Page 69 of Circle of Days

Joia woke early, as always. Her first thought was that this was Day One of the four days she had to bring the giant stone to the Monument. That was the reckless promise she had made.

She went to the roasting frame and put out the fire under the pig. She had been told by Melly that it was best to stop the cooking a good while before carving the meat.

Then she woke the priestesses. They chattered excitedly as they dressed. Today would be a big day.

Several of them picked up sharp flints and began cutting slices off the pig and putting them in baskets.

Dawn broke, and volunteers began to arrive as the silver light touched the Monument.

All Joia’s friends showed up, which pleased her.

She saw daredevil Vee, her cousin and childhood friend; Vee’s amiable brother Cass, who had kissed her once, to no great effect; Boli, a quickrunner; and homely-looking Moke.

Zad of the confident grin came with his dark-eyed woman, Biddy, and their daughter, Dini.

There were several farmers, including Duff.

Two priestesses with baskets of sliced pork appeared and volunteers crowded around them, jostling. Joia heard Sary say: “One slice each! Only one, please. Leave some for others.”

More volunteers arrived, and Joia began to think they might have the two hundred they needed. The mood was festive, the boys and girls flirting. Ani came to wish Joia well. Scagga was lurking outside the earth circle, wearing his habitual scowl. What would he do?

When the sky on the horizon turned yellow, Joia started the priestesses singing the song of sunrise. Looking around, she was sure she had at least two hundred volunteers. They all watched the sun come up, and cheered when it was fully risen; then Joia cried: “This is the moment! Now we go!”

This was also the moment when Scagga would try to stop them.

Joia and Seft led the party out.

Scagga was outside. “This is too many!” he yelled at her.

Joia spoke without stopping. “No, we’re exactly the number you said was the limit,” she lied.

He walked backward in front of her, his face twisted in angry frustration. She knew he could not possibly have counted. It was too difficult to count crowds, and like most herders he did not know high numbers.

Joia marched on determinedly.

Scagga started yelling at the volunteers, telling them they could not go, the elders had forbidden it. They ignored him, talking to one another, laughing and joking. He stood in front of one young man and got pushed away. Joia had a moment of severe anxiety, fearing a fight might break out.

Then there was an intervention by a woman volunteer. “How dare you tell me what to do?” she said to Scagga. Joia recognized the fair curly hair and wide mouth of Dee, the Stony Valley shepherd’s beautiful daughter. In her surprise Joia stumbled and almost fell.

When she recovered her balance, she heard Dee say: “Get out of the way, before someone picks you up and throws you.” The people around her laughed. Mocked and threatened, Scagga reddened, turned around, and stamped off.

Joia found herself panting for no reason. She tried to calm her breathing, then spoke to Dee. “Well done,” she managed.

“He needed to be shut up.”

“Yes, and, um, you did it very effectively. Thank you.”

Dee gave that wide-mouthed smile that was like the sun coming out.

Joia ended the conversation before she could embarrass herself but, as she walked, she was continually conscious of Dee behind her.

She would have liked to talk to her some more.

She wondered how she might get to know her better.

Then she asked herself why she was thinking this way. It had never happened before.

They marched along the path to Riverbend. Joia looked back and saw that Sary and Tem were bringing up the rear, as she had instructed them, encouraging stragglers.

As they passed through the village, everyone came out of their houses to cheer, egging them on.

They came to the river and turned north on the path. Seft’s track was now in better shape, but no doubt it would be disarranged again by two hundred marchers. It could not be helped.

A group of young men started singing. It was a marching song with a left-right left-right beat. People sang it on long walks to help them keep up the pace. Soon everyone joined in. They sang it again and again until they tired of it.

The sun rose higher in the sky and the marchers got warm. People stopped often to drink from the river.

After a while the volunteers started a risqué song that everyone knew.

A boy loved a girl

But she didn’t care for him

So he said, “Mother, what shall I do?”

She said, “Give her a ring,

And then show her your thing,

And she’s certain to fall for you.”

So he gave her a ring

And then showed her his thing,

And she said, “I don’t know what to do.”

There were many verses, in every one of which the courtship ran into a comical snag, each one greeted with hilarity. They were treating the march as an extension of the festivities, just as Joia had hoped. It was another excuse to fool around and have fun.

Duff came up to her and said: “A word in your ear.”

“Anytime,” said Joia. She liked Duff.

“I just want to let you know that some of Troon’s Young Dogs have joined us. His son, Stam, is dead now, you probably heard, but Stam’s best friend, Narod, is here, with a handful of others.”

Joia frowned. “Thank you for letting me know. I wonder what they want.”

“Troon might have sent them just to keep an eye on what we’re doing.”

“Perhaps. More likely they want to undermine us.”

“I don’t see how.”

“Troon may have thought of something.”

She mulled that over until they came to the large village of Upriver. It was almost noon, and Seft had picked this as a place to rest because there was a wide meadow beside the river. Many of the marchers threw off their tunics and jumped into the river to cool off.

The villagers were interested and amused by this invasion of cheerful people, and some residents offered them snacks and honeyed drinks.

Dee sat down by Joia. This time Joia was not startled and she managed to keep calm. Dee said: “I came to the Rite with some hoggets to trade.”

Joia knew that hoggets were year-old sheep. She said: “What did you get for them?”

“Some flints. My brother is carrying them home for me.”

“Do shepherds use special tools?”

“We need very sharp knives to cut a sheep’s fleece close to the skin.”

“What do you use the fleece for?”

“To stuff leather pillows. Much softer than straw.”

Joia looked at the crowd. “I was afraid a lot of people would drop out on the way, tired or bored, and perhaps a few did, but I can’t see any significant fall in our numbers. They might stay the distance. I’m relieved.”

Dee said: “The sunrise ceremony was wonderful yesterday. This is the first time for some years that I’ve seen it, and it seemed more coordinated.”

Joia smiled. “I’ve been working on that.”

“I’ve been told that when you dance like that you count the posts, and somehow that enables you to know what day of the year it is. Is that true?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I can’t imagine how it works. Could you tell me?”

“Yes, although it will take a while. I’ll gladly explain it when we’ve got time. Right now I need to get these people marching again.”

“Oh, of course.”

Joia went around telling the volunteers to get out of the water and put on their tunics. They were slow but they obeyed, and soon they were on the way. Once again Sary and Tem were left to round up the slow ones.

So Dee was curious about the days of the year. Joia felt lucky. The woman who made her heart beat faster wanted to learn. That would make it easy to get to know her better. Why do I want to know her better? I’m not sure, she seems like she would be a good friend.

After Upriver they came to the Great Plain, then turned away from the river. There were no cattle here. Joia remembered Seft saying the herders sometimes moved the beasts here in summer, but they had not done so yet.

Halfway through the afternoon they began to climb into the North Hills, and the walking got harder. The ground was uneven and the landscape went up and down. They followed Seft’s track—undamaged here—and found that it cleverly avoided steep slopes.

From this point on, Joia felt, people were unlikely to drop out. They were more than halfway to their destination.

She allowed herself to feel a thrill of triumph. She had won over her volunteers and she had brought them this far. Until this moment she had hardly dared to believe she would manage it. But here they were.

They passed only one village, half a dozen houses standing on a hilltop.

No doubt the position enabled the residents to see their sheep, which were grazing the hillside.

Two hundred marchers made a noise even when they were not singing, and the villagers came out of their houses to stare.

Some volunteers waved at them, and the shepherds waved back.

Joia asked Seft the name of the place, and he said he did not think it had a name.

The afternoon dimmed. The walkers were tired when they reached the valleys. The hillsides were green and the tall trees were in leaf. Bold squirrels scampered from one tree to the next. Bees sipped the nectar of the wildflowers that dotted the grass. It was a pretty sight.

When at last they arrived at Stony Valley, they found it covered with oxeye daisies, tall flowers with long white petals and a golden-yellow center.

Seft’s track led straight to the stone they had chosen—not the one they had lifted last year, which had been only medium size, but one of the largest. There were many other stones about the same size, and uniformity was important in the Monument.

The volunteers were thunderstruck. They had never seen such big stones. There was a buzz of surprised conversation. Cass walked all around it, wide-eyed, and said: “This is a Monument all on its own.”

Joia raised her voice to speak to the crowd. “You’re probably wondering how we’re going to move it.”

There were nods of assent and sounds of agreement.

“I’ll show you.” Along the track, ten paces from the stone, stood a large object shrouded in hides.

Joia nodded to Seft, and he and some of his cleverhands began to remove the cover to reveal the sled.

The volunteers broke out into a buzz of astonished conversation.

They were impressed because they had never seen such a large work of carpentry, and they were intrigued because they could not see, at first glance, what its purpose was.

The greased wood gleamed in the evening light.

Joia thought again how beautiful it was.

She turned to practicalities. “You can probably smell your dinner.” There was a strong aroma coming from several roasting pits.

“Just one rule. You see the stream running north–south along this valley? To the east of the stream we eat and sleep. To the west, we shit and piss. No exceptions! Even if it’s only a midnight piddle, you have to cross the stream. Now rest. Tomorrow we work hard.”

Seft came to stand beside her and they looked at the sled together. “It’s so graceful,” Joia said.

“And strong!” Seft said. “It has to take a great strain.”

“It looks stronger than a house.”

Seft laughed. “It’s a lot stronger than a house.”

“I think it should be guarded, especially at night.”

“Really? Who would damage it?”

“A farmer boy called Narod is among the volunteers, with some of his cronies. He was close to the late Stam, the thuggish son of Troon. They might be here just to enjoy the mission, but let’s not take any chances.”

“I agree. I’ll have half a dozen men sleep next to the sled.”

“Good.”

She left Seft and went to see the cooks, a small group led by Chack’s daughter, Verila. Dee was helping them. She said to Joia: “I suggested they lay the cow hides on the ground for somewhere to put the meat when it’s carved. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Great idea,” said Joia. “Thank you.” She liked people who used their initiative.

She took some meat for herself and found a quiet place to sit on the grass and eat. After a while Dee joined her, taking off her shoes and rubbing her toes. She had shapely feet, Joia noticed.

The evening was darkening and some of the marchers were slipping away in pairs. There was going to be a revel, clearly.

Dee said: “Something I don’t understand. How can you count the days of the year when the highest number is…” She touched the top of her head, for twenty-seven.

“We have a different way of counting. First, every number has a name.” She ran through the first ten numbers on her fingers, saying the names of the numbers up to ten.

Then she touched Dee’s little toe. “Imagine that your toe represents the same number as all my fingers together. Then if I touch your toe and hold up one finger, we get the next number after ten. Is that clear so far?”

“How can you remember all the names of the numbers?”

“It’s not that hard. You don’t have to remember the higher numbers, you can make up the names according to a formula. Just as someone who didn’t know your name could call you Hol’s granddaughter.”

Dee picked it up quickly. She said: “If a toe is worth all the fingers, is there something else that’s worth all the toes?”

“Yes! You’ve worked it out without me telling you.”

“But that means you could go on counting, up and up… forever.”

“That’s exactly what I said when they taught me.”

“I have to think about this.”

“I said that, too!”

They sat quiet for a few moments. Night had fallen. Dee lay down, and Joia did the same.

As Joia closed her eyes, she thought how much she liked Dee. She could be a really good friend, long-term, she thought.

Like Seft.