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

“It is brave of her to do that,” Jayvena said. “I’m not sure that I would want to try it.”

“I would!” Jaradal said, his eyes full of excitement. “ ’Thona, do you think Ayla would let me sit on a pole-drag seat while Whinney pulled it?”

“I’d like to do it, too,” Robenan s

aid.

“The young are always willing to try something new,” Ramara said.

“I wonder how many similar conversations are going on around this Camp right now,” Sergenor said. “But if she lets one boy do it, every other boy in camp will be clamoring to do the same.”

“And quite a few girls, too,” Marthona added.

“If I were her, I would wait until we get back to the Ninth Cave,” Ramara said. “Then it wouldn’t be much different from letting a child or two ride on the mare’s back while Ayla leads her around, the way she does now.”

“It does make quite a demonstration, though. I recall how I felt when I first saw those animals. It could be frightening. Didn’t Jondalar tell us that people ran away from them when they were on their Journey here? Now that we’re used to them, it just seems rather impressive,” Willamar said.

Not everyone was so pleasantly impressed by the demonstration. Marona, who loved to be the center of attention, felt a surge of jealousy rise up. She turned to her cousin, Wylopa, and remarked, “I don’t know how anyone can stand to be around those dirty animals all the time. When you get close to her she smells for horse, and I’ve heard she sleeps with that wolf. It’s disgusting.”

“She sleeps with Jondalar, too,” Wylopa said, “and I’m told he won’t share Pleasures with anyone else.”

“That won’t last,” Marona said, giving Ayla a venomous stare. “I know him. He’ll be back in my bed again. I promise you.”

Brukeval saw the two cousins talking, recognized the nasty look Marona gave Ayla, and felt two opposing emotions. He knew it was hopeless, but he loved Ayla and wanted to protect her from the spitefulness of the woman who was also his cousin—he had been the brunt of her malice himself and knew how hurtful she could be. But he was also afraid that Ayla would suggest that he was a Flathead again and he couldn’t stand that, even though he knew in his heart that she didn’t mean it in the unkind way that most people did. He never looked at a polished blackened-wood reflector, but sometimes he caught glimpses of himself in still water and hated what he saw. He knew why people called him by that hateful name, but he couldn’t bear the idea that there might be some truth to it.

Madroman was also scowling at Ayla and Jondalar. He resented the way Ayla was getting so much attention from the First. Yes, she was her acolyte, but he didn’t think it was right for the one who was supposed to be overseeing all the acolytes to favor her so much when they were together at a Summer Meeting. And of course Jondalar had to be in the middle of things. Why did he have to come home? Things were better while the big oaf was gone, especially after the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave decided to take him as an acolyte, though he thought he should have been a Zelandoni by now. But what could he expect with the Fat One in control? I’ll think of a way, he thought.

Laramar turned his back on the whole thing and walked away, thinking his own thoughts. He’d seen enough of those horses and that wolf, especially that wolf. As far as he was concerned, they lived too close to his dwelling in the Ninth Cave, and they had spread out so far, the horses were on the other side of him. Before they came he could cut across the space they occupied. Now every time he went home, he had to make a wide circle around their lodge to avoid the wolf. The few times he got too close, the animal got his hackles up, wrinkled his nose, and showed his teeth, as though the whole place belonged to him.

Besides, she interfered, coming over and bringing food or blankets as though she was being nice, but she was really checking up on him. Now he didn’t even have a lodge to go to. Not one where he felt he belonged. The children acted as though it was theirs. But it was still his hearth, and what he did at his own hearth wasn’t any of her business.

Well, there were still the fa’lodges. He actually liked staying there. He wasn’t bothered by children crying in the night, or his drunken mate coming in and starting an argument. At the fa’lodge where he was staying, the other men were mostly older and didn’t bother each other. It wasn’t boisterous and loud like the fa’lodges of the younger men, though if he offered one of his lodge-mates a drink of his barma, they were more than happy to drink with him. Too bad there were no fa’lodges at the Ninth Cave.

Ayla rode Whinney slowly around the outside of the large zelandonia lodge pulling the pole-drag, then started out of the Summer Meeting Camp back the way she had come. Jondalar followed leading Racer and Gray. The area where the Summer Meeting had been set up, called Sun View after the name of the nearby Cave, was often used as a campground for large gatherings. When it rained, stones were brought from the river and the nearby cliffs to pave the ground, especially when it was unusually muddy. Each year more were added until the campsite was now defined by the large area paved by the stones.

When they were somewhat outside the boundary of the Camp, beyond the paving stones and in the middle of a grassy field on the floodplain of the river, Ayla stopped. “Let’s take off Whinney’s pole-drag and leave the horses here for a while,” she said, “where they can graze. I don’t think they will wander far, and we can whistle them back, if we have to.”

“Good idea,” Jondalar said. “Most people know not to bother them if one of us isn’t around and we can check on them. I’ll take their halters off, too.”

As they were tending to the horses, they saw Lanidar approaching, still wearing his specially made spear-thrower holder. He waved, then whistled a greeting, and received a welcoming neigh from Whinney and Racer in return.

“I wanted to see the horses,” he said. “I liked watching out for them last year and getting to know them, but I haven’t spent any time with them this summer, and I don’t know Whinney’s baby at all. Do you think they will remember me?”

“Yes. They answered your whistle, didn’t they?” Ayla said.

He had brought some dried wild apple slices with him in a fold of his tunic and fed the young stallion and then his dam from his hand; then the young man squatted down and held out a hand with a piece of the fruit to the little filly. She stayed near Whinney’s back legs at first. Though Gray was still nursing, she had started mouthing grass in imitation of her dam, and it was obvious that she was curious. Lanidar was patient, and after a while, the filly started edging toward him.

The mare watched, but neither encouraged nor restricted her foal. Eventually, Gray’s curiosity won out and she nosed Lanidar’s open hand to see what it held. She got a piece of apple in her mouth, then dropped it. Lanidar picked it up and tried again. Though she wasn’t as experienced as her dam, she managed to use her incisors and flexible lips and tongue to get it in her mouth and bite. It was a new experience for her, and a new taste, but she was more interested in Lanidar. When he began to stroke her and scratch her favorite places, she was won over. When he stood up, he had a big smile.

“We were going to leave the horses here in this field for a while, and check on them every so often,” Jondalar said.

“I’d be happy to watch them, like I did last year,” Lanidar said. “If there are any problems, I’ll look for you, or whistle.”

Ayla and Jondalar looked at each other, then smiled. “I would be grateful for that,” Ayla said. “I wanted to leave them here so people would get more used to seeing them, and they’d get more comfortable around people, especially Gray. If you get tired or have to go, whistle loud or come and find one of us and let us know.”

“I will,” he said.

They left the field feeling much more relaxed about the horses. When they returned in the evening to invite Lanidar to share a meal with their Cave, they found that several young men, and a few young women, including Lanoga carrying her youngest sister, Lorala, were visiting with him. When Lanidar had watched the animals the year before, it was at the enclosure and nearby field that was close to the camp of the Ninth Cave, which was some distance from the Main Camp. Not many people went there and he had few friends then, anyway, but since he had developed his skill with the spear-thrower and was hunting regularly, he had gained more status. He had also gained several friends and, it seemed, a few admirers.