The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children 5)

They nodded and hurried to get the wrapped spears. When everybody was ready, Ayla grasped the foot by the toes and heel again with both hands and gently but firmly lifted his leg. With Jondalar holding the thigh, she pulled, exerting strong pressure carefully. It was not the first time he had seen her set bones, but now she was trying to set two of them. He could see the concentration on her face as she pulled, trying to sense by the feel of his leg in her hands if the bones were lining up. Even he felt what seemed to be a slight jerk and a settling, as though a bone had found its place. She lowered the leg gently, then examined it critically. It looked straight to Jondalar, but what did he know? At least it wasn’t bent backward at a place it had no right to be.

She signaled that he could let go and turned her attention to the bleeding wound. Pressing it together as best she could, with Jondalar’s help to lift it, she wrapped it up, splints and all, then tied everything together with the strips of leather she had cut. Then she sat back on her heels.

It was then that Jondalar noticed the blood. It was everywhere, the wrappings, the splints, Ayla, himself, the young men who had helped. The young man on the ground had lost a lot of blood. “I think we have to get him back soon,” Jondalar said.

A fleeting thought passed through his mind. The prohibition against talking was not quite over, and the ritual releasing the newly mated couple from it had not been performed, but Ayla hadn’t even considered it, and Jondalar dismissed it as soon as he thought about it. This was an emergency, and there was no Zelandoni around to ask.

“You will need to make the stretcher,” she said to the young men standing around, seeming to be in more shock than the one on the ground.

They looked at each other, shuffled their feet. They were all young and inexperienced. Several had only recently reached manhood, a few had made their first kill during the massive bison hunt that marked the beginning of the summer hunting season, and that had been an easy hunt, hardly more than target practice. The rhino baiting had been at the instigation of one of them who had watched his brother at similar sport a few years before, and a couple of the others who had heard about it, but primarily it was a spur-of-the-moment decision because they happened to see the beast. They all knew that they should have brought in some experienced older hunters before they attempted to bring down the huge animal, but they could only think of the glory of doing it themselves, the envy of the other bachelor fa’lodges, and the admiration of the whole Summer Meeting when it was brought it in. Now one of them was badly hurt.

Jondalar quickly assessed the situation. “What Cave does he belong to?” he asked.

“The Fifth,” came the reply.

“You run ahead and tell them what happened,” Jondalar said. The young man to whom he had spoken sprinted off. He thought that he could have ridden in to tell them on Racer faster than a boy could run, but someone needed to supervise the construction of the stretcher. The boys were still scared and in shock, and having a grown man around to direct them right now was exactly what they needed. “We’ll need three or four of you to help carry him in. The rest of you should stay here and gut that animal. It could bloat up fast. I’ll send some people back to help you. There’s no point in wasting the meat, the cost was too high.”

“He’s my cousin. I’d like to help carry him back,” one young man said.

“Fine. Pick three more, that should be enough to get him back. The rest can stay,” Jondalar said. Then he notice

d that the youngster seemed almost overcome and was trying to hold back tears. “What is your cousin’s name?” he asked.

“Matagan. He is Matagan of the Fifth Cave of the Zelandonii.”

“I know you must care about Matagan, and this has been very hard on you,” Jondalar said. “He was very seriously hurt, but I will tell you the truth, he is very lucky that Ayla happened to be here. I can’t promise, but I think he will be all right, and may even walk again. Ayla is a very good healer. I know. I was mauled by a cave lion, and would have died on the steppes far to the east, but Ayla found me, treated my wounds, and saved my life. If anybody can save Matagan, Ayla will.”

The young man let out a sob of relief and then tried to control himself again.

“Now, get me some spears so we can carry your cousin home,” Jondalar said. “We’ll need at least four, two for each side.” Under his guidance, they soon had the spears tied together with thongs to make two sturdy supports, and spare pieces of clothing laced between them. Ayla checked the wounded young man, then several of them lifted him onto the makeshift stretcher.

They were not too far from the camp. Ayla and Jondalar signaled Whinney and Racer to follow, and they walked beside the wounded young man. She watched him with worried concentration, and when they stopped to change bearers, she checked his breathing and felt for the beat in his wrist. It was faint, but definite.

They were nearest the upstream end of the camp, close to the encampment of the Ninth Cave. News of the accident had spread rapidly, and several people had followed the young man back to meet them. Joharran was among them and spotted them in the distance. When they joined up, the two who were bearing the litter were relieved of their place, and the pace back to the large Meeting place quickened.

“Marthona went to tell someone to get Zelandoni, and Zelandoni of the Fifth,” Joharran said. “They were at the other end of the camp at some Zelandonia meeting. Should we take him to our camp, or to his own?” he asked Ayla.

“I want to change those wrappings, and get a poultice on that wound, I don’t want it to fester,” Ayla said. She thought for a moment. “I haven’t had much time to replenish all my medicines, but I’m sure Zelandoni has enough, and I want her to look at him. Let’s take him to the zelandonia lodge.”

“That’s a good idea. It would take her a while to get here, we can probably get there faster. Zelandoni doesn’t run the way she used to,” Joharran said, somewhat diplomatically referring to her great size. “The Fifth’s Zelandoni will probably want to see him, but healing was never his greatest talent, I’m told.”

When they arrived at the zelandonia lodge, the First met them at the entrance. A place had already been made ready, and Ayla wondered if someone had gone ahead and told her that she had decided not to keep the man at the camp of the Ninth Cave, or if the woman had just assumed that the injured man would be brought there. Several people who had seen them coming were already talking about all the blood. Though several of the zelandonia were outside, no one else was inside the lodge.

“Put him down over there,” the First said, showing them one of the raised beds at the far side, opposite the entrance. The men carried him there, then moved him to the bed. Most of the men left, but Joharran and Jondalar stayed.

Ayla made sure the leg was straight, then started to remove the wrappings. “It needs a poultice so it won’t fester,” she said.

“He will keep for a moment. Tell me what happened,” the First said.

Both Ayla and Jondalar quickly explained the circumstances, then Ayla finished, “Both lower legbones in that leg are broken, the calf was bent backward at the break. I knew if they weren’t set straight, he would never walk on that leg again, and he’s a young man. I decided to set the leg right there, while he was unconscious and before it started to swell up, and make it harder to work with the bones. I had to feel around inside, and pull hard to get the bones aligned again, but I think they are. He was making some noises on the way here, he may wake up soon. I’m sure he will be in pain.”

“It’s obvious that you know something about it, but I need to ask you some questions. First, I presume you have set bones before,” the First said.

Jondalar answered for her. “A Sharamudoi woman, a good friend that I cared for very much, the mate of a leader, had fallen down a cliff and broken her arm. Their healer had died, and they hadn’t been able to get word to another one, and the bone was healing together wrong, and very painfully. I watched Ayla rebreak it and set it right. I also watched her set a badly broken leg of a man of the Clan. He had jumped off a very high rock to protect his mate from some young Losadunai men who had been attacking Clan women. If there is one thing Ayla knows about, it’s broken bones and open wounds.”

“Where did you learn, Ayla?” she asked.

“Clan people have very sturdy bones, but the men of the Clan often break them when they are hunting. They don’t usually throw spears, they chase after an animal to stab him with a spear or sometimes jump on him. Or they do what those boys were doing, get an animal to chase several of them until the beast is so tired, they can get close enough to spear him. It’s very strenuous. Women break bones, too, but mostly it’s the men. I first learned about broken bones from Iza. The people of Brun’s clan would break a bone sometimes, but it was the summer that we went to the Clan Gathering that I really learned, from the other Clan medicine women, how to set broken bones and treat wounds,” Ayla said.