The Oak Lord

by Catherine Cooper

  Camelin started mumbling to himself. Elan waited until he’d finished before continuing.

  ‘We can’t do anything until Nora gets back. We’re going to have to create a safe haven using a particular kind of magic but all four of us will need to work together.’

  ‘Four of us?’ asked Camelin.

  Elan nodded.

  ‘Yes, all four of us, Nora and I can’t do this on our own. It’s a special kind of magic, the kind that surrounds Ewell House, but we’ll need to protect a larger area and we won’t be able to do it without help from both you and Jack.’

  Camelin strutted and swaggered from side to side. He strode around Motley three times with his chest thrust out. Jack smiled; there was something reassuring about Camelin’s predictability. Elan smiled too before turning to Motley.

  ‘Can you go and gather the Night Guard together? And bring Raggs too. Camelin can go and round up the leaders of the Flying Squad and take a message to Timmery. We’ll have a meeting here as soon as we’re all together.’

  Camelin didn’t even grumble as he and Motley left the kitchen.

  ‘I’m glad you’re here,’ said Jack.

  ‘Nora’s message said she thought I was needed. We’re all very worried about Velindur, but until we know what he’s planning there’s very little we can do. He vowed he’d have his revenge and it looks like he might have a powerful weapon. The Book of Sorrows contains all the sorrows and sufferings endured by generations of Druids. Let’s hope Nora finds the information we need at Falconrock.’

  ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE

  It wasn’t long before Camelin returned. He landed on the table, shook his feathers and gave his report.

  ‘The starlings are on their way, but Timmery wasn’t home.’

  They sat in silence as they waited for Nora to return, each lost in their own thoughts. When the door opened, Jack and Elan leapt to their feet. Jack could see that Nora looked worried. He had to bite his lip to stop himself from bombarding her with questions.

  ‘I’ll make a pot of tea,’ said Elan, as she went over to the range.

  Nora smiled weakly and sat down at the head of the table.

  ‘It’s not good news, I’m afraid.’

  ‘We’ve got bad news too,’ Jack told her and described what his crystal had shown them. ‘Do you think this is Velindur’s doing?’

  ‘I fear it is, Jack, and from what I’ve found out at Falconrock I think Velindur must have been planning his revenge for a long time.’

  ‘How? He couldn’t have known he was going to be expelled from Annwn until it happened.’

  ‘The events at your trial may have changed the timing of his plan and sent him to a new location, but I think this is something he’s been working towards for years. His target was originally the whole of mankind, only now, since we deprived him of what he thinks he’s entitled to, he wants to have his revenge upon us too. He never forgave the men who brought trouble into Annwn. He ordered the portals to be sealed to ensure it would never happen again. Velindur believes that all men are full of greed and envy, but as time has gone by he’s turned into the very creature he despised. I think it was probably when he appointed himself King that he began to plot his revenge. He needed a weapon to show all three worlds how powerful he’d become and he probably wanted to take revenge on the ancestors of the men who’d caused so many problems in Annwn. The first place he would probably have looked would have been the Palace Library. As ruler, he’d have had access to all the books in there. At your trial you saw for yourself how well versed he was in the law. Gwillam firmly believes he found something in one of the books and believed he could use that knowledge to further his own ends. Being expelled from Annwn was not part of his plan but we think stealing the Book of Sorrows was. If he’d found a way to take the Book from the Caves of Eternal Rest, before he was forced to leave Annwn, I’m sure he would have put his plan into action sooner. We think he was desperate for the rest of the Druids to enter the caves, not only to get rid of them but also to provide him with the opportunity to take the Book.’

  Nora paused while Elan poured the tea.

  ‘But he couldn’t have got the Book without the help of the Spriggans and he didn’t have that until after he’d left Annwn,’ said Jack.

  ‘He obviously knew about the fifth gateway,’ explained Elan. ‘When I searched the library, I found an ancient book of old maps. One of them clearly shows all the portals into Annwn. If anyone had found that portal, they would have found themselves trapped inside the caves. They could not have entered Annwn because only the gatekeeper has the power to activate the crystal that melts the ice sheet. Neither could they have returned to Earth, for, as you found out, a dwindling door protected that gateway. I’m not sure how many men knew about that entrance, or ever tried to find it, but there was nothing Velindur could have done to close it. Unbeknownst to all of us, a Dragonair had been guarding it for centuries.’

  ‘Do you think Velindur knew about Ember before he left Annwn?’

  Nora looked thoughtful.

  ‘He’d have heard the Legend of Howling Hill told by many a storyteller but I doubt he’d have believed it. He did, however, know where the fifth gateway could be found and, once on Earth, it wouldn’t have been hard for him to locate Silver Hill. He couldn’t have entered the Caves himself and would have needed help to steal the Book. He found a willing Bogie to do his bidding. The Book must have been stolen from right under the noses of the sleeping Druids when the Spriggans took the crystals.’

  ‘I doubt he expected to encounter any problems. It must have been a shock to find an angry Dragonair guarding the entrance.’

  ‘But Ember was guarding the Spriggans treasure, not the gateway,’ said Jack.

  Camelin let out a loud humph.

  ‘I bet that’s why the Spriggans had a Draygull. Without a Dragon Screecher they’d never have kept her under control.’

  ‘I imagine it was,’ agreed Nora, ‘and the rest we know. Pyecroft tricked the Spriggans into entering the caves to steal the crystals. All they had to do was to get their Dragon Screecher to sing and Ember would fall asleep. It would have made it easy for them to get past her.’

  Jack felt a shiver run down his spine as he remembered the dark tunnel inside Silver Hill and the Draygull lunging at him.

  ‘This is just speculation,’ said Nora, ‘but even if it’s not the whole story, we think it’s probably accurate. What we do know for certain is that Velindur has the Book of Sorrows. The Stone of Destiny sent us a warning… one we can’t ignore.’

  Jack felt another shiver run down his spine.

  ‘I bet Velindur’s doubly mad with us all now he’s been banished to Elidon.’

  Both Elan and Nora nodded. No one spoke. Jack replayed the memories of their escape from both the Draygull and Velindur. He was lost in thought when a loud rap on the door made him almost jump out of his chair. He was relieved to see it was only Motley, Raggs and the Night Guard. Three noisy starlings followed them. Jack smiled as Crosspatch, Bicker and Dazzle made their way over to Camelin.

  ‘Oh no! Not them,’ grumbled Camelin as he moved away from the starlings.

  Nora stood. She tapped her wand on the table, which wasn’t really necessary as the room was already silent and everyone’s eyes were upon her.

  ‘It’s time to tell you what I found out at Falconrock.’

  She paced up and down the kitchen as she spoke.

  ‘Cloda is an amazing archivist, but finding any reference to the Book of Sorrows was always going to be difficult. Most Druids would only encounter the Book once they’d entered Annwn, and the library at Falconrock only contains the writings of Druids from their time on Earth. We tried searching under all the obvious headings but to no avail. It wasn’t looking hopeful until Cloda remembered a collection of work by Finnik the Delve. He was a chronicler, a collector of ancient stories, rhymes, folklore and traditions. Normally, not being a Druid, he would not have been able to use the library at Falconrock but he was
granted special permission. Not everything he wrote about was true, but a lot of legends have their origins in truth and cannot be disregarded. He was well known to the Druids and Bards as he travelled extensively around the countryside. I too have a distant memory of seeing Finnik at festival times. Cloda told me that he’d never completed his work and so it had never been catalogued. We found two volumes of his writing in the store cupboard. Neither mentioned the Book of Sorrows. Those two books had been our last hope, but then Cloda remembered that Finnik would bring the stories he’d collected to the library in a leather satchel. On his last visit he’d been in a hurry and, instead of stopping to copy his latest tales, he’d left the satchel in her care. She thought she must still have it because Finnik had never returned for it. After a long search inside her store cupboard, Cloda appeared with a dusty old bag. When we opened it up we found an old quill, a bottle with some dried ink in the bottom and several rolls of parchment inside. Each scroll was covered in a minute spidery script. It was there we found what we’d been looking for.’

  Nora flicked her wand and a small book appeared on the kitchen table. She put her palm onto the cover and closed her eyes.

  Camelin nudged Jack.

  ‘She’s making a new book. All the information from that scroll will be inside those pages in no time.’

  Elan frowned and held her finger up to her lips for Camelin to be quiet. A burst of light told Jack the transfer had been completed. When Nora opened the book, it was full of her own neat writing. She gave a small cough before starting to read:

  I, Finnik the Delve, do declare that this be the true sequence of events that befell me when I met the Druid Derradin, Guardian of the Westwood Portal.

  On this particular day I was travelling across country towards the Crags of Stonytop Ridge. I was halfway up the steep path that leads to the Ridgeway, when I spied an old Druid coming towards me. His progress was painfully slow, and before taking each step he tapped the ground with his staff. I doffed my cap but the Druid seemed to look straight through me. When I called good morrow, he stopped and tilted his head in my direction. He returned my greeting and enquired who I might be. I told him my name, vocation and the reason why I was on the path. The old Druid requested I bide with him for a while. He asked me to locate a suitable rock on which we might sit, explaining that he needed assistance on account of his blindness.

  Once settled, we exchanged pleasantries and enjoyed the warmth of the sun. Eventually he told me his name and the nature of his journey. He was making his way to the nearest portal as he intended to go into Annwn for the very last time, and enter the Caves of Eternal Rest. He told me he’d been the guardian of a tomb portal in Westwood that was only ever used at Samhain. Visitors wishing to enter Annwn had to be guided to the gateway that lay beyond the tomb, as it was located deep within the hillside. A series of caves had to be negotiated before the inner chamber could be reached.

  He, and his acolyte, lived happily and enjoyed the peace and solitude of Westwood, until the day the Earth shook. Their home, the tunnels and the tomb portal were completely destroyed by the quake. It was the last time he ever saw his acolyte too. For days Derradin had called to him, but no reply ever came. He searched the rubble as best he could. He needed no light, as total darkness was no handicap to him but he had no strength to move the boulders that blocked the tunnels. He was unable to find any trace of his faithful apprentice. Since his reason for being in Westwood had been removed, Derradin decided it was time to make his last journey into Annwn.

  It was a sad tale and I listened politely. I didn’t interrupt the old Druid, but when he’d finished speaking I sensed there was more he wished to impart. I asked if there was anything I could do to help, which prompted Derradin to nod. He sought my arm and gripped it tightly. He told me he’d failed in one of his duties. He knew that at some point in his life, as every Druid was required to do, he had to write down any important knowledge he’d acquired so it could be stored in the library at Falconrock. His blindness and trembling hands had prevented him from doing this and, with his acolyte now dead, he had no means of recording his knowledge for others. He was concerned he might be the only possessor of some important information that had been destroyed by the earthquake. To salve his conscience, he begged me to record an inscription he’d discovered whilst inside the tomb chamber. He’d found it in the darkness with his fingertips. To his knowledge no other had ever beheld it, for it was on the far side of the tomb, hidden from sight. Had he not been blind, he would never have discovered the words that an unknown stonemason had chiselled into the side of the tomb. It was easy for him to read them with his fingertips.

  Although the physical evidence was no longer there, the old Druid had committed the inscription to memory and, since it pertained to the place he was bound, he thought it important some record of it was preserved. I promised Derradin I would write an account of our meeting and add his words to my second volume on my next visit to Falconrock. He waited for me to get out my quill and parchment. When I was ready, he held his staff firmly, pulled himself up, raised his head to the heavens and began to recite clearly and slowly.

  When I’d recorded all his words I offered to accompany him to the next portal, but he refused. He said I’d already done him a great kindness and he could now enter the Caves of Eternal Rest with an easy conscience.

  Not being a Druid, and not having a great deal of knowledge of Annwn, I do not profess to understand the inscription, which seemed to refer to something a man called Gwyddon had fashioned for the Druids. The subject was undoubtedly a book that had somehow been filled with sorrow and despair which, if opened, would unleash doom and disaster. I can understand why Derradin was concerned to preserve this knowledge.

  I am a man of my word and the promise I made to the old Druid will be kept. I will stow this parchment safely in my bag and at the earliest opportunity I will record our encounter, along with the words Derradin confided to me.

  I, Finnik the Delve, do hereby swear these were the true and unaltered words of the Druid Derradin, Guardian of the Westwood Portal.

  IN THIS TOMB, WITHIN THIS SACRED PLACE, LIE THE MORTAL REMAINS OF GWYDDON, MAN OF KNOWLEDGE, MAGE OF WESTWOOD, AND ARCHITECT OF THE DRUIDS’ REST.

  YE DRUIDS WHO SEEK TO SLEEP IN PEACE ALL TROUBLES FIRST YE MUST RELEASE BEFORE YE ENTER THE MOUNTAINSIDE ALL THY THOUGHTS TO THE BOOK CONFIDE ONCE THY SORROW HAS BEEN DIVEST YE WILL RECEIVE ETERNAL REST

  MANKIND TAKE HEED AND TO ALL BEWARE INSIDE THIS BOOK THERE IS DESPAIR NO MAN MUST EVER DISTURB THIS TOME NOT EVEN THOSE UPON THE THRONE FOR IF IT EVER IS OPENED UP DOOM AND DISASTER WILL ERUPT

  No one spoke.

  Nora closed the book and tapped the cover three times before whispering a single word.

  ‘Custodia.’

  Jack knew this was a protection spell. Anyone trying to steal the Book would find themselves held captive and unable to move. Elan stood. Jack could see her fists were clenched.

  ‘Until we know more, no one is safe,’ she announced. ‘We must bring all the creatures out of Newton Gill without delay. There must be no more disappearances.’

  ‘Can’t Allana help us? Her spirit is inside the new Hamadryad we planted in Newton Gill. Can’t she give the forest some protection?’ asked Jack.

  ‘Unfortunately, Allana isn’t mature enough to help, she’s only strong enough to protect herself at the moment.’

  ‘If we had an Oak Lord there wouldn’t be a problem,’ Camelin mumbled.

  ‘An Oak Lord?’ asked Jack.

  The three starlings twittered noisily and Camelin humphed loudly.

  ‘Aw, Jack! If you’re going to be crowned King, I’d have thought you’d have known all about the Oak Lord.’

  Jack looked at Nora, then Elan.

  ‘Am I an Oak Lord?’

  Nora smiled.

  ‘No, Jack, you were given Arrana’s power, which makes you very special. You are able to bear the title King of the Forest, which means every tree and creature comes unde
r your care. The Oak Lord used to be the guardian of the oaks. He would tend the Hamadryads and protect the Dryads that dwelt within the forest. We’ve not had an Oak Lord on Earth for more years than I care to remember.’

  Elan took up Nora’s explanation.

  ‘As King of Annwn, you’ll have a lot of responsibility but no one expects you to do everything. The first duty of the crowned King is to appoint an Oak Lord for the duration of his reign. Your ancestor was only ever crowned King of the Festival, so the Oak Lord was only ever appointed for a year at a time. When we were trapped on Earth, the Oak Lord was trapped in Annwn. His time as protector of the forest ran out many, many years ago and no other was ever chosen. Nora and I took on the role and tried, as best we could, to protect the forests and help the Hamadryads. Alas, we never had the same kind of power that the King of the Forest, or an Oak Lord, could command. Once you are crowned, you’ll be able to choose an Oak Lord. He will care for and protect the Hamadryads and, in turn, they will protect all who dwell in the forests.’

  ‘I’d like to be an Oak Lord,’ said Camelin.

  Nora frowned.

  ‘Don’t listen to him, Jack. He knows that isn’t possible. The Oak Lord must once have been a man.’

  ‘Once? Do you mean, like a Druid from the Caves of Eternal Rest?’

  ‘No, the Oak Lord must once have been a mortal man, trustworthy and knowledgeable in the ways of the forests, an honorable man, one who now rests.’

  ‘She means he’s got to be dead,’ said Camelin.

  Jack thought for a few moments before speaking again.

  ‘But how can that be? Does that mean whoever I choose to be my Oak Lord will be brought back to life again?’

  ‘Not to life as you know it, but to those who have the sight he would look real enough. Just as you can see the Druid’s acorn, the Dryads and the Water Nymphs, you would also be able to see the Oak Lord. He would not be visible to the rest of humankind, but they would see the results of his work in the forest.’