Page 85 of Circle of Days
And how would they ever get to live together? If she ran away, she would be brought back like Mo. If Han came to live in farmer country, he would be miserable—and so would she, for she longed to get away.
After a sleepless night she got up at dawn. Her mother and Stam were not stirring. She took a basket and went to forage in the wood for strawberries and edible leaves. Mornings were warm now; it was almost midsummer.
She ate the first few berries she found, then began to fill her basket.
She saw woodlanders, usually doing the same as her. Theywould smile and say a few words in their own language. She would smile back and reply in her language. Only the smiles were understood, but they were enough. It seemed never to occur to woodlanders to claim that the fruits of the forest were theirs and no one else’s. They were the opposite of the farmers, who believed that everything had to belong to someone.
In the drought the forest fruits were not plentiful, and her search took her all the way to the northern limit of the wood, where it met the plain. Looking out across the dry, brown grassland, she saw the usual herd, now scrawny. Not far away was a herder sitting on the ground. He was a young man perhaps ten midsummers older than herself. He noticed her and gave a friendly wave.
She was going to turn back into the wood, but he got up off the ground and walked toward her.
She decided to talk to him.
When he came close, she said: “May the Sun God smile on you.”
“And on you. I’m Zad.”
“Pia.”
Zad had an attractive grin and the confidence of people who know they are charming. He looked into her basket. “You didn’t get much.”
“Everything’s dried up. How are your cattle doing?”
“Poorly. I drive them west to the river, so they get water, but there’s little for them to eat, and they get thinner every day.”
“That’s sad.”
“How are things at Farmplace?”
“Bad. The women have been banned from going to the Rites at the Monument.”
“And they’re going to obey the ban?”
She smiled. Only a herder would ask that question. “We’re not like your women. We have to do what we’re told.”
“That’s a shame. Midsummer is the best day of the year. Food, and poets telling tales, then the revel…”
“Are you going?”
“Yes.”
She was thinking, and he noticed her expression. “What is it?”
“I have a boyfriend.”
“And I have a woman. And a child.”
That was a misunderstanding: he had thought she was warning him off. She tried to disillusion him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…” It was too embarrassing to explain, so she just said: “Do you know a herder called Han?”
“Bigfoot? Of course I do. Those shoes!”
“Could you take a message from me to him and give it to him when you go to the Rite? He’s sure to be there.”
He grinned charmingly. “Yes, why not?”
She became excited. She had found a way to communicate with Han. She said: “If for some reason you don’t see Han, speak to his mother, Ani. She’s an elder.”
“I know Ani. She stayed a night in my house, a long time ago.”
