Page 175 of Circle of Days

In the river Dee talked to Bax, the two of them naked in theclear water. Joia felt with annoyance that Bax was not good enough to be Dee’s girlfriend. It was an unkind thought but Joia could not get rid of it. The idea of a romance between Dee and Bax just bothered her.

When night fell, there was not much romantic activity. The volunteers ravenously ate roast beef, then lay down and slept. It had been a hard day.

And they had to do it all again tomorrow.

This is the last day, Joia thought as soon as she woke up. Today we will deliver the giant stone to the Monument—and I will have done it in four days, as I promised the elders.

People who said it was impossible will admit that they were wrong. Visitors will come from far away just to look at it. More people will come to the Rites, more trading will be done, more girls will want to become novice priestesses. This will be a rebirth for the people of the Great Plain.

And if we can move one stone, we can move more. We can rebuild the entire Monument. But not right away. The volunteers will want to go back to their everyday lives. The only way we can get enough people will be by doing this every midsummer. But if we can do that…

Nothing must go wrong today.

Beside her, Dee woke up with a moan. “I ache all over,” she said.

Joia was not sure why Dee always slept beside her. Dee had made friends with several people on the mission, and chattedamiably to everyone, but last thing at night she always lay down by Joia, who tried to hide how much this pleased her.

Now she thought of offering to rub Dee’s shoulders, but she hesitated; and Dee got up, so it was too late.

A lot of the volunteers were stretching their legs and backs, trying to relieve aching muscles. Joia realized that if she had rubbed Dee’s shoulders, Dee might have done the same for her. How nice that would have been.

Her hands were sore, and the fatty meat on offer for breakfast gave her an idea. She took a particularly greasy piece and rubbed it all over her hands. Then she took Dee’s strong, broad hands and shared the fat with her. They smiled at each other while they rubbed hands, and it made Joia feel happy.

At sunrise they moved to the sled and took up the ropes. The ground alongside the river was mostly flat, but they had stopped the sled on a slight downward slope, which was now standard practice, so rocking was not needed and they got the stone moving quickly, albeit with a lot of grunting and groaning. The terrain was easier today, and Seft’s track of branches ran straight, and leveled out the bumps and dips in the ground. And the task was now familiar.

They stopped briefly at midmorning and then for a longer break at noon. While they were eating, Joia spotted Narod and his friends quietly slipping away.

She frowned. What did that mean?

She got up and sought out Duff. “The Young Dogs seem to have left us,” she said.

Duff was surprised. “Which way did they go?”

“South, toward the Monument.”

“I can’t think why. I don’t really know why they came in the first place.”

“Nor do I, which worries me.”

“They didn’t achieve much by their negative comments, except to make the volunteers dislike them.”

“Troon may have told them just to keep an eye on the mission.”

“Well, I’m glad to see the back of them.”

Joia nodded. All the same she had an uneasy feeling as the volunteers set off again, pulling the great stone along the bank of the river.

Before the midafternoon break their progress stopped dead.

Someone had destroyed the track.

The branches had been scattered all around, some thrown in the river. The damage continued along the riverside path as far as they could see. Joia stared in dismay. She could hardly believe her eyes. They were less than half a day’s journey from the Monument, yet the mission had been wrecked. The volunteers dropped their ropes. Joia sat on the ground and cried.

Seft approached her. She wailed: “What are we going to do?”

Seft was calm. “Repair the track,” he said.

She was almost angry with him for not being more upset. “We won’t get to the Monument by the end of today, so we won’t have done the job in four days.”