Page 179 of Circle of Days

She followed the track to the hole Seft had prepared. She turned to halt the sled at just the right moment, then shouted at the top of her voice: “You are heroes!”

The crowd erupted.

Chack, Melly, and most of their large extended family appeared with baskets of roast beef, still warm, and the hungry volunteers fell on the food. People crowded around Joia, congratulating her, then moved to the volunteers, hugging and kissing. The volunteers reveled in the adulation, forgetting their aching muscles and their crabby mood of this morning. Joia heard snippets of conversation: “I thought it would never move… I was so hot I just threw myself into the river… That night Janno had sex with three girls and in the morning he couldn’t walk…” She realized they were already telling the stories, true or exaggerated, that would turn the journey into a legend.

When the excitement began to die down, and everyone had had enough to eat, Joia said to Seft: “We must erect the stone now, while everyone is watching.”

“It hasn’t been properly dressed,” he said. “I’ve done a bit, but it needs more. Can’t we postpone it?”

“No,” Joia said decisively. “It won’t have the same impact then.”

“True. All right. We’ll have to work on it later.”

He and the cleverhands untied the ropes that attached the stone to the sled, but not those around the stone itself. Seft said:“If we’ve positioned it right, the stone should slide off the sled straight into the pit.”

Joia persuaded the volunteers to pull one more time on the grab lines. The crowd went quiet as the stone slipped, with majestic slowness, along the top of the sled. As it came to the end of the sled, it began to tilt. They continued to pull, and the thick end of the stone tipped gently until a quarter of its length was in the hole.

Now the stone had to be pulled upright, but—as with many of the challenges they had met in the last three days—they now knew how to do it. Seft freed the long-legged giant that had ridden all the way on top of the stone. He and Tem laid him in place and positioned the rope, then the volunteers took the strain. Seft and Tem lifted the giant, the volunteers pulled, and the great stone slowly came upright.

The crowd gasped with admiration when the full height of the stone was made evident. They had never seen anything like this.

More volunteers quickly filled the pit with earth and tamped it down hard. Everyone stood back, and the crowd applauded.

Joia looked with awe at what she had done. Here, surrounded by spectators, the stone seemed even bigger, and the people were dwarves, or perhaps acolytes. It looked like something divine.

This was the moment to make a speech.

She climbed up on the sled, so that more people could see her. As the crowd realized she was going to address them, they became quiet, people shushing noisy neighbors. Looking around, she spotted Shen, the sidekick of Troon. He would report everythingsaid and done here today to his master. Let him, she thought; Troon will be as sick as a dog.

The crowd became silent.

Making her voice deep and loud, she said: “This was hard.”

There was a murmur of agreement from the volunteers.

“We toiled in the sun. We got discouraged. We feared we would fail.”

They shouted: “Yes!”

“But we did it.” She paused.

“Talk about people who are strong.

“Talk about people who are brave.

“Talk about people who never give up!”

She felt tears run down her face. She pointed at the volunteers, and her voice shook with emotion she had not expected. “Here they are!” she cried. “These are the great people of the Great Plain!”

The crowd roared their approval.

She let her voice go a little quieter. “The gods are pleased with us today.”

They were hushed.

“We have honored the Sun God. And I believe the God wants to see more stones in the Monument. Today the central oval has one stone and nine wooden uprights. Next year…” She paused for effect. “Next year, friends and neighbors, the God wants to see ten upright stones!”

There was a murmur of amazement.