Avirly sighed with relief as the last of the dibbuns was settled around the fire, content with a pawful of candied chestnuts and a blanket apiece. It was the night before the Midwinter Feast and the young ones were wound up and begging for a story. Jade Ruva, the blind otter, had come to the nursery workers rescue. The otter was in her usual spot, settled in a highback chair in the Dining Hall, cozy by the flickering fire. She smiled at the young ones even though she could not see them, and allowed two young mice to crawl into her lap and pull the ends of her shawl around their shoulders. They all knew she was the best story teller in the fort, and the request for the night was to hear how the fort was founded. Avirly helped herself to a mug of hot cider and took a seat. As the blind otter began the tale the young vole noticed a small crowd gathering. Apparently the dibbuns were not the only ones interested to hear the now famous tale.
“Countless seasons ago there stood a mighty fortress, seated proudly upon the cliffs in the north and cradled between the sea and the mountains. No one knows who lived there or what manner of beast they were. For good or evil, the fortress was besieged. The walls of the fortress were pulled down, and the invaders started a terrible fire. What was once a strong, proud fortress was now nothing more than a smoking ruin, barren, unprotected, and defeated. All that remained standing was a single archway.
Seasons later, in the Autumn of the Swift Rains and eighth year of Abbess Valerose of Redwall Abbey, a patrol from Salamandastron discovered the ruins, tucked away in the northern cliffs and half buried and overgrown. They camped there and named the place Black Arch, for the stone of the arch that remained was permanently blackened from the fire. Upon returning to Salamandastron the badger lord of the time, Lord Thickstripe, called a counsel to take place. The leaders of Redwall Abbey and Southsward castle attended the counsel and a plan was devised to turn Black Arch into a fort to protect the northern borders out of Salamandastron’s reach.
But it was not going to be as easy as the leaders first hoped. Before building could begin, a tribe of nomadic vermin also discovered the ruins. They set up their winter camp there, and their leader was not going to give up Black Arch without a fight. Skuer Dua was a huge stoat; a descendant from a great northern horde. He had lost the battle over the title of chieftain to his uncle and had been banished from the horde’s territory. Cast out, he had crossed paths with the wandering tribe and quickly conquered them, declaring himself their leader and taking them south. Just as the hares of Salamandastron were taking news of the ruins to their badger lord, Skuer Dua moved into the ruins and made them his headquarters. The stoat quickly came up with the same idea as the woodland leaders: he wanted Black Arch to be his fortress and he would reign over the surrounding area.
He wasted no time in establishing his rule, and like many cruel vermin chieftains before him, he planned to rebuild the walls of Black Arch on the backs of slaves. While the rest of Mossflower Country settled down for the winter, Skuer and his tribe kept themselves busy. They raided woodland settlements nearby and any small parties that happened to be traveling through their new territory. Soon they had a wall of wooden posts and spikes encircling the entire fort, and a workforce of over fifty slaves ready to be forced to do the bidding of Skuer and his rapidly growing tribe.
Late in the season, as the snows were melting and the world was preparing to come to life again, a band of Guosim shrews was making their way up river. The single log boat rowed directly into a patrol of vermin, and every beast aboard was captured, bound, and marched back to the fort to endure their new lives as slaves. Little did the vermin know, but the young vole maid who had been traveling with the shrews was the one slave they would soon regret ever taking.
Farther up river Duran Swiftpike and his wife Laurel had been spending the winter with Laurel’s old friend Burku. Their daughter, Avirly, had stayed the season with her aunt and uncle near Redwall. Plans had been made for the young vole to travel north and meet her parents by the spring season, and when their only child did not arrive, they began to worry. Burku lived at the edge of the mountains, away from the reach of the vermin that now occupied the ruins. Her home was situated at a crossroad, and, as the weather warmed, more and more travelers passed by. It was not long before Duran and Laurel’s concern for their daughter turned into full-fledged fear as a traveler informed the house of the vermin threat and their capture of slaves.
Duran was a warrior by birth, and upon hearing this news he took up his sword and shield, kissed his wife goodbye, and wasted no time on the road to the fort. On his way he encountered the Long Patrol in a battle with another vermin patrol. The vole warrior joined the fray and the battle was won quickly, with most of the vermin killed and the few remaining driven north to nurse their wounds. The hares of the Long Patrol, which included Juno Springleap, updated Duran on the current situation with Black Arch and Skuer Dua. The patrol was on their way back to Salamandastron to deliver the news, and for the time being Duran decided to travel with them.
The night before the group would arrive back at the mountain, they met an otter on the road. The otter was Roe Sungold, and she was bearing news of many captured slaves to the badger lord so that he could help rescue them and rid the ruins of the vermin. Duran immediately inquired about his daughter, and Roe revealed that she had come upon a destroyed Guosim logboat a few days prior. The vole knew that Aivirly had been traveling with the shrews, and though he feared the worst he knew in his bones that his daughter was still alive. No child of his would have died without putting up a fight, and Roe assured him that there was no signs of any creature being left for dead.
Upon receiving news about Avirly’s probable capture, the patrol and Duran, now with Roe among their ranks, pressed through the night to make it to the mountain. Lord Thickstripe met with Duran, Roe, and Juno immediately. Salamandastron’s forces were ready to travel by morning, and an initial group was sent out to secure the area and cut off the vermin’s patrols. Lord Thickstripe shared with Duran and Roe the plans that he, Abbess Valerose of Redwall, and Queen Serra of Southsward had for the ruins, adding that Valerose and Serra were on their way to meet with him to discuss the idea of a fort again.
The plan for transforming the ruins into a fort to protect the land would never unfold until the vermin could be ousted from it, and this became the new goal for the woodland leaders. Messengers were sent out to alert Valerose and Serra of the new situation, and the fire mountain prepared for war. By the end of the week word had come from the initial force reporting that Skuer Dua had enlisted a small army and was readying his own forces. The loss of more than one hare and woodland scout cast a grave anticipation of bloodletting over the group of woodlanders. As Thickstripe gathered otter holts, shrews and all manner of woodlanders to his cause – for all who live in Mossflower will stir up their fighting blood once vermin cast their pall over the land – Duran, Roe and Juno pressed on toward Black Arch itself while Thickstripe followed close by.
When the first small group arrived at Black Arch early in the morning, they found the fort in a mishmash shape of patched repairs and better quality stonework. Thin, savage vermin crowded the walls, watching thinner, weaker slaves toil through heavy rain to build the fort’s defenses before war hit. The small patrol spread out and watched in simmering silence as the vermin beat, swore, and maimed the slaves. The rain fell on forest leaves as prayers were whispered to keep the slaves safe until Thickstripe’s army arrived. One long, cold wet day the sixteen advance patrolbeasts waited, fury checked deep within them. At the end of the day Thickstripe sent on another creature to alert the patrol of his impending arrival – a squirrel known amongst most of the woodlander wanderers as a fierce fighter. Talyn Ki brought news no one had hoped to hear; an otter holt had brought their ship from Salamandastron up the coast to join in the fight. The plan was for Thickstripe and his forces to attack from the land and the holt to attack from the sea, for apparently the ship’s captain, Tallulah Maris Skahr, knew of an underground water entrance beneath the ruins. Heartened by the fresh reinforcements, the small patrol waited eagerly as the vermin set torches to light the work of their slaves overnight.
Duran, Roe, and Juno met again at midnight to put together all the information they could about the fort. None of them had seen Skuer all night, but the slaves were wearying in their constant work. Juno wanted to start launching small guerilla attacks to unsettle the vermin. Duran and Roe disagreed, and Roe brought Talyn in to plan the future attack. The squirrel, able to climb higher and see over the broken fort walls, was able to tell them that the worst of the horde lay camped inside the ruined main fort building, with campfires and little grog. Skuer was keeping them all on high alert. The slave cage lay in the center of the grounds, without shelter. Only a few of the weakest slaves lay there – almost all the slaves were on the walls or fletching arrows and forging weapons.
As the first few strands of daylight tinged the black sky, the patrol shook stiff muscles loose, dried damp pawgrips on their weapons and waited for the first signs of Thickstripe’s army. It was then, when all their waiting had seeped into their bones until they felt as if they had waited and watched their friends be forced to endure for years, rather than days – it was then, that one unfortunate young hare from Salamandastron tripped over a log and accidentally slashed his own paw. Talyn threw herself on him but it was too late. His hastily-muffed shout of pain was more than enough to set the nervous vermin on alert. The hare, exposed from his hiding place and protected only by Talyn’s paws, was killed almost immediately by an arrow placed more by misfortune than good bowmanship. The vermin who loosed the arrow fell backward over the rubble-wall with the squirrel’s knife in his throat.
In an instant Talyn was rushed by vermin. Abandoning the dead hare, she flew up the closest tree – but the damage had been done. Tired vermin began to spot signs of less experienced woodlanders in the forest around the fort. And then the vermin pulled up the youngest of the slaves and forced them all to stand on the walltops while the vermin hid behind them, loosing arrows into the woodlands. Without time to discuss it, Duran, Roe and Juno rallied their pitiful patrol – now one beast less – and attacked. Talyn leaped from tree to tree, narrowly avoiding arrow-wounds, to join them. They rushed up a pile of rubble and onto the walltop; three of the bolder slaves, heedless now of their vermin slavers, knelt down and helped them climb. Avirly was amongst them. Without time to speak to each other, Duran stopped beside her and challenged the vermin to attack – Roe and Juno carried on, fighting together with Juno’s longer spear giving Roe time to roll beneath and attack using nothing but her claws and teeth. Talyn danced between them, her glaive longer than Juno’s short spear. Around them their small patrol fought furiously as the still-sleeping sun opened its great eye over the horizon.
Still Skuer had not appeared.
A hare went down, choking her weasel killer as she did so. Another hare, and then one by one the vermin pressed closer, forcing Roe and Juno to retreat to Duran’s side. There they found a great pile of vermin, more than fifteen, with Duran standing in front of Avirly, teeth bared and voice controlled as he asked for a report. Away to the right, at the bottom of the wall, Talyn fought on alone until finally she was attacked by a great stoat well over her height. With a thrust of her glaive, the squirrel used the stoat as a launch-branch and catapulted herself back up the wall, nearly crashing into Juno as she did so. The last four members of the patrol, along with Avirly and the deathly ill and weak slaves, stood on the broken walltop and watched the vermin gather together beneath them. No sign of Skuer. A Captain pushed his way forward and offered to give them their lives if they stepped down to become slaves. His only reply came from Juno, the hare speaking through a mouthful of blood as she tried to steady broken ribs with one paw. “Go and boil your fat head in ditchwater’n’porridge, you smelly fool!”
Sunlight touched their weary faces as the heavy rainclouds finally gave way. Warmth and light spread across the fort, the four attackers standing proud on the walltop with Avirly between them. Now the Captain had sent out fresh beasts behind them; they were cut off, stuck on the walltop with no way down. A sheer drop to their right with half-mended stonework to their left. Duran had a hefty cut to his shoulder, Roe a broken footpaw and Talyn many small cuts and slashes across her arms, paws and face with a pebble the size of a claw embedded in one forearm. Avirly clung tight to her father as they waited for the vermin to attack. It was then, at last, that Skuer Dua appeared.
The stoat was huge, paws the size of Avirly’s head, muscles wrapped around a frame as strong as a young oak sapling. Large intelligent eyes held a deep fleck of cruelty that glimmered in their black pupils. He wore a cloak tattered and frayed at the edges but still deeply-coloured, well made. A necklace hung around his thick neck, claws and fangs bored through and threaded onto the cord. A brand stretched across his bare chest, a wide circle with a triangle and cross in the center. He walked smoothly, all his weight on his footpaws as the vermin horde parted before him.
At the base of the wall, Skuer stopped and looked up. The battered remnants of the patrol stared at him, silent as they waited. Hope that Thickstripe would arrive soon was fading; the badger should have been here by now, surely. What would have held him up?
The answer came swiftly. As Skuer watched them without saying anything, a small ferret dashed up to him from away outside the fort. He whispered something on bended knee, then cringed away as if expecting a fist in his face. Skuer looked down at the ferret for a moment, then with a quick flick of a paw, sent the scrawny beast spinning away.
“My messenger tells me your Badger Lord has met with trouble on the road here.” Talyn swore as the stoat continued, his deep voice carrying across the Fort. “Half my horde went to visit him.”
“A pity you didn’t send the other half, they needed some practice before we tackled them, wot.” Juno ignored the attempts to hush her by the rest of the patrol. There was no need to antagonize a stoat this size when the end already seemed certain. Skuer did not laugh, but fixed his dark eyes on the hare for a long moment.
“I will rip out your entrails and eat them over my fire tonight, hare.”
“Sounds lovely, old bean. Why not have some otter with that, wot? Or vole – squirrel roasts nicely, I’ve heard.” Duran, Roe and Talyn looked at each other speechless for a moment, then Duran shrugged. He leant across and whispered something to Roe, who looked down at Avirly, then nodded. She in turn whispered to Talyn, who frowned, then stabbed her glaive into the rockwork and flexed her empty paws. All at once, the vole, otter and squirrel joined in Juno’s insults.
“’Course, I’ve heard vermin are so tasteless they’re not even edible wrapped in the best feast Redwall can conjure.”
“Really, Roe, look at them all. They’re more muck than food. Fancy trying to eat that. You’d be sick as soon as you took the first bite.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Talyn fixed her gaze on Skuer and flexed her paws again. “That one looks reasonably well-fed. A lot better fed than most of the others here.”
Duran nodded thoughtfully, pressing his paw into Avirly’s shoulder to keep her from squeaking. “So what do you three want? I wouldn’t mind tasting ferret.”
Roe looked with an unexpected smile at a weasel hovering behind Skuer. “Weasel for me.”
Talyn shrugged. “I’ll take anything I can get.”
“Well, off we go then.” Duran released Avirly, kissed the top of her head, and transferred his rapier into his free paw. He raised his voice, the steel of his blade glinting in the morning sunlight. “Come on, vermin! Come for breakfast!”
Skuer nodded once; the vermin around him stepped up toward the wall, weapons shining a fierce response to the four patrolbeast’s hopeless challenge. With a great roar, the vermin began to run up the wall from both sides – closer and closer, and yet the four stood still. At the last possible moment, Roe stepped back a pace so her footpaws teetered on the very edge of the wall with vermin spears close behind her. Talyn leaped sideways, snatched up Avirly and wrapped her paws tightly around the little vole’s body. In one swift motion Roe stretched her strong paws out – Talyn bounded onto the otter’s arms and launched herself away as Roe heaved with all her strength upward. The squirrel and little vole went sailing over the vermin heads back into the woodland – Talyn flung one paw out and snatched at an overhanging branch. The thin branch snapped under its load and they were thrown down – again the squirrel grabbed and caught. In a moment she had Avirly safely latched onto the heavy beech branch, high above the vermin heads and safely concealed in the branches and early morning light.
“Stay here!” Talyn hissed to the terrified Avirly, and shot down the tree and away into the woodlands, several vermin on her trail.
Meanwhile Duran, Juno and Roe stood back-to-back on the narrow walltop, beating back at the vermin below as best they could. Duran’s rapier shot in and out like a vicious bee, stinging all who came too close. Juno’s spear stabbed and slashed and whacked any creature foolish enough to take the hare’s flippant words at face value. Roe, ignoring Talyn’s abandoned glaive, kicked and punched at the oncoming vermin, blood flecking around her claws. Gradually they were pressed closer together, forced tighter. Juno’s spear snapped and she was forced to use the end as a staff, belaboring fiercely. Duran still fought aggressively, face grim – only the occasional glances away to ensure his daughter was still safe gave him a brief moment’s weakness. The sun rose higher as Skuer watched his horde beat steadily down on the tired patrol.
Juno fell, her broken ribs sucking too much energy from her. Duran and Roe stood over the hare as she slapped at the vermin’s footpaws weakly. Roe took the hare’s broken spear shaft after her second paw broke – limping, one-pawed, with blood streaming down Duran’s face and shoulder, the two fought on as vermin surrounded the wall. Skuer watched silently.
And then, unlooked for, unexpected now of all times, the great roar of a Badgerlord ripped through the shrieks and cries of the vermin horde. Through the trees Lord Thickstripe crashed his way into the vermin outside the wall. Bloodwrath sent the great badger straight through the vermin like a scythe through wheat; up the piles of rubble he rushed until he met with Duran and Roe, Juno unconscious beneath their paws. There the badger paused a moment, the bloodwrath fading as he acknowledged the three. His great bulk stood outlined against the morning sun as Skuer saw the badger for the first time.
Down the wall Thickstripe ran as his hares streamed out of the woodlands, cries of blood and vinegar on their lips and blades ready for wounding. The vermin beneath the wall scattered, terrified at the prospect of hundreds of well-trained hares rather than a tiny patrol of hopeful creatures. Duran and Roe, forgotten by the vermin, were rejoined by Talyn and together they carried Juno down the wall and into the safety of the woodlands. Talyn fetched Avirly down from the branch and into her father’s exhausted paws. Leaving Duran and several Long Patrol hares to protect Juno and the vole maid, Talyn and Roe rejoined the battle, determined to see Skuer fall.
As they reached the same bloodstained walltop again, now abandoned as the fighting carried on down into the Fort itself, Talyn and Roe saw another wave of woodlanders appear on the far walltop, ropes and nets in their paws as they flung themselves vengefully on the vermin below. Talyn took a moment between swinging her vicious glaive through the air to point out the otter Tally to Roe. The seafaring otter’s battle cries were loud enough to challenge even the roar of the badger lord. Thickstripe himself was in the very center, foam flying from his jaws. Skuer, once again, was nowhere to be seen, lost in the wild roiling battle. Hares and otters met from the other side and together the stamping out of vermin evil continued.
Talyn and Roe split up, the squirrel chasing after a ferret who had given her a particularly nasty ear-wound earlier. Roe went to help a few hares cover the main gate, where vermin were trying to escape.
The battle was swift and fierce. Thickstripe and his hares removed the last vestiges of courage from the vermin. The stubborn refusal to surrender from the patrol earlier had given most vermin cause to think, and now with Skuer nowhere in sight, things were worsening.
As the otters from the ship and the Long Patrol fought on, the sun rose overhead and gradually the vermin, trapped with no way to escape, fell under furious blades. The slaves had retreated to their familiar cage, where they waited and watched with tears running down their fur. Freedom would be theirs again.
When the last vermin fell to death, there were no cheers of triumph but a slow, exhausted collection of bodies and injuries, gathering together once more. Muted greetings of relief and welcome mingled through the survivors as Roe and Talyn went to fetch Duran and his daughter to the Fort and safety. Of Skuer there was no sign.
It was only later, when the otter Tally went with her holt back to the sea that they discovered the loss of their ship. Paw prints, stoat, ferret and weasel, led down to the shore and into the water. Skuer had escaped.
The Battle for Black Arch had been won, and the woodlanders were victorious. It had come at a cost. Tally’s ship was the least precious of all that was lost that day, but the blood of those who had fallen had not been given in vain. Black Arch was to become a stronghold for good.
Much happened over the coarse of the next three seasons. The Spring of the Northland Rebirth was spent mostly in planning. Abbess Valerose and Queen Serra arrived, and the woodland leaders held the second council concerning the ruins transformation into a fort. The fallen were buried in a peaceful glade in the nearby wood, and fountain was built there as a monument to them. The place came to be known as the Silent Spring, and to this day all that enter the clearing pass through it silently in respect to those that gave their lives for the safety of the land.
The Summer of Steadfast Companions and the Autumn of the Northern Harvest were seasons of hard work and rich rewards. Workers from all of Mossflower Country and Southsward arrived to help rebuild the fortress. From Redwall there came many skilled craftsbeasts, Warrick and Rubena being chief among them. Ships from Southsward provided transportation for workers and of stone found in a quarry between the Fire Mountain and the fort. To this day a trade ship arrives twice a year bearing goods from Southsward Castle. The hares of Salamandastron formed a special temporary battalion to be stationed at the fort and provided defenses while the building took place.
The Winter of the Cheese at last arrived, so named by Avirly Swiftpike in honor of her father and to celebrate his acceptance of the position of High Commander for the nearly completely fort. Lord Thickstripe, Valerose, and Serra had offered the position to Duran a total of three times before Laurel put her footpaw down and insisted he accept. On the first day of the winter season Duran officially became the leader of the new fort, and the four leaders held a final council. Between them yet another plan was devised, this time to start a formal alliance between Salamandastron, Redwall, Southsward Castle, and the new Black Arch Fort. The forming of the Compass Alliance marked the beginning of a new age, paving a way for further steps that would be taken to protect Mossflower Country and the surrounding lands.
Ten days after the beginning of the season marks the official beginning of the fort, and as the other three leaders of the newly formed alliance returned to their homes, Duran remained at the fort with his new commander. Tallulah Maris Skahr was chosen as the West Tower Commander for her skills as a warrior and seafarer. Talyn Ki became the East Tower Commander for her tracking knowledge and battle experience. And at last, Roe Sungold took up the position of South Tower Commander for her leadership and fighting abilities, and Juno Springleap of Salamandastron became her colonel.
Later on, a squirrel named Sceotend Russet arrived at the fort and went on to become the first North Tower Commander. But that, my dears, is yet another grand adventure of our history, and perhaps a tale for tomorrow night. Go to bed now little ones, and fall asleep knowing that you reside in the safety of these strong, stone walls. As long as there are good paws to defend it, Black Arch Fort will forever stand as a beacon of justice and hope to woodlanders in need.”
