The Plains of Passage - Jean M. Auel [339]
“I will put him to sleep. He won’t feel it, though he will have some pain when he wakes up, and he will have to be moved very carefully for some time,” Ayla explained. “He won’t be able to walk.”
“I will carry him,” Epadoa said.
When they got back to the big lodge, Ayla explained to the boy that she wanted to try to straighten his leg. He pulled away from her, looking very nervous, and when he saw Epadoa coming into the lodge, his eyes filled with fear.
“No! She’s going to hurt me!” Doban screamed at the sight of the Wolf Woman. If he could have run away, he would have.
Epadoa stood straight and stiff beside the bed platform he was sitting on. “I will not hurt you. I promise you, I will never hurt you again,” she said. “And I will never let anyone else hurt you, not even this woman.”
He glanced up at her, apprehensive, but wanting to believe her. Desperately wanting to believe her.
“S’Armuna, please make sure he understands what I am going to say,” Ayla said. Then she stooped down until she could look into his frightened eyes.
“Doban, I’m going to give you something to drink. It won’t taste very good, but I want you to drink it all anyway. After a while, you will begin to feel very sleepy. When you feel like it, you can lie down right here. While you are asleep, I’m going to try to make your leg a little better, put it back the way it was. You won’t feel it because you will be sleeping. When you wake up, you will feel some pain, but it may feel better in a way, too. If it hurts too much, tell me, or S’Armuna, or Epadoa—someone will be here with you all the time—and she will give you something to drink that will make the pain go away a little. Do you understand?”
“Can Zelandon come here to see me?”
“Yes, I will get him now, if you want.”
“And S’Amodun?”
“Yes, both of them, if you want.”
Doban looked up at Epadoa. “And you won’t let her hurt me?”
“I promise. I won’t let her hurt you. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
He looked at S’Armuna, then back at Ayla. “Give me the drink,” he said.
The process was not unlike the resetting of Roshario’s broken arm. The drink both relaxed his muscles and put him to sleep. It took sheer physical strength to pull the leg straight, but when it slipped back into place, it was obvious to everyone. There had been some breakage, Ayla realized, and it would never be entirely right, but his body looked almost normal again.
Epadoa moved back into the large earthlodge, since most of the men and boys had moved in with their kin, and she stayed near Doban almost constantly. Ayla noticed the tentative beginnings of trust developing between them. She was sure that was exactly what S’Amodun had envisioned.
They went through a similar procedure with Odevan, but Ayla feared his healing process would be more difficult and that his leg would have a tendency to pop out and become dislocated more easily in the future.
S’Armuna was impressed and a little in awe of Ayla, privately wondering if the rumors about her might not have some truth in them. She seemed like an ordinary woman, talked and slept and shared Pleasures with the tall, fair man, like any other woman, but her knowledge of the plant life that grew in the earth, and their medical properties in particular, was phenomenal. Everyone talked about it; S’Armuna gained prestige by association. And though the older woman learned not to fear the wolf, it was almost impossible to see him around Ayla and not believe that she controlled his spirit. When he wasn’t following her, his eyes were. It was the same with the man, although he wasn’t as obvious about it.
The older woman didn’t notice the horses as much because they were left to graze most of the time—Ayla said she was glad to give them the rest—but S’Armuna did see the two people ride them. The man rode the brown stallion easily enough, but seeing the young woman on the back of the mare made one think they were of the same flesh.
But though she wondered,