The Land of Painted Caves (62 page)

They were both silent, then Ayla said, “There are plants …”

“I was going to say mushrooms,” the First said. “They could be fed a meal with certain mushrooms.”

“But what if they guess and decide not to eat them? Everyone knows there are poisonous mushrooms. They are easy to pick out and avoid,” Ayla said.

“That’s true, and while Balderan is not right, he’s not stupid. What plants were you thinking of?”

“There are two plants that I know grow around here because I’ve seen them. One is called water parsnip. It grows in water,” Ayla said.

“They are edible, especially the roots, when they are young and tender,” the First said.

“Yes, but there is another plant that looks very similar and it’s deadly poisonous,” Ayla said. “I know the word in Mamutoi. I don’t know what you call it, but I know it.”

“I know the plant. It’s poison hemlock,” the First said. “That’s our name for it. It also grows in water. So the same meal can be cooked for the whole Camp, everyone else will get water parsnip, but Balderan and his men will get hemlock.” She paused, then said, “I was thinking, they could be served mushrooms, too, edible mushrooms. They may think they are poison and avoid them, and perhaps won’t pay attention to the root vegetables, because it will look as though everybody is eating them.”

“That’s what I was thinking, unless someone can think of a better way,” Ayla said.

The woman stopped to think again, then nodded. “Good, we have a plan. It’s always good to have a plan, to anticipate, if you can,” said the Zelandoni Who Was First.

When the two women left the tent, no one was outside. The rest of their group of travelers had gone to see what was happening with the impromptu Summer Meeting, and to offer to help with the cooking or whatever needed doing. Except this wasn’t a happy coming together of relatives, friends, and neighbors; this was a gathering to pass judgment for serious crimes.

More people were arriving and the field below the cliff was filling up. But the biggest surprise was late in the afternoon. Ayla and the First were in the zelandonia dwelling when Jonayla came running in interrupting the meeting.

“Mother, mother,” she said. “Kimeran told me to come and tell you.”

“Tell me what, Jonayla?” Ayla said with a stern tone to her voice.

“Beladora’s family is here. And there is a strange person with them.”

“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 issue of it. It would be like staring, and I think that person gets stared at enough,” Ayla said.

26

A
yla 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.

“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.

The three women left together to have a morning meal. They planned that the meeting should start when the sun was highest in the sky, but people started gathering on the slope earlier to find seating and standing places with enough elevation so they could see and hear better. Everyone knew this was a serious meeting, but there was still a feeling of celebration and festivity in the air, mostly because of the sociability of being together, especially since it was unplanned. And because people were glad that the vicious troublemaker had been caught.

By the time the sun was high, the meeting area was filled to overflowing. Zelandoni First started the meeting and began by welcoming the First Among Those Who Serve The Great Earth Mother, and the rest of the visitors. She explained that the First was accompanying her acolyte, and her former acolyte, who was now a Zelandoni, on their Donier Tour, and had come to see the Most Ancient Sacred Site. She also mentioned that the First’s acolyte and her mate had captured Balderan and three of his men, when they tried to attack her. That information brought an undercurrent of voices from the audience.

“That is the main reason we called this gathering. Balderan has caused pain and suffering to many of you for many years. But now that we have him, we have to decide what to do with him. Whatever punishment we mete out to him should be something we all feel is appropriate,” Zelandoni First said.

Someone in the audience said, “Kill him,” in a loud whisper that everyone heard, including the zelandonia.

The One Who Was First responded, “That may well be the appropriate punishment, but who will do it, and how, is the question. It could be very unlucky if it is not handled properly,” the large woman said, “for all of us. The Mother has declared strong prohibitions against people killing other people, except in extraordinary circumstances. In an effort to find a solution for coping with Balderan, we don’t want to become what he is.”

“How did she catch him?” someone asked.

“You should ask her,” the First said, turning to Ayla.

This kind of situation always made her nervous, but she took a deep breath and tried to answer the question. “I have been a hunter since I was very young, and the weapon I first learned to use was a stone hurled with a sling,” she began. For those who had not heard her speak before, her accent was a surprise. It was rare for a foreigner to become part of the zelandonia and she had to wait until people quieted down before she could continue. “Now you know, I was not born a Zelandonii,” she said with a smile. Her comment brought a small chuckle from the audience.

“I was raised far to the east of here, and I met Jondalar when he was on his Journey.” People were settling down, getting ready to listen to what could be a very good story.

“When Balderan and his men first saw me, I had gone behind the trees for some privacy, and when I stood up to pull my leggings back on, they were staring at me. It made me angry that they were so impolite, and I told them so. Not that it did any good.” That brought a few chuckles from the group. “I usually keep my sling wrapped around my head; it is an easy way to carry it. When he came after me, I don’t think Balderan understood that it was a weapon as I began to unwind it.”

She unwound her sling as she was talking, then reached into her pouch and took out two of the stones she had collected from the dry streambed near their former camp earlier. She put the two ends of the sling together and placed a stone in the middle of a leather strap in a pocket that had formed from use. She had already selected a target: a varying hare in its brown summer coat sitting off to the side on a rock next to its hole. At the last minute, she also spied a pair of mallards, which had taken off from their nests near the river. With swift sure movements, she flung the first stone, and then the second.

People spoke out their surprise. “Did you see that!” “She killed that duck right out of the sky!” “She killed a rabbit, too!” The demonstration gave them a sense of her skill.

“I didn’t want to kill Balderan,” Ayla said.

“But she could have,” Jonokol interjected, which brought another murmur of voices.

“I only wanted to stop him, so I aimed for his thigh. I think he may have a good bruise to show for it. I hit the other man on the arm.” She whistled for Wolf, who came immediately at her call. That also brought a flurry of comments from the assembled group. “Balderan and the others didn’t notice Wolf at first. This wolf is my friend and he will do what I ask him to. When a third man tried to run away, I told Wolf to stop him. He didn’t attack him or try to kill him; he bit at the man’s ankle and tripped him. Then Jondalar came around the trees with his spear-thrower.

“As we were bringing those men here, Balderan tried to run away. Jondalar used his spear-thrower to cast a spear. It just missed Balderan’s ear. So he stopped,” Ayla said. “Jondalar is very accurate with a spear-thrower.” Again there were chuckles.

“I told you they didn’t stand a chance,” Willamar said to Demoryn, who was standing next to him. They were taking a turn at guarding Balderan and the others, who also heard everything that was said.

“When I saw how these men behaved toward me, I thought they were probably troublemakers. That’s why we brought them with us, though they did not want to come. It was only after we arrived at the Third Cave of Watchers that we understood how much trouble they had caused over the years,” Ayla said. She paused, looking down. It seemed obvious that she had more to say.

“I am a healer, a medicine woman. I have helped many women give birth. Fortunately, most babies are perfectly healthy when they are born, but some children of the Mother are not born right. I have seen some that are not. Usually, if the problem is serious, they don’t survive. The Mother takes them back because only She can fix them, but some have a strong will to live. Even with serious problems, they live and often give much to their people,” Ayla said.