Duncton Tales Read online

  “I ask not today that any of you should agree with me, or even state that you disagree. I ask that you do as the Newborn mole Wesley inspired me to do: think, live in yourself a little, dare to ask the hardest questions, dare to wonder why it makes a mole feel so afraid and so alone to contemplate raising only the talons of peace in his own defence. Dare to turn to the great Stone, and listen to its Silence, and seek an answer to these questions there. Talk to others.”

  “Master, we have had such conversations already in Barrow Vale. You are not alone in your thoughts, though there may be few there, or even here, who seemed to agree with you.” It was Privet who spoke, but others nodded their heads at what she said.

  “Then it is well,” said Stour, “for all I ever wished to be was a librarian, neither more nor less. But what I have found is that I must be mole as well!

  “Now, what of Chater’s fight against the Newborns at Cuddesdon? It would have been well that he could have escaped without raising his talons. But supposing he could not, and the choice was kill or be killed? We are his friends, he knows that I love him and respect him. I believe he loves and respects me. I can ask only this …” Here Stour placed his old paw on Chater’s bigger, stronger one. “I ask only that you and he ponder why it might be that he should not have killed, or maimed, or struck another, even if it meant he died. Because if enough of us show such courage, and a fearlessness of death, then I believe we come nearer to the Stone Mole’s way than any dogma or bullying or fanaticism that the moles of Caradoc might try, and that finally the day will come when such evils will wither before our fearlessness.

  “Like the Stone Mole, wise Tryfan called such courage ‘love’. We must learn to raise the talons of love at last, and put away for ever the talons of fear. This is the challenge we now face in Duncton Wood, and it is hard and grave and terrible.

  “But of one more thing must I briefly speak, for it will help you understand one of the courses of action that I, in consultation with Drubbins here, have already taken. When that fateful conversation with Wesley took place, he was eager, too eager, to know the “truth”, as he called it, of one of the Books of Moledom, namely the lost and last book called the Book of Silence.

  “It is in the nature of such moles who profess a love of truth, that they have so little faith in other moles to tell it that they do not recognize it when it is spoken to them.

  Wesley did not believe me when I told him that of the seven Books of Moledom only six exist. All are in our custody, but as for the seventh, that of Silence, I know no more than anymole …

  “Not only did he not believe me, but it was obvious that his view was that such a mole as I, not of the true faith, was not the proper custodian of the great Books, nor of the other sacred texts, ancient and modern, of moledom. So it seems that their desire is not just censorship, but custody as well.

  “But why should custody matter? For you might say that there are copies of the six Books already in most of the main Libraries and it’s the words that matter not the actual texts themselves …”

  “Oh, but Master, the real Books are what matter, aren’t they?”

  “Why so, Fieldfare?” asked Stour quietly.

  “Well, for one thing, they are the actual texts moles strived over, and which came here to our free system because the Stone wanted them too. Their being here tells moles all over moledom that something they treasure is safe in the paws of good moles …”

  “But Brother Wesley would argue that if they were safe in his paws they would be in the control of good moles too.”

  “Aye, and no doubt argue that the fact they were in his paws was ordained by the Stone and therefore he was in the right.”

  “Let’s get this right,” said Maple as patiently as he could. “You’re saying, Master, that if the Newborns gained control of the six Books they would also gain some kind of authority they would use to impose their dogma on others?”

  “Exactly that! The Books legitimize whichever moles have possession of them. Now, as it happens, the kind of faith we’ve always had and fought for in Duncton Wood is free thinking, and moledom knows that well. We don’t use the Books for anything, they simply are, and moles rarely see them. By tradition they are looked after by the Master against the day when the Book of Silence is found and all the seven Books can then be placed by some holy mole of the future under the Duncton Stone itself — a dangerous and probably fatal exercise. But we know that already the Seven Stillstones are there awaiting, as it were, the coming of the Books.

  “Until the Newborns came along such matters were simple enough — we had a faith that one day things would be made aright, but none of us was arrogant enough to think we were the moles to see matters to a conclusion: our task was simply to watch over the Books, and the system of free faith of which they are a part, and I, as Master Librarian, have been honoured with, as it were, the day-by-day ordering of things, and dissemination of texts and knowledge as laid down by the Conclave of Caradoc so many moleyears ago.”

  “All moledom knows you instigated that,” said Drubbins, “and honours you for it. None begrudges you the “honour” of being the Keeper of the Six Books.”

  Stour was quiet for a moment, as if to remind his friends that this signal honour was a burden too, one which right there and then he was in some way trying to share a little, and gain counsel about.

  “Thus far,” he continued, “I have concentrated on Brother Wesley, and have avoided saying what perhaps is rather obvious, that he finally matters less than the mole who inspired and appointed him — the Elder Senior Brother Thripp of Blagrove Slide.

  “I would dearly like to know more about this mole, or to meet somemole who has actually met him — apart that is from Brother Wesley — but that is not possible for a mole like me, though I had considered going on a formal visit to meet him. However, I can reveal that Wesley said certain things about his Elder Senior Brother that interested me, and made me realize that perhaps we should not be as passive about the six books, or even the absent Book of Silence, as we have been.

  “I therefore decided to send a mole out under cover as it were, to find out what he or she could — I prefer not to identify the mole concerned, though you may rest assured that that mole is not in this Chamber today, so stop looking suspiciously at each other …

  “The results of this investigation were most interesting, and thought-provoking. For one thing it seems that Thripp is not as old a mole as his title ‘Elder Senior Brother’ would imply. For another he is not the oppressive authoritarian mole his Caradocian movement and its representatives would now seem to imply. He is inspirational, he is intelligent, he is the kind of charismatic leader whom others follow.

  “Next, I discovered through my sources, that he himself is not pleased with the way in which the Newborns have recently developed, which they have done, as Chater so brutally found out, through a body of zealot moles called Senior Brother Inquisitors, of whom the mole “Fetter” is the first I have ever heard named. I have reason to think that there is a mole senior Inquisitor, we do not know his name, who is behind this new, more aggressive, stance the Newborns are taking. We are faced, in short, by a Caradocian Order which, like all such movements, is suffering a struggle for power which may, in the end, affect us. Indeed it almost did: our good friend Chater might easily not be here today …”

  “Oh don’t say that, Master, please!” said Fieldfare, putting her paws around her beloved and drawing him protesting towards her as if it was the Master himself who was the enemy.

  “But the mole I sent forth discovered even more … We talked earlier about how it could be that the moles, or the order, which controls the Books of Moledom, has a power invested in it by virtue of the fact of possession. It is general knowledge that when Brother Wesley visited the Library here he and I fell out somewhat roughly — indeed, in the end I had to eject him. This was because he not only wanted to see the six Books — I allowed him to see some of them — but also to have the right to take o
ne or other of them away that others of his Order might see and consult them. This he claimed as a legitimate Stone-given right, using some nonsensical reference to other texts to support his claim. When I rejected this he then advanced the not altogether unreasonable argument that we had no more right to hold the Books than any other group of moles, except a historic one.

  “When I asked why it did not satisfy him simply to see them where they were — and I invited him to send other scholars if he wished — he said that it was not the Elder Senior Brother Thripp’s opinion that the Books were merely for scholars to gloat over — as he put it. They were, he said, ‘living things that should be freely available to mole’”

  When I pressed him on the point, saying they were available to moles who took the trouble to come and ask, and why risk taking them out of the Library he revealed that one reason was that then they might one day “join with the Book of Silence”. When I asked him what that meant, and by now I was beginning to think that while Wesley was a great scholar he might also be a slightly insane one, he said it was Thripp’s view that the Book of Silence would come to light in this generation.

  This, it seemed, was Thripp’s mission, though it is not something the more brutal members of his Order are much concerned with. Indeed, Thripp does not want them to be, fearing that if they gained control over the Book of Silence then it would do no mole any good.”

  “But the Book of Silence either does not exist, or if it does its whereabouts is unknown,” said Privet. “These, surely, are the dreams and desires of a mole who wants to be made legitimate before the Stone, just as obsessive leaders of the past have looked for evidence that their leadership is Stone-given.”

  “That I am sure is true,” said the Master Stour. “Yet there is something appealing about the idea of the Book of Silence, and something dangerous in our remaining too passive about it. When Brother Wesley left the Library/was left with the abiding impression that one day he or his like would be back in force to try to gain possession of the six Books, as if that might help them begin to realize Thripp’s dream of discovering, or rediscovering the Book of Silence.

  “Yet there is one more element in all of this, one about which I so far know too little and intend after our meeting today to discover more from certain mediaeval texts in the Library. It concerns the lost delving arts. You see, it is Thripp’s opinion that the coming of the Book of Silence has to do with the rediscovery of the delving arts … namely, those arts long since lost by which certain Masters were able to create the kind of great chambers and tunnels of which, sadly, the chambers wherein our Library exists are but remnants. Of course the Ancient System beneath the High Wood was delved by a Master or Masters of those arts in the long distant past, and I have no doubt that the Dark Sound that protects the place — and which I often have cause to hear since my study cell is in peripheral tunnels of the ancient system — was delved by them.

  “On this matter I shall have more to say. I will only observe, regarding Thripp, one more, or rather two related things. One is, that he, like me, appears to have gone into retreat for a time and none have seen him. This I take as possibly ominous, for it may signal a change of policy or attitude that will affect us all in time. Possibly for the good, but probably for the bad. Secondly, I have good reason to think that even now there is, or there is coming, a mole to join the Newborn cell in the Marsh End who is none other than Thripp’s son, and legitimate spiritual heir. This mole’s name is Brother Chervil. Why he should come here, and what it might mean for us, I cannot think, but we must be most wary now …

  “As for the Book of Silence, my belief is that its time for moledom is near. This last great struggle as I have described it has to do with such a Book, and so far as moles may succeed in setting an example for peace as the Stone Mole did, and find leadership for the way of the great teachings of his ministry, so will the Book of Silence come nearer to us, and perhaps at last be known to us.

  “Aye, the “seven Books will come to ground” as a wise mole of the past scribed it, and in our time perhaps, my friends, and in our system. I sense that these things are near, and with us, and that the Stone shall entrust us with much …”

  Old Stour’s voice had grown quiet, and his body still, so that it seemed that it was not he who spoke but something more than him, something like the wind-sound of the tunnel, or the whisper of the trees above, something out of the long decades of trial and faith in Duncton Wood.

  “Moles, we are near the end of a long and terrible struggle. Perhaps its hardest phase has already begun. Perhaps this is why the trial of the Newborns is on us. We few must seek a way to break for ever the roundel of violence provoking violence. We who are but ordinary moles must show by example what all moles can do. Somewhere at the end of this unknown and treacherous way we shall find the Book of Silence, and somehow it will come to ground. That I believe; that we must all believe.

  “I beg you to ponder these things, however hard they seem, and to search for a way to discover the courage of love.”

  He fell silent, and Privet, who had been successively astonished, dismayed, bewildered and filled with faith, noticed that his head and face and shoulders were streaked with sweat, and his body weak and limp from the effort of finding words to speak the thoughts he had won so hard.

  None spoke. Fieldfare reached a paw to Chater’s. Maple, more warrior and fighter than any of them, stared blankly at a future that seemed to have no place for him. And Drubbins sighed.

  It was finally he who spoke.

  “I feel old,” he said, “and almost that this challenge and struggle is too great for me. Where are younger moles to take our place? Where is the leader who will go forth and speak of the things that Stour has spoken of?”

  Since nomole was able to answer these questions it was Drubbins himself who continued talking.

  “It would surely help us to know that there are others in moledom who feel as Stour does, and who, like myself, are persuaded by the quest for peace Master Sturne has extolled. Setting examples is all very well, but it would be easier knowing we might find support for what we do.”

  “Well …’ began Chater, frowning as if recalling something he had forgotten to mention, “there was that business of rebellion against the Newborns that I mentioned to you before, Master …”

  “Tell them, mole,” said Stour, “it is a small comfort at least.”

  “It was this,” said Chater. “The vagrant mole I told you had helped me after I escaped from Garsington was one of those we journeymoles get used to coming across from time to time. Wanderers from system to system, of no fixed abode, who have no family and few friends and a disinclination to make either. They make interesting travelling companions, though a mole’s inclined to wake up and find they’ve gone at the crack of dawn, never to be seen again. This one had come from Rollright a few days before he came across me, and told me that the Newborn moles there were abuzz with news of a revolt against them in the north.”

  “You said —” began Stour.

  “Aye, though the mole himself didn’t know much about it he had heard mention that the leader of the revolt, Rooster by name, was being hunted for blasphemy, which fitted in with the kind of treatment that the Cuddesdon moles seemed to have received.”

  “Did he say in which part of the north this revolt took place?” asked Privet. She seemed interested in this part of the news, and Fieldfare, who knew her so well, guessed that she felt special pride or interest in the fact that this first news of active resistance to the Newborns came from the north.

  Chater shrugged and shook his head.

  “The mole knew only what I have reported,” he said.

  “No mention of Beechenhill?” persisted Privet.

  “No,” said Chater.

  “Well, at least it seems we are not entirely alone in our doubts about the Newborns,” said Stour, “but then it would be surprising if we were.”

  They all nodded, cheered a little by Chater’s news, and then Drubbin
s said formally, “Master Librarian, you have spoken to me before of plans and arrangements, and mentioned them at the beginning of what you said to our meeting. Can you speak of them now?”

  “I shall,” said Stour. “One way for moles to avoid fighting is for them to arrange affairs such that fighting becomes harder to begin. Those among you familiar with the Library — you, Privet, and you, Chater — will know that since my retreat certain important texts have disappeared. So they have. A mole in retreat does not sit on his rump all day. I have removed many texts, and all six of the Books of Moledom, deep into the Ancient System of our Wood where nomole will easily find them, especially those afraid of Dark Sound.”

  There was a movement of surprise among the moles.

  “You went in there?” said Chamfer.

  “Aye,” said Stour, “and nearly did not come out again. But it is done, and if the Newborns seek to censor our great Library they will find that many texts are no longer there to censor! Next, I must ask Privet to undertake a task. It concerns that outlying collection of Rolls, Rhymes and Tales, which she will know is uncatalogued and vulnerable. I ask her without delay to venture there and using her own discretion and knowledge and what help she may summon, bring those texts she values to my study cell, that they may be taken on into the ancient runnels for protection.”

  “But what of Husk?”

  “Charm him, Privet,” said Stour with a smile. “Lastly,” he continued, a little wearily, “I now ask Maple and Chater to journey to Rollright, and to find out what they can of the Newborns’ doings there and report them back to us. While you’re there find more out about this mole Rooster and the revolt in the North. There may be lessons in that for us. Forgive me for suggesting this, Fieldfare, but needs must and Chater is the mole for such a task.”

  Poor Fieldfare opened her mouth to object, but then closed it again without saying anything.

  “It will be sensible if you take Whillan with you,” said Stour, “for he needs a task and I have a feeling that he is one of those younger moles who, as Drubbins says, we have need of now. Such a venture will give him experience.