Silvamord is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Urgan Nagru) of The Bellmaker, the seventh book in the Redwall novel series. She is Urgan Nagru's mate who had been sailing with him across the seas leading a group of savage grey rats in three ships before they at one point came across a kingdom called Southsward and overthrew its rulers, Gael and Serena, after tricking them, proceeding to seize power as king and queen themselves. When Serena and her and Gael's son, Truffen, would escape, they would try to recapture them while also later trying to kill Gael who was rescued by some of the book's main characters, Mariel, Dandin, and their friends.
Biography[]
Silvamord was with Urgan Nagru the commanders of a vast horde of savage grey rats that would help them ravage the northlands unopposed -- tundra, forest, and mountain, stripping the country bare in the aftermath. One day, they encounter a heavy winter, with snow, ice, howling blizzards, and famine being throughout the country they had despoiled, forcing the two to yield. They would persistently sail through the roaring seas while avoiding whatever obstacles they come across and while they would soon be lost, they would eventually come across the kingdom of Southsward. Once they notice it, they stow their three ships up a heavily wooded creek before they wade ashore with their horde, pressing hurriedly inland due to the starvation they've endured along with their desire for loot and conquest.
While roaming the land, they came across Castle Floret where lived the rulers of the kingdom, Gael Squirrelking and Serena. Without their horde, they go to it and request that they be let in by appearing half dead, starved, and bedraggled. While Serena was skeptical of letting them in per the advice of Rab, they ended up persuading Gael to let them in due to his hospitality with him ordering that they be admitted, fed, and clothed warmly. Afterwards, within two sunsets, Nagru and Silvamord took over everything with Silvamord luring Muta, the badger nurse of the king and queen's son, Truffen, to a side chamber and locking her in while Nagru snatched Truffen and held him hostage, threatening to kill him and forcing Gael to lower the drawbridge, letting in their horde. Once their horde was in, Silvamord and Nagru had all loyal friends and courtiers of Gael and Serena who resisted be slain or imprisoned in Floret's dungeons while forcing those who weren't considered dangerous to wait on the foxes and their officers. Having usurped Gael and Serena, they officially seized power over Southsward as its tyrants. During their rule, they were conveyed to have oppressed some of the kingdom's creatures like their guards doing this to a mole who refused to bow to them and another instance being Beny, whose parents were killed by Nagru's rats with every creature on his ship being driven out by him too.
A season later, while eating at the table in the banqueting chamber with Urgan Nagru while the king and queen sat on the opposite side with their son at the center, as Nagru converses with Gael while mocking him, Silvamord stares fixedly at Muta, whom she often humiliated or tormented, being irritated to see the badger's devotion to her small charge. She then calls Yoghul, a musician rat, to her, divests him of his cloak, and snatches the cap from his head with two tiny bells hanging from it, flinging them both at Muta, whom she has derisively dance to humiliate her once again under the threat of having a guard harm Truffen. As the badger dances to the music played by Yoghul, Silvamord and the rats jeer at her, though Muta was able to find some comfort in being able to entertain Truffen, who could not understand she was being made fun of, much to Silvamord's anger as she orders Yoghul to stop playing the music and puts a halt to the dance. Afterwards, Gael, Serena, Muta, and Truffen left under the guise of taking Truffen to his nap which Silvamord objects to as she tries to halt them. When Nagru says to let them go since they're not going anywhere, Silvamord grabs a spear and points it at him to threaten him before repeating her order, which two rats, Sourgall and Ragfen, would try to carry out.
However, as it turns out, it was merely a trick made by them so that they could escape the castle, though Gael would be knocked down by rats Silvamord sent in as she leads a charge into the passage. Despite this, Muta manages to help Serena and Truffen escape while fighting the rats before Silvamord seizes her only for Muta to grab hold of the vixen and send the both of them falling into the moat below where she steps on Silvamord's head to give herself a boost to escape from the moat. As a group of rats come outside onto the field on the drawbridge, they rescue Silvamord from drowning in the moat and haul her out. When Nagru arrives to see this, he berates her for letting them escape which she responds to by asking him where he was. Nagru then has the group of rats present follow him to chase them, but not before ironically telling Silvamord, who tottered upright at the water's edge, to stay there and dry off while giving her a hefty slap on the back, causing her to fall back screeching into the moat.
When Nagru returns after being ambushed and wounded by Rab and Muta, who had went back to help the otter fight off Nagru and his rats, Silvamord gets into another argument with him where they berate and threaten each other after hurling a bowl and three-branched candlestick at him which he would duck as they clanged against the banqueting chamber door. During this, she reveals she had Gael tossed into one of the dungeons before Nagru strode off and orders forty one to stay behind on guard and two of his rats to get his Dirgecallers ready, much to their fear due to how ferocious they are. Once they do, Nagru leads a hunt for Serena and Truffen, though he and his rats would be outwitted by Mariel, Dandin, and Meldrum, who had helped rescue the queen and her son by luring the group of rats and the Dirgecallers to a hill where they would cause an avalanche that kills a good chunk of the rats along with the Dirgecallers much to Nagru's shock as he had his rats capture the three and take them back to the castle to be imprisoned and starved, explaining all this to Silvamord once he returns.
After a while of having left the three in a cell with no food or water, Nagru and Silvamord arrive there with some rats and the former proceeds to interrogate the three, though he and Silvamord would only receive insults and mockery from Meldrum. While Nagru would control his temper, Silvamord would burst into a rage and try to attack them only for Nagru to restrain her before eventually having his guards restrain her. Nagru would then tell them that he will reduce them to whining, cringing wretches who will betray one another for a cup of water or a crust of bread as he has seen it before and leave the cell with Silvamord and the rats before closing the cell door to leave them to starve some more. However, they would wind up escaping the cell and free Gael and a crazed shrike named Glokkpod, the latter whom Nagru and Silvamord had their guards lock up when he flew in there while they were replacing the old bars by blocking the window and be tormented by said guards for fun, upon noticing them. Despite this, the rat they've temporarily knocked out awakens and alerts the other guards of their escape, leading to a chase lead by Nagru and Silvamord against them, having them be trapped in the tower room. The five, however, realize there is an attic above them which the climb into before Glokkpod attacks and kills the rats that stormed in. While Nagru sends them in, Silvamord berates them for this, knowing that the bird can hold the doorway as long as it likes and that they'll only lose more valuable hordebeasts if they send more in. When Nagru asks what her idea is, Silvamord orders the rats to back out of sight and Hooktail to pick out ten good archers and keep firing heavy volleys until they've killed the bird.
Before they can shoot, though, Meldrum provokes Glokkpod into entering the attic with them after Mariel fails to do so by merely telling it to. Afterwards, Nagru and Silvamord have a guard come in to give a message of surrender and that the two will spare them if they do so, excluding Glokkpod as they deem him to dangerous to be left alive, though this would be met by them responding with Meldrum flinging a tile at and killing the guard, leading to Nagru commanding the rats to continue firing arrows at the ceiling. Later, having gotten tired of watching Nagru do this, Silvamord has a loyal female horderat named Sicant promote another rat named Graywort as captain since Riveneye was slain and to post six lookouts around the castle to keep one full squad in readiness night and day, knowing Glokkpod is bound to bring help for the prisoners in the tower attic. She tells them to tell the lookouts to report to Graywort when the lookouts spot them coming and to come directly to her and no one else.
Later in the evening, Silvamord was growing impatient until Sicant reports of Graywort having finally arrived. When he enters the rom, he informs Silvamord of the deaths of the six guards he had posted to watch for a party of otters as she commanded. After the report, Silvamord armed herself with a sword, bow, and arrows before ordering for the special squad she told him to have standing by get up on their paws to find out who's responsible. Unbeknownst to her, Urgan Nagru had Bluebane kill the guards and told him to go get Graywort, whom he would get killed by sending him into the room with the prisoners. Outside Castle Floret where there was fogs and mists, the horderats she was with was diminished by four and after a rat beside her was killed by an arrow, she asked a rat named Fillch where Graywort and gives him the order to return when he says he does not know and reveals he's the second in command to Graywort only for him to be killed off by a barbed shaft from out of the misty deluge, causing Silvamord to run away back to the castle with the remaining horderats. Once they get to the plateau, a rat named Sourgall, sent by Nagru, told her of Graywort's death, though Silvamord didn't hear everything due to staying rigid, unable to tear her eyes away from the causeway steps up to the plateau, noticing Rab and Muta, who would shoot an arrow at her only for it to take the life of Sourgall as he was finishing his message. Silvamord then orders for the drawbridge to be raised before peering around the side to notice Rab and Muta were gone.
Mariel, Dandin, Meldrum, and Gael, however, would escape with the help of a group of otters who would help them get out of the tower room through a rope, which Nagru informs Silvamord of, offering to work together with her for a change to fight the enemy. Silvamord decided to agree to it albeit while watching for double dealing before asking what he wants her to do to which Nagru responds by telling her that he wants her to take a patrol down to the valley floor and catch them as they climb down the plateau. Silvamord, however, suggests they take a good squad up to the battlements and capture them as they swing in which Nagru commends on, though he questions why she doesn't want to go down to the valley floor, wondering if she's had trouble out there already. Silvamord merely slyly glances at Bluebane before turning to Nagru, telling him that he should know as his eyes and ears are everywhere. She then tells Sicant that Bluebane had Graywort killed. Outside, they have a whole group of 30 horderats armed with pikes and archery equipment as Silvamord tells them to hook them in by the footpaws to grab them. Unexpectedly to them, Mariel, the mousemaid, comes out with the rope and manages to kick her paws so hard against the wall she avoided the pike shot at her while Bluebane gets killed by an arrow shot at him and landed heavily on top of Nagru, who orders the horderats to get and kill her as she runs away, with Silvamord joining the rats in the chase before Nagru himself runs after them after having been left behind. They would chase her into a cul-de-sac while Nagru has some horderats follow him to a different route and bring their weapons, though Mariel would be saved by an educated mole named Egbert, who kept her hidden in his home there.
Eventually, she had given up searching for Mariel and berates Nagru as he roars orders, tears down wall hangings, smashes doors, and generally abuses his searchers before Nagru tells her that it was her idea in the first place. When Wetchops and Mingol came in, Silvamord asked Mingol for news to which he reveals that the prisoners have all escaped before Nagru asks for news from Wetchops, who reveals that the drawbridge is being attacked though he doesn't know by who. Suspecting that they're attempting a diversion, they double the guards on the walls and in the turrets under the suspicion that they may try a surprise attack. Unbeknownst to them, Mariel, Rab, and Muta would take over the gatehouse, killing six of the horderats guarding it, which would be reported to Silvamord and Nagru by the rat who had escaped alive from the gatehouse, much to Silvamord's fright and Nagru's fury as the latter suspects that the whole attack on the drawbridge was a decoy so that they'd be able to take over the drawbridge. He then asks a trembling Silvamord for her ideas, though she merely stared at the wall blankly, remarking in a trembling voice that he didn't kill Muta and Rab right. All of a sudden, they hear a loud bump and Silvamord goes to check what it is, exclaiming that they've lowered the drawbridge. They then get in line with the rats on the battlements, shooting arrows before Nagru orders the shooting to be ceased since they're out of range and orders them down to the drawbridge while ordering for the entrance to be guarded night and day, knowing that Mariel had received a message from Meldrum and the others, who had sent it with an arrow to let her know Gael had gone to raise an army.
Silvamord and Nagru begin issuing commands at their troops to fire at Meldrum's group and advance out onto the drawbridge to cut down the range only for Mariel, who came up with a plan, to have Muta and Rab take the drawbridge up before bringing it down, causing three rats to be flung into the moat while the others lay stunned and groaning before having them repeat that a few more times. Silvamord watches as a furious Nagru orders Grutch to take archers up to the south battlements and Lumba to take fifty good fighters, use armor, spears, and shields to take the gatehouse and bring him the heads of the three before turning to Silvamord and ordering her to take a third of their entire force up onto the battlements to make it easier to fire on the enemy from there. When she asks him where he will be, Nagru tells her he'll be right there with the rest of his hrode to defend the gateway night and day until the gatehouse is recaptured, much to Silvamord's approval as she commends him on using his brain like a true commander. Later, when Nagru joins Silvamord on the battlements to see how she was faring, she explained that while they're keeping the group in the valley pinned down well, his gatehouse scheme has failed and asks him what should be done about the gatehouse. Nagru then tells her to keep her archers trained on the window before ordering Mingol to get rags, wood, and lots of straw, which Silvamord delightfully realizes as a scheme to smoke them out. Sicant then reveals that they're breaking and scattering much to Silvamord's amusement as she orders for the archers to fire, though Nagru countermanded her order, wanting to teach them a lesson they won't forget to show he's not afraid to attack. Tasting victory, Silvamord howled as she yells at Nagru to kill them and leave none alive before ordering Sicant to tell Mingol to hurry himself, with the intent to either smoke Mariel, Rab, and Muta out of the gatehouse or choke them slowly to death.
However, Mariel manages to help Muta and Rab escape while staying in the gatehouse, leading to Muta bursting into the corridor leading to the gatehouse stairs and hurling a burning barrel Silvamord has Mingol try to send to the gatehouse while Rab rescues Mariel and makes it to the portion of the corridor on the far side of the stairs, leaving her gently on the floor beside a window to recover before launching himself into the attack. Getting over her initial shock, Silvamord orders the rats to kill Rab and Muta, who would engage in a fierce battle against the rats. Mariel then comes in, using a knotted rope around her body to fight off some of the rats. All of a sudden, Dandin, Iris, Meldrum, and the rest of the otters came out of a secret tunnel and proceeded to join in the fight, causing Silvamord, who saw the tide turn against her, to slip away from the rear of her contingent and hurry up to the battlements while ordering Sicant and Hooktail to get every rat down to the gatehouse corridor.
While Silvamord's forces were clashing with Mariel and her friends, Urgan Nagru's forces were clashing with a large army led by Gael to take back Southsward. Relaxed at the entrance to the passage, Silvamord congratulated Sicant and Hooktail before having a rat named Ugrath take a message to them to tell them if they surrender with the badger and otter bounded tight, she'll spare them, though it must be done immediately as otherwise, she will strike at them until they're all dead. After he came staggering back with a swollen eye, Silvamord knows they refused and orders the massed rats crowding everywhere to charge against them. However, the group manages to fight their way across the banqueting chamber and while several shrews died, the Guosim managed to get the measure of their enemies before fighting in close. Suspecting that the battle may be lost on her end, Silvamord begins looking for an avenue of escape and weaved sinuously toward one of the staircases. Rufe, one of the battle's combatants who had noticed this, hurls a stone at her with his sling, knocking her down before running to her and declaring he's captured their leader. Silvamord, however, slashed at his back with her sword, though Rufe would throw himself upon the vixen and catching her in the face with his stone-loaded sling as she brought the sword up to finish him off, leading to her running up the stairs.
Unbeknownst to her, Rab and Muta, who had both freed themselves from rats, would pursue her. She would arrive upward at the spiral stairs before continuing to press forward, hearing Muta's paws getting nearer. She manages to reach the roof door, which she unlatches and slams behind her and dashes onto the battlements in relief, thinking she is safe. Rab, however, comes out from behind a turret, sword at the ready as Muta bursts out the door, being struck at by Silvamord. Muta would only dodge aside, catching the blade, drawing it, and snapping it between her paws like a twig, leading to a terrified Silvamord to take a running leap over the battlements. Silvamord, however, would wind up falling far down into the moat where she would meet her end at the hands of Rab who, being an otter, would jump into the moat after her and finish her off while Nagru himself gets killed in a battle against Finnbarr, putting an end to her tyrannical reign once and for all.