The clan of the cave bear_ a novel - Jean M. Auel [219]
Ayla hadn’t thought about a mate for Durc. Oda was right, he might have trouble finding a woman to mate. She understood now why Oda had approached them.
“Is your daughter healthy?” she asked. “Strong?”
Oda looked at her hands before she answered. “The infant is thin, but the health is good. The infant has a weak neck,” she gestured, “but it’s getting stronger,” Oda added fervently.
Ayla looked more closely at the baby girl, asking permission with a questioning look before removing her swaddling. The infant was more stocky than Durc, closer to the build of Clan babies, but her bones were thinner. She had the same high forehead and general shape to her head, only the brow ridges were much smaller. Her nose was almost petite, but it was clear she would have the prognathous, chinless jaw of the Clan. The female baby’s neck was shorter than Durc’s, but definitely longer than normal for Clan babies. Ayla lifted the girl, automatically supporting her head, and saw the familiar early efforts of the baby to support her own head.
“Her neck will get stronger, Oda. Durc’s was even weaker when he was born, and look at him now.”
“Do you think so?” Oda answered eagerly. “This woman would ask the medicine woman of the first clan to consider this female infant as mate for her male infant,” Oda asked formally.
“I think Ura would make a good mate for Durc, Oda.”
“Then you’ll ask your mate if he will allow it?”
“I have no mate,” Ayla replied.
“Oh. Then your son is unlucky,” Oda gestured with disappointment. “Who will train him if you are not mated?”
“Durc is not unlucky,” Ayla insisted. “Not all babies born to unmated women are unlucky. I live at The Mog-ur’s hearth; he does not hunt, but Brun himself has promised to train my son. He will be a good hunter, and a good provider. He has a hunting totem, too. The Mog-ur said it is the Gray Wolf.”
“It doesn’t matter, an unlucky mate would be better than no mate at all,” Oda motioned with resignation. “I hope you’re right. Our mog-ur has not revealed Ura’s totem yet, but a Gray Wolf is strong enough for any woman’s totem.”
“Except Ayla’s,” Uba interjected. “Her totem is the Cave Lion. She was chosen.”
“How did you ever have a baby?” Oda asked with astonishment. “Mine is the Hamster, but he really fought hard this time. I didn’t have so much trouble with my first daughter.”
“My pregnancy was hard, too. Do you have another daughter? Is she normal?”
“She was. She walks in the next world, now,” Oda motioned sadly.
“Is that why Ura was allowed to live? I’m surprised you were allowed to keep her,” Ayla remarked.
“I didn’t want to keep her, but my mate made me. It’s my punishment,” Oda confessed.
“Your punishment?”
“Yes,” Oda nodded. “I wished for a girl when my mate wanted a boy. It’s just that I loved my first baby so much. When she was killed, I wanted another girl just like her. My mate says Ura is deformed because I had the wrong thoughts when I was pregnant. He says if I had wished for a boy, my baby would have been normal. He made me keep her so everyone would know I am not a good woman. But he didn’t give me away, maybe because no one else would have me.”
“I don’t think you’re such a bad woman, Oda,” Ayla gestured with a look of compassion. “Iza wished for a girl when she was carrying Uba. She told me she asked her totem for a girl every day. How did your first daughter die?”
“She was killed by a man.” Oda flushed with embarrassment. “A man who looked like you, Aayghha, a man of the Others.”
A man of the Others? Ayla thought. A man who looks like me? She felt a chill crawl up her spine and a tingling at the roots of her hair. She noticed Oda’s discomfiture.
“Iza says I was born to the Others, Oda, but I don’t remember anything about them. I am Clan now,” she said encouragingly. “How did it happen?”
“We were on a hunting trip, two other women and me besides the men. Our clan lives north of here, but that time we went farther north than