The Plains of Passage (Earth's Children 4)

"I'm surprised Crozie was willing to show you," Tholie said. She looked significantly at Roshario. "I thought white leather was a secret of the Crane Hearth."

"She didn't say it was a secret. She said her mother taught her, and her daughter wasn't too interested in working leather. She seemed pleased to pass the knowledge on to someone."

"Well, since you were both members of Lion Camp, you were the same as family," Tholie said, though she was quite surprised. "I don't think she would have shown an outsider, any more than we would. The Sharamudoi method of treating chamois is a secret. Our skins are admired and have a high trade value. If everyone knew how to make them, they would not be as valuable, so we don't share it," Tholie said.

Ayla nodded, but her disappointment showed. "Well, it is nice, and the yellow is so bright and pretty."

"The yellow comes from bog myrtle, but we don't use it for its color. That just happens. Bog myrtle helps to keep the hides soft even after they get wet," Roshario volunteered. She paused, then added, "If you stayed here, Ayla, we could teach you to make yellow chamois skin."

"Stayed? How long?"

"As long as you want; as long as you live, Ayla," Roshario said, giving her an earnest look. "Jondalar is kin; we think of him as one of us. It wouldn't take much for him to become Sharamudoi. He has even helped to make a boat already. You said you weren't mated yet. I'm sure we could find someone willing to cross-couple with you, and then you could be mated he

re. I know you would be welcome among us. Ever since our old Shamud died, we've needed a healer."

"We would be willing to cross-couple," Tholie said. Although Roshario's offer was spontaneous, it seemed entirely appropriate the moment she mentioned it. "I'd have to talk to Markeno, but I'm sure he'd agree. After Jetamio and Thonolan, it's been hard to find another couple we wanted to join with. Thonolan's brother would be perfect. Markeno has always liked Jondalar, and I would enjoy sharing a dwelling with another Mamutoi woman." She smiled at Ayla. "And Shamio would love having her 'Wuffie' around all the time."

The offer caught Ayla by surprise. When she fully grasped the meaning, she was overwhelmed. She felt tears begin to sting. "Roshario, I don't know what to say. It has felt like home here since I first came. Tholie, I would love to share with you..." The tears overflowed.

The two Sharamudoi women felt the contagion of tears and blinked them back, smiling at each other as though they had conspired in a wonderful plan.

"As soon as Markeno and Jondalar come back, we'll tell them," Tholie said. "Markeno will be so relieved..."

"I don't know about Jondalar," Ayla said. "I know he wanted to come here. He even gave up taking a shorter way just to see you, but I don't know if he will want to stay. He says he wants to go back to his people."

"But we are his people," Tholie said.

"No, Tholie. Even though he was here as long as his brother, Jondalar is still Zelandonii. He could never quite let go of them. I thought that might have been why his feelings for Serenio were not as strong," Roshario said.

"That was Darvalo's mother?" Ayla asked.

"Yes," the older woman said, wondering how much Jondalar had told her about Serenio, "but since it's obvious how he feels about you, maybe, after all this time, his ties to his own people are weaker. Haven't you traveled enough? Why should you make such a long journey when you can have a home right here?"

"Besides, it's time for Markeno and me to choose a cross-couple ... before winter, and before ... I didn't tell you, but the Mother has blessed me again ... and we should join before this one comes."

"I thought as much. That's wonderful, Tholie," Ayla said. Then her eyes unfocused in a dreamy look. "Maybe, someday, I'll have a baby to cuddle . . ."

"If we are cross-mates, the one I'm carrying would be yours, too, Ayla. And it would be nice to know there was someone around who could help, just in case ... although I didn't have any trouble at all birthing Shamio."

Ayla thought that she would like to have a baby of her own someday, Jondalar's baby, but what if she couldn't? She had been careful to drink her morning tea every day, and she had not gotten pregnant, but what if it wasn't the tea? What if she just wasn't able to make a baby start? Wouldn't it be wonderful to know that Tholie's children would be hers and Jondalar's? It was true, too, that the area nearby was so much like the region around the cave of Brun's clan, that it felt like home. The people were nice ... although she wasn't sure of Dolando. Would he really want her to stay? And she wasn't sure about the horses. It was nice to be able to let them rest, but would there be enough feed to last the winter? And was there a big enough place to run?

Most important, what about Jondalar? Would he be willing to give up his Journey back to the land of the Zelandonii and settle here instead?

19

Tholie walked to the front of the large fireplace and stood silhouetted against the red glow of dying embers and evening sky framed by the high side walls of the embayment. Most of the people were still in the gathering space just under the sandstone overhang, finishing the last of their blackberries or sipping a favorite tea or slightly foaming, newly fermented berry wine. Their feast of fresh sturgeon had begun with their first, and only, taste of caviar from the female caught earlier. The balance of the oily fish eggs would be put to more mundane use in the making of soft chamois skins.

"I want to say something, Dolando, while we're all gathered together here," Tholie said.

The man nodded, although it wouldn't have mattered. Tholie continued without waiting for his acknowledgment.

"I think I can speak for everyone when I say how glad we are to have Jondalar and Ayla here," she said. Several people spoke out in agreement. "We were all worried about Roshario, not only because of the pain she was suffering, but because we feared she would lose the use of her arm. Ayla changed that. Roshario says she feels no more pain and, with luck, there is a good chance that she will have full use of her arm again."

There was a chorus of positive comments expressing gratitude and invocations for good luck.

"We owe our kinsman, Jondalar, thanks too," Tholie went on. "When he was here before, his ideas for changes in the tools we use were a big help, and now he has shown us his thrower, and the result is this feast." Again the group made vocal expressions of affirmation. "In the time he has lived with us, he has hunted both sturgeon and chamois, but he has never said whether he prefers the water or the land. I think he would make a good River man . . ."

"You're right, Tholie. Jondalar's a Ramudoi!" one man shouted out. "Or at least half of one!" Barono added, to an uproar of laughter. "No, no, he's been learning about the water, but he knows the land," a woman said. "That's right! Ask him! He threw a spear before he cast his first harpoon, he's a Shamudoi!" an older man added. "He even likes women who hunt!"