The Land of Painted Caves (44 page)

“What a shame, to come all the way here, and then possibly lose her man. I don’t know what I would have done if something had happened to Jondalar right after I got here, or even now,” Ayla said, shuddering at the thought.

“You would stay here and become a Zelandoni, just as you are now. You said yourself, you don’t really have anyplace to go back to. You’re not going to make the long Journey all the way back to the Mamutoi alone, and weren’t you adopted by them? You’re more than adopted here. You belong. You are Zelandonii,” the woman said.

Ayla was a little surprised at the vehemence of the First’s statement, but more than that, she was gratified. It let her know she was wanted.

   It wasn’t the next morning, but early the day after, that Ayla finally returned to her home. The sun was just coming up, and she paused a moment to watch the glowing color, brighter in one spot, begin to saturate the sky across The River. The rain had stopped, but clouds hanging low on the horizon strung out in wispy threads of brilliant reds and golds. When the searing light first lifted above the cliffs, Ayla tried to shade her eyes to take notice of the formations nearby so she could compare the rising of the intense radiance with where it rose the day before.

Soon she would be required to note the risings and settings of the sun and moon for a whole year. The hardest part of that, she was told by others of the zelandonia, was missing sleep, especially watching the moon, which sometimes first appeared or disappeared in the middle of the day, and sometimes in the middle of the night. The sun, of course, always rose in the morning and set in the evening, but some days were longer than others, and it moved across the horizon in a predictable way. For half the year as the days grew longer, it traveled a little farther north every day until it stood still for a few days in the middle of summer, when the days were longest, the time of the Summer Longday. Then it reversed its direction, setting a little farther south every day while the days got shorter, passing the time when day and night were the same length, and the sun set nearly directly west, until it stood still again for a few days in the middle of winter, the time of the Winter Shortday.

Ayla had talked with Jacharal’s mother and Amelana, and had become better acquainted with the young woman. They had at least one thing in common: they were both foreign women who had mated Zelandonii men. She was quite young, Ayla realized, and a little unpredictable and capricious. And she was pregnant, and still suffering some morning sickness. She really wished they could do more for Jacharal, for Amelana’s sake as well as his own.

Both Ayla and Zelandoni watched him closely, for themselves as well as for him. They wanted to see his progress to try to learn more about conditions such as his. So far they had managed to get some water into him, but it was only reflex action that caused him to swallow, and sometimes choke, when they put water in his mouth. He didn’t wake up as a result of their efforts. While they were together, Zelandoni also spent some time instructing Ayla in the ways of the zelandonia. They discussed medicines and healing practices, and conducted several ceremonies in an effort to elicit the help of the Great Earth Mother. Ayla was familiar with only some of it. They hadn’t yet gotten the whole community involved in the healing ceremonies, which would be much more elaborate and formal.

They also discussed a forthcoming Journey the older woman wanted to make with her acolyte, a long Journey that would take the entire summer, and she wanted to leave soon. There were several Sacred Sites to the south and the east that the First thought they should visit. They would not be going alone. Not only would Jondalar come, but Willamar, the Trade Master, and his two young assistants. They were discussing who else should make the trip with them, and Jonokol’s name came up. The idea of traveling so far to see new places was exciting, but Ayla knew it would also be arduous, and was grateful for the horses. It would make traveling easier for her and the First. Besides, Zelandoni liked arriving on the pole-drag being pulled by Whinney. It created a commotion and she liked doing things that brought attention to the zelandonia, and the importance of the position of the First.

When Ayla arrived at her dwelling, she thought about making a morning tea for Jondalar, but she was so tired. She hadn’t slept much, staying up so Zelandoni could rest. In the morning, the Donier had sent her home to get some sleep. It was so early, everyone was still sleeping, except Wolf, who was outside waiting to greet her. She smiled when she saw him. It amazed her how he always seemed to know when she was coming, or where she was going.

When she went in, Ayla noticed that Jonayla was sleeping beside Jondalar. She had her own smaller sleeping roll beside theirs, but she liked to crawl in with them, and when Ayla wasn’t there, which was happening more often, she climbed in with him. Ayla started to pick Jonayla up to move her back to her own sleeping place, then changed her mind and decided to let them finish sleeping without being disturbed. They’d be up soon enough. She went to Jonayla’s bed, and though it was small, there was extra bedding in the storage area. Rearranging her child’s bedroll somewhat, she used it instead. When Jondalar woke up and saw Ayla sleeping in Jonayla’s place, he smiled, then frowned. He thought she must have been very tired, but he missed having her beside him.

Jacharal died a few days later, without ever waking up. Ayla used the travois to transport him back to the Seventh Cave. His mother wanted the funeral ceremony to be held there and him to be buried nearby so his elan would be in a familiar area while he was finding his way to the next world. Ayla, Jondalar, Zelandoni, and several others from the Ninth and neighboring Caves and all the people from Bear Hill took part in the burying ritual. Afterward Amelana approached Zelandoni and Ayla and asked to talk with them.

“Someone told me that you are planning to make a Journey south soon. Is that true?” Amelana said.

“Yes,” Zelandoni said, wondering what the young woman wanted. She thought she knew and was already considering how to handle it.

“Will you take me with you? I want to go home,” the young woman said, her eyes welling up with tears.

“But this is your home, isn’t it?” the First said.

“I don’t want to stay here,” Amelana cried. “I didn’t know that Jacharal wanted to move to New Home and live at Bear Hill. I don’t like it. There’s nothing there. Everything has to be made or built, even our dwelling, and it’s still not finished. They don’t even have a Zelandoni. I’m pregnant and I would have to walk to another Cave to have my baby. Now I don’t even have Jacharal. I told him not to climb up High Rock.”

“Have you talked to Jacharal’s mother? I’m sure you could stay at the Seventh Cave.”

“I don’t want to stay at the Seventh Cave. I don’t know the people there either, and some of them haven’t been very nice to me because I come from the south. I am Zelandonii after all.”

“You could move to the Second Cave. Beladora is from the south,” the First said.

“She’s south, but more east and she’s a leader’s mate. I don’t really know her. And I just want to go home. I want to have my baby there. I miss my mother,” Amelana said, and burst out into sobs.

“How far along are you?” Zelandoni asked.

“My bleeding stopped more than three Moons ago,” she said, sniffling.

“Well, if you are sure you want to leave, we’ll take you with us,” Zelandoni said.

The young woman smiled through her tears. “Thank you! Oh, thank you.”

“Do you know where your Cave is?”

“It’s on the central highland, a little toward the east, not far from the Southern Sea.”

“We may not be going there directly. There are some places we need to stop along the way.”

“I don’t mind if we stop,” Amelana said, then added a little tentatively, “but I would like to get home before the baby comes.”

“I think we can manage that,” said the One Who Was First.

After Amelana left, Zelandoni mumbled under her breath, “The handsome stranger visits your Cave and it seems so romantic to run off with him to make a home in a new place. I have no doubt she pleaded just as hard with her mother to let her get mated and go live with him at his home. But once you arrive, you find it’s not so different from the old one, only you don’t know anyone. Then your exciting new mate decides to join with a group that wants to make a new Cave. They expect you to be as excited about making a place of your own as they are, but they have only moved around the hill from their old Cave, and they are with people they know.

“Amelana is a total stranger, with a slightly different way of speaking, and probably used to a little coddling, who has moved to a new place where customs and expectations are a little different. She doesn’t need the excitement of making a new home; she has just moved to a new home. She needs to be able to settle down and learn about her new people. But her mate, who has already shown that he likes to take risks just by going on a Journey, is ready for the adventure of creating a new Cave with his—but not her—friends and relatives.

“They were probably both beginning to regret their hasty mating, beginning to argue about differences, perceived and real, and then she finds herself pregnant with no one to make a fuss over her. Her mother and aunts, and all her sisters and cousins and friends, are back at the home she left. And then her danger-loving mate takes one risk too many and dies. It’s probably better for everyone if she goes back to her home, a little wiser for her adventure. She really doesn’t have anyone here with whom she has a close attachment.”

“I didn’t have anyone here when I came,” Ayla said.

“But you did. You had Jondalar,” Zelandoni said.

“You said that her mate already had shown that he liked to take risks by going on a Journey. I met Jondalar on his Journey. Didn’t that make him a man who liked risks?”

“He was not the one who loved to take risks; his brother was. He went along to be with Thonolan, to protect him, knowing of his tendency to rush into precarious situations. And he had no one here to hold him. Marona really had nothing to offer him, except an occasional interlude of Pleasures. He loved his brother more than her, and perhaps he wanted to get out of the implied Promise that she was assuming much more than he was, but he wasn’t able to just come out and tell her. He was always looking for someone special. For a while he thought he found it with me, and I admit I was tempted, but I knew that it would never work. I’m glad that he found what he wanted with you, Ayla,” the large woman said. “Your situation, though superficially similar, is not at all the same as Amelana’s.”

Ayla thought about how wise Zelandoni was; then she suddenly wondered how many people were going to be making this Journey south that the First had proposed. The Donier, Jondalar, herself, and Jonayla, of course; she was saying the counting words under her breath, and touching her leg with her fingers, tallying the people as she named them. That’s four. Willamar and his two assistants are going, seven. He said he wanted to give them the full measure of his experience. He also said it would likely be his last extended trading mission, that he was tired of traveling. No doubt he is, Ayla thought, but she wondered if part of it was because he knew Marthona was not well and he wanted to spend more time with her.

And now Amelana is going; that’s eight. And if Jonokol comes, nine: eight adults and one child. Ayla had a feeling there would be more. Almost as though someone had known what she was thinking, Kimeran and Beladora, with their five-year twins, sought out Zelandoni. They wanted to go south, too, and bring the children to visit her people. Beladora was almost certain that the First wouldn’t mind visiting her Cave. It was near one of the most beautiful Sacred Sites in the land, and one of the oldest. But they didn’t want to make the entire trip that the Donier had planned. They wanted to meet them along the way.

“Where do you want to meet?” Zelandoni asked.

“Perhaps at Jondecam’s sister’s Cave,” Beladora said. “Camora is also Kimeran’s sister, at least they were raised rogether, along with Jondecam. Camora lives at ther mate’s Cave, which is on the way to the Cave of my people.”

Ayla smiled at the beautiful woman with dark wavy hair and a full rounded figure, who also spoke with an accent, though it was not as unusual as hers. She felt a special bond with her, another foreign woman who had mated a Zelandonii man and returned with him. Ayla knew about the special circumstances of Kimeran and his much older sister, who took care of him along with her own children following the death of their mother. Her mate had also died young. She became a Zelandoni after her children and her brother were grown.

“There is highland between here and Beladora’s people if you try to go directly,” Kimeran was saying. “Good hunting for ibex and chamois, but difficult climbing in places even if you follow rivers. I thought we’d travel south and then east, and go around it. I think it might be easier for Gioneran and Ginadela, and for us when we have to carry them. Their legs are short still.” Kimeran smiled. “Not like mine, or yours, Jondalar.” There was warm feeling between Jondalar and the tall, blond man.

“Are you going to travel alone?” Zelandoni asked. “That may not be wise if you are taking the children.”

“We had thought of asking Jondecam, and Levela and her son, if they would like to come with us, but we wanted to ask you first, Zelandoni,” Beladora said.

“I think they would make good traveling companions,” the First said. “Yes, we could meet up with you along the way.”

Ayla was tapping her fingers on the side of her leg again. That’s sixteen in all, if Jonokol comes, she thought. But Amelana will only be with us on the way there, not the return visit, and we won’t meet up with Kimeran and the others until later.

“Will we be going to the Summer Meeting?” Jondalar asked.

“Only for a few days, I think,” Zelandoni said. “I will ask the Fourteenth and the Fifth to take care of my duties. Between them, I’m sure everything will get done, and I’ll be interested to know how they work together. I’ll send a runner to Jonokol before we go to the Meeting, to see if he wants to come along with us, and if he can. He may have other plans—after all, he is Zelandoni of the Nineteenth Cave now. I can’t just tell him what to do anymore … not that I ever could, even when he was my acolyte.”