The Shelters of Stone (80 page)

“Racer can mean someone who likes to go fast, or someone who likes to be ahead of everyone else,” the boy said.

“That’s what Jondalar said. He named him that because Racer loves to run, and likes to get ahead, except when I put him on a rope. Then he will follow behind his dam,” Ayla said, and went back to grooming the horse. She was nearly through.

“What about the wolf?” Lanidar asked.

“Almost the same thing. I raised Wolf from a baby. I killed his mother because she was stealing ermine from some traps I set. I didn’t know she was nursing. It was in winter with snow on the ground, and she had whelped out of season. I followed her tracks back to her den. She was a lone wolf, with no other wolves to help her, and all but one of her cubs had died. I pulled Wolf out of the den when his eyes were barely open. He grew up with Mamutoi children, and thinks of people as his pack,” she said.

“What is that name you call him?” Lanidar said.

“Wolf. It’s the word for a wolf in Mamutoi,” Ayla said. “Would you like to meet him?”

“What do you mean, ‘meet him’? How can you meet a wolf?”

“Come here and I’ll show you,” she said. He approached with caution. “Give me your hand, and we’ll let Wolf smell it, and get used to your scent, then you can rub his fur.”

Lanidar was a little hesitant about putting his good hand so close to the mouth of the wolf, but he extended it slowly. Ayla brought it to Wolf’s nose. He sniffed it, then licked it.

“That tickles!” the boy said with a nervous titter.

“You can touch his head, and he likes to be scratched,” Ayla said, showing Lanidar how. The boy broke into a delighted grin when he touched the animal, but looked up when the young stallion nickered. “I think Racer would like a little attention, too. Would you like to pet him?”

“Can I?” Lanidar asked.

“Come here, Racer,” she said, signaling him to come as well as saying it. The dark brown stallion with black mane, tail, and lower legs nickered again, took a few steps toward the woman and the boy, and lowered his head toward the youngster, making the boy move back a ways from the large
animal. He may not have been a carnivore with a mouth full of sharp teeth, but that didn’t mean he was without defenses. Ayla reached into the backpack at her feet.

“Move slowly, let him smell you, too. That’s how animals get to know you, then you can pat his nose, or the side of his face,” Ayla said.

The boy did as she said. “His nose is so soft!” Lanidar said. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, Whinney was there, pushing Racer aside. The boy was startled. Ayla had seen Whinney approaching from the field, wanting to find out what was going on.

“Whinney likes attention, too,” Ayla said. “Horses are very curious, and like to be noticed. Would you like to feed them?” He nodded. Ayla opened her hand and showed him two pieces of a white root that she knew the horses liked, fresh young wild carrot. “Is your right hand strong enough to hold something?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Then you can feed them both at the same time,” she said, putting a piece of root in each of his hands. “Hold one out to each horse, letting it rest on your open hand, so they can take it,” she said. “They get jealous if you feed one and not the other, and Whinney will push Racer out of the way. She’s his mother, she can tell him what to do.”

“Even horse mothers can do that?” he said.

“Yes, even horse mothers.” She stood up and got the halter with the ropes attached. “I think it’s time to go, Lanidar. Jondalar is expecting me. I’m going to have to put their ropes back on. I’d rather not, but it’s for their own safety. I don’t want them wandering around loose until everybody at the Summer Meeting knows that these horses are not to be hunted. I was thinking a surround might be a better place for them, rather than using ropes that get tangled on bushes and grass.”

The bush caught up in Racer’s rope was so tangled, she dropped it and went to find her backpack. She thought she had put the small axe that Jondalar had made for her in it, though when they were traveling, she usually wore it with
the hafted handle put through a loop attached to her waistband. It would be easier to untangle the rope if she could break up the woody bush first. She searched around the bottom of the pack and found it. After she made sure they were cleared of the debris they had picked up, Ayla put the ropes back on the horses and gathered up her backpack and the hare to give to whoever might be working around the camp of the Ninth Cave. Then she looked at the boy. “If I teach you how to whistle like birds and things, would you do something for me, Lanidar?”

“What?”

“Sometimes I have to be away almost all day. Would you come and check on the horses once in a while when I’m gone? You can call them with a whistle then, if you want. Make sure their ropes aren’t tangled, and give them some attention? They like company. If there are any problems, come and find me. Do you think you could do that?”

The boy could hardly believe what she was asking. He never would have dreamed she would ask him to do something like that. “Can I feed them, too? I liked it when they ate off both my hands.”

Of course. You can always pick some fresh green grass, and they really like wild carrots, and some other roots I can show you. I have to go, do you want to come with me to watch Jondalar show his spear-thrower?”

“Yes,” he said.

Ayla walked with the boy back to the camp, making a few bird whistles along the way.

When Ayla, Wolf, and Lanidar reached the site of the spear-throwing demonstration, Ayla was surprised to see several more of the hunting implements besides Jondalar’s. Some people who had seen their earlier presentation to the Caves in their immediate region had made their own versions of the weapon, and they were showing their capabilities with varying degrees of success. Jondalar saw her coming and looked relieved. He hurried to meet them.

“What took you so long?” he started right in. “Several people tried to make spear-throwers after we showed them,”
he said, “but you know how much practice it takes to develop accuracy. So far, I’m the only one who’s been able to hit what I aimed for, and I’m afraid people are beginning to think my skill is just a fluke, and that no one else will ever be able to hit anything using them. I didn’t want to say anything about you. I thought that a showing of your skill would make a better impression. I’m glad you finally made it.”

“I brushed the horses—Racer’s eye is fine—and let them run for a while,” she explained. “We need to think of something besides ropes that get caught on bushes and things. Maybe we could make a surround, or an enclosure of some kind. I’ve asked Lanidar to check on them when we’re away from camp. He’s met the horses and they like him.”

“Who is Lanidar?” Jondalar asked rather impatiently.

She indicated the boy who was standing beside her, trying to edge around behind her, looking up at the tall man who seemed angry, which made the boy a little frightened. “This is Lanidar of the Nineteenth Cave, Jondalar. Someone told him there were horses in the field where we camped, and he came to see them.”

Jondalar started to shrug him off, his mind on the demonstration that was not going as well as he’d hoped, then he noticed the deformed arm and a frown of concern on Ayla’s face. She was trying to tell him something, and it was probably about the boy.

“I think he could be a big help,” she said. “He’s even learned the whistle we use to call the horses, but he’s promised not to use it without a good reason.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Jondalar said, turning his attention to the child, “and I’m sure we can use the help.” Lanidar relaxed a little, and Ayla smiled at Jondalar.

“Lanidar came to see the demonstration, too. What targets do you have set up?” Ayla asked as they started walking back toward the crowd of mostly men who were watching them. A few of them looked as though they were getting ready to leave.

“Drawings of deer on a hide tied to a bundle of grass,” he said.

Ayla pulled out a spear and her spear-thrower as they approached, and as soon as she saw the targets, she sighted and let fly. The solid
thunk
caught a few by surprise, they hadn’t expected the woman to make a cast so quickly. She made a few more demonstrations, but unmoving targets seemed rather commonplace, and even if the spear did fly farther than anyone had ever seen a woman throw before, they had already watched Jondalar do that several times. It was no longer exceptional.

The boy seemed to understand that. He had walked along beside her because he wasn’t sure if she wanted him to stay or go, and tapped her.

“Why don’t you tell the wolf to find a rabbit or something?” Lanidar said.

The woman smiled at him, then made a silent signal to the wolf. The area was trampled by the many people milling around, and it was not likely that there were many animals left, but if any could be found, Wolf would find them. With a little trepidation, some people noticed the wolf dashing away from Ayla. They had started to become accustomed to seeing the meat-eater with the woman, but rushing off on his own was another thing.

Before Ayla arrived, a man had asked Jondalar how far he could cast a spear with one of those spear-throwers, but he said he had used up all his spears and needed to retrieve them before he could throw them again. Jondalar and a knot of men were just starting off together to gather them up when Ayla spied Wolf in a stance that signaled to her that he had found something. Suddenly a noisy willow grouse appeared out of a clump of trees halfway up a slope near the target course. Ayla had been waiting with a lightweight spear in the thrower, one she and Jondalar had started using for birds and small animals.

She hurled the weapon with a speed that was so practiced, it was almost instinctive. The bird squawked when it was hit, causing several people to look. They watched it fall from the sky Suddenly there was renewed interest in the
hunting weapon. “How far can she throw?” the man who had asked about distance wanted to know.

“Ask her,” Jondalar said.

“Just throw, or hit the mark?” Ayla asked.

“Both,” the man said.

“If you want to see how far a spear will go using a thrower, I have a better idea,” she said, then turned to the boy. “Lanidar, would you show them how far you can throw a spear?”

He glanced around rather shyly, but she knew he hadn’t been hesitant to speak out or answer questions when he first talked to her, and she thought he wouldn’t mind the attention. He looked at Ayla and nodded.

“Do you think you can remember how you threw the spear before?” she asked.

He nodded again.

She gave him her spear-thrower and a projectile, another bird dart—she had only two lightweight spears left. He was a little awkward at getting the spear set on the spear-thrower with his shorter arm, but he did it himself. Then he walked to the middle of the practice course, pulled his good left arm back, and threw the spear the way he had done it before, let-ring the back of the thrower lift up and add the leverage that would give it more distance. It went less than half the distance down the course than either Ayla’s or Jondalar’s spears had gone, but it was still much farther than anyone expected a boy to cast a spear, especially one with his affliction.

More people started to crowd around, and no one seemed interested in leaving now. The man who had asked for the demonstration came forward. He looked at the boy, noticed the decorations on his tunic and the small necklace around his neck, and seemed surprised. “That boy is not Ninth Cave, he’s Nineteenth. You just arrived, when did he learn to use that thing?”

“This morning,” Ayla said.

“He threw a spear that far and he only learned this morning?” the man said.

Ayla nodded. “Yes. Of course, he hasn’t learned how to
hit what he aims for yet, but that will come with time, and practice.” She glanced at the youngster.

Lanidar’s grin was so full of pride, Ayla had to smile, too. He gave her the spear-thrower and she selected a light spear, set it on top of the thrower, and heaved it with all her might. People watched as it flew high and landed well beyond the targets Jondalar had set out. Everyone was so busy watching the spear, few noticed that she had selected a second spear and hurled it. It landed in one of the targets with a satisfying sound, and several people turned their heads in surprise to see the long dart sticking out of the neck of the painted deer.

The hubbub of voices grew, and when Ayla looked at Jondalar, his grin was as wide as Lanidar’s had been. People crowded around them both, wanting to see the new implements, and several wanted to try them. But when they asked to use hers, Ayla directed them to Jondalar, making excuses about having to find Wolf. She found that while she didn’t mind offering to let someone use her weapon, she didn’t like it as well when people asked to use hers, though she was surprised at her reaction. She had never had much that she thought of as her own.

She was getting a little concerned about Wolf’s whereabouts and looked for him. She saw him sitting beside Folara and Marthona on the side of the slope. The young woman noticed her looking at them and held up the willow grouse. Ayla headed in their direction.

A woman approached her as she left the target field, then she saw that Lanidar was with her, but hanging back a little. “I am Mardena of the Nineteenth Cave of the Zelandonii,” said the woman, holding out both hands in greeting.” We are hosting this year. In the name of the Mother, I welcome you to this Summer Meeting.” She was a small woman, and thin. Ayla could see a resemblance to Lanidar.

“I am Ayla, of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, formerly of the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi. In the name of Doni, the Great Earth Mother, known also as Mut, I greet you,” Ayla replied.

“I am Lanidar’s mother,” Mardena said.

“I thought you might be. There is a resemblance,” Ayla said.

She noticed Ayla’s strange accent and was slightly put off by it. “I’d like to ask how you know my son. I asked him, but he can be very closemouthed sometimes,” his mother said, looking a bit exasperated.

“Boys are like that,” Ayla said with a smile. “Someone told him there were horses at our camp. He came to see. I happened to be there at the time.”