The Sable Quean

Plot

Young Buckler Kordyne, a hare of the Long Patrol army, discusses his boredom with mountain life with Brang Forgefire, the Badger Lord of Salamandastron. Brang suggests Buckler visit Redwall Abbey to deliver new bellropes and also visit his brother on a nearby farm. Buckler agrees, taking his gluttonous friend Subaltern Diggs. At Redwall Abbey, a music contest for the position of Bard of Redwall is being organized, but two Dibbuns—a mole and a squirrel—wander into the woodlands for a picnic. A band of vermin called Ravagers binds, gags, and carries them off. One Ravager, Globby, is tempted by Redwall food and attempts to break into the kitchens; he is captured by the otter Skipper Ruark, who forces him to clean up the mess. During the commotion over the missing Dibbuns, Globby escapes to the attics with a pilfered kitchen knife, and in the attempt to recapture him, both Globby and the squirrel Brother Tollum are killed. In Mossflower Woods, Buckler and Diggs encounter two Ravagers trying to capture a young shrewmaid named Flib. Diggs knocks them unconscious, and after Flib relents and shares food, Buckler ties the vermin together and sends them off. They later return with other Ravagers to spy. Flib, Diggs, and Buckler join a traveling musical group of hedgehogs, voles, and moles heading to Redwall. When Flib and two young hedgehogs sleep outside the group's raft on the riverbank, they are captured by the Ravagers.