Mokkan posted two guards, then choosing a shady spot he spread his cloak and lay down to rest, thinking of Fenno and the fate he would suffer in the hold of the merciless reptiles. Mokkan felt slightly cheated. He had planned on killing Fenno himself.

*

Raventail surprised even himself. When he and his cohorts went out scouring the countryside to the north and east, they recruited nearly one hundred assorted vermin. Naturally, the Marlfoxes had promised Raventail anything his avaricious heart desired. Armaments, food, power, even the rule of a conquered Redwall. Vannan had assured the barbarian ferret that Marlfoxes had no need of the Abbey, because their home was in another place. She explained that the reason Redwall had to fall was because their creatures had murdered two of her kin. Raventail figured that there would be a catch to the agreement somewhere, but his overpowering greed got the better of him. Besides, he reasoned, with a hundred at his command he could always turn the tables on his strange allies. Raventail was not a stupid beast. He took note of the fact that Vannan had made a serious mistake in her talks with him. She had admitted that Marlfoxes could be slain.

Vannan, Ascrod and Predak sat surrounded by their water rat soldiers, watching the vermin horde dancing and chanting around a blazing log. Evening shadows, combined with the eerie flicker of flames, cast a wild and primitive air on the proceedings. Weasels, stoats and ferrets leapt and stamped, pounding the earth until a dustcloud rose around them, flinging their weapons high in the air and catching them expertly as they wailed their killing chants.

“Who be death? We be death!

Here’s d’blade wot stop yore breath!

Kyearrrakkachakka whummwhummwhumm!

Plunder good! Slayin’ good!

These d’blades wot shed yore blood!

Kyearrrakkachakka whummwhummwhumm!”

Over and over they repeated the chant, getting faster and louder as the tempo of their frenzied dance increased. There was a contemptuous, if slightly nervous, edge to Ascrod’s tone as he viewed the primeval proceedings. “Stupid savages. What do they think they’re doing?”

The flames reflected in Vannan’s pale, immobile eyes. “Working themselves into a blood frenzy, of course, brother. Here comes Raventail. Don’t refer to them as stupid savages while he’s around. Greetings, Chief Raventail. You have done well, my friend, these are true warriors you have brought us!”

The ferret cast a swift sidelong glance at Ascrod, as if he had heard the Marlfox’s insulting remark. Twirling his scimitar deftly, he thwacked it into the ground a mere whisker away from Ascrod’s paw. The Marlfox twitched. Raventail’s red and black daubed face leered at him momentarily, then he turned away to address Vannan.

“Kyre arr, magicfox, desebeasts ready for warfight, muchslay muchkill, bettersoon we go fightnow, fightnow!”

Predak and Ascrod looked to Vannan. “Now?”