Zolena wearily plodded to the top of the small rise to address the gathering. Jondalar was there, looking sullen and depressed, as were Marthona and Willomar. Ayla's presence had yet to be announced to even this select group. Though almost all of the Healers had come to accept Ayla, Healers were few among the zelandonia; this group included only one, and even among those of his Calling, he was notorious for being indecisive, and for refusing to state any opinion he eventually formed. Few Zelandonii thought he ever did. But he was a counselor of impeccable reputation, and in addition to the healing skills he had picked up almost effortlessly, he had a more natural affinity for Searching and Calling than anyone Zolena had ever known of.
He will succeed me as First, Zolena knew. I will speak to the Council about performing the ceremony in the morning
We are fortunate to have Malkoban with us, Zolena thought. Doni knows we will have need of him this night. She paused for a moment, to catch her breath, gather her thoughts, and appraise the rather nondescript young man. He appeared to be in a trance, but slowly raised his eyes to meet hers, and passed her a wan smile. From across the clearing, she felt a raw Power emanating from him, Power which she knew he had complete control over, and he told her, without words, that he thought it was wise that Ayla had decided to forgo the drink; it would harm the child she was carrying. Zolena smiled back, and shook her head; no one had been told Ayla would assist or even attend the ceremony, except herself, Jondalar, Marthona and Willomar
Ayla, hidden in a grove of trees, watched the enigmatic young man from afar. She had yet to be introduced to him and did not even know his name, but there was a certain quality about him that drew her attention. She saw Zolena smile at the man; then, oddly enough, his gaze seemed to shift towards Ayla, although she knew that was impossible. He was quite a distance away, on the opposite side of a large bonfire, the moon was dark, and Ayla was in the woods. As she pondered the likelihood, she heard thoughts that were not hers in the back of her mind. "Do not falter, Ayla; for the Mother has a Purpose for you. Though there are those among us that seek to shred the credibility of your account at all costs, do not waver, nor stray from the Path which you know to be Right. Be wary, however. Those that you think are you friends may not be; those you think are against you may stand beside you in your darkest hour." Ayla's eyes opened wide, and she suddenly knew, without a doubt that this young man, younger than herself, had more power than Mamut, or even Creb, had ever hoped to have.
Zolena reached the crest of the small hill, and paused again, her back to the group. Although it had the theatrical effect she wanted, in reality, she was struggling for breath, struggling to remain standing, struggling even to remain conscious. Ayla frowned. It had been her considered opinion that Zolena should not preside over this ceremony due to her rapidly failing health, but Zolena would hear not a word of it. That she attend this rite was beyond question; she had been in attendance when Thonolan was born. That she preside was equally irrefutable; she was High Priestess Zelandoni, First Among Those Who Serve, and it was not only her sacred duty, but her right. Besides, thought Zolena to herself, I have already dedicated my life to my People, and if I must lose it in their service; well, that would truly be the highest of honors.
Zolena turned. "Tonight, we unite. Never in the history of the Zelandonii has there been so great a challenge. For on this most sacred of nights, when Lumi has turned his attention from Doni, we Seek to find the spirit of one of our own. Thonolan departed our lands four summers ago, with his brother Jondalar", at this, Jondalar stepped to the center of the group as he'd been directed, although no one in attendance had any doubt who he was "and while they were away, returned to the Mother. It has been over one full cycle of seasons since his passing; yet, his spirit has never been laid to rest. It has been too long. With Doni's blessing, the presence of those who knew him best, and you, the Callers and Seekers among the Zelandoni, we will prevail!"
At this, Zolena turned and solemnly led the group down the hill. At the bottom of the hill stood a lone woman with a tightly wrapped bundle of a pungent, burning substance, which she slowly swept past each of the members from head to foot as they reached her. The group formed a large circle, the center of which contained and almost perfectly formed piece of granite, and four of the Callers carried large torches which they had lit in the bonfire they interspersed themselves equally among the group, and turned their backs to the inside of it. Upon the granite sat a large, stone carving of Doni, in the center of the table, towards the top. From the center of the circle, a man named Datrovan picked up a specially made, tightly woven, watertight basket. The basket had been made by Marthona, and contained a liquid which Ayla knew was water. She had seen the basket leave the Meeting with a runner, and she had know his purpose had been to go back to the Ninth Cave to fill it from the spring that flowed in the sacred annex. Datrovan held up also a box, reached into it, and, still chanting, sprinkled some of whatever substance was in the box into the water. Zolena moved forward and while chanting, pulled from her belt a knife whose blade had been made by Jondalar and whose handle had been carefully made by Willomar. She held her hands high together above her head and moved the blade swiftly downward into the water. Another man, Ladomar, stepped forward and solemnly received the basket from Zolena, then Zolena walked to the outside of the gathering and walked slowly around it, knife blade outwards, chanting and moving her hands in an intricate pattern. When she reached the point from which she had begun, she returned to the center of the circle, and Ladomar followed her lead, alternately reaching his hand into the basket he carried and sprinkling the water mixture outwards. When he finished, he also returned to the center of the circle, then the zelandonia closed their eyes and, faces downcast, began chanting, slowly and in a low tone at first, then rising and gaining speed at the same time, almost imperceptibly but building a great tension. As it continued, the zelandonia raised their joined hands.
When it reached an almost unbearable peak, they reached a climax of sound and shouted out, arms stretched upwards, and bent their arms, closed their hands and abruptly flexed them outwards, as if tossing something up into the air above them, then joined hands once again. First one of the Callers, then the others in turn, raised their arms and began chanting; what, Ayla could not hear, but the rhythms seemed the same. At this, although she looked refreshed, Zolena was overcome by a coughing fit, and Malkoban quickly moved the hands of the Searchers on either side of him together, broke his contact and stepped forward to assist her. As he half guided, half carried the ailing High Priestess to the stone altar in the center of the circle, he announced "Now, more than any other day, it is important that you Focus."
Ayla heard his voice ring out across the clearing, and realized she was having a little difficulty focusing on the man. He, along with everyone else in the clearing, appeared somewhat blurry; although everything else was still crystal clear. No time to think about it, she thought…those words were my cue, but Zelandoni was supposed to say them. I wonder if this will change the outcome at all? She started walking rapidly across the field.
Malkoban continued, and spoke of relaxing, concentrating, letting all stresses, emotions and preferences be forgotten, and most importantly, anchoring their feet among the ground, to envision them being implanted into the ground. Many of the zelandonia would be temporarily leaving their bodies and it was imperative for them to know where they were located so they could return. As he continued his invocation, he left Zolena's side; (she had, by this point, recovered), and picked up the knife, the basket and the still smoking bundle of herbs, walked to where one of the torches was firmly implanted into the ground, broke apart the hands of the Searcher and Caller standing between he and it, passed between them and rejoined their hands and met Ayla at the outside. At this, he turned to Zolena, who picked up where he left off. Taking the knife, appeared to cut a portal and stepped through it.
He smiled warmly at the heavily pregnant and beautiful Healer, carefully brushed the burning bundle past her, sprinkled her with the water, and embraced and quietly welcomed her, leading her back exactly the way he had come, sealing the "portal" behind him.
Once they reached the center, Malkoban left Ayla in the center, then he and Zolena went to retrieve Marthona and Willomar. When they returned, Malkoban and Zolena jointly intoned "you may open your eyes when you are ready".
One by one, the members of the group slowly opened their eyes and raised their heads. Those who did not approve of Ayla were slightly startled to see her, but they were far too professional to let it bother them. Even the two most vehemently opposed to Ayla's presence at the Summer Meeting conceded that her attendance at this ceremony was a necessity as she had been the last human to see Thonolan and was, after all, the one who buried him.
Marthona and Willomar began reciting the life of the boy who's spirit they wished to put to rest, while Zolena guided them. Meantime, Ayla pulled from her medicine bag the sacred red pouch which held the highest of holy roots she knew existed, and opening the pouch, tried to judge how much to prepare. Zolena had told her to prepare enough for all of them, but that she would administer it lightly; anyone who required more would be given it and any excess that happened to remain would be placed in the sacred burial space that had been reserved for Thonolan in the annex of the Ninth Cave, eliminating the worry about waste, but she still didn’t wish to overdo it. She'd also been advised that chewing one root at a time would likely contribute to her decreased consumption of the concentrated hallucinogen. She'd had so many problems with her pregnancy thus far that she didn't wish to do anything to worsen it, and didn't want any harm to come to her child. As she began meticulously grinding the root in her teeth, she listened to Marthona's and Willomar's recount of Thonolan's exploits. She felt an empathy for Marthona in the way that only a mother who has lost a child can, and felt her throat constrict as she heard the woman’s loving account of her son’s all too short life. She had almost finished her preparations when Marthona and Willomar could go no further, and Jondalar had to take over. He was almost unable to do so, and Ayla looked upon him with anguish. She wanted to go to him, to comfort him, but knew that at this moment, above all others, it was entirely inappropriate. Jondalar told of their short stay with the Losadunai, about the child of his brother’s spirit, of his brothers aspirations to reach the end of the Great Mother River, their travels, and the fateful wounding of his brother by the Rhino. He spoke of his deep rooted fear in that his brother’s life blood was draining out of him, and that in his panic he’d done the one thing that had brought his brother’s new people to them. He recounted the story of Thonolan’s and Jetamio’s love, and how Tamio’s attempts to render Thonolan a hearth full of children had been what had lost her to him in the end. Ayla had a fleeting thought that had she been there, Iza’s secret contraceptive medicine would have prevented that, but then, she thought, he would never have come to me. And I never would have found the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi. The Mother works in strange ways sometimes. Jondalar continued, pausing now and again to compose himself. He retold the argument he had had with his brother inside the dwelling that had been Thonolan’s and Tamio’s; how his brother had expressed his wish to return to the Mother, and that, though he desperately wanted to return home, Jondalar feared more, and rightly, for his brother’s health and well-being, and felt compelled to follow him. He related the anticlimactic end of their travel to the end of Donau, and that by that point, Thonolan was traveling and risking things unnecessarily. "That’s what led him into the lair of that cave lion", Jondalar concluded. "Ayla will have to tell you the rest." Ayla picked up, and told how she had picked up the lion cub while hunting, then raised him and finally of his departure. She told them Whinney had gone to a herd but returned to her, heavy with foal. She said that she’d wanted to exercise her horse while she was expecting, and that she had mostly memorized the terrain to the east but for a change in scenery she’d decided on that particular day to go west. "It was fortunate I did. I heard a scream. And I knew it was a human in need. When I arrived, Whinney was uncharacteristically calm in the territory of a cave lion, and that as soon as she saw the lion, she knew why. "I know now why Baby was put in my path…and as a result I was able to help Jondalar." She also told them that she had put Thonolan’s body next to the wall of the canyon, and then loosened a boulder that had been holding back many smaller rocks. "I briefly asked the spirits to guide him, but I am not knowledgeable in the world of the spirits, and I had to hurry before Baby’s mate returned. Jondalar and I went back when we traveled to the Mamutoi; then we were able to sprinkle the red earth on his grave and Jondalar got the rock." With this, Jondalar produced the geode, and handed it to Zolena. She studied it, then passed it around. It, along with the necklace that had been made by Jetamio, would assist the zelandonia in finding Thonolan’s spirit. They were laid upon the slab of granite after they had circulated, between the basket and the knife, and next to the amulet Ayla had made for him, which contained a chunk of the ochre Ayla had given him to distribute over the grave. Ayla then presented the bowl of the root drink to Malkoban who, along with Zolena, consecrated and blessed it and then the young man distributed it throughout the gathering.
Once the drink had been consumed by all of the zelandonia, the bowl, and its remaining contents were placed on the granite altar
. The woman who had undulated the smoking herbs stepped to the altar. Zolena, Willomar, Ayla and Jondalar joined hands around her and Malkoban. She began a sharp, husky mantra in esoteric words that Thonolan’s family did not understand. As she got further into it, the surrounding circle reacted differently…some danced, some stood stock still, a few lay or sat down upon the ground, some flailed their limbs wildly, but all of them intoned with her.
What seemed like an eternity later, the group stopped as if on cue, joined hands again and danced in a large circle with incredibly intricate footwork around the fire that had been started near the altar, and began singing a different chant.
Jondalar was looking at the ground, fighting tears that insisted on coming. But the tension in the air was palpable, and it was inevitable that he look up. When he finally did, the sight he beheld made his blood run cold, and he came near to fainting.
His brother’s face showed perfectly in the flames of the fire, and as he looked at it, it smiled at him.
Jondalar gaped in open mouthed astonishment at the vision before his eyes. He quite clearly saw his brother's face in the dancing flames above his head. Jondalar felt as if he were going fall, and to prevent this, he rather rapidly squatted down to the ground, placing both of his palms flat on the earth. What he did not know, and could not know, is that an incomprehensible number of generations later, a far distant descendent of his who would have been able to trace his lineage back that far if only such a thing were possible, would say, when evaluating the human behaviour, that grabbing for the earth when confronted with an unbelievable sight is an instinctive human reaction.
Jondalar glanced back up, and much to his astonishment, his brother's eyes seemed to have followed his path. Thonolan's eyes appeared to indicate that Jondalar should stand, and hardly being in a position to refuse, Jondalar complied. As he rose, slowly and shakily, he noticed more depth coming into his vision. As the perception became more three dimensional, he saw Jetamio in the background, with a child crawling at her feet, one held at her hip and a third walking towards him. All of the people clearly saw him; they all smiled at him and waved. Thonolan, however, laughed at the look on his brother's face, then turned towards his mate, walked towards her and passionately embraced her. Slowly, he released his mate, then gathered his family and began ushering them away. He turned for one last look at his brother, and Jondalar knew that his brother was at peace, and that his spirit was not wandering without a home.
The moment Thonolan, Jetamio and her children faded, the raging bonfire flickered, sputtered and then abruptly went out. Startled, Jondalar shook himself and then looked around. Marthona and Willomar were holding each other and sobbing, Ayla looked awed, and most of the zelandonia looked drained, but Malkoban only looked refreshed, and satisfied.
Malkoban looked at the people surrounding him. Several of the zelandonia were conscious by sheer willpower alone. It was likely they would sleep for a very long time and not feel well upon awakening. The expenditure of energy required to perform a working as intense as this one was not widely appreciated amongst his people. Most of the zelandonia were sweating profusely, despite the chill that the fire had done little to banish...the fire which had abruptly extinguished itself. He pondered on that for a moment; then decided he could contemplate that at time, he had more immediate pressing needs.
"So," he announced, it a booming, powerful voice. "It is done. Our kinsman is laid to rest; he is at home. Our work here is finished." Although he knew that was not technically correct, there were people present who needed to be freed from the confines of the working space. Malkoban quickly, but efficiently, went through the motions of preparation in reverse, allowing Thonolan's family to take their leave. Two of his colleagues attempted to take their places and help him, but he waved them back. Neither of them were even going to make it to their tents without assistance, he knew, and he also could perform the entire ceremony himself. He allowed them to rest.
As Marthona and Willomar walked out, they thanked him profusely. He accepted their thanks but gently reminded them it was his Calling, as Willomar's was wood. Jondalar, still shaking, started away when Malkoban reached out a restraining hand. "I will need you to take Zolena to her sleeping furs...she cannot stand".
A deep concerned frown began on Jondalar's forehead, but Malkoban restrained that, as well. "She knew, Jondalar. She Knew. We are fortunate that she made it through the ceremony at all. There were those of us who had our doubts."
Jondalar turned at that and with big, long strides quickly made his way to Zolena, First Among Those Who Serve the Mother. What he saw hurt him to the core, and he knelt down beside her.
Ayla watched the interchange with interest. She saw the unnatural glow to Zolena's skin, and was reminded of when she saw Iza, the only mother she had ever known, with that same glow. She knew Jondalar would be crushed by her death, but also knew that Zolena was beyond even her own considerable healing skills. She turned her head towards Malkoban with a questioning look; he had been waiting for her to look at him.
"Can you make for us a tea?" he inquired politely. "Some of my counterparts are going to be very unhappy in the morning." He grinned slightly, a twinkle to his eyes.
A little taken aback by the request, Ayla nonetheless nodded. "What is it that you require?" she asked.
"I am not quite sure" Malkoban admitted, a little sheepishly. "I can, however, describe for you the symptoms. They will be very tired, regardless of how much sleep they have. They will feel as though they have worked out in the hot sun, with no water and no shade. They will hurt all over, but the head most of all. Some of them will not be able to open their eyes in bright light. Others will be dizzy when they stand. Some will feel nauseated."
"I cannot make a tea for that!" Ayla declared. "I can make something that will help SOME of what you describe, but for the others, well, it sounds like they need to eat!"
"None of us will be able to keep food down at this point. Tomorrow is a different story. That was my next request," he smiled at her.
Despite the severity of the situation, Ayla chuckled. "Of course I will," she said. "Just let me go to my tent to get what I do not have in my bag."
With that, she whistled for Whinney, climbed (with Malkoban's
assistance) onto her friends back and went off to get her herbal
preparations.
Skydyvez of the First Cave of the Auelites
Chosen of a Blue Point Siamese Cat
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