believe,” said Snyde, hoping to sow a small seed of doubt in Chervil’s mind about that mole.
“Yes,” said Chervil, “I had heard.”
“You constantly surprise me by how well informed you are. Brother Chervil, for a mole —”
“For a mole as out of the way from the centre of Newborn affairs as this?” said Chervil. “Yes, well... it is wise for a mole to be informed. But to present matters; the cataloguing of texts here will take some time and can be satisfactorily done while you are away in Caradoc provided you appoint a competent mole to deputize for you – and that you seem willing to do. After that you will be needed. Brother Snyde, but by then you will be back from Caradoc.”
“And you, Brother Chervil? Will you be coming back, or will your duties here have finished?”
“Elder Senior Brother Thripp will instruct me on my next task when we get to Caer Caradoc. I trust I will come back here in time. There is... something about Duncton that I like. It is a gentler place than Caradoc.”
His voice was almost wistful, but Snyde was never one to notice such subtleties, and did not seem to now, nor ponder what the implications of such wistfulness might be for himself.
“Yes, yes, it has its charms I suppose, but if it had no library it would be nothing at all and I would have long since gone elsewhere.”
“I suppose you would,” said Chervil, eyeing the chilling misshapen form before him and wondering how Duncton could have produced such a mole. Joy, supposed Chervil, was not a thing that had ever lightened Acting Master Snyde’s narrow eyes.
“The Brother Inquisitors should be here soon,” said Chervil, wishing to bring the conversation to an end. “When they finally come I shall brief them immediately, and we can go. You have definitely decided to appoint Sturne to work with them?”
“Keeper Sturne will do,” said Snyde.
“I am sure that Keeper Sturne will satisfy their needs,” agreed Chervil, “and I suggest you make the mole Pumpkin their minion, for fetching and carrying and so on.”
“I would have suggested him myself,” said Snyde, “no aide knows the place better than he. But 1 thought you doubted his loyalty to the Stone, or at least to the good news of the Newborn way?”
“Oh I do, I do. But the moles the Inquisitor will send are not mere aides, you know. They are trained to scent out those who seek to hide texts, or otherwise preserve them from the Stone’s burning Light. Trained in conversion too. By the time you return from Caradoc I am sure that they will have not only seen through Pumpkin’s vague support for us, but have converted it into a passionate loyalty to the cause. He will be a changed mole, and more tractable, and that will inspire other library aides here to be the same.
Meanwhile, until they come, Brother Snyde, please try to remember that patience is a virtue.”
For four more days Snyde was forced to wait, and pace to and fro, and tap his talons and snarl at aides and Keepers alike, before the assistants to the Inquisitor came back. When they did, guarded by a group of strong, silent moles, they did not smile at all: three males, all middle-aged, all dark, all with the clipped accent of the Welsh Borderland. He was briefly introduced to them, and the first two spoke their names in the same chilly voices.
“Brother Fetter.”
“Brother Law.”
“And this is Brother Barre,” said Fetter, introducing the third and most silent of the three. A powerful-looking mole with tiny sharp eyes and a curved snout that had wrinkles at its sides, as if it had been forced at birth into an inquisitive position and had never got back into its proper shape.
Snyde introduced Keeper Sturne as briefly to them, and Library Aide Pumpkin as well. Then, feeling his position demanded it, he made a long briefing speech to them all, designed to make clear that happy though he was to have such Inquisitors in Duncton, their role was merely to record. Any decisions
“Yes,” said Chervil, “I had heard.”
“You constantly surprise me by how well informed you are. Brother Chervil, for a mole —”
“For a mole as out of the way from the centre of Newborn affairs as this?” said Chervil. “Yes, well... it is wise for a mole to be informed. But to present matters; the cataloguing of texts here will take some time and can be satisfactorily done while you are away in Caradoc provided you appoint a competent mole to deputize for you – and that you seem willing to do. After that you will be needed. Brother Snyde, but by then you will be back from Caradoc.”
“And you, Brother Chervil? Will you be coming back, or will your duties here have finished?”
“Elder Senior Brother Thripp will instruct me on my next task when we get to Caer Caradoc. I trust I will come back here in time. There is... something about Duncton that I like. It is a gentler place than Caradoc.”
His voice was almost wistful, but Snyde was never one to notice such subtleties, and did not seem to now, nor ponder what the implications of such wistfulness might be for himself.
“Yes, yes, it has its charms I suppose, but if it had no library it would be nothing at all and I would have long since gone elsewhere.”
“I suppose you would,” said Chervil, eyeing the chilling misshapen form before him and wondering how Duncton could have produced such a mole. Joy, supposed Chervil, was not a thing that had ever lightened Acting Master Snyde’s narrow eyes.
“The Brother Inquisitors should be here soon,” said Chervil, wishing to bring the conversation to an end. “When they finally come I shall brief them immediately, and we can go. You have definitely decided to appoint Sturne to work with them?”
“Keeper Sturne will do,” said Snyde.
“I am sure that Keeper Sturne will satisfy their needs,” agreed Chervil, “and I suggest you make the mole Pumpkin their minion, for fetching and carrying and so on.”
“I would have suggested him myself,” said Snyde, “no aide knows the place better than he. But 1 thought you doubted his loyalty to the Stone, or at least to the good news of the Newborn way?”
“Oh I do, I do. But the moles the Inquisitor will send are not mere aides, you know. They are trained to scent out those who seek to hide texts, or otherwise preserve them from the Stone’s burning Light. Trained in conversion too. By the time you return from Caradoc I am sure that they will have not only seen through Pumpkin’s vague support for us, but have converted it into a passionate loyalty to the cause. He will be a changed mole, and more tractable, and that will inspire other library aides here to be the same.
Meanwhile, until they come, Brother Snyde, please try to remember that patience is a virtue.”
For four more days Snyde was forced to wait, and pace to and fro, and tap his talons and snarl at aides and Keepers alike, before the assistants to the Inquisitor came back. When they did, guarded by a group of strong, silent moles, they did not smile at all: three males, all middle-aged, all dark, all with the clipped accent of the Welsh Borderland. He was briefly introduced to them, and the first two spoke their names in the same chilly voices.
“Brother Fetter.”
“Brother Law.”
“And this is Brother Barre,” said Fetter, introducing the third and most silent of the three. A powerful-looking mole with tiny sharp eyes and a curved snout that had wrinkles at its sides, as if it had been forced at birth into an inquisitive position and had never got back into its proper shape.
Snyde introduced Keeper Sturne as briefly to them, and Library Aide Pumpkin as well. Then, feeling his position demanded it, he made a long briefing speech to them all, designed to make clear that happy though he was to have such Inquisitors in Duncton, their role was merely to record. Any decisions
Similar Books
