The First shook herself awake, as if by an act of will. “Cold … cold …,” she said, then slumped over again and her eyes glazed. The next time she jerked herself awake, she shouted, “Cover … fur … cover Ayla … cold … so cold. Get hot …” Then she was gone again.
They had brought a few warm coverings with them, just because it was always cool in a cave. They had already put one on Ayla, but the Eleventh decided to add another one. When she happened to touch the young woman, she was surprised.
“She is cold, almost as cold as death,” she said.
“Is she breathing?” the Third asked.
The Eleventh bent over and looked closely, noticed a slight movement of her chest and felt a faint sigh of air from her barely open mouth. “Yes, she’s breathing. But it’s shallow.”
“Do you think we should make some hot tea?” the Fifth asked.
“Yes, I think so, for both of them,” the Third said.
“A stimulating tea or a soothing one?” said the Fifth.
“I don’t know. Either one could react with that root in an unexpected way,” the Third said.
“Let’s try to ask the First. She’s the one who should decide,” the Eleventh said.
Her companions nodded. The three of them surrounded the large woman who was sitting on her stool, slumped over. The Third put her hand on the First’s shoulder and gently nudged her, and then a little harder. Zelandoni jerked awake. “Do you want hot tea?” the Third asked.
“Yes! Yes!” the First said, loudly again, as though shouting helped her stay awake.
“Ayla, too?”
“Yes. Hot!”
“Tea to stimulate or soothe?” the Eleventh asked, also speaking loudly. The Zelandoni of the Fourteenth Cave walked over, frowning with concern.
“Stimul … No!” The First stopped, straining to concentrate. “Water! Just hot water!” she said. She shook herself again, trying to stay awake. “Help me up!”
“Are you sure you can stand?” the Third asked. “You don’t want to fall.”
“Help me up! Need to stay awake. Ayla needs … help.” She started to fall off again, and shook herself violently. “Help me stand. Get hot … water. Not tea.”
The Third, Eleventh, and Fourteenth all crowded around the hugely corpulent woman who was the First Among Those Who Served The Mother, and with some effort got her up on her feet. She wavered drunkenly, leaned heavily on two of the Zelandoni, and shook her head again. She closed her eyes and her expression took on a look of intense concentration. When she opened them, she was gritting her teeth with determination, but had stopped swaying.
“Ayla’s in trouble,” she said. “My fault. Should have known.” She was still having difficulty concentrating, thinking straight, but being up and moving around did help. The hot water did, too, if only to warm her. She felt cold, a deep, bone-chilling cold, and she knew it wasn’t just being in the cave. “Too cold. Move her. Need fire. Warmth.”
“You want us to move Ayla out of the cave?” the Fourteenth said.
“Yes. Too cold.”
“Should we wake her?” the Eleventh asked.
“I don’t think you can,” the First said, “but try.”
First they tried gently shaking her, then not so gently. Ayla didn’t stir. They tried talking to her, then shouting, but they couldn’t rouse her.
Zelandoni of the Third asked the First, “Should we continue chanting?”
“Yes! Chant! Don’t stop! It’s all she’s got!” the Zelandoni who was First shouted.
The higher-ranked zelandonia gave a few instructions. Suddenly there was a flurry of activity as several people rushed outside and hurried to the zelandonia lodge, some to stir up a fire for hot water, others to get a litter to carry the young woman out of the cave. The rest renewed the chanting with fervor.
Several people were near the zelandonia lodge. A meeting of the couples planning to tie the knot at the Late Matrimonial had been planned later in the day, and a few of them had started to gather. Folara and Aldanor were among them. When several zelandonia came rushing toward the lodge, Folara and Aldanor looked at each other with concern.
“What’s wrong? Why is everyone is such a hurry?” Folara asked.