The Land of Painted Caves

Chapter 3

'There you are!' Kimeran said, getting up from a stone seat on the ledge in front of the shelter of the Seventh Cave to greet Ayla and Jondalar, who had just climbed up the path. Wolf followed behind them and Jonayla was awake and propped up on Ayla's hip. 'We knew you had come, and then no one knew where you were.'

Jondalar's old friend, Kimeran, the leader of Elder Hearth, the Second Cave of the Zelandonii had been waiting for him. The very tall light-haired man bore a superficial resemblance to six-foot-six-inch Jondalar with his pale yellow hair. Though many men were tall — over six feet — both Jondalar and Kimeran had towered over their other age-mates at their puberty rites. They were drawn to each other and quickly became friends. Kimeran was also the brother of the Zelandoni of the Second Cave, and the uncle of Jondecam but more like a brother. His sister was quite a bit older, and she had raised him after their mother died, along with her own son and daughter. Her mate had also passed on to the next world, and not long afterward she began training for the zelandonia.

'The First wanted Ayla to see your Horsehead, and then we needed to get our horses settled,' Jondalar said.

'They are going to love your field. The grass is so green and rich,' Ayla added.

'We call it Sweet Valley. The Little Grass River runs through the middle of it, and the flood plain has widened into a large field. It can get marshy in spring from snowmelt, and when the rains come in fall, but in summer when everything else is dried out, that field stays fresh and green,' Kimeran said, as they continued walking toward the living space beneath the overhanging upper shelf. 'It attracts a nice procession of grazers through here all summer long and makes hunting easy. Either the Second or the Seventh Cave always has someone watching.'

They approached more people. 'You remember Sergenor, the leader of the Seventh Cave, don't you?' Kimeran said to the visiting couple, indicating a middle-aged dark-haired man who had been standing back eyeing the wolf warily, and letting the younger leader greet his friends.

'Yes, of course,' Jondalar said, noting his apprehension, and thinking that this visit might be a good time to help people get more comfortable around Wolf. 'I remember when Sergenor used to come to talk to Marthona when he was first chosen as leader of the Seventh. You have met Ayla, I believe.'

'I was one of the many to whom she was introduced last year when you first arrived, but I haven't had a chance to greet her personally,' Sergenor said. He held out both hands, palms up. 'In the name of Doni, I welcome you to the Seventh Cave of the Zelandonii, Ayla of the Ninth Cave. I know you have many other names and ties, some quite unusual, but I will admit, I don't remember them.'

Ayla grasped both of his hands in hers. 'I am Ayla of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii,' she began, 'Acolyte to Zelandoni of the Ninth Cave, First Among Those Who Serve'; then she hesitated, wondering how many of Jondalar's ties to mention. At the Matrimonial Ceremony last summer, all of Jondalar's names and ties were added to hers, and it made for a very long recitation, but it was only during the most formal of ceremonies that the whole list was required. Since this was her official meeting of the leader of the Seventh Cave, she wanted to make the introduction formal, but not go on and on.

She decided to cite the closest of his ties and continue with her own, including her previous ties. She finished with the appellations that had been added in a more lightearted vein, but that she liked to use. 'Friend of the horses, Whinney, Racer, and Grey, and the four-legged hunter, Wolf. In the name of the Great Mother of all, I greet you, Sergenor, Leader of the Seventh Cave of the Zelandonii, and I would like to thank you for inviting us to Horsehead Rock.'

She is definitely not a Zelandonii, Sergenor thought, as he heard her speak. She may have Jondalar's names and ties, but she's a foreigner with foreign customs, especially about animals. As he dropped her hands, he eyed the wolf, who had come closer.

Ayla saw his uneasiness around the big carnivore. She had noticed that Kimeran was not particularly comfortable near the animal either, though he had been introduced to Wolf last year shortly after they arrived, and he had seen him several times. Neither of the leaders was accustomed to seeing a hunting meat-eater moving so easily among people. Her thoughts were similar to Jondalar's: this might be a good time to get them more accustomed to Wolf.

The people of the Seventh Cave were noticing that the couple everyone talked about from the Ninth Cave had arrived, and more people were coming to see the woman with the wolf. All the nearby Caves had known within a day when Jondalar returned from his five-year-long Journey the summer before. Arriving on horseback with a foreign woman guaranteed it. They had met people from most of the nearby Caves at the Ninth Cave when they came to visit, or at the last Summer Meeting, but this was the first time they had paid a visit to the Seventh or the Second Cave.

Ayla and Jondalar had planned to go the previous fall, but never quite made it. It wasn't that their Caves were so far away from each other, but something always seemed to interfere, and then winter was upon them, and Ayla was getting along in her pregnancy. All the delayed expectation had made their visit an occasion, especially since the First had decided to have a meeting here with the local zelandonia at the same time.

'Whoever carved the Horsehead in the cave below must have known horses. It is very well made,' Ayla said.

'I always thought so, but it is nice to hear it from someone who knows horses as well as you do,' Sergenor said.

Wolf was sitting back on his haunches with his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth, eyeing the man, his bent ear giving him a cocky, self-satisfied look. Ayla knew he was expecting to be introduced. He had watched her greet the leader of the Seventh Cave and he had come to expect to be presented to any stranger that she greeted in that way.

'I also want to thank you for allowing me to bring Wolf. He's always unhappy if he can't be near me, and now he feels that way about Jonayla, since he loves children so much,' Ayla said.

'That wolf loves children?' Sergenor asked.

'Wolf didn't grow up with other wolves, he was raised with the Mamutoi children of the Lion Camp and thinks of people as his pack, and all wolves love the young of their packs,' Ayla said. 'He saw me greet you and now he expects to meet you. He has learned to accept anyone that I introduce him to.'

Sergenor frowned. 'How do you introduce a wolf?' he said. He glanced at Kimeran and saw him grinning.

The younger man was remembering his introduction to Wolf, and though he might still be somewhat nervous around the carnivore, he was rather enjoying the older man's discomfiture.

Ayla signaled Wolf to come forward and knelt down to put her arm around him, then reached for Sergenor's hand. He jerked it back.

'He only needs to smell it,' Ayla said, 'so he becomes familiar with you. It's the way wolves meet each other.'

'Did you do this, Kimeran?' Sergenor said, noticing that most of his Cave and their visitors were watching.

'Yes, in fact I did. Last summer, when they went to the Third Cave to hunt before the Summer Meeting. Afterward, whenever I saw the wolf at the Meeting, I had the feeling that he recognised me, though he ignored me,' Kimeran said.

He didn't really want to, but with all the people watching, Sergenor was feeling pressed to comply. He didn't want anyone to think that he was afraid to do what the younger leader had already done. Slowly, tentatively, he stretched out his hand toward the animal. Ayla took it and brought it to the animal's nose. Wolf wrinkled his nose and with his mouth closed, bared his teeth so that his large carnassial shearing teeth showed, in what Jondalar always thought of as his feeling-full-of-himself grin. But that wasn't how Sergenor saw it. Ayla could feel him shaking, and noticed the sour smell of his fear. She knew Wolf did, too.

'Wolf won't hurt you, I promise,' Ayla said softly, under her breath. Sergenor gritted his teeth, forcing himself to hold steady while the wolf brought his tooth-filled mouth close to his hand. Wolf sniffed, then licked.

'What's he doing?' Sergenor said. 'Trying to see what I taste like?'

'No, I think he's trying to calm you, like he would a puppy. Here, touch his head.' She moved his hand away from the sharp teeth, and was speaking in a soothing voice. 'Have you ever felt the fur of a living wolf? Do you notice that behind his ears and around his neck, the fur is a little thicker and rougher? He likes being rubbed behind his ears.' When she finally let go, the man moved his hand away and held it in his other hand.

'Now he will recognise you,' she said. She had never seen anyone so afraid of Wolf, or more brave in overcoming his fear. 'Have you ever had any experience with wolves before?' she asked.

'Once, when I was very young, I was bitten by a wolf. I don't really remember, my mother told me about it, but I still have the scars,' Sergenor said.

'That means the Wolf spirit chose you. The Wolf is your totem. That's what the people who raised me would say.' She knew totems were not viewed the same way by the Zelandonii as they were by the Clan. Not everyone had one, but they were considered lucky by those who did. 'I was clawed by a cave lion when I was young, when I could count perhaps five years. I still have the scars to show for it, and I still dream about it sometimes. It is not easy to live with a powerful totem like a Lion or a Wolf, but my totem has helped me, taught me many things,' Ayla said.

Sergenor was intrigued, almost in spite of himself. 'What did you learn from a cave lion?'

'How to face my fears, for one thing,' she said. 'I think you have learned to do the same. Your Wolf totem may have helped you without your knowing it.'

'Perhaps, but how would you know if you have been helped by a totem? Has a Cave Lion spirit really helped you?' Sergenor asked.

'More than once. The four marks that the lion's claw left on my leg, that is a Clan totem mark for a Cave Lion. Usually it is only a man who is given such a strong totem, but they were so clearly Clan marks, the leader accepted me even though I was born to the Others — that's their name for people like us. I was very young when I lost my people. If the Clan hadn't taken me in and raised me, I would not be alive now,' Ayla explained.

'Interesting, but you said "more than once",' Sergenor reminded her.

'Another time, after I became a woman and the new young leader forced me to leave, I walked for a long time looking for the Others as my Clan mother, Iza, had told me to do before she died. But when I couldn't find them, and I had to find a place to stay before winter came, my totem sent a pride of lions to make me change my direction, which led me to find a valley where I could survive. It was even my cave lion who led me to Jondalar,' Ayla said.

The people who were standing around listening were fascinated with her story. Even Jondalar had never heard her explain her totem in quite that way. One of them spoke out.

'And these people who took you in, the ones you call the Clan, are they really Flatheads?'

'That's your name for them. They call themselves the Clan, the Clan of the Cave Bear, because they all venerate the spirit of the Cave Bear. He is the totem of all of them, the Clan totem,' Ayla said.

'I think it's time to let these travellers know where they can put down their sleeping rolls and get settled so they can share a meal with us,' said a woman who had just arrived. She was a pleasantly round, attractive woman with the glint of intelligence and spirit in her eyes.

Sergenor smiled with warm affection. 'This is my mate, Jayvena of the Seventh Cave of the Zelandonii,' he said to Ayla. 'Jayvena, this is Ayla of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii. She has many more names and ties, but I'll let her tell you.'

'But not now,' Jayvena said. 'In the name of the Mother, welcome, Ayla of the Ninth Cave. I'm sure you would rather get settled now rather than recite names and ties.'

As they were starting to leave, Sergenor touched Ayla's arm and looked at her, then said, quietly, 'I sometimes dream of wolves.' She smiled.

As they were leaving, a voluptuous young woman with dark brown hair approached, holding two children in her arms, a dark-haired boy and a blond girl. She smiled at Kimeran, who lightly brushed her cheek with his, then turned to the visitors. 'You met my mate, Beladora, last summer, didn't you?' he said, adding in a voice filled with pride, 'and her son and daughter, the children of my hearth?'

Ayla recalled meeting the woman briefly the summer before, though she hadn't had a chance to get to know her. She knew that Beladora had given birth to her two-born-together at the Summer Meeting around the time of the First Matrimonial, when she and Jondalar were mated. Everyone had been talking about it. That meant the two would soon be able to count one year, she thought.

'Yes, of course,' Jondalar said, bestowing a smile on the woman and her twins, then without really being aware of it, paying closer attention to the attractive young mother, his vivid blue eyes full of appreciation. She smiled back. Kimeran moved closer and put an arm around her waist.

Ayla was adept at reading body language, but she thought anyone could have understood what had just transpired. Jondalar found Beladora attractive, and couldn't help showing it, just as she couldn't help responding to him. Jondalar was unaware of his own charisma, didn't even realise he projected it, but Beladora's mate was very aware of it. Without saying a word, Kimeran had stepped in and made his claim known.

Ayla observed the byplay and was so intrigued, that even though Jondalar was her mate, she didn't feel any jealousy. She did, however, begin to appreciate the comments she had been hearing about him ever since they had arrived. At a deeper level she knew that Jondalar was only appreciating; he had no desire to do more than look. There was another side to him, one that he rarely showed even to her, and then only when they were alone.

Jondalar's emotions had always been too strong, his passions too great. All his life he had struggled to control them and had finally managed only by learning to keep his feelings to himself. It was not easy for him to show the full intensity of his feelings. That was why he never displayed publicly the depth of his love for her, but sometimes when they were alone he couldn't control it. It was so powerful, it sometimes overwhelmed him.

When Ayla turned her head, she noticed Zelandoni Who Was First observing her, and understood that she, too, had been aware of the unspoken interactions and was trying to judge her response. Ayla gave her a knowing smile, then turned her attention to her baby, who was squirming in her carrying blanket, trying to find a way to nurse. She approached the handsome young mother who was standing beside Jayvena.

'Greetings, Beladora. I am glad to see you, especially with your children,' she said. 'Jonayla has soaked her padding. I brought some extra to replace it; would you show me where I can change it?'

The woman with a baby on each hip smiled. 'Come with me,' she said, and the three women started toward the shelter.

Beladora had heard people talk about Ayla's unusual accent, but she hadn't really heard her speak before. She was in labour during the Matrimonial when Jondalar mated his foreign woman, and she'd had little occasion to talk to Ayla later. She was busy with her own concerns, but now she knew what they meant. Though Ayla spoke Zelandonii very well, she just couldn't make some of the sounds exactly right, but Beladora was rather pleased to hear her. She had come from a region far to the south, and though her speech wasn't as unusual as Ayla's, she spoke Zelandonii with her own distinctive accent.

Ayla smiled when she heard her talk. 'I think you were not born a Zelandonii,' she said. 'Just as I was not.'

'My people are known as the Giornadonii. We are neighbours of a Cave of Zelandonii far south of here, where it's much warmer.' Beladora smiled. 'I met Kimeran when he travelled with his sister on her Donier Tour.'

Ayla wondered what a 'Donier Tour' was. Obviously, it had something to do with being a Zelandoni, since 'donier' was another word for One Who Served The Great Mother, but Ayla decided she would ask the First later.

The fire's lambent flames cast a comforting ruddy glow beyond the confines of the oblong hearth that contained it, and painted a warm dancing light on the limestone walls of the abri. The rock ceiling of the overhanging ledge above the fire reflected the glowing hue down on the scene, giving the people a radiant look of well-being. A delicious communal meal that had taken many people a great deal of time and effort to prepare had been consumed, including a huge haunch of megaceros roasted on a sturdy spit stretched across large forked branches over that same extended rectangular firepit. Now the Seventh Cave of the Zelandonii along with many relatives from the Second Cave and their visitors from the Ninth and Third Caves were ready to relax.

Beverages had been offered: several varieties of tea, a fermented fruity wine, and the alcoholic brew called barma made from birch sap, with additions of wild grains, honey or various fruits. They had each taken a cup of their favourite drink, and were milling about, looking for a place to sit near the welcoming hearth. A heightened feeling of anticipation and delight permeated the group. Visitors always brought a bit of excitement, but the foreign woman with her animals and exotic stories promised to be more stimulating than usual.

Ayla and Jondalar were in the midst of a group that included Joharran and Proleva, Sergenor and Jayvena, and Kimeran and Beladora, the leaders of the Ninth, Seventh and Second Caves, and several others, including the young women Levela and Janida, and their mates, Jondecam and Peridal. The leaders were discussing with the people of the Seventh Cave when the visitors should leave Horsehead Rock and go to Elder Hearth, with jocular asides, in a friendly rivalry with the Second Cave about where the visitors should stay the longest.

'Elder Hearth is senior and should be higher ranking and accorded more prestige,' Kimeran said with a teasing grin. 'So we should have them longer.'

'Does that mean because I'm older than you, I should be accorded more prestige?' Sergenor countered with a telling smile. 'I'll remember that.'

Ayla had been listening and smiling with the rest, but she had been wanting to ask a question. At a break in the conversation, she finally said, 'Now that you have brought up the ages of the Caves, there is something I would like to know.' They all turned to look at her.

'You have only to ask,' Kimeran said with exaggerated courtesy and friendliness that intimated the suggestion of more. He had drunk a few cups of barma and was noticing how attractive his tall friend's mate was.

'Last summer Manvelar was telling me a little about the counting-word names of each Cave, but I'm still confused,' Ayla said. 'When we went to the Summer Meeting last year, we stopped overnight at the Twenty-ninth Cave. They live at three separate shelters around a big valley, each with a leader and a zelandoni, but they are all called by the same counting word, the Twenty-ninth. The Second Cave is closely related to the Seventh Cave, and you live just across a valley, so why do you have a Cave with a different counting word? Why aren't you part of the Second Cave?'

'That's one I can't answer. I don't know,' Kimeran said, then gestured toward the older man. 'You'll have to ask the more senior leader. Sergenor?'

Sergenor smiled, but pondered the question for a moment. 'To be honest, I don't know, either. It never occurred to me before. And I don't know of any Histories or Elder Legends that tell about it. There are some that tell stories of the original inhabitants of the region, the First Cave of the Zelandonii, but they have long since disappeared. No one even knows for sure where their shelter was.'

'You do know that the Second Cave of the Zelandonii is the oldest settlement of Zelandonii still in existence?' Kimeran said, his voice slightly slurred. 'That's why it's called Elder Hearth.'

'Yes, I knew that,' she said, wondering if he would need the 'morning after' drink she had concocted for Talut, the Mamutoi leader of the Lion Camp.

'I'll tell you what I think,' Sergenor said. 'As the families of the First and Second Caves grew too large for their shelters, some of them, offshoots of both Caves as well as new people who had come into the region, moved farther away, taking the next counting words when they established a new Cave. By the time the group of people from the Second Cave who founded our Cave decided to move, the next unused counting word was seven. They were mostly young families — some newly mated couples, the children of the Second Cave — and they wanted to stay close to their relatives, so they moved here, just across Sweet Valley, to make their new home. Even though the two Caves were so closely related, they were the same as one Cave, I think they chose a new number because that's the way it was done. So we became two separate Caves: Elder Hearth, the Second Cave of the Zelandonii, and Horsehead Rock, the Seventh Cave. We are still just different branches of the same family.

'The Twenty-ninth is a newer Cave,' Sergenor continued. 'When they moved to their new shelters, I suspect they all wanted to keep the same counting word name, because the smaller the counting word, the older the settlement. There is a certain prestige in having a lower counting word and Twenty-nine was rather large already. I suspect none of the people founding the new Caves wanted a larger one. They decided to call themselves Three Rocks, the Twenty-ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, and then use the names they had already given to the locations to explain the difference.

'The original settlement is called Reflection Rock, because from certain places you can see yourself in the water below. It is one of the few shelters that face north and is not quite as easy to keep warm, but it is a remarkable place and has many other advantages. It is the South Holding of the Twenty-ninth Cave, or sometimes the South Holding of Three Rocks. South Face became the North Holding, and Summer Camp became the West Holding of the Twenty-ninth Cave. I think their way is more complicated and confusing, but it's their choice.'

'If the Second Cave is the oldest, then the next-oldest group still in existence must be Two Rivers Rock, the Third Cave of the Zelandonii. We stayed there last night,' Ayla said, nodding as she understood more.

'That's right,' Proleva said, joining in.

'But there is no Fourth Cave, is there?'

'There was a Fourth Cave,' Proleva replied, 'but no one seems to know what happened to it. There are Legends that hint at some catastrophe that struck more than one Cave, and the Fourth may have disappeared around that time, but no one knows. It's a dark time in the Histories, too. Some fighting with the Flatheads is inferred.'

'The Fifth Cave, called Old Valley, upstream along The River, is next after the Third,' Jondalar said. 'We were going to visit them on our way to the Summer Meeting last year, but they had already left, remember?' Ayla nodded. 'They have several shelters on both sides of Short River Valley, some for living, some for storage, but they don't give them separate counting words. All of Old Valley is the Fifth Cave.'

'The Sixth Cave has disappeared, too,' Sergenor continued. 'There are different stories about what happened to it. Most people think illness reduced their numbers. Others believe there was a difference of opinion between factions. In any case, the Histories indicate that the people who had once been the Sixth Cave joined up with other Caves, so we, the Seventh Cave are next. There is no Eighth Cave, either, so your Cave, the Ninth, comes after ours.'

There was a moment of silence while the information was absorbed. Then changing the subject, Jondecam asked Jondalar if he would look at the spear-thrower he had made, and Levela told her older sister, Proleva, that she was thinking about going to the Ninth Cave to have her baby, which elicited a smile. People started having private conversations and soon split up into other groups.

Jondecam was not the only one who wanted to ask questions about the spear-thrower, especially after learning about the lion hunt the day before. Jondalar had developed the hunting weapon while he lived with Ayla in her eastern valley and had demonstrated it shortly after he had returned to his home the previous summer. He had held further exhibitions at the Summer Meeting.

Earlier in the afternoon, when Jondalar was waiting for Ayla to visit Horsehead cave, several had practised casting spears with throwers they had made, patterned after the ones they had seen him use, while Jondalar gave them instructions and advice. Now a group of people, primarily men but including some women, were gathered around him, asking questions about the techniques of making spear-throwers, and the lightweight spears that had proved to be so effective with it.

Across the hearth, near the wall that helped contain the heat, several women who had babies, Ayla among them, were gathered together feeding, rocking, or keeping an eye on sleeping ones while they chatted.

In a separate, more isolated area of the shelter, Zelandoni Who Was First had been talking with the other Zelandonia and their acolytes, feeling just a little annoyed that Ayla, who was her acolyte, had not joined them. She knew she had pushed her into it, but Ayla was already an accomplished healer when she had arrived, and had other remarkable skills besides, including knowing how to control animals. She belonged in the zelandonia!

The Zelandoni of the Seventh had asked the First a question and was waiting for an answer with a patient expression. He had noticed that the Zelandoni of the Ninth Cave seemed distracted and a bit annoyed. He had been observing her since the visitors had arrived and had seen her irritation grow, and guessed why. When Zelandonia visited each other with their acolytes, it was a good time to teach the novices some of the knowledge and lore they had to learn and memorise, and her acolyte was not here. But, he thought, if the First was going to choose an acolyte who had a mate and a new baby, she had to know her full attention would not be devoted to the zelandonia.

'Excuse me for a moment,' the First said, pulling herself up from a mat on a low stone ledge and walking toward the group of chattering young mothers. 'Ayla,' she said, smiling. She was adept at hiding her true feelings. 'I'm sorry to interrupt, but the Zelandoni of the Seventh Cave just asked me a question about setting broken bones, and I thought you might have some thoughts to contribute.'

'Of course, Zelandoni,' she said. 'Let me get Jonayla; she's right over there.'

Ayla got up, but hesitated when she looked down at her sleeping baby. Wolf looked up at her and whined, beating his tail against the ground. He was lying beside the infant that he considered to be his special charge. Wolf had been the last of the litter of a lone wolf that Ayla had killed for stealing from her traps, before she knew it was a nursing mother. She had tracked back to the den, found one living cub, and had brought him back with her. He had grown up in the close confines of the Mamutoi winter dwelling. He was so young when she found him — he would have counted perhaps four weeks — that he had imprinted on humans, and he adored the youngsters, especially the young one born to Ayla.

'I hate to disturb her. She just fell asleep. She's not used to visiting and has been overexcited this evening,' Ayla said.

'We can watch her,' Levela said, then grinned. 'At least help Wolf. He won't let her out of his sight. If she wakes, we'll bring her over. But now that she has finally settled down, I don't think she'll stir for some time.'

'Thank you, Levela,' Ayla said, then smiled at her and the woman beside her. 'You really are Proleva's sister. Do you know how much you are like her?'

'I know I've missed her since she mated Joharran,' Levela said, looking at her sister. 'We were always close. Proleva was almost a second mother to me.'

Ayla followed the One Who Was First back to the group of Those Who Served The Mother. She noticed that most of the local zelandonia were there. In addition to the First, who was the Zelandoni of the Ninth Cave, and of course the Zelandonia of the Second and Seventh Caves, there were also the Zelandonia of the Third and Eleventh Caves. The Zelandoni of the Fourteenth had not come, but she had sent her First Acolyte. There were several other acolytes. Ayla recognised the two younger women and a young man, from the Second and Seventh Caves. She smiled at Mejera from the Third Cave and greeted the elderly man who was the Zelandoni of the Seventh, and then the woman who was the granddaughter of his hearth, the Zelandoni of the Second, who was also the mother of Jondecam. Ayla had been wanting to get to know the Second better. Not many of the Zelandonia had children, but she was a woman who had been mated and had raised two children — and her brother Kimeran after their mother died — and now was a Zelandoni.

'Ayla has had more experience than most in setting bones, Zelandoni of the Seventh. You should ask her your question,' the First said, settling back down and indicating a mat next to her for Ayla.

'I know if a fresh break is set straight, it will heal straight — I've done it many times — but someone was asking me if anything could be done if a break was not set straight and it healed crooked,' the older man asked immediately. He was not only interested in her response, he had heard so much about her skill from the One Who Was First, he wanted to see if she would be flustered by a direct question from someone of his age and experience.

Ayla had just dropped down to the mat and turned to face him. She had a way of lowering herself that was particularly fluid and graceful, he noticed, and a way of looking at him that was direct yet not quite, that somehow conveyed a sense of respect. Though she had expected to be formally introduced to the other acolytes, and was surprised to be questioned so quickly, she responded without hesitation.

'It depends on the break and how long it has been healing,' Ayla said. 'If it's an old break, it's hard to do much. Healed bone, even if it healed wrong, is often stronger than bone that was not injured. If you try to rebreak it to set it right, the uninjured bone is likely to break instead. But if the break has just started to mend, sometimes it can be broken again and set straight.'

'Have you ever done it?' the Seventh asked, a bit put off by the way she spoke; it was odd, not like the way Kimeran's pretty mate spoke, with a rather pleasant shift in certain sounds. When Jondalar's foreign woman spoke, it was almost as though she swallowed certain sounds.

'Yes,' Ayla said. She had the feeling she was being tested, something like the way Iza used to ask her questions about healing practices and plant uses. 'On our Journey here, we stopped to visit some people that Jondalar had met earlier, the Sharamudoi. Nearly a moon before we arrived, a woman he knew had taken a bad fall and had broken her arm. It was healing wrong, bent in such a way that she couldn't use it, and it was very painful. Their healer had died earlier that winter, and they did not have a new one yet, and no one else knew how to set an arm. I managed to rebreak her arm and reset it. It was not perfect, but it was better. She would not have full use, but she would be able to use it, and by the time we left, it was healing well and not causing her pain anymore,' Ayla explained.

'Didn't breaking her arm cause her pain?' a young man asked.

'I don't think she felt the pain. I gave her something to make her sleep and relax her muscles. I know it as datura …'

'Datura?' the old man interrupted. Her accent was particularly heavy when she said the word.

'In Mamutoi it's called a word that might mean "thorn apple" in Zelandoni, because at one stage it bears a fruit that could be described that way. It's a strong-smelling large plant with big white flowers that flare out from the stem,' Ayla said.

'Yes, I believe I know the one,' the old Zelandoni of the Seventh Cave said.

'How did you know what to do?' asked the young woman who was sitting beside the old man, in a tone that sounded full of wonder that someone who was just an acolyte could have known so much.

'Yes, that is a good question,' the Seventh said. 'How did you know what to do? Where did you get your experience? You seem quite knowledgeable for one so young.'

Ayla glanced at the First, who seemed rather pleased. She wasn't sure why, but she had the impression that the woman was satisfied by her recitation.

'The woman who took me in and raised me when I was a little girl was a medicine woman of her people, a healer. She was training me to be a medicine woman, too. Men of the Clan use a different kind of spear than Zelandonii men when they hunt. It's longer and thicker and they don't usually throw it; they jab with it, so they have to get close. It's more dangerous and they were often hurt. Sometimes the hunters of the Clan travelled quite a long distance. If someone broke a bone, they weren't always able to return right away and the bone would start to heal before it could be set. I assisted Iza a few times when she had to rebreak and reset bones, and I also helped the medicine women at the Clan Gathering do the same.'

'These people you call the Clan, are they really the same as Flatheads?' the young man asked.

She had been asked that question before, and she thought by the same young man. 'That is your word for them,' Ayla said again.

'It's hard to believe they could do so much,' he said.

'Not for me. I lived with them.'

There was an uncomfortable silence for a few moments, then the First changed the subject. 'I think this would be a good time for the acolytes to learn or, for some of you, to review counting-words, some of their uses and meanings. You all know the counting words, but what can you do if there are large amounts to count? Zelandoni of the Second Cave, would you explain?'

Ayla's interest was quickened. Suddenly fascinated, she leaned forward. She knew counting could be more complex and powerful than just the simple counting words, if one understood how to do it. The First noted her attention with satisfaction. She was sure that Ayla had a particular curiosity about the concept of counting.

'You can use your hands,' the Second said, and held up both hands. 'With the right hand, you count on your fingers as each word is said up to five.' She made a fist, and lifted each finger in turn as she counted, beginning with the thumb. 'You can count another five on your left hand until you get to ten, but that is as far as you can go with just counting. But instead of using the left hand to count the second five, you can bend down one finger, the thumb, to hold the first five,' she held up her left hand with the back facing out, 'then count again on the right hand, and bend down the second counting finger of the left hand to hold it.' She bent her index finger on top of her thumb, so that she was holding open both hands, except for the index finger and thumb of her left hand. 'That means ten,' she said. If I hold down the next finger, that means fifteen. The next finger is twenty, and next one twenty-five.'

Ayla was amazed. She comprehended the idea immediately, though it was more complex than the simple counting words Jondalar had taught her. She remembered the first time she learned the concept of calculating the number of things. It was Creb, the Mog-ur of the Clan, who had shown her, but essentially he could only count to ten. The first time he showed her his way of counting, when she was still a girl, he placed each finger of one hand on five different stones and then, since one arm had been amputated below the elbow, he did it a second time imagining that it was his other hand. With great difficulty, he could stretch his imagination to count to twenty, which was why it had shocked and upset him when she had counted to twenty-five with ease.

She didn't use words, the way Jondalar did. She did it with pebbles, showing Creb twenty-five by placing her five fingers on different stones five times. Creb had struggled to learn to count, but she understood the concept with ease. He told her never to tell anyone what she had done. He knew she was different from the Clan, but he hadn't understood how different until then, and he knew it would distress them, especially Brun and the men, perhaps enough to drive her out.

Most of the Clan could count only one, two, three and many, though they could indicate some gradations of many, and they had other ways of understanding quantities. For example, they didn't have counting words for the years of a child's life, but they knew that a child in his birthing year was younger than a child who was in his walking year or his weaning year. It was also true that Brun didn't have to count the people of his clan. He knew the name of everyone and with just a quick glance, he knew if someone was not there, and who it was. Most people shared that ability to some degree. Once they were with a limited number of people for a period of time, they intuitively sensed if someone was missing.

Ayla knew that if her understanding of counting upset Creb, who loved her, it would disturb the rest of the Clan even more, so she never mentioned it, but she hadn't forgotten. She used her limited knowledge of counting for herself, especially when she lived alone in the valley. She had marked the passing of time by cutting marks on a stick every day. She knew how many seasons and years she had lived in the valley even without having counting words, but when Jondalar came, he was able to tally the marks on her sticks and tell her how long she had been there. To her, it was like magic. Now that she had an idea how he had done it, she was hungry to learn more.

'There are ways to count even higher, but it is more complicated,' the Second continued, then smiled, 'as with most things associated with the zelandonia.' Those watching smiled back. 'Most signs have more than one meaning. Both hands can mean ten or twenty-five, and it's not hard to understand what is meant when you are talking about it, because when you mean ten, you face the palms out; when you mean twenty-five, you turn the palms inward. When you hold them facing in, you can count again, but this time use the left hand, and hold the number with the right.' She demonstrated and the acolytes mimicked her. 'In that position, bending down the thumb means thirty, but when you count and hold to thirty-five, you don't hold the thumb down; you just bend the next finger down. For forty, you bend down the middle finger, for forty-five the next; for fifty the small finger of the right hand is bent, and all the other fingers on both hands are out. The right hand with bent fingers is sometimes used alone to show those larger counting words. Even larger counting words can be made bending more than one finger.'

Ayla had trouble bending just her little finger and holding that position. It was obvious that the rest of them had more practice, but she had no trouble understanding. The First saw Ayla grinning with amazement and delight, and nodded to herself. This is the way to keep her involved, she thought.

'A handprint can be made on a surface like a piece of wood or the wall of a cave, even on the bank of a stream,' the First added. 'That hand sign can mean several different things. It may mean counting words, but it may mean something else entirely. If you want to leave a handprint sign, you can dip your palm in colour and leave the mark, or you can place your hand on the surface and blow colour on and around the back of it, which leaves a different kind of handprint. If you want to make a sign that means a counting word, dip the palm in colour for the smaller ones, and blow colour on the back of your hand to show the larger ones. One Cave to the south and east of here makes the sign of a large dot using colour on only the palm, without showing the fingers.'

Ayla's mind was racing, overwhelmed with the idea of counting. Creb, the greatest Mogur of the Clan, could, with great effort, count to twenty. She could count to twenty-five and represent it with just two hands in a way that others could understand it, and then increase that number. You could tell someone how many red deer had congregated at their spring calving grounds, how many young were born; a small number like five, a small group, twenty-five, or many more than that. It would be harder to count a larger herd, but it could all be communicated. How much meat should be stored to last how many people through the winter. How many strings of dried roots? How many baskets of nuts. How many days will it take to reach the Summer Meeting place? How many people will be there? The possibilities were incredible. Counting words had tremendous significance, both real and symbolic.

The One Who Was First was talking again, and Ayla had to wrench her mind away from her contemplations. She was holding up one hand. 'The number of fingers on one hand, five, is an important counting word in its own right. It represents the number of fingers on each hand, and the toes on each foot, of course, but that is only its superficial meaning. Five is also the Mother's sacred counting word. Our hands and feet only remind us of that. Another thing that reminds us of that is the apple.' She produced a small, unripe hard apple and held it up. 'If you hold an apple on its side and cut it in half, as if you were cutting through the stem within the fruit,' she demonstrated as she spoke, 'you will see that the pattern of the seeds divides the apple into five sections. That is why the apple is the Mother's sacred fruit.'

She passed out both sections to be examined by the acolytes, giving the top half to Ayla. 'There are other important aspects of the counting-word five. As you will learn, you can see five stars in the sky that move in a random pattern each year, and there are five seasons of the year: spring, summer, autumn, and the two cold periods, early winter and late winter. Most people think the year starts with spring when new green starts growing, but the zelandonia know that the beginning of the year is marked by the Winter Shortday, which is what divides early winter from late winter. The true year begins with late winter, then spring, summer, autumn, and early winter.'

'The Mamutoi count five seasons, too,' Ayla volunteered. 'Actually three major seasons: spring, summer and winter, and two minor seasons: fall and midwinter. Perhaps it should be called late winter.' Some of the others were rather surprised that she would interject a comment when the First was explaining a basic concept, but the First smiled inwardly, pleased to see her getting involved. 'They consider three to be a primary counting word because it represents woman, like the three-sided triangle with the point facing down represents woman, and the Great Mother. When they add the two others, fall and midwinter, seasons that mean changes are coming, it makes five. Mamut said five was Her counting word of hidden authority.'

'That's very interesting, Ayla. We say five is Her sacred counting word. We also consider three to be an important concept, for similar reasons. I'd like to hear more about the people you call the Mamutoi, and their customs. Perhaps the next time the zelandonia meet,' the First said.

Ayla was listening with fascination. The First had a voice that captured attention, demanded it, when she chose to focus it, but it wasn't only the voice. The knowledge and information she was imparting were stimulating and absorbing. Ayla wanted to know more.

'There are also five sacred colours and five sacred elements but it's getting late and we'll get into that next time,' said the One Who Was First Among Those Who Served The Great Earth Mother.

Ayla felt disappointed. She could have listened all night, but then she looked up and saw Folara coming with Jonayla. Her baby was awake.