Page 93 of Circle of Days

Seft woke his brothers at dawn on the day after midsummer.

Cam was the spokesman for the two, Olf not being good at speaking, but Cam always said what Olf wanted him to say. Now he protested: “It’s still dark!”

“Not quite. Get up. Don’t argue.”

Cam said: “We’re not going on this stupid mission.”

“In that case you’ll have to leave Riverbend.”

“You can’t throw your brothers out!”

“It won’t be me throwing you out. In Riverbend you have to work if you want to eat. You’ve been here before, and you’ve never done a stroke of work. The elders have their eye on you, and they’ve warned me. If you don’t come with me now, you’ll be gone from here by midday.”

They got to their feet reluctantly. He noticed that they had ignored his advice to wash.

They joined the stream of people crossing the plain to the Monument. Olf whined: “I can’t work with a bad arm.”

“I’ll think of something you can do with your other arm,” said Seft.

When they reached the Monument, the brothers eagerly grabbed slices of salt pork. Seft sought out Joia, and they stood together watching the volunteers arrive. Seft said: “What do you think?”

“It’s fewer than last year,” said Joia.

“Everyone’s heard about the battles with the farmers, and some people have been scared off.”

“But we won! And the farmer army was wiped out.”

“And most people know that. But there’s still a feeling that the mission can be dangerous.”

“Yes—why do I talk as if people are rational?” Joia said ruefully. “I spend too much time thinking about the sun and the moon. They always do what we expect them to do.”

They watched the incoming crowd in silence for a while, then Seft said: “We’re going to have enough volunteers. A crossbar is about half the size of an upright, so each one should need only about a hundred people pulling. And we need only five crossbars.”

“So we’re all right?”

Seft nodded. “And I see Dee’s here.”

Joia smiled broadly. “Yes.”

“I’m glad. She makes you happy. Anyone can see it.”

“I’m a lucky woman.”

“So is Dee.”

“Thank you. Now I think it may be time to start.”

“Right. I’ll just make sure my brothers don’t contrive to get left behind.”

Joia and Dee led the march. Seft found Olf and Cam and herded them out through the entrance and across the plain. They no longer looked so resentful: the salt pork had mollified them.

Seft went ahead to check the condition of the track. He had surveyed it a month ago and ordered some repair work, and he was pleased to see it was still in good condition.

He returned to the main body of the march and listened to what the volunteers were talking about. Right now they were upbeat. Last summer’s mission was spoken of with excitement, not fear. “Were you here for the stampede?” he heard one young man say. “It was fantastic.”

This was the third mission, and spirits were higher than ever. The legend was growing. It would continue to survive setbacks and grow more popular, he thought. It had become something that people did every year. That was necessary, for many more years would be needed to finish the task.

The woman flint miner, Bax, came up beside him. “I noticed you talking to a couple of miners I know—Olf and Cam,” she said. “I just want to tell you that they’re a villainous pair.”

Clearly she did not realize that they were Seft’s brothers. He decided not to tell her yet. He wanted to hear the plain truth. Seft said: “I appreciate the warning, though I do know them. What makes you call them villainous?”

“I saw the fight that gave them those injuries.”

“Ah.” Seft wanted to know more about that. “They told me they were beaten by farmers and robbed of everything.”

Bax laughed. “No, they were the robbers. They were trying to steal from another miner, but he caught them, and he and his workmates beat them up.”

Seft sighed. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“How do you know them?”

“To my shame, they’re my brothers.”

“Oh!” Bax was embarrassed. “I didn’t realize…”

“Please don’t apologize. I’m grateful to you for telling me the true story.”

When they left Upriver behind, Seft walked with Joia.

He had a surprise for her. As they ascended into the hill country, they could see that Seft had extended the embedded-timber track.

Originally installed only for the first climb out of Stony Valley, it now replaced the branches-and-earth track on every uphill stretch.

Joia was delighted. “This will make moving the stones much less difficult,” she exulted.

“It takes a long time to build and uses a lot of timber, but eventually I hope we’ll have this type of track all the way,” he said.

“You’re looking to the future.”

“If we succeed today, we’ll go on to build the outer ring in stone, won’t we?”

“I hope so.”

“That will take years. Thirty uprights and thirty crossbars. Are you all right with that?”

“Of course. I’m happy. This has become my life’s work.”

Seft nodded. “Mine, too.”

They reached Stony Valley in good time. The village had grown again, Joia saw, with more houses, a store, and a workshop sheltered from the weather by a canopy.

Seft and his family divided their time between here and the Monument, but many of the cleverhands lived here with their families all the year round, only going south for the Rites.

As usual, Seft saw, some of the volunteers regarded this evening as a continuation of the midsummer revel. However, Olf and Cam did not join in: evidently exhausted by the walk, they went to sleep straight after supper.

Next morning they had gone. Seft assumed they would try their luck elsewhere. He was not going to worry about it.

The next day was the least difficult yet.

Not only were Seft and the cleverhands experienced in moving stones, they also benefited from the smaller size and lighter weight of the crossbars.

And there was no one trying to sabotage their track.

In consequence, five crossbars were transported to the Monument in three days.

Still on sleds, the stones were parked just outside the earth bank, in the area that had become the stonemasons’ workshop.

Each had to be carefully carved, using Seft’s leather templates, to match the twin tops of its destination uprights, with two sockets that would fit exactly on the dome-shaped pegs.

The ropes used to pull them were loosened for the carving, then retightened when they were ready to be moved into the Monument.

Meanwhile, Neen was furious. Olf and Cam had come back to Riverbend and robbed Seft’s house while Neen and the children were at Ani’s place. They had taken flints and pots and some of Seft’s tools. “How could you do this to me again?” she raved. “You know what they’re like.”

“You’re right,” he said humbly. “I’m sorry.”

“Please, never let this happen again.”

“I won’t.”

“Next time they show up here, you give them no food and nowhere to shelter. And you stay with me until they leave the village.”

“I’ll do that.”

“Promise.”

“I promise.”

When all the stones had been painstakingly carved, it was time to place them on top of the uprights, where they would remain until the end of time.

Neither Joia nor anyone else could imagine how Seft was going to lift an enormously heavy crossbar to the top of an upright, which was as high as three men standing on each other’s shoulders.

No one knew what Seft’s plan was, and all he would say was that he did not know whether it would work.

Everyone was desperate to see him perform a miracle—or fail.

Joia reckoned Seft needed a hundred volunteers, and she recruited more than that with no difficulty from the huge crowd that had gathered to watch.

The two uprights nearest the entrance had been chosen as the first pair to be crowned with a crossbar.

Seft had constructed a platform, level with the tops of the uprights.

It was made of branches tightly roped together and supported by tree trunks.

To reach it he had to scramble up the climbing pole Joia used when she made her speeches.

The first sled was dragged in and parked beside the chosen uprights, with its nose to the outer edge of the near upright. Joia wondered why Seft was going to lift the crossbar up the side of the pair, rather than the front. No doubt the scheme would soon become clear.

Seft had made a timber giant like the one he had constructed at Stony Valley, two tree trunks roped together in a cross shape, with long legs and short arms. This massive frame now leaned against the outer edge of the far upright.

A picture began to emerge. The grab lines of the ropes around the crossbar were now trailed up from the sled, over the tops of the two uprights, through the angle made by the arms of the giant, and all the way down to the ground on the other side.

Joia realized with astonishment that this required the crossbar to be lifted up in the air.

This had never been done with the uprights.

From the raising of the stone up from the ground in Stony Valley, to sliding it off the sled and into its hole in the ground at the Monument, some part of the stone had always rested on the ground or on the sled.

But now the crossbar was to rise straight up.

The volunteers were instructed to take hold of the grab lines. They came eagerly, unsure of what they were doing but proud to be part of the big event.

On Joia’s command they pulled the ropes taut, but no harder, while Seft and some of the cleverhands adjusted the position of the giant at the other end.

Seft and Tem went up the pole and stood on the platform. Joia worried about their safety. It was a long way to fall.

There was tension in the air as the big moment approached.

Seft nodded to Joia, and she said: “Take the strain…”

The ropes tightened all along their route. The pointed feet on the ends of the giant’s legs sank into the earth.

“And now… heave!”

The crossbar rocked on its sled.

“And more… heave!”

Joia stared at the bottom of the crossbar. Was it rising?

“And again… heave!”

Suddenly Joia could see light between crossbar and sled. “It’s coming!” she yelled. “Come on, heave!”

With painful slowness the great stone rose.

It also swung forward until its front end touched the side of the upright with a deep thud like the sound of a felled tree hitting the ground.

Joia wondered whether Seft had foreseen this, and feared that the crossbar might knock the upright over; but the upright was firmly grounded and did not move.

The crowd was silent, rapt. The only sound was the panting of the volunteers. Slowly the crossbar came up until its front end scraped over the edge of the upright.

Now comes the really hard part, Joia thought, letting the crossbar down in exactly the right place.

The great stone inched over the uprights. Seft, on the platform, knelt down to look at the sockets on the underside of the crossbar. If all his calculations were right, the crossbar should sink down with its sockets embracing the domed pegs in a perfect match.

Seft lifted his arm and yelled: “Stop! Hold position!”

The volunteers relaxed slightly and the crossbar stopped moving.

Seft yelled: “One more pull!”

They pulled again, and a moment later he yelled: “Stop!”

The crossbar now lay across the tops of the two uprights. Still peering underneath, Seft shouted: “Slowly, slowly, ease the ropes.”

The crossbar sank down. There was a scraping sound: the pegs and holes were not exactly in line. But the crossbar jerked sideways by the width of a thumb, and then sank down until it rested flat on the uprights with no gap.

The pegs were in the sockets.

The crossbar lay with its edges perfectly aligned with the edges of the upright stones.

Seft has done it, Joia thought jubilantly. He’s triumphed again.

The exhausted volunteers dropped their grab lines and rubbed their sore hands.

The crowd began to cheer.

Seft leaped from his platform onto the crossbar and stood upright, holding his arms up in a victory gesture he had learned from Joia; and the cheering turned into a roar of triumph.

“We did it!” Seft yelled. “We all did it!”

The crowd went wild, everyone cheering and kissing and hugging. On top of the crossbar, Seft hugged Tem.

Dee kissed Joia. “You did it,” she said.

“It was a team effort.”

“But you made it happen. I’m so proud of you I think I might burst.”

They stood side by side with their arms around each other and stared at the completed trilith as the cheering went on. “I can hardly believe it,” said Joia. She thought of the years of effort that had gone into making this massive, simple symbol, and felt a deep sense of satisfaction.

They stared for a long time, and then she said: “That’s just a beautiful, beautiful sight.”