Mattimeo

Queen Warbeak and her sparrows stood little chance against the rats. Many of them were shot in the air. But the Queen and her Sparra warriors were brave and reckless fighters, and they plunged in regardless of danger. Matthias and Orlando headed the charge across the clearings; the shrews drew their short swords and followed. Cheek, Jess and Jabez whirled slings loaded with stones as clubs, and Basil hurtled in with both long back legs kicking dangerously.

The speed of the attack, combined with the sparrow assault, took the rats off guard. They fought tooth and claw, using arrows to stab with, but they were no match for the force that came at them, despite their superior numbers.

The shrews were fearsome warriors at close quarters, with their short swords. They fought in groups facing outwards. Circling and milling, they created a carousel of slaughter. Rats fell screaming and kicking everywhere. Cheek and Jabez stood back to back, thwacking away with their loaded slings. Sparra warriors fastened their claws into rats’ heads and pecked madly at their faces. The rats were unused to being attacked in their own territory and they fought mainly a defensive action. Many brought down shrews and sparrows. However, they were no match for Matthias and Orlando; the axe and the sword swathed into them at every turn. And rats flew high in the air from Basil’s awesome kicks.

The battle raged back and forth. The woodlanders were still greatly outnumbered, though their weapons and fighting skills were superior. It might have gone one way or the other, when Log-a-Log turned the tide. He spied Stonefleck slinking away into the trees, and using his sword as a spear, he launched it at the rat Chieftain. His aim was true. Stonefleck fell, slain by the sword Log-a-Log had thrown.

When the rats saw their leader fall, the fight went out of them. Screaming and wailing, they scurried off into the trees.

Matthias stood leaning on his sword, breathing heavily. Ignoring the cuts and bites he had taken, the warrior mouse extended his paw to the shrew leader.

Matthias looked around. The slain littered the edge of the clearing like leaves in autumn.

His heart sank within him. A small group of Sparra warriors who had survived the battle were grouped about their fallen Queen. Matthias, Jess and Basil knelt by her side, tears streaming openly down their faces for the Sparra Queen lying there. Warbeak’s eyes were dimmed in death, the breeze moved her feathers gently.

A sparrow passed Matthias a small scroll. “We come alla way from Redwall,” he told the warrior mouse. “Abbot say give you this. Queen see you in trouble with ratworms. She say help um friend Matthias.”

Jess lifted Warbeak lightly, and carried her up into a sycamore tree. Laying her on a broad bough, she covered the Sparra Queen with leaves in the time-honored Sparra fashion.

Matthias sat at the foot of the sycamore, his head in both paws, grieving for Warbeak.

Basil came over and patted Matthias. “There, there, old lad. I know it’s a pity she had to die so far from Redwall, but she saved us by her courage.”

Matthias plucked at a blade of grass. “Yes, the Queen loved Redwall. That was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen any creature do, Basil. She threw herself and her warriors at those rats, knowing she and her sparras stood no chance. They flew in against arrows and attacked with only beak and claw.”

Orlando wiped his axe blade on the grass. “I never knew your sparrow friend, Matthias, but she saved all our lives by her brave action. I’ve seen creatures ten times her size without a quarter of her boldness. What a warrior!”

Jess Squirrel looked up to the leafy shroud on the tree bough. “Good old Warbeak, eh? Totally mad, of course. She’d rather die than miss a good fight. I’ll bet wherever she is now that she’s chuckling at us standing round blubbering like a load of Abbey babes who have to go to bed early, instead of getting on with our search for the fox.”

“Aye, Jess, you’re right. We’ve got some burying to do here, then we will leave this place. I never want to set eyes on it again. We must carry on south.”

Later that day they halted in a quiet place, an ash grove, far from the clearing where the battle had taken place. Matthias took stock of the situation. The surviving sparrows would fly back to Redwall, taking with them the news that the warrior mouse and his friends were alive and well, still on the trail of the young captives. Log-a-Log and the remainder of the now depleted Guosim voted firmly to stay with the friends and see the mission through. They settled down to study the map and writings that had been sent from Redwall.

‘Those who wish to challenge fate,

To a jumbled shout walk straight.

Sunset fires in dexteree,

Find where Loamhedge used to be.

At the high place near the skies,

Look for other watchful eyes.

Sleep not ’neath the darkpine trees,

Be on guard, take not your ease,

Voyage when the daylight dims,

Danger in the water swims.

Make no noise with spear or sword,

Lest you wake the longtail horde.

Shades of creatures who have died,

Bones of warriors who once tried.

Shrink not from the barren land,

Look below from where you stand,

This is where a stone may fall and make no sound at all.

Those who cross and live to tell,

See the badger and the bell,

Face the lord who points the way

After noon on summer’s day.

Death will open up its grave.

Who goes there . . . ? None but the brave.’

“Look at this map, we’ve come through all these places. There are the cliffs, here is the pine forest, here the water with the bows of the rats on the far shore. This place here, hummocks and trees, this is where we are now. What do you think, Basil?”

“You’re right, of course, old warrior. Hmm, sound advice too. It warns of the dangers in the woods, even gives the little fishes a mention. Ha, ‘voyage when the daylight dims’; maybe we would have stood a chance of giving those rats the slip if we’d crossed by night. Well, well, a jolly old bit of prophecy here. Creatures certainly did die, and we’ve left the bones of warriors back there. But what’s all this about shrinking from barren lands, eh? The only thing I ever shrunk from was lack of food, wot?”

Orlando checked the map. “Jess, do you think you could climb a high tree and look over to the south?”

To an expert climber like Jess this was but the work of a moment. She was up a hornbeam in the twinkling of an eye.

“We’re nearly out of the woodlands,” she called down from the topmost branches. “I can see some sort of plain beyond. It looks very bare and dusty.”

Matthias nodded approval. “Well, at least we’re on the right track, but we’ve no way of telling how far south we’ve travelled. I suppose we’ll have to try and cross the barren land and look for some place where we can look below to where a stone may fall and make no sound at all. Does that make any sense to you, Orlando?”

The badger shook his head. “It’s all a mystery to me, but if it will help us to get our young ones back, I’m game to try. I know nothing of badgers’ heads and bells and lords who point the way and death and graves, though.”

Matthias stood. “Nor do I, friend, but I intend to find out. Log-a-Log, will your Guosim be ready to march at daybreak?”

“Ready as ever, Warrior. We’ll soon see what other little surprises this strange southland has in store for us.”