Page 66 of Circle of Days
The sled was enormous, longer and wider than the biggest stone in the valley.
Joia recalled the single runner Seft had shown her.
Now there were two, and the entire edifice rested on them.
The parallel runners were polished and greased.
They were joined by lateral planks. Rising from the planks were short, very thick sections of tree trunks.
They in turn supported a platform, which, Seft explained, would hold the stone.
Joia thought it was a beautiful object. It seemed to her perfectly designed for its purpose and lovingly assembled, but it also spoke of great strength. Like the trees from which it was made, it seemed impossible to improve.
“If this works the way I think it will,” Seft said, in a tone that made Joia feel he was saying something of great importance, “I think a crowd of strong young men and women could drag the stone from here to the Monument in two days.”
Joia was astonished. Could that possibly be true? Two days? With her arithmetical brain she saw immediately that the stone would be traveling at half the speed of an ordinary person walking. It did not seem impossible. “That would be fantastic!” she said.
“If I’m right,” Seft said somberly, “it would indeed be fantastic.”
After breakfast Seft announced that they needed to lift a stone upright—not one of the largest, for he wanted only to examine the underside.
The one he picked lay flat, half buried in the earth, and they started by digging all around to loosen it. When they had revealed the underneath edge, they all got down and excavated earth from the underside as far as they could go.
Next Seft picked the strongest ten people, told them to take stout oak levers from the stockpile, and stood them in a line on one long side of the stone.
Following his instructions, they pushed the ends of their levers into the gap under the stone.
Then, acting together, they lifted the edge of the stone.
As soon as it had risen the width of a hand, Seft shoved a branch underneath so that the stone could not sink down again, and those with the levers relaxed.
After a short break they stuck their levers in again and lifted once more, and Seft was able to insert another branch. Now the two supporting branches were hammered into the gap so that they would not slip out.
They repeated the process again and again. As the stone rose and the gap widened, Seft stuck short lengths of wood upright underneath it to act as props.
While they worked, a mouthwatering smell of beef and onions encouraged their efforts.
When at last they got the stone upright on its edge and secured it, they ate their midday meal with relish.
After the meal, Seft said he wanted to find out how difficult, or easy, it was to flatten the underside of the stone—a process Joia considered essential because, when the stone was upright in the Monument, what had been the top and bottom surfaces would become the highly visible inner and outer.
First he carefully brushed the underside, removing earth and insects and some kind of oily growth, then wiped it thoroughly with a scrap of leather. “I need a clean, dry surface,” he explained to Joia.
The only tool for shaping a stone was another stone.
Seft picked up from the ground a roundish stone that fitted neatly into his hand, and began to attack the underside of the giant sarsen.
Joia expected to see a lot of dust, but there was very little.
She wondered whether that was because the stone was so hard.
When the aged dark surface cracked and fell away, the stone underneath was revealed to be a vivid mid-grey—very distinctive. Joia said: “What a beautiful color! Our new Monument will be that shade all over. Won’t that be wonderful?”
Seft attacked the lumps and bumps on the underside. The rock was hard, and he had no experience of stonemasonry. Joia realized that dressing these stones might be a long job. Perhaps people who were too old to pull the sled could do the work during halts.
She frowned, suddenly feeling that she was being watched.
Looking around, she saw a woodlander gazing at her.
There was a large wood on the other side of the hill, she had noticed, so it was not surprising that there were woodlanders.
As she thought this, several more appeared, stepping from behind trees.
One of them she recognized. It was Lali, the daughter of Gida—and, perhaps, of Bez.
She was still beautiful, though she looked older.
In just one year she had lost her home and most of her tribe, and the bereavement showed on her face.
She had left the Great Plain, Joia presumed, and had found a welcome here.
Lali said: “I am ashamed to speak to you.” Bez had taught her the herder language.
Joia thought there was no point in blaming a girl for what had been done by her tribe. She said: “My people and your people have done each other great harm.”
“I have found a new tribe.”
“I’m glad. What happened to your mother?”
“I don’t know.” Lali looked sad. “She insisted that we split up. She said a young woman on her own would have a much greater chance of finding a home.”
Gida had probably been right about that, Joia thought; but what a wrench it must have been.
Lali said: “These people, my new tribe, didn’t believe I could speak the herder tongue, so they made me talk to you to prove it.”
“Well, now you’ve proved it.”
Some of the other woodlanders spoke to Lali. She listened, then said to Joia: “They would like to know what you are doing in this valley. You take branches from trees and lay them on the ground. Now you are chipping a stone. They find these acts mysterious.”
“We’re going to take this big stone to the Monument.”
Lali stared at her incredulously. “They will not believe that.”
Joia shrugged. “I don’t blame them. It will be very difficult.”
Lali turned to the others, now crowded around her, and spoke in the woodlander language. They gave cries of astonishment.
There was some discussion, then Lali turned back to Joia. “They say it is too big to move.”
“It is very big, but we will move it.”
Lali translated. After more chatter, she said: “Why do you want to do this?”
“Our timber Monument was burned and we want to rebuild it in stone, which does not burn.”
Lali looked embarrassed. It had been her tribe that did the damage. She translated, then asked: “Why do you want such a big stone?”
Joia thought for a minute, then said: “To please the gods, and to make the people gasp with wonder.”
The tribespeople made noises of assent. They understood.
They drifted away, all talking animatedly about what they had learned.
Seft started flattening the other side of the stone. Both he and Joia wanted the stones to look smooth, for a greater contrast with other, inferior stone circles. Some of that work might be done while the stone was in transit.
She looked up to see two people approaching from the south. As they came closer she recognized Scagga and his sister, Jara. She cursed quietly. They were here only to cause trouble, that was certain.
Although there was a resemblance, she noticed that the big eyes looked good on her, but not on him.
His greeting was characteristically oafish. “What do you fools think you’re doing?”
Seft remained cool. “Hello, Jara, hello, Scagga. Glad to see you both. You can help the people trimming tree trunks. We need a lot of branches. Pick up a couple of flint-headed axes and get to work.”
Scagga did not reply, but walked slowly around the giant stone and the people standing beside it. As he did so, he said: “You probably thought you were hidden away up here. In fact practically everyone on the Great Plain knows where you are.”
Joia said: “We’ve got no reason to hide. What are you doing here, if you haven’t come to help?”
Scagga completed his circuit, looked at Joia, and said: “Surely you don’t imagine you can transport this enormous stone to the Monument?”
“Wait and see,” said Joia.
“It’s impossible!” Scagga’s eyes bulged.
Seft said: “If you’re right, then you’ll look clever, and I’ll look foolish. You’ll enjoy that.”
“No, no, no,” said Scagga. “This must stop. Look at all these herder folk wasting their time here. And many of them living here, to judge by the houses! None of them doing anything to benefit their fellow herders.”
Jara said: “Just as we feared. This is growing out of control. Countless more people will be needed to move that stone. You’ll have crowds up here helping you try to do the impossible. And meanwhile back at home their useful work will be neglected. The elders never anticipated this.”
So that would be the line of attack, Joia deduced. They would say she had gone beyond what the elders had authorized. She said: “They won’t be away from their work for long.”
“Well, then, how long?” Jara demanded.
Joia went out on a limb. “Four days,” she said. “A day to get here. A day to load the stone onto the sled. Two days to drag the sled to the Monument.”
Scagga said: “Impossible! If you can move it at all, it’s going to get stuck twenty times a day. Half your people will get fed up and go home. You’ll keep at it, though, obstinately, day after day. This is going to be a disaster.”
Seft put down his stone hammer and turned to face Scagga.
“Don’t you think I’ve thought of all that?
” he said. “You’ve been here a few moments and imagined some snags.
I’ve been thinking about this for more than a year, and I’m an expert, so I’ve foreseen many more problems than the few you’ve dreamed up.
And I’m finding solutions for them, one by one, instead of just squealing about things being impossible. ”
Joia was impressed. Seft did not often take part in arguments. In fact he went to some trouble to avoid conflict, perhaps because of his brutal childhood. It was interesting to see how formidable he could be when he chose.
Neither Scagga nor Jara had an answer for him. After a pause Scagga said: “We’ll see about that!” very emphatically, then turned and walked back the way he had come. Jara hesitated—perhaps wondering where else they were going to spend the night—then followed him.
When they were out of earshot, Joia said: “Thanks for backing me up.”
Seft shrugged. “Of course.”
“Can we really do it in four days? What do you think?”
“Well,” Seft said, “now that you’ve said it, we’ll just have to.”
Joia returned to Riverbend, hard on the heels of Scagga and Jara, suspecting he would call a meeting of the elders as soon as he got home, and knowing she had to be there to defend herself.
Keff was irritated, and he let it show as he opened the meeting.
“We have already approved of Joia and Seft erecting a stone within the Monument as part of the rebuilding,” he said.
“I believe they’ve already done a good deal of the preliminary work.
But now, Scagga, you ask us to reconsider our decision urgently.
It seems very unfair when they’re halfway through. But you must give us your reasons.”
He might as well have said This had better be good , Joia thought.
It was Jara who replied. “You haven’t seen the stone, Keff,” she said. “We have. Dragging it to the Monument is probably impossible, but they will spend weeks trying, and that means the herder community will lose its youngest and strongest workers for much of the summer.”
Kae spoke next. “If I may point something out…”
“Go ahead, please,” said Keff.
“Joia will call for volunteers at the Midsummer Rite.”
Keff said: “Yes, that’s what I understand.”
“They won’t all be herders. There will be farmers, flint miners, and plenty of people from beyond the borders of the Great Plain. Probably no more than half the volunteers will be herders.”
Jara said: “That’s just a guess.”
“I say it’s likely, that’s all.”
Scagga got tired of letting his sister lead the argument, and burst out: “We can’t take the risk! We haven’t yet recovered from the drought!”
Joia said: “You’re assuming the volunteers will be needed for a long time. That’s not so.”
Scagga butted in. “Here we go, another fantasy.”
Keff said: “How do you know this, Joia?”
“Seft has built a sled that will carry the stone and make the journey much quicker. I’ve seen it. Scagga hasn’t, because he didn’t stay at Stony Valley long enough to get the full facts. I discussed the timing with Seft and he is confident in our estimate of four days.”
Scagga looked flustered. He could not pour scorn on the sled, because he had not seen it. There was nothing he could say.
Keff said: “I think we’re agreed, then, that Joia may continue.”
“Thank you,” said Joia.