The clan of the cave bear_ a novel - Jean M. Auel [185]
Iza’s fears about Ayla’s baby grew with the difficulties of her pregnancy. She felt strongly that Ayla should let the baby go. She was sure it wouldn’t take much to dislodge it, for all that her stomach attested to the baby’s growth. She feared more for Ayla. The baby was taking too much out of her. Her arms and legs grew thinner in contrast to her expanding middle. She had no appetite and forced herself to eat the special foods Iza prepared for her. Dark circles formed around her eyes and her thick lustrous hair became limp. She was always cold, just didn’t have the physical reserves to keep warm, and spent most of the time huddled close to the fire, bundled in furs. But when Iza suggested that Ayla should take the medicine that would end the pregnancy, the young woman refused.
“Iza, I want my baby. Help me,” Ayla pleaded. “You can help me, I know you can. I’ll do whatever you say, just help me to have my baby.”
Iza could not refuse. For some time she had depended on Ayla to bring her the plants she needed, seldom going out herself. Strenuous exercise brought on coughing spasms. Iza had been keeping herself heavily dosed with medicines to hide the consumptive lung disease that grew worse each winter. But for Ayla she would go out to look for a certain root that helped prevent miscarriage.
The medicine woman left the cave early one morning to search the upland forests and damp barrens for the special root. The sun was shining in a clear sky when she started out. Iza thought it was going to be one of those warm days in late fall and didn’t want to burden herself with extra clothes. Besides, she planned to be back before the sun was high. She followed a path into the forest near the cave, then turned off along a creek and began climbing the steep slopes. She was weaker than she thought, her breath was short, and she had to rest often or wait for a racking spasm of coughing to pass. By midmorning the weather turned. Clouds blew in from the east on a chill wind and when they reached the foothills, dropped their heavy load of moisture in a driving sleet. In the first few moments, Iza was soaked.
The rain had slackened by the time she found the kind of pine forest, and plants, she was looking for. Shivering in the cold drizzle, she dug the roots out of the muddy ground. Her cough was worse on the way back, convulsing her body every few moments and bringing bloody foam to her lips. She wasn’t as familiar with the terrain around this cave as she had been with the environment of the clan’s previous home. She became disoriented, followed the wrong creek down the slope, and had to backtrack before she found the right one. It was nearing dark when the thoroughly wet and chilled medicine woman found her way back to the cave.
“Mother, where have you been?” Ayla gestured. “You’re soaked and shivering. Come to the fire. Let me get you some dry clothes.”
“I found some rattlesnake root for you, Ayla. Wash it and chew …” Iza had to stop as another spasm overwhelmed her. Her eyes were feverish, her face flushed: “ … chew it raw. It will help you keep the baby.”
“You didn’t go out in that rain just to find a root for me, did you? Don’t you know I’d rather lose the baby than lose you? You’re too sick to go out like that, you know you are.”
Ayla knew Iza had not been well for years, but until then she didn’t know just how sick the woman really was. The young woman forgot her pregnancy, ignored it when she bled occasionally, forgot to eat half the time, and refused to leave Iza’s side. When she slept, it was on a fur beside the woman’s bed. Uba, too, kept a constant watch.
It was the young girl’s first experience with grave illness in one she loved, and the effect was traumatic. She watched everything Ayla did, helped her, and it opened