“Beladora’s family? They aren’t even Zelandonii; they’re Giornadonii. They live far away, how could they have gotten here in just a day or so?” Ayla said. She turned to the others. “I think I have to go.”
“I should go with you,” the First said. “Please excuse us.”
“They don’t live that far,” Zelandoni First said, walking them out, “and they often come to visit. At least every couple of years. I think they are as much Zelandonii as they are Giornadonii, but I doubt if they came because of the runners that were sent out. They were probably planning to visit anyway. They were likely as surprised to see their relative as she was to see them.”
Kimeran was just outside and had heard Zelandoni First. “That’s not entirely true,” he said. “They went to the Giornadonii Summer Meeting, then decided to go to your Summer Meeting, and were planning on coming here later. They were at the Meeting Camp when the runner arrived and they found out from him that we were here. Of course, they also found out about Balderan. Did you know that he has caused trouble for some of the Giornadonii Caves? Is there anybody he hasn’t harmed and alienated?”
“There will be a meeting about that soon,” Zelandoni First said. “We have to come to some kind of decision, shortly.” As an afterthought, she said, “Did you say there was a strange person with them?”
“Yes, but you will see for yourself.”
Ayla and the First were presented to Beladora’s relatives with full formal introductions; then the First asked if they had set up their camp yet.
“No, we just arrived,” said the woman they had just learned was Beladora’s mother, Ginedora. Even without the introduction, it would have been obvious; she was an older, slightly plumper version of the woman they knew.
“I think there may be room near our camp,” the First said. “Why don’t we go claim it before someone else does.”
When they reached the camp, there were more introductions and some initial hesitation about the animals, but then Ginedora saw a boy who looked as though he could have been born to her. She gave her daughter a questioning look. Beladora took her son’s hand, and then her blond, blue-eyed daughter’s hand.
“Come and meet your grandma,” she said.
“You had two-born-together? They are both yours? And both healthy?” she said. Beladora nodded. “That’s wonderful!” she said.
“This is Gioneran,” the young mother said, holding up the hand of a five-year boy with the dark brown hair and brownish-green eyes like his mother.
“He is going to be tall, like Kimeran,” Ginedora said.
“And this is Ginadela,” Beladora said, holding up the hand of her fair daughter.
“She has Kimeran’s coloring, and she’s a beauty,” the woman said. “Are they shy? Will they come and give me a hug?”
“Go and greet your grandma. We’ve come a long way to meet her,” Beladora said, urging them forward. The woman got down on her knees and opened out her arms. Her eyes were feeling full and looked shiny. Somewhat reluctantly, the children gave her a cursory hug. She took one in each arm as a tear rolled down her cheek.
“I didn’t know I had grandchildren. That’s the trouble with your living so far away,” Ginedora said. “How long are you staying here?”
“We don’t know yet,” Beladora said.
“Are you coming to our Cave?” Ginedela asked.
“We had planned to,” she said.
“You’ve got to do more than visit for a few days. You’ve traveled this far—come back with us and stay for a year,” the woman said.
“That’s something we would have to think about,” Beladora said. “Kimeran is the leader of our Cave. It would be hard for him to stay away for a year.” When she saw tears starting in her mother’s eyes, she added, “But we’ll think about it.”
Ayla glanced around at the other people who were beginning to set up camp. She noticed a man who was carrying someone on his shoulders. He bent down and helped the person off. At first she thought it was a child; then she looked again. It was a small person, but oddly shaped, with legs and arms too short. She tapped the First and moved her chin in the direction of the person.
The large woman looked, then looked more closely. She understood why Ayla had called her attention to the individual. She had never seen one, but she had heard about similar little people. “No wonder Beladora’s mother seemed so relieved that her daughter’s children, born at the same time, were normal. That person is an accident of birth. Like some dwarf trees whose growth becomes stunted, I think that is a dwarf person,” she said.
“I would like to meet that person to learn more, but I don’t want to make an iss
ue of it. It would be like staring, and I think that person gets stared at enough,” Ayla said.
26
Ayla had gotten up very early and gathered her collecting baskets and the panniers for Whinney. She told Jondalar that she was going to look for some greens and roots and whatever else she could find for tonight’s feast, but she seemed distracted and uncomfortable.
“Would you like me to come along?” he asked.