Duncton Rising (84 page)
“And he delves,” said Rooster softly, “like he was born to it. If he’s Lime’s...”
“He’s yours, my dear,” said Privet.
“Mine,” rasped Rooster, turning almost wildly towards where Whillan lay. “My...”
Silent, transfixed. Privet and Weeth watched as Rooster went to Whillan’s flank. He stared down at him, huge, shadowed, mouth open, as he reached out one of his paws to touch what he thought he had lost for ever.
Madoc shifted and Whillan stirred, and whispered, “What is it...?” Perhaps he saw the shadow of Rooster’s gentle paw across his face, for he opened his eyes and drowsily repeated, “What is it...?”
“Is nothing,” said Rooster in a broken voice, “is nothing, mole. Sleep...”
Whillan smiled, turned to Madoc, tightened his grip on her and whispered, “It’s nothing then,” and slept.
“Is nothing and is everything,” said Rooster gently, and his voice was a father’s who sees for the first time his firstborn pup.
Weeth reached a paw to Privet’s and squeezing it smiled at her and then was gone to other shadows, to leave them alone, and to find sleep himself.
Privet watched Rooster but did not move. The great mole stared at his son in disbelief, doubting it still, yet knowing it was true in his innermost being; as a delver he knew it, and it felt as certain as a true line delved.
At last he turned back to Privet and she saw a new look in his face and eyes, as of a mole who has found his way once more. How long his dark journey had been, how hard.
“Privet...” was all he needed to say before he held her, and she him, and there was no need more for talk now.
Sleep became theirs as well, and talk would wait as they knew peace in each other’s paws again, and out on the surface above them, and far beyond, the winter advanced across moledom and snow began to turn to ice.
While across moledom too, the Stones rose towards the sky, silent, watchful; at all of them the seasons had turned, and the light of a new season was rising upon them. At the Stone of Beechenhill, and the ring of Stones at Rollright, light; at the Stone of Fyfield, and the Stones of Siabod and of Avebury, and of Caer Caradoc, light.
At the newest Stone, which had risen into the dawn of Hobsley’s Coppice, and at the most ancient Stone of all, which rises amidst the high trees of Duncton Wood, light and peace.
There too the winter wind whispers of brave moles and true; and of a Book of Silence for which allmole has waited these centuries past, and for whose coming new hope has risen.
Epilogue
So, mole, Pumpkin sought the Stone’s help, and with a little assistance from friends he knew (and some he didn’t) he found it.
Now you want me to continue without a pause at all. You look around this Stone Clearing of ours as if you hope to find the rest of our tale hiding under the fallen trees, or lurking over there among the roots of that great beech.
You’re out of luck, which is a pity, for if only leaves and roots and tunnels and trees could talk, what tales would we moles hear! You must make do with me, and now I’m sleepy and night is drawing in. I’m not like the moles of our inspiring tale of Duncton Rising who seem able to stay awake till dawn. No, no, I’m a little more traditional.
But don’t worry, we’ve not followed Pumpkin the long way on his journey only to abandon him in the lost and forgotten tunnels of the Ancient System! Nor have we forsaken those other moles like Privet and Rooster, who still have much to do if they are to find the Book of Silence, and bring it home to Duncton Wood.
No, no, mole, you’ve still some scribing down to do if you’re to discover the truth of their brave lives, for isn’t that your task? I tell, you scribe!
Thripp? Yes, I’ll tell of him as well.
And Quail, and Skua, and the vile Squelch, and Fetter, and all other moles of ill-intent and misguided thoughts. As I have said before, you don’t find light without shadow, you can’t have warmth without some cold.
Talking of which, the sun declines, and so do I, and a worm or two would now not be amiss. That’s your task too, to find me food! Mine? To make my way to where I’ll be comfortable, to think, and to remember those times of which I tell, and will return to on the morrow. Before then, sleep...
But if the moon rises bright tonight, as I think it will, and your mind is too active for you to sleep, then by all means come back up here to the Stone and stance in silence near it. It may speak to you for all I know, it may even whisper your name. Who can say? Not I!
But of our tale, well... it would not surprise me one little bit if all things end as they began, here, by the Duncton Stone.
William Horwood
DUNCTON STONE
VOLUME THREE OF
THE BOOK OF SILENCE
As Pumpkin, library aide extraordinary, leads the followers against the Newborns into retreat in Duncton Wood, all Moledom awaits the coming of the lost Book of Silence.
But Elder Senior Brother Thripp has been displaced by the loathsome Brother Inquisitor Quail and the cruel Skua, and the sectarian Newborns are in the ascendancy. The only hope seems to lie with the scholar and scribemole Privet, with her lost love Rooster, Master of the Delve, and with the Duncton warrior Maple. When they are separated once more and Privet disappears, all hope for Moledom and for the return of the Book of Silence seems lost for ever.
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 final 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.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
