The Land of Painted Caves (Earth's Children 6)

“Are you Zelandoni, yet?” Proleva asked.

“If I pass the testing, I may be at this Summer Meeting. Zelandoni of the Nineteenth is not well. She didn’t come this year; she just couldn’t walk so far.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ayla said. “I was looking forward to seeing her.”

/>

“She has been a good teacher and I’ve been performing many of her tasks. Tormaden and the Cave would like me to take on the rest of the functions as soon as possible, and I think our Zelandoni wouldn’t mind either,” Jonokol said, then looking at the bundles Ayla and Proleva had in their carrying blankets, he added, “I see you have your little ones. I heard you both had girls, the Blessed of Doni. I am happy for you. May I see them?”

“Of course,” Proleva said, taking her infant out of her carrying blanket and holding her up. “Her name is Sethona.”

“And here is Jonayla,” Ayla said, holding up her child as well.

“They were born within a few days of each other, and they are going to be great friends,” Folara said. “I’m taking care of them today, and Wolf is going to help me.”

“You are?” Jonokol said; then he looked at Ayla. “I understand we’re going to visit a new sacred cave this morning.”

“Are you coming with us, too? How wonderful,” Ayla said; then she looked at the Zelandoni of the Twenty-sixth Cave. “Do you have any idea how long it will take? I would like to be back by afternoon.”

“We should be back sometime in the afternoon,” he said. He had been observing the reunion of the artist acolyte and his former Cave and their interactions. He had wondered how Ayla was going to handle visiting a difficult cave with a young baby and quickly understood that she had made arrangements for the care of her infant, which was wise. He wasn’t the only one who wondered how a young mother was going to take on the full duties of a Zelandoni. Apparently with the help of family and friends in the Ninth Cave. There was a reason that few in the zelandonia chose to mate and have a family. In a couple of years, when the child was weaned, it would be easier for her … unless she were Blessed again. It would be interesting to watch the development of this young, and attractive, acolyte, he thought.

Saying she would be back soon, Ayla left with the others from the Ninth Cave to go with Proleva to her meeting. The Zelandoni of the Twenty-sixth Cave sauntered after them. She tried to nurse Jonayla, but the child was satisfied, and smiled at her mother while the milk dribbled out of the corner of her mouth; then she struggled to sit up. Ayla handed the baby over to Folara, and then stood in front of the wolf and tapped herself just under her shoulders. The animal jumped up, putting his large paws where she had tapped, as she braced herself to support his weight.

The demonstration that followed made people who hadn’t seen it before stare in shocked disbelief. Ayla lifted her chin and exposed herself to the huge wolf. With great gentleness he licked her neck, then took her tender throat in his teeth in a wolfish gesture of acknowledgment of the alpha member of his pack. She returned the gesture near his mouth, getting a mouthful of fur; then holding him by his ruff, she looked into his eyes. He dropped down when she let go, and she stooped down to his level.

“I’m going away for a while,” she said softly to the animal, repeating the meaning in the sign language of the Clan, though it was inconspicuous to most of those watching. Sometimes Wolf seemed to comprehend hand signals even better than words, but she generally used both when she was trying to communicate something important to him. “Folara is going to watch Jonayla and Sethona. You can stay here with the babies and watch them, too, but you must do what Folara tells you. Jondalar will be nearby.”

She stood up and hugged her baby, and said good-bye to the others. Jondalar embraced her briefly as they pressed cheeks, and then she left. She wouldn’t say even to herself that Wolf really understood everything she said, but when she talked to him like that, he paid close attention to her, and did seem to follow her instructions. She had noticed that the Zelandoni of the Twenty-sixth Cave had followed them and she knew he saw her with Wolf. His face still showed his surprise, though it wasn’t obvious to everyone. Ayla was accustomed to reading meaning from subtle nuances; it was necessary in the language of the Clan, and she had learned to apply the skill to interpreting unconscious meaning in her own kind.

The man didn’t say anything as they fell into step and walked back to the zelandonia dwelling together, but he had been astounded when she bared her throat to the wolf’s fangs. The Twenty-sixth Cave had gone to a different Summer Meeting the year before and he hadn’t seen her with the animal when she first arrived. First, he was surprised to see a hunting meat-eater calmly approaching with the people of the Ninth Cave, then he was amazed at the size of the animal. When he saw Wolf jump up on his hind legs, he was sure it was the biggest one of his kind he had ever seen. Of course, he’d never been quite so close to a living wolf before, but the animal was nearly as tall as the woman!

He had heard that the First’s new acolyte had a way with animals and that a wolf followed her around, but he knew how people exaggerated and while he didn’t deny what anyone said, he wasn’t sure he fully believed it either. Perhaps a wolf had been seen near the Meeting and people were led to believe it was watching her. But this wasn’t a creature skulking around the outskirts of the group, who may have been watching her from a distance, as he’d imagined. There was direct communication, understanding, and trust between them. The Zelandoni of the Twenty-sixth Cave had never seen anything like it and it piqued his interest in Ayla even more. Young mother or not, perhaps she did belong in the zelandonia.

It was well into the morning by the time the small group approached the unremarkable cave in the face of a low limestone cliff. There were four of them: the Zelandoni of the Twenty-sixth Cave; his acolyte, a quiet young man named Falithan, although he often referred to himself as the First Acolyte of the Zelandoni of the Twenty-sixth; Jonokol, the talented artist who had been the First’s acolyte the year before; and Ayla.

She had enjoyed talking to Jonokol along the way, though it made her realize how much he had changed in the last year. When she first met him he was more artist than acolyte, and had joined the zelandonia because it allowed him to freely exercise his talent. He’d had no great desire to become a Zelandoni, he was content to remain an acolyte, but that had changed. He had become more serious, she thought. He wanted to paint the white cave that she, or rather Wolf, had found the previous summer, but not just for the joy of the art. He knew it was a remarkably hallowed place, a sacred refuge created by the Mother, whose white calcite walls offered a extraordinary invitation to be made into a distinctive place to commune with the world of the spirits. He wanted to know that world as a Zelandoni so he could do justice to its sanctity when he created the images from the next world that he was sure would speak to him. Jonokol would soon be Zelandoni of the Nineteenth Cave and give up his personal name, Ayla realized.

The entrance to the small cave seemed barely large enough for a person to enter and it seemed to get smaller as she looked farther inside. It made Ayla wonder why anyone would want to go inside it. Then she heard a sound that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, and gooseflesh appear on her arms. It was like a yodel, but faster and more high pitched, an ululating wail that seemed to fill the cave hole in front of them. She turned and saw that it was Falithan who was making the sound. Then a strange muted echo reverberated faintly back to them that did not quite synchronize with the original sound, but seemed to originate from deep inside the cave. When he finished, she saw Zelandoni of the Twenty-sixth smiling at her.

“It’s quite a remarkable sound he makes, isn’t it?” the man said.

“Yes, it is,” Ayla said. “But why did he make it?”

“It’s one way we test the cave. When a person sings or plays a flute or makes a sound like Falithan in a hollow, if the cave responds, sings back with a sound that is true and distinctive, it means the Mother is telling us that She hears, and She is telling us that one can enter the spirit world from here. Then we know it is a sacred place,” the Twenty-sixth said.

“Do all sacred caves sing back?” Ayla asked.

“Not all, but most do, and some only in certain places, but there is always something special about sacred sites,” he said.

“I’m sure the First would be able to test a cave like this, she has such a beautiful and pure voice,” Ayla said, and then she frowned. “What if you want to test a cave but you can’t sing, or play a flute, or make a sound like Falithan? I can’t do any of those things.”

“Surely you can sing a little.”

“No, she can’t,” Jonokol said. “She speaks the words of the Mother’s Song, and hums in a monotone.”

“You have to be able to test a sacred site with sound,” the Zelandoni of the Twenty-sixth Cave said. “That’s an important part of being Zelandoni. And it must be a true sound of some kind. You can’t just yell or scream.” He seemed gravely concerned, and Ayla was crestfallen.

“What if I can’t make the right kind of sound? A true sound?” Ayla said, realizing at that moment that she did want to be a Zelandoni someday. But what if she couldn’t just because she couldn’t make a proper sound?