The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children 5)

Ayla was quiet for a time, then showed the direction her thoughts had taken with her next comment. “You didn’t tell me there were so many people in your Cave. It’s like a whole Clan Gathering lives here,” she said. “And you seem to know them all. I’m not sure if I ever will.”

“Don’t worry. You will. It won’t take you long,” he said, trying to work out a particularly irksome tangle. “Oh, sorry, did I pull too hard?”

“No, it’s fine. I’m glad I finally met your Zelandoni. She knows medicine; it will be wonderful to have someone to talk with about it.”

“She’s a powerful woman, Ayla.”

“That’s obvious. How long has she been Zelandoni?”

“Let me think,” he answered. “Not long after I left to live with Dalanar, I think. I still thought of her as Zolena then. She was beautiful. Voluptuous. I don’t think she was ever thin, but she is growing to look more and more like the Great Mother. I think she likes you.” He stopped combing for a moment, paused, then started to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Ayla asked.

“I was listening to you tell her how you found me, and about Baby and all. She’ll be asking you more questions, you can be sure. I was watching her expression. Every time you answered a question, she probably wanted to ask you three more. You just made her more curious. You do it every time. You are a mystery, even to me. Do you know just how remarkable you are, woman?”

She had turned around, and he was looking at her with loving eyes.

“Give me a little time and I’ll show you how remarkable you can be,” she answered, a lazy, sensuous smile spreading across her face. Jondalar reached over to kiss her.

They heard a laugh and they both jerked around.

“Oh, did we interrupt anything?” said a woman. It was the attractive light-haired, dark-eyed woman who had listened to Folara tell her friends about the newly arrived travelers. Two other women were with her.

“Marona!” Jondalar said, frowning slightly. “No, you are not interrupting anything. I’m just surprised to see you.”

“Why should you be surprised to see me? Did you think I had left on an unexpected Journey?” Marona said.

Jondalar squirmed and glanced at Ayla, who was looking at the women. “No. Of course not. I guess I’m just surprised.”

“We were just out taking a walk when we happened to see you there, and I admit, Jondalar, I couldn’t resist wanting to make you feel a little uncomfortable. After all, we were Promised.”

They hadn’t been formally Promised, but he didn’t argue with her. He knew he had certainly given her the impression that they were.

“I didn’t know that you would still be living here. I thought you might have mated someone from another Cave,” Jondalar said.

“I did,” she said. “It didn’t last, so I came back.” She had been eyeing his hard, tanned, naked body in

a way that was familiar to him. “You haven’t changed much in five years, Jondalar. Except for a few nasty scars.” She turned her gaze to Ayla. “But we really didn’t come here to talk to you. We came to meet your friend,” Marona said.

“She’ll be formally introduced to everyone tonight,” he said, feeling protective of Ayla.

“That’s what we heard, but we don’t need a formal introduction. We just wanted to greet her and make her welcome.”

He could hardly refuse to introduce them. “Ayla, of the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi, this is Marona of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, and her friends.” He looked more closely. “Portula? Of the Fifth Cave? Is it you?” Jondalar asked.

The woman smiled and blushed with pleasure to be remembered. Marona frowned at her. “Yes, I’m Portula, but I’m Third Cave now.” She certainly remembered him. He had been chosen for her First Rites.

But he recalled that she had been one of those young women who had followed him around afterward, trying to get him alone, even though they were forbidden to associate for at least a year after First Rites. Her persistence had spoiled somewhat his memory of a ceremony that usually left him with a warm glow of fondness for the young woman involved.

“I don’t think I know your other friend, Marona,” Jondalar said. She seemed to be a little younger than the other two.

“I am Lorava, Portula’s sister,” the young woman said.

“We all became acquainted when I was mated to a man from the Fifth Cave,” Marona said. “They came to visit me.” She turned to Ayla. “Greetings, Ayla of the Mamutoi.”

Ayla stood up to return the greetings. Although it normally wouldn’t have bothered her, she found herself feeling slightly disconcerted to be greeting unfamiliar women with no clothes on, and wrapped her drying skin around her, tucking it in at the waist, and put her amulet back around her neck.

“Grrreetings, Marrrona, of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonyee,” Ayla said, her slightly rolled r’s and peculiar throaty accent marking her immediately as a stranger. “Grrreetings, Porrrtula of the Fifth Cave, and Grrreetings to her Sister, Lorrrava,” she continued.