'I gave him to the Mother,' the reflected Ayla cried. 'The Great Earth Mother wanted him. She is powerful. She took him from me.'

Suddenly, Ayla heard the crowd, and saw the strange geometric shapes. 'The Earth Mother grows weak,' the voices chanted. 'Her children ignore Her. When they no longer honour Her, She will be ravished.'

'No,' the reflected Ayla wailed. 'Who will feed us? Who will care for us? Who will provide for us, if we don't honour her?'

'The Mother is gone. Only the Son remains. The Mother's children are no longer children. They have left the Mother behind. They have the Knowledge; they have come of age, as she knew someday they would.' The woman still wept, but she wasn't Ayla anymore. She was the Mother, weeping because her children were gone.

Ayla felt herself being pulled out of the cave; she was weeping, too. The voices became faint, as though they were chanting from a great distance away. She was moving again, high above a vast grassy plain, full of great herds. Aurochs were stampeding, and horses were racing to keep up with them. Bison and deer were running, and ibex. She drew closer, began to see individual animals, the ones she had seen when she was called to the zelandonia, and the disguises that they had worn during the ceremony when they had given the Mother's new Gift to Her Children, when she recited the last verse of the Mother's Song.

Two bison bulls running past each other, great aurochs bulls marching toward each other, a huge cow almost flying in the air, and another one giving birth, a horse at the end of a passage falling down a cliff, many horses, most in colours, browns and reds and blacks, and Whinney with the spotted hide over her back and across her face, and the two stick-like antlers.

Chapter 40

Zelandoni was not with Ayla on her arcane inward Journey, but she sensed it, and felt herself pulled toward it. Perhaps if she had consumed more of the drink, she might have been drawn in with Ayla and become lost in the enigmatic landscape induced by the root. As it was, she did lose control of her faculties for a period of time, and had her own difficulties.

The zelandonia weren't quite sure what was going on. Ayla appeared to be unconscious, and the First seemed close to it. She wasn't exactly dozing off, but she would slump down, and her eyes would glaze over as if she were gazing into some unseen distance. Then she would rouse herself and say things that didn't always make sense. She did not appear to be in control of the experiment, which was unusual in itself, and she definitely was not in control of herself, which made them all nervous. Those who knew her best were most alarmed, but they did not want to spread their concern among the rest.

The First shook herself awake, as if by an act of will. 'Cold … cold …,' she said, then slumped over again and her eyes glazed. The next time she jerked herself awake, she shouted, 'Cover … fur … cover Ayla … cold … so cold. Get hot …' Then she was gone again.

They had brought a few warm coverings with them, just because it was always cool in a cave. They had already put one on Ayla, but the Eleventh decided to add another one. When she happened to touch the young woman, she was surprised.

'She is cold, almost as cold as death,' she said.

'Is she breathing?' the Third asked.

The Eleventh bent over and looked closely, noticed a slight movement of her chest and felt a faint sigh of air from her barely open mouth. 'Yes, she's breathing. But it's shallow.'

'Do you think we should make some hot tea?' the Fifth asked.

'Yes, I think so, for both of them,' the Third said.

'A stimulating tea or a soothing one?' said the Fifth.

'I don't know. Either one could react with that root in an unexpected way,' the Third said.

'Let's try to ask the First. She's the one who should decide,' the Eleventh said.

Her companions nodded. The three of them surrounded the large woman who was sitting on her stool, slumped over. The Third put her hand on the First's shoulder and gently nudged her, and then a little harder. Zelandoni jerked awake. 'Do you want hot tea?' the Third asked.

'Yes! Yes!' the First said, loudly again, as though shouting helped her stay awake.

'Ayla, too?'

'Yes. Hot!'

'Tea to stimulate or soothe?' the Eleventh asked, also speaking loudly. The Zelandoni of the Fourteenth Cave walked over, frowning with concern.

'Stimul … No!' The First stopped, straining to concentrate. 'Water! Just hot water!' she said. She shook herself again, trying to stay awake. 'Help me up!'

'Are you sure you can stand?' the Third asked. 'You don't want to fall.'

'Help me up! Need to stay awake. Ayla needs … help.' She started to fall off again, and shook herself violently. 'Help me stand. Get hot … water. Not tea.'

The Third, Eleventh, and Fourteenth all crowded around the hugely corpulent woman who was the First Among Those Who Serve The Mother, and with some effort got her up on her feet. She wavered drunkenly, leaned heavily on two of the Zelandoni, and shook her head again. She closed her eyes and her expression took on a look of intense concentration. When she opened them, she was gritting her teeth with determination, but had stopped swaying.

'Ayla's in trouble,' she said. 'My fault. Should have known.' She was still having difficulty concentrating, thinking straight, but being up and moving around did help. The hot water did, too, if only to warm her. She felt cold, a deep, bone-chilling cold, and she knew it wasn't just being in the cave. 'Too cold. Move her. Need fire. Warmth.'

'You want us to move Ayla out of the cave?' the Fourteenth said.

'Yes. Too cold.'

'Should we wake her?' the Eleventh asked.

'I don't think you can,' the First said, 'but try.'

First they tried gently shaking her, then not so gently. Ayla didn't stir. They tried talking to her, then shouting, but they couldn't rouse her.

Zelandoni of the Third asked the First, 'Should we continue chanting?'

'Yes! Chant! Don't stop! It's all she's got!' the Zelandoni who was First shouted.

The higher-ranked zelandonia gave a few instructions. Suddenly there was a flurry of activity as several people rushed outside and hurried to the zelandonia lodge, some to stir up a fire for hot water, others to get a litter to carry the young woman out of the cave. The rest renewed the chanting with fervour.

Several people were near the zelandonia lodge. A meeting of the couples planning to tie the knot at the Late Matrimonial had been planned later in the day, and a few of them had started to gather. Folara and Aldanor were among them. When several zelandonia came rushing toward the lodge, Folara and Aldanor looked at each other with concern.

'What's wrong? Why is everyone is such a hurry?' Folara asked.

'It's the new Zelandoni,' a young man answered, one of the newer acolytes.

'You mean Ayla? zelandoni of the Ninth?' Folara asked.

'Yes. She made a special drink using some kind of root, and the First said we have to get her out of the cave because it's too cold. She's not waking up,' the acolyte answered.

They heard a commotion, and turned to look. A couple of strong young Doniers were helping the First back from the cave. She was having difficulty keeping her balance and finding her footing without stumbling. Folara had never seen Zelandoni so unstable. A wave of apprehension washed over her. The One Who Was First was always so completely self-assured, so positive. Even with her great size, she always moved with confidence and ease. It had been bad enough for the young woman to watch her mother weakening. It was utterly frightening to see someone she had always thought of as an unshakable force, a bulwark of security and strength, suddenly show such debility.

About the time that the First reached the lodge, another group of zelandonia appeared on the path leading

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