A man stepped to the woman’s side. “Here is my mate,” Syralana said. “Demoryn, leader of the Third Cave of the Zelandonii That Watches Over the Most Ancient Sacred Site, please welcome the First Among Those Who Serve The Great Mother.”
“Zelandoni the First, our Cave is pleased to welcome you and your friends,” he said.
“Allow me to introduce our Trade Master. Willamar, please greet Demoryn, leader of the Third Cave of the Zelandonii That Watches Over the Most Ancient Sacred Site.”
“I greet you, Demoryn,” Willamar began, holding out both his hands, and continued with the formal greetings. Then he explained, “We stopped for a while just before we came here to hunt and replenish supplies, and to bring you a gift of some meat.” He watched the leader and some others nod knowingly. It was the kind of thing they would have done. “We seem to have acquired an embarrassment of riches. We found a herd of bison and our hunters were exceptionally lucky. We counted nine bison killed when we were done, and our entire group only numbers sixteen, which includes four children. That is too much for us and in any case, even with the help of the horses, we cannot transport so much, but we don’t want to waste the Gifts of the Mother. If you can send some people to help transport the meat here, we would like to share it with you. We brought some with us, but left some people behind to guard the rest.”
“Yes, of course we’ll help you, and will be pleased to share your good fortune,” Demoryn said, then looked closely at Willamar and saw the tattoo in the middle of his forehead. “Master Trader, you have been here before, I think.”
Willamar smiled. “Not to your particular Cave, but I have been in this region before. The First is taking her acolyte, the woman who controls the horses, on a Donier Tour. She is mated to the son of my mate. He is back at our campsite guarding the meat, along with my assistants, two young traders who will be following in my footsteps, and some others. I think Amelana was fortunate that we had planned this trek before she asked to come with us. She was eager to return to her home and have her baby here, near her mother.”
“We are pleased to have her back with us. Her mother was very sad when she left, but s
he was so determined to go with the young man who came to visit, we couldn’t refuse her. I am sorry that her mate now walks the next world. It must have been hard for his mother and family, but I’m not sorry to see Amelana. I didn’t think I would ever see her again after she left,” Demoryn said, “and she may not be so eager to leave home next time.”
“I think you are right,” Willamar said, with a knowing smile.
“I presume you will be going on to the First Cave to the meeting with all the other Zelandonia,” the leader said.
“I haven’t heard about any meeting,” Willamar said.
“I thought that’s why the First was here,” Demoryn said.
“I don’t know anything about it, but I don’t know everything that the First knows.” They both turned to look at the large woman. “Did you know there was a meeting of the zelandonia?” Willamar said.
“I certainly look forward to attending it,” she said with an enigmatic smile.
Willamar just shook his head. Who could really know a Zelandoni? “Well, Demoryn, if you can get some people to help us unload the meat we brought, and go back with us to get what’s left, then the rest of our travelers can come and visit, too.”
As she helped Zelandoni unload her personal travel things, Ayla asked, “Did you know there was going to be a gathering of the zelandonia near here?”
“I wasn’t certain, but meetings do tend to take place in a sequence of a certain number of years, and I thought this might be the right year for one in this region. I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want to create any expectations in case I was mistaken, or missed the timing.”
“It looks like you were right,” Ayla said.
“Amelana’s mother seemed nervous about the horses, so I didn’t rush to introduce you yet,” the First said.
“If she’s nervous about the horses, what is she going to think about Wolf?” Ayla said. “We can deal with formal introductions later. I’ll take your pole-drag off Whinney and go back with her and Gray. We can make a new pole-drag for her to help bring the meat here. There’s still so much left. I’d forgotten how big a bison was. Maybe we can bring some of it to the zelandonia gathering.”
“That would be a good idea. I can ride in behind Whinney on my pole-drag, and Jondalar and Jonayla can bring in some meat on theirs,” Zelandoni said.
Ayla thought a smile to herself. Arriving on the special travois with a horse pulling her always seemed to cause a commotion, and the First did like making an entrance. Everyone seemed to think it was some kind of magic. Why was it so amazing? Why couldn’t people realize that they could make friends with a horse? Especially after seeing not only Jondalar and herself, but Jonayla riding? There was nothing magic about it. It took determination and effort and patience, but not magic.
When Ayla jumped up on Whinney’s back, it brought even more expressions of surprise. She had been leading the horses, not riding, when they arrived. Since the rest of the visitors were walking, Ayla decided she would too. Tivonan and Palidar would walk back and lead the helpers from the Cave, but Ayla could get there faster and start making a new travois.
“Where is everyone else?” Jondalar said when she got to the campsite.
“They’re coming. I came ahead to make another pole-drag for Whinney to help get the meat moved. We’re going to bring some to another Cave. They call themselves the Zelandonii That Watches Over the Most Ancient Sacred Site. Amelana is from the Third Cave, but we’re going to the First Cave. There is a gathering of the zelandonia, and the First knew it! Or at least she guessed there might be. It’s hard to believe how much she knows. Where’s Jonayla?”
“Beladora and Levela are watching her along with their children. That meat has drawn every meat-eater in the region, on legs and wings, and we thought it would be a good idea to keep the little ones in a tent, out of sight. It’s been keeping all of us busy protecting that ‘lucky’ hunt,” Jondalar said.
“Have you killed anything?” Ayla asked.
“Mostly we’ve just been trying to scare them off, shouting and throwing stones.”
Just then a pack of hyenas appeared and, drawn by the scent of meat, went straight for the pile of bison. Without even giving it a second thought, Ayla pulled her sling off her head, reached for a couple of stones from her pouch, and in a smooth motion had a stone in the air aimed at the animal in the lead. A second stone quickly followed it. The leader was down when the second hyena gave a yelp that ended in the sound of a cackling laugh. The leaders of hyena packs were female, but all females had pseudo male organs and tended to be larger than the males. The hyena pack stopped advancing and were running back and forth thrashing about, grunting and howling their peculiar laughing sound, at a loss without their leader. The woman armed her spear-thrower and started for the indecisive pack.
Jondalar jumped in ahead of her. “What are you doing?” he said.