The Land of Painted Caves

Chapter 16

'There's Reflection Rock,' Jondalar said. 'Did you plan to stop at the South Holding of the Twenty-ninth Cave, Zelandoni?'

The small procession of people, horses, and Wolf came to a halt beside The River and looked up at the impressive limestone cliff divided into five and in some places six levels. Like most of the cliff walls in the region, there were naturally occurring black vertical streaks of manganese that gave a distinctive look to the face of the cliff. They noticed some movement of people who were looking at them but apparently didn't necessarily want to be seen. Ayla recalled that several people of this Cave, including the leader, were quite apprehensive around the horses and Wolf, and she rather hoped they would not be stopping here.

'I'm sure there are a few people there who stayed back from the Summer Meeting,' the woman said, 'but we visited last year and we didn't get the chance to visit the Fifth Cave. I think we should keep going.'

They continued upstream, following the same trail that they had the year before, heading for the place where the river spread out and the water became shallow, and more easily crossed. If they had planned to follow The River, and if they had made arrangements before they left, they could have travelled by raft, a journey that required poling the bulky craft upstream. Or they could walk on the trail beside The River, which would require going due north, then east as the waterway started into a broad bend that curved around in a large loop, and then south and east again, making another large loop that would end up bearing north again, a trek of ten miles. After the large looping S-curves, the path along The River proceeded upstream with gentler meandering turns toward the northeast.

There were some small living sites near the northern end of the first loop, but Zelandoni was planning to visit a sizable settlement at the southernmost end of the second loop, the Fifth Cave of the Zelandonii, sometimes known as Old Valley. It was easier to reach Old Valley by going across country rather than following the river around the extensive 'S' curves. Starting from Reflection Rock on the left bank of The River, it was only a little more than three miles east and just slightly north to the large Fifth Cave, though the trail, following the easiest way across the hilly terrain, was not quite so direct.

When they arrived at the shallow crossing of The River, they stopped again. Jondalar got down from Racer's back and scrutinised the river crossing. 'It's up to you. Would you rather get down and wade across, or stay on the pole-drag, Zelandoni?'

'I'm not sure. I think both of you would know better,' the Donier said.

'What do you think, Ayla?' Jondalar said.

She was in front of the group, using the carrying blanket to secure Jonayla in front of her on the mare's back. She twisted around to look at the others. 'The water doesn't look deep, but it could be deeper farther on and you might find yourself sitting in water,' Ayla said.

'If I get out and wade, I will certainly get wet. Maybe I'll take a chance and see if this seat keeps me drier,' the First said.

Ayla looked around at the sky. 'It's a good thing we got here now while the river is low. I think it might rain, or … I don't know,' she muttered. 'It feels like something is coming.'

Jondalar remounted his horse and Zelandoni stayed on the pole-drag. As they crossed, the horses were in water up to their belly and the two on horseback got their lower legs and bare feet wet. The Wolf, who had to swim a short distance, actually got fully soaked, but he shook it off when they reached the opposite bank. But the wooden pole-drag floated a bit, and the water level was low. Except for a few splashes, Zelandoni stayed quite dry.

Once across The River, they followed a well-marked path heading away from the river, traversed up the side of a ridge, over a rounded top where another trail joined it, then down the opposite side and along the customary short-cut. The walking distance to the Fifth Cave of the Zelandonii was about four miles. As they were travelling, the First offered them some information and history about the Fifth Cave. Although Jondalar knew most of it, he still listened attentively; Ayla had heard some of it before, but learned much that was new.

'From the counting word in their name, you know that the Fifth Cave is the third oldest existing group of the Zelandonii,' the Donier began, speaking in her instructional voice, which carried quite a distance though it was not excessively loud. 'Only the Second and Third Caves are older. While the Histories and Elder Legends speak of the First Cave, no one seems to know what happened to the Fourth. Most people assume that some illness reduced its numbers until they were less than viable, or a difference of opinion among a number of the people caused some to leave, with the remaining ones then joining another Cave. Such an occurrence is not uncommon, as the missing counting words in a naming and tallying of all the various Caves will attest. Most Caves have Histories of assimilating members or joining other groups, but none has any stories about the Fourth Cave. Some people imagine that a terrible tragedy befell the Fourth Cave, which caused the death of them all.'

The First Among Those Who Serve The Great Earth Mother continued to lecture as they proceeded, thinking that Ayla in particular needed to know as much as possible about her adopted people, especially since she would someday have to teach the younger ones of the Ninth Cave. Ayla found herself listening with fascination, watching the trail they were following only peripherally, guiding Whinney unconsciously with the pressure of a knee or a shift in her position as the woman behind her spoke, and though facing backward, filled the surrounding air with her voice.

The home of the Fifth Cave was a comfortable little valley between limestone cliffs below a high promontory with a clear stream running down the middle, which began in a lively spring and ended where it debouched straight into The River several hundred feet away. The high cliffs rearing up on both sides of the small stream offered nine rock shelters of various sizes, some rather high up on the walls, but not all of them had people living in them. The valley had been in use for as long as anyone could remember, which is why it was called Old Valley. The Histories and Elder Legends of the Zelandonii affirmed that many Caves had ties to the Fifth Cave.

Each one of the Caves in the Zelandonii territory was essentially independent, and could take care of its own basic needs. Members could hunt and fish, gather foods, and collect materials to make whatever they needed, not just to survive, but to live well. They were the most advanced society not only in their region, but perhaps in all the world in their time. The Caves cooperated with each other because it was in their best interests to do so. They sometimes went on group hunting expeditions, especially for larger animals like mammoth and megaceros, the giant deer, or for dangerous animals like the cave lion, and shared the dangers and the results. They sometimes gathered produce in large parties and were able to collect an abundance in a short ripening season before the food was past its prime.

They negotiated for mates from the larger group because they needed a more extensive pool of people to draw from than their own small Cave, and they exchanged goods not because they needed to, but because they liked what other people made. Their products were similar enough to be understandable, but offered interest and diversity, and when things went wrong, it was good to have friends or relatives they could turn to for help. Living in a periglacial region, an area that skirted glaciers, with exceedingly cold winters, things could go wrong.

Each Cave tended to specialise in various ways, partly as a result of where each one lived, and partly because certain people developed ways to do certain things especially well and passed on the knowledge to their closest kith and kin. For example, the Third Cave were considered to have the best hunters, primarily because they lived high up on a cliff at the confluence of two rivers with large grassy meadows on the floodplains below that attracted most varieties of game as they migrated through, and they were usually the first to see them. Because they were considered the best, they were continually perfecting their hunting and observing skills. If it was a large herd, they would signal nearby Caves for a group hunt. But if it was only a few animals, their hunters often went out themselves, though they often shared their bounty with neighbouring Caves, especially during gatherings or festivals.

The people of the Fourteenth Cave were known as exceptional fishers. Every Cave fished, but they specialised in catching fish. They had a fairly healthy stream running through their small valley that began many miles upstream and was home to several different varieties of fish, in addition to being a spawning creek for salmon in season. They also fished The River and used many different techniques. They developed weirs to trap fish, and were very skilled in spear-fishing, net fishing, and the use of fish gouges, a kind of hook that was straight and pointed at both ends.

The shelter of the Eleventh Cave was close to The River. They had access to trees, and had developed the skills to make rafts, which had been passed down and improved through several generations. They poled the rafts up and down The River, hauling their own goods as well as goods for the other Caves, thereby acquiring benefits and obligations from their neighbours, which could be traded for other goods and services.

The Ninth Cave was located next to Down River, a site that was used as a gathering place by the local artisans and craftspeople. As a result, many of those people moved to the Ninth Cave, which partly accounted for the fact that so many people lived there. If someone wanted a special tool or knife made, or rawhide panels that were used for constructing dwellings, or new cordage, whether heavy rope or strong twine or fine thread, or clothing or tents or the materials to make them, or wooden or woven bowls or cups, or a paiting or carving of a horse or bison or any other animal, or any number of other creative things, they went to the Ninth Cave.

The Fifth Cave, on the other hand, thought of themselves as being very self-sufficient in every way. They counted themselves as having extremely skilled hunters, fishers, and artisans of every kind. They even made their own rafts, and claimed to be the Cave that invented them in the first place, though that claim was disputed by the Eleventh. Their Doniers were well respected and had always been. Several of the stone shelters in the small valley were decorated with paintings and carvings of animals, some in high relief.

However, most of the Zelandonii thought of the Fifth Cave as specialising in the making of jewellery and beads as personal decorations and ornamentation. When someone wanted a new necklace, or various kinds of beads to sew on clothing, they often went to the Fifth Cave. They were especially skilled at making beads out of ivory, and each single bead was a long and painstaking process to make. They also carved holes through the roots of the teeth of various animals for pendants and distinctive beads — fox teeth and red deer canines were favourites — and they managed to acquire seashells of various kinds from both the Great Waters of the West and the large Southern Sea.

When the travellers from the Ninth Cave reached the Fifth Cave's little valley, they were quickly surrounded. People were coming out of several stone shelters in the cliffs on both sides of the small river. Several were standing in front of the large opening of a shelter that faced southwest. Others emerged from another shelter just to the north of it, and on the other side of the valley more people were coming out of shelters. The travellers were surprised to find so many people, more than they expected. Either a large proportion of the Cave had decided not to go to any Summer Meeting, or they had come back early.

The people approached with curiosity, but none came too close. They were held back a little by fear and awe. Jondalar was a familiar figure to all the Zelandonii, except for the younger people who had come of age while he was gone. And everyone knew about his return from a long Journey and had seen the woman and animals he had brought with him, but the unusual procession of Jondalar and the foreign woman with her baby, the wolf, three horses, including a foal, and the One Who Was First sitting on a seat dragged by one of the horses, made quite an impression. To many there was something eerily supernatural about animals behaving so docilely when they should be running away.

One of the first who saw them had run to tell the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave, who was waiting for them. The man, who was among those in front of the shelter on the right, approached, smiling cordially. He was middle aged, but on the young side of the range. He had long brown hair pulled back and wrapped around his head in a complicated coiffure, and the tattoos on his face that announced his important position were more elaborate than they needed to be, but he wasn't the only Zelandoni who had embellished his tattoos. There was a soft roundness about him, and the fleshiness of his face tended to make his eyes look small that gave him an air of shrewd cleverness, which wasn't entirely incorrect.

In the beginning, Zelandoni had reserved judgment of him, not sure if she could trust him, not even sure if she liked him. He could argue his opinions very strongly, even when they were opposed to hers, but he had proven his reliability and loyalty, and in meetings and councils, the First came to rely on the shrewdness of his advice. Ayla was still withholding her complete trust of him, but when she learned that Zelandoni thought well of him, she was more inclined to give him credence.

Another man followed him out of the stone shelter, one that Ayla had distrusted the first time she met him. Madroman had been born to the Ninth Cave, though later he moved to the Fifth Cave, and obviously became an Acolyte from that group. The Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave had several acolytes, and though Madroman may have been among the oldest of his acolytes, he was not the one ranked as first. But Jondalar was surprised to discover that he had been accepted into the zelandonia at all.

In his youth, when Jondalar had become enamoured of the First, then an acolyte named Zolena, another young man, called Ladroman, had wanted Zolena for his donii-woman. He was jealous of Jondalar and had spied on them, and heard Jondalar trying to persuade Zolena to become his mate. It was the donii-women who was supposed to keep such entanglements in check. The young men they were instructing were considered too vulnerable to the knowing older women. But Jondalar was tall and mature for his age, incredibly handsome and charismatic with striking blue eyes, and so appealing that she didn't reject him immediately.

Ladroman told the zelandonia and everyone else that they were breaking taboos. Jondalar got into a fight with him about it, and for spying on them, which became a big scandal, not only because of the liaison but because Jondalar knocked out Ladroman's two front teeth in the confrontation. They were permanent teeth that could never grow in again. It not only left him talking with a lisp, but made normal biting difficult for him. Jondalar's mother, who was leader of the Ninth Cave at the time, had had to pay heavy compensation for her son's behaviour.

As a result of the whole affair, she decided to send him to live with Dalanar, the man to whom she was mated when Jondalar was born, the man of his hearth. Although Jondalar was upset at first, eventually he was thankful. The punishment — as he interpreted it, although his mother thought of it more as a cooling-off period until things settled down and people had time to forget about it — gave the young man the chance to get to know Dalanar. Jondalar resembled the older man to a remarkable degree, not only physically, but in certain aptitudes, particularly flint-knapping. Dalanar taught him the craft, along with his close cousin, Joplaya, the beautiful daughter of Dalanar's new mate, Jerika, who the most exotic person Jondalar had ever met. Jerika's mother, Ahnlay, gave birth to her during the long Journey she had made with her mate, and had died before they had reached the flint mine Dalanar had discovered. But her mother's mate, Hochaman, had lived to fulfil his dream.

Hochaman was a Great Traveller who had walked all the way from the Endless Seas of the East to the Great Waters of the West, although Dalanar had walked for him at the end, carrying him on his shoulders. When they returned Jondalar home to the Ninth Cave a few years later, Dalanar's Cave made a special trip a little farther west just so the diminutive old man, Hochaman, could see the Great Waters once more, again riding on the shoulders of Dalanar. He walked the last few feet himself and at the edge of the ocean, dropped to his knees to let the waves wash over him and to taste the salt. Jondalar grew to love all of the Lanzadonii, and became grateful that he'd been sent away from home, because he discovered he had a second home.

Jondalar knew that Zelandoni didn't care much for Ladroman either after all the trouble he'd caused her, but in a way it made her more serious about the zelandonia and her duties as an Acolyte. She developed into a formidable Zelandoni, who had been called on to be the First just before Jondalar left on the Journey with his brother. In truth, that was one of the reasons he went. He still harboured strong feelings for her and he knew that she would never become his mate. He was surprised, when after five years he returned with Ayla and her animals, to learn that Ladroman had changed his name to Madroman — though he never understood why — and had been accepted into the zelandonia. That meant that no matter who had proposed him, the One Who Was First had had to accept him.

'Greetings!' said the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave, holding out both his hands to the First as she was stepping off the special travois. 'I didn't think I'd have a chance to see you this summer.'

She took both his hands, and then leaned forward to touch his cheek with hers. 'I looked for you at the Summer Meeting, but was told you went to a different one with some of your neighbouring Caves.'

'It's true, we did. It's a long story that I'll tell you later, if you want to hear it,' She nodded that she did. 'But first let's find a place for you, and your … ahhh … travelling companions to stay,' he said, looking significantly at the horses and Wolf. He led them across the small creek, and as he started walking down a well-worn path beside the stream in the middle of the small valley, he continued the explanation. 'Essentially it was a matter of reinforcing friendships with closer Caves. It was a smaller Summer Meeting, and we took care of the necessary ceremonies rather quickly. Our leader and some of our Cave went hunting with them, others went visiting and gathering, and the rest of us came back here. I have an Acolyte finishing her year of watching the sunsets and marking the moons, and I wanted to be here for the end, when the sun stands still. But what are you doing here?'

'I am also training an Acolyte. You've met Ayla,' The large woman indicated the young woman who was with her. 'You may have heard that Ayla has become my new Acolyte and we have begun her Donier Tour. I wanted to make sure she saw your sacred places.' The two elder members of the zelandonia nodded to each other in recognition of their mutual responsibilities. 'After Jonokol moved to the Nineteenth Cave, I needed a new Acolyte. I think he fell in love with that new sacred cave Ayla found. He always was an artist first, but he puts his heart into the zelandonia now. The Nineteenth is not as well as she might be. I hope she lives long enough to finish training him properly.'

'But he was your acolyte. I'm sure he was well trained before he moved,' the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave said.

'Yes, he's had training, but he wasn't really interested when he was my Acolyte,' the First said. 'He was so good at creating images, I had to bring him into the zelandonia, but that was his real love. He was bright and he learned quickly, but he was content to remain an Acolyte; he had no real desire to become a Zelandoni, until Ayla showed him White Hollow. Then he changed. Partly because he wanted to make images in there, I'm sure, but that wasn't all. He wants to make sure his images are right for that sacred space, so now he embraces the zelandonia. I think Ayla must have sensed that. When she first discovered the cave, she wanted me to see it, but it was more important to her that Jonokol see it.'

The Fifth turned to Ayla. 'How did you find White Hollow?' he asked. 'Did you use your voice on it?'

'I didn't find it. Wolf did,' Ayla said. 'It was on a hillside buried in brush and blackberry canes, but he suddenly disappeared into the ground beneath the brush. I cut some of it back and went after him. When I realised it was a cave, I came out and made a torch and went back in. That's when I saw what it was. Then I went to find Zelandoni and Jonokol.'

It had been some time since the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave had heard Ayla speak, and her manner of speaking was noticeable, not only to him, but to the other members of his Cave, including Madroman. It reminded Madroman of all the attention Jondalar got when he came back with the beautiful foreign woman and her animals, and how much he hated Jondalar. He always gets noticed, the Acolyte thought, especially by women. I wonder what they would think of him if he was missing his two front teeth? Yes, his mother paid reparations for him, but that didn't bring my teeth back.

Why did he have to come back from his Journey? And bring that woman with him? All the fuss they make about her and those animals. I've been an Acolyte for years, but she's the one who is getting all the special attention from the First. What if she becomes Zelandoni before I do? She didn't pay much attention to him when they met; she was little more than polite, and she still ignored him. People gave her credit for finding the new cave, but by her own admission, she wasn't the one who found it. It was that stupid animal who did.

He was smiling while he was mulling his thoughts, but to Ayla, who wasn't watching him directly, but observing him closely the way a woman of the Clan would, with indirect glances that took in all of his unconscious body language, his smile was deceitful and devious. She wondered why the Fifth had taken him as an Acolyte. He was such a shrewd and canny Zelandoni, he couldn't have been fooled by him, could he? She glanced at Madroman again and caught him staring directly at her with such a malevolent glare it made her shudder.

'Sometimes I think that Wolf belongs in the zelandonia,' the One Who Was First said. 'You should have heard him in Mammoth Cave. His howl sounded like a sacred voice.'

'I'm glad you have a new Acolyte, but I have always been surprised that you have only one,' the Fifth said. 'I always have several; right now I'm considering another. Not all Acolytes can become zelandoni, and if one decides to give it up, I always have someone else. You should consider that … not that I should tell you.'

'You are probably right. I should consider it. I always have my eyes on several people who might make good acolytes, but I tend to wait until I need one,' the First said. 'The trouble with being First Among Those Who Serve The Great Earth Mother is that I'm responsible for more than one Cave and I don't have as much time to devote to training Acolytes, so I'd rather concenrate on one. Before I left the Summer Meeting, I had to make a choice between my responsibility to the Zelandonii, and my obligation to train the next Zelandoni for the Ninth Cave. The Late Matrimonial had not yet been performed, but since there were only a few who were planning to mate then, and I knew the Fourteenth could handle it, I decided it was more important to start Ayla's Donier Tour.'

'I'm sure the Fourteenth was quite pleased to take over for you,' the Fifth said, with conspiratorial disdain. He was well aware of the difficulties the First had with the Zelandoni of the Fourteenth Cave, who not only wanted her position, but felt she deserved it. 'Any of the Zelandoni would. We see the prestige, but the rest of us don't always see the problems … including me.'

The abris that hovered around them were shelters of stone scoured out of the limestone cliffs by wind, water, and weather through eras of erosion. At any one time, only some were lived in, but others were available to be used for other things. Some of them were utilised for storage, or as a quiet place to practise a craft, or as a meeting place for a couple who wanted to be alone, or for small groups of young or old to plan activities. And one was usually set aside as a place for visitors to stay.

'I hope you will be comfortable here,' the Fifth said as he led them into one of the natural stone shelters near the base of the cliff. The space within was quite roomy with a level floor and a high ceiling, open in the front but protected from rain. Near one side wall, several tattered padded cushions were strewn about, and a few lens-shaped dark circles of ash, a couple with some stones around them, showed where previous tenants had made fires.

'I'll send over some wood, and water. If there is anything else you need, let me know,' the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave said.

'This looks fine to me,' the First said. 'Is there anything you think we might need?' she asked her companions.

Jondalar shook his head and grunted in the negative as he went to untie Racer's pole-drag to relieve him of his load, and to start unpacking. He wanted to set up the tent inside the shelter so it could air out and not be rained on. Ayla had mentioned that she thought it might rain, and he respected her sense of changing weather.

'I just want to ask something,' Ayla said. 'Would anyone mind if we bring the horses under the shelter? I've been noticing clouds building up, and it seems like rain, or something … is coming. Horses like to stay dry, too.'

Just as Jondalar was leading the young stallion away, the horse defecated, leaving plops of brown, grassy dung on the ground behind him, which gave off a strong horsey odour.

'If you want to give your horses shelter from rain, go right ahead,' the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave said, then grinned. 'If you don't mind, I doubt that anyone else will.'

Several others smiled or snickered as well. It was one thing to look at the animals and those who had the ability to control them with awe, but seeing an animal perform its natural functions took some of the glamour away, made them seem less magical. Ayla had noticed the reserved reactions of the people when they first arrived and was glad Racer had chosen that moment to show he was just a horse.

Zelandoni collected the padded cushions and looked them over. Some were made of leather, some of woven vegetal fibres like grass, reeds, and cattail leaves, and several showed their stuffing material out of cracked or torn edges, which was likely why they were left in the seldom-used shelter. She banged several against the stone wall to clean them of dust and dirt, then stacked them up near the fireplace near where Jondalar had taken the folded tent. Ayla started to shift Jonayla around to her back so she could help him put up the tent.

'I'll take her,' the large woman said, reaching for Jonayla. She watched the baby while Jondalar and Ayla raised their tent inside the stone shelter in front of one of the circles of ashes surrounded by stones and laid out fire-making and burning materials for a quick start whenever they wanted a fire. Then they spread out their sleeping rolls and other equipment inside; Wolf always stayed with them in the tent. Finally they put both pole-drags toward the back of the abri and arranged places for the horses under the shelter in front of them, moving Racer's recent droppings out of the way.

Some children from the local Cave stood around watching them but didn't venture too close, except for one girl, whose curiosity finally got the better of her. She approached the Zelandoni and the baby; The First thought the girl could probably count nine or ten years.

'I'd like to hold the baby,' she said. 'Could I?'

'If she'll let you. She has mind of her own,' the woman said.

The girl held out her arms to her. Jonayla hesitated, but smiled shyly at her, when she moved closer and sat down. Finally Jonayla let go of Zelandoni and crawled to the stranger, who picked her up and put her on her lap.

'What's her name?'

'Jonayla,' the woman said. 'What's yours?'

'Hollida,' the child replied.

'You seem to like babies,' Zelandoni said.

'My sister has a baby girl, but she went to visit her mate's family. He comes from a different Cave. I haven't seen her all summer,' Hollida said.

'And you miss her, don't you?'

'Yes. I didn't think I would, but I do.'

Ayla saw the girl as soon as she approached, and noticed the interaction. She smiled to herself, remembering how much she had wanted a baby when she was younger. It made her think about Durc and she realised that he could probably count about the same number of years now as the girl, but in the Clan he would be considered much closer to adulthood than the girl obviously was. He's growing up, she thought. She knew she would never see her son again, but she couldn't help thinking about him sometimes.

Jondalar noticed the wistful expression on her face while she was watching the girl play with Jonayla and wondered what was going through her mind. Then Ayla shook her head, smiled, called Wolf to her, and walked toward them. If the girl is going to spend time with Jonayla, Ayla thought, I'd better introduce her to Wolf so she won't be afraid of him.

After all three adults had unpacked and were settled in, they walked back to the first stone shelter. Hollida was with them, walking with the First. The rest of the children, who had been watching, raced ahead. When the visitors neared the shelter of the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave, several people were in front of the large opening in the stone wall waiting. Their coming had been announced by the children before they arrived. It also appeared a celebration was planned; several people were cooking at hearths in this one location. Ayla wondered if she should have changed out of her travelling clothes, and worn something more suitable, but neither Jondalar nor the First had changed. Some people emerged from the shelter to the north, and from the ones on the other side of the valley when they passed by. Ayla smiled to herself. It seemed obvious that the children had let the others know they were coming.

The area of the Fifth Cave suddenly made her think of the Third Cave at Two Rivers Rock and Reflection Rock of the Twenty-ninth Cave. Their living areas were spread out on residential terraces, one over another, in commanding walls of cliffs, with protective overhangs to shelter the interior spaces from rain and snow. Here, instead, there were several shelters closer to ground level on both sides of the small stream. But it was the close proximity of the several locations where people lived that made them one Cave. Then it occurred to her that the entire Twenty-ninth Cave was attempting to do the same thing, except that their living places were more widely dispersed. It was their mutual hunting and foraging area that brought them together.

'Greetings!' the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave said when they neared. 'I hope you find your place comfortable. We are going to have a community feast in your honour.'

'It isn't necessary to go to so much trouble,' the One Who Was First said.

He looked at the First. 'You know how it is; people love to have an excuse for a celebration. Your coming is a particularly good excuse. We don't often have the Zelandoni of the Ninth Cave who is also the One Who Is First as a visitor. Come inside. You said you wanted to show your acolyte our Sacred Places.' He turned to address Ayla. 'We live in ours,' he said, as he led them in.

The inside of the stone shelter made Ayla stop short with surprise. It was so colourful. Several of the walls were decorated with paintings of animals, which was not so unusual, but the background of many of them was painted a bright red shade with red ochre. And the renderings of the animals were more than outlines, or drawings; most of them were infilled with colour, shaded to bring out the contours and shapes. One wall in particular caught Ayla's attention. It was a painting of two exquisitely portrayed bison, one of them obviously pregnant.

'I know most people carve or paint the walls of their abris, and may consider the images sacred, but we think of this entire space as sacred,' the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave said.

Jondalar had visited the Fifth Cave several times and had admired the wall paintings of their stone shelters, but he had never thought of them any differently than he did the paintings and engravings inside the shelter of the Ninth Cave, or any other cave or abri. He wasn't sure if he understood why this shelter should be any more sacred than any other, though it was more highly coloured and decorated than most. He just assumed that it was the style that the Fifth Cave preferred, like the ornate tattoos and hair arrangement of their Zelandoni.

The Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave looked at Ayla with the wolf standing alertly at her side, then at Jondalar and the baby, who was tucked contentedly into the crook of the man's arm, looking around with interest, then at the First. 'Since the feast is not yet ready, let me show you around,' he said.

'Yes, that would be nice,' the First said.

They walked out of the shelter and into another one that was immediately to the north. It was essentially a continuation of the first one. And it was also decorated, but in a very different way, which created the sense that they were two different shelters. There were paintings on the walls, like the mammoth that was painted in red and black, but some walls of this cave were deeply engraved and some were both engraved and painted. Other engravings intrigued Ayla. She wasn't sure what they meant.

She approached a wall to look more closely. There were some cup-like holes, but other oval carvings with a second oval around them and a mark like a hole extended into a line in the middle. She saw a horn core on the ground nearby that had been carved into a shape that appeared to be a man's organ. She shook her head and looked again, then almost smiled. That was exactly what it was, and when she looked at the oval shapes, it came to her that they might represent female organs.

She turned around and looked at Jondalar and the First, and then the Zelandoni of the Fifth. 'Those look like man and woman parts,' she said. 'Is that what they are?'

The Fifth smiled and nodded. 'This is where our donii-women stay, and often where we have Mother Festivals, and sometimes where we have Rites of First Pleasures. It is also where I have meetings with my acolytes when I am training them, and where they sleep. This is a very Sacred Place,' the Fifth said. 'That's what I meant when I said we live in our Sacred Sites.'

'Do you sleep here, too?' Ayla asked.

'No, I sleep in the first shelter, the other side of this one, near the bison,' he said. 'I don't think it is good for a Zelandoni to spend all his time with his acolytes. They need to be able to relax, away from the restraining eye of their mentor, and I have other things to do and people to see.'

As they walked back to the first part of the shelter, Ayla asked, 'Do you know who made your images?'

The question caught him a little off guard. It was not a question usually asked by Zelandonii. The people were accustomed to their art; it had always been there, or they knew the ones who were currently making it, and no one had to ask.

'Not the engravings,' he said after pausing to think for a moment. 'They were made by the ancient ones, but several of our paintings were made by the woman who first taught Jonokol, when she was younger. The one who was Zelandoni of the Second Cave before the one who is now. She was acknowledged as the finest artist of her time, and she was the one who saw the potential in Jonokol even when he was just a boy. She saw potential in one of our young artists too. She now walks the next world, I am sorry to say.'

'What about the carved horn?' Jondalar queried, indicating the phallus-shaped object, which he had also seen. 'Who made that?'

'That was given to the Zelandoni before me, or perhaps the one before him.' the Fifth said. 'Some like to have it around during Mother Festivals. I'm not sure, it may have been used as a way to explain the changes in a man's organ. Or it may have been a part of First Rites, especially for girls who didn't like men, or were afraid of them.'

Ayla tried not to show it in her expression, it wasn't for her to say, but she thought it would be uncomfortable, perhaps even painful, to use a hard carved object rather than the warm manhood of a caring man, but then she was used to the tenderness of Jondalar. She glanced at him.

He caught her eye and the facial expression she tried to hide, and smiled reassuringly. He wondered if the Fifth was making up a story because he didn't really know what the image meant. Jondalar was sure it had been symbolic of something at one time, probably having to do with a Mother Festival since it was an erect male organ, but that its exact meaning probably had been forgotten.

'We can go across the stream and visit our other Sacred Places. Some of us also live in them. I think you may find them interesting, as well,' the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave said.

They walked toward the small stream that divided the valley, and then upstream to where they had crossed before. There were two solid stepping stones in the middle of the waterway, which they used to get to the other side; then they went back downstream toward the shelter in which they were staying. There were several abris on this side of the stream nestled into the slope of the valley that continued up to a high promontory that dominated the whole region, and served as a good lookout point. They walked to one that was about six hundred feet from where the spring-fed stream flowed into The River.

When they walked under the overhanging stone of the shelter, they were struck immediately by a frieze of five animals: two horses and three bison all facing right. The third figure in particular was a bison about three feet long, deeply incised into the stone wall. Its voluminous body was carved in such strong relief, it was almost a sculpture. Black colouration was used to accentuate the outline. Several other engravings covered the walls: cupules, lines, and animals, most not as deeply carved.

They were introduced to several of the people who were standing around watching them, looking rather proud. They were no doubt pleased to show off their stunning home, and Ayla didn't blame them. It was very impressive. After she had carefully looked over the engravings, Ayla began to take in the rest of the shelter. It was obvious that quite a few people lived there, though there weren't very many at the moment. Like all the rest of the Zelandonii, in summer people travelled; visiting, hunting, gathering, and collecting various other materials that they used to make things.

Ayla noticed an area that had been left recently by someone who was working with ivory, judging from the material scattered around. She looked more closely. There were pieces in different stages of production. The tusks first had been scored over and over again to detach rod-shaped sections, and several small rods were stacked together. A couple of rods had been divided into sections of pairs, which were then worked into two round segments attached together. The flattened piece between was pierced just above each round, then scored and cut through to create two beads, which then had to be smoothed into the final form, a rounded basket-shape.

A man and a woman, both middle aged, came and stood beside her as she was hunkered down to look closely; she wouldn't dream of touching the beads. 'These are remarkable — did you make them?' Ayla said.

They both smiled. 'Yes, bead-making is my craft,' they said together, then laughed at their inadvertent timing.

Ayla asked how long it took to make the beads, and was told one person would be lucky to complete five or six beads from first light until the sun was high and they stopped for a midday meal. Enough beads for one necklace, depending upon how long it was, took anywhere from several days to a moon or two. They were extremely precious.

'It looks like a difficult craft. Just looking at the various steps it takes makes me appreciate my Matrimonial outfit even more. There are many ivory beads sewn on it,' Ayla said.

'We saw it!' the woman said. 'It was beautiful. We went to see it afterward, when Marthona had laid it out on display. The ivory beads were expertly made, by a somewhat different process, I think. The hole seemed to go all the way through the bead, perhaps working from both sides. That is very difficult to do. If you don't mind my asking, where did you get it?'

'I was a Mamutoi — they live far to the east — and the mate of the leader gave it to me; her name was Nezzie of the Lion Camp. Of course, that was when she thought I was going to mate the son of her brother's mate. When I changed my mind and decided to leave with Jondalar, she told me to keep it for my mating with him. She was very fond of him, too,' Ayla explained.

'She must have been fond of him, and you,' the man said. He thought, but didn't say, that the outfit was not only beautiful, it was extremely valuable. To give so much to someone who would take it away meant she must have cared a great deal for the young woman. It made him better understand the status the foreign woman had been accorded, though she was not born a Zelandonii, as her speech certainly attested. 'It is without doubt one of the most stunning outfits I have ever seen.'

The Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave added, 'They also make beads and necklaces out of seashells from both the Great Western Waters and the Southern Sea,' the Zelandoni of the Fifth said, 'and they carve ivory pendants, and pierce teeth. People especially like to wear fox teeth and those special shiny eyeteeth of deer. Even people from other Caves want their work.'

'I grew up near a sea, far to the east,' Ayla said. 'I'd like to see some of your shells.'

The couple — Ayla couldn't decide if they were mates or sister and brother — brought out bags and containers from where they were stored, and poured them out for display, eager to show their riches. There were hundreds of shells, mostly small, globular molluscs like periwinkles or long shapes such as dentalia that could be sewn onto clothes or strung into necklaces. There were also some scallop shells, but for the most part, the shells were from creatures that were essentially inedible, which meant they had been collected for their decorative value alone, not as food, and from a great distance away. They had either travelled to both seashores themselves, or traded for them from someone who had. The amount of time invested in acquiring items solely for display meant that as a society, the Zelandonii were not living on the edge of survival; they had abundance. According to the customs and practices of their time, they were wealthy.

Both Jondalar and the First had come to see what had been brought out and displayed for Ayla. Though they had both been aware of the Fifth Cave's status, partly because of their jewellery-makers, seeing so much at once was almost overwhelming. They couldn't help but make comparisons in their minds to the Ninth Cave, but when they thought about it, they knew that their Cave was equally wealthy, in a slightly different way. In fact, most of the Zelandonii Caves were.

The Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave took them into another shelter nearby, and again it was well decorated, primarily with engravings of horses, bison, deer, even a partial mammoth, often accented with both red ochre and black manganese paint. The antlers of an engraved deer, for example, had been outlined in black, while a bison had been painted mostly red. Again they were introduced to the people who were there. Ayla noticed that the children who had been around their shelter, which was on the same side of the small stream, had gathered around again; she recognised several of them.

Suddenly Ayla felt dizzy and nauseous, and had a very strong need to get out of the shelter. She couldn't explain her intense urge to leave, but she had to get outside.

'I'm thirsty, I want to get some water,' she said, walking out quickly, and heading toward the stream.

'You don't have to go out,' a woman said, following behind her. 'We have a spring inside.'

'I think we all need to go anyway. The feast must be ready, and I'm hungry,' the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave said. 'I should think you must be, too.'

They returned to the main shelter, or what Ayla had come to think of as the main shelter, and found everything for the feast set up and waiting for them. Although extra dishes were stacked up for the visitors, Ayla and Jondalar got their personal eating cups, bowls, and knives out of their pouches. The First carried her own dishes as well. Ayla took out Wolf's water bowl, which also served as an eating dish if one was needed, and thought that she should start making eating dishes for Jonayla soon. Though she planned to nurse her until she could count at least three years, she would be giving her tastes of other food long before that.

Someone had recently hunted an aurochs; a roast haunch, turned on a spit over coals, was the main dish. Lately, they only saw the wild cattle in summer, but it was one of Ayla's favourite foods. The taste was similar to bison, except richer, but then they were similar animals, with hard, round, curving horns that grew to a point and were permanent, not shed every year like deer antlers.

There were summer vegetables, too: sow-thistle stems, cooked pigweed, coltsfoot, and nettle leaves flavoured with sorrel, and cowslips and wild rose petals in a salad of young dandelion leaves and clover. Fragrant meadowsweet flowers gave a honey-like sweetness to a sauce of crabapples and rhubarb served with the meat. A mixture of summer berries required no sweetening. They had raspberrries, an early-ripening variety of blackberries, cherries, blackcurrants, elderberries, and pitted blackthorn plums, though pitting the small sloes was a time-consuming job. Rose leaf tea finished off the delicious meal.

When she took out Wolf's bowl and gave him the bone she had chosen with a little meat left on, one of the women looked at the wolf with disapproval, and Ayla heard her say to another woman that she didn't think it was right to feed a wolf food that was meant for people. The other woman nodded her head in agreement, but Ayla had noticed that both of them had looked at the four-legged hunter with trepidation earlier in the day. She had hoped to introduce Wolf to the women to perhaps reduce their fearfulness, but they made a point of avoiding both Ayla and the meat-eater.

After the meal, more wood was put on the fire to provide stronger light against the encroaching darkness. Ayla was nursing Jonayla and sipping a cup of hot tea with Wolf at her feet in the company of Jondalar, the First, and the Zelandoni of the Fifth. A group of people approached, including Madroman, though he stayed in the background. Ayla recognised others, and gathered that they were the Acolytes of the Fifth, probably wanting to spend some time with the One Who Was First.

'I have completed "Marking the Suns and Moons",' said one of them. The young woman opened up her hand and revealed a small plaque of ivory covered with strange markings.

The Fifth picked it out of her hand and examined it carefully, turning it over to see the back side and even checking around the edges. Then he smiled. 'This is about a half year,' he said, then gave it to the First. 'She is my Third Acolyte, and started the Marking this time last year. Her plaque for the first half is put away.'

The large woman looked at the piece with the same careful scrutiny as the Zelandoni of the Fifth, but not as long. 'This is an interesting method of marking,' she said. 'You show the turns by position and the crescents with curved marks for two of the moons you've marked. The rest are around the edge and on the back. Very good.'

The young woman beamed under the praise from the First.

'Perhaps you could explain what you've done to my Acolyte. Marking the Suns and Moons is something she has yet to do,' the First said.

'I would have thought it was something she had already done. I've heard she is known for her medicinal knowledge, and she is mated. There are not many Acolytes I know who are mated and have children, not even many Zelandonia,' the Third Acolyte of the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave said.

'Ayla's training has been unconventional. As you know, she was not born to the Zelandonii, so the order in which she has gained her knowledge is not the same as ours. She is an exceptional healer. She started young, but she is just beginning her Donier Tour, and hasn't yet learned to Mark the Suns and Moons,' the Zelandoni Who Was First carefully explained.

'I'll be happy to explain the way I marked them to her,' the Third Acolyte of the Fifth said, and sat down next to Ayla.

Ayla was more than interested. This was the first she had heard of Marking the Suns and Moons, and didn't know it was another task she'd have to complete as part of her training. She wondered what else there was that she didn't know she would have to do.

'You see, I made one mark each night,' the young woman said, showing her the marks she had etched into the ivory with a pointed tool of sharp flint. 'I'd already marked the first half year on another piece, so I was getting an idea of how to keep track of more than just the count of the days. I started this just before the moon was new and I was trying to show where the moon was in the sky, so I began here.' She indicated a mark that was in the middle of what seemed to be just random haphazard pitting. 'The next few nights it snowed. It was a big storm and blocked out the moon and the stars, but I wouldn't have been able to see the moon anyway. It was the time when Lumi was closing his great eye. The next time I saw him, he was a thin crescent, waking up again, so I made a curved mark here.'

Ayla looked where the young woman indicated and was rather surprised to see that what had appeared at first to be hole made by a sharp point was indeed a small curved line. She looked more closely at the group of markings and suddenly they didn't look so random. There did seem to be a pattern to it, and she was interested in how the young woman would proceed.

'Since the time of Lumi's sleeping is the beginning of a Moon, that's here on the right where I decided to turn back to mark the next set of nights,' the Third Acolyte continued. 'Right about here was the first eye-half-closed; some people call it the first half-face. Then it keeps getting bigger until it's full. It's hard to tell when it's exactly full — it looks full for a few days — so that's here on the left where I turned back again. I made four curved marks, two below and two above. I kept marking until it was the second half-face, when Lumi starts to close his eye again, and you notice it's just above the first half-face.

'I kept marking until his eye was closed again — see here on the right, where I curved down? All the way around the line with the first right-end turn. You take it and see if you can follow it. I always make the turns when he's full face, on the right, or when he's sleeping, on the left. You'll see that you can count two Moons, plus another half. I stopped at the first half-face after the second Moon. I was waiting for Bali to catch up. It was the time when the sun is as far south as it goes and stands still for a few days, then changes direction and goes north again. It's the ending of First Winter and the beginning of Second Winter, when it's colder but has the promise of Bali's return.'

'Thank you,' Ayla said. 'That was fascinating! Did you work it all out yourself?'

'Not exactly. Other Zelandonia showed me their way of marking, but I saw a plaque at the Fourteenth Cave once that was quite old. It wasn't marked in quite the same way, but it gave me the idea when it was my time to Mark the Moons.'

'It's a very good idea,' the First said.

It was very dark when they started back to their sleeping place. Ayla was holding the baby, who was sound asleep wrapped up in her carrying blanket, so both Jondalar and the First each borrowed a torch to see their way.

As they approached the visitors' shelter, they passed by some of the other shelters they had seen earlier. When she came to the one where she had felt so uncomfortable, Ayla shuddered again and hurried past.

'What's wrong?' Jondalar asked.

'I don't know,' Ayla said. 'I've been feeling strange all day. It's probably nothing.'

When they reached their shelter, the horses were milling around outside, rather than in the large roomy space she had made for them inside. 'Why are they out here? The horses have been acting up all day; that may be what's bothering me,' Ayla said. As they turned into the shelter toward their tent, Wolf hesitated, then sat down on his haunches and refused to enter. 'Now, what's wrong with Wolf?'