Page 221 of Circle of Days

When they left Upriver behind, Seft walked with Joia. He had a surprise for her. As they ascended into the hill country, they could see that Seft had extended the embedded-timber track. Originally installed only for the first climb out of Stony Valley, it now replaced the branches-and-earth track on every uphill stretch.

Joia was delighted. “This will make moving the stones much less difficult,” she exulted.

“It takes a long time to build and uses a lot of timber, but eventually I hope we’ll have this type of track all the way,” he said.

“You’re looking to the future.”

“If we succeed today, we’ll go on to build the outer ring in stone, won’t we?”

“I hope so.”

“That will take years. Thirty uprights and thirty crossbars. Are you all right with that?”

“Of course. I’m happy. This has become my life’s work.”

Seft nodded. “Mine, too.”

They reached Stony Valley in good time. The village had grown again, Joia saw, with more houses, a store, and a workshop sheltered from the weather by a canopy. Seft and his family divided their time between here and the Monument, but many ofthe cleverhands lived here with their families all the year round, only going south for the Rites.

As usual, Seft saw, some of the volunteers regarded this evening as a continuation of the midsummer revel. However, Olf and Cam did not join in: evidently exhausted by the walk, they went to sleep straight after supper.

Next morning they had gone. Seft assumed they would try their luck elsewhere. He was not going to worry about it.

The next day was the least difficult yet. Not only were Seft and the cleverhands experienced in moving stones, they also benefited from the smaller size and lighter weight of the crossbars. And there was no one trying to sabotage their track. In consequence, five crossbars were transported to the Monument in three days.

Still on sleds, the stones were parked just outside the earth bank, in the area that had become the stonemasons’ workshop. Each had to be carefully carved, using Seft’s leather templates, to match the twin tops of its destination uprights, with two sockets that would fit exactly on the dome-shaped pegs.

The ropes used to pull them were loosened for the carving, then retightened when they were ready to be moved into the Monument.

Meanwhile, Neen was furious. Olf and Cam had come back to Riverbend and robbed Seft’s house while Neen and the children were at Ani’s place. They had taken flints and pots and some of Seft’s tools. “How could you do this to me again?” she raved. “You know what they’re like.”

“You’re right,” he said humbly. “I’m sorry.”

“Please, never let this happen again.”

“I won’t.”

“Next time they show up here, you give them no food and nowhere to shelter. And you stay with me until they leave the village.”

“I’ll do that.”

“Promise.”

“I promise.”

When all the stones had been painstakingly carved, it was time to place them on top of the uprights, where they would remain until the end of time.

Neither Joia nor anyone else could imagine how Seft was going to lift an enormously heavy crossbar to the top of an upright, which was as high as three men standing on each other’s shoulders. No one knew what Seft’s plan was, and all he would say was that he did not know whether it would work. Everyone was desperate to see him perform a miracle—or fail.

Joia reckoned Seft needed a hundred volunteers, and she recruited more than that with no difficulty from the huge crowd that had gathered to watch.

The two uprights nearest the entrance had been chosen as the first pair to be crowned with a crossbar. Seft had constructed a platform, level with the tops of the uprights. It was made of branches tightly roped together and supported by tree trunks. To reach it he had to scramble up the climbing pole Joia used when she made her speeches.

The first sled was dragged in and parked beside the chosen uprights, with its nose to the outer edge of the near upright. Joia wondered why Seft was going to lift the crossbar up the side of the pair, rather than the front. No doubt the scheme would soon become clear.

Seft had made a timber giant like the one he had constructed at Stony Valley, two tree trunks roped together in a cross shape, with long legs and short arms. This massive frame now leaned against the outer edge of the far upright.

A picture began to emerge. The grab lines of the ropes around the crossbar were now trailed up from the sled, over the tops of the two uprights, through the angle made by the arms of the giant, and all the way down to the ground on the other side.