Page 159 of Circle of Days

He might as well have saidThis had better be good, Joia thought.

It was Jara who replied. “You haven’t seen the stone, Keff,” she said. “We have. Dragging it to the Monument is probably impossible, but they will spend weeks trying, and that means the herder community will lose its youngest and strongest workers for much of the summer.”

Kae spoke next. “If I may point something out…”

“Go ahead, please,” said Keff.

“Joia will call for volunteers at the Midsummer Rite.”

Keff said: “Yes, that’s what I understand.”

“They won’t all be herders. There will be farmers, flint miners, and plenty of people from beyond the borders of the Great Plain. Probably no more than half the volunteers will be herders.”

Jara said: “That’s just a guess.”

“I say it’s likely, that’s all.”

Scagga got tired of letting his sister lead the argument, and burst out: “We can’t take the risk! We haven’t yet recovered from the drought!”

Joia said: “You’re assuming the volunteers will be needed for a long time. That’s not so.”

Scagga butted in. “Here we go, another fantasy.”

Keff said: “How do you know this, Joia?”

“Seft has built a sled that will carry the stone and make the journey much quicker. I’ve seen it. Scagga hasn’t, because he didn’t stay at Stony Valley long enough to get the full facts. I discussed the timing with Seft and he is confident in our estimate of four days.”

Scagga looked flustered. He could not pour scorn on the sled, because he had not seen it. There was nothing he could say.

Keff said: “I think we’re agreed, then, that Joia may continue.”

“Thank you,” said Joia.

Next year, in the days preceding the Midsummer Rite, Joia anxiously watched the early arrivals. She and Seft had agreed that the least number of volunteers needed to move the stone was two hundred. She had taken time teaching Seft the priestesses’ way of counting, and he had grasped it quickly. “No less,” he had said. “I wouldn’t mind a few more.” The old and the very young were not included, of course, only fit and strong adults. As the visitors arrived, in ones and twos and families, Seft and Joia worried whether attendance would be high enough.

Seft had built the track, a remarkable achievement. Most of it consisted of branches and earth, but the steepest climbs had a surface of embedded logs that would make the work of the volunteers less difficult and faster.

Chack and Melly had organized the feeding of two hundred people for four days. The drought was over, and in addition the herders had called on their reserves. At Stony Valley, and at scheduled stops between there and the Monument, there weresheep and cattle to be slaughtered and roasted and baskets of vegetables and early wild fruit. Members of the Chack-and-Melly clan would head off at the end of the Rite, to get ahead of the volunteers.

Joia planned to speak to the crowd immediately after the sunrise ceremony, but she and the volunteers would depart the following morning. Seft had worried about this. “I wonder whether you should set off right after the ceremony, when you’ve got them all worked up. During the rest of the day and overnight they could go off the boil.”

Joia shook her head. “I don’t want to ask them to give anything up. They’ll want to trade. Then they’ll be looking forward to the feast and the poets and the revel. The next day will be different. Then they’ll welcome an excuse to extend the festivities. That’s what I’m hoping, anyhow.”

Seft nodded. “We’re not sure of anything at this point, are we?”

That was the truth.

She sent the priestesses out to mingle with the visitors and tell them there would be a big announcement tomorrow after the ceremony. “Don’t say what it is. Say you don’t know, but be excited.” She wanted everyone to be curious and expectant.

On the day before the ceremony, people began to arrive in big numbers, and Joia was somewhat reassured. The effect of the rival farmer feast had worn off, and everyone wanted to know what was going on at the Monument. They had come, and now it was up to her to win their support.

Her mother was thrilled by the high attendance. “They’reinquisitive,” she said. “They know something big is about to happen and they can’t wait to find out what it is.”

Joia agreed. People on the Great Plain traveled more than they needed to because they wanted to know what others were saying and doing.

Toward sundown Joia ran into the farmer Duff. He looked well, she thought. His curly hair was longer, which suited him. Farmer women still could not attend Rites, so Joia asked Duff about Pia and their baby. “They’re wonderful,” he said.

Joia was glad that Duff was enthusiastic about his stepson.