Page 64 of Circle of Days

Seft sometimes felt guilty because he did not produce any food.

He knew that this feeling was irrational.

He did essential work, as did leather tanners such as Ani and flint knappers such as El.

When he confided this feeling to Neen, she said: “You’re probably the most valued person in the community—they always come to you for help.

” Still, sometimes he felt he had no right to eat food others had put in his bowl.

However, he did not let this depress him. He was happy, especially when he remembered how his life had been before he came to Riverbend. Now he felt so lucky that he sometimes found himself hoping this was not a dream.

After Neen and his children, the person he liked most was Joia. The feeling was not romantic. He liked her because she was smart and kind and courageous. So when, soon after she had become High Priestess, she asked him to meet her at the Monument, he went along right away.

As they stood looking at the makeshift restoration, she said: “We’re losing respect, and this is part of it.”

He was glad she was High Priestess. Ello had been content to leave everything just as it was. Joia was different. She was always looking for improvements. Even before she became leader she had changed the way the priestesses sang and danced, making the whole performance more dramatic.

Now she said: “It’s time for the stones.”

He was thrilled. They had been talking about building a stone Monument for years. Now that she was High Priestess they could do it—or at least try.

He began to walk around, looking at the timbers, and Joia went with him. He said: “You want it exactly like this?”

“It must be. This is how we count the days. Nothing can be changed, except the material.”

“So the stones will go in the holes that the posts are in now?”

“Yes.”

“We’ll have to dig the holes wider and deeper, but that’s easy. What about the volunteers? We need crowds and crowds of people to drag the stones here from Stony Valley.”

“I’m going to make a speech at the next Midsummer Rite, asking for volunteers.

I’ll appeal to their sense of adventure.

I’ll tell them that this is a holy mission, but also an extension of the festival.

I think we’ll get the two hundred people we need.

And we’ll start for Stony Valley the next day. ”

It was the first time Joia had revealed this plan to Seft, and he took a few moments to absorb it. He wondered how people would respond to her appeal. She was exceptionally charming and persuasive, and he just had to have faith in her.

But he thought of another snag. “If this works, we’ll be taking many strong young men and women away from their regular work.”

“I hope so!”

“I’m afraid I think we’re going to need the elders’ consent.”

Joia made a stubborn face, and he thought she was going to disagree, but she said nothing.

“Think about it,” Seft said. “If the elders forbid this, some young people might defy them, but others would hesitate to get into a dispute. And then you might not have enough people to pull a stone.”

Joia nodded reluctantly. “You’re right,” she said. “A project this big, this important, can’t begin with a clash between us and the elders. We must have them on our side from the start.”

“That’s what I think.”

“All right. I’ll talk to my mother.”

Walking back to Riverbend, Seft had a fateful sense that this might be the day his life changed. The more he thought about it, the more he longed to rebuild the Monument in stone.

There were many stone circles. One of the biggest was on the far side of the North River, in a village called Pits, where there were many flint mines.

But the circle at Pits, like most stone circles, consisted of untrimmed boulders in a rough ring.

It was nothing like what the Monument would be if Joia got her way.

She had said firmly that the rebuilding must follow the pattern of the existing timbers.

The stones would stand in a perfect circle, equidistant from one another, with an exactly fitting crossbar joining each pair.

In the middle would be an oval of detached pairs, each with a crossbar. It would be astonishing and unique.

Building it would probably take the rest of his life, Seft realized with a doomy feeling. But then his stone Monument would last forever.

He nodded to himself as he reached his home, thinking: That would really be something.

Keff opened the meeting. “The grass is green, the streams are running again, and the cows are calving. Let’s pray to the Earth God to continue this weather, and never again afflict us with drought.”

Everyone agreed with that.

“But the demise of our Midsummer Rite is very bad for us. I was hoping to trade for some young bulls from the north, to bring new blood into the herd. But no bulls were brought. And we’re hearing that the farmer feast was well attended.”

Ani said: “That’s what I hear. And I agree with Keff that this is a disaster for us.

Our four Rites every year have always been of great benefit to us.

We’ve been able to trade things we have plenty of, like beef and leather, for what we lack, such as flints and pottery.

We’ve constantly improved our herd by mating our cows with bulls from elsewhere.

And in the same way, at the revel, we’ve strengthened the blood of our own folk.

” She looked around. “It would be very bad for us if we let these events diminish.”

Jara said: “Let’s be realistic. We may simply have to endure a period of hardship. Eventually people will realize that the woodlander attack is not going to be repeated, and they will forget it and come back to us.”

Ani said: “Or they may continue to go to the farmer feast because by then they will be used to it. People like whatever is familiar.”

Scagga said: “Perhaps we could get some woodlanders to attack the farmer feast.”

It was a stupid idea and no one responded.

Keff said: “Well, Jara’s idea, to simply wait and hope, seems to be the only option.”

Ani said: “I have a better solution.”

“Good!” said Kae.

Scagga rolled up his eyes.

Keff said: “Let’s hear it.”

Here goes, Ani thought. “We need to make a spectacular gesture to attract people back and show them that we are still the leaders of the Great Plain.”

“A gesture,” Scagga said scornfully.

Keff said: “What gesture do you have in mind, Ani?”

“We must rebuild the Monument—in stone.”

They were all silent, surprised. Then Keff said: “That would take years.”

“I suppose so. But right from the start it will be something new and surprising that people will want to look at.”

Scagga said: “There aren’t enough stones on the Great Plain!”

“Have you counted them?” Ani said sarcastically.

Jara said: “Wherever the stones may be found, they will have to be dragged to the Monument. That will take people away from their normal work.”

Ani said: “We all know that the regular work of a herder is not very demanding. We could manage our herd with half the people, especially now when so many cattle have died in the drought.”

“But this could go on for years!” said Jara.

“You don’t know how long it will take.”

“There’s a lot we don’t know about this idea.”

Ani did not have an answer to that.

Keff said: “How many people would be required to drag a stone from wherever it’s found to the Monument?”

Ani hesitated.

Keff said: “You don’t know, do you?”

“A crowd,” Ani said. “More than any of us can count.”

“I’m sorry, Ani,” Keff said, “but there’s too much we don’t know about this proposal. We don’t know where the stones can be found, we don’t know how many people it would take to move one, and we don’t know how long it would take.”

Ani now saw that she had failed to prepare this proposal sufficiently. She said desperately: “I just feel it’s our only chance.”

Keff plainly felt forced to refuse. He said: “I’m afraid we have to turn you down.”

Seft and Tem were making a bed for Neen, and Joia was watching them.

Neen got so cold sleeping on the floor, and Seft had said that before next winter he would make a bed that would raise her by the span of a hand.

She would be warmer like that, he had promised.

They had brought two large logs, the same width, to support the platform, and they had smoothed three broad planks for the surface she would lie on.

They all knew that the elders were meeting, and Seft felt tense.

He had allowed himself to imagine the grandeur of the finished stone circle, and he had made the mistake of enjoying in advance the sense of achievement he would feel.

The work he was doing now soothed his anxiety while they all waited for the verdict.

Seft and Tem were drilling holes through the planks and into the logs, and Seft’s son, Ilian, was whittling pegs to fit the holes, when Ani returned from the meeting. Seft could tell by her face that she had bad news. “They turned us down,” she said.

Joia said: “Oh, no!”

Seft’s dream evaporated. He felt bereft. He said: “Why?”

“Too many uncertainties,” Ani answered. “How many people, how many days, how far?”

“I suppose they’re right,” Seft said dolefully. He felt the disappointment like a blow. It depressed him.

Tem, who had not shared Seft’s eagerness, said: “The whole notion was quite shaky. Perhaps we’ve been saved from a catastrophe by the elders’ caution.”

“Perhaps,” said Seft sadly. “But it would have been the adventure of a lifetime.”

Ani said: “I didn’t have the answers to their questions. I should have foreseen their arguments and planned my responses.”

“Oh, well,” Seft said, “I suppose it’s back to real life.”

Joia had tears in her eyes, but her jaw was set in a familiar look of determination. She was not ready to surrender. “Don’t give up so fast,” she said. “I have another idea.”

Seft smiled. That was Joia, never daunted. He wondered how she thought she could rescue this. “Go on,” he said hopefully.

“We’ll move just one stone.”