The Clan Of The Cave Bear_ A Novel Part 15

"My baby!" Oga cried. "The hyena has my baby!"

The loathsome scavenger, which was also a predator and always ready to attack the unwary young or enfeebled old, had seized the child by his arm with powerful jaws and was quickly retreating, dragging the small boy with him.

"Brac! Brac!" Broud was shouting as he ran after them, followed by the rest of the men. He reached for his sling-he was too far away for a spear-and stooped to pick up a stone, hurrying before the beast got out of his range.

"No! Oh, no!" he cried in despair as the stone fell short and the hyena kept going. "Brac! Braaac!"

Suddenly, from another direction came the thwack, thwack thwack, thwack of two stones fired in quick succession. They landed squarely on the animal's head and the hyena dropped in his tracks. of two stones fired in quick succession. They landed squarely on the animal's head and the hyena dropped in his tracks.

Broud stood in open-mouthed amazement that turned to stunned astonishment when he saw Ayla running toward the wailing child with her sling still in her hand and two more stones held ready. The hyena was her prey. She had studied these animals, knew their habits and their weak spots, trained herself until hunting such quarry was second nature. When she heard Brac scream, she didn't think of the consequences, she just reached for her sling, quickly grabbed two pebbles, and hurled them. Her only thought was to stop the hyena that was dragging Brac away.

It was only after she reached the child, extracted him from the dead hyena's grip, and turned to face the staring eyes of the others that the full impact hit her. Her secret was out. She had given herself away. They knew she could hunt. A wave of cold fear washed over her. What will they do to me? she thought.

Ayla cuddled the baby, avoiding the unbelieving stares as she walked back to the campsite. Oga came out of her shock first. She ran toward them, holding out her arms, and gratefully accepted her baby boy from the girl who had saved his life. As soon as they reached the camp, Ayla began examining the child, as much to keep from looking at anyone else as to determine the extent of his injuries. Brac's arm and shoulder were mangled, and his upper arm bone was broken, but it looked like a clean break.

She had never set an arm, but she had watched Iza do it, and the medicine woman had talked to her about what to do if an emergency came up. Iza's concern had been for the hunters; it didn't occur to her that something might happen to the baby. Ayla stirred up the fire, started water boiling, and got her medicine bag.

The men were silent, still stunned, not quite able, or willing, to accept what they had just seen. For the first time in his life, Broud felt grateful to Ayla. His thoughts didn't go much beyond relief that the son of his mate had been saved from a certain and ugly death. But Brun's did.

The leader was quick to grasp the implications and knew he was suddenly faced with an impossible decision. By Clan tradition, in effect, Clan law, the punishment for any woman who used a weapon was no less than death. It was clear-cut. There were no provisions for unusual circ.u.mstances. The custom was so ancient and so well understood, it hadn't even been invoked for generations beyond count. The legends surrounding it were closely linked with the legends about a time when women controlled the access to the world of the spirits before the men took them over.

That custom was one of the forces that had caused the marked differentiation between Clan men and Clan women, since no woman with an unfeminine desire to hunt was allowed to survive. Over countless ages, only those with properly female att.i.tudes and actions were left. As a result the adaptability of the race-the very trait upon which survival depends-was curtailed. But it was the Clan way, Clan law, even though there were no longer deviant Clan women. But Ayla was not born to the Clan.

Brun loved the son of Broud's mate. Only with Brac did the leader's stoic reserve soften. The baby could do anything to him: pull his beard, poke curious fingers in his eyes, spit up all over him. It didn't matter. Brun was never so gentle, so pliable, as when the small boy fell asleep with the peaceful a.s.surance of security in the proud and stiff leader's arms. He had no doubt Brac would not be alive if Ayla had not killed the hyena. How could he condemn to death the girl who had saved Brac's life? She had saved him with the weapon she must die for using.

How had she done it? he wondered. The beast was out of range and she was farther away from it than the men. Brun walked over to where the slain hyena still lay and touched the drying blood that oozed from the fatal wounds. Wounds? Two wounds? His eyes hadn't been deceived. He thought he had seen two stones. How had the girl learned to use a sling with such skill? Not Zoug, or anyone he ever heard of, could fire two stones from a sling so rapidly, so accurately, and with such force. Force enough to kill a hyena from that distance.

No one ever used a sling to kill a hyena, anyway. He had been sure from the start that Broud's attempt would be a futile gesture. Zoug always said it could be done, but privately Brun wasn't sure. He had never contradicted the man; Zoug was still too valuable an a.s.set to the clan, there was no point in belittling him. Well, Zoug had been proved right. Could a sling be used to kill a wolf or a lynx, too, as Zoug so stoutly maintained? Brun mused. Suddenly his eyes opened wide, then narrowed. A wolf or a lynx? Or a wolverine, or wildcat, or badger, or ferret, or a hyena! Brun's mind raced. Or all the other predators that have been found dead lately?

"Of course!" Brun's motion emphasized his thought. She did it! Ayla's been hunting for a long time. How else could she have gained such skill? But she's female, she learned the women's skills easily, how could she learn to hunt? And why predators? And why such dangerous ones? And why at all?

If she were a man, she'd be the envy of every hunter. But she's not a man. Ayla is female and she used a weapon and she must die for it or the spirits will be very angry. Angry? She's been hunting for a long time, why aren't they angry? They're anything but angry. We just killed a mammoth in a hunt so lucky not one man was even injured. The spirits are pleased with us, not angry.

The confused leader shook his head. Spirits! I don't understand spirits. I wish Mog-ur were here. Droog says she carries luck; I half think he's right, things have never gone so well since we found her. If they favor her so much, would it make them unhappy if she was killed? But it's the Clan way, he agonized. Why did she have to be found by my clan? She may be lucky, but she's given me more headaches than I ever thought possible. I can't make a decision without talking to Mog-ur. I'll just have to let it wait until we get back to the cave.

Brun strode back to the camp. Ayla had given the boy painkilling medicine that put him to sleep, then cleaned his wounds with an antiseptic solution, set the arm, and put on a cast of dampened birch bark. It would dry stiff and hard and hold the bones in place. She'd have to watch it, though, in case it swelled too much. She watched Brun coming back from examining the hyena and trembled as he approached. But he walked past her without a sign, ignoring her completely, and she realized she would not learn her fate until they got back to the cave.

15*

The seasons changed in reverse as the hunting party traveled south, from winter to fall. Threatening clouds and the smell of snow hurried their departure; they had no desire to be caught by the first real blizzard of the peninsula's northern winter. The warmer weather at the southern end gave a false feeling of approaching spring, with an unsettling twist. Rather than new shoots and budding wild flowers, tall gra.s.s swayed in golden waves on the steppes, and the bloom of the temperate trees at the protected tip was in shades of crimson and amber patchworked with evergreen. But the view from the distance was deceiving. Most deciduous trees had dropped their leaves and the onslaught of winter was close behind.

It took longer to return than to reach the site of the mammoth herd. The fast, distance-devouring pace was impossible with their heavy loads. But Ayla was weighed down with more than mammoth. Guilt, anxiety, and depression were far heavier burdens. No one spoke of the incident, but it wasn't forgotten. Often, her casual glance caught someone staring at her before they turned aside, quickly, and few spoke to her unless it was necessary. She felt isolated, lonely, and more than a little frightened. As little conversation as she had, it was enough for her to learn the penalty for her crime.

The people left behind at the cave had been watching for the return of the hunters. From the time of their earliest expected arrival, someone was posted near the ridge where there was a good view of the steppes, most often one of the children.

When Vorn first took his turn early in the day, he stared out at the distant panorama conscientiously, but then he got bored. He didn't like being off by himself without even Borg to play with. He devised imaginary hunts and jabbed his not quite full-sized spear into the ground so often that the point became frayed despite fire hardening. It was only by accident that he happened to glance down the hill as the hunting party came into view.

"Tusks! Tusks!" Vorn shouted, racing back to the cave.

"Tusks?" Aga asked. "What do you mean, 'tusks'?"

"They're back!" Vorn gesticulated excitedly. "Brun and Droog and the rest, and I saw them carrying tusks!"

Everyone ran halfway to the steppes to greet the victorious hunters. But when they reached them, it was apparent something was wrong. The hunt was successful, the hunters should have been jubilant. Instead their step was heavy and their manner subdued. Brun was grim, and Iza needed only one look at Ayla to know something terrible had happened that involved her daughter.

While the hunting party unloaded some of their burden on those who had remained behind, the reason for the somber silence unfolded. Ayla trudged up the slope with bowed head, oblivious to the surrept.i.tious glances cast in her direction. Iza was dumbfounded. If she had ever worried over the unorthodox actions of her adopted daughter before, it was nothing to the icy shaft of fear she felt for her now.

When they reached the cave, Oga and Ebra brought the child to Iza. She cut away the birchbark cast and examined the boy.

"His arm should be as good as new before long," she p.r.o.nounced. "He'll be scarred, but the wounds are healing and the arm is set well. I'd better put another cast on it, though."

The women breathed easier. They knew Ayla was inexperienced, and though they had little choice but to allow the girl to treat Brac, they were concerned. A hunter needed two good strong arms. If Brac lost the use of one, he would never become a leader as he was destined. If he was unable to hunt, he would not even become a man, but would live out his life in the ambiguous limbo in which older boys, who had reached physical maturity but had not made their first kill, existed.

Brun and Broud were relieved, too. But for Brun, at least, the news was received with mixed emotions. It made his decision more difficult. Ayla had not only saved Brac's life, she had a.s.sured his useful existence. The matter had been put off long enough. He signaled Mog-ur and they walked off together.

The story, as Brun explained it, left Creb deeply troubled. Ayla was his responsibility to raise and train and he had obviously failed. But there was something else that troubled him even more. When he first learned of the animals the men kept finding, he felt it had nothing to do with spirits. He even wondered if Zoug or one of the other men was playing some kind of elaborate joke on the rest. It seemed unlikely, but his intuition told him the deaths were caused by a human agent. He had also been aware of changes in Ayla, changes he should have recognized now that he thought about it. Women did not walk with the quiet stealth of a hunter, they made noise and with good reason. More than once, Ayla had startled him by approaching so silently he didn't hear her coming. There were other things, too, small things that should have made him suspicious.

But he was blinded by his love for her. He didn't allow himself to imagine she could be hunting, he was far too aware of the consequences. It caused the old magician to question his own integrity, his ability to perform his function. He had let his feeling for the girl come before the spiritual safekeeping of the clan. Did he still merit their trust? Was he still worthy of Ursus? Could he still justifiably continue as Mog-ur?

Creb took the blame for her actions on himself. He should have questioned her; he should not have let her roam so freely; he should have disciplined her more severely. But all his anguish over what he should have done didn't change in the least what he still had to do. The decision was Brun's, but it was his function to carry it out, his duty to kill the child he loved.

"It's only a guess that she's the one who has been killing the animals," Brun said. "We need to question her, but she did kill the hyena and she had a sling. She had to practice on something, there's no other way she could have gained such skill. She's better than Zoug with that weapon, Mog-ur, and she's female! How did she ever learn? I've wondered before if there isn't some male in her, and I'm not the only one. She's as tall as a man and not even a woman yet. Do you think there's any truth in the idea that she may never become one?"

"Ayla's a girl, Brun, and someday she'll become a woman, just like any other girl-or she would have. She's a female who used a weapon." The magician's jaw was set; he would not allow himself to grasp at false illusions.

"Well, I still want to know how long she's been hunting. But it can wait until morning. We're all tired now; it was a long journey. Tell Ayla we'll question her tomorrow."

Creb limped back to the cave, but stopped at his hearth only long enough to signal Iza to tell the girl she would be questioned in the morning, before continuing on to his small annex. He did not return to his hearth all night.

The women stared silently after the men who were walking into the woods with Ayla trailing behind. They were at a loss, filled with mixed emotions. Ayla was confused herself. She had always known it was wrong to hunt, if not how serious the crime was. I wonder if it would have made any difference if I had known? she asked herself. No. I wanted to hunt. I would have hunted anyway. But I don't want the evil ones to chase me all the way to the spirit world. She shuddered at the thought.

The girl feared the invisible, malign ent.i.ties as much as she believed in the power of protective totems. Not even the Spirit of the Cave Lion could protect her from them, could he? I must have been wrong, she thought. My totem wouldn't have given me a sign to let me hunt knowing I'd die for it. He probably left me the first time I picked up a sling. She didn't like thinking about it.

The men came to a clearing and arranged themselves on logs and boulders on either side of Brun, while Ayla slumped to the ground at his feet. Brun tapped her shoulder to allow her to look up at him and began without preliminaries.

"Were you the one who killed the meat eaters the hunters kept finding, Ayla?"

"Yes," she nodded. There was no point in trying to hide anything now. Her secret was out and they would have known if she tried to evade their questions. She could no more lie than any other member of the clan could.

"How did you learn to use a sling?"

"I learned from Zoug," she replied.

"Zoug!" Brun echoed. All heads turned accusingly toward the old man.

"I never taught the girl to use a sling," he gestured defensively.

"Zoug didn't know I was learning from him." Ayla motioned quickly, springing to the old sling-hunter's defense. "I watched him when he was teaching Vorn."

"How long have you been hunting?" Brun asked next.

"Two summers, now. And the summer before that I just practiced, but I didn't hunt."

"That's as long as Vorn has been training," Zoug commented.

"I know," Ayla said. "I started the same day he did."

"How do you know exactly when Vorn started, Ayla?" Brun asked, curious how she could be so sure.

"I was there, I watched him."

"What do you mean, you were there? Where?"

"At the practice field. Iza sent me to get some wild cherry bark, but when I got there, you were all there," she explained. "Iza needed the cherry bark, and I didn't know how long you were going to stay, so I waited and watched. Zoug was giving Vorn his first lesson."

"You watched Zoug give Vorn his first lesson?" Broud cut in. "Are you sure it was his first?" Broud remembered that day only too well. It still brought a blush of shame to his face.

"Yes, Broud. I'm sure," she replied.

"What else did you see?" Broud's eyes were narrowed and his gesture clipped. Brun, too, suddenly remembered what had happened in the practice field the day Zoug began Vorn's training, and he wasn't happy at the thought of a female witnessing the incident.

Ayla hesitated. "I saw the other men practicing, too," she answered, trying to evade the issue, then she saw Brun's eyes become stern. "And I saw Broud push Zoug down, and you got very mad at him, Brun."

"You saw that! You saw the whole thing?" Broud demanded. He was livid with anger and embarra.s.sment. Of all people, of all the people in the clan, why was she the one who had to see it? The more he thought about it, the more mortified he became, and the more furious. She was witness to Brun's harshest denunciation of him. Broud even remembered how badly he missed his shots and suddenly recalled that he had missed the hyena, too. The hyena she killed. A female, that that female, had shown him up. female, had shown him up.

Every kind thought, every bit of grat.i.tude he had so recently felt toward her vanished. I'll be so glad when she's dead, he thought. She deserves it. He couldn't bear the idea of her continuing to live with her knowledge of his supreme moment of shame.

Brun watched the son of his mate and could almost read his thoughts from the expressions on his face. Too bad, he thought, just when there was some chance of ending the animosity between them, not that it matters anymore. He continued the questioning.

"You said you began to practice the same day as Vorn, tell me about it."

"After you left, I walked across the field and saw the sling Broud threw on the ground. Everyone forgot about it after you got mad at Broud. I don't know why, but I just wondered if I could do it. I remembered Zoug's lesson and tried. It wasn't easy, but I kept trying all afternoon. I forgot how late it was getting. I hit the post once, I think it was just an accident, but it made me think I could do it again if I worked at it, so I kept the sling."

"I suppose you learned how to make one from Zoug, too."

"Yes."

"And you practiced that summer?"

"Yes."

"Then you decided to hunt with it, but why did you hunt meat eaters? They're more difficult, more dangerous, too. We've found dead wolves, even dead lynxes. Zoug always said they could be killed with a sling, you proved he was right, but why those?"

"I knew I could never bring anything back for the clan, I knew I wasn't supposed to touch a weapon, but I wanted to hunt, I wanted to try, anyway. Meat eaters are always stealing food from us; I thought if I killed them, I would be helping. And it wouldn't be such a waste, we don't eat them. So I decided to hunt them."

It satisfied Brun's curiosity about why she chose predators, but not why she wanted to hunt in the first place. She was female; no woman ever wanted to hunt.

"You know it was dangerous to try for the hyena from so far away; you might have hit Brac instead." Brun was probing. He had been ready to try his bola, though the chance of killing the boy with one of the large stones was more than a possibility. But instant death from a cracked skull was preferable to the one the child faced, and at least they would have had the boy's body to bury, so he could be sent on his way to the spirit world with proper rituals. They would have been lucky to find scattered bones if the hyena had had his way.

"I knew I could hit it," Ayla answered simply.

"How could you be sure? The hyena was out of range."

"He wasn't out of my range. I've hit animals before from that distance. I don't miss often."

"I thought I saw the marks of two stones," Brun motioned.

"I threw two stones," Ayla confirmed. "I taught myself after the lynx attacked me."

"You were attacked by a lynx?" Brun pressed.

"Yes," Ayla nodded, and told of her close call with the large cat.

"What is your range?" Brun asked. "No, don't tell me, show me. Do you have your sling?"

Ayla nodded and got up. They all moved to the far end of the clearing where a small brook trickled over a rocky bed. She selected a few pebbles of the right size and shape. Round ones were best for accuracy and distance, but jagged, sharp-edged broken pieces would work.

"The small white rock beside the large boulder at the other end," she motioned.

Brun nodded. It was easily half again as far as any of them could hurl a stone. She sighted carefully, inserted a stone in her sling, and had a second one in the sling and on its way the next instant. Zoug jogged over to confirm her accuracy.

"There are two fresh chips knocked out of the white stone. She hit the mark both times," he announced on his return, with a trace of wonder and the barest hint of pride.

She was female, she should never have touched the sling-Clan tradition was absolutely clear on that-but she was good. She gave him credit for teaching her, whether he knew it or not. That double-stone technique, he thought, that's a trick I'd like to learn. Zoug's pride was the pride of a true teacher for a pupil who excelled; a student who paid attention, learned well, and then did the master one better. And she had proved him right.

Brun's eye caught a movement in the clearing.

"Ayla!" he cried. "That rabbit. Get him!"

She glanced in the direction he was pointing, saw the small animal bounding across the field, and dropped him. There was no need to check her accuracy. Brun looked at the girl appreciatively. She's quick, he thought. The idea of a woman hunting offended the leader's sense of propriety, but with Brun, the clan always came first; their safety, their security, their prosperity were foremost. In a corner of his mind, he knew what an a.s.set she could be to the clan. No, it's impossible, he said to himself. It's against the traditions, it's not the Clan way.

Creb didn't have the same appreciation for her skill. If he had any doubts left, her exhibition convinced him. Ayla had been hunting.

"Why did you ever pick up a sling in the first place?" Mog-ur gestured with a bleak, dark look.

"I don't know," she shook her head and looked down. More than anything, she hated the thought of the magician's displeasure.

"You did more than touch it. You hunted with it, killed with it, when you knew it was wrong."

"My totem gave me a sign, Creb. At least I thought it was a sign." She was undoing the knots in her amulet. "After I decided to hunt, I found this." She handed the fossil cast to Mog-ur.

A sign? Her totem gave her a sign? There was consternation among the men. Ayla's revelation put a new twist on the situation, but why did she decide to hunt?

The magician examined it closely. It was a very unusual stone, shaped like a sea animal, but definitely a stone. It could have been a sign, but that didn't prove anything. Signs were between a person and his totem; no one could understand another person's signs. Mog-ur gave it back to the girl.

"Creb," she said pleadingly. "I thought my totem was testing me. I thought the way Broud treated me was the test. I thought if I could learn to accept it, my totem would let me hunt." Quizzical glances were cast in the young man's direction to see his reaction. Did she really think Broud was used by her totem to test her? Broud looked uncomfortable. "I thought when the lynx attacked me, it was a test, too. I almost stopped hunting after that, I was too afraid. Then I got the idea to try two stones, so I would have something to try again if I missed the first time. I even thought my totem gave me the idea."