‘How do you know where Uffington is?’ asked Hulver curiously. Bracken interested him more and more. ‘I can feel it. If you stand with the Stone behind you,’ said Bracken, ‘you can feel it pulling. Well, you know…’
But Hulver didn’t, though he understood what Bracken was saying better than Bracken himself.
Bracken would have stayed there all night if Hulver had not at last said, ‘Come on, Bracken, we must hide ourselves now. We must find worms to eat and we must rest. There is much for you to learn tomorrow.’
They finally hid themselves among the surface roots of the old beech in the clearing by the Stone. The soil was hard there, but there was mould and leaves to burrow under and the nearer the Stone they were, the safer they felt themselves from the danger of Rune.
Bracken was never sure afterwards whether he slept right through until the sun rose or whether he kept waking up and looking at the Stone. But dream or reality, he later remembered a changing vision of the Stone, first deep black in the night, later mellowing to purple, suddenly very dark grey, gradually lightening to a dull grey before lightening to pink and soft grey and yellow as the sun broke through the beeches behind them with the dawn.
When he finally woke up, there was the Stone rising protectively above him, the soft grey and greens of the beech trees in June behind, and the sky beyond that. A shaking of leaves off his fur, two or three steps forward, and he was able, at last, to reach out with his paw and touch the Stone in the morning light.
The threat from Mandrake against Hulver and Bracken over the performance of the Midsummer ritual was very real. At the previous Midsummer, Mandrake had not felt secure enough to order Rune to kill Hulver at the Stone. But now he had the system so cowed that he felt strong enough to kill off its old traditions and anymole who stood by them.
At the June elder meeting, which Hulver had left Bracken to attend, Mandrake left no doubt about his intentions. The Midsummer ritual must not be spoken, he told the elders, and nomole must go up to the Stone. This was an absolute ruling for which he now expected each elder publicly to signal his support. If it should be disobeyed, he stressed, then that would result in the death of the disobedient.
Before he asked each elder to show his support, Mandrake made himself very clear a final time: ‘I understand that a certain mole here among us performed the ritual last Midsummer Night, despite our agreement that it should be abandoned. I was prepared then to give him the benefit of my tolerance…’ Mandrake looked about him with avuncular concern. ‘But nomole should depend on it again.’ He paused to let the message sink home, fixing Hulver with his gaze. ‘Now do we agree that the ritual must not be performed?’ One by one the elders signalled agreement. Except for Hulver, who stayed silent and motionless, snout on his paws and his eyes half closed. Very peaceful.
Mandrake affected to ignore him. ‘We have made our decision, then, and will see that it is carried out,’ he said with a heavy menace that amounted to a command to them all: he did not actually say that they must all take part in what looked to most of them like the inevitable slaughter of Hulver up by the Stone, but anymole there who refused to be involved, and take responsibility, had better watch out!
But Hulver was not the only mole there to disagree with Mandrake. Mekkins, the half-Marshender, had no intention of adding his talons to those who might strike Hulver down on Midsummer Night. True, he had signalled agreement, and he would go along with Mandrake’s suggestion that they all take part in any punishment meted out to the ‘disobedient’—but Mekkins was good at appearing to do something and actually doing something else. He might not be a very moral mole—how could he be while he acted for Mandrake and the Marshenders at the same time?—but he had never yet killed a youngster or a mole too old to defend himself and he wasn’t going to start now. He would fight anymole that got in his way, but he didn’t set out to kill them because they did something to which he was utterly indifferent, like performing the Midsummer Night ritual.
Soon after the decision on the ritual, the elder meeting fizzled out. Rune left early, muttering something about an important job as Mandrake gave him a nod of approving dismissal. Hulver was suspicious, and on his way out with the others, he stopped one of the youngsters hanging about Barrow Vale and asked if he had seen Rune pass by. The answer was as he had feared: ‘Yes, sir, he went up by the tunnel to the slopes. Not so long ago, so you might catch him.’
So Hulver set off back to the slopes, regretting now that he had left Bracken so exposed. But he had found him, and now, here they were, up on the Ancient System waiting for the days to pass to Midsummer Night.
