It needed but a single glance through the window to see what Martin had wanted to warn them about. Torches and firebrands were advancing on the Abbey from the east, over two hundred of them.

Bargle felt himself pushed toward the stairs by Florian. “Er, er, no need t’panic, old chap, just because the foebeast is back, wot! Dash on down an’ get somebeast up t’the bally belltower, sound the flippin’ alarm! Stand by to repel invaders, turn out the blinkin’ troops! Er, er, what else? Oh, tell ’em t’pack me some tucker to keep me goin’ up on those walls, wot! Nothin’ elaborate, bowl of salad, basin o’ trifle, er, er . . .”

Cregga’s mighty paw stifled further babble from the excited hare. “Hearken, go downstairs quietly, don’t rush. Gather every able-bodied Redwaller and report to Skipper and his friends on the walltop. They’ll know what to do. Above all, don’t toll the bells. The vermin will know we’ve seen them if they hear an alarm. Go swift and silent, now!”

*

Ascrod laughed aloud with exhilaration as the whirr of blazing torches, carried by charging vermin, swept by him. Waving his own firebrand at Vannan, he called out, “Tonight’s the night we take Redwall, I know it!”

Pale eyes glittering in the torchflames, the vixen licked at her axblade, as if she were already tasting blood. “Luck is with us, I feel it in my bones, brother. One of Raventail’s ferrets says he just slew an otter. A big male, probably a Redwall scout!”

Raventail was leading the front-runners. His keen eyes glimpsed the unmistakable bulk of the Abbey ramparts looming up in the darkness. Waving his scimitar, the barbarian ferret gave vent to an eerie howl, which was taken up by his followers.

“Killslay! Kye aaaaaaaaarrr!”

Fearsome-looking vermin, their faces painted heavily for war, leapt forward. Thrusting their torches in the ground, they whirled grappling hooks on ropes and hurled them up at the battlements. Torches clenched in their fangs, the first wave began hauling themselves up the ropes to the parapet. The three Marlfoxes marshaled their archers in position, Predak herself taking a bow and calling orders. “Shoot anything that moves on the walltops. Cover those climbing the ropes!”

Janglur stepped back as another grapnel flew over the battlements and latched in a niche. All along the east wall the three-pronged metal barbs were clanking and grating as they bit into mortared sandstone cracks. The squirrel warrior’s hooded eyes watched them carefully. When he judged the time was right he signaled Rusvul and Bargle. “They’re all in place. Tell Melilot an’ the others they can bring it up now, mates.”