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

“No!” Her answer was sharp and abrupt, and then she tried to soften it. “I was hoping you would watch Jonayla. Beladora is taking her children to spend some time with her mother this morning. Jondecam and Levela are also going and taking Jonlevan with them, because they are all related. I don’t know what Kimeran is doing, but I think he may join them later. Jonayla is like family, but she is really just a friend and may feel left out because she won’t have her usual friends to play with. I thought maybe you and Racer could go for a ride with her and Gray this morning.”

“That’s a good idea. We haven’t been riding for a while. The exercise would do the horses good,” Jondalar said. Ayla smiled at him and rubbed cheeks, but a frown still creased her forehead. She looked unhappy.

It was barely daylight when Ayla left, riding Whinney and whistling for Wolf. She rode along the riverbank looking over the vegetation. She knew the plants she was looking for grew near the place where they had camped, but she hoped she wouldn’t have to ride that far. She rode past the Third Cave’s location; it was deserted. Everyone was at the meeting that had spontaneously come about at the First Cave. She wondered how Amelana was doing, and if she would have her baby before they left. It could be any time now, she thought, and fervently hoped it would be a normal, healthy, happy baby.

She didn’t find what she was looking for until she was close to their former campsite. It was the backwater of the river that had almost formed an oxbow lake that created the right kind of habitat for both water parsnip and water hemlock. She halted the horse and quickly slid off. Wolf seemed happy to have her to himself for a change and was a little frisky, but Ayla was in no mood for playfulness, so he began exploring the interesting smells coming from the small holes and hummocks.

She had her good sharp knife and a digging stick with her and first collected heaps of water parsnips. Then in another basket and with a new tool she had fashioned explicitly for the purpose, she dug up several roots and plants of the water hemlock. She wrapped them with long stems of grass and put them in a separate basket, again made expressly for the plants. She left it on the ground while she packed the parsnips in the panniers fastened to Whinney, then attached the separate basket on top. Then whistling for Wolf, she started back upstream; she was in a hurry to return. When she came to a place where the river flowed fresh and clean, she stopped to fill her waterbag. Then she saw the dry bed of a seasonal tributary stream that would be full of rushing water when rains came. The smooth, rounded stones on the bottom were perfect, and she carefully selected several of them to refill the pouch of stones for her sling.

She was near a stand of pines and noticed small mounds pushing up under a layer of needles and twigs beneath the trees and brushed them aside. She found a clump of pinkish-buff mushrooms hidden underneath. She searched and found more until she had collected quite a nice little pile of pine mushrooms. These were good mushrooms, white and firm of flesh with a rather nice, slightly spicy smell and taste, but not everyone knew them. She filled a third gathering basket with them. Then she mounted Whinney, whistled for Wolf, and rode back, pushing her mare to a gallop for part of the distance. People were in the midst of preparing or eating their morning meal when she arrived. She went straight to the zelandonia pavilion and brought in two of the baskets. Only the two “Firsts” were there.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” the One Who Was First asked.

“Yes,” Ayla said. “Here are some good pine mushrooms, with a somewhat unusual flavor that I like very well,” she said, then showing them the basket of water hemlock, she said, “I have never tasted these.”

“That’s good. I hope you never do,” the large woman said.

“Outside, on Whinney’s pannier is a big load of water parsnips. I was careful not to mix them,” Ayla said.

“I’ll give them to one of the people who is cooking,” the taller, thinner Zelandoni First said. “If they are not cooked well, they can be unpalatable.” She studied Ayla awhile. “This is uncomfortable for you, isn’t it?”

“Yes. I have never deliberately collected something that I knew was harmful, especially knowing that it is intended to be given to someone, to kill him,” Ayla said.

“But you know if he is allowed to live, he will only cause more harm.”

“Yes, I know, but it still doesn’t make me feel good about it.”

“And it shouldn’t,” her First said. “You are helping your people and taking the onus on yourself. It’s a sacrifice, but sometimes it’s what a Zelandoni must do.”

“I will make sure they go to the ones who should eat them,” Zelandoni First said. “It is the sacrifice I must make. These are my people and he has hurt them long enough.”

“What about his other men?” the First asked.

“One of them, Gahaynar, is asking what he can do to make reparations. He is saying how sorry he is,” Zelandoni First said. “I don’t know if he is just trying to talk his way out of the punishment he knows is coming, or if he means it. I think I will let the Mother decide. If he ends up not eating the root and lives, I will let him go. If Balderan doesn’t eat it and lives, I have already spoken with several people who have been personally harmed by him and are eager to see him pay. Most have lost family members or have been attacked themselves. If necessary, I will turn him over to them, but I would prefer it if this more subtle approach works.”

When Zelandonia First went to pick up the basket of hemlock she saw a slithering movement under the container. She quickly snatched the basket and moved it aside. Underneath was a snake, an extraordinary snake.

“Look at that!” the woman said.

Ayla and the First looked, then both took a small indrawn breath of surprise. It was a small snake, probably quite young, and the red stripes running the length of its body indicated it was a nonpoisonous type, but near the front of the body the stripes split into the shape of a Y. The snake had two heads! Both tongues slipped in and out of its mouths, sampling the air; then it started to move, but the movement was a bit erratic, as though it couldn’t quite decide which way to go.

“Quick, get something to catch it before it gets away,” the First said.

Ayla found a small watertight woven bowl. “Is this all right to use?” she asked Zelandonii First.

“Yes, that’s fine,” she said.

The snake started moving as Ayla approached, but she turned the basket upside down and clamped it over the snake. It pulled its own tail in as she held it down firmly so it couldn’t get out under the edge.

“Now what do we do?” Zelandoni First said.

“Do you have something flat that I can slip under that?” Ayla asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe the edge of a shovel that’s been ground flat. Would that work? Like this one?” She picked up the shovel that was used to clean ashes out of the hearth.

“Yes, that’s perfect,” Ayla said. She took the shovel and slid the flat part under the basket, then picked them both up and held them together while she flipped them over. “Is there a lid for this bowl? And some twine to tie it on?”

Zelandoni First found a small shallow bowl and gave it to Ayla, who set the bowl with the snake down, removed the shovel and pressed the shallow bowl on top, then tied them together.