Only the Stones Survive: A Novel Read Online Free PDF

mistook the two for twins. As was traditional with warriors of the Gael, they sported flowing moustaches that hung far below the jawline. The vitality of their moustaches symbolized the vigor of their manhood.
    Bards, on the other hand, were clean-shaven.
    Their mother, Scotta, had once described Amergin as “the one dark leopard in a litter of golden lions.” How could any woman desire a black-haired, lanky druid who went around with his bare face hanging out? Taya deserved much better. Pretty Taya with her plump white arms and level eyebrows, like a line drawn with a sooty finger. Her round hips and full bosom that a man could lose his face in …
    Whenever Taya crossed Éremón’s mind, he found his thoughts wandering.
    The entire tribe knew that Taya had shamelessly pursued Amergin at one time. Yet Old Irial, chief druid of the Gaelicians, claimed that druids dwelt alone in an inner winter. And bards were preoccupied with memorizing histories and genealogies and preserving them in great swathes of poetry. From this Éremón concluded that Amergin’s only relationship was with his harp. He could not begin to compare with the lusty physicality of a chariot warrior.
    Fortunately for Éremón, Taya had realized this before she made a grave mistake.
    When they were settled in the new land, Éremón was going to build a splendid dwelling for his second wife. He would shower Taya with the luxuries that Odba would have enjoyed if she had treated him better and joined him on the journey. The riches of Ierne that Sakkar had so casually mentioned would be Taya’s: three colors of gold, masses of silver and copper, amethysts as big as a man’s fist. Even chypre, the nauseatingly heavy perfume that women loved and was made from sandalwood. Surely there was sandalwood on Ierne? If not, Éremón would import it.
    Soon he and the other sons of the Míl would be able to forget the misfortunes that had befallen them. Éremón did not like to think about such things, but they were always at the back of his mind, like awareness of a rotten tooth.
    The prosperity of the Mílesians had depended on two factors: their vast herds of black cattle, and the surface tin mines in their territory, which was located in the northwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula. The cattle provided the Mílesians with quantities of rich milk and supple leather to exchange with neighboring farming tribes for basic agricultural produce. The Mílesians were a warrior race; they looked down on people who dug in the dirt.
    Copper alloyed with tin was the basis for bronze. Once supreme among metals, bronze was being replaced by iron, which was stronger. However, bronze retained its high prestige for ceremonial use and ornamentation. For centuries, the tin trade had provided a very high standard of living for the ancestors of the Mílesians. From the great port cities of the Mediterranean, the Phoenicians had brought a cornucopia of undreamed-of luxuries to Iberia to exchange for tin. The Sea People had offered gold from Ophir, silver from Ethiopia, amber from the Baltic, fragrant cedar from Lebanon, and fine cotton from Egypt.
    After several generations, such opulent items had become necessities.
    Mílesios and his clan dressed in silk embroidered with gold thread and wrapped themselves in woolen cloaks as soft as clouds. They wore so much jewelery that they clanked when they walked. Gold neck rings, ear rings, arm rings, finger rings, sword hilts and clothing fasteners and horse-harness ornaments, even silver trinkets for favored servants. They hunted wild boar in the forest with great shaggy hounds crossbred from dogs imported from Egypt and the deserts of Arabia.
    With the assurance of those born to wealth, the Mílesians had assumed their resources were infinite.
    They were mistaken.
    Seven years of unprecedented drought had all but wiped out their herds. Producing enough tin to satisfy the demands of the traders finally had exhausted their mines. Almost