by Jean M. Auel
They negotiated for mates from the larger group because they needed a more extensive pool of people to draw from than their own small Cave, and they exchanged goods not because they needed to, but because they liked what other people made. Their products were similar enough to be understandable, but offered interest and diversity, and when things went wrong, it was good to have friends or relatives they could turn to for help. Living in a periglacial region, an area that skirted glaciers, with exceedingly cold winters, things could go wrong.
Each Cave tended to specialise in various ways, partly as a result of where each one lived, and partly because certain people developed ways to do certain things especially well and passed on the knowledge to their closest kith and kin. For example, the Third Cave were considered to have the best hunters, primarily because they lived high up on a cliff at the confluence of two rivers with large grassy meadows on the floodplains below that attracted most varieties of game as they migrated through, and they were usually the first to see them. Because they were considered the best, they were continually perfecting their hunting and observing skills. If it was a large herd, they would signal nearby Caves for a group hunt. But if it was only a few animals, their hunters often went out themselves, though they often shared their bounty with neighbouring Caves, especially during gatherings or festivals.
The people of the Fourteenth Cave were known as exceptional fishers. Every Cave fished, but they specialised in catching fish. They had a fairly healthy stream running through their small valley that began many miles upstream and was home to several different varieties of fish, in addition to being a spawning creek for salmon in season. They also fished The River and used many different techniques. They developed weirs to trap fish, and were very skilled in spear-fishing, net fishing, and the use of fish gouges, a kind of hook that was straight and pointed at both ends.
The shelter of the Eleventh Cave was close to The River. They had access to trees, and had developed the skills to make rafts, which had been passed down and improved through several generations. They poled the rafts up and down The River, hauling their own goods as well as goods for the other Caves, thereby acquiring benefits and obligations from their neighbours, which could be traded for other goods and services.
The Ninth Cave was located next to Down River, a site that was used as a gathering place by the local artisans and craftspeople. As a result, many of those people moved to the Ninth Cave, which partly accounted for the fact that so many people lived there. If someone wanted a special tool or knife made, or rawhide panels that were used for constructing dwellings, or new cordage, whether heavy rope or strong twine or fine thread, or clothing or tents or the materials to make them, or wooden or woven bowls or cups, or a paiting or carving of a horse or bison or any other animal, or any number of other creative things, they went to the Ninth Cave.
The Fifth Cave, on the other hand, thought of themselves as being very self-sufficient in every way. They counted themselves as having extremely skilled hunters, fishers, and artisans of every kind. They even made their own rafts, and claimed to be the Cave that invented them in the first place, though that claim was disputed by the Eleventh. Their Doniers were well respected and had always been. Several of the stone shelters in the small valley were decorated with paintings and carvings of animals, some in high relief.
However, most of the Zelandonii thought of the Fifth Cave as specialising in the making of jewellery and beads as personal decorations and ornamentation. When someone wanted a new necklace, or various kinds of beads to sew on clothing, they often went to the Fifth Cave. They were especially skilled at making beads out of ivory, and each single bead was a long and painstaking process to make. They also carved holes through the roots of the teeth of various animals for pendants and distinctive beads — fox teeth and red deer canines were favourites — and they managed to acquire seashells of various kinds from both the Great Waters of the West and the large Southern Sea.
When the travellers from the Ninth Cave reached the Fifth Cave's little valley, they were quickly surrounded. People were coming out of several stone shelters in the cliffs on both sides of the small river. Several were standing in front of the large opening of a shelter that faced southwest. Others emerged from another shelter just to the north of it, and on the other side of the valley more people were coming out of shelters. The travellers were surprised to find so many people, more than they expected. Either a large proportion of the Cave had decided not to go to any Summer Meeting, or they had come back early.
The people approached with curiosity, but none came too close. They were held back a little by fear and awe. Jondalar was a familiar figure to all the Zelandonii, except for the younger people who had come of age while he was gone. And everyone knew about his return from a long Journey and had seen the woman and animals he had brought with him, but the unusual procession of Jondalar and the foreign woman with her baby, the wolf, three horses, including a foal, and the One Who Was First sitting on a seat dragged by one of the horses, made quite an impression. To many there was something eerily supernatural about animals behaving so docilely when they should be running away.
One of the first who saw them had run to tell the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave, who was waiting for them. The man, who was among those in front of the shelter on the right, approached, smiling cordially. He was middle aged, but on the young side of the range. He had long brown hair pulled back and wrapped around his head in a complicated coiffure, and the tattoos on his face that announced his important position were more elaborate than they needed to be, but he wasn't the only Zelandoni who had embellished his tattoos. There was a soft roundness about him, and the fleshiness of his face tended to make his eyes look small that gave him an air of shrewd cleverness, which wasn't entirely incorrect.
In the beginning, Zelandoni had reserved judgment of him, not sure if she could trust him, not even sure if she liked him. He could argue his opinions very strongly, even when they were opposed to hers, but he had proven his reliability and loyalty, and in meetings and councils, the First came to rely on the shrewdness of his advice. Ayla was still withholding her complete trust of him, but when she learned that Zelandoni thought well of him, she was more inclined to give him credence.
Another man followed him out of the stone shelter, one that Ayla had distrusted the first time she met him. Madroman had been born to the Ninth Cave, though later he moved to the Fifth Cave, and obviously became an Acolyte from that group. The Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave had several acolytes, and though Madroman may have been among the oldest of his acolytes, he was not the one ranked as first. But Jondalar was surprised to discover that he had been accepted into the zelandonia at all.
In his youth, when Jondalar had become enamoured of the First, then an acolyte named Zolena, another young man, called Ladroman, had wanted Zolena for his donii-woman. He was jealous of Jondalar and had spied on them, and heard Jondalar trying to persuade Zolena to become his mate. It was the donii-women who was supposed to keep such entanglements in check. The young men they were instructing were considered too vulnerable to the knowing older women. But Jondalar was tall and mature for his age, incredibly handsome and charismatic with striking blue eyes, and so appealing that she didn't reject him immediately.
Ladroman told the zelandonia and everyone else that they were breaking taboos. Jondalar got into a fight with him about it, and for spying on them, which became a big scandal, not only because of the liaison but because Jondalar knocked out Ladroman's two front teeth in the confrontation. They were permanent teeth that could never grow in again. It not only left him talking with a lisp, but made normal biting difficult for him. Jondalar's mother, who was leader of the Ninth Cave at the time, had had to pay heavy compensation for her son's behaviour.
As a result of the whole affair, she decided to send him to live with Dalanar, the man to whom she was mated when Jondalar was born, the man of his hearth. Although Jondalar was upset at first, eventually he was thankful. The punishme
nt — as he interpreted it, although his mother thought of it more as a cooling-off period until things settled down and people had time to forget about it — gave the young man the chance to get to know Dalanar. Jondalar resembled the older man to a remarkable degree, not only physically, but in certain aptitudes, particularly flint-knapping. Dalanar taught him the craft, along with his close cousin, Joplaya, the beautiful daughter of Dalanar's new mate, Jerika, who the most exotic person Jondalar had ever met. Jerika's mother, Ahnlay, gave birth to her during the long Journey she had made with her mate, and had died before they had reached the flint mine Dalanar had discovered. But her mother's mate, Hochaman, had lived to fulfil his dream.
Hochaman was a Great Traveller who had walked all the way from the Endless Seas of the East to the Great Waters of the West, although Dalanar had walked for him at the end, carrying him on his shoulders. When they returned Jondalar home to the Ninth Cave a few years later, Dalanar's Cave made a special trip a little farther west just so the diminutive old man, Hochaman, could see the Great Waters once more, again riding on the shoulders of Dalanar. He walked the last few feet himself and at the edge of the ocean, dropped to his knees to let the waves wash over him and to taste the salt. Jondalar grew to love all of the Lanzadonii, and became grateful that he'd been sent away from home, because he discovered he had a second home.
Jondalar knew that Zelandoni didn't care much for Ladroman either after all the trouble he'd caused her, but in a way it made her more serious about the zelandonia and her duties as an Acolyte. She developed into a formidable Zelandoni, who had been called on to be the First just before Jondalar left on the Journey with his brother. In truth, that was one of the reasons he went. He still harboured strong feelings for her and he knew that she would never become his mate. He was surprised, when after five years he returned with Ayla and her animals, to learn that Ladroman had changed his name to Madroman — though he never understood why — and had been accepted into the zelandonia. That meant that no matter who had proposed him, the One Who Was First had had to accept him.
'Greetings!' said the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave, holding out both his hands to the First as she was stepping off the special travois. 'I didn't think I'd have a chance to see you this summer.'
She took both his hands, and then leaned forward to touch his cheek with hers. 'I looked for you at the Summer Meeting, but was told you went to a different one with some of your neighbouring Caves.'
'It's true, we did. It's a long story that I'll tell you later, if you want to hear it,' She nodded that she did. 'But first let's find a place for you, and your … ahhh … travelling companions to stay,' he said, looking significantly at the horses and Wolf. He led them across the small creek, and as he started walking down a well-worn path beside the stream in the middle of the small valley, he continued the explanation. 'Essentially it was a matter of reinforcing friendships with closer Caves. It was a smaller Summer Meeting, and we took care of the necessary ceremonies rather quickly. Our leader and some of our Cave went hunting with them, others went visiting and gathering, and the rest of us came back here. I have an Acolyte finishing her year of watching the sunsets and marking the moons, and I wanted to be here for the end, when the sun stands still. But what are you doing here?'
'I am also training an Acolyte. You've met Ayla,' The large woman indicated the young woman who was with her. 'You may have heard that Ayla has become my new Acolyte and we have begun her Donier Tour. I wanted to make sure she saw your sacred places.' The two elder members of the zelandonia nodded to each other in recognition of their mutual responsibilities. 'After Jonokol moved to the Nineteenth Cave, I needed a new Acolyte. I think he fell in love with that new sacred cave Ayla found. He always was an artist first, but he puts his heart into the zelandonia now. The Nineteenth is not as well as she might be. I hope she lives long enough to finish training him properly.'
'But he was your acolyte. I'm sure he was well trained before he moved,' the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave said.
'Yes, he's had training, but he wasn't really interested when he was my Acolyte,' the First said. 'He was so good at creating images, I had to bring him into the zelandonia, but that was his real love. He was bright and he learned quickly, but he was content to remain an Acolyte; he had no real desire to become a Zelandoni, until Ayla showed him White Hollow. Then he changed. Partly because he wanted to make images in there, I'm sure, but that wasn't all. He wants to make sure his images are right for that sacred space, so now he embraces the zelandonia. I think Ayla must have sensed that. When she first discovered the cave, she wanted me to see it, but it was more important to her that Jonokol see it.'
The Fifth turned to Ayla. 'How did you find White Hollow?' he asked. 'Did you use your voice on it?'
'I didn't find it. Wolf did,' Ayla said. 'It was on a hillside buried in brush and blackberry canes, but he suddenly disappeared into the ground beneath the brush. I cut some of it back and went after him. When I realised it was a cave, I came out and made a torch and went back in. That's when I saw what it was. Then I went to find Zelandoni and Jonokol.'
It had been some time since the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave had heard Ayla speak, and her manner of speaking was noticeable, not only to him, but to the other members of his Cave, including Madroman. It reminded Madroman of all the attention Jondalar got when he came back with the beautiful foreign woman and her animals, and how much he hated Jondalar. He always gets noticed, the Acolyte thought, especially by women. I wonder what they would think of him if he was missing his two front teeth? Yes, his mother paid reparations for him, but that didn't bring my teeth back.
Why did he have to come back from his Journey? And bring that woman with him? All the fuss they make about her and those animals. I've been an Acolyte for years, but she's the one who is getting all the special attention from the First. What if she becomes Zelandoni before I do? She didn't pay much attention to him when they met; she was little more than polite, and she still ignored him. People gave her credit for finding the new cave, but by her own admission, she wasn't the one who found it. It was that stupid animal who did.
He was smiling while he was mulling his thoughts, but to Ayla, who wasn't watching him directly, but observing him closely the way a woman of the Clan would, with indirect glances that took in all of his unconscious body language, his smile was deceitful and devious. She wondered why the Fifth had taken him as an Acolyte. He was such a shrewd and canny Zelandoni, he couldn't have been fooled by him, could he? She glanced at Madroman again and caught him staring directly at her with such a malevolent glare it made her shudder.
'Sometimes I think that Wolf belongs in the zelandonia,' the One Who Was First said. 'You should have heard him in Mammoth Cave. His howl sounded like a sacred voice.'
'I'm glad you have a new Acolyte, but I have always been surprised that you have only one,' the Fifth said. 'I always have several; right now I'm considering another. Not all Acolytes can become zelandoni, and if one decides to give it up, I always have someone else. You should consider that … not that I should tell you.'
'You are probably right. I should consider it. I always have my eyes on several people who might make good acolytes, but I tend to wait until I need one,' the First said. 'The trouble with being First Among Those Who Serve The Great Earth Mother is that I'm responsible for more than one Cave and I don't have as much time to devote to training Acolytes, so I'd rather concenrate on one. Before I left the Summer Meeting, I had to make a choice between my responsibility to the Zelandonii, and my obligation to train the next Zelandoni for the Ninth Cave. The Late Matrimonial had not yet been performed, but since there were only a few who were planning to mate then, and I knew the Fourteenth could handle it, I decided it was more important to start Ayla's Donier Tour.'
'I'm sure the Fourteenth was quite pleased to take over for you,' the Fifth said, with conspiratorial disdain. He was well aware of the difficulties the First had with the Zelandoni of the Fourteenth Cave, who not only wante
d her position, but felt she deserved it. 'Any of the Zelandoni would. We see the prestige, but the rest of us don't always see the problems … including me.'
The abris that hovered around them were shelters of stone scoured out of the limestone cliffs by wind, water, and weather through eras of erosion. At any one time, only some were lived in, but others were available to be used for other things. Some of them were utilised for storage, or as a quiet place to practise a craft, or as a meeting place for a couple who wanted to be alone, or for small groups of young or old to plan activities. And one was usually set aside as a place for visitors to stay.
'I hope you will be comfortable here,' the Fifth said as he led them into one of the natural stone shelters near the base of the cliff. The space within was quite roomy with a level floor and a high ceiling, open in the front but protected from rain. Near one side wall, several tattered padded cushions were strewn about, and a few lens-shaped dark circles of ash, a couple with some stones around them, showed where previous tenants had made fires.
'I'll send over some wood, and water. If there is anything else you need, let me know,' the Zelandoni of the Fifth Cave said.
'This looks fine to me,' the First said. 'Is there anything you think we might need?' she asked her companions.
Jondalar shook his head and grunted in the negative as he went to untie Racer's pole-drag to relieve him of his load, and to start unpacking. He wanted to set up the tent inside the shelter so it could air out and not be rained on. Ayla had mentioned that she thought it might rain, and he respected her sense of changing weather.
