23
The UFORAG (Unified Forces of Redwall and Guosim, a title suggested of course by one of the Guosim, the Guosim name being an acronym already), after rising early and making swift progress over the river and through the woods, had arrived at Redwall from the south.
Fentress stood at the fore of the UFORAG, alongside Bristol, Sully, Luce, and Friar Alger, who combined made up the leadership of the hastily-organized army. She stared up at the wall of the Abbey, the top of the belltower jutting above it. It felt like an eternity since she had last laid eyes upon the sandstone of her home. She had left it as it fell; she returned as its liberator.
She hoped. They still had a war to wage, after all.
"Alagadda of the Many Blades," she shouted again at the walltops. "I hail you!"
Again nobeast appeared, neither Alagadda nor a single member of her horde. Daunted, Fentress turned to Bristol, Sully, Luce, and Alger.
"Maybe one of you should try, you have stronger voices than me."
"Oh, they heard ya alright," said Friar Alger. "They'd 'ave to've been born without ears not to've heard ya."
Sure enough, moments later Alagadda poked her head over the rafters from the top of the wall. The weasel warlord took a moment to analyze the ragged array of creatures gathered before the Abbey before responding.
"Why, you all came here just for liddle ol' me? Y'shouldn't have."
Atop the massive wall, Alagadda seemed like a tiny thing, almost insignificant. Little taller, little older than Fentress herself—although that could hardly be the case, as Fentress remembered the weasel invading her home and slaying her family and friends when she had been but a young babe. Or had she really been so young? The memories were so muddled and distant.
"Alagadda," she called back. "Your reign over this Abbey ends today. Since you will not surrender, I won't waste your time with offers of clemency that nobeast here feels particularly generous enough to give. Before dusk tonight you will lie dead on the ground, I promise you that."
Alagadda laughed. "An' who are you again, dear? You seem familiar, but I can't place the face. Got a name?"
"My name is Fentress, daughter of the Skipper of Otters, who you slew. I have with me Luce, Log a Log of the Guosim, who has slain your ally Kennebec. With our combined might we march against your horde."
"Kennebec?" Alagadda thumbed the name over her lips. "I don't recall a Kennebec, although Skipper of Otters I do remember more or less. Big salty ol' waterdog, not so tough in a fight as he'd've liked, I'd wager. You here on some vow of vengeance or whatnot? Yawn."
Although she had been addressing them for some time, nobeast appeared alongside her on the walltop, not a single solitary rat, stoat, or ferret.
"It appears neither of us really has much to say to the other," said Fentress.
"Well, if you wanna fight, the gate's wide open. Ain't no door left." She motioned at the gaping wallgate below her.
Bristol leaned over and whispered in Fentress's ear. "Expect a trap, this ain't the kinda creature plays fair."
Fentress nodded. "The other gates are either open as well or rotted to the point they'll easily break," she whispered to her assembled captains. "Alger, Luce, Bristol, each of you should take a squad of fighters and go to the other gates. We'll attack from all sides at once."
"Aye," said Luce, "But we'll be spreadin' our forces thin, an' they ain't such thick forces t'begin with."
"We'll have to bottleneck through the gates anyway, rendering whatever numbers we have moot," said Fentress. "A four-pronged attack will spread the enemy thin as well. And if they're all gathered here at the south waiting for an ambush, we can get troops in for a flank before they can even react."
Bristol patted her on the shoulder. "Now that's thinkin' with tactics, wot!"
"And what about me?" said Sully. "Should I take a force too? My leg's feelin' better, I can handle a tussle, believe me."
"You'll stay with me, Sully. I—"
"I'm waitin' fer you lunks to do somethin', y'know," said Alagadda.
Fentress nodded to her captains. "Go. Meld into the forest and sneak around. I'll distract her as long as I can." She turned back to Alagadda. "What have you done with the other Redwallers, you knave? Are they unharmed?"
But Alagadda had vanished from the walltops.
She skidded down the steps to the courtyard, waving hasty directions to her chief followers. "Ship up, mates, 'tis a real battle, the kind I've needed fer awhile now. Jareck, y'still willin' to fight fer me or no?"
Jareck saluted. "Ask an' I obey."
"Great, so here's the deal. We got four entrances to this Abbey. Ain't one of 'em closed off an' we ain't got time to put up barricades. Means I'll need lizards stationed at each one an' somebeast competent enough t'lead 'em there too. Jareck, take some lizards and defend the west gate, the main one, where Vellis is. I'll defend the south." She snapped her fingers at the lizard who had introduced himself earlier, what's-his-face, Darkscale. "You defend the east gate. That make sense t'ye?"
"…" said Darkscale.
"Course not." She pointed past the lizard, at the eastern wall of the Abbey. "Find the gate in that wall. Make sure nothin' comes through alive, y'hear?"
Darkscale nodded and hissed at some of his peers to follow him.
Alagadda searched the remaining gaggle of lizards for another that looked at least semi-competent, but she was no judge of lizards. They all looked equally braindead. Laramie, who had risen during the commotion but, being surrounded by lizards, had been unable to do much else, shrugged her shoulders.
"Looks like you'll have to make me a captain, milady. Don't worry, I'll defend the north gate mighty fine."
"Stow it," Alagadda hissed. She turned to Sosostris, who had also been milling about encircled by a dense ring of lizards. "'Ey Pitkin, you up t'the task a leadin' some lizzerds?"
Sosostris blinked. "You mean to make me a captain?"
"Ain't got no better option on such short supply. 'Sides, you were part of my horde once, an' yore brother wasn't so bad a captain, so who knows."
"I don't—"
"Look Pitkin, either you accept or you die, simple as that."
Sosostris said nothing, hanging her head.
"So that's settled," said Alagadda. She raised her voice to the remaining lizards and pointed first to Jareck and then to Sosostris with her sword. "Listen up, scales-for-brains. These two are yore new bosses. You listen to what they say, got it?"
The lizards bobbed their heads like a rippling sea.
"The only exception is, if they try to run away or if they tell you to kill me, then they ain't yore bosses no more, they have forfeited all boss privileges an' are perfectly fine to eat. Sound like a deal?"
The lizards stopped bobbing their heads, a little put off by the complication to the original, easy-to-follow order. Alagadda didn't really care. She had given the order not for the lizards to hear but for Jareck and Sosostris. They weren't apt to flee if they thought it might lead to their swift and unpleasant end. Well, Sosostris at least. Jareck would probably find some way to weasel away from the lizards without getting caught (she had never known a stoat who did so much weaseling). But that was why she had stationed Jareck at the wall where Vellis had set up shop.
She gave both her captains a shove. "Stop standin' like dullards, go defend those gates!"
Jareck and Sosostris slipped off, lizards trailing at the heels of both. A surprisingly even number of lizards followed each one, although not too many had remained with her. Which was fine, since she was worth more than fifty lizards.
Also she had Laramie and the other Redwallers with her, still grouped in a huddle. If things went sour, she could fall on the tried-and-true hostage tactic to turn things in her favor.
Grinning to herself at the prospect of a real battle, she barked orders at her lizards to position them around the wallgate.
North Wall (Sosostris)
Bristol Isabella Rensselaer-LaBette had also returned to tip-top form at the prospect of a battle. Her whole being burning with intensity, she led her own platoon of assorted shrews and woodlanders around the back of the Abbey, headed for the north wallgate. She bellowed for them to march quiet, no unnecessary movements or sounds. Meaning no jokes, japes, jests, or other all-around tomfoolery. She was not in the mood. It was time to act military.
She led the way, her sword drawn, setting an example for her comrades. However, they still blundered and bustled through the underbrush of the wood, crunching leaves and roots underpaw. She winced with each misstep. Still, it would have to suffice.
When the gate drew into sight she held up a fisted paw for them to stop. She called over the Guosim shrew Preble, an ancient creature with gray whiskers and an eyepatch who seemed wise in the way of war.
"Whaddya think, ol' Preble ol' chap," she said. "The wallgate's wide open. "A trap?"
"I'd bet my whiskers on it," said Preble. "Think we oughtta wait 'n see what happens?"
"Never!" said Bristol. "I didn't come to this blinkin' battle to sit around. 'Sides, if springin' their trap can take some pressure off Fentress, I'm all for it. Let's give 'em blood 'n vinegar!"
Howling with fury, she leapt from the underbrush and charged the open gate, waving her blade over her head to whip her followers into a frenzy. She hurtled through, skidding to slow herself as she entered to take in the surroundings of the famed Redwall Abbey, its geography, its familiarity. The last time she had been here, Oliver had been alive, and Lieutenant Botetourt, and her other comrades. They had passed through on their way northward, as was customary. The Redwallers had thrown them a feast, as was also customary. The Redwallers rarely needed an excuse to throw a feast.
Arrayed before her was a host of lizards. Behemoth, scaly things, standing around with little formation or purpose but imposing for their size if nothing else.
Bristol did not hesitate. She launched herself headlong into the lizards, wailing Eulalias the like had not been heard in Mossflower County for generations. She levied her blade into the neck of the nearest reptile. The steel caught in the scales, did not rend clean, but it did rend, opening a gash like a geyser which erupted in a tumultuous spray.
She wrenched the blade and kicked the screeching lizard into a few of its fellows before whipping her brand around and slashing a blow between another's eyes. Her soldiers appeared behind her, waving swords and spears, hurling meagre attacks at the beasts. The lizards did not stand around to be massacred. Hissing, baring fang and claw alike, they leapt at the woodland army, knocking shrews and mice to the ground and scraping out their innards.
A vicious, viperous-looking lizard pounced at Preble the old shrew, who flung up a cutlass to defend himself. Spinning away from the lizard she had locked into a duel, Bristol lunged in front of Preble and slew his attacker with a quick thrust to the heart. "Watch yer back," she said.
Preble nodded and pressed his back against a fellow shrew. Bristol swung at another lizard, who did not go down after a first or even a second blow. As she prepared a third, she caught a glimpse of something bright and red behind the knot of lizards, and the moment she espied the vixen she could hear her cry to the lizards.
"Go, go, fight 'em, slay them all!"
The lizards did not appear to pay her much heed, and she bounced up and down worthlessly from behind them, not even wielding a weapon. She had changed her clothes from the cloak she had worn in the swamp and when Bristol had first noticed her in Kennebec's camp so long ago, but she was undoubtedly Alagadda's pet seer, Sosostris.
Bristol slammed the hilt of her sword into the skull of the lizard she was fighting and dropped him like a log. Dipping and diving through the rest of the lizards, ducking under swinging talons and hopping over whipping tails, she broke from the fray and aimed her bloodied blade at Sosostris's offensive face. The vixen froze mid-command. As the blade descended she broke from her momentary stupor and took off running.
"To me, lizards! Defend me!" she shrieked, Bristol nipping at her heels.
Bristol did not worry if the lizards listened or not.
East Wall (Darkscale)
Defend wall. Defend wall. Defend wall. Don't let anybeast through. Defend wall. Defend wall. Defend wall.
Darkscale was not a creature of complex thought. The simple orders of Alagadda the Sword-bearer echoed in his mind, replacing his own pitiful cognitive powers and guiding him at a time when he would be otherwise guideless.
The orders were simple so he devised a simple way to deal with them. He directed the lizards under his command to physically plug the east wallgate with their bodies, cramming them shoulder-to-shoulder to mortar the gaping hole. The lizards crowded next to each other, on top of each other, under each other. Their tails swished back and forth like the groping digits of an infinite-fingered hand.
Darkscale stepped back and admired his handiwork, certain that nobeast could penetrate his ironclad defenses.
Friar Alger, who commanded the force to assault the east wall, certainly didn't know what to make of it.
West Wall (Jareck & Vellis)
The west gate was the main gate of Redwall Abbey. It was the gate Alagadda and her army had originally entered through. They had approached at night, and because no guards stood atop the walltops Alagadda had known word had not made it to Redwall that she was coming. She had expected them to know—there had been, for instance, that ottermaid who had escaped when she slew the Skipper. She had sent Jareck into the swamp after her to slay her, and Jareck said he had done so and gave the sword the otter had escaped with as proof, but Alagadda had an inkling. Yet when she had seen the walltops bare, she was relieved and set about quietly forcing the gates open. No need for a battering ram or anything loud. A saw would do, to sever the beam that barred the gate. She had expected even this to take a long time but the wood was rotten and soft and cut clean through in minutes.
The gate still hung open from that time. Gathered in the first floor of the gatehouse were several lizards, led by a stoat. On the second floor of the gatehouse was a weasel bowbeast. Despite her blindness, Luce knew these things because she had enlisted the help of Redwall's infirmary keeper, Sister Selma, as her eyes. Selma was a tired old mouse, unfit for fighting, but she had demanded to help in any way she could.
"The bowbeast's staring at us, but she's not firing," said Selma. "Wonder why that is? There's a-plenty of us."
"Saving ammunition," said Luce. "She ain't got unlimited arrers. She's lookin' fer prime targets to snipe. Leaders. Me."
They were gathered in the ditch beyond the road. The ditch had harbored many vermin warlords who waged war against the Abbey. Now it would help goodbeasts reclaim it.
"The lizzerds're just waitin' fer us, Log a Log," said a shrew at Luce's side. "What'll we do?"
Luce considered. Their numbers and the numbers of the lizards at the gate were roughly equal, and she would never in a moment bet against tried-and-true Guosim over a gaggle of overgrown reptiles. But she had to consider that reinforcements were waiting beyond the gatehouse; after all, other than the stoat and the weasel, they had not even seen another member of Alagadda's horde. At the same time, they could not moulder while their comrades fought at the other walls. Fentress's instructions had been clear—get in the Abbey and flank Alagadda from behind.
"We charge," said Luce, in a low whisper. "Break their ranks and take the Abbey."
South Wall (Alagadda)
When Alagadda did not return to the walltop, Fentress called for a charge as well. "If she suspects an attack from the other walls, we need to take off pressure," she said. She raised Kennebec's sabre high above her head and called to the woodlanders—the soldiers—gathered behind her.
"Follow me to victory!" They did not seem like words she would say, but she said them nonetheless. She wondered if Martin's silent spirit, wherever he may be, was proud of her. "For Redwaaaaaaall!"
She sprinted at the wallgate, her eyes flitting left and right for any kind of trap, any concealed ambush in the shrubbery around her. She was running so fast that she wouldn't have been able to detect a rustle anyway. Beside her, hobbling but quick, was Sully, waving a thick wooden stave over her head and unleashing a warcry something fearsome.
The first thing that caught Fentress's eye as she passed through the gate was her friends—almost all of them, Abbott Walden, Foremole Griggs, even Sully's sister Laramie—were thronged together in a tightly-coiled ring on the grass, staring and doing seemingly nothing. The spectacle took her so aback that she stopped short and Sully collided into her from behind, knocking them both over.
She rolled to avoid the pattering pawfalls of her army as they tore in hooting and hollering and clashing their blades against some sort of foe Fentress had not noticed at first, being so preoccupied with the sight of her fellow Redwallers safe and sound. In the brawl raging around her she could only make out blurred shapes, nebulous polygons bashing their colors against each other. The first hint she received to the character of her foe was their snarling. Hideous, elongated hisses and shrieks. She had heard such noises before, but she could not believe that such creatures could even exist in the hallowed Abbey. As further sensory evidence permeated her nerves, she could not deny it.
Lizards. Alagadda had an army of lizards to fight for her.
As soon as the name registered, one of the beasts leapt into her periphery, its eyes gunned directly on her, no other creature in its sights. She darted forward and swung at the reptile, forgetting all Bristol's training, focusing solely on the strength of her swing.
The sabre struck the lizard and bounced off its scaly torso, caroming her backward. She tripped over the rising Sully and toppled supine onto the ground, her blade reverberating. The lizard pounced after her, fangs bared, gruesome fate etched in its raised talons, until Sully intercepted it with a swing of her stave into its gut. The lizard flipped in air, missed Fentress completely, and landed on its head, collapsing into a senseless heap.
Sully extended a paw and helped Fentress up. "Don't get distracted, Fen. Find Alagadda!"
The chaos of battle was overwhelming. When Kennebec's forces and the slaves had started whaling on each other at the lagoon, she had managed to break from the inner ring of the conflict and confront Kennebec and his serpent more-or-less alone. But here, Fentress didn't know where to turn or where to go. She became completely disoriented by the madness, the slaughter, the struggle. Every way she turned somebeast was doing in somebeast else, or else they were doing in each other at the same time. Creatures fell and did not look at though they would get back up. Woodlanders and lizards alike thrashed in death throes, pressing at gaping wounds to staunch bleeding that would not staunch.
Then Fentress remembered: the Redwallers! She had to get to them, make sure they were out of danger. Alagadda could wait. She took the lead of Sully, guiding her through the combatants, keeping low and discrete and trying not to attract the attention of any more lizards. Which was not a difficult task. The lizards did not appear concerned with anything other than the beast in front of them.
She pushed to the circle of Redwallers. Abbott Walden and Laramie sat side-by-side on the outer ring of the circle and she skidded to her knees beside them.
"Are you unhurt? Why are you just sitting here, you need to—"
"Behind you!" shouted Laramie.
Fentress dove to the side rather than look back and heard the whoosh of a blade cutting air past her ear. Scrambling up she faced her foe: Alagadda of the Many Blades herself, wielding the Sword of Martin. Sully leapt out of the way of a second swing.
Alagadda hoisted the sword up and cursed it. "Stupid, heavy thing. What good is a sword like this if I—can't even lift it proper?"
Not wasting time on words, Fentress lunged at Alagadda, who parried the blow almost effortlessly. Fentress kept coming, slicing and swinging at Alagadda over and over, pushing the weasel onto the defensive. Her arms rose and fell with alarming velocity, numbing her joints with the ceaseless chopping motion. The frame of her vision pared down to only her foe as she thrashed at it.
Alagadda swept her footpaw and struck Fentress in the ankle, knocking her over immediately before decapitating a shrew that had been sneaking up on her. Fentress scrambled up and stabbed, the blow deflected. She stumbled back as Alagadda counterattacked, cutting above Fentress's brow. A thick drip of blood trickled through her fur and she had to wipe at it to keep it from pooling in her eyes. She was breathing heavily, her arms ached already.
A vixen dashed by. "Attack! Attack!" she said, throwing herself behind Alagadda. It was Sosostris, the fox they had met in the swamp. "The gate is breached!"
Alagadda had no chance to respond before Bristol leapt past Fentress and initiated a battery upon her. Sosostris slunk off through the battle as Bristol and Alagadda locked in combat. Fentress glanced over her shoulder but none of the woodlanders Bristol had led through the north gate had followed to reinforce those fighting at the south.
Sully grabbed Fentress by the arm. "We gotta help Abbott Walden and the others to safety, Fen!"
Fentress paused to try and discern how the Bristol-Alagadda duel was progressing but both had disappeared into a deluge of lizards and shrews. "You and Laramie can handle that, Sully. I need to help Bristol."
Abbott Walden himself stood up. "I'll handle the safety of these creatures," he said, pushing up his spectacles. "You brave young beasts are this Abbey's best hope. It pains me more than anything else to send our youth to war, to battle, but it is a necessity of this Abbey that its freedom must at times be purchased again with the price of blood—"
"Okay okay we'll have time for this later," said Laramie, giving him a light push in the right direction. She turned to Sully. "Sully, I love you, so I'm forbidding you from fighting. Father Abbott, take her with—"
"Pah, right!" said Sully.
But Laramie had already passed her, seizing Conredd's rapier that had fallen on the grass. "No time for debate. Walden, get her and the others out of here. I'm going after Alagadda."
She charged into the fray, rapier in paw. Sully and Fentress exchanged a glance.
"I'm goin' after her," said Sully.
Fentress nodded. "Abbott Walden, are you sure you can lead the others to safety?"
Walden stamped a paw. "I am the Abbott of Redwall. I can lead when the need arises!" As if to demonstrate the point, he turned to the gaggle of creatures behind him and began issuing orders to help the young, old, and sickly make an orderly progression for the cellar they had originally holed up in.
It was impossible to gauge the progression of the battle. The lizards were outnumbered, untrained, and unfocused, but every time they fell they climbed back up, mouths frothing and tongues hissing. Many of the shrews and woodlanders who had followed Fentress into battle had fallen and stayed down, many more falling back instead, nursing wounds or supporting their fellows.
Alagadda and Bristol had continued their duel, moving onto the stairs up to the walltop. Their positions had switched, however, Alagadda on the offensive. Bristol appeared to be using the stairs to give herself a higher ground, but Alagadda pressed her attack as though undaunted by her handicap.
"There!" said Fentress, pointing out the duel to Sully. "Hurry!"
They charged through the battle, avoiding the lizards. Bristol kept chopping at Alagadda's skull, her blows continually deflected by expert parries. They ascended the stairs step-by-step, almost at the apex. Fentress and Sully ran and ran but they seemed to draw no closer to the fight, nor even to the stairs themselves, an impenetrable horde of scaly rapscallions barring their path.
"Laramie!" Sully shouted.
Laramie appeared at the bottom of the stairs, charging at Alagadda's exposed back with the rapier. Alagadda was oblivious to Laramie's approach, focused solely on Bristol, but Bristol's concentration broke for a moment as she noticed her ally rushing to her aid. In that moment, Alagadda blocked a somewhat lazy swordstroke before lashing at Bristol's paws with a dagger. Bristol staggered back with a shriek and slipped off the side of the stairs, falling to the ground with a dull and unceremonious thud.
Alagadda paused at the edge of the stairs to view her adversary, still unaware as Laramie came storming behind her. Laramie pulled back the rapier, aiming for one quick and solid lunge between the discs of Alagadda's spine.
She reached the step right before Alagadda and her arm had even begun its forward motion when she stopped dead in her tracks. Sully and Fentress, who had reached Bristol at the bottom of the steps, stopped too.
A long, feathered shaft jutted from Laramie's throat. The rapier that had belonged to Captain Conredd and before him Lieutenant Botetourt and before him an entire lineage of Long Patrol hares clattered to the steps and bounced off the edge, landing next to Bristol's senseless form. Alagadda noticed Laramie's presence for the first time and regarded her dully. One of Laramie's paws tried to rise to the arrow in her neck, made it halfway, and dropped. Laramie dropped too, toppling off the stairs and landing before Sully and Fentress.
Sully screamed. She dropped to Laramie's side and shook her. Fentress stood, unable to comprehend. She glanced at Alagadda, who was glancing at her, and then she turned and stared over her shoulder to the main gate, where the arrow had come.
She saw two things. First, she saw Luce and her platoon streaming through the main gate, cutting down all lizards in their way. Then she saw the bowbeast Vellis in the upper gatehouse window, holding an empty bow.