Page 186 of Circle of Days

“We’ve come to ask your opinion about something,” Joia said tactfully. What she really wanted was to convince him of her own opinion, but it would help to give him the illusion that he was dispensing wisdom.

“Sit down,” he said. “You won’t mind if I carry on with my work.”

They sat, and Joia said: “We’re trying to think how to continue the building of the Monument with the least possible disruption of normal herding.”

Keff pressed another flake off his blade and said: “That’s a good start.”

“We’d like to complete the next stage in a single working week—ten days.”

“I’ve heard rumors. Nine stones in ten days sounds ambitious.”

That meant that Scagga had already talked to Keff. Never mind. Joia leaned forward. “This whole enterprise—rebuilding the Monument in stone—depends on one thing,” she said, and Keff looked up. “Enthusiasm,” she said emphatically. “The volunteers must feel a sense of achievement. They must want to do it, like doing it, feel proud after doing it, and hope to do it again.”

“So I imagine,” Keff said coolly, but she knew she had his interest.

“If we move one stone a year, everyone will know that, long before the Monument is finished, we will all be dead and our children will be dead too. Moving the stones will become a tedious annual chore. That won’t do.”

“What did you want my opinion on?”

“The risk,” Joia said. “We have a timetable for moving ninestones in ten days, and we hope to do it, but we know we may not succeed. Do we take that risk? Or do we follow a less ambitious course, and accept that none of us will ever see the completed stone Monument?”

She looked at Keff. So did Seft. There was a long wait. Keff was looking down at the flint he was sharpening, but he had paused, and he sat motionless.

At last he answered her. “Let me think about that,” he said.

The elders’ meeting was stormy. When Ani presented Joia’s plan, Scagga ridiculed it. He was even more insulting and contemptuous than before. Jara, his sister, looked embarrassed. Twice Keff ordered him to be polite.

The discussion took its expected course. Kae backed Ani, Jara unenthusiastically backed Scagga, and everyone looked to Keff.

Keff said the elders should approve Joia’s plan.

Scagga erupted. “You people never listen to me!” he raged. “Everything I say here is contradicted or ignored. I’m sick of it.”

None of this was true. Ani’s wishes had often been frustrated by Scagga in these meetings. But he was not rational now.

Jara, his sister, said: “Scagga, please—”

Scagga was not listening. He pointed an accusing finger at Keff. “You want Ani to be the next Keeper of the Flints. I know, people have told me. You do everything she wants. You must be her lover.”

Kae, sitting next to Ani, gasped.

Keff stood up. “I will not permit such talk,” he said.

“Don’t worry! No need to forbid it. You won’t see me at anymore meetings. I’m off, and I’m not coming back. Get yourself another pet dog.”

He stood up and walked away.

We won, Ani thought.

Joia said to her mother: “I miss Dee so much.”

“I can tell,” said Ani. She did not like to see her children sad, but this was a different sadness. It was the kind that could easily turn into joy.

Joia had been caught in a summer shower and had taken shelter in her mother’s house. Through the doorway they could see the rain. Joia said: “I wonder if she’ll come to the Autumn Rite.”

Ani shook her head. “She won’t have anything to trade in the autumn. No one wants lambs, they’re too liable to die in their first year. Everyone with any sense trades for hoggets. At one year old they’ve survived a winter and proved they’re sturdy. We won’t see Dee or any other shepherds until the next Midsummer Rite.”

Joia nodded. “Dee said she’d be here for that.”