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

“It’s on the central highland, a little toward the east, not far from the Southern Sea.”

“We may not be going there directly. There are some places we need to stop along the way.”

“I don’t mind if we stop,” Amelana said, then added a little tentatively, “but I would like to get home before the baby comes.”

“I think we can manage that,” said the One Who Was First.

After Amelana left, Zelandoni mumbled under her breath, “The handsome stranger visits your Cave and it seems so romantic to run off with him to make a home in a new place. I have no doubt she pleaded just as hard with her mother to let her get mated and go live with him at his home. But once you arrive, you find it’s not so different from the old one, only you don’t know anyone. Then your exciting new mate decides to join with a group that wants to make a new Cave. They expect you to be as excited about making a place of your own as they are, but they have only moved around the hill from their old Cave, and they are with people they know.

“Amelana is a total stranger, with a slightly different way of speaking, and probably used to a little coddling, who has moved to a new place where customs and expectations are a little different. She doesn’t need the excitement of making a new home; she has just moved to a new home. She needs to be able to settle down and learn about her new people. But her mate, who has already shown that he likes to take risks just by going on a Journey, is ready for the adventure of creating a new Cave with his—but not her—friends and relatives.

“They were probably both beginning to regret their hasty mating, beginning to argue about differences, perceived and real, and then she finds herself pregnant with no one to make a fuss over her. Her mother and aunts, and all her sisters and cousins and friends, are back at the home she left. And then her danger-loving mate takes one risk too many and dies. It’s probably better for everyone if she goes back to her home, a little wiser for her adventure. She really doesn’t have anyone here with whom she has a close attachment.”

“I didn’t have anyone here when I came,” Ayla said.

“But you did. You had Jondalar,” Zelandoni said.

“You said that her mate already had shown that he liked to take risks by going on a Journey. I met Jondalar on his Journey. Didn’t that make him a man who liked risks?”

“He was not the one who loved to take risks; his brother was. He went along to be with Thonolan, to protect him, knowing of his tendency to rush into precarious situations. And he had no one here to hold him. Marona really had nothing to offer him, except an occasional interlude of Pleasures. He loved his brother more than her, and perhaps he wanted to get out of the implied Promise that she was assuming much more than he was, but he wasn’t able to just come out and tell her. He was always looking for someone special. For a while he thought he found it with me, and I admit I was tempted, but I knew that it would never work. I’m glad that he found what he wanted with you, Ayla,” the large woman said. “Your situation, though superficially similar, is not at all the same as Amelana’s.”

Ayla thought about how wise Zelandoni was; then she suddenly wondered how many people were going to be making this Journey south that the First had proposed. The Donier, Jondalar, herself, and Jonayla, of course; she was saying the counting words under her breath, and touching her leg with her fingers, tallying the people as she named them. That’s four. Willamar and his two assistants are going, seven. He said he wanted to give them the full measure of his experience. He also said it would likely be his last extended trading mission, that he was tired of traveling. No doubt he is, Ayla thought, but she wondered if part of it was because he knew Marthona was not well and he wanted to spend more time with her.

And now Amelana is going; that’s eight. And if Jonokol comes, nine: eight adults and one child. Ayla had a feeling there would be more. Almost as though someone had known what she was thinking, Kimeran and Beladora, with their five-year twins, sought out Zelandoni. They wanted to go south, too, and bring the children to visit her people. Beladora was almost certain that the First wouldn’t mind visiting her Cave. It was near one of the most beautiful Sacred Sites in the land, and one of the oldest. But they didn’t want to make the entire trip that the Donier had planned. They wanted to meet them along the way.

“Where do you want to meet?” Zelandoni asked.

“Perhaps at Jondecam’s sister’s Cave,” Beladora said. “Camora is also Kimeran’s sister, at least they were raised rogether, along with Jondecam. Camora lives at ther mate’s Cave, which is on the way to the Cave of my people.”

Ayla smiled at the beautiful woman with dark wavy hair and a full rounded figure, who also spoke with an accent, though it was not as unusual as hers. She felt a special bond with her, another foreign woman who had mated a Zelandonii man and returned with him. Ayla knew about the special circumstances of Kimeran and his much older sister, who took care of him along with her own children following the death of their mother. Her mate had also died young. She became a Zelandoni after her children and her brother were grown.

“There is highland between here and Beladora’s people if you try to go directly,” Kimeran was saying. “Good hunting for ibex and chamois, but difficult climbing in places even if you follow rivers. I thought we’d travel south and then east, and go around it. I think it might be easier for Gioneran and Ginadela, and for us when we have to carry them. Their legs are short still.” Kimeran smiled. “Not like mine, or yours, Jondalar.” There was warm feeling between Jondalar and the tall, blond man.

“Are you going to travel alone?” Zelandoni asked. “That may not be wise if you are taking the children.”

“We had thought of asking Jondecam, and Levela and her son, if they would like to come with us, but we wanted to ask you first, Zelandoni,” Beladora said.

“I think they would make good traveling companions,” the First said. “Yes, we could meet up with you along the way.”

Ayla was tapping her fingers on the side of her leg again. That’s sixteen in all, if Jonokol comes, she thought. But Amelana will only be with us on the way there, not the return visit, and we won’t meet up with Kimeran and the others until later.

“Will we be going to the Summer Meeting?” Jondalar asked.

“Only for a few days, I think,” Zelandoni said. “I

will ask the Fourteenth and the Fifth to take care of my duties. Between them, I’m sure everything will get done, and I’ll be interested to know how they work together. I’ll send a runner to Jonokol before we go to the Meeting, to see if he wants to come along with us, and if he can. He may have other plans—after all, he is Zelandoni of the Nineteenth Cave now. I can’t just tell him what to do anymore … not that I ever could, even when he was my acolyte.”

The morning dawned sunny and bright the day the Ninth Cave left for the Summer Meeting. It had been raining on and off for several days before, but on this day the clouds were gone, and the sky shimmered with a crystalline brilliance that gave distant highlands an intense clarity. They traveled southwest this year, and the place where the Summer Meeting was being held was farther away than customary, which took them longer than usual to get there.

When they arrived, Ayla noticed that some people from more western Caves were there who were unknown to her. They were the ones who gawked a little longer at her with the three horses and the wolf, not to mention the pole-drags the horses were pulling, one of which carried the First. There was some disappointment when it was learned that the First and her acolyte with the unusual animals would not be staying long. Ayla thought she would have liked to stay and get to know some of the Zelandonii she hadn’t met, but she was also looking forward to the summer Journey the First had planned.

Jonokol did decide to join them. He had never made a very extensive Donier Tour, partly because in the beginning he hadn’t really planned to become a full-fledged Zelandoni; he just wanted to make images and paintings, and the First hadn’t pushed him. After he saw the beautiful white walls of the new Sacred Cave and became serious about the zelandonia, he moved to the Nineteenth Cave, which was closest to the new hallowed site. His Zelandoni there had been too old and weak to make any long Journeys, although her mind was sharp until the end. He had since heard remarkable things about some of the painted caves to the south and didn’t want to pass up this opportunity to see them for himself; he might never have another chance.

Ayla was pleased. He had been welcoming to her from the beginning, and he could be good company. They stayed only four days at the Meeting, but almost everyone was there to see them off. A traveling band that had become the size of a small Cave, they made quite a spectacle as they started out, primarily because of the animals and the accoutrements, but the group included more than the ones who planned to make the long trip together. Several people from some of the Caves to the west had joined them who were unfamiliar to Ayla; they planned to go on in another direction. There were also some people from the neighboring Caves, particularly the Eleventh, including Kareja, their leader.

The First wanted to travel south following The River until they reached its mouth at its confluence with Big River. Once there they would have to cross the larger river, which as its name implied was deeper and wider than The River, with a swifter current. They could cross their familiar river at the Crossing Place, a wider, shallower section, using stepping-stones, or wading, sometimes up to the waist, depending on the season, but it would take more than that to cross Big River. To solve that problem, the First and Willamar had approached Kareja and some members of the Eleventh Cave, who were known for the rafts they made, to take the travelers and their gear down The River to its mouth and then across the larger expanse of Big River.

They started out heading back toward the Ninth Cave. With only adults—except for Jonayla—and the horses, their pace was much faster than when an entire Cave moved. Most of the travelers were young and healthy, and though the First was a big woman—a size that gave her a commanding presence—she was strong and walked much of the time. When she got tired and felt she couldn’t keep up, she was able to ride on the travois, which did not in any way detract from her authority or dignified bearing, especially since she was the only one who rode on a seat on the pole-drag that was pulled by Ayla’s horse.