Page 164 of Circle of Days
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 tohelp 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.
