Page 141 of Circle of Days

A few moments later Troon’s minion, Shen, came alongside her and said: “So, you’ve been talking to Duff.”

Troon’s people did not miss much, she thought. “I’ve been trying to talk to him,” she said. For his sake she would make it clear that he had told her nothing. “He’s a very ignorant young man, isn’t he?”

Shen seemed surprised. “What makes you say that?”

“Well, every time I asked him a question he answered: ‘I don’t know.’ Is he always like that?”

“I don’t know,” said Shen.

“Oh, go away.”

Shen went away.

At the feast Joia joined with her family: her mother, Ani, plus Neen and Seft, with their three children. As always they sat cross-legged on leather mats, with bowls and spoons. Joia remembered the ones who were not there: her brother, Han, and her father, Olin. But she kept her sad thoughts to herself.

After the meal a poet told of a time when people were giants and could fight bulls and bears and wolves, and kill them with their hands.But the people became arrogant,the poet said,and they started to say: “We are bigger and stronger than any other living thing, and we fear nothing, so we should be called gods.”

The listeners murmured their disapproval. They knew that arrogance was a mistake that would be punished, at least in a story.

There was a man called Ban Highspeaker who could talk to the gods, and he said to the Earth God: “We are gods.” This offended the Earth God, who made people small to teach them a lesson.

The result was dreadful: a bear could kill someone with one blow of its huge paw; a bull could gore a person with its horns; a wolf could tear anyone’s throat out with its teeth.

The people said: “We have learned our lesson, and we will never again call ourselves gods.” Then Ban Highspeaker reported this to the Earth God, and said: “We want to be giants again.” However, the Earth God refused, because he knew that if he made them big they would just become arrogant all over again.

Many listeners nodded agreement.

Then he thought to himself: I wonder what would happen if I made them the smartest of all living things.

“Yes!” said one of the listeners, and others repeated it.

When they were clever they made arrows to kill bears with, and sharp flints to cut off the bull’s testicles, and they stole puppies from the wolves and fed them and made them friends, and called them dogs, so that when a wolf came to the village the dogs would chase it away. And the people said: “We don’t want to be giants and we know we are not gods but we want to stay clever.”

And Ban Highspeaker spoke again to the Earth God and said: “We are happy now.”

The Earth God said: “Why are you happy?”

And Ban Highspeaker said: “It is better to be clever than big.”

By the time the story ended, a half-moon shone irregularly through gaps in the clouds.

Seft and Neen took the children home. Anina had fallen asleep during the poem, and Seft picked her up without waking her. A secret that not even Neen knew was that Anina was his favorite child, and he hugged her close as he carried her.

He often recalled how badly he had longed for this, a family who loved one another and were kind. Now when he thought of his childhood it seemed like something that had happened in a bad dream. This was real life, Anina in his arms and Neen walking beside him holding the hands of Ilian and Denno.

When they reached the house, Ilian and Denno lay down immediately. Seft put Anina down beside them. He said to Ilian, the eldest: “Did you like the story?”

“Oh, yes! I can remember all of it.”

Denno said: “Can you tell it? I want to hear it again.”

Seft said: “Tell it again, Ilian.” It would send Denno to sleep.

“All right.”

Seft kissed each of them, and Neen did the same, then they got ready for the revel. They took their tunics off and put their shearling coats back on for warmth. Neen picked up a hefty stone that she carried in a pouch; it was for men who forgot, in their excitement, that a woman could say no, even at a revel. They headed for the outskirts of the village, where the action would be getting underway.

When they were first together, Seft had not wanted to take part in the revel, feeling that sex with Neen was all he would ever desire. But after a couple of years he had begun to feel differently. He had kept this to himself for a while in case Neen would be hurt but, when eventually he told her, she confessed that she, too, wanted to go, and they had been enthusiastic participants ever since.