Page 35 of Circle of Days

It was going to be a quiet Midsummer Day. Most people wanted nothing but food, and would not trade what they had. But there were some things they could hardly do without: sharp flint tools, for example, to slaughter livestock and butcher the meat.

As the sun went down that afternoon, Han began to fear that she would not come. Perhaps she had lost interest in him. She might have fallen for another man. There was a young farmer called Duff who was obviously keen on her. There might be others. A girl could change her mind.

Some farmers turned up. He recognized Troon, the Big Man, and his son, Stam, who—unlike his father—really was big.

And there was a slimy character called Shen, who had been here a few days back, asking about Yaran.

Han was fairly sure Shen had been looking for Mo, a farmer woman who had come to live with Yaran; and sure enough Mo had vanished.

The herders had talked a lot about the incident.

No one had witnessed it. The kidnappers must have been very silent, and must have come in the middle of the night.

Yaran said he had been fast asleep when someone had stuffed a gag into his mouth so that he could not cry out, then had tied his hands.

At the same time Mo, too, had been silenced before she was awake. Then the intruders had carried Mo off.

Scagga had wanted to take an armed party to Farmplace and get Mo back. Others had argued that she was a farmer woman and they should not get involved. Then Yaran had said he was not the fighting type and would not join a rescue party, and that had pretty much settled the issue.

By sundown Han felt sure Pia was not coming. No farmer women were here, just men, which was unusual. Pia’s absence might not be a personal decision of her own but a ban imposed on all women. Just the same, Han feared the worst.

His mother thought there had been some kind of clampdown. “Troon may have ordered them to stay at home so that they can’t fall in love with herder men.”

Han was not soothed by the possibility that Pia had been kept at home against her will. The thought made him even more agitated.

On the following morning Pia was not at the sunrise ceremony. That settled it. She was not coming.

When the ritual was over, Han stood by Ani’s pile of hides while she patrolled with the elders.

He knew what his mother needed in exchange for her hides: a new cooking pot, a basket, and some bone needles.

He enjoyed trading, but not today. He would normally chat about the virtues of particular hides, praising a thick one because it would be durable and a thin one because it was soft.

He enjoyed talking to people who had come from beyond the plain.

He liked the coastal people from the south, who offered costly salt, which—they told him—they got by boiling seawater until the water was gone and a crust of salt was left in the bowl.

He had no inclination for any of that now. He was just unhappy.

A man a little older than himself approached. He seemed familiar, but almost everyone in the herder community was at least vaguely familiar. The man looked at Han’s feet and said: “You’re Han.”

“Yes. Would you like to trade for a hide?” Han tried to summon up some enthusiasm. “My mother tans them and she does it thoroughly. No weak spots—”

“No,” the man interrupted. “I have a message for you.”

Han’s hopes rose immediately. “Who from?”

“My name is Zad. I’m a herder from the far western end of the plain—”

“Who is the message from?”

The man grinned appealingly and said: “Someone called Pia.”

“Thank the gods—what does she say?”

“Not much.” Zad paused. “Only that she loves you.”

Han was elated. “Thank you!” He felt weak with relief: Pia had not lost interest in him. She had not decided that Duff was more alluring. She had not found someone else. She still loved Han.

He wanted to know more—he wanted to know everything. “How did she look?”

“Thin, like most of us. But beautiful.”

“How did you meet her?”

“She’d been gathering strawberries in East Wood—she hadn’t found many, though.”

That news hurt Han. He wanted to be with Pia and help her find berries. She was going hungry and he could do nothing to help. It was maddening.

Zad went on: “I saw her come out of the north side of the wood and look around. I talked to her, and she asked me to seek you out at the Monument.”

“Did she say why she couldn’t come herself?”

“Yes. It seems the Big Man has ruled that women can’t leave the farmer territory.”

Han felt cold with fear. “For how long?”

Zad shrugged. “Indefinitely, it seems.”

“That could mean forever.”

“I suppose.”

Han’s euphoria was dampened. She still loved him, but she had been banned from meeting him.

This was a catastrophe. “My mother was right,” he said bitterly.

“This has been done because of Mo, the farmer woman who came to live with Yaran. The farmers kidnapped her and took her back against her will.”

Zad was indignant. “They had no right!”

“People here have argued about that. In the end Yaran wasn’t willing to fight for her, so nothing was done.”

“I’m guessing you’ll fight for your Pia.”

“I’ll fight like a wild boar.” Han frowned. “But right now I don’t know just how to go about it.”

“Well, I’ll help you if I can,” said Zad. “I spoke to her for only a few moments, but she’s clearly a special girl.”

“Thank you.”

Zad gave that grin again. “Goodbye, and good luck.” He went away.

Han mulled over the news for the rest of the day, doing a poor job of trading Ani’s hides.

He was never going to give Pia up and he would fight for her, but how would he do it?

He thought about kidnapping her, the way the farmers had kidnapped Mo.

He would have to do that on his own, for unlike Stam he did not have a band of thuggish friends who would do his bidding.

And if he succeeded, that would not be the end of it, for the farmers would come after her.

His courage and strength on their own were not enough. He needed to be smart too.

Pia had been in suspense ever since meeting Zad. Would he go to the Rite, or would something happen to make him cancel his trip? Would he forget about finding Han? Would he get the message wrong?

And how would Han react? Would the message please him? Would he have forgotten her? Would he meet someone new at the revel?

Stam had come back disappointed. The festival had been quiet, with few people exchanging goods.

“Everyone wanted food but no one was offering any,” he said.

“We wanted meat, not ropes or shoes or baskets. The herders were unfriendly—they kept talking about Mo, saying we had kidnapped her, even though she belongs to us!”

Pia said: “How strange.”

Stam missed the sarcasm. “The feast was skimpy. The revel was all right, though. There was a girl who wanted two boys at the same time, and—”

“Spare us the details,” Yana said.

“All right, I will,” Stam said, annoyed, and he had gone off to see his mother.

Soon afterward, Mo arrived. Yana asked her how she was finding life with Deg.

“Absolutely foul,” Mo said.

Pia was not surprised. Yana had an ability to make the best of things; Mo did not.

Mo said: “He only ever speaks to give me orders. Weed the far field, cook these hares, go and find some raspberries, lie down and spread your legs.”

Yana said: “Does he want sex often?”

“Once a year would be too often for me.”

It was sad, but Mo’s way of telling it made Pia laugh.

Yana said: “How are your crops looking?”

“Not bad, now that there are three of us to carry the water up from the river. Not that it matters much. We’re all going to starve eventually.”

As Yana and Mo chatted, Pia’s mind wandered. What was Han doing now? Probably herding cattle. How was he feeling about her? She wished she had asked Zad to bring back a reply to her message.

When Mo had gone, Pia talked to her mother. “Now that I’ve sent him a message, I don’t know what to do next. I need to know how he feels but I can’t go to him.”

“You must talk to Zad,” said Yana.

That was a point.

Yana went on: “He would know how Han received the message, whether Han was happy to hear from you.”

“True. He might even have brought me a reply, though I stupidly didn’t ask for one.”

“Will you be able to find Zad?”

“Well, I can look in the place where I encountered him. If he’s not there, I’ll have to think of something else.”

She felt hopeful as she lay down to sleep. Tomorrow she would at least find out where matters stood. The news might be good or bad, but this awful uncertainty would end.

She woke at first light and set off with her basket. Her pretext, if anyone asked, was that she was gathering forest food, and on her way through the forest she plucked some berries, rather small and shriveled but better than nothing.

The vegetation was parched. She wondered whether the woodlanders were doing better in the hills. They would certainly be hungry if they had stayed here.

She emerged onto the plain. In front of her was a herd of cattle trying to find sustenance from the dry ground. She looked around. A herder was walking among the cattle, but sadly it was not Zad. This man was too tall. In fact he looked…

In fact he looked like Han.

It was impossible, but his tall figure and fair beard were unmistakable. Forgetting all about the need for caution and discretion, she yelled his name.

He spun round fast and saw her. He smiled broadly, stepped toward her, then broke into a run. She did the same. They met and she threw herself into his arms.

She hugged him hard and buried her face in his neck and smelled his skin. She could hardly believe her good fortune. He kissed her lips hard. She broke the kiss to stare at his face. She said: “I was hoping for a message from you, and I got you!” She kissed him again.

Eventually they calmed down. She had dropped her basket and scattered the berries. She bent down to pick them up, and he helped her.

“How long will you be here for?”