The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children 5)

He looked at it again. It was not even wrinkled. She must have found some place to straighten it, steam it, after they arrived. He held the tunic to himself, feeling its softness, and almost felt that he was holding her, so much of her went into the making of it. He would have been happy to wear it even if it wasn’t so beautiful.

But it was beautiful. The clothes he had chosen to wear for his Matrimonial, for all their decoration, now seemed drab by comparison. Jondalar wore clothes well, and he knew it. He had always secretly prided himself on it, and on his choice of clothing. It was a small vanity that he had learned at his mother’s knee, and no one was more gracefully elegant than Marthona. He wondered if she had seen the tunic. Somehow he doubted it. She would have appreciated its stunning subtlety, with the ermine tails giving it just the right touch, and she would have given him some look, some hint.

He looked up as Joharran came into the tent. “There you are, Jondalar. I seem to be spending this day looking for you. You are needed for some special instructions.” He noticed the white garment. “What do you have there?” he asked.

“Ayla made me a Matrimonial tunic. That’s why mother wanted to see me, to give me this.” He held it up in front of himself.

“Jondalar! That is exceptional!” his brother said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen white leather so well made. You always have liked to dress well, but in that, you are really going to stand out. There is going to be more than one woman who will wish she were in Ayla’s place. But there is more than one man who wouldn’t mind being in yours, your big brother included—if it weren’t for Proleva, of course.”

“I am lucky. You don’t even know how lucky, Joharran.”

“Well, I want to say, I wish both of you much happiness. I haven’t really had the opportunity to tell you before. I used to worry about you sometimes. Especially after that … problem you had, when you were sent away. When you came back, you always had women, but I wondered if you would ever find a woman that you would be happy with. You would have mated eventually, I’m sure, but I didn’t know if you would ever find the land of happiness you can have with a good mate like Proleva. I never did think Marona was the right kind of woman for you,” Joharran said. Jondalar was moved.

“I know I’m supposed to be making jokes about how sorry you’ll be now that you’ve tied yourself to the responsibilities of a hearth,” Joharran continued, “but I will tell you truthfully, Proleva has made my life very happy, and her son brings a special warmth you can get no other way. Did you know she is expecting another?”

“No, I didn’t. Ayla is expecting, too. Our mates will have children who are close to the same age, they will be like hearth cousins,” Jondalar said with a big grin.

“I feel certain that Proleva’s son is the result of my spirit, and I hope the one she is carrying will be, but even if they aren’t, the children of his hearth can give a man such pleasure, such a special feeling, it’s hard to describe. Looking at Jaradal fills me with such pride and joy.”

The two men clasped each other by the shoulders, then hugged. “All this confessing of deep feelings from my big brother,” Jondalar said to the slightly shorter man, smiling. Then his expression became more serious. “I’ll tell you truthfully, Joharran. I have often envied your happiness, even before I left, before there were any children. I knew then Proleva would be a good woman for you. She makes your hearth a warm and welcome place. And just in the short time since I’ve returned, I have come to enjoy that little one of hers. And Jaradal looks like you.”

“You’d better go, Jondalar. I was told to hurry you along.”

Jondalar folded the white tunic, wrapped it loosely in its soft leather covering, and laid it carefully on his bedroll, then he left with his brother, but he looked back over his shoulder at the package, eager to try the white tunic on, the tunic he would wear when he and Ayla were mated.

31

I didn’t know I would be so restricted today, or I would have made arrangements,” Ayla said. “I need to make sure the horses are all right, and Wolf needs to be able to come and go. He gets upset if he can’t check on me.”

“This problem has never come up before,” Zelandoni of the Fourteenth said. “You are supposed to be in seclusion before the ceremony on the day of your mating. The Histories tell of a time when women had to be in seclusion for an entire moon!”

“That was long ago, when matings were often in the winter, before they were done together in one Matrimonial,” the First said. “There were fewer Zelandonii then, and they didn’t have gathers the way we do now. For a single Cave to have one or two women restricted for a moon in the middle of winter is one thing, but to have many of them unable to contribute for that long in the hunting and harvesting season during a Summer Meeting is something else entirely. We’d still be trying to get the aurochs stored if the women who are mating had not helped.”

“Well, that may be,” the older Zelandoni said, “but one day shouldn’t be too much.”

“And normally it isn’t, but the animals make it an exceptional situation,” the First donier said. “I’m sure we can work something out.”

“Do you object to the wolf coming and going as he chooses?” Marthona said. “The women don’t seem to mind him. We only need to allow the lower part of the entrance drape to stay unfastened.”

“I don’t suppose that would be a problem,” the Fourteenth said.

The Fourteenth had been pleasantly surprised when she met the four-legged hunter. He had licked her hand and seemed to warm to her, and she rather liked petting the fur of the living animal. After some questions, Ayla told the story of how she brought the baby wolf cub home and rescued the little filly from the hyenas. She had insisted that if they were young enough when you found them, many animals could probably become friendly with people. The Fourteenth had noticed how much attention and prestige Wolf brought to the foreign woman and wondered how difficult it would be to befriend an animal, but perhaps a smaller one. The size didn’t matter, any animal that would voluntarily stay in close contact with a person would bring attention.

“Then, it’s just a matter of the horses. Can’t Jondalar attend to them?” Marthona asked.

Of course he can, but I need to tell him that he should. I’m the one who has been doing it since we arrived at the Summer Meeting because h

e’s been busy with other things,” Ayla said.

“She’s not allowed to communicate with him,” the Fourteenth insisted. “She can’t tell him anything!”

“But someone else can,” Marthona said.

“Not someone involved with the ceremony, I’m afraid. Not anyone who is related,” the Zelandoni of the Nineteenth said. “The Fourteenth is right, of course, and because women no longer stay in seclusion as long, it is even more important that we adhere to the day of seclusion strictly.” The white-haired woman may have been nearly crippled from her arthritis, but it did not limit her strength of character. Ayla had seen that before.

Marthona was glad she hadn’t mentioned that she had given Jondalar the package from Ayla. The zelandonia would have been quite annoyed with her. They could get very adamant about complying with proper customs and behavior during important ceremonies, and while the former leader generally went along with them, privately she felt that exceptions could always be made. Leaders had to learn when to stand fast and when to bend a little.

“Can someone who is not involved with the ceremony be told?” Ayla asked.