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

There was a small cup of cold soup waiting for him, and a bone with some meat on it. Wolf was working his way through a small pile of cut-up meat, too. “I think we can chew on the meat as we walk,” Ayla said, “but save the bones for Wolf. I’m sure he’d like to gnaw on them while he’s resting by a fire.”

“We’d all like a fireplace about now,” Zelandoni said. “I think we should also put the lamps away when they run out of fat, and use these torches for the rest of the way out.” She had a fresh torch ready for each of them.

Jondalar was the first to light his as they walked by the other passage opening out on their left, across from the first painted mammoth they had seen.

“This is the place where you turn in to see the children’s fingermarks, and there are other kinds of interesting things on the walls and ceilings, deep in that passageway and its several turnoffs,” Zelandoni commented. “No one knows what they mean, though many have made guesses. Many are painted in red, but it’s a bit of a walk from here.”

Not long afterward, both Ayla and Zelandoni lit their torches. Ahead, where the tunnel split, they took the right-hand path, and Ayla thought she could see the hint of light ahead. When it angled farther to the right, she was sure, but it wasn’t bright light, and when they finally walked out of the cave, the sun was setting. They had spent the entire day walking in the great cavern.

Jondalar stacked wood in the pit to light with his torch. Ayla dropped her haversack on the ground near the firepit, and whistled for the horses. She heard a distant whinny, and started in that direction.

“Leave the baby with me,” Zelandoni said. “You’ve been carrying her all day. You both need a rest.”

Ayla put the blanket down on the grass, and put Jonayla on it. She seemed glad to kick her feet in freedom, as her mother whistled again and ran toward the answering sounds of horses. She always worried when she was gone from them for some time.

They slept late the next morning, and didn’t feel any particular rush to continue their travels, but by midmorning, they were getting restless and anxious to go. Jondalar and Zelandoni discussed what would be the best way to get to the Fifth Cave.

“It’s east of here, maybe two days’ travel, or three if we take our time. I think if we just headed in that direction, we’d get there,” Jondalar said.

“That’s true, but I think we are also a little north, and if we just go east, we’ll have to cross both North River and The River,” Zelandoni said. She picked up a stick and started drawing lines on the ground where it was bare. “If we start out going east but somewhat south, we can reach Summer Camp of the Twenty-ninth Cave before nightfall and stay with them tonight. North River joins The River near South Face of the Twenty-Ninth Cave. We can cross The River at the ford between Summer Camp and South Face and have only one river to cross. The River is bigger there, but shallow, and then we can go on toward Reflection Rock and to the Fifth Cave the way we did last year.”

Jondalar studied her scratchings on the ground, and while he was looking at them, Zelandoni added another comment. “The trail is fairly well blazed on the trees between here and Summer Camp, and there’s a path on the ground the rest of the way.”

Jondalar realized that he had been thinking about traveling the way he and Ayla did on their Journey. On horseback, with the bowl boat attached to the end of the travois to float their things across streams, they didn’t need to concern themselves much about crossing any but the biggest of rivers. But with the First sitting on the pole-drag Whinney was pulling, it wasn’t likely to float, and neither was the one Racer was dragging with all their supplies. Besides, it would be easier to find their way with blazed trails.

“You are right, Zelandoni,” he said. “It might not be quite as direct, but your way would make it easier, and likely get us there just as fast or faster.”

The trail blazes weren’t quite as easy to follow as the First had remembered. It seemed that people hadn’t been that way very often lately, but they renewed some of them as they went along so the trail would be easier for the next person to use. It was nearing sunset when they reached the home of Summer Camp, also known as the West Holding of the Twenty-ninth Cave, which was sometimes known as Three Rocks, meaning three separate locations.

The Twenty-ninth Cave had a particularly interesting and complex social arrangement. They once had been three separate Caves that lived in three different shelters that looked out on the same rich expanse of grassland. Reflection Rock faced north, which would have been a major disadvantage except that what it had to offer more than compensated for its north face. It was a huge cliff, a half mile long, two hundred sixty feet high, with five levels of shelters and a vast potential for observing the surrounding landscape and the animals that migrated through it. And it was a spectacular sight that most people looked upon with awe.

The Cave called South Face was just that: a two-story shelter facing south, situated to get the best of the sunlight in summer and winter, high enough up to get a good view of the open plain. The final Cave was Summer Camp, which was on the west end of the plain and offered among other things a wealth of hazelnuts, which many of the people from the other Caves went to pick in late summer. It was also the one with the closest proximity to a small Sacred Cave, which was called by the people who lived in the vicinity simply Forest Hollow.

Since all three Caves utilized essentially the same hunting and gathering areas, hard feelings were developing, leading to fights. It wasn’t that the area couldn’t support all three groups—it was not only rich in itself, it was a major migration route—but often two or more gathering groups or hunting parties from different Caves went after the same things at the same time. Two uncoordinated hunts trying for the same migrating small herd interfered with the plans of both, and had been known to chase away the animals, with neither group getting a kill. If all three groups went after them independently, it was worse. All the Zelandonii Caves in the region were being pulled into the disagreements, one way or another, and finally, at the urging of all their neighbors, and after difficult negotiations, the three separate Caves decided to join together and become one Cave in three locations, and to work together to mutually harvest the plenty of their rich plain. Though there were still occasional differences, the unusual arrangement seemed to be working.

Because the Summer Meeting was still going on, not many people were at the West Holding of the Twenty-ninth Cave. Most of those who stayed back were old, or sick, and unable to make the trip, plus the ones who stayed to care for them. In rare cases, someone who was working on something that couldn’t be interrupted or could only be done in summer also stayed. Those who were at West Holding welcomed the travelers enthusiastically. They seldom had visitors this early in the summer and since they were coming from the Summer Meeting, they could bring news. In addition, the visitors themselves made news wherever they went: Jondalar, the returned traveler, and his foreign woman and her baby, and the wolf and horses, and the First Among Those Who Served The Great Earth Mother. The travelers were especially welcomed by those who were ill or failing, because of who they were: healers, and at least one who was acknowledged as among the best of their people.

The Ninth Cave had always had a particularly good relationship with the people of Three Rocks who lived at the place

called Summer Camp. Jondalar recalled going there when he was a boy to help harvest the nuts that grew so abundantly in their vicinity. Whoever was invited to help harvest always got a share of the nuts, and they didn’t invite everyone, but they always invited the other two Caves of Three Rocks, and the Ninth Cave.

A young woman with light blond hair and pale skin stepped out of a dwelling that was under the abri and looked at them with surprise. “What are you doing here?” she said, then caught herself. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so rude. It’s just such a surprise to see you here. I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

Ayla thought she looked sad and drawn; a darkness circled her eyes.

Zelandoni knew it was the Acolyte to the Zelandoni of the West Holding of the Twenty-ninth Cave. “Don’t be sorry,” said the First. “I know we caught you by surprise. I am taking Ayla on her first Donier Tour. Let me introduce you.” The First went through an abbreviated version of a formal introduction, then said, “I’m wondering why an acolyte would stay behind. Is someone especially sick here?”

“Perhaps no more than others here who are close to the Next World, but she’s my mother,” the Acolyte said. Zelandoni nodded with understanding.

“If you like, we can take a look at her,” the One Who Was First said.

“I’d be grateful if you would, but I didn’t want to ask. My Zelandoni seemed to help her when she was here, and she did give me some instructions, but mother seems to have gotten worse. She’s much more uncomfortable, but I can’t seem to help her,” the young acolyte said.

Ayla remembered meeting the Zelandoni of Summer Camp the year before. Since each one of the Caves of Three Rocks had a Zelandoni who lived with them, it had been concluded that if all three had a deciding voice at the meetings of the zelandonia, it would give the Twenty-ninth Cave too much influence. Therefore, a fourth Donier was chosen to represent the entire group, but she functioned more as a mediator, not only between the three other Zelandonii, but also between the three separate leaders, and it took much time and a great deal of skill with people. The other three Doniers were called colleagues. Ayla remembered the Zelandoni of Summer Camp as a middle-aged woman, nearly as fat as the One Who Was First, but rather than tall, she was quite short and seemed warm and motherly. Her title was Complementary Zelandoni of the West Holding of the Twenty-ninth Cave, although she was a full Zelandoni, and accorded the complete respect and status of her position.

The young acolyte seemed relieved to have someone else look at her mother, especially someone of such prominence and knowledge, but seeing that Jondalar was just beginning to unpack the things from the pole-drag, and Ayla’s baby, who was riding her back, seemed to be getting fussy, she said, “You should get yourselves settled in first.”

They greeted everyone who was there, put down their sleeping rolls, settled the horses to a good open space of fresh grass, and got Wolf acquainted with the people, or rather, the people familiar with him. Then Zelandoni and Ayla approached the young acolyte.