Page 174 of Circle of Days

She called all the cleverhands and Verila and Verila’s cousins to the ropes. She and Seft and Tem took hold of ropes. No one was left watching.

She shouted: “Ready… take the strain… pull!… Relax… take the strain… pull!” They got into the rhythm. When the sled wasrocking, she said: “Relax… huge effort this time… pull! And keep pulling!” And the sled inched up the rise. “Keep it up!” she yelled. “Don’t falter!” The sled kept moving. Joia stayed on the rope, heaving with the rest, her elation giving her strength, until the sled perched at the crest of the rise.

There she called a short rest. “Well done, everybody,” she said. “With luck we won’t have to pull that hard again.”

Soon afterward they passed the nameless hilltop village they had noticed on their way to Stony Valley. The people were ready for them this time—Joia wondered how news traveled so fast in apparently empty country—and they came running down the hill. At first Joia feared they might be hostile, then thought they would hardly dare to confront a couple of hundred people.

In fact they brought water in jars and small gifts of mutton, which the volunteers consumed without stopping. They asked excited questions. A couple of adolescent girls kissed several boys each.

The younger villagers joined in pulling the ropes. Joia wondered how far they planned to come along.

Joia heard Dee say: “These people have never seen anything like this before.”

Joia was worried that all this might somehow delay their progress, but everyone managed to keep going, and eventually they left the village and its people behind.

At noon they emerged from the hills onto the plain. It had been deserted when they passed through on their way to Stony Valley, but now there were several hundred cattle. This was a preselected resting place, and more of Chack and Melly’s childrenand grandchildren were here with cold meat. The sun was high, and many of the volunteers cooled themselves in a nearby stream.

Seft climbed on top of the giant stone and began to work on the surface, smoothing it by knocking flakes off it with a round stone he held in his hand.

Joia sat in the shade of a low, wide hornbeam tree with her back against its distinctive fluted trunk, to eat cold pork. Dee sat beside her, her hair wet from the stream, her curls plastered to her head. They had not spoken since before dawn, when they had chatted in the moonlight about all sorts of things.

Dee said: “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. As a shepherd you don’t often go long distances. I’ve walked to the Monument, of course, but not pulling a great big stone.”

“I’m finding it hard too,” said Joia.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-seven midsummers.”

“Same as me.”

“We’re young, but most of the volunteers are younger.”

“A few are older.”

“Very strong older people,” Joia said thoughtfully. “What made you join this ambitious mission?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Dee, without meeting Joia’s eye. “To do something different, perhaps.”

Joia thought she was avoiding the question. However, if there was something Dee wanted to keep to herself, Joia was not going to press her.

Seft approached with two strangers. He said to Joia: “These are the herders I met before, Dab and Revo.”

The woman, Revo, said: “And this is Lim.” She was carrying a toddler.

Joia and Dee stood up and made a fuss of the child.

Dab said: “I can hardly believe you’re moving that enormous stone!”

Seft said: “Yes, and now we must move it on.”

The sled was stopped on a slight downward slope, so getting started was less difficult. It was still hot, but the day would cool soon. The volunteers talked a little as they pulled, and Joia even heard snatches of songs.

They came to the East River and followed its bank south until they came to Upriver, where they planned to spend the night in the broad riverside meadow. The cattle were already roasting on spits.

The volunteers dropped the ropes with enormous relief. Some people just lay flat where they were. Others threw off their tunics and cooled themselves in the river.

Joia happened to see Dee’s bare body, and it had a strange effect on her. She stared, fascinated. She had seen many naked people, and had never taken much interest, but now she could not tear her eyes away. Dee was slim but muscular, no doubt from pulling stupid sheep out of swamps and other places where they got stuck. She had lovely round breasts, and Joia could not help thinking about kissing them. The hair at Dee’s groin was much darker than the fair bush on her head. This, she realized, was not how one thought about someone who was going to be no more than a good friend.