Dance of the Stones by Andrea Spalding Page A

ritual carefully for clues. Your task is to create a future ritual that will release it.
    I don’t get it. Owen was puzzled. If you can see into the past, you must know where your circlet is. Why don’t you fetch it?
    Only the people of Gaia can open their sacred places without disrupting the balance. It must be done freely. Because of your offer to help, you four children have become the representatives of Gaia.
    What if we mess up? Owen replied worriedly.
    Ava did not reply.
    They spiraled downward.
    Owen’s hawk eyes spotted movements far below. Ant-like dots were converging on the Great Circle.
    As they flew closer, the ants became humans wearing woolen tunics, wraps and skin capes.
    A group of seven people, in a solemn procession, were walking from the hut in the distant circle along the main avenue of stones.
    Making their way along the second avenue were over a hundred people hauling a massive stone over a frozen trail toward the Great Circle.
    A small group of men were working around the gap in the Great Circle.
    A large crowd was gathering along the massive embankment to watch.
    Ava and Owen circled lower. Ava swooped and landed on a standing stone. She folded her wings, puffed up her feathers to keep warm and watched the past with bright hawk eyes.
    Now you must concentrate, child . Ava’s voice filled Owen’s mind. See the past through the eyes of Hewll, the Pit Maker . Ava fixed her hawk gaze on a young man laboring at the edge of the large hole.
    Owen did the same.

5.
THE FINAL STONE
    The morning was cold with a swirl of light snow. Despite the frigid temperature, Hewll brushed away beads of sweat. He grasped his antler pick and urged his team of Pit Makers to finish the ramp into the last pit.
    The final stone was almost there.
    The People of the Hawk and the People of the Deer shouted encouragement from the embankment around the great ditch.
    Hewll ran his eyes over his tribe. No one was missing, not even Old One Eye, who could barely walk. Hewll gave a nod of approval. No one should miss this sight. This was the day foretold by the tribe’s grandparents’ grandparents’ grandparents’ grandparent. This was the day of completion. The wondrous day the great Stone Circle would finally reflect the eternal circles of Ava, the hawk-mother who watched over them and carried their spirits to the sky.
    A shout made him turn. “The Maidens are here!”
    â€œEnough!” Hewll motioned his team out of the hole.
    Young girls carrying skin buckets full of water appeared. They crossed the snow-covered ground, dripping water that instantly formed a slick of ice. They trickled water over the ramp. It glazed the slope.
    Hewll smiled. Ulwin was the second maiden. There was no mistaking her lithe figure, despite the heavy wool wrap she had swathed around her head and body against the bitter cold. After the work was completed, he and Ulwin would be bonded at the feast.
    She flashed him a grin as she passed.
    Hewll swelled with pride.
    *   *   *
    Psst, Ava, said Owen to the hawk on the stone beside him. A movement had broken his concentration, a gathering of mist swirling at the base of the stone beside him. That misty thing. Is it the night-prowling wraith? Is it the same thing you showed me from the church?
    Yes, Ava replied. The wraith was here before the stones. There have been elementals on Gaia as long as there have been people.
    But it’s daylight.
    In the beginning the wraith roamed freely, though it preferred night. Only after it tried to disrupt the power of the Circle did the stones subdue it and limit its movements. Concentrate, Owen. Watch.
    Owen turned back to his task, slipping again into Hewll’s mind.
    *   *   *
    Hewll heard the thump of the logs and the panting, grunting and cursing of men. The Rollers and Pullers were near.
    A sudden shout of welcome erupted. The tribes’ two shamans and their five apprentices had