The Plains of Passage - Jean M. Auel [181]
Jondalar, Markeno, and Ayla, with Wolf at her heels, walked the few steps to the next dwelling together. Markeno scratched at the entrance flap and waited. Rather than calling out, Dolando came to the entrance and pushed the flap aside, then stood in the shadows of the entrance looking at them.
“Dolando, I think Roshario may have a hard night. I would like to stay near her,” Ayla said.
The man looked down, then inside toward the woman on the bed. “Come in,” he said.
“I want to stay with Ayla,” Jondalar said. He was determined not to leave her alone with the man who had threatened and raged at her, even if he did seem to have calmed down.
Dolando nodded and stepped aside.
“I came to ask Darvo if he’d like to spend the night with us,” Markeno said.
“I think he should,” Dolando said. “Darvo, take your bedding and go with Markeno tonight.”
The boy got up, gathered up his pads and covers in his arms, and walked toward the opening. Ayla thought he looked relieved but not happy.
Wolf settled into his corner as soon as they entered. Ayla walked to the darkened rear to check on Roshario.
“Do you have a lamp or a torch, Dolando? I’d like a little more light,” she said.
“And maybe some extra bedding,” Jondalar added, “or should I ask Tholie for some?”
Dolando would have preferred to be alone in the dark, but if Roshario woke up in pain, he knew the young woman would be able to help her much better than he could. From a shelf, he took down a shallow sandstone bowl that had been shaped by pecking and hitting it with another stone.
“The bedding is over here,” he said to Jondalar. “There is some fat for the lamp in the box by the door, but I’ll have to start a fire to light the lamp. It went out.”
“I’ll start the fire,” Ayla said, “if you’ll tell me where your kindling and tinder are.”
He gave her the fire-starting materials she asked for, along with a round stick, black with charcoal on one end, and a flattish piece of wood with several round holes burned out of it from starting other fires, but she didn’t use those. Instead, out of a pouch hanging from her belt, she withdrew two stones. Dolando watched with curiosity as she made a small pile of the dry, light shavings of wood and, hovering closely over it, hit one stone against the other. To his surprise, a large bright spark leaped from the stones and landed on the tinder, sending up a thin column of smoke. She bent close and blew, and the tinder burst into flame.
“How did you do that?” he asked, surprised and a little fearful. Anything so amazing, and unknown, always engendered a little fear. Was there no end to this woman’s shamud magic? he wondered.
“It comes from the firestone,” Ayla said, as she added a few sticks of kindling to keep the fire going, and then larger pieces of wood.
“Ayla discovered them when she was living in her valley,” Jondalar said. “They were all over the rocky shore there, and I collected some extras. I’ll show you how they work tomorrow, and give you one, so you will know what they look like. There may be some around here. As you can see, they make starting a fire much faster.”
“Where did you say the fat was?” Ayla asked.
“In the box by the entrance. I’ll get it. The wicks are there, too,” Dolando said. He put a dollop of soft white tallow—fat that had been rendered in boiling water and skimmed after it cooled—into the stone bowl, stuck a twisted strand of dried lichen in it, next to the edge, then picked up a burning stick and lit it. It sputtered a bit; then a pool of oil started to form in the bottom of the bowl and was absorbed by the lichen, causing a steadier flame and more even light within the wooden structure.
Ayla put cooking stones in the fire, then checked the level in the wooden water box. She started outside with it, but Dolando took it and went out to get more water instead. While he was gone, Ayla and Jondalar put the bedding on a sleeping platform. Then Ayla selected some dried herbs from her medicine packets to make a relaxing tea for all of them. She put other ingredients in some of her