The otter gave a small courteous bow. "None, sire, thanks to your timely arrival. We were just about ready to do battle; you spared us a lot of bloodshed."
Russano turned his attention to the Juska Chieftain. "Had you attacked Redwall Abbey it would have been your most fatal mistake. What do they call you?"
The golden fox's voice trembled as he stared up at the Badger Lord. "I am Ruggan Bor."
Russano tapped Ruggan's chest with his hardwood stick. "I have heard your name spoken as Lord of the South Coasts. I am Russano of Salamandastron. Will you challenge me?"
Ruggan Bor laid his saber carefully at Russano's footpaws. "I too have heard of you. Only a fool would attempt such a thing."
Abbess Mhera could not take her eyes from the Badger Lord. She watched, fascinated, as the Juska laid down their arms, wondering what Russano would do next. He pointed to the flatlands beyond the ditch, his voice rumbling out, stern and majestic. "Take your creatures out there and line them up in ranks a score long facing this Abbey. Stand out in front of them, Ruggan Bor!"
Whilst the vermin slunk wordlessly across the ditch, Russano issued orders to his colonel in a low tone. Boorab winked at Abbess Mhera. "By the left, marm, takes a real Badger Lord to make those villains sit up a bit, wot!"
Trey the mousebabe had sneaked up onto the walltop. He tugged Boorab's paw urgently. "Do the vermints all getta tails chopped off now an' buried inna big 'ole?"
The hare picked Trey up and set him on a battlement to watch. "Indeed they do not, you bloodthirsty little bounder. You pay attention now, laddie buck. This'll be somethin' y'can tell your grandmice about, wot!"
Guarded by the colonel and five hundred armed hares of the Long Patrol, the Juskabor clan were ordered down on all four paws as Lord Russano addressed them.
"I have spared your miserable lives. If ever any of you are seen within a season's march of Redwall Abbey again, I will not be so merciful. Go back to your South Coasts and stay there!"
The fierce colonel saw Ruggan Bor starting to rise. He placed his lance on the back of the fox's neck. "Stay on all fours, vermin. This is the way you and your heroes will travel until sunset. Make no mistake, fox, myself an' five hundred o' the best'll go with you to make sure you do. I ain't as easy goin' as Lord Russano. Make one false move an' ye'll soon find that out to your cost, wot! Right now, listen up at the back there, you cads, wait for my sergeant's command!"
Two gimlet-eyed sergeants with ramrod backs and gruff voices began barking at the thoroughly cowed vermin. "Now then, you scruffy misbegotten lot, about turn! On the double, you dozy drooping daffodils! On all fours, heads down, tails cringin' . . . wait for it, wait for it. . . south'ard crawl!"
Away went the Juskabor in shameful banishment, with Ruggan Bor their Chieftain not at their head but at the rear.
Russano stood with Deyna and Abbess Mhera, watching the vanquished enemy raising a dustcloud over the plain. As she curtsied lightly, Mhera noticed that she did not even come level with the badger's waist.
"Lord Russano, I am Mhera, Mother Abbess of Redwall. Surely fate must have sent you to our Abbey today."
Russano knelt and kissed the ottermaid's paw respectfully. "Fate it was, Mother Abbess, that and a dream of Cregga Rose Eyes. She told me that her seasons had run. Cregga had a great and loving heart. I have made a long march from my mountain to visit her resting place, here at the Abbey of Redwall."
Boorab, who had been listening nearby, stepped forward and threw an elaborate salute to the Badger Lord. "Stap me vitals, sah, you arrived in the bally nick o' time!"
With a smile, Russano returned the salute. "We might not have. Our pace was very slow until we heard a fine military-sounding voice giving the war cry. If that was you, then you deserve the compliments of everybeast."
Boorab clicked his footpaws together so hard that he winced. "Thank you, sah. Most kind of you to say so, sah. Only doin' one's duty, wot wot!"
Mhera ushered the Badger Lord inside the gates. "You knew our Cregga?"
The Badger Lord's warm dark eyes smiled. "She nursed me when I was a babe. I recall that for a blind badger Cregga had enormous wisdom and patience, despite the fact that she had once been the wildest of Warrior Badgers ever to march from the mountain. She taught me many things. I lived at this Abbey with her for a while and acted as her eyes when she was blinded in battle. Then I journeyed to Salamandastron and ruled in her stead. This place has many wonderful memories for me."
Deyna held out his paw to Russano. "Abbess Mhera is my sister. I am Deyna, Warrior of Redwall."
The badger shook Deyna's paw cordially. "I knew that as soon as I saw you wearing the sword of Martin. I observe by your eyes that you are used to weapons, Deyna. I think you have led an adventurous life, my friend."
Deyna put a paw about his sister's shoulders and winked at Russano. "I'll tell you about it sometime, though you'd have trouble believing the half of it, matey."
The Badger Lord shrugged his wide shoulders. "Oh, I've seen and heard a few things that would make even your rudder curl, laddie buck!"
When they reached Cregga's grave, Russano took a medallion and chain from around his neck and hung it over the headstone's edge. It had been made at the forge in the mountain of Salamandastron, and was of burnished steel, quite large and heavy. On it was graven a likeness of Cregga, with two rubies for eyes. Russano touched his big striped muzzle to the stone and murmured gently, "My lady, your memory will live forever, both here and at the mountain you once ruled. Sleep in peace!" Standing straight, he breathed deeply and wiped his eyes. "Deyna, I'm sorry I won't have time to hear your story. I've visited Cregga now, and tomorrow morning I must leave. I'm sure you'll forgive me, Mother Abbess."
Mhera arranged the medallion a little more tidily upon the stone. "Why must you hurry away, sir? Don't you like our Abbey?"
Russano waved a paw across the lawns. Hares were flooding through the gate, greeting the Redwallers and playing with the Dibbuns. "Like Redwall Abbey? I love the place! But I have a thousand Long Patrol hares with me, and that would strain even the most generous hospitality of anybeast!"
Placing both paws within the wide sleeves of her habit, Abbess Mhera shook her head reprovingly at Russano. "We owe our lives to you and your hares, lord. This Abbey has more than enough to feed and accommodate your hares for many seasons. I will not hear of your leaving tomorrow for such an absurd reason. You are our honored guests. Surely one of the first things Cregga must have taught you was that the gates of Redwall are ever open to all our good friends!"
The great Badger Lord, Russano the Wise of Salamandastron, sat down beside the grave. He patted the earth, gazed up at the soft autumn afternoon and picked the delicate pink flowers from a vervain growing between the back of the headstone and the wall. Mhera watched him as he smelled its elusive fragrance. Russano looked for all the world like a happy Dibbun, as he must have been when he lived at the Abbey.
He offered her the flower. "Oh, yes, Cregga said that to me often. You sounded just like her then. Say it again for me, please, Mother Abbess."
Deyna felt proud of his sister as she accepted the vervain flower and smiled at Russano. "The gates of Redwall are ever open to all our good friends!"
Epilogue
Extract from the diary of the squirrelmaid Rosabel.
I did not know that my story would be so long. It took me four evenings to read it. Cavern Hole was packed to the door with Redwallers each time. It was a huge success; the congratulations and cheers are still ringing in my ears. Of course, there were questions to be answered. Many Dibbuns wanted to know why the Taggerung allowed Rukky Garge to remove his tattoos and cover the speedwell flower birthmark on his paw. I told them that this was so he could live out his life in peace, unknown to any Juska vermin, under his original name of Deyna. However, being what they are, the Dibbuns found this most unsatisfactory. The idea of having a wild name like Taggerung and running around with a fierce tattooed face appealed to them immensely. Our Abbey Warrior, Deyna, stayed silent throughout my reading. When I was finished he came over and kissed my cheek, and presented me with an old polished bone tailring that he had worn in his wild seasons. He told me to keep it as a souvenir. I think he was profoundly moved; I saw tears in his eyes.