Princess Kurda is an anthropomorphic ferret and the main villainess of the Redwall series book Triss.
Kurda was the daughter of King Agarnu and the sister of Prince Bladd of the royal line of Pure Ferrets. She, like all Pure Ferrets, had white fur, spoke with a Germanic accent and lived at the castle Riftguard. She was cruel, sadistic, and spoiled, as well as a self-proclaimed expert swordsbeast. She often abused her slaves and made them help her with sword practice by throwing objects into the air for her to slash, executing whoever failed at this task. When three of her slaves escaped after being imprisoned, she went after them with a vengeance, as no slaves had ever escaped Riftguard. She sought help from Plugg Firetail, a pirate fox, and sailed after the slaves. They followed them to Mossflower Woods and Redwall Abbey. One of the escaped slaves, a squirrelmaiden named Triss, had a personal vendetta against Kurda for slaying her beloved friend Drufo and as such would become her archnemesis for this.
Biography[]
As the princess of Riftgard, she would contribute to supervising the slavery over the hundreds of creatures she and her father had captured to work for the castle, said slavery consisting of them being whipped by the island's army of Ratguards while having them work from before dawn until long after dusk to get wood laid, ground straightened, and logs tightened and subjecting them to starvation. This would cause the slaves to be badly fed and poorly clad, unable to stop and remove long pine splinters from their paws or bandage scuffed, stone-scarred limbs with tufts of moss and grass. Only at nighttime would they be allowed to halt in their chores as the ratguards whip at them to lead them off to the slave quarters beneath Riftgard where they would be fed on a single bowl of grain porridge, some vegetable roots, and a pail of water between every group of ten. Anyone who doesn't follow orders or tries to escape would be placed in the punishment cage, which was half submerged in the cold shallows of the fjord which were fed by icy water from the mountains. They would either face death from exposure or execution at the sadistic whim of the slave captain. Whenever any slaves try to escape, they would be killed by them.
As a hobby, Kurda would practice in the weapon chamber every morning from breakfast to lunch on her sword skills, with her being considered by all to be a highly skilled swordsbeast since her grandsire, King Sarengo. She would do this by having rows of turnips be hung by strings from the rafters and slaves get her sabre that she would use to slice the turnips in the air. Afterwards, she would usually order for her rapier to be brought to be used to slice turnips that she would have be thrown in the air by the slaves. If they fail in any of the task or do something minor to infuriate her like forgetting to clear the floor of turnip pieces that would cause her to slip and fall, she would exact her wrath by executing them. She would also often argue with her immature and dimwitted brother, often trying to attack him as they get into quarrels and insulting each other.
One time, she began beating Drufo when he failed to toss a turnip proper by vented her spleen on him with the flat of the swordblade before Triss tossed a turnip properly and got her to slice it, easing her wrath. Bladd then came in, mocking her hobby of chopping turnips for stew before telling her Agarnu wants to see her and is mad about the herrings while poking his tongue out, infuriating her as she assumed this to be him fibbing to their father about her and chased after him into Agarnu's room while Triss and Drufo work up a plan to escape using a boat build, though this winds up being found out by the Ratguard Captain Riftun who had Triss be taken into the cages to be starved. After chasing him into Agarnu's throne room while swinging her sword at him, she is stopped by the Ratguards who form a barrier around her with their spearhafts and gets scolded by her father for the fighting and for using herrings for practicing with her sword as Kurda curls a contemptuous lip at him and made slashing motions in the air with her sword, declaring that there is plenty of fish in the sea anyway.
Agarnu explains that it won't continue being that way if she keeps chopping them up for sword practice before dismissing his Ratguards and having Bladd come out from behind his throne next to his sister to tell them something important. Just then, Captain Riftun came in to report of three creatures stealing the walkway wood in an attempt to escape on a boat they built and supplied with them being in the punishment cages. Agarnu merely tells him to do what he wants with them like drowning them, though Kurda suggests she deals with them by using them for sword practice, much to Agarnu's distaste as he tells her how cruel she is, though he jokes about how this will save spoiling more barrels of herring with Kurda pawing her sword edge with anticipation.
Unbeknownst to them, Shogg, Triss, and Welgo had managed to escape thanks to Shogg using his otter skills to find a way out by breaking the bars underwater and the help of the other slaves. Meanwhile, Kurda finished up on sharpening her blade and practiced it on imaginary victims while talking with her father about how they are going on a boat, due to Agarnu himself not wanting to out of fear of the sea, to sail off to find the crown of Sarengo, Agarnu's father and former ruler of Riftgard, and fighting with her brother, which gets stopped by Agarnu's guards as Kurda declares that he watch the way she deals with the slaves to try to give him nightmares. As they go outside from the fortress, they notice the slaves escaping with Kurda herself leading the reinforcement guards, charging into the massed slaves and hacking left and right with her heavy sabre as slaves wilted under the menace of shafts upon drawn bows and long pikes were thrust at them. She attacks Drufo, who decided to stay behind to give Triss and Shogg enough time to escape on the jetty and sacrifice his life, and brutally slays him by running him through with her sabre in front of a horrified Triss, who develops a desire for revenge against Kurda for this.
Wading into the fjord until it was above her waist, she ducked as Bladd ordered the archers to shoot them with arrows with some of them narrowly missing her, much to her anger as she dashed from the water quivering with rage and yelled that she could have gotten aboard the ship. Riftun and his ratguards themselves try to stop the two from escaping to no avail as they barely manage to make it out to sea. Bladd is secretly happy as this meant they do not have to go sailing on a long voyage, though Kurda displays fury at this, declaring to her father tha tonly a fool who rules a kingdom by sea would have no ships. Agarnu, however, comes up with the idea to get the Freebooters, led by Plugg Firetail, to sail to them by using a beacon to let them do the job for them, an idea Kurda gladly accepts as she orders Riftun to get the Ratguards to fix the beacon up. Once they finish, Kurda points her sabre at him and tells him to keep it burning night and day and stay there to let her know when the Freebooters are sighted before she stared out over the restless deeps of wave and water, plotting to find the slaves and make them sorry they were ever born.
The Freebooters eventually arrive and though Kurda demanded that they drop anchor outside the bay and lower the rowing boat, Plugg had his crew row up the fjord to the jetty as Riftun and the others march back along the meagre shoreline, confronting him and managing to force him to let them come ashore with their weapons. After some deals made, Kurda and Bladd go onto Plugg's ship with Riftun and some Ratguards accompanying her with Plugg charting the course. Moments later, impatient, she enters his cabin and demands he makes the ship go faster, though Plugg tells her that is due to the ship only going as fast as the winds carry. Harboring a dislike for the fox, Kurda points her sabre at him and declares that she must catch up with the slaves that stole her boat and ordered him to make the ship go faster, to which Plugg Firetail, ignoring the sabrepoint, amusingly responded by stating that he's only an ordinary ship's captain and jokingly suggests to her to go up on deck and wave her sword and give orders to the wind and waves. Angered, Kurda threatened to behead him, though Plugg merely tells her he can fight her with a proper weapon while staring her down.
Just then, Bladd comes in complaining about his bed being too hard and demanding a soft one. Putting his grin back up, Plugg brushes past Kurda, knocking ehr sabre aside, and threw a paw around Bladd's shoulder, telling Slitfang to get him a nice soft mattress for him, calling him his shipmate and jokingly chiding him for letting a royal ferret like him sleep on a hard bed. As Slitfang goes to get him a decent bunk, Kurda sheathed her sabre and stormed out of the cabin with the former two following her, chatting away like lifelong companions. Unbeknownst to them, Plugg was plotting against them, having set up a scheme to kill Riftun and his Ratguards once they come back from Mossflower with whatever treasure they get besides Sarengo's crown before slaying Kurda, Bladd, and Agarnu once they arrive back to Riftgard and get their reward, twice the bounty they brought back before taking the reward and whatever they brought back and take over Riftgard and control over the slaves to build them a big fleet of ships.
As the ship sails, Kurda notices a rock sticking up in the distance and points her sabre at it, asking what the island is called with Plugg, not bothering to turn to look at it due to having already seen it, stating that it isn't an island but a big rock sticking up out of the main, unaware that it is actually an island. Kurda tries to get him to sail it over there, but Plugg merely orders for the ship to be kept steady on its course before telling her to let him get on with his job and run along. Angry, Kurda threatens to cut out his tongue one day before striding off to the forecastle of the big ship. Watching as the Riftgard soldiers are mingling with Plugg's crew in a free and easy manner, she angrily ordered Riftun to get the guards down the maindeck to tell them to stay away from the Freebooters and make them see to their uniforms and keep the spears sharp and polished. Later at night, while a storm was happening, Kurda staggered across the deck into Plugg's cabin and asks if the storm will sink them to which Plugg replied that it wouldn't. When Riftun asked if there is a safe cabin aboard where Kurda can ride out the storm, Plugg tricks them into going into the one above this on the stern peak, lying that it was a comfortable little berth and letting her have it for the night when it will really cause her to go up and down to teach her a lesson for giving him orders.
Once they gain top deck, Kurda realized he was playing one of his wicked jests on her, though as she clung against the stern rail for dear life, she notices Shogg and Triss on their boat nearby, happening to be nearby the ship due to initially mistaking it as a sign of safety, and as such, takes the opportunity to order Riftun to kill Shogg with his spear, wanting Triss alive, though before he could so so, he gets struck and killed by a bolt of lightning that struck the iron spearblade, much to her anger. Storming into the cabin, she tells Plugg about the ship and explains that Riftun was slain by the lightning before demanding that he catches the ship. Plugg, however, shrugs this off and says that if the ship is still afloat by morning, they will run it down and that if the she doesn't have double the value of the ship, it's his as Agarnu said that he gets double the value of any bounty they bring back and that it will be sailing under Plugg's colours if he sails back into Riftgard with it, infuriating Kurda as she declares that she would have killed him had she not left her sabre in her cabin.
Plugg only continues mocking her, stating that if she did bring it, the lightning would've struck her and brightened her night up, angering Kurda even further as she insults him and threatens to have his head on a spike one day and to have him be chopped in half by her father after telling him how he treated her. Plugg then explains that there is nothing to be done until the storm blows over and they have enough daylight to see what they're chasing and suggests that she toddles off to her cabin he lets her have for the night. Reluctantly, Kurda decides to do so albeit with a Ratguard attending her, openly expressing her lack of trust towards the fox as Plugg only makes more jokes about this with Kurda pushing one of the crewmates aside and striding regally from the cabin with the laughter of the crew ringing in her ears.
Eventually, they begin nearing land as Kurda declares that hernew captain, Vorto, saw it first along with something moving over by the rocks while Plugg searches for a river running out across the beach to make their landfall. Kurda then has Vorto tell him he saw a little boat running for the rocks with no sail, which was the boat Shogg and Triss had been on before departing upon seeing Kurda, her Ratguards, and the Freebooters to try to escape them. Noting the fair old pair of eyes Vorto has on him, Plugg decides to take the ship in and scout the coast until he finds a landmark and has Tazzin steer it landwards and stop before the big reefs while he studies the chart in his cabin and orders him to shout out when he's dropping anchor. Blocking Plugg's way and gesturing with her sabre, Kurda asks how they will get ashore once they throw down the anchor by the reefs, to which Plugg explains that she can wade or swim or ride in the ship's boat with him if she stops playing with her sword.
After riding in the jollyboat for a bit, however, without waiting for Vorto to assist her, Kurda leaped from it and splashed through the shallows toward the rocks and upon arriving nearby the stolen boat, she studied the pawprints that ran off toward the dunes while Vorto and the Ratguards arrive and salute smartly. Plugg himself comes swaggering up with a few of his crew and comments on how the slaves that built this knew what they were doing before suggesting to Kurda that she avoids gaping at the pawtracks all day as the drizzle will soon wash them out. Bragging about how she knows all about the land instead of the sea, Kurda drew her sabre and summoned Riggan, a competent tracker and Agarnu's special slavecatcher, to arrive and begin tracking with her and her Ratguards slightly behind. As they track, Kurda orders Vorto to surround them once they find them and leave the rest to her as she plans to give them a long and slow fate for running away.
Unbeknownst to them, Shogg and Triss had come across a tribe of squirrels called the Coneslingers who assist them in evading Kurda and her Ratguards before launching pinecones at them while hidden in the tree. Kurda orders her archers to shoot arrows at them and slay them to no avail as one of them throws half an arrow, the pointed part, at her paw, nicking it and causing her to yelp in pain. When one of the Ratguards suggests they retreat, Kurda raised her blade and declares that as the princess of Riftgard, she will not retreat from creatures who throw pinecones and that they shall stay there and teach them a lesson for their insolence. She attempts to declare this to the creatures in the trees themselves only to be struck by a particularly fine specimen of the fir tree while being mocked by one of the squirrels. When darkness fell, relieving Kurda, she asks Vorto for advice as to what to do to which Vorto suggested that they back out and slip away as they could keep them pinned there forever before they circle the trees and let Riggan find the slaves' trail unless they are still hiding in the trees.
Deeming them to not be in the trees, Kurda decides to follow Vorto's advice and has the Ratguards retreat before ordering Riggan to scout the area for signs. Less than an hour later, Riggan returned and reported that they left the trees a bit round the other side nearby a stream that she deduces they were trying to use to lose them. Commending her, Kurda declares that they'll find them with Riggan declaring that they'll lay them by the paws. After inspecting the streambank as Kurda watched her closely, Riggan reported that they went downstream, west, though Kurda points her sabre and declares that she thinks they went east, though Riggan reminds her she's a slavecatcher in contrast to Kurda, a princess, before explaining how she knows they went that way and when she and Kurda led off downstream, they find more proof that they did indeed go that way with bent reeds, disturbed pebbles, and bruised leaves hanging down from streambank trees.
In the meantime, Plugg discovered three other creatures, Kroova, Scarum, and Sagax, tied up by his crew whom he initially ordered to be fed to the fish before Scarum charmed him and provided him with entertaining songs and stories, managing to get themselves kept alive and aboard one of the ships. Shogg and Triss also come across a group of bankvoles that place them in a good hiding spot. As such, when Riggan tries to convince Kurda they're on the right track, Kurda isn't convinced, especially when Vorto points out tracks all over the place, which were set up by the bankvoles. Riggan tries to explain that they mostly belong to a crowd of voles, but Kurda ignores this as she orders Vorto to go and capture them and have Riggan follow with her. When Riggan protests, Kurda declares that she tracks too slow and since the trail is clear, she should let them get hot onto it and orders Vorto to hurry before they go after the tracks. Afterwards, Kurda is infuriated as she discovers it was a trick after slashing with her sabre at the reeds of a vast water meadow and berated Vorto for not having captured them by now. Riggan then declares that she told her she should've let her lead the way as it was all a false trail, though Kurda only gets annoyed by this, telling her to not give her excuses and asking her where the slaves went. Riggan explains that they probably never left the stream and were following that broadstream to the shore and advises that they head west to the beacher where they can travel north until they pick up their trail. Leaping forward and slapping Riggan's paw hard with the flat of her blade, Kurda orders her to do it now and has Vorto get the guards moving on the double to follow her, desperate to capture them.
As they approach north up the shore, however, Vorto sights a fireglow with Riggan sighting a ship beyond the tide line yonder resembling Plugg's Seascab. Kurda realizes that the ship was moved down and anchored further up north the other side of the big hill, suspecting that Plugg is up to something, unaware that he had fallen asleep and been taken hostage by Shogg and Triss, who had rescued and befriended Kroova, Scarum, and Sagax. As such, she decides to quicken her pace as the Ratguards were forced to break into a run to keep up with her. Kurda also notices her boat sailing away and being stolen again by the slaves with Riggan declaring that she told her she'd lead her to them sooner or later, though this only gets her a smack in the chin from Kurda's sabre hilt as she beratingly declares she didn't actually lead her to them since they're escaping. Dashing off up to the beach where the Freebooters are, she shouts for Plugg, telling him to stop them before tripping over the unconscious Tazzin. Waking Slitgang and the others up, Vorto himself tells them to let Plugg know that a vessel is being stolen, though they have trouble locating him. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Kurda orders Vorto to get everyone aboard the big ship to catch them themselves. Once they do so and get close enough, Kurda orders Vorto to bring up the archers to start firing arrows and slow tem up a bit. Riggan informs her of Bladd and Plugg being aboard the ship as hostages, though Kurda remains apathetic to this, though Slitfang, being extremely loyal to his captain like the rest of the crew, held Kurda hostage by prodding her spine with Plugg's battle-axe, threatening to kill her if any of the guards fire an arrow. Angry, Kurda declares that he will die for this, though Slitfang ignore this and instead has her tell the guards to stow the weapons.
Triss and her friends soon turn the ship and have it do a nimble half-circle turn, running a semicircle around the Seascab with Slitfang having Grubbage take their ship round too before they notice Plugg Firetail and Prince Bladd, whom have been tossed, in the sea and rescue them using their ropes. Watching the smaller craft's progress while perched on the Seascab's bows, she turned to Plugg who was standing nearby draped in a blanket and drinking hot grog and asked him if he thinks they're going straight ahead sailing for the stream to which Plugg responded that he deduced that to be their little game and knows they can't stay there forever and they'd be circling, waiting for them to come out and that they will have the advantage if they make plans on making a run up yonder stream as they'll either miss the channel and run the ship aground or smash the bottom out when they whack into that burnt old boat. After getting a sneering comment from Kurda, Plugg gives his crew orders to capture the beasts.
Soon, however, they manage to get further ahead of them due to the wild following-wave swells driving them like an arrow up the channel, much to Kurda's rage, though Plugg calms her down by telling her that the wrecked boat will stop them, unaware that the crew had hauled quite a bit of it, still burning, to feed their fire the previous night. Riggan informs that they've gone clear past it and points out struts of timber floating in the shallows having floated out of the stream mouth which shows they've broke through and passed it, prompting the crew to confess that she burned right through the fire, much to Plugg's fury as he orders them to leap overboard to catch them, though after several do so, Grubbage points out how the water isn't shallow enough yet.
Kurda herself runs in to berate Plugg, telling him it's too deep and they need to be closer in as Plugg tells Grubbage to take the ship in closer to shore. Once they do so, they lower the ship's jollyboat with Plugg, Kurda, Bladd, and the crew joining in as well while instructing Vorto and the Ratguards to run both sides of the bank with the rest of the crew. Plugg then teases Kurda, telling her that they'll get the slaves back and as Kurda smiles back at him, she asks if he'll deliver her back to her father when this is over. Plugg affirms this to which Kurda responds by declaring that she will see him hang him in chains over his gates. Unbeknownst to them, Shogg and Kroova had set up a trap to throw the others off their course. As Plugg had the ship's jollyboat speeding like an arrow upstream by continuously ordering the rowers to row harder and teasing Kurda a bit, the trap takes effect with a sharpened wooden stake lodged tight between two roots on the streambed protruding upward at an angle, the point lurking fractionally below the surface. The aftermath causes the boat to smash through the side of the prow as Plugg gives off an agonised scream due to the stake having gotten him in the lower back, just short of his haunches, even tearing off his beloved tail. In the water, Kurda has two Ratguards get her to shore. Once everyone gets to shore, Kurda, apathetic to Plugg's wounds, tries to declare her opportunity of continuing hunting the slaves with her Ratguards to no avail as the Freebooters surround her and force her to stay until Plugg is ready to move, much to Kurda's annoyance.
Plugg Firetail eventually wakes up to discover in shock that his tail had been torn off as he has Scummy and Grubbage try to get it back on with glue moments before Kurda approached and expressed disappointment in him not being dead with Plugg only rebuking the remark and Kurda stalking off sniggering to herself. Later, around a campfire set up, Riggan had arrived back after having snuck out of camp to track the creatures to Kurda before Plugg himself arrives and declared he knew her spy snuck out of camp. Riggan related that she picked up the slaves' trail further upstream and are with some shrews and discovered their plan to go to Redwall Abbey. After a bit of bickering with Plugg, Kurda rises up, draws her sabre, and points upriver, declaring that they march to Redwall Abbey with them doing so. They soon catch up with the creatures and begin pursuing them, Kurda and Plugg leading the chase with Kurda declaring that they be killed. The creatures, though, begin slinging stones at the vermin, halting the charge before Plugg has them press onward and drop to the sides of the path and circle them. Kurda and Plugg only continued to urge their creatures on as Kurda then slew a shrew with a sabre thrust and threatens to slay Vorto if he turns back too. When noticing Plugg leaning on Bladd and stumping off into a tree shelter, Kurda demands him to come back before he poitns out the ramparts of Redwall Abbey that lied ahead as the creatures made it in.
At a camp they set up in the woodlands, having become a touch more affable toward Plugg, she conversed with him about whether he has conquered big stone places like Redwall Abbey while eating a fine woodpigeon her archers had brought down to which Plugg talks about how the bigger the place is the richer they are and assure that he will find a way to get at whatever treasure lies within the abbey. Kurda decides to make a deal to let him have it while she takes the slaves. All of a sudden, Plugg smelled something horrible, unaware that it was the stench of Zassaliss, Harssacss, and Sesstra, three adders in the area that have been terrorizing Mossflower, and had a few of his crewbeasts go to find a stream while discussing plans to burn down the abbey's doors. While Kurda and the Ratguards were skulking about in the woods, Plugg led an attempt to plunder the abbey by tricking the Redwallers into watching the fire so that Slitfang, Grubbage, and some others range out in two big half-circles and sneak up through the grass to the gates where, using dry bush, some vegetable oil, ship's tar, and a smouldering cob of tow rope, they will build the brush up against the gates and douse it with tar and oil and blow on the smouldering tow until it flames. Bladd himself even volunteers to join with Plugg seeming to have developed some genuine fondness over him. Meanwhile, Kurda led her own attempt at breaking into the abbey by trying to forcea way in through the little east wallgate.
However, both attempts were foiled by the Redwallers. Plugg's attempt was foiled by them pouring scalding honeyed oatmeal over the walltops, severely wounding some of the crewbeasts with Bladd himself dying from it. Kurda's attempt would be foiled by Scarum and his friends dropping a big fishing net over them and snarling them up in it before battering them with slingstones and anything they could drop on them before they soon allowed them to crawl away still knotted up in the net. Arriving back to camp, Kurda mocks Plugg for his failure while displaying apathy over her own brother's death, leading to Plugg calling her out for being bad luck ever since they took her aboard and the apathy she displays over her own brother's death and how even he had more guts than she ever possessed, also calling her out for being beaten by Scarum. He calls her out even further for her cowardice, skulking back in the trees to get away from the situation while Plugg himself went back to the ditch to help his crew get away from the slingstones. This provokes a fight between the two as they try to kill each other for the mockery and insulting, though Kurda ends up throwing him into the bushes where he encounters the serpent trio that sink their fangs deep into him and send him wrenching into the air into their den where they devoured him as his piteous last cries hung on the still air. Apathetic towards Plugg's death, Kurda noticed that it was wearing the crown of Sarengo and as such ordered Riggan to track it, threatening to kill her if she doesn't and declaring that the crown is hers by right.
Without Plugg to lead the Freebooters, Kurda begins discussing the next moves with Vorto and Riggan while showing open contempt for the Freebooters. In spite of this, Riggan offers her advice, pointing out how their Ratguards aren't faring much better. Respecting her advice in spite of avoiding showing it, Kurda asks her to tell her more. Riggan explains her idea to break camp and find somewhere where the serpent stench won't be and for Kurda to take the opportunity to become a stronger leader by settling them down in a new camp to get a good fire going, post sentries, get foragers searching for food, and crack them back into shape. Then, she explains that when everyone is better, she should make it clear she's chief and assert her dominance over them by ruthless means as getting the crown back will involve a lot of deaths, which she can risk using the Freebooters instead of the Ratguards. Expressing satisfaction in this idea, Kurda suggests they also spare Grubbage to sail the Seascab back to Riftgard once they are finished before taking credit for the ideas, proudly claiming that all her ideas are good.
After the Freebooters hold a funeral for their beloved captain, Kurda attempts to lead them and tries to get them to hunt the serpents at her side the next day under the guise of seeking to avenge Plugg's death, though Slitfang, having heard her express a desire to get the crown earlier, sees through this and calls her out for trying to get them killed. Admitting that she was indeed after the crown and not avenging Plugg's death, Kurda tries to bribe them by offering to give them the rest of the treasure, though Slitfang still stands by the decision to leave the place with the Freebooters supporting him. As such, Kurda puts on a facade and pretends to be willing to let them go with no hard feelings between them before beheading him with her sabre and successfully asserts dominance over the Freebooters through this. Afterwards, she has their weapons be taken by her Ratguards to only be reissued at her command, being satisfied that she managed to cow them into submission.
With this, she split the Freebooters, keeping half in front of the column and the other half behind as she has them march through the woodlands while having Riggan track the serpents' den. During this, she discusses plans with Vorto, intending on having him give the Freebooters their weapons back once Riggan finds the den as she thinks many of them get killed in the lair and asks who will get the crown for her. Vorto outlines his plan to instead stake one of the Freebooters out in front of the den while they lay in wait when the serpents come out to get the bait before sending the Freebooters in to finish them off. Liking the idea, Kurda adds that they have their guards rush in and take her crown from the dead serpents and to get the pawring if the lair is empty, much to Vorto's secret dissatisfaction. At dawn, Kurda has Whidge, the skinniest, most useless-looking Freebooter be dragged shrieking to an open spot within view of the door in the oak tree and place the stake into the ground with a rope collar attached to it, being apathetic to his wails as Vorto knocks him senseless with his spear and the Ratguards menace the Freebooters with their spearpoints while Kurda threatens to have whoever tries to rescue him take his place. With the plan set up, Kurda took to a high fernbed where she crouched with Vorto and Riggan and waits for the right moment, unaware that the serpents know it is a trap.
Whidge soon regains consciousness finding himself bound to the stake in front of the serpents' lair and begins moaning and whining, annoying them as Tazzin, one of the Freebooters, expresses her temptation to kill him though Kurda instead has her gag him with his own broad belt. Conferring with Riggan, she tells her to do something to get them thinking about the loot to have them be on their side while threatening her if the serpents are not in there. As they continue watching, they begin getting tired, even including Kurda who was unable to keep her eyes from drooping. Unbeknownst to them, Whidge had been suffocated to death by his own belt. Eventually, the serpents strike and instead of going for Whidge, whom they knew was already dead, they target a sleeping Ratguard. Noticing this, Kurda awakens immediately, has the crew be armed, and leads the charge against the serpents, though they prove themselves to be very quick, slithering backwards like lightning as they drag the Ratguard into the den. Desperately desiring the coveted crown of Sarengo, Kurda emphasizingly orders them to rush in and continue the charge as they pile into Brockhall, roaring and yelling after Zassaliss, Harssacss, and Sesstra.
At the moment, Triss and her friends, including a Guosim shrew tribe, has entered Brockhall in its secret entrance and partook in the battle, not only against the serpents but also against the Ratguards and Freebooter. Throughout all this, Kurda, Vorto, and Riggan sneak out of a side chamber and leaping over the carnage of dead and mortally wounded creatures, Kurda grabbed the crown from the head of Zassaliss while slashing at the dead snakes to try to find her pawring, declaring its her birthright. Riggan says that it's not there and suggests they leave it to get going before the Redwallers come back, though Kurda persists in trying to find the pawring. She winds up reluctantly going with them, however, when Vorto suggests they come back when they've gone and to get the pawring with Riggan for her. They take the rear exit and escape.
Afterwards, she orders Vorto to go find something for her to eat as she is hungry and proclaims herself as queen by right and conquest. When Riggan comments drily on her being queen now, Kurda slid the crown over her sabre's blade and held them both out to Riggan, telling her that if she wants to be queen, she needs to lift the crown from the sabre blade. Riggan, chuckling nervously, avoids doing it, knowing that Kurda would kill her if she did and asks about Agarnu to which Kurda reveals her plan to give the same offer she made to him and kill him to overthrow him and become ruler of all Riftgard, giggling sadistically at the idea. Just then, Vorto came back to the lake bank and while not having food, he reports to her of having spotted the big rabbit at Redwall Abbey, Scarum, that snared their guards in a net and whacked them out in the woodlands. Expressing satisfaction at this, Kurda declares that they hide and ambush him.
Sneaking up on Scarum as he was drinking from a lake, when he noticed them, she has Vorto and Riggan attack him and after some struggle as he fell into the water, they managed to capture him and Kurda has him be tied up, planning to have him die bit by bit. When Scarum awakens, Kurda introduces herself as Queen Kurda of Riftgard and brags about her skills with her sabre and expresses her love of practicing her sabre on living beasts. In spite of Scarum expressing politeness and respect towards her, Kurda only taunts him about the fate she plans on giving him, talking about how she'll start with the whiskers, then the ears one at a time, though Scarum drops his pretences and snarls at her before yelling out the old Salamandastron war cry and when Kurda raised her sabre, a huge booming answer came from Triss, Sagax, and Log-a-Log and his tribe who happened to be nearby and came charging in at Kurda. She tried to have Vorto and Riggan stop them, though while she had her back to Scarum, the hare grabbed her around the back of her neck and hung on grimly as Riggan gets slain by Log-a-Log and Vorto gets slain by Sagax' battle-axe while being bulled into the lake.
Triss herself cuts Scarum down using her sword, causing him to drop onto Kurda and the sabre to be knocked from Kurda's grasp. When she reached for it, Triss stepped on it before stepping away and standing over Kurda, releasing her pent-up rage at her, reminding her of when she used to throw turnips up for her to practice on and that she finally found her before yelling at her to pick up her sabre, stand, and face her. Being frightened due to never directly facing a creature armed and ready for her, Kurda picks up her sabre as Triss circles her while weaving and flickering her sword about her, taunting her, and reminds her of her father, Rocc Arrem, being slain by Kurda's family with arrows before challenging her and deliberately lowering her sword. Kurda tried a swift sabre slash at her opponent's head only for Triss to knock it out of her paw before Triss orders her to pick it up and try again, knocking it out of her paw again when she did.
When Kurda, panic-stricken, dived to grab it back, Triss slapped the flat of her blade across the sadistic ferret's rump, openly treating her like a slave to give her a taste of her own medicine before turning her back and walking away. Filled with anger that overcame fear, Kurda grabbed the sabre with both paws and charged screeching at Triss's unprotected back only for Triss to skip to one side as the sabrepoint buried itslef in the earth and whirl and strike the blade with all her might, causing it to snap in two. Kurda stands shocked staring at the broken weapon in her paws before running for her life with Triss in pursuit. As she ran, however, she made the foolish and fatal mistake of looking back, causing her to trip on a protruding tree root and slam down heavily on the lake bank, getting her impaled by the broken blade she held in her paws and killing her, avenging the death of Drufo along with everyone else she killed as well as ending her tyranny once and for all.
