Page 48 of Circle of Days

The summer grew hotter and dryer. There was no relief even as the Autumn Halfway approached. Pia wondered whether the sweat she produced contained more water than the bag she carried. As well as the bag, she had Olin strapped to her back.

She paused in her work to ease her aching body. The fields stretched as far as she could see along the bank of the river, upstream and downstream, a vista of scorched earth and stunted crops, a landscape broken only by bent, weary figures doing the same grinding toil.

But their efforts were being rewarded. The many pots she and others had lugged up from the river had had an effect.

There was a crop growing from the parched ground.

The shoots were stunted and feeble but they had come up green and were now turning golden yellow.

There would be grain. Her breast milk would be nourishing, and Olin would be healthy.

Poor Olin. He would never know his father. He would not remember the big man who had sung to him. He would have no songs to sing to his own children.

Pia missed Han every moment of the day. She knew she would never have a love like that again. Why not? Because another man might have all the qualities a woman would want, but still he would not be Han.

She tried to remember reasons she had to be happy. She was pleased to be with her mother, she adored Olin, and she was glad that Stam was out of her life.

She did not know what had happened to Stam.

Zad said the herders had nothing to do with it, but he would have said that anyway.

Bez was saying nothing, but he had dropped a hint about the balance required by the gods.

On the other hand, perhaps Stam really had, inexplicably, gone for a swim in the night and drowned.

Troon was enraged, but he did not know who to be mad at.

Yana was deeply thankful to be relieved of her unwanted boy-man. “I’m just glad I’m too old to conceive,” she said. Fortunately, there were no more single men in Farmplace, Bort having already refused Yana, so Troon could not force her to couple with someone else.

In the heat of the day, when Pia felt she had to stop work or faint, Yana told her to go and look for crab apples in the wood.

Pia exchanged her bag for a basket and gladly went into the relative cool of the trees.

Olin made interested noises at the changed scenery.

He was paying more attention to his surroundings.

Most of the early apples were so small that they were all skin and core, and Pia foraged through East Wood looking for larger ones until she emerged onto the plain. There she saw no herders and few cattle, which was odd. The herd had moved west. She walked in that direction, curious.

The cattle seemed to have been drawn to the Break, she saw as she arrived there. Many of them were looking south, across the fields, where twenty or so farmers were working. When cattle were this close together the smell was overpowering.

The beasts seemed in a strange mood. They did not crop what little grass there was. They were abnormally still. To Pia they seemed menacing.

She had never been comfortable with cattle.

By contrast, Han had moved among them as easily as among people.

He had explained to Pia that it was important not to approach them from behind, as that could startle them, nor directly in front, which they would see as a challenge.

And he would talk to them so that they got used to his presence.

He had been herding from the age of eight until he and Pia ran off together, so the lore had been instinctive with him. Pia remained nervous.

Now, she saw, the herders were in front of the beasts, trying to move them back, using long, slightly flexible herding sticks. She recognized Zad and Biddy. Their little girl, Dini, was watching from the edge of the wood with a group of herder children. What was going on?

She put down her basket next to the children and went to Zad. He was walking up and down in front of the herd, shouting and waving a leafy branch to scare them off. It was not working.

Pia said: “What’s the matter with the cattle?”

There was no sign of Zad’s usual charming smile. He said curtly: “They’re thirsty, and they can smell the river.”

Pia was horrified. There were more cattle here than anyone could count. They were a threat of tremendous power, hardly contained. “But if they cross the fields they will ruin the crops!”

Zad replied impatiently: “That’s why we’re turning them back. We don’t want a fight with your people.”

This was terrifying. The farmers could not afford to lose a single stalk of wheat. Yana’s farm was farther downriver, so Pia and her family would not be directly affected, but if their neighbors were starving it would be hard not to share—yet they had nothing to spare.

She looked at the farmers working in the Break. It seemed they were not aware of the danger. They could surely see the herd, but it was not obvious to them what the cattle might do. Pia had to warn them.

With Olin on her back she hurried across the field. The first person she came to was Deg, the son of Bort. “Those cattle are trying to get to the river,” she said. “You should be ready to get out of the way.”

He stood still, looking doubtful. “The cattle have no right to come this way,” he said in a tone of protest. “They’ll destroy the crop.”

“Tell them that, then,” she said impatiently, and she moved on. She walked as fast as she could.

The next person she came to was Duff, carrying a bag of water to his field. He was a lot more sensible than Deg. She repeated her message.

Duff said: “Right.” He emptied the water from his bag, making it lighter to carry. “How about I warn everyone on the west side of the field and you take the east?”

She thanked the gods for a smart person. “Good!” She hurried on.

She did as he had suggested, speaking to people on the east side of the Break. None of them was as stupid as Deg. They looked anxiously at the distant herd and thanked her for the warning.

By the time she had spoken to everyone, she was within sight of the river. She stopped, panting. At that moment, Troon and Shen appeared. “What on earth is going on?” Troon demanded angrily.

Olin immediately started to cry. Pia took him from her back and rocked him, and he calmed.

Troon said: “Well?”

Pia pointed at the herd. “The thirsty cattle can smell the river,” she said breathlessly. “The herders are trying to turn them back, but they may cross the fields. I’ve warned the people working there.”

“This is outrageous!”

“No need to thank me for alerting everyone.”

He was impervious to sarcasm. “They could ruin the crop of the entire Break!”

She lost patience. “Well, do something about it, then, instead of standing there shouting at me.”

He turned to Shen. “Round up people with weapons and send them to the north end of the Break, where the cattle are. I’ll meet them there.”

Shen ran off.

Troon called after him: “And bring fire!”

Troon headed across the fields. Pia was weary but she wanted to know what would happen next. She took a different route, hugging the edge of East Wood, where she could quickly take refuge in the trees.

She walked slowly, and she was overtaken by several young farmers with hammers and bows, presumably sent by Shen. Among them was Mo, now reluctantly Deg’s woman, carrying a blazing torch.

Under Troon’s direction, the farmers started to build fires.

But the wood had to be collected, so the work went slowly.

Also, the Break was a wide space: Pia thought the thirsty cattle would just run between the fires.

They needed many more blazes, much closer together, to deter the herd—which was now edging south, she saw, forcing Zad and the herders to retreat.

Troon seemed to come to the same conclusion. He shouted orders, and the farmers started to pick up stones from the field and throw them at the cattle. The beasts hardly reacted to hits to their backs and sides, but when their heads or legs were struck they lowed angrily.

Pia retreated to the trees, covering the back of Olin’s head with her hand to protect him.

She saw Zad turn around and walk toward the farmers, holding his hands out in front of him in a gesture of forbidding. “Stop!” he shouted.

Some of the herders picked up stones and threw them back at the farmers.

This was turning nasty.

A farmer called Narod, who had been one of Stam’s Young Dogs, grabbed a stone as Zad walked directly toward him. “Don’t anger them,” Zad said. “You’ll cause a stampede!”

Narod ignored him and threw the stone. It hit a bull on the face, near the eye. The beast roared.

Zad punched Narod in the face, and Narod fell down.

Pia yelled: “Don’t start fighting!”

No one was listening.

The farmers converged on Zad, yelling. He was attacked from all sides. He swung his herder stick widely, knocking one man down, driving them back. Then an arrow stuck in his upper arm. Beside Pia, Dini cried out: “Dadda!”

But the herders had seen it, too, and they raced to Zad’s rescue. In no time a full-scale brawl developed, the farmers using hammers and arrows, the herders deploying herding sticks. Troon waded in, but instead of trying to stop the fighting he started attacking herders.

The sounds coming from the herd grew louder and more urgent.

The farmers paid no attention, but the herders noticed.

Suddenly all the herders ran from the fight, heading for the woods to the east or west of the Break.

The farmers looked bewildered as their opponents turned from fighters into runaways.

The herd moved.

Pia cried: “No, oh no!”

The farmers at last saw the cattle moving and they, too, ran.

The cattle were slow at first. Zad and Biddy reached the wood where Pia stood with Olin and Dini. Then the pace picked up, and in moments the cattle were galloping, in a fog of dust, with a noise like the end of the world.