The Tall Stones

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Mind of MaalThey did not refer to this again for some time, but both thought a great deal about it. They had touched on something they had not understood, about themselves and about the world they lived in. Although there was no outward sign in their daily lives that anything had changed, they both knew there was no going back to where they had been before.

* * * *

One day the Elders called a meeting of the community.

There was some murmuring and grumbling from many of the villagers. It was not convenient to leave the work they were doing at this point, but a command from the Elders could not be disobeyed.

As Karne hurried from the fields in answer to the call he found Kyra carrying their baby sister on her hip. He walked beside her.

‘Do you know why there is to be a meeting?’ he asked.

She shook her head.

At that moment they were joined by others asking the same question.

The village gatherings were always held beside an enormous flat stone that formed a kind of natural platform. It was heavily striated from north to south, scratched and gouged in the ancient days by some force the villagers did not dare to contemplate.

While the people were arriving the Elders walked with measured, dignified steps around the outside circumference of the Sacred Circle on the hill, and when everyone was present and the expectant chattering had died down, they took their places on the platform, each one standing in a position echoing the position of one of the major stones in the Sacred Circle. They formed a kind of living circle, their chief spokesman nearest to the people.

The ordinary members of the community never entered the Sacred Circle of standing stones. The seven Elders were permitted under special conditions at special times, but otherwise no one dared to go within range of its powerful influence except the priest who had been trained for many years to work safely with its secret energies.

There was something very awesome about the stones. They had been chosen in the ancient days in ways the villagers did not understand, for purposes they did not understand. They were content to leave them well alone.

Karne was beside Kyra and they put the baby on the grass to play. He noticed that as Thorn, the chief Elder, began to speak, Kyra stiffened slightly and began concentrating on his words in a way that gave Karne the impression that she was hearing more than he was saying. He was so interested in her reactions he missed the whole first part of the message. When he became aware at last of what the man was saying it was something about change... and adjusting their lives...

His attention was riveted at once. Was something actually going to change in their settled ways at last?

‘What... what is going to change?’ he whispered urgently to Kyra.

She raised her hand to stop the interruption of her concentration and he fell silent immediately. This was not the gesture of his little sister, but of some stranger with authority.

‘...he has been chosen by the gods and will serve us with the dedication that the Lord Maal has shown throughout his time with us. Nothing will be disturbed. It is the natural time for change.’

For the first time Karne noticed that the priest was not present in his usual place.

Was he dead?

As the Elder stopped speaking, a kind of movement went through the crowd of listeners that Karne had seen in a barley field on a windy day. The hillside did not seem to be covered with individuals but with a kind of composite being that reacted, sighed and moved as one. Only Karne, seeing it, felt himself separate and apart.

He turned to Kyra. She too stood alone.

‘Is the Lord Maal dead?’ he asked.

She shook her head.

‘No, but he is about to die,’ she said calmly.

‘Is he ill?’

Karne remembered seeing the old priest stumble.

She shook her head again, but said nothing. There was a line between her eyes and he could see that she was deep in thought. He tried to keep from asking her questions, but he found he could not hold the silence between them for more than a few moments.

‘Who will be the new priest?’

Kyra had picked the baby up and turned to go. She did not reply.

Karne followed her insisting on an answer.

‘A new priest is coming to take Maal’s place?’

‘That is what he said,’ she replied, but there was something in the flatness of her voice that made him know that there was more to the story.

‘What do you mean “said”?’ he said. ‘Do you think he will come?’

Kyra walked on thoughtfully for a while.

‘Kyra?’

‘I do not know,’ she said impatiently at last. ‘He said there would be a new priest coming from the Temple of the Sun, but... I do not know... I sensed something else... something wrong...’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I cannot be sure... but Thorn seemed not to be speaking the truth... and it is a strange thing...’ Here Kyra seemed to be staring at something Karne could not see. ‘I do not see a new priest coming to us...’

‘Perhaps Maal will not die?’

‘Maal will die...’

‘Perhaps he will die before the new priest has arrived and there will be a period when there is no priest.’

‘The gods would surely not allow that,’ Kyra said firmly, but she sounded more like her ordinary self when she said it.

Karne had taken to distinguishing two people in Kyra, the child sister and the stranger who could ‘see into heads’. The stranger had been there a moment before, but already the child was taking over. There was no point in questioning her any longer. He moved off and went back to his duties with much to think about.

* * * *

The priest in the community was the guardian of the Mysteries, the messenger of the gods. He communicated with a network of priests across the world and spirits across the universe, so that their community could develop in harmony and peace as part of a greater whole.

Maal had served them well for many years, attending to their sick, presiding at birth and death, guiding them on good and evil, on rain and drought. They were sorry his time had come to move on to other duties in the hierarchy of the spirit world, but they accepted it.

It was the way.

* * * *

While the rest of the village was anticipating the arrival of the new priest with pleasurable excitement, Karne was worried and intrigued by what his sister had experienced.

It was to find out what was behind that experience that he and his sister came to be lying on their bellies in the long grass within sight of the circle of Sacred Stones, unseen but seeing, as the priest Maal came alone and without the ceremonial crowds to commune with whoever he communed with, within the circle.

As they watched he seemed not to be aware of their presence. His face was thoughtful and withdrawn as he walked evenly and calmly between the entrance stones.

They had never been so near the sacred place before and Karne could hear his heart beating loudly. At first he thought it was the earth pounding with a kind of deep rhythm, but then he realized it was coming from inside himself. He wondered if Kyra’s heart was doing the same, but she looked calm enough. Her head was raised slightly and her expression was one of concentration and intensity.

The priest walked to each stone in turn, touching it with his forehead and pausing as though he were sensing something from the stone through his forehead, and came to stand at last before the huge recumbent one in the southwest quadrant that was a different shape to the others and was flanked by the tallest pair of standing stones. He stood for a long time in front of it, his head slightly bowed, thinking... or was it listening? Then he put his back to it, lay against it, with his arms spread out on either side, the tips of his long and sensitive fingers stretched towards the two uprights on either side. He tipped his head back to lie upon the stone with a sigh, and the two watchers noticed the sun was at its highest point of the day and blazed down upon his face.

They dared to creep a shade nearer the circle the better to observe his face and were startled to see a strange pallor upon it, the muscles relaxed in a way that made them think of dead people they had seen.

‘He is dead!’ Karne whispered in horror. ‘He has come here to die!’

But Kyra held up her hand and her inner senses were alert. She shook her head almost imperceptibly and with the gesture of her hand prevented Karne making any further movement or sound. Her face was strained and she was leaning forward as though she were trying to catch some minute breath of sound too small for normal ears to catch. He recognized the stranger in her and waited patiently, watching her more than the priest now, admiring the concentration of her attention, the stillness of her body. She scarcely seemed to be breathing.

As the time went on every muscle in his body ached and itched to move. He dared not and yet he could not stop himself. He sensed there was almost a thread as fine as a spider’s web from the girl to the priest and any movement on his part would snap it. But he could bear it no longer. They seemed to have been there for hours and as far as he could see nothing was happening. He moved at last and as he had feared his movement cracked the girl’s delicate and subtle concentration.

An expression of loss, followed by irritation and almost dislike, flitted across her face as she turned to him. She seemed at first bewildered as though she had forgotten where she was and looked as though she were about to say something. He seized her shoulder and pulled her lower in the grass, at the same time indicating with a jerk of his head the danger of their situation so close to the Sacred Circle, spying on the priest.

Her face registered recognition, quickly followed by panic. He flung his arm around her comfortingly and they lay flat in the grass. They could hear the priest moving in the circle now, but were too frightened to raise their heads. Karne could feel his sister’s body trembling under his arm. He suddenly wished they were far away and had not done this blasphemous thing. It seemed to him the footsteps were coming nearer and nearer and he braced himself for some terrible blast of wrath.

But nothing happened.

Maal walked calmly out of the circle between the two entrance stones and steadily and quietly down the path as though he knew nothing of their presence.

‘He knows,’ whispered Kyra, tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘He knows!’ She was very much the little girl again.

‘Nonsense!’ he said, feeling bolder now that the priest had moved off. ‘He would have said something to us. Come on, let us leave this place!’

He was longing to ask her what had been happening when she had been concentrating so intensely. He was sure something had been going on that was beyond his senses, but the place had become oppressive for him now and he wanted to get as far away as he could from it.

She felt the same and before the priest was safely out of sight the two were scrambling down the hill and running and tripping and sliding down into the valley where Karne kept his boat.

Once there they flung themselves panting down on the grass and tried to collect their thoughts. After giving her what he considered enough time to recover, Karne asked her what had happened in the circle. She was a long time answering and then spoke slowly as though she were trying to find words for an experience that did not really have words to express it.

‘Strange,’ she said. ‘Very strange. He seemed to... I mean... he seemed to... go away...’

Karne was staring at her intently, anxious not to miss a word.

‘What do you mean? As though he were dead?’

‘No. Not like that. As though he had gone away... somewhere else. At first when I was trying to reach his thoughts I could not get anything... but it was different to the other times when I try to see people’s thoughts and I cannot. Those times I cannot because there are too many thoughts crowding... making too much “noise” somehow... This time there was nothing there... a sort of absolute blank... a sort of silence... as though there were no thoughts to see.’

‘He looked dead.’

‘At first I thought he was dead... as you did... but I knew he was not. I could not make out what was happening... and then it seemed to me I was inside his head looking out.’

Karne sat bolt upright at this.

‘What did you see?’

She was silent, struggling to find the right words.

‘I did not see what I expected to see,’ she began slowly.

‘What did you expect to see, for the gods’ sake!’ cried Karne impatiently. She was so slow!

‘The Sacred Circle, the sun, the hills and fields all around us here...’ She swept her arms in an arc to indicate everywhere in every direction they could see.

‘What did you see then? Darkness?’ Karne prompted.

‘Sort of. At first.’

‘And then?’

‘And then... I saw other people... very dimly... I could not make out their faces... standing round him in a circle all touching hands... in a circle...’

‘And?’

‘And beyond them, standing stones...’

‘Ours?’

‘No. Much bigger... different ones... the circle seemed to be enormous... and beyond the stones there seemed to be a kind of hill... I suppose a bank that went right round behind the stones... you could not see over it... there was no landscape beyond...’ Her voice trailed away.

‘What else?’ he cried impatiently.

‘I am sorry,’ she said miserably, putting her head in her hands, ‘I am trying... but it was all so... so... strange... and already I cannot believe I really saw it...’

‘You did. You did see it! Try and remember.’

She shook her head.

‘That was all.’

‘Were they saying anything... the other people?’

‘No... I do not think so...’

‘What were they... priests? Elders? Ordinary people?’

‘Priests I think... I am not sure... but they were inside the stone circle and they were trying to communicate with Maal...’

‘Communicate? You said they were not saying anything!’

‘They were thinking... they were all thinking the same thing... that was why they were holding hands in a circle. They were really trying...’

‘What were they thinking?’

‘I do not know.’

Karne gave an exclamation of disgust.

‘Think!’

‘I am! I am!’ she cried, ‘but it is so hard. My head is hurting!’ She rocked backwards and forwards holding her head in her hands.

Karne pulled himself together.

‘All right. I am sorry. Let us see now what we have. Maal enters the Sacred Circle, our Sacred Circle, goes round touching the stones with his forehead... goes into a kind of... a kind of death... or... sleep... and in that sleep he travels somewhere else to another, larger Sacred Circle... leaving his body behind here. You somehow get into his head and go with him. Other priests ‘think’ in a circle round him... but you do not know what they are thinking. Is that right so far?’

‘Yes.’

‘What happened then?’

‘I do not know. I was suddenly in my own body again and you seized me and pushed me down in the grass.’

Karne was silently cursing himself for having moved when he did. It was his fault she had jerked back. He sat, thinking hard, his hand automatically stroking Kyra’s hair. He could see from her eyes that she had a very bad headache. She had become very important to him and must be looked after. The germ of an idea began to grow in his mind but he had sense enough to see that Kyra had had enough strain and worry for the day and would not take kindly to his latest scheme, which was even more dangerous and daring than the last. How he wished he did not have to work through Kyra all the time. If only he had these powers himself! He wondered if she could teach him, but he knew she did not really know how they worked, nor even how to control them herself, although it seemed to him they were certainly growing. What she had done this day was so much more complicated than what she had ever been capable of before.

‘Kyra,’ he said gently, ‘how do you do it?’

She looked at him questioningly.

‘I mean... can you explain... what do you do to get into someone’s head?’

‘Nothing,’ she said sadly. ‘It just happens.’

‘But surely you notice something...’

‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘It just happens.’

And she would say no more. He decided to leave it for the day and led her home. Their mother watched them coming slowly along the path and was ready with a sharp and voluble stream of abuse for their laziness in leaving her to do all their chores for a whole afternoon. They would not be drawn on where they had been and eventually she gave up trying to find out and settled for doubling their evening duties as punishment.

Karne, seeing that Kyra was near to dropping with fatigue, took over some of her tasks and let her crawl into her warm straw bed early.

Although he was tired too, when he came to lie down he could not sleep for a long time. There was much to think about. A shaft of moonlight came through the doorway and fell upon Kyra as she lay sleeping, one pale arm outside the fur rug, lying beside her on the stamped clay floor, her face hollowed with shadow but curiously beautiful and peaceful.

‘She is growing up,’ he thought. ‘It will not be long before she will be given in marriage.’ And he began to feel the urgency of what he wanted to do with her pressing upon him. But he knew that if he rushed her too much, worked her too hard, he could get nothing from her. It was like watching a plant grow, nothing would hurry it beyond its natural pace, though watering and care would help a little.