“I think we should tie the hands of those two together, and maybe the other two as well,” Jondalar said. “I don’t think they want to face the people who live near here.”
They were later coming back than expected. The sun was making a show of fading purples and deep reds in the western sky when they arrived at the stone shelter where the Cave lived.
“They’re the ones who did it!” a woman cried when she saw the men. “They’re the ones who forced me and killed my mate when he tried to stop them. Then they took our food and sleeping rolls, and left me there. I walked home, but I was pregnant and lost the baby.”
“How did you meet up with them?” Demoryn asked Jondalar and Ayla.
“Just before we were ready to leave, Ayla went around the stand of trees near our camp to pass water; then I heard her whistle for Wolf and the horses. I went to see what was wrong and found her holding off these four. When I got there, two of them were nursing the bruises she gave them with stones from her sling and she had her spear-thrower armed and ready,” Jondalar said.
“Bruises! Is that all? She killed a hyena with her stones,” Tivonan said.
“I wasn’t trying to kill them, just stop them,” Ayla said.
“On our way home from our Journey, there were some young men causing trouble for the people on the other side of the glacier to the west. They had forced one young woman before her First Rites. I wondered if these men might be disturbing people around here,” Jondalar said.
“They’ve been doing a lot more than disturbing, and they aren’t young. It’s been going on for years, stealing, forcing women, killing people, but no one has been able to find them,” Syralana said.
“The question is, what do we do with them now?” Demoryn said.
“You take them to the meeting of the zelandonia,” the First said.
“Good idea,” Willamar said.
“But first you should tie them down better than they are. They already tried to run away on our way here. I took away the spears and knives I could find, but I might not have found them all. And someone should guard them overnight. Wolf can help,” Ayla said.
“Yes, you are right. These are dangerous men,” Demoryn said as he walked back toward the shelter. “The zelandonia can decide what to do, but they need to be stopped, whatever it takes.”
“Remember Attaroa, Jondalar?” Ayla said, both of them falling in beside the leader of the Cave.
“I’ll never forget her. She nearly killed you. If it hadn’t been for Wolf, she would have. She was vicious, I’d even say evil. Most people are decent. They are willing to help people, especially if they are in trouble, but there always seems to be a few who take what they want and hurt people and don’t seem to care,” Jondalar said.
“I think Balderan enjoys hurting people,” Demoryn said.
“So that’s his name,” Jondalar said.
“He always had a temper,” Demoryn continued. “Even as a child he liked to pick on those who were weaker, and inevitably there were always a few boys who followed him, and did what he said.”
“Why do some go along with people like that?” Ayla said.
“Who knows?” Jondalar said. “Maybe they’re afraid of them and think if they go along, they won’t be the ones who are picked on. Or maybe they don’t have much status and making other people afraid makes them feel more important.”
“I think we need to select some people to watch them closely,” Demoryn said. “And guard them in shifts, so the watchers don’t get sleepy.”
“They should also be searched again. Some of them may keep hidden knives that they can use to cut the ropes and perhaps hurt people,” Ayla said. “I’ll take a shift, and as I said, Wolf can help. He’s very good at guarding. It’s like he sleeps with one eye open.”
When they were searched, each of the men had hidden at least one knife, which they claimed were just eating knives. Demoryn had been considering whether to untie their hands at night so they could sleep more comfortably, but finding the knives made him change his mind. They were given a meal and watched closely while they ate. Ayla collected their eating knives when they were through. Balderan did not want to give his up, but a signal to Wolf, which brought him to his feet with a menacing snarl caused the man to let go of the sharp-edged tool. When she got close to him she could see his seething anger. He could barely keep it under control. He had been able to exercise his free will for most of his life. He had taken what he wanted with impunity, including the lives of other people. Now he was physically restrained and forced to do something he didn’t want to do, and he didn’t like it.
The visitors and most of the Third Cave of the Zelandonii That Watches Over the Most Ancient Sacred Site followed a trail upstream beside the meandering river that had cut deep into the limestone, creating a deep gorge that now constrained the river. Ayla noticed that the people of the local Cave began glancing at each other and smiling as though they shared a secret or were anticipating some amusing surprise. They rounded a sharp turn and behind the high gorge walls the visitors were astounded to see high above them a stone arch, a natural bridge spanning the river. The ones who had not seen it before stopped to gaze in wonder at the formation that had been created by the Great Earth Mother. They had never seen anything like it; no one had. It was unique.
“Does it have a name?” Ayla asked.
“It has many names,” Demoryn said. “Some people name it for the Mother, or for spirits of the next world. Some people think it looks something like a mammoth. We just call it the Arch or the Bridge.”
Some four hundred thousand years before, the force of a subterranean stream carved through the limestone, eventually wearing the calcium carbonate rock away, creating caves and passageways. In the course of time, the level of the water lowered and the land uplifted, and the conduit that
had broached the wall of stone had become a natural arch. The present river flowed through what had been a barrier and was now a bridge across the river, but so high it was seldom used. The high stone arch spanning the river was an awe-inspiring formation. Nothing like it existed anywhere else.
The top of the span was approximately on the same level as the top of the high cliffs closest to it, but the ancient channel had also carved out meanders nearer the river that had become level ground. During the wet season, when the river was running high, the sides of the limestone barrier sometimes restricted the flow of the water and caused flooding, but most of the time the river that had once created caves and worn its way through the limestone obstruction was placid and calm.