Gwern had wanted to test the the system before the ceremony but they had simply run out of time. It was a dark moonless night and torch lit processions were approaching Harlech from several directions. Soon they all would congregate on the hillocks and outcrops surrounding the rock.
The carpenter had eventually made the cylinder out of a whole tree trunk that seemed to be watertight at his third attempt. The trunk had been cut vertically in half, each half then hollowed out rather like a canoe. The two halves were then 'glued' back together with twine and sealed with a resin to create a buoyant tube. Two sets of perpendicular spigots were fitted about a foot from the end of the twelve foot sealed pipe.
The new fixed wooden bridge was deceptive in it's construction. Below the walk way, now wide enough for to take four men abreast, was a sealed wooden canal into which the rock's incoming waters had been diverted. By a series of sluice gates water levels in a subterranean cavern could be controlled. Gwern's principle work had been sinking a circular whole down the the base of the cavern into which the cylinder would be placed. The complicated bit was creating the spiral. In theory as the water levels in the main cavern rose so would the cylinder and anything standing on top of it.
This is where his special skills and rock, water and the spirit were vital. The spirit was a combination of oils and minerals which when in contact with water caused it to freeze. When water freezes it expands, when it expands in a crevice of rock it can literally cleave rock. Combined with the bronze tools available Gwern had produced a perfectly round shaft with a spiral gouged in for the spigots. Only that morning they had lowered the cylinder, now well greased, into the hole it had rotated as it went down.
It was approaching sunrise and the chanting from the rock and surrounding hillsides was getting louder. Druid Brenin had been standing on the end of the cylinder his head about three foot below the surface for the last three hours. A torus of firewood had place around Gwern's shaft and now the ceremony was reaching its crescendo. As eastern sky started to lighten a firebrand had been used to ignite the wood. Gwern had to get timing right this was a do or die situation.
Just as the top of the sun breached hills to the Northeast, Gwern opened the upper sluice to its full extent and indicated that lower one was to be shut tight. Now, unbeknownst the the surrounding masses, water was rushing through the bridge then underground through culverts into the large cavern causing the level to rise. As the water rose the cylinder and theoretically the chief would rise with it rotating slowly. From his hiding spot could not see if it was working and he seemed to already let a lot of water in. Then in the midst of the fire he caught sight of the druids elaborate raven headrest rotating sedately and getting higher all the time. A hush went through the crowd as the druids body emerged and even Gwern who new how the illusion worked was still amazed to the him rising and turning in the flames. As planned the spigots reached there upper groove and stopped and for a minute the druid to hover above the flames. Then as planned the water breached the top of the shaft and extinguished the flames and the druid walked to the alter for the ritual sacrifice. Gwern indicate for the lower sluice to be opened and the cylinder dissappeared below the level of charred damp wood.
When the ceremonies were over and the public gone away awestruck, Gwern was offered much congratulations and rather too much mead.
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