by Mike Crowson
Chapter 9
I threw the six half sticks: three flat sides and three curved sides. I needed two curved sides to finish, so I took another drink from the goatskin while Po-atl picked up the sticks.
"Five to finish," he said, and threw them. They all landed curved side up. "A kill," he shouted in excitement, "I throw again."
This time he threw the two I had needed, and moved his counter two holes up the spiral. "Pity I didn't throw three," he remarked as he picked up the sticks.
I glanced towards the skyline at the crest of a long, low hill, where fourteen or fifteen men sweated into sight, hauling and pushing a large, long stone. They were using logs underneath it, to help it move along and two of the men were picking up the logs behind the stone and running round to lay them down in front. That is a wearisome job at the best of times and I suspect it was the nearness of a meal and a rest which kept them going. They would be with us in about ten minutes because, though the hill was gentle, there was enough slope to make the work easy. Well, easier.
"Come on," said Po-atl, "we have time enough to finish."
I threw four curved sides and, as I only needed two of them, I couldn't move up the spiral. I had two counters home and so did Po-atl so, as we had lost two counters each already, everything depended on the final counter.
I say 'everything' but nothing depended on the outcome of what was, after all, just a game. I mean the counters were just pebbles and the playing area was drawn in the dirt. I was rather bored because we had waited some time for the stone and the sun was now high in the sky. I would be fortunate if I completed my part in the work before sunset. So it was that I threw the stick without much enthusiasm.
"Four curved." I said, and waited for Po-atl to throw.
I looked again at the huge stone, larger now that it was nearer. For the most part those pushing and hauling were men of our tribe. They were two thirds of three villages. The remainder and some of the women were out gathering food, mostly hunting.
I had been told that our ancestors didn't eat meat, or indulge in human sacrifices either, but I couldn't see that myself. I mean, how could they possibly gather enough food without meat?
Several of the team hauling the stone were prisoners taken in war with some other tribe. They were well enough fed, didn't work any harder than our own men and were moderately interested in what they were doing. I'm not sure they would have been so willing if they'd known we intended to sacrifice them at the next eclipse though.
Po-atl threw the sticks. "One!" he shouted and moved his counter one hole up the spiral to take my stone.
"I win," he said triumphantly, throwing the captured pebble - counter, sorry - and catching it in jubilation.
"You do indeed. Congratulations," I took another drink from the goatskin, passed it over and got up to meet the team with the stone, giving the stew a quick stir as I passed.
There was a wooden post a couple of feet in front of the spot where the stone was going. It wasn't marking the place as such. We used the wooden stake to mark a line used in the reckoning of cycles. That is not my job, so I'm not sure which one. The moon I think. Anyway, it was used by the astronomer in predicting eclipses and we were going to use a stone in its place, because she thought something more durable would be 'better' and would last through the lives of hundreds of astronomers, not just a few. Well, that's the theory anyway.
I walked over to the hole we had dug. The astronomer was very particular about the measurements and, even though we were simply replacing a stake with a stone, she had checked it all. I suppose I would be particular too if my reputation depended on it as hers did. If she made errors the priest might look a fool in front of the villagers, which was not likely to please him at all and, besides his anger, she would look a fool as well as him.
When the men arrived they looked ready for a rest. "Right," I said, "Line it up with the hole and then I've got something ready to eat." I called.
I don't think that stone would have been in line so quickly if they had eaten first!
I dipped my bread in the stew absently, to mop up the juices of the meat. I had put in some of those round roots as well as the usual herbs and the result was pleasing. There is a man I know who actually grows them. Round roots, I mean. He uses an ox-shoulder bone to turn over enough soil to plant seeds, like some villages have started doing with the grasses they use to make bread, and he gets them growing in one convenient place.
When I mentioned this to the priest he said that there were old tales of days before the disaster and flood when our ancestors used to do that sort of thing in a big way. If there is any truth in that it would still be done, surely? The story is probably just an old priest's tale. When the goatskin was passed round I took a good pull before I passed it on.
The sun was hot and we rested after we had eaten. I lay back in the shade of a fruit tree with my hands clasped behind my head and thought about growing the round roots. Well, to be more accurate, the problem of preparing the ground for planting them. I was thinking about the old priest's tale and how you might grow things. I could see that it would be useful to have all of one kind of plant growing in one place and we could do with a lot more of some things too. It seemed to me that the only way to plant enough and still have time to hunt while you waited for your plants to grow was to use an ox to help you break the ground. If you had a of sling made of hide and you let the ox pull it, a strong man could hold a pointed log in the sling and use it to break the ground for the seed. In a way it would be like opening a woman for seed, if you see my analogy in all its detail, but not as much fun as mating though.
I looked at the blueness of the sky through the leaves of the tree and thought that, if this tree was watered in dry weather, it might thrive better and we might get more fruit from it. I thought that I'd try it some day when the goddess moved me.
When the sun had dropped a bit I got to my feet and said, "Right, let's get that stone raised and we're finished for the moment."
My words were received with a distinct lack of enthusiasm, but the gang roused themselves nevertheless and wandered over to the stone. There was no sign of Po-atl but he had probably found someone to play 'Snail up the Snake' with.
We edged the foot of the stone down the sloped side of the hole until it was in place and then used logs too wide to go into the sloped trench. We laid these at right angles to the stone, so that it could be lifted and levered a little at a time into an upright position. When it was upright we filled in the hole around it and the slope as well.
The scheme was my idea and I was quite proud of it. The plan had worked well on six other stones in the circle and it worked well this time too but, before we had finished the filling in, we had visitors. The priest and the astronomer arrived to see how we were getting on.
"Well, well. And how is it going?" asked the priest. Oh he does annoy me sometimes. He is no older than me, but he's so patronising and, even though our jobs are completely different, I'm his equal, aren't I? I don't think he likes the idea of women doing anything non-domestic, which is why he is so caustic towards the astronomer as well. I could see us women doing nothing but having babies, growing food and cooking it if he had his way. Apart from all that, he could see how it was going.
"All right," I said. "We've almost finished."
"I don't see your apprentice." remarked the priest, looking around.
"Po-atl? Well he was around at lunchtime. I haven't had time to notice since."
"Probably playing 'Snail up the Snake' with somebody or other," laughed the astronomer shaking her head.
"It's no laughing matter," said the priest sternly and, I thought, rather sourly. "Itzapec is still remarkably young but Po-atl is supposed to be learning the trade. He has to be fit for the job."
He turned to me. "You've got to do something about him this time." He will keep talking about me as if I'm not there.
"Make him carve games on the stone, spirals and holes for the counters," suggested the
astronomer brightly.
The priest glowered at her but I was glad she was not taking it too seriously. As a matter of fact that might be just the thing to cure him once and for all. It would sound like fun and might even be fun for a while, but I wouldn't mind betting that the fifth or the tenth spiral would sound less of a good idea than the first. I laughed a bit at the thought.
"I'll tell him you want the stone decorated the moment he turns up," I said, and laughed again at the thought of Po-atl's face when he got to the tenth spiral.
"We didn't come here to discuss Po-atl and his silly games," interrupted the priest severely.
I was rather glad he was getting to the point at last. I knew he hadn't come out to discuss Po-atl, though actually he had brought up the subject. I knew that his enquiries about progress were not the reason for his visit either, though that was the only other thing he had mentioned so far.
"No," I replied noncommittally, and waited for him to go on.
"There will be an eclipse next week." he said.
"Yes?" I said and waited.
"It will be almost complete."
The astronomer had worked that out and told him; he hadn't calculated that himself, I knew that.
"Yes?" Oh I can be very unhelpful at times.
"When the villagers panic I will sacrifice the prisoners."
"The prisoners are hardly responsible for the movements of the sun," I told him. He was beginning to irritate me and I couldn't help myself.
"People will naturally think there is a connection between my sacrifice and the sun's return," he said. "While the whole thing is fresh in their minds I shall tell them we need a full, stone temple, as great as any in the old stories."
I stared at his tortuous thinking and ambition. I looked at the astronomer but her face was impassive. I wondered if she had made a mistake but it wasn't very likely. She possibly guessed my thoughts because she said, "Three of the four cycles meet and complete next week for the first time in nearly three thousand years." I was impressed.
"The first time since.."
"Yes," she said, "The first time since then."
Watching stars bores me. Personally I'd rather sleep in the hours of dark or mate with a nice strong man if I'm in the mood - that's how I got my daughter, but she's another story altogether. Still, I'm glad we're not all the same and I suppose you get used to staying up at night if you're an astronomer. She knots strips of hide to remember where the planets are, same as I do when I'm planning a building except, of course, that she has a lot more to remember. She has strips of hide hanging from two sticks across the whole width of her house. It's like walking into a spider's web, going into her house. She uses the stones and wooden posts to predict things like festivals and seasons as well. That's not very complicated. Both the priest and I can do it. Eclipses? That's another matter entirely.
The priest waited until the astronomer wandered off to check her measurements yet again, hanging around with something unsaid. There was a look in his eyes that I didn't much like. Mind you, I didn't like the rest of him either.
"Itzapec," he said slowly, making the word sound like a threat, "You have a circle round your finger. It's properly called a ring and you got it from your mother." I glanced at my hand. I don't know what kind of stone or bone it is, but it's a pretty little decoration.
"Yes?"
"I want it."
"It's not for barter."
"I don't want to give you anything for it. It is of no real use. When the eclipse comes around next week and I make my sacrifices I will tell the people that there is something angering the Gods and I must find out what it is. I will discover it is the circle of stone on your finger - your ring, and demand that you give it to me."
The look in his eyes was - was what? Covetous? Evil? Calculating? Greedy? Ruthless? Cunning? It was all of those things and something more that one could not quite put a finger on - or in, perhaps. I resolved that he would not have this thing - this 'ring'.
"Mark well now." He said, "I will have the ring, even if I have to sacrifice you to get it."
So that was why he was so concerned about the progress of my apprentice! Well, warned was warned. I didn't say anything at all, but he was certainly not having it.
The eclipse was total, like the astronomer said, and it came more or less when she said too. The priest was ready for it. For a couple of days before he went about muttering that the Gods were angry and when the eclipse began he sacrificed the three prisoners like he said and three young men from the village, which was pretty wasteful I thought.
Afterwards he took all the credit for bringing back the sun and got the villagers to promise him a much bigger temple with earthworks and a decorated stone circle. But he also said that the Gods were still angry because something important was being held back from them and he'd have to go into a trance to consult the Gods at full moon. Then he gave me another evil look.
But by the time of the eclipse I was ready too. I didn't say anything, mostly because of my vows, but I had made up my mind I wasn't going to build his damned temple for him. Or be the sacrifice at its completion. Or let him take the ring. I was leaving the village.
I'd been gone nearly a week before I gave any thought to the 'ring'. That something has a name suggests that there are others of the same sort, although I have seen no other. To describe it in more detail I could say that it fits on my finger as a decoration or possibly a symbol of some thing now forgotten. If you could imagine a piece of hide tied round your finger, this was a piece of very thin stone or bone that slipped on like that. I wondered what it was and where my mother acquired it. I had received it from my mother when she died. I had, as I said before, never seen another one but I wasn't surprised the priest coveted it when I thought about it. Strange that he should know its name, though, and perhaps wanted it for some purpose.
I had traded two of my four oxen for the horse I was riding and some hides. I'd loaded them, along with some food and various other things, including my daughter, onto the remaining two oxen, and set out north.
Strictly speaking the two I kept weren't oxen at all, since there was a male and a female and the male wasn't castrated, but you know what I mean. It sounds as if I rode off at a steady trot but all I could actually manage was a shambling walk and I had to drive the oxen to keep even that up for long. Still, we made steady progress and, after a week, there was no sign of pursuit. I wondered how long it would take the priest to realise I had actually left - not long I supposed - and what he would do about it. He might well get hunters from the village to hunt me down. They had agreed to build his temple readily enough. At any rate I put as much distance as I could between me and the village.
The stories of those who had travelled further afield was that the weather as you left the mountains and crossed the far plain had improved in recent years with less rain, warmer temperatures and much more sun. I didn't know how much credence to give these tales because they were anything but first hand. The teller at best 'knew somebody who heard it from a reliable friend who had heard it from somebody who had actually ...' You understand me?
At first the country was the foothills of the mountains proper to the south-east of us but as I left them behind the countryside was increasingly flat, with gentle undulations and more trees. I crossed one or two smallish rivers and saw only one village in the first two weeks. Villages didn't worry me much, because two people, both female - one, at eleven, more a child than a woman - were hardly a threat. Groups of hunters I was not so sure about. They might find two women with a horse and two oxen a tempting prey and even if we escaped with our lives, my daughter and I, females from another tribe, were often fair game when it came to mating. It isn't that I have no liking for sex. I like it, but I like to choose my men before I mate.
In point of fact I could have a lot to offer the right group. I could measure out the ground for houses and select stones for them; calculate seasons, raise huge stones in a circle, make pots and, at a pinch, do
most of those jobs usually left to women as well. What's more, I could sling a stone as well as most men. I am one of many talents, even if I do say it myself.
The river was rather wide as well as looking rather deep and fast. I studied it and decided to camp and postpone making up my mind about a crossing until the next day, so we looked around for a suitable spot. I am uncertain what made me choose a shallow valley, almost hidden by bushes, but we not only set up camp but did so discreetly. I built the lean-to of hides against an outcrop of rock and tethered the horse and oxen among some scrubby undergrowth. When I had finished the camp was almost invisible. We gathered up a few sticks but, before I had lit a fire, I heard the sound of a group approaching the river and decided not to strike flint until I'd had a look.
It was a mixed party with, as far as I could see, about eight adult males and six adult females, with a handful of children and no old people at all. I listened to them from the bushes and decided they must be from further towards the direction of the rising sun because, although I understood most of what they were saying, they seemed to have a noticeable accent.
I listened further and gathered that there had been two parties originally. One mixed lot had left their village, probably because it had become too large, but whether they had chosen to leave or been forced out was not clear from what I heard. They may well have been forced, because the men must have been a pretty weedy bunch. When they'd run into a small band of hunters the men in the party had been either killed or driven off and the women given no choice about making up a new group.
The one who was more or less their leader was not a very interesting looking individual as a man, being rather large and unkempt. He was busy throwing out contradictory instructions and orders, and he appeared to have a couple of women too which, considering the imbalance of the party, was not a sensible arrangement. He was not appealing to look at, but my biggest objection to him was that he appeared stupid. His choice of campsite was random and he did little besides shout his orders. I thought that his second in charge looked younger, more presentable and more intelligent. I thought I could handle being his woman if I could get rid of the leader of the group. I glanced back at my daughter. At eleven she was still more child than woman but she was maturing. Could I make her enough of a woman to attract the attention of the stupid lump who was the present leader of the group? I turned back to watch and listen.
Hunters they may have been, but they obviously knew nothing about being hunted because they were frustratingly unaware of anyone else. I dared not be too obvious because I wanted to get their leader alone and I would not be able to do that if I aroused their suspicions. The question was how to get him on his own.
I darkened Mayapec's eyelids with kohl, which I was rather reluctant to do, since I hadn't much and the chances of meeting a trader out here are almost nil, so I wouldn't be able to acquire any more. Next I reddened her lips with berries. They could have done with being riper but, as they don't keep from one season to the next, I hadn't any old ones left. I made sure there were some left for me, because I would need them later, then braided Mayapec's hair and sat her in plain view of anyone entering our shallow valley, while still close to cover I could use. I hoped it would work because I valued my fingers!
I took my sling and an oxbone knife with a good stabbing edge on it, but I had simply no idea how on earth to get him up the shallow bank to my vantage point. He sat on a fallen tree at the edges of the camp like a largish tangle in humanity's hair and still gave everyone else his orders. It was then that I had my piece of luck - he went into the bushes to relieve himself. I still had to sling three pebbles to get him to look in the right direction and even then my plan, such as it was, almost fell through because he was such an idle lump. I think he was almost too idle to investigate a woman alone. It certainly wasn't suspicion or caution because once he started towards Mayapec he didn't exercise even ordinary care. He just walked over to her, looked her over, said "Hello woman," and started to pull her clothes up to mate her.
I would rather have given Mayapec a gentler introduction to mating and, anyway, I think she's a bit young to have offspring yet, so she can find herself a man later to live with. One who would give a lot more thought to her pleasure than this lump was doing. Mayapec didn't like his attentions much and I don't blame her, but I waited until he was well into the business before I came out of the bushes and stabbed him. He got himself out of Mayapec and rolled over to reach for his knife, so I stabbed him again.
All in all it was a rather messy but not noisy job. Mayapec and I tidied ourselves up, braided our hair - all the usual things - struck camp, loaded up the animals and went to join the group by the river. I was quite looking forward to the second in command promoting himself to chief and to being his woman. As for the other women in the group, well, I could handle them.
I smiled to myself, flexed my fingers now that they were safe and felt the ring, conscious of it for the first time since leaving my village. Perhaps I could use it help establish a position of power. At any rate I urged the animals to a shambling walk towards the camp by the river.
CHAPTER 10