The clan of the cave bear_ a novel - Jean M. Auel [256]
She was gone when Creb woke up. She had wandered out of the cave and climbed the bluff again. Creb could see her from a distance and watched her anxiously, but he couldn’t see her weakness, or her fever.
“Should I go after her?” Brun asked, as baffled as Creb by Ayla’s reaction.
“She seems to want to be alone. Maybe we should let her,” Creb answered.
He worried about her when he could no longer see her, and when she still hadn’t returned by evening, he asked Brun to look for her. Creb was sorry he hadn’t let Brun go after her sooner when he saw the leader carrying her back to the cave. Grief and depression had taken their toll, weakness and fever had done the rest. Uba and Ebra cared for the clan’s medicine woman. She was delirious, alternately shaking with chills and burning with fever. She cried out if her breasts were barely touched.
“She’s going to lose her milk,” Ebra said to the girl. “It’s too late for Durc to do any good now. The milk is caked, he can’t draw it out.”
“But Durc is too young to be weaned. What will happen to him? What will happen to her?”
It might not have been too late if Iza had been alive or if Ayla had been coherent. Even Uba knew there were poultices that might have helped, medicines that might have worked, but she was young and unsure of herself, and Ebra seemed so positive. By the time the fever passed, Ayla’s milk had dried up. She could no longer feed her own son.
“I will not have that deformed brat at my hearth, Oga! I will not have him brother to your sons!”
Broud was furious, shaking his fists, and Oga was cowering at his feet.
“But Broud, he’s just a baby. He’s got to nurse. Aga and Ika don’t have enough milk, it wouldn’t do any good for them to keep him. I have enough, I’ve always had too much milk. If he doesn’t eat, he’ll starve, Broud, he’ll die.”
“I don’t care if he dies. He should never have been allowed to live in the first place. He will not live at this hearth.”
Oga stopped shaking and stared at the man who was her mate. She didn’t really believe he would refuse to let her keep Ayla’s baby. She knew he would rant and rave and storm about it, but in the end, she was sure he would allow it. He couldn’t be that cruel, he couldn’t let a baby starve to death, no matter how much he hated Durc’s mother.
“Broud, Ayla saved Brac’s life, how can you let her son die?”
“Hasn’t she gotten enough for saving his life? She was allowed to live, she was even allowed to hunt. I don’t owe her anything.”
“She wasn’t allowed to live, she was cursed with death. She returned from the world of the spirits because her totem wanted her to, he protected her,” Oga protested.
“If she had been cursed properly, she wouldn’t have returned, and she would never have given birth to that brat. If her totem is so strong, why did she lose her milk? Everyone said her baby would be unlucky. What could be more unlucky than losing his mother’s milk? Now you want to bring his bad luck to this hearth. I will not allow it, Oga. That’s final!”
Oga sat back and looked up at Broud with calm deliberation.
“No, Broud,” she motioned. “It’s not final.” She was no longer timorous. Broud’s expression turned to shocked surprise. “You can keep Durc from living at your hearth; that is your right and I can’t do anything about it. But you can’t keep me from nursing him. That is a woman’s right. A woman may nurse any baby she wants, and no man can keep her from it. Ayla saved my son’s life, and I will not let hers die. Durc will be brother to my sons whether you like it or not.”
Broud was stunned. His mate’s refusal to abide by his wishes was totally unexpected. Oga had never been insolent, never been disrespectful, never shown the least sign of disobedience. He could hardly believe it. Shock turned to fury.
“How dare