The Plains of Passage - Jean M. Auel [395]
Ayla was glad she had decided to give it to her. “Would you like to see my Matrimonial outfit?”
“Oh, yes,” Madenia said.
Ayla unwrapped the tunic Nezzie had made for her when she had planned to mate with Ranec. It was an ochre yellow, the color of her hair. A carving of a horse had been wrapped inside it, and two almost perfectly matched pieces of honey-colored amber. Madenia couldn’t believe Ayla could have two outfits that were so exotically beautiful, yet so different from each other, but she was afraid to say too much, for fear Ayla might feel required to give her this one, too.
Ayla studied it, trying to decide what to do with it. Then she shook her head. No, she could not part with it, it was her Matrimonial tunic. She would wear it when she mated with Jondalar. In a way, it had a part of Ranec in it, too. She picked up the small horse carved out of mammoth ivory and fondled it absentmindedly. This, too, she would keep. She thought about Ranec, wondered how he was. No one had ever loved her more, and she would never forget him. She could have mated him and been happy with him, if she hadn’t loved Jondalar so much.
Madenia had tried to restrain her curiosity, but finally she had to ask. “What are those stones?”
“They’re called amber. They were given to me by the headwoman of the Lion Camp.”
“Is that a carving of your horse?”
Ayla smiled at her. “Yes, it’s a carving of Whinney. It was made for me by a man with laughing eyes and skin the color of Racer’s coat. Even Jondalar said he had never known a better carver.”
“A man with brown skin?” Madenia asked, incredulous.
Ayla smiled wryly. She couldn’t blame her for doubting. “Yes. He was a Mamutoi, and his name was Ranec. The first time I saw him, I couldn’t help staring at him. I’m afraid I was very impolite. I was told that his mother was as dark as … a piece of that burning stone. She lived far to the south, across a great sea. A Mamutoi man named Wymez made a long Journey. He mated her, and her son was born to his hearth. She died on their way back, so he returned with only the boy. The man’s sister raised him.”
Madenia gave a little shiver of excitement. She thought the only thing south was the mountains, and that they went on forever. Ayla had traveled so far and knew so much. Maybe someday she would make a Journey like Ayla, and meet a brown man who would carve a beautiful horse for her, and people who would give her beautiful clothes, and find horses that would let her ride them, and a wolf that loved children, and a man like Jondalar, who would ride the horses and make the long Journey with her. Madenia was lost in daydreams of great adventure.
She had never met anyone like Ayla. She idolized the beautiful woman who led such an exciting life, and she hoped she might be like her in some way. Ayla spoke with a strange accent, but that only added to her mystery, and hadn’t she suffered a forced attack by a man when she was a girl, too? Ayla had gotten over it but understood how someone else felt. In the warmth, love, and understanding of the people around her, Madenia was beginning to recover from the horror of the incident. She began to imagine herself, mature and wise, telling some young girl, who had suffered such an attack, about her experience, to help her overcome it.
While Madenia daydreamed, she watched Ayla pick up a neatly tied package. The woman held it but didn’t open it; she knew exactly what was inside it, and she had no intention of leaving it behind.
“What’s that?” the girl asked, as Ayla put it aside.
Ayla picked it up again; she hadn’t seen it herself for some time. She looked around to make sure Jondalar was not in sight, then untied the knots. Inside was a pure white tunic decorated with ermine tails. Madenia’s eyes became big and round.
“That’s as white as snow! I’ve never seen any leather colored white like that,” she said.
“Making white leather is a secret of the Crane Hearth.