People of the Lakes(32)

In terror, I flip over in the air and wheel around, choking out, “Who are you?”

But the hands are so Powerful. They seize me, rip me from

my journey through the vast blue sky and hurl me downward like a blazing meteor.

And from somewhere, somewhere far below, I hear the faint voices of people I know … “… time to lay him in his tomb.‘Poor boy. How could Power have let him die so young?”





Four


I smell fire, hear the Songs my people Sing for the Dead … The Holy Road had been built straight south from Starsky to the valley of the Moonshell. According to the legends, it had begun as a High Head Trading trail that climbed up over the divide from the Flying Squirrel valley and wound through the wooded hillocks before following one of the creeks to the Moonshell River.

Over the years, the High Heads had refined the route as Trade in exotic goods increased. Despite the distance, the trip could still be made on foot in less time than it would take to paddle a canoe down the Flying Squirrel to the Serpent River, thence downstream to the mouth of the Moonshell and back up.

Generations ago, as the Flat Pipe peoples migrated from their traditional grounds in the hills, they had absorbed the High Head obsession with stars and earthworks. Perhaps, as a young people, their vigor had led them to improve on things the High Heads taught them. Or perhaps the giant monuments resulted from the Sacred Societies, whose membership crossed clan lines. Within the secret walls of the societies, the Elders studied the path of the stars, the ways of the plants and animals, and the arts to which each society laid claim.

A young person’s vision, as well as his or her predisposition, would incline him or her to apply to one of the societies. After years of observing the rituals and studying at the feet of the Elders, the youth would memorize the ways of the masters.

The Weavers’ Society taught the arts of the loom, textiles, and dyes. The Potters’ Society ingrained the ways of finding clay, mixing the right temper, incising designs, painting, and firing. Stoneworkers learned to drill, carve, and polish. Healers had their own very small society, where the Powers of plants, colors, and rituals were instilled and propagated. The influential Warriors’ Society trained for the defense of various clan territories and imparted the techniques of warfare.

But the greatest of all was the Star Society, which watched and charted the heavens, and next to it, the engineers, who recreated their observations on earth. The engineers coordinated the building of the great earthworks, each a reflection of the sacred patterns in the heavens. At Starsky, all of the major earthworks served specific functions in the grand master plan.

The Great Circle, along with its central bird mound, charted the rising moon at its highest point on the northeastern horizon. The linear embankments charted the rising and setting of the solstice and equinox sun. The observatory, in the western end of the great Octagon, faced the point on the horizon where the summer-solstice sun rose.

From the High Heads, the people had incorporated the Circle, often intermixing it with the square design of their own heritage.

The Circle, so the legend said, represented the sky, and the Square the earth and its four corners.

Employing sticks and strings, the alignments were laid out by engineers. Measurements were kept exact by using knots in the string to mark certain distances. Courses of stone would be placed to check the calculations, and if in error, could be adjusted before the societies directed the actual construction of the earthworks during the midsummer ceremonies. At that time, people from the surrounding clans would come, their harvest of maygrass and marsh elder finished. For the two weeks around the solstice, men, women, and children would excavate with digging sticks, loading fresh earth into baskets and piling it on the stone courses. Depending on the purpose of the earthwork, the society leaders insisted on certain kinds of soil, such as clay of the right color. Everything was planned to the last detail Year by year, the work proceeded, the knowledge passed from generation to generation within the society. Meanwhile, other societies managed the grounds, pruning back the ever eager forest saplings that rooted in the newly disturbed soil.

The Holy Road had been laid out thus, by line of sight, from tautly stretched string to tautly stretched string. From the eastern entrance to the Octagon, the route ran south, curving around hillsides and leading to the major clan grounds at Sun Mounds.

Star Shell puffed a cold breath, beating her arms against her sides to warm herself. Though similar roads connected the Flat Pipe Clans with each of the major population centers, none were as grand as the Holy Road.

Behind her, the diminutive Tall Man followed in his odd, rolling gait. He carried two packs. The first, and the smaller of the two, was slung crossways to hang under his right arm. It was crafted of finely tanned leather and had been decorated with a wolf motif. From the way it bulged, it seemed to contain lots of odds and ends.