Page 84 of Circle of Days
The woods retreated and the farmland widened. She passed houses: no one was about. She was almost home, but it was still possible that some early riser would see her and say: “Hello! What are you doing, wandering around in the dark?”
She reached her farm and walked up to the door of the house. It was silent within. She stepped in noiselessly. Stam was still fast asleep. She lay down beside her mother. Yana reached out and squeezed her arm gently.
Pia closed her eyes.
All was well.
Next morning early, a rumor ran from field to field that Mo had taken the boat and sailed away.
At midmorning Shen appeared and told Stam to go to his father.
At noon Stam went past, heading downriver with a handful of his friends, whom the farmers called the Young Dogs. “The search party,” Yana said to Pia, and they continued watering and weeding. Pia was pleased: Stam was following her false trail.
The Young Dogs came back along the riverside at dusk, tired and frustrated, Narod and Pilic arguing rancorously about why they had failed to find Mo. When Stam came home for supper, he said: “My father doesn’t believe Mo even took that boat. He thinks it just got loose somehow and floated downstream. He’s furious.”
Troon was not imaginative, Pia reflected. It had not occurred to him that the boat might have been a deliberate decoy. She was relieved.
She said disingenuously to Stam: “I wonder where Mo could have gone?”
“My father thinks she went to Riverbend. She’ll imagine we can’t touch her there. She’s going to find out differently.”
Stam was clearly repeating things his father had said. Pia wanted to find out how much Troon knew. She said: “Mo might have someone at Riverbend to protect her.”
“Oh, she’s got a man there, we know that.”
Pia went cold. How had they found out? Then she reasoned. Mo had gone with Yaran at the last Midsummer Rite. Then, at a subsequent Rite, she had talked to him long enough to find out that he liked her. Many people would have noticed a relationship developing. And someone had told Troon about it.
Pia said to Stam: “Who is this man?”
“We don’t know. Shen is going there tomorrow to find out.”
Sly Shen would probably learn the name of Mo’s protector—andwhere he lived. And Mo would not be far away. This was not going well.
Shen disappeared early next morning. He returned at the end of the following day. On the morning after that, Troon set off with Stam and the Young Dogs, heading east.
Pia was fearful for Mo.
The herders did not consider women to be property, but they knew that was the farmers’ belief, and they were always reluctant to get involved in a quarrel. They would be angry if Yaran was attacked but, if Mo was kidnapped and Yaran was left more or less unhurt, the herders might take no action.
The worst happened. Two days later the Young Dogs came back with Mo. She was marched along the riverside, not the shortest route but the most public. There was a rope around her neck and Pilic was holding the end of it, as if she were a dog. She had a black eye and bruises on her arms and legs, and she walked with a limp. Her hands were tied behind her back. Troon wanted everyone to see what happened to runaway women. A crowd followed her, and Pia and Yana joined them.
Pia was horrified. She realized that if she left to live with Han she would risk suffering the same treatment.
Mo was taken directly to Bort’s place. When Deg saw her, he looked appalled. Troon threw her to the ground in front of him.
There was rage in the crowd, particularly among the women, but there was fear, too, Pia sensed, and the fear outweighed the rage.
Troon spoke to the crowd. “Take a good look,” he said, loudlyenough for everyone to hear. “This is what happens to women who betray our community.”
He looked all around the crowd slowly, as if trying to meet everyone’s eye in turn.
“From now on,” he continued, “no woman will go to the Rites at the Monument, or leave the farmland for any other reason.”
Pia almost shouted a protest. This meant she could not see Han at the Midsummer Rite. Or at any time, she realized.
Never again.
That night Pia lay awake. She had to find a way to see Han, but how? They would never meet by accident. He lived in Riverbend and she was at the other end of the Great Plain. She could not leave Farmplace, and if Han tried to visit her, then Troon would immediately be alerted to their romance.
