The clan of the cave bear_ a novel - Jean M. Auel [249]
Uba picked him up and brought him to her mother. She put the baby on Iza’s lap, but he was in no mood to cuddle with an old woman he didn’t remember, and struggled to get down again.
“He’s strong and healthy,” Iza said, “and he doesn’t have any problems holding his head up.”
“He even has a mate already,” Uba said, “or at least a baby girl that has been promised for him.”
“A mate? What clan would promise a girl to him? So young, and with his deformity.”
“There was a woman at the Clan Gathering with a deformed daughter. She came and talked to us the first day,” Uba explained. “The baby even looks like Durc, at least her head does. Her features are a little different. The mother asked if they could be mated; Oda was so worried that her daughter would never find a mate. Brun and the leader of her clan arranged it. I think she will be coming here to live after the next Gathering, even if she’s not a woman. Ebra said she could live with her until they were both old enough to mate. Oda was so happy, especially after Ayla made the drink for the ceremony.”
“So they did accept Ayla as a medicine woman of my line. I wondered if they would,” Iza gestured, then she stopped. Talking made her tired, but just seeing her loved ones around her again rejuvenated her spirit, if not her body. She rested for a while, then asked, “What is the girl’s name?”
“Ura,” Iza’s daughter answered.
“I like the name, it has a good sound.” Iza rested again, then asked another question. “What about Ayla? Did she find a mate at the Clan Gathering?”
“The clan of Zoug’s kin is considering her. They refused at first, but after she was accepted as a medicine woman, they decided to think it over. There wasn’t time to settle anything before we left. They might take Ayla, but I don’t think they want Durc.”
Iza just nodded, then closed her eyes.
Ayla was grinding meat to make into a broth for Iza. She kept checking the boiling water with the root for the right color and flavor, impatient for it to be done. Durc crawled up to her, whining, but she brushed him off again.
“Give him to me, Uba,” Creb motioned. It quieted the boy for a while, sitting in Creb’s lap, intrigued with the man’s beard. But he soon grew tired of that, too. He rubbed his eyes and struggled to get loose of the restraining arm, and when freed crawled straight for his mother again. He was tired, and he was hungry. Ayla was standing over the fire and hardly seemed to notice when the cranky baby tried to pull up on her leg. Creb heaved himself up, then dropped his staff and signaled Uba to put the boy into his arm. Limping heavily without his support, he shuffled to Broud’s hearth and laid Durc in Oga’s lap.
“Durc is hungry and Ayla is busy making medicine for Iza. Will you feed him, Oga?”
Oga nodded, took the baby from him, and gave Durc her breast. Broud glowered, but one dark glance from Mog-ur made him cover his anger quickly. His hatred of Ayla did not extend to the man who protected and provided for her. Broud feared Mog-ur too much to hate him. He had discovered at an early age, however, that the great holy man seldom interfered in the secular life of the clan, confining his activities to the spirit world. Mog-ur had never tried to prevent Broud from exercising control over the young female who shared his hearth, but Broud had no wish to lock horns with the magician directly.
The man shuffled back to his hearth and began to search through the bundles that had been dumped for the bladder of cave bear grease that was his share of the rendered fat from the ceremonial animal. Uba saw him and hurried over to help. Creb took it with him into his place of the spirits. Though he was sure it was hopeless, he was going to use every bit of magic at his command to help Ayla try to keep Iza alive.
The roots had finally boiled long enough and Ayla scooped out a cup of the liquid, impatient now for it to cool. The warm broth fed to her earlier, in small sips with Ayla propping her head up just as Iza had done for her when she was a five-year-old and near death, had revived the