“The trenches are over there,” Salova said, pointing in a direction away from the creek and the camp, “and we’ve been washing the cooking and eating things at the end of the creek, where it empties into The River. There’s some clean sand for scouring nearby. I don’t have to tell you where the horses are.” She smiled then. “I went to look at the horses yesterday with Rushemar. They made me nervous at first, but they seem gentle, and content. The mare ate some grass out of my hand.” Her smile turned to a grin and then to a worried frown. “I hope that was all right. Rushemar said Jondalar told him it would be.”
“Of course it’s all right. It makes them more comfortable if they get to know the people around them,” Ayla said.
She’s not so strange, Salova thought as she watched Ayla go. She talks a little funny, but she’s really nice. I wonder what ever made her think that she could make those animals do what she wanted them to? I never even imagined that one day I would feed a horse some grass out of my own hand.
After cleaning up the bowls and stacking them near the fire trench, Ayla thought it might be nice to clean herself up and go for a swim. She went back to their lodge, smiled at Salova and the baby, and slipped inside. She took the soft drying hide out of her traveling pack and then looked over her clothing. She didn’t have much, but it was more than she came with. Though she had cleaned them, she did not want to wear the worn and stained clothes she had worn on her long Journey except as working clothes.
The clothes she had worn on the recent trek to the Summer Meeting were the ones she had saved to wear when
she met Jondalar’s people, but even they were well-worn and had their share of stains. She also had the boys’ winter underwear that Marona and her friends had given her, but she knew that wouldn’t be appropriate. Of course, she had her Matrimonial outfit, but that would be saved, as would the beautiful outfit that Marthona had given to her, for special occasions. What was left were a few things of theirs that Marthona and Folara had given her. They were unfamiliar to her, but she thought they might be suitable.
Before she left the lodge, she noticed her riding blanket folded up near her sleeping roll and decided to take it as well. Then she went to see the horses. Whinney and Racer were both glad to see her and crowded close to get her attention. Both wore halters with a long lead attached to a sturdy tree; she removed them and put them in her pack, then she tied the riding blanket on Whinney, mounted her, and started upstream.
The horses were in high spirits and broke out at a fast run, happy for the freedom. Their feeling was communicated to Ayla, who let them set their own pace. She was particularly pleased when she reached the meadow near the pool to see Wolf racing toward them. That had to mean Jondalar was nearby.
Sometime after Ayla left, Joharran came to the camp and asked Salova if she had seen Ayla.
“Yes, we were making baskets together,” she said. “The last time I saw her, she was heading toward the horses. She said she needed to check on them.”
“I’ll go look for her, but if you see her, will you tell her Zelandoni wants to talk to her?”
Of course,” Salova said, wondering what the donier wanted. Then she shrugged. No one was likely to tell her what the First wanted.
Ayla saw Jondalar step out from behind some brush with a surprised grin on his face. She pulled to a stop, slid down, and raced into his arms.
“What are you doing here?” he asked after their warm embrace. “I didn’t even tell anybody I was coming here. I was just walking upstream, and when I got this far, I remembered that scree slope behind the pool, and thought I’d check to see if there was any flint.”
“Is there?”
“Yes, not the best quality, but serviceable. What made you decide to come here?”
“I woke up feeling lazy. Hardly anyone was around, except Salova and her baby. She asked me to watch Marsola when she went to get her materials to make baskets. She’s such a wonderful baby, Jondalar. We talked for a while and did some basket-weaving, then I decided to come for a swim and take the horses for a run. And found you. What a nice surprise,” she said, smiling.
“A nice surprise for me, too. Maybe I’ll take a swim with you. I’m pretty dusty from hauling rocks around, but first I should get the stones I’ve found and bring them here. Then, we’ll see,” he said with an inviting grin. He gave her a slow, lingering kiss. “Maybe I can worry about those rocks later.”
“Go ahead and get them, so you won’t have to clean the dust off twice. I wanted to wash my hair, anyway. It was a long, sweaty trek getting here,” Ayla said.
When Joharran reached the place where the horses had been, it was obvious they were gone. They’ve probably gone for one of their long rides, he thought, and Zelandoni really wanted to see Ayla. Willamar wanted to talk to them, too. Jondalar knows they’ll have plenty of time to themselves after the Matrimonial, you’d think he would realize that there are important issues to settle at the beginning of a Summer Meeting, Joharran thought, a little irritated that he couldn’t find them. He had not been all that pleased that he was the one the donier happened to see when she was looking for someone to send for them. After all, he had more important things to do than chase after his brother, but he didn’t feel he could exactly refuse Zelandoni, at least not without a very good excuse.
He glanced down and saw the fresh tracks of the horses. He was too experienced a tracker not to notice the direction they had taken, and he knew they had not headed off away from camp. It looked as if they were following the creek upstream. He recalled the pleasing little glen at the head of the small waterway, with the spring-fed pond and the grassy meadow. That’s probably where they went, he thought, smiling to himself. Since he had been sent on a mission to find them, he didn’t like returning without them.
He followed the creek, checking the tracks as he went to make sure they hadn’t veered off, and when he saw the horses ahead, grazing contentedly, he knew he’d found them. When he reached the screen of hazelnut shrubs, some as tall as trees, he peered through and, seeing only Ayla, wondered where his brother was. When he reached the sandy bank, she was just ducking under the water, and he called to her when she came up for air.
“Ayla, I’ve been looking for you.”
Ayla pushed back her hair and rubbed her eyes. Oh, Joharran, it’s you,” she said in a tone of voice he couldn’t quite identify.
“Do you know where Jondalar is?”
“Yes, he was looking for flint in the rock pile behind the pond, and went to get the stones he found. Then he was going to come and bathe with me,” Ayla said, seeming a little disconcerted.
“Zelandoni wants to see you, and Willamar wanted to talk to you both,” Joharran said.
Oh,” she said, sounding rather disappointed.
Joharran had often seen women without clothes on. Most of them bathed in The River every morning in the summer and washed themselves in winter. Nakedness by itself was not considered especially suggestive. Women wore special clothing or accoutrements that were meant to be inviting when they wanted to show interest in a man, or behaved in certain ways, especially at a festival to honor the Mother. But as Ayla started out of the water, it occurred to him that she and his brother had had other plans, which he’d interrupted. The thought made him aware of her body as she approached him, walking out of the water.
She was tall, with shapely curves and well-defined muscles. Her large breasts still had the firmness of a young woman, and he’d always found a woman with a slightly rounded stomach appealing. Marona has always been considered the Beauty of the Bunch, he thought, no wonder she took such a dislike to Ayla from the beginning. She looked good in that winter underwear she got tricked into wearing, but that was nothing compared to really seeing her. Marona doesn’t compare. My brother is a lucky man, he thought. Ayla is a fine-looking woman. But she is going to get a lot of attention at Mother Festivals, and I’m not sure how Jondalar will like that.