Duncton Found (39 page)

As he listened to the reports Lucerne saw a way to give the younger sideem tasks that would test them out and keep them occupied until he was more ready to begin the great crusade. The new sideem took journeys here and there in the company of older sideem, to find out what they could of the strengths and dispositions of followers of the Stone and of the Word. At the same time he sent a few sideem in whom he had most confidence on a fast course to south and west, to supplement that information which other sideem brought back.

Old were put to work with young, sideem were forced to try out their skills and authority, ability found favour over rank, and all over Whern things began to change. Not that the routines of meditation and chant were any less; indeed, it was Terce’s strong belief, and Lucerne’s consequent command, they should be more. The Word was a living faith, moles must meditate each day, the obeisances must be made, and nomole to avoid confessions of their transgressions from the spiritual austerities of the Word. As old worked with young, so must old confess to young, and young lead in the sonorous liturgies of faith.

An atmosphere of ardent restlessness came over Whern. Tunnels once still and darkly peaceful now echoed to the sound of pawsteps as moles came and went, or stanced about in ever-changing huddles to talk of where they were going, what they were doing, and, as the moleweeks went by, where they had just come back from. And over all was the menacing glitter of new-found zeal in which moles are judged and found wanting in the harsh light of reborn faith.

Hearing them, seeing them, listening to the reports they brought back to the Keepers who, though still nominally led by Terce were plainly dominated by Lucerne, nomole could doubt the future Master’s qualities of leadership.

At one sweep of his taloned paw, it seemed, the reverent hush and slow rituals of elderly sideem had been replaced by a young cadre of moles who brought health, speed, intelligence and enthusiastic loyalty to Whern.

Although the Twelve Keepers had traditionally gathered in a place not far from the Rock of the Word, Lucerne moved their meeting place to a smaller, lighter and more informal chamber which had been part of the suite Henbane herself had occupied, and which had a portal overlooking the roaring Dowber Gill. From a similar portal nearby Henbane had hurled the odious Weed, and perhaps it was partly this threatening and well-known memory that made him like the place.

But more likely was the fact that the chamber had fluted galleries among its walls, mostly secret, which ran high through the chamber and other antechambers nearby. These had been used by Rune to spy on moles, and had been known to few other moles but Terce.

The echoing acoustics of the place were such that sound travelled from the chambers and tunnels below and a spying, secret mole could hear what others, thinking they were private, said.

Terce introduced this place to Lucerne, and he permitted only Mallice there. It was her secret haven, her listening place, and there, unseen, she heard much that the sideem whispered to one another. More than that, she arranged for certain moles to talk or confess to one another in the antechambers, and heard as clearly as if she had been their confessor all that they said.

So were many trapped; so, many judged treasonable; and, it must be said, some apparently loyal discovered.

“Trust that one not, Master,” she would say. Or, “Ask him what he would do if he was beloved of a follower, and watch his face for lying, for I know he is.” Or, “She has disease and would not let you know lest you pass her over for a more healthy mole. Yet she is loyal, my Master dear, so treat her not too hard...” Yes, there was charity of a kind in Mallice’s heart. Charity to those most blind and loyal in their faith to the Master and the Word, and in that order. As for “Master dear” and “love Master mine” and similar cloying endearments, anymole who must unfortunately record the life of Mallice, consort to Lucerne, cannot avoid her use of them. It was her way; and she spoke them with a sickening adoration all the worse for the contempt and utter cruelty she showed other moles.

All this, and the promotions, demotions and dire punishments that resulted from it formed part of Lucerne’s gradual tightening of control over Whern and the sideem through July and August.

By then, naturally, most had heard the rumours of Henbane’s ousting and came cautiously into Whern, unsure of themselves and what they should say to preserve themselves. Lucerne and his cabal were already gaining a reputation for ruthlessness, and it did not help that quite senior sideem, with moleyears of experience behind them, would suddenly and inexplicably disappear.

These, invariably, were moles known to have been shocked by what had happened so summarily at Whern and, unable to keep their feelings secret – or overheard by Mallice – made it plain that Lucerne could not rely on them. In any case it was part of his strategy to make clear that it was the young who were to be favoured, and who might gain the quickest advancement in return for absolute loyalty to him.

Yet Lucerne was no fool, and nor was Mallice, and they were well able to judge that some moles, though their loyalties might initially be in doubt, were too valuable to eliminate for reason of the knowledge they brought back of place and mole.

Lucerne also quickly realised that if he was to move the main caucus of the sideem south it must be done during autumn and before the winter came. Which being so, the young untried sideem would not have time to travel too far south and report back to him. He must, then, formulate his strategy for the great crusade on information provided by older sideem; and if there were those among them who were deserving of punishment then their names would be scrivened down against the day when they could be dispensed with and replaced with younger and more zealous blood. Yet whatever the shortcomings of the older sideem, the reports they brought presented to Lucerne and his Keepers a picture of decay and danger too consistent to be doubted. And, as events subsequently showed, one accurate enough to make the formidable strategy for the renewed imposition of the Word that Lucerne and Terce developed soundly based and almost certain of success.

A record exists of these reports since it was the habit of Terce and his clerical minions to scriven all they heard verbatim, as Lucerne himself would have heard it.

With the initial reports Lucerne rarely interrupted to ask questions, and only slowly did his questioning begin. Until then he left such questions to older and more knowledgeable Keepers than himself, and saw what mattered most to them. It was as if he chose to listen first and learned to comprehend what he heard, though there is some evidence that he was simultaneously, and no doubt with Terce’s guidance, going through old reports from the previous cycles of seasons which had also been routinely kept.

When, at last, in the final quarter of July he began interrogating for himself, his questions have startling point, and are invariably well informed. This was significant enough, for all who faced his questioning afterwards said that they had never met a mole who had a better grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of the Word over moledom, or of details of individual systems which even moles who had visited and lived in them sometimes did not have.

But even more significant is the difference between what Lucerne rapidly became most interested in compared to what the sideem, especially the older ones used to easier ways, were prepared and able to report.

Again and again in the scrivened reports we find Lucerne interrupting some hapless sideem with, “I don’t want guesses or answers that you think we would like to hear. I want facts, facts, and more facts.” And then again, exasperated, “Mole, you are wasting our time, we cannot base a crusade upon surmise. How many days’ travel is it between those systems, if fair weather? And how many in foul?”

What Lucerne, with Terce and strong Clowder at his flank, showed interest in were matters such as the incidence of followers in one system as against another; or the spread of disease among moles of the Word, or the dispositions and strengths of guardmoles between different systems; or with things that seemed trivial to the irritated sideem, like effective and ineffective route-ways, the numbers of moles in one place or another, and even the dialects spoken and patterns of soil and worm supply.

Often the reporting sideem were much discomforted by such questions, for they had not thought to ask them, and certainly did not know the answers. So it was not long before Lucerne had gained the reputation for turning these debriefings of sideem into rigorous trials of a mole’s abilities, and not a few were left in little doubt at the end of them that they would not have much future in the coming crusade. Others emerged strongly as moles of resource and intelligence who, it seemed, had only needed a change to such leadership as this to show their potential for the Word.

While the new sideem, as Lucerne no doubt intended, were given clearly to understand that when they returned to give their reports they must expect a thorough interrogation, and be ready with answers which went beyond comfortable affirmations that the way of the Word was being observed.

By the beginning of August certain persistent themes in all these reports had emerged to which Lucerne and his advisers gave great importance, and which helped shape the crusade’s initial strategy.

First, despite the ruthlessness of Henbane’s original invasion of the south, and the efficiency with which eldrene and attendant guardmoles had been installed in all large systems, belief in the Stone was not dead, but, rather, hidden and sometimes tolerated. It was plain that in those areas near three of the ancient Seven – Rollright, Duncton and Fyfield – the Stone was alive in moles’ hearts, and seemingly gaining strength once more. Only in Avebury did it appear wholly eradicated.

The impulse behind this movement by followers of the Stone was the belief, prevalent since spring though with no evident source or basis in fact, that the “Stone Mole” had come. Whether or not such a mole existed was disputed – the reports Lucerne had got were so far ambiguous and conflicting – but it was plain enough once the reports had been pieced together that a belief prevailed that he was alive, and that he lived in or had come from the troublesome system of Duncton Wood.

But if these areas gave cause of zealous concern, what was happening further west was a source of outrage. Lucerne seems to have been already aware of the name of Alder, the former guardmole who had taken over the military leadership of Siabod, and sometime that July he and Clowder became aware of another great mole of those parts, Troedfach of Tyn-y-Bedw. There were no reports of anymole of the Word ever seeing him, but enough of rumour and occasional hearsay from captured Stone followers to make clear that he was the mole who held sway among the rebels along the Marches.

Even in a few places north of Whern systems lived in open rejection of the Word and seemed impervious to attempts to correct them.

“They persist in their inclinations to the Stone for their system was founded long before the coming of the Word,” Lucerne heard one of his new sideem report.

“Do you know of these systems?” Lucerne asked Terce.

“They have been discussed by the Keepers in times past,” replied the Twelfth Keeper carefully, “but have been felt to be of little consequence. We cannot monitor every system. When Ribblesdale was taken to the Word these few systems, which I believe lie on its western side, were judged to be beyond the limit of our need.”

“Well?” said Lucerne turning to a young sideem. “And are they of consequence now?”

The mole looked uncertainly between the Master-to-be and Terce, not liking to be caught between the two.

“Tell the truth, mole,” said Lucerne gently and with a smile. “I shall know if you do not.”

“Perhaps they were not once,” replied the sideem, “but it seems that the infection of their belief is spreading into the systems of Ribblesdale itself.”

“Have not the eldrene sent guardmoles out to warn and correct?”

“They have, but to no effect. Accordingly I visited them myself.”

“Good, very good,” said Lucerne. “No harm came to you?”

“I was not threatened, but....”

“They would not hear the Word?”

“They listened politely and told me I was ‘misguided’. I asked what their belief was and all they said was, ‘Words will not touch your heart. Live with us and you shall know.’ I warned them of the Word’s vengeance if they sent missions into Ribblesdale. They said they had not. They said it was for nomole to spread any faith, including that of the Word. I said the Word
is.
They said maybe. They never once threatened though I heard it from guardmoles who went there that it is not advisable to attempt force or do violence of any kind against them. I asked them of this and....”

Terce shot a glance of approval at Lucerne. This surely was the kind of report he liked.

“... and they said they would never knowingly kill a mole nor let another kill. For this reason they would resist attacks upon themselves. Guardmoles had used force against them so one of them had to stop them.”

“
One
of them?” said Lucerne.

“Yes,” said the sideem coolly. “One alone stopped eight guardmoles.”

“Killed them?”

The sideem shook his head. “Disabled them.”

There was silence at this extraordinary report.

“It is not the first time, nor the second,” said the sideem. “I understand the first thing new eldrene do in Ribblesdale is to try to make these moles Atone, but they have never yet proved amenable.”

“What is the name of this recalcitrant system?” asked Lucerne.

“Mallerstang,” said the mole.

“I will hear more of this from you,” said Lucerne. “But not now... You have done well. We shall talk again about this Mallerstang.”

But probably the most notorious example of systems in successful opposition, for it was one which had long been known yet never successfully suppressed, was Beechenhill where the already legendary rebel Squeezebelly was said to still lead effective opposition to any grike or guardmole or sideem who dared show his snout in those parts. This was most certainly a system of the Stone. Unlike the moles of Mallerstang, Beechenhill moles were prepared to kill to protect the continuing error of their ways.