The Plains of Passage - Jean M. Auel [307]
“Joconan is dead?” S’Armuna interrupted. Ayla sensed her shock and noted an expression that showed something akin to grief. Then she seemed to gather her composure. “It must have been a difficult time for your mother.”
“I’m sure it was, although I don’t think she had much time to think about it, or to grieve too long. Everyone was pressing her to be leader. I don’t know when she met Dalanar, but by the time she mated him, she had been leader of the Ninth Cave for several years. Zelandoni told me she was already blessed with me before the mating, so it should have been lucky, but they severed the knot a couple of years after I was born, and he chose to leave. I don’t know what happened, but sad stories and songs about their love are still recalled. They embarrass Mother.”
It was Ayla who prompted him to continue, for her own interest, although S’Armuna’s interest was also obvious. “She mated again, and had more children, didn’t she? I know you had another brother.”
Jondalar continued, directing his comments at S’Armuna. “My brother Thonolan was born to Willomar’s hearth, and my sister Folara, too. I think that was a good mating for her. Marthona is very happy with him, and he was always very good to me. He used to travel a lot, go on trading missions for my mother. He took me with him sometimes. Thonolan, too, when he got old enough. For a long time I thought of Willomar as the man of my hearth, until I went to live with Dalanar and got to know him a little better. I still feel close to him, although Dalanar was also very kind to me, and I grew to love him, too. But everyone likes Dalanar. He found a flint mine, met Jerika, and started his own Cave. They had a daughter, Joplaya, my close-cousin.”
It suddenly occurred to Ayla that if a man was as much responsible for starting a new life growing inside a woman as the woman was, then the “cousin” he called Joplaya was actually his sibling; as much a sister as the one named Folara. Close-cousin, he had called her; was that because they recognized it was a closer tie than the relationship to the children of a mother’s sisters or the mates of her brothers? The conversation about Jondalar’s mother had gone on while she pondered the implications of Jondalar’s kin.
“…then my mother turned the leadership over to Joharran, although he insisted that she stay on as adviser to him,” Jondalar was saying. “How did you happen to know my mother?”
S’Armuna hesitated for a while, staring into space as though she were seeing an image from the past; then slowly she began to speak. “I was little more than a girl when I was taken there. My mother’s brother was leader here, and I was his favorite child, the only girl born to either of his two sisters. He had made a Journey when he was young and had learned of the renowned zelandonia. When it was felt that I had some talent or gift to Serve the Mother, he wanted me to be trained by the best. He took me to the Ninth Cave because your Zelandoni was First among those Who Serve the Mother.”
“That seems to be a tradition with the Ninth Cave. When I left, our Zelandoni had just been chosen First,” Jondalar commented.
“Do you know the former name of the one who is First now?” S’Armuna asked, interested.
Jondalar made a wry smile, and Ayla thought she understood why. “I knew her as Zolena.”
“Zolena? She’s young to be First, isn’t she? She was just a pretty little girl when I was there.”
“Young, perhaps, but dedicated,” Jondalar said.
S’Armuna nodded, then picked up the thread of her story. “Marthona and I were close to the same age, and the hearth of her mother was one of high status. My uncle and your grandmother, Jondalar, made an arrangement for me to live with her. He stayed just long enough to make sure I was settled.” S’Armuna’s eyes held a faraway look; then she smiled. “Marthona and I were like sisters. Even closer than sisters, more like twins. We liked the same things, and shared everything. She even decided to train to be zelandoni along with