Duncton Wood Read Online Free PDF

by threats, intimidation and, occasionally, by exercises in black charm. Even the independent eastsiders fell easily under his spell, for none of them – including Bindle – gave him any trouble.
    Occasionally he would provoke a fight somewhere and savagely kill his opponent as a reminder of what he was capable of. More often he would encourage henchmoles to kill each other, watching the slaughter with ghastly satisfaction.
    So, by the time Bracken was born. Mandrake’s power was total, and every new young Duncton mole soon shuddered at his name and knew that no mole was more powerful. In Bracken’s case rather more than most, since his father, Burrhead, was one of Mandrake’s most important henchmoles.
    Yet Rebecca had far more to fear than Bracken, far more. For Mandrake was her father.
     

   4  
    T HE system under Mandrake changed as a wood changes when dirty fog invades it; the trees are still there, the flowers still have color, but everything looks different and feels sinister.
    So it was in Duncton Wood. The westsiders still fought and struggled in the usual way; the young moles went to Barrow Vale to go onto the surface as they always had; Dogwood carried on finding worms where no other mole could; owl talons still cut through the evening air to kill the careless young and weakening old; and the wood itself still swayed and stilled to the passing of the days.
    But under Mandrake’s thrall, the tunnels seemed darker and burrows far less safe. Males felt threatened even in their own home burrows, while the females became dissatisfied and bitchy, wondering what mole it was that could so terrify their mates. Moles had to watch what they said, too, because Mandrake’s henchmoles seemed everywhere. Sadly, the one way of getting any security and the freedom to travel in the system was to do what Rune and Burrhead had been the first to do – declare yourself a supporter of Mandrake and do his bidding.
    Not that his bidding was very specific, which was one reason there was so much doubt and suspicion in the system, even among the henchmoles. No mole ever quite knew what Mandrake wanted. He did, at least, make clear that there were certain things he did not want. He did not like moles who went too far from their home territory, for example, because “it makes for confusion and uneasiness.” So a henchmole who found an adult wandering too far from his home burrow felt he had Mandrake’s sanction to ask the reason why, and if he wasn’t satisfied, to fight and, if necessary, kill. In this way each area in the system became more insular and suspicious of outsiders, ready to drive away a wanderer by force with the righteous confidence that they had official sanction to do so.
    What was worse, as his first winter in Duncton approached, Mandrake let it be known that he did not like a mole to go onto the surface unless it was for a good reason. “Too many of us are being taken by owls and badgers, so this is in the interest of everymole and the strength of the system” was the way he put it to Rune, who was beginning to act as his main agent.
    But it happened that a great many moles went onto the surface for no other reason than that they liked the sun on their fur, or the sound of wind in the trees, or to get a breath of fresh air outside the oppressive atmosphere that the tunnels seemed increasingly to possess.
    Now moles had to be going somewhere specific or grub-hunting for food or seeking a herb for some ailment or other. And if they did just crouch in the wood, their snouts warmed by the sun, or watching the texture of moss by an exposed root, their enjoyment was marred by having to be ever ready with an excuse in case an inquisitive henchmole happened by.
    Mandrake also let it be known that he did not want any contact with the marshenders: “They bring disease to the system and have never contributed very much” was the way Rime explained it to the others. Adding, with distant menace, “The day may well