Duncton Tales (78 page)

“Well, mole?”

Now the Silence was almost gone and Chervil’s eye was growing brighter by the second.

“The Master was among them,” said Sturne, thinking to himself that in spirit the Master surely
was
and, too, for a dreadful moment that this had been a test for him by Chervil. But it seemed it was not, and that the Senior Brother had been as confused as the other Newborns by the Dark Sound and the sound of Silence. Yet he alone of all of them had had the strength to stay which, thought Sturne, scholar that he was, was most interesting.

“Well, mole, there’s no need to linger more, is there?” said Chervil irritably. “So seal it up, seal it up.”

“Seal what up, Senior Brother?”

“That study cell, or whatever they call it. Seal it up such that nomole may go there more!”

He turned suddenly from Sturne back down the slipway, saw Bantam lying dead, and, as if she was mere pile of rubbish left in an old tunnel waiting to be cleared, commanded Sturne in the cold Newborn way to ‘rid the Library of her’.

He stared about the Library, narrowed his eyes and, to Sturne’s surprise, his face broke into a strange bleak smile.

“Keeper Sturne! On the morrow the Brother Inquisitors, will come to the Library. You will assist them, will you not?”

“As far as the Stone enables me, Senior Brother, I will,” said Sturne, with an ambiguity he was beginning to enjoy. He wondered why he had no fear that Privet and the others would be caught, or Stour’s retreat detected, but he did not. Sturne was beginning to wonder at many things.

“Good,” said Chervil and, thankfully it seemed, he too was gone, leaving Sturne alone in the Library.

“So,” he said, his eyes narrowing, his body calm, “my task has truly begun at last. Stone, give me strength for it.” He stared up towards the Master’s study cell and whispered to himself, “I must start as the Master bid me start and, Senior Brother Chervil, too. In retreat it seems we and the Newborns can all agree!” He mounted on up the ramp towards the cell.

“Stone, let him always know thy Silence and see thy Light,” he said as he passed through the portal and entered. Then, his short prayer done, and with a muttered and reluctant, “Now …” Sturne turned to the further portal which led from the Master’s cell into the Ancient System beyond, and methodically and with measured delves, began to seal it up.

Epilogue

Mole, I think I’ve grown to love you, for you’ve listened well and almost silently! That’s rare!

With shy Privet I began and told how she first came to Duncton Wood, a mole shrivelled up with loss, and with the desire to hide from life.

No hiding for her now! Nor any desire to!

But me? I’m tired and need to doze a little, and ponder on the things the telling of this tale has stirred inside me: memories of friends and places, memories of ideas won, and held, which I had thought had slipped away again.

And what of you? You came to Duncton Wood with nothing but hope and faith in your heart, and now, through listening to the tale I’ve told of Privet and the Book of Tales, perhaps you’ve begun to guess whatmole you really are. You’ve said little, and never once spoken out your name. We don’t even know where you’re from, or what you already knew before you came.

No, no, don’t tell me yet. I’ve a wish to pray before this old Stone of ours, which knows so much and has seen much more. No need to clutter me up with names, other histories, and more concerns. I’ll leave your name with you for now!

Aye, let me be awhile, let me think; go and find a younger Duncton mole to take you about our lovely Wood, which is at its best of a summer evening such as this. Go over to the Eastside, stare over the pastures the way, as you now know, Privet and her friends went to start their long journey, which was perhaps the greatest moles ever made. Yes, perhaps it was …

Then linger for a time in the High Wood, as Pumpkin often did, and Drubbins, too. If you’re lucky you’ll find a mole to show you where Rolls and Rhymes once was, and then guide you, by way of the Westside (always a most wormful place) to Barrow Vale. Now
there
you’ll hear some tales! More dramatic than any I can tell you, more full of action and fighting and all that kind of thing. If you’ve any sense you’ll stay the night in Barrow Vale, and eat, talk and be merry!

And
don’t
look so worried

—
tomorrow I won’t die! Come back up here and you’ll find me dozing in the shade if the sun’s too hot, or stretched out in its rays if it’s shining just right. I won’t be far off, you’ll snout me out. But bring me some food again, flatter me, tell me you never heard such a tale as the one I’ve told you before the Stone this lovely day, encourage me …! Then, and if I’m in the mood — and only if! — I’ll tell you the true tale of how it was that the Book of Silence came to ground. The real version, as it happened to moles I near-enough knew myself, and not as you might ken it from some book scribed by some scribe who was not there. Tales told from experience, and from one heart to another, as I tell my tales to you, are the only tales worth hearing!

Aye, I’ve a mind to speak of the Book of Silence and its coming, one more time. For here in the Ancient System was its beginning, as you’ve heard, and here too was its ending, here right where we stance now by the Duncton Stone …

To learn the final truth about the Book of Silence

…

DUNCTON STONE

William Horwood

As Privet, scholar and scribemole, and her adopted son Whillan, escape from Duncton Wood in search of the Book of Silence, the Newborn Inquisitors seek to take over the system.

Only old Stour, Master Librarian, and the timid aide Pumpkin can defend Duncton and the precious holy Books of Moledom against the Newborn moles. But time is running out as Privet journeys in search of the lost and last Book. To find it, she and her friends must go to Caer Caradoc, centre of the Newborns’ power, and face Thripp himself; there, too, she must reveal the secrets of her past and give up all hope of reconciliation with the only mole she has ever truly loved: Rooster, Master of the Delve.

Yet always the light and Silence of Duncton’s fabled Stone beckons, offering hope to all moles with the courage to confront their faith, and a last chance to discover the truth of the Book of Silence.

Duncton Stone
is the last tale of moles whose task is the discovery of truth, but whose hope is only that one day they may return home safeguarded.

Duncton Stone will be published by

Harper Collins
Publishers
in 1992.

The eBook edition will be published Sept, 2011.

About the Author

W
ILLIAM
H
ORWOOD
was born in Oxford and grew up on the south coast. After taking a geography degree at Bristol University, he went on to become a journalist. His first novels
Duncton Wood,
was published in 1980 and was followed by
The Stonor Eagles, Callanish, Skallagrigg, Duncton Quest
and
Duncton Found.