on one hip, her leg in front of the wolf to restrain him, and Echozar holding a torch.
'She sneaked up and was watching us,' the man said defensively.
'I was walking along a main path and stopped to see who was making all the noise,' Ayla said.
'Who is she? And why does she talk so funny?' asked a young man Ayla didn't know. Then he added with surprise, 'That's a wolf!' Ayla had all but forgotten about her 'accent' and so had most of the people who knew her, but occasionally a stranger brought it to her attention. From the pattern on the man's shirt, and the design of the necklace he wore, she guessed he was from a Cave that lived on another river to the north, a group that did not regularly attend their Summer Meeting. He must have arrived only recently.
'She's Ayla of the Ninth Cave, the one Jondalar brought back with him,' Madroman said.
'And she's a Zelandoni who can control animals,' another man said. Ayla thought he was from their neighbour, the Fourteenth Cave.
'She's not Zelandoni,' Madroman said with an air of condescension. 'She's an Acolyte, still in training.'
He had obviously not yet seen her new tattoo, Ayla thought.
'But when she came, she could already control that wolf and a couple of horses,' the man from the Fourteenth Cave said.
'I told you she was an animal lover,' the first man said with a sneer, looking pointedly at Echozar.
Echozar glared back, and moved toward Ayla protectively. This was a large group of men, and they had been drinking Laramar's brew. It had been known to bring out the worst in people.
'You mean like those horses from that Cave camped upstream?' the stranger said. 'That's the first place I was taken when I got here. She's the one who controls them? I thought it was that man and the girl.'
'Grey is my horse,' Jonayla spoke up.
'They're all the same hearth,' Brukeval said, strolling into the firelight.
Ayla glanced from Brukeval to Echozar, and saw their similarity immediately. Brukeval was clearly a modified version of Echozar, though neither of them was fully Clan.
'I think you should let Ayla get on her way,' Brukeval continued. 'And I think it might be smart to have our parties a little farther off the main path in the future.'
'Yes, I think that is a good idea,' said another voice that had suddenly appeared. Joharran, accompanied by some other men, stepped into the light of the torch held by Echozar. Several of them had unlit torches, which they immediately lit from Echozar's, showing how many there were. 'We heard you, and came to see what was going on. There are plenty of places to have drinking parties, Laramar. I don't think you men need to be bothering people who are walking along main paths between camps. Perhaps you should move your party now. We don't need children stumbling over you in the morning.'
'He can't tell us where to go,' a slurred voice called out.
'That's right, he can't tell us where to go,' said the first man who had seen Ayla.
'It's all right,' Laramar said, picking up several of the small drinking bags that had not been unstoppered, and putting them in a backframe, 'I'd rather find a place where we won't be bothered.'
Brukeval began to help him. He glanced up at Ayla and caught her eye. She smiled at him with gratitude for taking her part and suggesting they move. He smiled back with a lingering expression that puzzled her, then frowned and looked away. She put Jonayla down and knelt to restrain Wolf while the men moved off.
'I was going to walk over to the Lanzadonii camp to talk to Dalanar, anyway, Echozar,' Joharran said. 'Why don't you walk back with me? Ayla can go on with Solaban and the others.'
Ayla wondered what was so important that Joharran had to talk to Dalanar about that it couldn't wait until morning. Neither one was going anywhere in the dark. Then she noticed a few of the men who had been sitting around the fireplace move out from behind a bush and head in the direction the others had taken, their heads turning to watch Echozar, Joharran, and a couple of others go. She frowned with concern. Something did not feel right.
'I've never seen such goings on with the zelandonia,' Joharran commented. 'Have you heard anything about the special ceremony everyone says they are planning? Ayla has her mark, but they haven't announced her yet. They usually do it right away. Has she said anything to you?'
'She's been so busy with the zelandonia, I haven't seen much of her,' Jondalar said, which was not entirely true. He had not seen much of her, but not because she was so busy. He was the one who had been staying away and his brother knew it.
'Well, it looks like they must be planning something very big. Zelandoni spent a long time talking with Proleva, and she told me the zelandonia want a huge, elaborate feast. They are even talking to Laramar about supplying his brew for the festival. We're getting together a hunting party, probably be gone a day or two. Do you want to join us?' Joharran asked.
'Yes,' Jondalar answered, almost too quickly, causing his brother to give him a questioning look, 'I'd be glad to.'
If he'd been thinking straight, Jondalar might have recalled that Ayla had said something to him when he first saw her, but he hadn't been able to think of anything but Ayla finding him with Marona since the incident. He just couldn't bring himself to simply crawl into the sleeping furs beside her under the circumstances. He didn't even know if she would let him. He was certain he had lost her, but was afraid to find out for sure.
He thought he had managed to find a plausible excuse for not returning to their camp another night, when Proleva asked him about it. He had actually slept near the horse enclosure, using horse blankets, and the ground covering he and Marona had used at the swimming place, for bedding to keep warm, but he didn't think he could continue staying away without arousing curiosity from the whole camp. Being away on a hunting trip would solve the problem for the next day or two. He didn't even want to think beyond that.
Though Ayla was trying to behave as if nothing were wrong, and Jondalar thought his avoidance of her went unnoticed, in fact the whole camp was aware by now that something was wrong between the couple, and many guessed what it was. His clandestine trysts with Marona were not nearly so secret as he had thought. To most people, he was just being appropriately discreet and they ignored the affair. But the news that the formerly doting couple had not even shared the same bed since Ayla arrived, even though Marona had moved to a different camp, had spread quickly.
It was the kind of gossip people loved to speculate about. The fact that Ayla had been marked as a Zelandoni without being immediately announced, and that plans for a major ceremony were underway, only added to the delicious innuendos. People were guessing that the event had something to do with the newest Zelandoni, but no one seemed to know anything for sure. Usually one or another of the zelandonia would let something slip to an interested questioner, but this time none of them was talking. Some people were suggesting that even the Acolytes didn't know the real reason for the big festival, though they all tried to act as if they did.
Jondalar was hardly aware that a celebration was being planned, and until Joharran had asked him to join the hunting party, he didn't care. Then it only became an excuse to get away for a while. He had seen Marona a few times. When she heard the rumours about the estrangement of Ayla and Jondalar, she had made a point of seeking him out, but he had lost all interest in her. He was little more than coldly polite when she spoke to him, but she was not the only one who tried to find out how serious their breach was. Brukeval also came to the camp of the Ninth Cave.
Though he had travelled to the Summer Meeting with the Ninth Cave, Brukeval had long since moved away to sleep in the men's summer lodges, the 'far lodges' that were constructed around the periphery of the Summer Meeting Camp — commonly shortened to fa'lodges. Some were used by young men recently elevated to manhood status, some by older men who were not yet mated or were between mates, or men who wished they were. Brukeval had never mated. He'd always had a secret fear of being refused, and had never asked anyone. Besides, none of the available women seemed all that interesting to him. Since he had no immediate family or children, he felt out of place at the main camp, and even around the more frequently used areas of the Ninth Cave. As the years went by and most of the men his age took mates, he avoided ordinary activities and familiar people more and more, and by default often ended up with the idlers who attached themselves to Laramar to partake of the brew he made, frequently imbibing of it himself for the forgetfulness it induced.
Brukeval had tried a few different men's tents at the Summer Meeting, but finally settled in the one that housed many of the men he knew from the Ninth Cave who enjoyed easy access to Laramar's brew. Laramar himself slept there most of the time rather than returning to the tent of his mate and her children. The children weren't very welcoming lately, especially since Lanoga mated that boy with the feeble arm. She'd grown up to be
