“Perhaps I am, in our local territory, but we still acknowledge this region as our original homeland, and you as the First. It is in our Histories, our Legends, our teachings. That’s one reason we wanted to come, to reestablish our ties.”
And to decide if you wanted to keep them, the First thought. She had noticed some facial expressions among some of the visitors that were, if not disdainful, then at least doubtful, and had overheard some quiet conversation in what was probably a local southern dialect questioning some of the northern zelandonia ways, especially from one young man. He very likely believed that no one there could understand the variation of Zelandonii they were speaking—few people they had met did—but the First had traveled quite a bit in her younger years, and more recently with Ayla, and she had welcomed many visitors from distant places. She was fairly adept at picking up languages, especially variations of Zelandonii. She glanced at Ayla, whom she knew had an almost uncanny knack for language, and could grasp even a strange one more quickly than anyone she knew.
Ayla caught the glance from her mentor, and the flick of her eyes toward the young man, and nodded slightly in an unobtrusive way, letting her know that she had also understood him. They would discuss it later.
“And I am pleased to know you,” Ayla said. “Perhaps someday we can visit you.”
“You would be welcome, both of you,” the Zelandoni said, looking at the First.
The big woman smiled, but wondered how much longer she’d be able to make Journeys, especially long ones, and doubted that she would be the one to make a return visit. “You have brought some interesting new ideas that I am pleased to learn about, and I thank you for them,” the large woman said.
“I have been very pleased to learn of your medicines,” Ayla added.
“I have learned much, as well. I am especially grateful to know about the way to dissuade the Mother from Blessing a woman. There are those women who just should not bear another child, for her health and the sake of her family,” the Zelandoni said.
“It was Ayla who brought that knowledge,” the First admitted.
“Then I have something I would like to give to her in return, and to you, First Among Those Who Serve The Mother. I have a mixture that has some remarkable qualities. I think I will leave it with you to try out,” the Southern Twenty-fourth said. “I hadn’t planned to, I have only one pouch of it with me, but I can make up more when I get back.”
She opened her traveling pack, took out her distinctive medicine box and removed a small pouch from it. She held it out. “I think you will find this quite interesting and perhaps useful.” The First indicated that she should give it to Ayla. “It’s very powerful. Be careful when you experiment with it,” she said as she handed it to the younger woman.
“Do you prepare it as a decoction or infusion?” Ayla asked.
“It depends what you want,” the woman said. “Each preparation gives it different properties. Later I’ll show you what’s in it, though I suspect you may have worked it out yourself by then.”
Ayla couldn’t wait to find out what was in it. She examined the pouch. It was made of soft leather and tied with a cord that she thought was made from the long hairs of the tail of a horse. She undid some interesting knots in the cord, which had been threaded through holes cut around the top of the soft leather pouch, and opened it. “One ingredient is certain,” she said as she sniffed the contents. “Mint!” The scent also reminded her of the strong tea they had tried when they were visiting another one of the Southern Zelandonii. Ayla retied it with her own knots.
The woman smiled. Mint was the scent she used to distinguish this particular mixture, but it was far more powerful than that innocuous herb. She hoped she would still be here when someone began to experiment with it. That would be a test of the skill and knowledge of the northern zelandonia, she thought.
Ayla smiled at Zelandoni. “I may have another one on the way.” They had been talking about children, though it was the First who had brought it up, she realized.
“I wondered about that. You didn’t look like you were getting fat, like me—I doubt that you ever will—but you seem to be filling out in places. How many moontimes have you missed?”
“Just one. My moontime was due a few days ago. And though I’m not really getting sick, I feel a little nauseous in the morning sometimes,” Ayla said.
“If I were to make a guess, I’d say you are going to have another baby. Are you happy about it?” Zelandoni asked.
“Oh, yes. I want another, although I hardly have time to take care of the one I have. I’m just glad Jondalar is so good with Jonayla.”
“Have you told him yet?”
“No. It’s too soon, I think. You never know—things can happen. I know he would like another child at his hearth. I wouldn’t want him to get excited only to be disappointed. And it’s a long enough wait even after you start showing—no reason to make him wait so long.” Ayla thought about the night she came down from the cliff early, and how good it had been for both of them. Then she recalled the first time she had shared Pleasures with Jondalar. She laughed quietly, to herself.
“What’s funny?” Zelandoni asked.
“I was just thinking about the first time Jondalar showed me the Gift of Pleasure, back in my valley. Until then, I didn’t know it was supposed to be a Pleasure, or even that it could be. I could hardly communicate with him then. He had been teaching me to speak Zelandonii, but so much of his language, and most of his ways, were completely strange to me. As a mother was supposed to, Iza had explained how a woman of the Clan uses a certain signal to encourage a man, though I don’t think she thought I’d ever really need it.
“I’d been making the signal to Jondalar, but it didn’t mean anything to him. Later he showed me Pleasures again, because he wanted to, not because I did, and I kept thinking he would never understand my signals, when I wanted him again. I finally asked to speak to him the way the women of the Clan do. He didn’t understand what I wanted when I sat down in front of him and bowed my head, waiting for him to tell me I could speak. Finally I just tried to tell him. When he understood the gist of it, he thought I wanted him to do it right away, and we had just finished. He said something like he didn’t know if he could, but he would try. As it turned out, he didn’t have any problem,” Ayla said, smiling at her own innocence.
Zelandoni smiled, too. “He always was an obliging fellow,” she said.
“I loved him the first time I saw him, before I even knew him, but he was so good to me, Zelandoni, especially when he showed me the Mother’s Gift of Pleasures. I asked him once how he could know things about me that I didn’t know about myself. He finally admitted that someone had taught him, an older woman, but I could tell he was greatly troubled. He really loved you, you know,” Ayla said. “He still does, in his way.”
“I loved him, too, and I still do, in my way. But I don’t think he ever loved me the way he loves you.”
“But I’ve been gone so much, especially at night. I’m surprised that I’m pregnant.”
“Maybe you are wrong about his essence mixing with yours inside you, Ayla. Maybe new life is started by the Great Mother choosing a man’s spirit and blending it with yours,” Zelandoni said, with a wry smile.