Merlin was shocked by his appearance. As quick as his charge had been, the Colonel had not escaped without injury. Blood flowed from many gashes along his torso and face, but all but one of the cuts seemed to be shallow. The deepest wound, which ran from the Colonel's left shoulder to the center of his chest, was releasing a steady flow of blood, staining the fur around it a deep crimson.
But the thing that startled Merlin the most was Colonel Jeffrey's face. His ears drooped in a depressing fashion, and Jeffrey cast a melancholy gaze beyond the hares. But beyond the tiredness and exhaustion that appeared like clouds in his eyes, there was a fierce resolve that said the battle would not be over until he lay dead.
"Aid has come," said Jeffrey, his voice flat and emotionless. "We must break through th' vermin to reach 'em." Then he shook his head vigorously, and feeling returned to his voice and alertness to his eyes. "We're gonna charge through th' rotters and meet our rescuers!" he shouted, thrusting his rapier into the air. "Eulaliaaaa!"
Merlin, Mianel, Jeffrey, and the two other hares turned toward the vermin that stood between them and the Redwallers and sprung forward, moving like death on the wind.
As soon as the Redwallers began to attack, Danni faded back into the ranks of her troops, moving swiftly in an attempt to reach the vermins' undefended rear and coordinate the soldiers that would attempt to resist these new enemies. As always, her allies almost seemed to make way for her. Briefly, she thought of what would happen to the creatures that were now engaging the Long Patrol. Esmiel will take care of them, Danni thought. Nodding to herself in confirmation of this thought, the vixen charged ahead.
"Turn around!" she began to yell as she got closer to the Redwallers. Soldiers who were caught by surprise at now being surrounded on two sides did as she asking, bringing their weapons to bear against this new menace. Some vermin were cut down where they stood, but a far greater amount stood their ground and managed to hold their own.
Despite Danni's efforts, the vermin who stood against the Redwallers' charge were outnumbered. Even so, they fought with courage - slicing, slashing, and parrying. By the time the vixen had reached the frontlines, over ten beasts were dead. Looking at the battle that raged around her, she knew that even more would lie slain before the battle was done.
As she had done when she had been fighting the hares, Danni used her speed and evasiveness to their full potential. Stepping around a weasel who was frantically fighting the oncoming Redwallers, she shoved her dagger between a squirrel's ribs. The woodlander's eyes widened in surprise, and she violently pulled herself away from Danni. The fox tried to pull her dagger out from the creature's body, but to her dismay, it stayed lodged in the squirrel's body Danni stumbled away empty-handed, and the squirrel, seemingly in shock, crouched on the ground and clutched her wound.
Silently cursing herself, the vixen regained her footing and glared at the squirrel. How could she have been so careless? She hadn't even considered the possibility that something like this could happen. Now, the dagger which had served her from the beginning of the battle was now out of her reach.
Danni swept her head from side to side in an attempt to find a weapon. In the darkness, she couldn't see very far, but the vague shape of a dead body caught her eye. It lay in the direction of the Redwallers, to the right of the weasel who she had just fought beside and slightly beyond the Redwallers.
Taking a deep breath, she raced toward the body, straining every muscle in her body in an attempt to arm herself before a Redwaller attacked her. A wailing scream rang out to her left, and she knew that the weasel who had been fighting the Redwallers had fallen. Danni had no idea whether or not her enemies were running toward her, and she didn't have time to look - she needed to reach the body and find the weapon the beast had been carrying.
In an instant, she was beside the body. As soon as she reached its side, she knelt down to examine it. The body was that of a ferret, and she could barely make out a deep scar running down the vermin's face as she looked upon his corpse. Danni's eyes shifted up and down, searching the body for any sort of weapon at all.
The vixen spent less than a second searching, but it seemed like an eternity to her. Danni's eyes widened when she finally noticed a blade protruding from beneath the ferret's paw. She reached out and grabbed the blade, which turned out to be part of a shortsword. Grasping the hilt in one paw, Danni rose to her feet.
She was forced to jump aside as soon as she stood upright. A battleaxe came down where she had just stood, wielded with a force that would have split her skull had she not moved. The beast behind the weapon was a burly otter, and Danni's eyes widened in fear as he lifted his axe from where it had hit the ground and turned to face her.
Danni whipped forward, almost too quickly for the otter's eyes to follow, and twisted her blade so the point was directed at his heart. A quick twist of the battleaxe sent the weapon's hilt slamming into the fox's chest, and was probably the only thing that saved the otter's life.
The otter drew the battleaxe back over his shoulder as Danni sucked in her breath. Rising on unsteady feet, she had just enough time to jump away as the head of the battleaxe sliced the air where her stomach had been.
Once again, Danni rushed forward with her new shortsword pointed toward the otter's heart. The otter tried to ward off the attack in a similar manner as he had before, this time pivoting his weapon around so the axehead faced behind his shoulder and the bare end of the hilt could be used to bludgeon Danni away. She ducked and felt the hilt of the battleaxe graze the tip of her ears. Then, she sprung upward and plunged her weapon into the otter's heart.
The fox pulled the shortsword free and let the otter slump to the ground. Three shadowy figures ran toward her through the darkness, and she was debating whether to flee or fight when their words reached her ears.
"That vixen killed Skipper! Get 'er, mates, an' show 'er no mercy!"
"Redwaaaall!"
Danni turned and ran, seeking refuge among the other vermin that had turned around to fight the Redwall reinforcements. The battle was nowhere near done, but she couldn't help but feel that she had turned the odds in the Stormbringer's favor by killing one of Redwall's leaders.
"That vixen killed Skipper! Get 'er, mates, an' show 'er no mercy!"
"Redwaaaall!"
Candice couldn't fully comprehend these words when they penetrated the din of battle. Nevertheless, they fueled her rage. Screaming incoherently, she plunged empty-pawed into a small group of rats and weasels. About a minute ago, a weasel had sent her dirk sailing through the air with a flick of his sword. She hadn't noticed the loss of her weapon, and continued her suicidal attack.
If it weren't for the intervention of Gormin, Candice would have been long dead. Disregarding his duties as Redwall's Champion, Gormin loyally pursued Candice and fought off anybeast whose blade strayed near her. Seeing the beast he loved in such dire danger brought out reserves of strength that the squirrel had not known he possessed. Fueled by his devotion to Candice, his blade swung swift and true.
Heedless of the ally who had followed her, Candice aimed a fierce kick at a surly weasel. Her target leaped away less than a second before her footpaw collided with him. Regaining his bearings quickly, he sliced at Candice's leg with his scimitar.
The first real blow Candice suffered brought her out of her rage, turning her enraged cries and heavy breathing into exclamations of pain. The weasel moved to finish Candice off, but before he could so much raise his blade into the air, Gormin was upon him.
The weasel stood no chance. Without sound, Gormin leaped to Candice's side. Whirling on his footpaw, the squirrel brought his blade around in a long arc. Gormin's sword sliced through the weasel's stomach, and the vermin fell back. Without pausing to see if his adversary was alive or dead, he rounded on Candice.
"Hurry!" he hissed, grasping Candice's paw with his own. "Follow me!"
Candice followed dazedly, trusting Gormin to lead her to safety as she recalled the occurrences of the last few minutes. She remembered seeing a weasel kill a young Long Patroller, and then running down toward the vermin. Only vague images of the battle remained with her - she remembered slicing a ferret's arm with her dirk, and later clubbing a stoat with her bare hands. Candice had no recollection of losing her dirk, but she imagined that it was lying somewhere on the battlefield.
Then there was Gormin. During the wearying march to Salamandastron, he had come across as a brave and ambitious beast, but Candice had not imagined him capable of doing something as noble as following her hopeless charge. From what little she remembered of her frenzy, Candice gathered that he had followed her into the fight, protecting her with his life. That on its own was significant, but in assisting her, Gormin had also left the rest of the Redwallers to fend for themselves. There was definitely something about the squirrel that he kept hidden from other beasts, but Candice was at a loss to what that could be.
Candice blinked and shook her head - she had lost track of her surroundings. In the middle of a battle, at that! Gormin had come to a halt, and was speaking in hushed tones with a slim ottermaid. The squirrel was gesturing frantically, and the otter's eyes were downcast.
"Wot's goin' on, Gormin?" asked Candice.
Gormin turned to her. "Skipper's dead," he said, his voice full of shock. "A vixen slew him while he was fighting the vermin."
Candice's eyes widened. "Skipper's gone?" she asked. She hadn't know the otter well, but from her experiences among the Redwallers, she gathered that he was very respected among the Abbeybeasts. Many beasts had described him as brave, honest, and respectable. "Nobeast is gonna take this very well."
A silence fell for several seconds, punctuated by clashing swords and war cries. Gormin appeared to be lost in thought. His fists were clenched, and his narrowed eyes stared off into space. Candice wondered what would be going through his mind. With Skipper slain, he would be the sole commander of the Redwallers.
Gormin glanced first at the Redwallers, and then out at the vermin. "There will still be Long Patrollers out there," he said. "We need to break through the vermin and reach them. It won't be too hard - if they're caught between us and the Long Patrol, they might scatter."
"That could work," said Candice. "But what if th' vermin try to surround us?"
"They won't manage," answered Gormin. "Once we reach the hares, we're going to keep fighting until we reach the edge of Salamandastron. We'll make our stand there."
Merlin snapped his head up and gazed beyond the vermin he was fighting. Within the mass of vermin that stood between him and the Redwallers, something had shifted. The hare strained his eyes, trying to make out the cause of the disturbance. It seemed as if more vermin were turning away from the Long Patrollers. Hope flared within Merlin's heart. Were the Redwallers pushing forward?
The young hare redoubled his efforts. Beside him, Mianel fought doggedly. Further to his left, Colonel Jeffrey, tired but determined, led the attack. About a score of hares had been present when Jeffrey began the push, and more had joined when they saw his intentions. The battle was fierce, and the Long Patrol seemed to lose more ground than they gained. Only now, the vermin seemed to be faltering.
Colonel Jeffrey took notice, as well. "Charge! Slay th' blighters! Break their lines for Lord Rocketh! Eulaliaaaa!"
The hares pushed forward, making slow progress. Merlin made no attempts to sidestep the enemy blows, impeded as he was by Salamander. He fought to push his opponents backward rather than trying to kill them. Without fail, his opponents would slip away from the reach of his dirk and clear the path further for the Long Patrol.
Merlin didn't know how long the fight went on like this. He found himself combating a lone weasel, who stood firmly in place and refused to give ground. Merlin stepped forward and thrusted his dirk toward the vermin, but the weasel stepped back and brought his broadsword out to parry the blow. Merlin withdrew as quickly as he could. There was no way he could get past that broadsword with a dirk. But with Salamander...
Merlin flicked his wrist, sending the dirk spinning toward the weasel. The vermin brought up his blade just in time to send the dirk clattering to the ground. By this time, Merlin's paws were already working at the straps that held Salamander's sheath to his back. By the time the weasel began advancing toward him, Merlin had loosened the straps and brought the sheath out in front of him. The weasel walked on, and Merlin grasped for Salamander's hilt with one paw and held the sheath with the other. With a mighty pull, Merlin drew Salamander from its sheath.
His attempts to defend himself were pointless. Before the weasel reached him, a blade slid through the vermin's stomach. As quickly as it had appeared, the blade withdrew, letting the corpse slump to the ground.
The weasel's slayer stepped over the vermin's dead body, a look of grim satisfaction on his face. The squirrel looked at Merlin, smiled briefly, and called over his shoulder. "We've found the hares!"
When the squirrel turned back, the smile had vanished. He strode over to Merlin's side, holding his blade at the ready. His eyes moved back and forth, scrutinizing the battlefield around him. Without looking at Merlin, the squirrel spoke. "My name is Gormin. I'm Redwall's Champion. Who's in charge here?"
"Colonel Jeffrey," responded Merlin. Unable to display the same conduct as Gormin, he looked up at the squirrel's face. Although it was turned away, the hare could faintly make out the squirrel's hard eyes. "He's over t' my left, er, your right, leadin' the attack," he stammered. "He's the hare you're lookin' for."
Gormin nodded, paying no heed to the hare's awkwardness. "Thank you," he said, preparing to move on. Then he paused. "Be ready to reverse your attack," he said, and then ran toward Colonel Jeffrey.
As the squirrel approached Jeffrey, the Colonel stood stock still, gazing at the fighting taking place around him. When it became apparent that the Redwallers were breaking through the vermin ranks, he had felt a flash of hope. Now, though, he realized that the vermin would surround the Long Patrol and the Redwallers when they came together. The combined strength of their forces might be enough to stave off the attack, but there would be many deaths - far too many deaths.
"Colonel Jeffrey?" asked Gormin as he approached the tired hare.
"Yes, I'm th' Colonel," he responded enthusiastically, attempting to hide his tiredness with a show of the famous Long Patrol bravado. When Jeffrey realized that the warrior who stood in front of him was not going to be fooled by such an act, he let his face fall and his ears droop.
"Colonel, you must direct your troops to turn around. If the Redwall soldiers continue to charge this way and your troops attack in the opposite direction, we'll be stuck in the middle, surrounded on all sides by vermin."
"What d' you propose we do, then?" asked Jeffrey, letting a note of weariness enter his voice. "If we turn around, we'll be stuck at th' edge o' the cliff. 'twould be better for my hares to keep movin' toward th' tunnel. Y' still hold th' tunnel, don't you?"
Gormin shook his head. "All of my troops abandoned it in our charge. The cliff is a better refuge, however - if all else fails, we can try to scale the mountainside and make our way down to the beach. The tunnel would be too crowded for a retreat."
"But there are hares still inside o' Salamandastron!" exclaimed Jeffrey, practically screaming. "A retreat is out o' the question!"
The squirrel lowered his eyes. "Nothing can be done about it, Colonel. My soldiers have already abandoned the tunnel. We must go forward now, and make our stand. If fate is kind, we'll rescue your comrades."
Jeffrey squeezed his eyes shut and nodded. "I suppose you're correct," he said. Turning around, he raised his rapier in the air and shouted, "Turn around! Head for th' cliffs, and we'll make our stand there!"
Sunai anxiously watched the Redwallers advance from the position he had retreated to when they began their attack. Everything was vague in the darkness, but he could still see the shapes of the wretched beasts as they pushed through his forces. He bit his lip and watched silently at the events playing out before him.
Only shortly after the Redwallers fought their way to the Long Patrol, the beasts began to turn themselves around. They're going to attack, though Sunai. His grip on Stormbringer tightened. I only have a score of warriors left with me. There's no way we can stand against them.
"Stand firm!" bellowed Sunai, calling out to every vermin withing hearing range. "Don't let them kill you! Let them advance, but make them fight for every inch of ground they take!"
As hares, squirrels, mice, and otters charged toward him, Sunai found himself thinking of Danni. She had been the one who lead the attack through the tunnels, and had distracted the hares long enough to allow he and his thirty vermin to attack the Long Patrol from behind. The Redwallers would have caught her by surprise, though. From the shapes he saw on either side and closing behind the advancing goodbeasts, not many vermin had died. But there had surely been casualties - had Danni been among them?
The Stormrat forced down thoughts of his beloved as his foes moved even closer. He raised Stormbringer above his head, and called out its name to the heavens. "Stormbringer!" Before he lowered his gaze, he heard his soldiers cry out, mimicking him.
Then, the enemy was upon him. Sunai brought his blade down with all his might on a young hare. The force of the blow against the Long Patroller's scimitar sent the younger beast stumbling.
Around him, metal clashed as the charge met his own soldiers. They were being pushed back more quickly than Sunai would have liked, but they were putting up a fierce fight. Almost like beasts at the gates of Dark Forest.
A female hare leaped at him, slashing his side with her dirk. Sunai stumbled back, glaring up at the hare as she pressed her attack. Straining his reflexes to their limit, he stood and brought up Stormbringer to block the blow. At the same time, he kicked out with his foot, catching the hare in the stomach. She stumbled back, clutching her stomach with her free paw. Sunai smiled, leaped forward, and brought Stormbringer down in a killing stroke.
But before the blade could strike, it was caught in the air by another. The blade was held by a young hare, and there was determination in his eyes. "Stormrat!" he hissed, straining to keep Stormbringer from coming down on the other hare. Sunai redoubled his efforts, and the hare's strength began to falter.
"Eulalia!" The cry didn't come from the hare whose sword was locked with Sunai's, but from the one he had knocked to the ground. She lunged at the Stormrat's stomach, thrusting her dirk with angry force.
He leaped away, letting the hare tumble to the ground. As Stormbringer and the young hare's sword separated, an intense heat ripped through Sunai's body, as if his insides had been suddenly lit aflame. At the exact same time, the hare's body jerked, and his fur stood on end as if he had been struck by lightning.
Sunai was the first to regain his bearings. As more beasts ran toward him, he backed away, accompanied by the ten vermin who remained alive. A beaten and battered hare, looking as if he were about to faint, shoved his way to the front of the charge and lunged at Sunai. "Eulalia!" he screamed, thrusting his rapier at Sunai's heart.
A blur of fur shot from Sunai's left and collided with the hare. The two beasts fell to the ground, clawing and biting each other savagely. Almost immediately, Sunai's rescuer produced a dagger from his belt and thrust it into the hare's chest. The Long Patroller spasmed briefly, but after several moments of thrashing, he lay still.
"Mark!" exclaimed Sunai, stepping forward to defend the ferret as he regained his feet. "What are you doing here?"
The ferret smirked, and gestured behind Sunai. He turned, and was rewarded with the sight of the remainder of his horde. The Stormrat let the point of his sword fall to the ground. He lifted his head into the sky and let out a vicious laugh.
Merlin had been shocked by the sight of hundreds of vermin coming to the top of the cliff. He had been even more shocked when Colonel Jeffrey, the last ranking hare among the Long Patrol, dived at the Stormbringer and had been subdued by a ferret. Now, as he looked around the battlefield, he realized that the Long Patrollers and Redwallers were completely surrounded.
"Charge," came a voice from Merlin's right. He looked at Mianel questioningly. Her face was grim, and she held her dirk with an iron grip. "Th' Champion o' Redwall says to charge. We're not t' stop runnin' until we feel beach sand beneath our feet."
"Eulalia!" howled Merlin, and ran forward. Mianel kept up with him easily, slowed down as he was by Salamander. A stream of Long Patrollers and Redwallers rushed forward, waving their weapons threateningly. It was a bluff, of course - their real objective was to escape.
An instant before the goodbeasts clashed with the vermin, Merlin caught sight of the Stormrat he had fought. He was grinning darkly, displaying his triumph for all the mountain to see. Then, he and Mianel were among the enemy, lashing out left and right with their weapons.
Dagger, swords, and other weapons of warfare slashed through the air around Merlin as he continued to charge onward. At the edge of his vision, Mianel was making a similar effort. Merlin felt something clash against Salamander. His instincts and his orders told him to abandon the sword, but he had made a promise. Merlin heaved the sword over his shoulder and resumed the charge, slamming himself against the vermin in his path.
Then, he was running on air. The ground fell away beneath his feet, and Merlin was falling. He hit the mountainside with a crash, and tumbled downward toward the beach. He rolled halfway down before he managed to bring himself to a stop.
Merlin fought to regain his feet. His left arm stung, and he felt sore all over his body. Still, he was able to move. Merlin was about to continue his descent when he realized that he had lost Salamander.
His eyes frantically surveyed the mountainside. Where had he left it? He tried to remember when his paw had released its grip on the sword, but all he could remember was a jumble of rolling and pain.
"Merlin!" Merlin snapped his gaze toward the source of the voice. Mianel stood on the mountainside, smiling down at him. In her paws, she carried Salamander.
"Let's go, Mia!" called Merlin. He began to run, ignoring the aches and pains that had suddenly sprung up in his legs.
When he finally felt sand on his paws, Merlin was tempted to fall to his knees and cry. But he knew that if he did, he wouldn't be able to get back up. There would be a lot of running to do tonight.
Sunai stared down the mountainside. Such a reckless charge... whoever organized it had his grudging respect. It couldn't have been easy to sacrifice so many beasts - more than fourscore had been slain by Laskit's reinforcements, and there had almost certainly been more casualties during the descent.
"'scuse me, sir, but I'm ready to organize a pursuit." Sunai glanced at the beast who had approached him. Laskit.
"That won't be necessary, Laskit," he answered. "Our troops are probably exhausted, and a descent down the mountain might cause more deaths than we can afford. For now, let us survey what we've won."
Laskit nodded, and turned toward the tunnel that led into the mountain. Without a moment's pause, Sunai followed. If Danni were still alive, she would find him.
The vixen whirled around and sprung back into the ranks of her own troops before the hares could catch her. Only a second after beginning her retreat, she spun around yet again and beheld the battle around her. Although it was hard to tell among the commotion of battle and the darkness of night, Danni felt that she and the other vermin were slowly being pushed back by the hares. If they were to succeed, Sunai's plans would amount to nothing. Gritting her teeth, Danni glided between the vermin moving forward to meet the hares. Something would have to change.
"For the Stormbringer!" A sharp cry cut through the shouts of fury and clash of blades that echoed across the black night. Snapping her head in the direction of the call, Danni witnessed the weasel she had spoken to before the battle had begun rushing forward to meet the Long Patrollers, brandishing a stout wooden staff with an iron tip.
Esmiel, as she remembered the weasel was called, was accompanied by about five other vermin. They moved swiftly, bringing their weapons to bear against the awaiting hares with deadly efficiency. Here, the hares faltered in their charge, brought to a halt and turned around by Esmiel and his companions. If Sunai's other soldiers were like him, the vermin would be able to take the fight to the hares. There was no question in Danni's mind - if both she and Esmiel survived the battle, Sunai was hearing about this weasel.
The vixen darted forward again, this time to lend aid to four of her troops fighting against a greater number of hares. The Long Patrollers fought perilously, slicing with their blade and lashing out with their limbs in an insane flurry of blows. Danni was amazed that Sunai's vermin could stand up to this.
Despite the blind fury of both sides, not many beasts had yet fallen. An occasional blow forced its way through some unlucky Long Patroller or vermin's defenses, delivering a fatal blow. But for the most parts, both sides were evenly matched - the hares might be driving Danni's forces back, but not many beasts were dying. A few of the vermin had even managed to worm their way among the hares in groups of five or six.
It was the hares, not Sunai himself, who told Danni that the tide had turned. "Stormrat!" came a cry that the vixen could barely make out through the fighting. She couldn't see what was happening, but she could imagine it in the eye of her mind - Sunai leaping over the edge with Stormbringer in paw, followed by over a score of soldiers. That was the plan, and it had worked!
Danni felt fresh hope arise in her heart. The hare's surprised call brought on a fierce spark of determination in the vixen; she was filled with the need to slay her opponents, and yet she wanted to skip with joy. Their time has come! she wanted to scream, and it took all her will to keep from doing so. Their time has come at last!
All this emotion was released in a whoop of triumph, and Danni dashed among her troops and charged the foe. Thrust, slash, dodge, dance back. The process never seemed to end, but she didn't care. Danni was lost to the thrill of battle, and her mind had been overrun by a rush of fierce emotion. With each blow she dodged, she became faster. After every lunge and stab, she became more precise. In this state of mind, Danni couldn't know that her troops were rallying behind her, inspired by her passion. Nor could she know that her blows, although not swift enough to strike her foes dead, had pushed the hares back, with their weapons raised in front of their faces in an attempt to defend themselves.
Danni had just reeled back. A hare's scimitar missed the side of her face by less than the breadth of her paw. She wasn't fazed in the least. The vixen ducked her head down and sprung forward, her dagger gripped in both paws. She shoved the blade into the hare's stomach, and felt blood spill onto her paws. Without pause, she pulled the blade upward. There was a sickening slicing noise as the dagger cut through the hare's fur and flesh.
Danni's foe let out a scream of pain, and fell to his knees. She danced out of his reach, almost tauntingly. Freeing one hand from her dagger and grinning darkly, the fox prepared to end this hare's life with one thrust.
The mindless haze that had overcome Danni was broken in an instant. "Redwall!" came a shout from behind her. Heedless of the hare kneeling on the ground behind her, she turned to stare at the source of a noise. It was a group of woodlanders, faintly visible through the shadow. "So close," she hissed, and squeezed her dagger with the one paw that still held it.
As if to confirm her growing dread, the woodlanders called out again. "Redwall!" they howled, and sprung down to engage the suddenly trapped vixen and her soldiers.
Gormin had been willing to halt at the end of the tunnel as Redwallers gathered around him, surveying the situation and waiting for his troops to gather. The fighting didn't seem to be swinging either way, so he was content to let the Long Patrol do their work.
That changed when the vermin scrambled over the edge of Salamandastron. Redwallers were still filing out of the tunnel in a neat, orderly line - nowhere near ready to assist the hares fighting off the Stormrat's horde. Gritting his teeth, Gormin put a paw on the hilt of his longsword, telling himself over and over again to wait. To charge now, before the Redwallers were prepared, would be a mistake. He knew this.
The squirrel warrior shoved his doubts to the back of his mind, and raised his free paw into the air. The other Redwallers saw his signal. Paws loosened their grips on weapons, and tense beasts let the thrill of battle seep out of their consciousness to a place just outside their hearts, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice. But even Gormin, one of the most disciplined of the Redwallers, couldn't completely contain this feeling. His tension was invisible to the beasts around him, but the squirrel felt as if he were going to leap out of his skin. Thankfully, none of the other beasts were able to detect this - with the possible exception of Skipper and the few beasts who had let the experiences of the Stormrat War harden their will, the Redwallers were held in check by Gormin's calmness.
And so Gormin stared at the fighting as the tide turned in the vermin's favor, accompanied by warriors who were itching to rush into battle. With every blow that he witnessed, the urge to charge forward grew. But he held himself in check, and under normal circumstances, would have been able to stay calm until all the Redwallers had exited the tunnel.
It was the carelessness of a young hare, new to the Long Patrol and in her first real battle, that caused Gormin to charge early. The hare was cut down by a weasel as she turned to make a remark to one of her companions. In truth, Gormin's focus was elsewhere, and even if he had seen this he probably would not have charged. But Candice saw it.
"Eulalia!" howled Candice. The enraged hare shoved past Gormin and dashed toward the battle. She was a blur of movement as she ran, empty-handed one instant and wielding a dirk in the next. "Eulaliaaa!" she cried again. It was the cry of a beast who had lost all sense of self-preservation and would die without a second thought just for the chance to plunge a dirk into the chest of her foe.
Gormin didn't even try to remain calm - his resolve snapped. Drawing his sword with one paw and then raising it above his head, gripped in both paws, he turned to the rest of the Redwallers. "Redwaaaall!" he screamed, his voice louder than Candice's cries of vengeance had been. Woodlander eyes met Gormin's, and there was no doubt about what their leader wanted them to do.
"Redwaaaaall!" they cried, and descended on their foe.
Merlin felt Mianel's weight slump against his back, and for a moment he thought she had been killed. But then he felt Mianel draw herself up and lash out at yet another enemy. Grimacing, the young hare parried a blow with his dirk. His instincts told him to press the attack, but with Salamander on his back such an attempt would be futile.
Not to mention that doing that would leave Mianel defenseless. Merlin pressed himself against her back, parrying yet another blow with his blade. He could feel her smooth movements, parrying blows more effectively than him. Although they were surrounded by vermin, only a few scratches had penetrated their defense. Giving himself a moment of reprieve, Merlin stopped concentrating on the weasel stabbing at him long enough to allow one thought to flash across his mind: I'm invincible!
The thought vanished in a haze of pain as the weasel in front of Merlin stabbed him in the side. The hare's eyes widened, and he let out a gasp of surprise and pain. Mianel tensed up and fought even more fiercely when she heard Merlin's gasp. An amused smile came to his lips - her redoubled efforts wouldn't make any difference at all to him unless they were directed against his attacker. Then he saw the weasel's scimitar slicing through the air in front of his head.
Merlin swung his free paw out to grasp the weasel's wrist. Miraculously, the hare's firm grip was enough to stop the scimitar from striking him. Then he kicked the weasel in the stomach, sending the beast sprawling. Pressing himself more firmly against Mianel's back, Merlin continued to fight.
Not even half a minute had passed before he heard the sound of steel slicing through flesh. Mianel cried out in pain, and Merlin winced at the sound. He continued to parry the blows directed at him by vermin, and hoped fiercely that his companion would be able to fight off her opponent.
A rat pierced Merlin's shoulder with the tip of his rapier. The hare howled, and lashed out at the vermin's arm with his dirk. The blade pierced the rat's fur and skin, ripping a gash down his arm. Merlin's foe pulled away and closed his eyes, tears of pain seeping through the lids. Blood began to spill out of the wound left b the rapier, but the pain was pushed to the back of his mind when he felt Mianel fall to the ground behind him.
Disregarding his own safety, Merlin spun around to see the female hare faceup on the ground, staring up at the vermin around her. Only her forepaws held her up, and her dirk was on the ground next to one of them. As Merlin watched, Mianel lashed out at the vermin around her with her footpaws. Her left footpaw connected with a stoat's stomach, and the surprised beast landed on his back. In the same second, her right footpaw shot up and connected with a ferret's wrist, sending the dagger the vermin had been holding flying out of his grip.
"Watch it!" yelled a voice from behind Merlin. Instinctively, he ducked, and felt the air where his neck had been part before a sharp blade. Turning his ducking motion into a whirl, Merlin put his back to Mianel and brought his dirk up in time to see a scimitar pierce the stomach of the weasel he had kicked away from himself earlier. The vermin fell to his knees, and a gallant hare withdrew his blade from the corpse.
"Keep your guard up, wot wot!" said the hare. The rescuer and his two companions pressed forward, driving away the vermin who had been surrounding Merlin and Mianel.
Mianel stopped her flurry of kicks and let herself slump to the ground. With one paw, she grabbed her dirk. Then she rolled over and pushed herself up with her free hand. Once again, she pressed herself up against Merlin's back, prepared to defend herself. But to the great relief of both hares, their rescuers had drawn the attention of the vermin to themselves.
"We ought t' help them," said Mianel breathlessly.
Merlin nodded, and when it dawned on him that she couldn't see the gesture, he responded, "Alright. Let's drive those flippin' vermin off our mountain!"
The pair made ready to assist their rescuers, but before they could move, a voice shouted out to them. "Come over this way!" called out a voice Merlin could barely manage to identify as Colonel Jeffrey's. Merlin glanced in the direction of the voice, and was treated to the sight of the Colonel and three other hares fighting off a small group of vermin that was harassing them. As Jeffrey shoved a vermin away from him, he turned to Merlin and gestured urgently.
He didn't need any more encouragement. Merlin tugged Mianel's arm urgently and ran toward Colonel Jeffrey. With only a second's hesitation, Mianel turned around and followed Merlin.
In less than ten seconds, the pair had joined the Colonel and the hares who accompanied him. Mianel flew into battle alongside one of those hares, catching a ferret completely by surprise and shoving her dirk into his chest. Merlin, on the other hand, moved cautiously, eyeing the vermin and waiting for them to attack him.
"Eulaliaaa!" whooped Colonel Jeffrey, waving his rapier in the air in front of his face. "Charge! Attack! Show those rotten blighters no mercy!"
Merlin forgot about waiting for an attack from the vermin, and charged forward, dirk in hand. Mianel redoubled her efforts, ducking, weaving, kicking, parrying, and slashing with her dirk. Foebeasts backed away from her, holding up their weapons uncertainly.
Colonel Jeffrey's hares also fought on fiercely and recklessly, leaving themselves open to attack in their efforts to drive the vermin away. One hare thrust his rapier forward, hoping that the tip of his weapon would slip through the ribs of the searat he fought. His foe, quicker than the hare had anticipated, sidestepped the attack and brought his cutlass down on the hare's back. The Long Patroller fell to the ground, letting out a gasp of pain. He tried to struggle to his feet, but the searat shoved his cutlass through the hare's back and into his heart.
It was the Colonel who turned the tide of this skirmish. Letting out dark, guttural howls that one would expect to hear from the wolf tribes and Navura vixen that lived in the north, Jeffrey lunged forward, abandoning all sense and caution and letting his fighting skills and Long Patrol reflexes rise to the surface of his consciousness. He ducked and kicked, stabbed and bit, and paid no heed to the vermin steel that sliced through his fur and flesh.
Jeffrey's foes stood their ground and tried to defend themselves, but Jeffrey would not be deterred. Completely thrown off by this unstoppable storm of fur, the vermin first backed away slowly, and then turned tail and ran. Colonel Jeffrey took several long strides in pursuit of his enemies, but as his senses flooded back and drove his warrior's spirit away, he came to a halt.
When Colonel Jeffrey turned to face the other hares, Merlin was shocked by his appearance. As quick as his charge had been, the Colonel had not escaped without injury. Blood flowed from many gashes along his torso and face, but all but one of the cuts seemed to be shallow. The deepest wound, which ran from the Colonel's left shoulder to the center of his chest, was releasing a steady flow of blood, staining the fur around it a deep crimson.
But the thing that startled Merlin the most was Colonel Jeffrey's face. His ears drooped in a depressing fashion, and Jeffrey cast a melancholy gaze beyond the hares. But beyond the tiredness and exhaustion that appeared like clouds in his eyes, there was a fierce resolve that said the battle would not be over until he lay dead.
"Aid has come," said Jeffrey, his voice flat and emotionless. "We must break through th' vermin to reach 'em." Then he shook his head vigorously, and feeling returned to his voice and alertness to his eyes. "We're gonna charge through th' rotters and meet our rescuers!" he shouted, thrusting his rapier into the air. "Eulaliaaaa!"
Merlin, Mianel, Jeffrey, and the two other hares turned toward the vermin that stood between them and the Redwallers and sprung forward, moving like death on the wind.
As soon as the Redwallers began to attack, Danni faded back into the ranks of her troops, moving swiftly in an attempt to reach the vermins' undefended rear and coordinate the soldiers that would attempt to resist these new enemies. As always, her allies almost seemed to make way for her. Briefly, she thought of what would happen to the creatures that were now engaging the Long Patrol. Esmiel will take care of them, Danni thought. Nodding to herself in confirmation of this thought, the vixen charged ahead.
"Turn around!" she began to yell as she got closer to the Redwallers. Soldiers who were caught by surprise at now being surrounded on two sides did as she asking, bringing their weapons to bear against this new menace. Some vermin were cut down where they stood, but a far greater amount stood their ground and managed to hold their own.
Despite Danni's efforts, the vermin who stood against the Redwallers' charge were outnumbered. Even so, they fought with courage - slicing, slashing, and parrying. By the time the vixen had reached the frontlines, over ten beasts were dead. Looking at the battle that raged around her, she knew that even more would lie slain before the battle was done.
As she had done when she had been fighting the hares, Danni used her speed and evasiveness to their full potential. Stepping around a weasel who was frantically fighting the oncoming Redwallers, she shoved her dagger between a squirrel's ribs. The woodlander's eyes widened in surprise, and she violently pulled herself away from Danni. The fox tried to pull her dagger out from the creature's body, but to her dismay, it stayed lodged in the squirrel's body Danni stumbled away empty-handed, and the squirrel, seemingly in shock, crouched on the ground and clutched her wound.
Silently cursing herself, the vixen regained her footing and glared at the squirrel. How could she have been so careless? She hadn't even considered the possibility that something like this could happen. Now, the dagger which had served her from the beginning of the battle was now out of her reach.
Danni swept her head from side to side in an attempt to find a weapon. In the darkness, she couldn't see very far, but the vague shape of a dead body caught her eye. It lay in the direction of the Redwallers, to the right of the weasel who she had just fought beside and slightly beyond the Redwallers.
Taking a deep breath, she raced toward the body, straining every muscle in her body in an attempt to arm herself before a Redwaller attacked her. A wailing scream rang out to her left, and she knew that the weasel who had been fighting the Redwallers had fallen. Danni had no idea whether or not her enemies were running toward her, and she didn't have time to look - she needed to reach the body and find the weapon the beast had been carrying.
In an instant, she was beside the body. As soon as she reached its side, she knelt down to examine it. The body was that of a ferret, and she could barely make out a deep scar running down the vermin's face as she looked upon his corpse. Danni's eyes shifted up and down, searching the body for any sort of weapon at all.
The vixen spent less than a second searching, but it seemed like an eternity to her. Danni's eyes widened when she finally noticed a blade protruding from beneath the ferret's paw. She reached out and grabbed the blade, which turned out to be part of a shortsword. Grasping the hilt in one paw, Danni rose to her feet.
She was forced to jump aside as soon as she stood upright. A battleaxe came down where she had just stood, wielded with a force that would have split her skull had she not moved. The beast behind the weapon was a burly otter, and Danni's eyes widened in fear as he lifted his axe from where it had hit the ground and turned to face her.
Danni whipped forward, almost too quickly for the otter's eyes to follow, and twisted her blade so the point was directed at his heart. A quick twist of the battleaxe sent the weapon's hilt slamming into the fox's chest, and was probably the only thing that saved the otter's life.
The otter drew the battleaxe back over his shoulder as Danni sucked in her breath. Rising on unsteady feet, she had just enough time to jump away as the head of the battleaxe sliced the air where her stomach had been.
Once again, Danni rushed forward with her new shortsword pointed toward the otter's heart. The otter tried to ward off the attack in a similar manner as he had before, this time pivoting his weapon around so the axehead faced behind his shoulder and the bare end of the hilt could be used to bludgeon Danni away. She ducked and felt the hilt of the battleaxe graze the tip of her ears. Then, she sprung upward and plunged her weapon into the otter's heart.
The fox pulled the shortsword free and let the otter slump to the ground. Three shadowy figures ran toward her through the darkness, and she was debating whether to flee or fight when their words reached her ears.
"That vixen killed Skipper! Get 'er, mates, an' show 'er no mercy!"
"Redwaaaall!"
Danni turned and ran, seeking refuge among the other vermin that had turned around to fight the Redwall reinforcements. The battle was nowhere near done, but she couldn't help but feel that she had turned the odds in the Stormbringer's favor by killing one of Redwall's leaders.
"That vixen killed Skipper! Get 'er, mates, an' show 'er no mercy!"
"Redwaaaall!"
Candice couldn't fully comprehend these words when they penetrated the din of battle. Nevertheless, they fueled her rage. Screaming incoherently, she plunged empty-pawed into a small group of rats and weasels. About a minute ago, a weasel had sent her dirk sailing through the air with a flick of his sword. She hadn't noticed the loss of her weapon, and continued her suicidal attack.
If it weren't for the intervention of Gormin, Candice would have been long dead. Disregarding his duties as Redwall's Champion, Gormin loyally pursued Candice and fought off anybeast whose blade strayed near her. Seeing the beast he loved in such dire danger brought out reserves of strength that the squirrel had not known he possessed. Fueled by his devotion to Candice, his blade swung swift and true.
Heedless of the ally who had followed her, Candice aimed a fierce kick at a surly weasel. Her target leaped away less than a second before her footpaw collided with him. Regaining his bearings quickly, he sliced at Candice's leg with his scimitar.
The first real blow Candice suffered brought her out of her rage, turning her enraged cries and heavy breathing into exclamations of pain. The weasel moved to finish Candice off, but before he could so much raise his blade into the air, Gormin was upon him.
The weasel stood no chance. Without sound, Gormin leaped to Candice's side. Whirling on his footpaw, the squirrel brought his blade around in a long arc. Gormin's sword sliced through the weasel's stomach, and the vermin fell back. Without pausing to see if his adversary was alive or dead, he rounded on Candice.
"Hurry!" he hissed, grasping Candice's paw with his own. "Follow me!"
Candice followed dazedly, trusting Gormin to lead her to safety as she recalled the occurrences of the last few minutes. She remembered seeing a weasel kill a young Long Patroller, and then running down toward the vermin. Only vague images of the battle remained with her - she remembered slicing a ferret's arm with her dirk, and later clubbing a stoat with her bare hands. Candice had no recollection of losing her dirk, but she imagined that it was lying somewhere on the battlefield.
Then there was Gormin. During the wearying march to Salamandastron, he had come across as a brave and ambitious beast, but Candice had not imagined him capable of doing something as noble as following her hopeless charge. From what little she remembered of her frenzy, Candice gathered that he had followed her into the fight, protecting her with his life. That on its own was significant, but in assisting her, Gormin had also left the rest of the Redwallers to fend for themselves. There was definitely something about the squirrel that he kept hidden from other beasts, but Candice was at a loss to what that could be.
Candice blinked and shook her head - she had lost track of her surroundings. In the middle of a battle, at that! Gormin had come to a halt, and was speaking in hushed tones with a slim ottermaid. The squirrel was gesturing frantically, and the otter's eyes were downcast.
"Wot's goin' on, Gormin?" asked Candice.
Gormin turned to her. "Skipper's dead," he said, his voice full of shock. "A vixen slew him while he was fighting the vermin."
Candice's eyes widened. "Skipper's gone?" she asked. She hadn't know the otter well, but from her experiences among the Redwallers, she gathered that he was very respected among the Abbeybeasts. Many beasts had described him as brave, honest, and respectable. "Nobeast is gonna take this very well."
A silence fell for several seconds, punctuated by clashing swords and war cries. Gormin appeared to be lost in thought. His fists were clenched, and his narrowed eyes stared off into space. Candice wondered what would be going through his mind. With Skipper slain, he would be the sole commander of the Redwallers.
Gormin glanced first at the Redwallers, and then out at the vermin. "There will still be Long Patrollers out there," he said. "We need to break through the vermin and reach them. It won't be too hard - if they're caught between us and the Long Patrol, they might scatter."
"That could work," said Candice. "But what if th' vermin try to surround us?"
"They won't manage," answered Gormin. "Once we reach the hares, we're going to keep fighting until we reach the edge of Salamandastron. We'll make our stand there."
Merlin snapped his head up and gazed beyond the vermin he was fighting. Within the mass of vermin that stood between him and the Redwallers, something had shifted. The hare strained his eyes, trying to make out the cause of the disturbance. It seemed as if more vermin were turning away from the Long Patrollers. Hope flared within Merlin's heart. Were the Redwallers pushing forward?
The young hare redoubled his efforts. Beside him, Mianel fought doggedly. Further to his left, Colonel Jeffrey, tired but determined, led the attack. About a score of hares had been present when Jeffrey began the push, and more had joined when they saw his intentions. The battle was fierce, and the Long Patrol seemed to lose more ground than they gained. Only now, the vermin seemed to be faltering.
Colonel Jeffrey took notice, as well. "Charge! Slay th' blighters! Break their lines for Lord Rocketh! Eulaliaaaa!"
The hares pushed forward, making slow progress. Merlin made no attempts to sidestep the enemy blows, impeded as he was by Salamander. He fought to push his opponents backward rather than trying to kill them. Without fail, his opponents would slip away from the reach of his dirk and clear the path further for the Long Patrol.
Merlin didn't know how long the fight went on like this. He found himself combating a lone weasel, who stood firmly in place and refused to give ground. Merlin stepped forward and thrusted his dirk toward the vermin, but the weasel stepped back and brought his broadsword out to parry the blow. Merlin withdrew as quickly as he could. There was no way he could get past that broadsword with a dirk. But with Salamander...
Merlin flicked his wrist, sending the dirk spinning toward the weasel. The vermin brought up his blade just in time to send the dirk clattering to the ground. By this time, Merlin's paws were already working at the straps that held Salamander's sheath to his back. By the time the weasel began advancing toward him, Merlin had loosened the straps and brought the sheath out in front of him. The weasel walked on, and Merlin grasped for Salamander's hilt with one paw and held the sheath with the other. With a mighty pull, Merlin drew Salamander from its sheath.
His attempts to defend himself were pointless. Before the weasel reached him, a blade slid through the vermin's stomach. As quickly as it had appeared, the blade withdrew, letting the corpse slump to the ground.
The weasel's slayer stepped over the vermin's dead body, a look of grim satisfaction on his face. The squirrel looked at Merlin, smiled briefly, and called over his shoulder. "We've found the hares!"
When the squirrel turned back, the smile had vanished. He strode over to Merlin's side, holding his blade at the ready. His eyes moved back and forth, scrutinizing the battlefield around him. Without looking at Merlin, the squirrel spoke. "My name is Gormin. I'm Redwall's Champion. Who's in charge here?"
"Colonel Jeffrey," responded Merlin. Unable to display the same conduct as Gormin, he looked up at the squirrel's face. Although it was turned away, the hare could faintly make out the squirrel's hard eyes. "He's over t' my left, er, your right, leadin' the attack," he stammered. "He's the hare you're lookin' for."
Gormin nodded, paying no heed to the hare's awkwardness. "Thank you," he said, preparing to move on. Then he paused. "Be ready to reverse your attack," he said, and then ran toward Colonel Jeffrey.
As the squirrel approached Jeffrey, the Colonel stood stock still, gazing at the fighting taking place around him. When it became apparent that the Redwallers were breaking through the vermin ranks, he had felt a flash of hope. Now, though, he realized that the vermin would surround the Long Patrol and the Redwallers when they came together. The combined strength of their forces might be enough to stave off the attack, but there would be many deaths - far too many deaths.
"Colonel Jeffrey?" asked Gormin as he approached the tired hare.
"Yes, I'm th' Colonel," he responded enthusiastically, attempting to hide his tiredness with a show of the famous Long Patrol bravado. When Jeffrey realized that the warrior who stood in front of him was not going to be fooled by such an act, he let his face fall and his ears droop.
"Colonel, you must direct your troops to turn around. If the Redwall soldiers continue to charge this way and your troops attack in the opposite direction, we'll be stuck in the middle, surrounded on all sides by vermin."
"What d' you propose we do, then?" asked Jeffrey, letting a note of weariness enter his voice. "If we turn around, we'll be stuck at th' edge o' the cliff. 'twould be better for my hares to keep movin' toward th' tunnel. Y' still hold th' tunnel, don't you?"
Gormin shook his head. "All of my troops abandoned it in our charge. The cliff is a better refuge, however - if all else fails, we can try to scale the mountainside and make our way down to the beach. The tunnel would be too crowded for a retreat."
"But there are hares still inside o' Salamandastron!" exclaimed Jeffrey, practically screaming. "A retreat is out o' the question!"
The squirrel lowered his eyes. "Nothing can be done about it, Colonel. My soldiers have already abandoned the tunnel. We must go forward now, and make our stand. If fate is kind, we'll rescue your comrades."
Jeffrey squeezed his eyes shut and nodded. "I suppose you're correct," he said. Turning around, he raised his rapier in the air and shouted, "Turn around! Head for th' cliffs, and we'll make our stand there!"
Sunai anxiously watched the Redwallers advance from the position he had retreated to when they began their attack. Everything was vague in the darkness, but he could still see the shapes of the wretched beasts as they pushed through his forces. He bit his lip and watched silently at the events playing out before him.
Only shortly after the Redwallers fought their way to the Long Patrol, the beasts began to turn themselves around. They're going to attack, though Sunai. His grip on Stormbringer tightened. I only have a score of warriors left with me. There's no way we can stand against them.
"Stand firm!" bellowed Sunai, calling out to every vermin withing hearing range. "Don't let them kill you! Let them advance, but make them fight for every inch of ground they take!"
As hares, squirrels, mice, and otters charged toward him, Sunai found himself thinking of Danni. She had been the one who lead the attack through the tunnels, and had distracted the hares long enough to allow he and his thirty vermin to attack the Long Patrol from behind. The Redwallers would have caught her by surprise, though. From the shapes he saw on either side and closing behind the advancing goodbeasts, not many vermin had died. But there had surely been casualties - had Danni been among them?
The Stormrat forced down thoughts of his beloved as his foes moved even closer. He raised Stormbringer above his head, and called out its name to the heavens. "Stormbringer!" Before he lowered his gaze, he heard his soldiers cry out, mimicking him.
Then, the enemy was upon him. Sunai brought his blade down with all his might on a young hare. The force of the blow against the Long Patroller's scimitar sent the younger beast stumbling.
Around him, metal clashed as the charge met his own soldiers. They were being pushed back more quickly than Sunai would have liked, but they were putting up a fierce fight. Almost like beasts at the gates of Dark Forest.
A female hare leaped at him, slashing his side with her dirk. Sunai stumbled back, glaring up at the hare as she pressed her attack. Straining his reflexes to their limit, he stood and brought up Stormbringer to block the blow. At the same time, he kicked out with his foot, catching the hare in the stomach. She stumbled back, clutching her stomach with her free paw. Sunai smiled, leaped forward, and brought Stormbringer down in a killing stroke.
But before the blade could strike, it was caught in the air by another. The blade was held by a young hare, and there was determination in his eyes. "Stormrat!" he hissed, straining to keep Stormbringer from coming down on the other hare. Sunai redoubled his efforts, and the hare's strength began to falter.
"Eulalia!" The cry didn't come from the hare whose sword was locked with Sunai's, but from the one he had knocked to the ground. She lunged at the Stormrat's stomach, thrusting her dirk with angry force.
He leaped away, letting the hare tumble to the ground. As Stormbringer and the young hare's sword separated, an intense heat ripped through Sunai's body, as if his insides had been suddenly lit aflame. At the exact same time, the hare's body jerked, and his fur stood on end as if he had been struck by lightning.
Sunai was the first to regain his bearings. As more beasts ran toward him, he backed away, accompanied by the ten vermin who remained alive. A beaten and battered hare, looking as if he were about to faint, shoved his way to the front of the charge and lunged at Sunai. "Eulalia!" he screamed, thrusting his rapier at Sunai's heart.
A blur of fur shot from Sunai's left and collided with the hare. The two beasts fell to the ground, clawing and biting each other savagely. Almost immediately, Sunai's rescuer produced a dagger from his belt and thrust it into the hare's chest. The Long Patroller spasmed briefly, but after several moments of thrashing, he lay still.
"Mark!" exclaimed Sunai, stepping forward to defend the ferret as he regained his feet. "What are you doing here?"
The ferret smirked, and gestured behind Sunai. He turned, and was rewarded with the sight of the remainder of his horde. The Stormrat let the point of his sword fall to the ground. He lifted his head into the sky and let out a vicious laugh.
Merlin had been shocked by the sight of hundreds of vermin coming to the top of the cliff. He had been even more shocked when Colonel Jeffrey, the last ranking hare among the Long Patrol, dived at the Stormbringer and had been subdued by a ferret. Now, as he looked around the battlefield, he realized that the Long Patrollers and Redwallers were completely surrounded.
"Charge," came a voice from Merlin's right. He looked at Mianel questioningly. Her face was grim, and she held her dirk with an iron grip. "Th' Champion o' Redwall says to charge. We're not t' stop runnin' until we feel beach sand beneath our feet."
"Eulalia!" howled Merlin, and ran forward. Mianel kept up with him easily, slowed down as he was by Salamander. A stream of Long Patrollers and Redwallers rushed forward, waving their weapons threateningly. It was a bluff, of course - their real objective was to escape.
An instant before the goodbeasts clashed with the vermin, Merlin caught sight of the Stormrat he had fought. He was grinning darkly, displaying his triumph for all the mountain to see. Then, he and Mianel were among the enemy, lashing out left and right with their weapons.
Dagger, swords, and other weapons of warfare slashed through the air around Merlin as he continued to charge onward. At the edge of his vision, Mianel was making a similar effort. Merlin felt something clash against Salamander. His instincts and his orders told him to abandon the sword, but he had made a promise. Merlin heaved the sword over his shoulder and resumed the charge, slamming himself against the vermin in his path.
Then, he was running on air. The ground fell away beneath his feet, and Merlin was falling. He hit the mountainside with a crash, and tumbled downward toward the beach. He rolled halfway down before he managed to bring himself to a stop.
Merlin fought to regain his feet. His left arm stung, and he felt sore all over his body. Still, he was able to move. Merlin was about to continue his descent when he realized that he had lost Salamander.
His eyes frantically surveyed the mountainside. Where had he left it? He tried to remember when his paw had released its grip on the sword, but all he could remember was a jumble of rolling and pain.
"Merlin!" Merlin snapped his gaze toward the source of the voice. Mianel stood on the mountainside, smiling down at him. In her paws, she carried Salamander.
"Let's go, Mia!" called Merlin. He began to run, ignoring the aches and pains that had suddenly sprung up in his legs.
When he finally felt sand on his paws, Merlin was tempted to fall to his knees and cry. But he knew that if he did, he wouldn't be able to get back up. There would be a lot of running to do tonight.
Sunai stared down the mountainside. Such a reckless charge... whoever organized it had his grudging respect. It couldn't have been easy to sacrifice so many beasts - more than fourscore had been slain by Laskit's reinforcements, and there had almost certainly been more casualties during the descent.
"'scuse me, sir, but I'm ready to organize a pursuit." Sunai glanced at the beast who had approached him. Laskit.
"That won't be necessary, Laskit," he answered. "Our troops are probably exhausted, and a descent down the mountain might cause more deaths than we can afford. For now, let us survey what we've won."
Laskit nodded, and turned toward the tunnel that led into the mountain. Without a moment's pause, Sunai followed. If Danni were still alive, she would find him.