The Land of Painted Caves - Jean M. Auel [244]
The men turned to face a tall blond man who had a spear in another one of those strange devices aimed at them. He had spoken Zelandonii, but he too had an accent, not the same as the woman’s but as though he came from some distance.
“Let’s get away from here,” another man said, and started running.
“Stop him, Wolf!” Ayla commanded.
Suddenly a large wolf they hadn’t seen raced after the man. He grabbed an ankle with his teeth and brought him down, then stood over him snarling.
“Anyone else feel like running away?” Jondalar said. He looked the four men over and quickly summed up the situation. “I have a feeling you’ve been causing lots of trouble around here. I think we need to bring you to the nearest Cave and see what they think.”
With Wolf nearby, he took away the few spears they had among them, and their knives. They weren’t used to being compelled to doing anything they didn’t want to, but when they resisted, Ayla set Wolf on them again. None of them felt like going against the snarling beast. As they started walking, Wolf herded them, nipping at their heels and snarling. With Ayla on the back of her dun-yellow mare on one side of them and Jondalar on his dark brown stallion on the other, they had little chance to go anyplace but where they were led.
At one point along the way, two of the men decided to make a break for it running in different directions. Jondalar’s spear whizzed just past the ear of the man who appeared to be the leader and stopped him short. Ayla’s caught a flap of loose clothing of the other man and the momentum unbalanced him and brought him down to the ground.
“I think we should tie the hands of those two together, and maybe the other two as well,” Jondalar said. “I don’t think they want to face the people who live near here.”
They were later coming back than expected. The sun was making a show of fading purples and deep reds in the western sky when they arrived at the stone shelter where the Cave lived.
“They’re the ones who did it!” a woman cried when she saw the men. “They’re the ones who forced me and killed my mate when he tried to stop them. Then they took our food and sleeping rolls, and left me there. I walked home, but I was pregnant and lost the baby.”
“How did you meet up with them?” Demoryn asked Jondalar and Ayla.
“Just before we were ready to leave, Ayla went around the stand of trees near our camp to pass water; then I heard her whistle for Wolf and the horses. I went to see what was wrong and found her holding off these four. When I got there, two of them were nursing the bruises she gave them with stones from her sling and she had her spear-thrower armed and ready,” Jondalar said.
“Bruises! Is that all? She killed a hyena with her stones,” Tivonan said.
“I wasn’t trying to kill them, just stop them,” Ayla said.
“On our way home from our Journey, there were some young men causing trouble for the people on the other side of the glacier to the west. They had forced one young woman before her First Rites. I wondered if these men might be disturbing people around here,” Jondalar said.
“They’ve been doing a lot more than disturbing, and they aren’t young. It’s been going on for years, stealing, forcing women, killing people, but no one has been able to find them,” Syralana said.
“The question is, what do we do with them now?” Demoryn said.
“You take them to the meeting of the zelandonia,” the First said.
“Good idea,” Willamar said.
“But first you should tie them down better than they are. They already tried to run away on our way here. I took away the spears and knives I could find, but I might not have found them all. And someone should guard them overnight. Wolf can help,” Ayla said.
“Yes, you are right. These are dangerous men,” Demoryn said as he walked back toward the shelter. “The zelandonia can decide what to do, but they need to be stopped, whatever it takes.”
“Remember Attaroa, Jondalar?” Ayla said, both of them falling in beside the leader of the Cave.
“I’ll never forget