Page 194 of Circle of Days

“It will still be there after midsummer. You’ll just have a lot of weeding to do.” He bent and swiftly picked up Olin. Pia screamedand Olin cried. “Now get inside, all of you,” Troon shouted, “or I’ll smash this little brat’s skull.”

Yana, Duff, and Pia went into the house. Pia stood in the doorway and reached out for Olin. Troon handed the boy to her.

Pia said: “But it’s still many days to midsummer. What are we supposed to do, stuck in this house all that time?”

“You can reflect on how foolish it is to go against me,” Troon said, and he walked away.

Ani was standing in the shallows of the river, washing a cow hide prior to scraping it, when she saw Biddy, dusty and perspiring, evidently having walked here from Old Oak. “Hello,” Ani said. “What are you doing here? Where’s Zad?”

“Zad’s minding the herd, and Dini’s with him,” she said. “She loves working with her father.”

“And you’re here.”

“I came to see you.”

“Then I’d better get out of the water.” Ani climbed the low bank, dragging the hide behind her. It was as clean as water could make it, she decided. But before she started scraping it she had better find out what was on Biddy’s mind.

“I’m worried about Pia,” said Biddy.

Ani suddenly felt cold. Something was wrong with her daughter and perhaps her grandchild. “Tell me why, quickly,” she said.

“I wanted to get some goat cheese from her.”

Ani wanted to tell her to spare her the narrative, but suppressed the wish and tried to summon patience.

Biddy went on: “There are guards all around the farmer country now, stopping people going in and out.”

Ani was startled, and wondered what the reason was for such a bizarre happening, but she said nothing.

“I said I was going into East Wood for hazelnuts, and they let me pass. So I got as far as Pia’s house, but there was another guard there.”

Ani was now mystified. “Why?”

“He wouldn’t say. But he did tell me that they were all in the house—Pia, Yana, Duff, and the little brat for that matter, he said—but I couldn’t see or speak to them.”

“Did he offer any explanation?”

“No, he just said they would be released after midsummer. Then he told me to go back through the wood.”

“So this is something to do with the Midsummer Rite?”

“I suppose so.”

“Come with me. We’ve got to tell Joia.” She glanced up at the sky. “It’s almost suppertime, anyway.”

They walked to the Monument and found Joia in the priestesses’ dining hall. Someone was cooking sheep livers with onions in a big pot. Ani asked Biddy to repeat her story. Joia asked the same questions and got the same unsatisfactory answers.

They discussed the mystery while eating a rich liver stew. Joia said: “Troon is planning some mischief at the Midsummer Rite.”

Ani nodded. “And Troon is afraid that Pia will find out about it and tell people. That’s why she and her family are being kept inside until then.”

Joia said: “Our Rites are more popular than his feast, especiallysince we brought the giant stone. Troon might want to blight our celebration so that more people will go to his.”

Ani felt frustrated. “I can’t just sit here wondering! I must at least try to see Pia. I’ve got to go to Farmplace.”

Biddy said: “I’m going home tomorrow. We could travel together.”

“Perfect,” said Ani.