Page 18 of Circle of Days

Retracing her steps, she became convinced that the noise came from inside the earth circle. She broke into a run.

Rather than go through the entrance, she raced up the side of the earth bank, for a better view and perhaps for her own safety.

She reached the top and stood looking down at a scene of devastation.

The wood Monument was wrecked. The noise that had sounded like carpentry was in fact destruction.

Ten or fifteen men were using stones and axes and clubs to destroy the wooden structures, pulling them down and smashing the timbers.

For a moment Joia stood frozen, horrified.

Then she felt an impulse to run down the bank and attack the men.

Suppressing that, she began to beat the drum.

The attackers stopped what they were doing and looked at her. They had blackened their faces with ash and mud so that they could not be recognized, but she was struck by the fact that they had also blackened their necks, undoubtedly to hide their typical farmer neck tattoos.

One man ran in her direction. She instantly made up her mind to hit him over the head with the drum as he came up the slope toward her. But another man called out to him—Joia did not quite hear the name—and the man turned around.

Behind her she heard the voices of priestesses awakened by the drum and coming out of their houses. She guessed she was clearly visible by moonlight, standing as she was on the ridge of the earth circle, and a glance over her shoulder showed the women running toward her.

The farmers all turned away. As if at a signal, they ran across the circle, away from Joia and the priestesses. They went up the far bank and disappeared down the other side. They would head across the plain, Joia was in no doubt, and soon be out of sight.

She walked slowly down the slope and stared at the damage.

There was nothing but scrap timber. The Monument was gone.

She began to cry.

By sunrise a crowd had gathered, standing around the wreckage, many weeping. Soo and all the priestesses were there, plus the elders, and Dallo and some of his cleverhands, with many villagers, including Neen and Seft.

Dallo, inspecting the ruins, said: “A lot of this wood was already deteriorating. I see brown rot, powder-post beetles that lay their eggs in the wood, and damp in the postholes. The Monument might not have lasted much longer even without being vandalized by the farmers.”

Soo, the High Priestess, said: “So if we rebuild, it will rot again.”

Dallo shrugged. “Sooner or later.”

Soo seemed to stand more upright, and speak with regal authority. “Then we must rebuild in stone.”

There was a murmur from the crowd. Joia thought their reaction mixed surprise and approval. Joia herself was thrilled: she wanted this. Could there be anyone who did not want it?

Dallo looked dubious. “Let me get this clear. You’re talking about a stone Monument that exactly copies the old wooden one?”

“That would be essential. The Monument was carefully designed to fulfill very specific purposes. The layout cannot be changed.”

Dallo shook his head skeptically. “Stones of that size are very difficult to transport, perhaps impossible.”

Soo pointed to the ancient ring of stones just inside the earth bank. “The bluestones were brought here.”

“Do you know where they originated?”

“Our song says they came from a place six days’ journey northwest of here, a quarry by the sea.”

Dallo’s face showed that he did not have much faith in an old song, but he said: “And how were they transported?”

“By water.”

“Ah. If only that were possible. Many years ago the East River may have been deeper and wider, but today a raft broad enough to support a bluestone could not navigate the bends and the narrows.”

Soo persisted. “There are stones all over the Great Plain.”

“That’s true. But most of them are not large enough to replace your timber uprights. And those that are would have to be dragged from however far away they are for many days to get here.”

Joia had noticed that Seft was listening intently to the conversation, and he now interrupted it. “There’s a place where there are many large stones—more than would be needed to rebuild the Monument.”

Everyone looked at him.

Soo and Dallo simultaneously said: “Where?”

“In the North Hills, a little way beyond the pit my family mines. I know the place well. I call it Stony Valley.”

There was a thoughtful silence.

Seft said: “I could take you there.”

Seft led the group with Neen by his side. Dallo took five of his cleverhands. Soo could not manage the long walk, so her deputy, Ello, came, bringing Inka and Joia. Elders Ani, Keff, and Scagga joined the group. A dozen or so villagers went along out of curiosity.

It was a full day’s walk, and the sun had risen before they set out, so it was getting dark by the time they reached Stony Valley. Seft had wanted them to be astonished by the sight of all the stones, but in the twilight they could see only a few, and their arrival was an anticlimax.

They lit fires and ate some of the smoked meat they had brought with them, then they settled down to sleep in their tunics. The summer was almost over, and the night air was cool. Seft and Neen lay together. Tired by the walk, they fell asleep immediately.

It was light when Seft woke. Some of the others were already walking about, gazing at the stones, marveling at their size and smoothness.

There were hundreds of them, some piled one on top of another.

Perhaps long ago they had all lain on a level field, Seft imagined, and the Earth God had raised the sides of the field, causing the stones to tumble into the middle, leaving the hillsides free for the sheep to graze.

And what stones! Some of them must have been as heavy as a herd of cows. They were grey in color, though partly covered with moss and lichen.

Neen’s sister, Joia, was visibly excited. “These are magnificent!” she said. “The biggest stones I’ve ever seen.”

“Me, too,” said Seft.

“The new Monument must be built of these!”

“That’s what I think,” said Seft. “But we have to convince Dallo.”

They looked around and spotted Dallo staring thoughtfully at one of the larger stones. They went to his side. The stone was the length of four men and as wide as one man was tall. He said: “I want to know how thick it is.”

The stone was partly sunk into the ground.

Seft said: “We’ll need to excavate around it.

” He had got into the habit of carrying a bag with a few essential tools.

Now he took from the bag the shoulder blade of an ox, useful for digging.

He knelt and began to loosen the earth around the stone.

Joia picked up a stick and did the same. Several others joined in.

With a dozen or so people working, it did not take long to find the depth of the stone. It was about half as thick as it was wide.

Now that the full size was visible, Seft felt overwhelmed. Surely it was not possible to move this all the way to the Monument?

Dallo was feeling the same, for he said: “Well, now that we’re here, let’s see whether we can even tilt it up on its side. Everyone, cut yourself a stout branch to use as a lever. We’re going to try to raise this monster.”

Seft used his flint axe to chop down a small tree.

It was not a quick job, and the sun was high by the time he had a usable lever.

Others were taking even longer, and he spent some time helping them.

He noticed that Dallo had accumulated a pile of narrow logs, and he wondered what their purpose was.

When everyone was ready, they needed to undercut one long side of the stone so that the levers could get underneath.

Seft got down on his knees and again deployed the shoulder blade to dig away the earth.

When he had finished, everyone with a lever lined up alongside the stone.

There were about twenty-five people, he guessed.

They all pushed the thinner ends of their levers into the soft earth under the stone. Dallo said: “In as deep as they’ll go, or you won’t get any leverage.” When he judged the levers were well set in, he said: “Ready… heave!”

Seft put all his strength into pushing his lever inward and upward. He heard others grunt with the strain. The stone did not move. The people stopped pushing and breathed hard.

Dallo said: “This time, the moment I tell you to heave you must throw all your weight into it instantly.” He gave them a few moments to reset, then said: “Ready… heave!”

The stone moved. Its edge was lifted about the width of a man’s hand. Immediately, Dallo thrust a long, narrow log under the stone to stop it collapsing. He added a second log, then said: “And… rest.”

The people relaxed. There was a crushing sound as Dallo’s narrow logs took the weight. The gap shortened, but not by much, and the logs held up the stone at the slight angle it had reached.

They went on that way. Eventually the stone was standing at a wide angle, with upright logs supporting its weight.

Seft saw that from now on the levers would be less effective and it would be increasingly difficult, and finally impossible, to raise the stone farther.

Dallo clearly reasoned the same way, for he said that was enough.

It was late afternoon. Dallo moved away from the stone and asked everyone to sit on the ground around him. Seft felt sure he was going to give them a message of pessimism. He said to Neen: “I think your poor sister is going to be disappointed.”

Neen nodded agreement. “She always has such high hopes,” she commented.

Dallo began by saying: “Remember the stone we moved for the farmer across the river?” Several people nodded. Seft was not one of them. This must have taken place before he returned to Riverbend. But he saw from Joia’s expression that she had been there.

Dallo went on: “Recall how we got the stone into the bag: we laid the ropes down and rolled it. We’ve just spent a day proving that we can’t roll the giant stones we see here in this valley. We can’t even get this one upright.”

Joia said: “There might be a way.”

Dallo pretended to be interested. “And what is that?”

“I don’t know,” she said, looking foolish. “But there might be one.”

“In any case, that’s not our only problem,” Dallo said.

“Once the farmer’s stone was in the bag, it took twenty people to move it.

This stone is ten times the size of the farmer’s stone, so ten times twenty people will be needed to move it.

I can’t count that high but it would be impossible to assemble so many people. ”

Joia could count very high, Seft knew, and he looked at her, but she kept stubbornly silent.

Dallo said: “It took us all morning to move that farmer’s stone across a field and down to the river.

Yet now we’re talking about moving this giant stone a distance that takes all day to walk, up and down hills and over uneven fields.

How many days, or weeks, or perhaps even years would that take?

” He glanced over at the stone and said: “Best not to mess about with that, Jero.” Seft saw that Jero, the son of Effi, was studying the stone and touching the props keeping it upright.

Dallo turned back to his audience. “All this time we’ve been talking about just one stone,” he said.

“But how many of these giant stones would be needed for a new Monument? The inner oval of the wooden Monument has five arches, making fifteen wooden parts, which would mean fifteen stones. But that’s the smaller part.

The outer circle would require many more than that, more than I can count. ”

There was a bang, and they all looked to see that Jero had dislodged one of the main props and brought the stone down with a crash. He seemed unhurt: he must have got out of the way quickly.

Dallo said: “And we haven’t even talked about accidents caused by foolish people that would delay the process still further.”

Jero looked embarrassed and walked away.

Dallo said: “So what I’ve learned today, friends and neighbors, is that the project of the stone Monument is impossible. Completely out of the question. It was a wonderful idea, but it will never happen.” He looked at Joia. “I’m sorry,” he said, “but I must tell the truth.”

Seft looked at Joia’s face, which was set in an expression of stubborn determination. He whispered to Neen: “She hasn’t given up.”

Neen shook her head and said: “She never will.”