Although her face flushed, Ayla didn't say anything, and Marthona was certain something was seriously wrong. She'd have to find out just what was going on.
'Folara, would you and Marthona watch Jonayla, or drop her off at Levela's if you are going to the main camp? And take Wolf with you? I need to talk to Danug and Druwez, and maybe take them to the zelandonia lodge,' Ayla said.
'Yes, of course,' Folara said.
Ayla gave her daughter a hug. 'I'll see you this evening,' she said, then went up to the two young men and started speaking to them in Mamutoi.
'I was thinking about the talking drums and mentioned them to the First. Can either or both of you make the drums talk?' Ayla said.
'Yes,' Danug said. 'We both can, but we didn't bring any with us. Drums are not a necessary part of travelling gear when you go on a Journey.'
'How long would it take to make a couple of them? I'm sure we can get people to help you if you need it. And would you be willing to play out a verse or two? As part of the ceremony we're planning?' Ayla said.
The two young men looked at each other, and shrugged. 'If we can find the materials, they wouldn't take long to make, maybe a day or so. It's just rawhide stretched across a round frame, but it has to be a tight stretch so that the drum really resonates at different pitches. The frame has to be strong or it will break as the rawhide shrinks, especially if we use heat to shrink it faster,' Druwez said. 'They are small drums, and you play them with your fingers, very fast.'
'I've seen some play them with a nicely balanced stick, but we learned to do it with the fingers,' Danug said.
'Would you be willing to do it for the ceremony?' Ayla asked.
'Of course,' they said in unison.
'Then come with me,' she said as she headed toward the main camp.
On the way to the large zelandonia lodge, Ayla noticed how many people actually stopped and stared at them. Though often enough she had been, this time she wasn't the one who was the object of the gawks. It was Danug. It was rude, but in a way she couldn't blame them, he was a striking figure of a man. On the whole, the men of the Zelandonii tended to be tall, well-built men — Jondalar himself was six feet, six inches — but Danug stood head and shoulders above everyone else, and he was well proportioned to his size. If seen alone from some distance, he would have seemed to be an ordinary muscular man; it was when he stood in the midst of others that his great size was so noticeable. It made her recall the first time she saw Talut, the man of his hearth, the only man she ever saw who was of comparable dimensions. She had probably stared then, even though except for Jondalar, Talut was one of the first people of her own kind she had seen since she was a small child. Maybe that was why she stared.
When she reached the great lodge in the centre of the camp, two young female acolytes approached them. 'I wanted to make sure we had all the ingredients for that special ceremonial drink you told us about,' one of them said. 'You said fermented birch sap, fruit juices scented with woodruff, and some herbs, right?'
'Yes, in particular, artemesia,' Ayla said. 'Sometimes called wormwood, or absinthe?'
'I don't think I'm familiar with that drink,' Druwez said.
'Did you stop and visit the Losadunai on your way here?' Ayla asked. 'In particular, did you share a Mother Festival with them?'
'We stopped, but we didn't stay long,' Druwez said, 'and unfortunately, they did not have a Festival while we were there.'
'Solandia, the mate of the Losaduna, told me how to make it. It tastes like a pleasant-tasting mild drink, but in fact, it is a potent mixture made especially to encourage the spontaneity and warm interaction that are wanted during a festival to honour the Mother,' Ayla said. Then to the Acolytes, she added, 'I'll taste it when you are done and let you know if anything is missing.'
As they turned to go, the two young women made some hand gestures to each other, and glanced back at Danug. Over the past few years, especially during Summer Meetings, Ayla had been teaching all the zelandonia some of the basic Clan signs. She thought it would help the Doniers to communicate, at least at a basic level, if they happened to meet some people of the Clan when they were travelling. Some picked it up better than others, but most of them seemed to enjoy having a silent secret method of talking that most people didn't understand. What the two young Acolytes didn't know was that Ayla had taught Danug and Druwez the Clan signs long before when she lived with the Mamutoi.
Suddenly Danug looked at one of the young women and smiled. 'Maybe you'd like to find out at the Mother Festival,' he said, then turned to Druwez and they laughed.
Both young women blushed; then the one who had first made the signs smiled at Danug with a suggestive look. 'Maybe I would,' she said. 'I didn't know you understood the gestural signs.'
'Can you imagine anyone living around Ayla for very long without learning them?' Danug said, 'Especially when my brother, the boy my mother adopted, was half Clan, and couldn't speak until Ayla came and taught us all to make the signs. I remember the first time Rydag made the sign for 'mother' to her. She cried.'
People started milling around the ceremonial area early. The excitement in the air was tangible. The ceremony had been in stages of preparation for days and there was an incredible sense of expectation. This was going to be special, totally unique. Everyone knew it; they just didn't know how. The suspense mounted as the sun began to sink. Never had the Zelandonii at the Summer Meeting wanted the sun to set quite so much. They wished it down from the sky.
Finally, as the sun settled down below the horizon and it grew dark enough to need fire, people began to settle down, waiting for the ceremonial fires to be lit. There was a natural amphitheatre in the centre of this area that was sufficiently large to hold the entire camp of some two thousand people. Behind and toward the right of the Summer Meeting camp, the limestone hills formed the general shape of a large scooped-out shallow bowl curving around on the sides but open in front. The base of the curved slopes converged to a small, relatively level field, which had been evened out with stones and packed earth over the many years the location had been used for meetings.
In a wooded copse near the rugged crest of the hill, a spring rose that filled a small pool, then spilled down the slope of the bowl shape, through the middle of the area at the bottom, and eventually into the larger stream of the camp. The spring-fed creek was so small, especially late in summer, that people stepped over it easily, but the clear, cold pool at the top supplied convenient drinking water. The grass-covered hillside within the partial bowl depression rose up in a gradual, irregular slope. Over the years, people had dug a little here, filled in a little there, until the slope of the hill had many small flattened sections that provided comfortable places for family groups or even whole Caves to sit together with a good view of the open space below.
People sat on the grass or spread out woven mats, stuffed pads, cushions, or furs on the ground. Fires were lit, mostly torches stuck into the ground, but also some small firepits encircling the entire gathering around the stage-like area, and one larger bonfire near the front and centre of it; then several fires were lit throughout the area where people were sitting. Shortly afterwards, quietly, the distinctive sound of young voices singing could be heard in the background of the conversation. People started shushing each other to hear the singing better. Then a parade of most of the youngsters of the entire camp walked toward the central area singing a rhythmic song using the counting words. By the time they reached it, everyone else had stopped talking, although there were smiles and winks.
Beginning with the singing children had two purposes. The first was to let them show their elders what they were learning from the zelandonia. The second was a tacit understanding that a Mother Festival would take place along with the feasting and general revelry. When they were finished with their part, the children would be taken to one of the camps near the edge of the gathering where there would be games and their own feast separate from the adults, watched over by several Zelandonia and others, often older women and men, or new mothers who were not yet ready to participate, or women who had just begun their moontime, or those who just didn't feel like indulging in activities to honour the Mother at that time.
While most people looked forward to Mother Festivals, it was always voluntary, and it was easier for most people to participate if they knew they didn't have to worry about their children for an evening. The children were not prevented from going if they wanted to, and some of the older ones did, just to satisfy their curiosity, but watching adults talk, laugh, eat, drink, dance, and couple was not all that interesting if they weren't really ready for
