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He carried no burdens, only his outer fur wrap, suspended on his back by a wide band of leather wrapped around his sloping forehead, and his weapons On his right thigh was a scar, blackened like a tattoo, shaped roughly like a U with the tops flaring outward, the mark of his totem, the bison He needed noand the deference of the others made his position clear

He shifted his club, the long foreleg of a horse, fro the handle with his thigh, and Iza kneas giving her plea serious consideration She waited quietly, hiding her agitation, to give him time to think He set his heavy wooden spear down and leaned the shaft against his shoulder with the sharpened, fire-hardened point up, and adjusted the bola he wore around his neck along with his amulet so the three stone balls were more evenly balanced Then he pulled a strip of pliable deerskin, tapered at the ends with a bulge in the , and pulled the soft leather through his hand, thinking

Brun didn’t like ht affect his clan, especially nohen they were homeless, and he resisted the impulse to refuse at once I should have known Iza would want to help her, he thought; she’s even used her healingones She’ll be upset if I don’t let her help this child Clan or Others, it makes no difference, all she can see is a child who is hurt Well, ood medicine woman

But medicine woman or not, she is just a woman What difference will it make if she’s upset? Iza knows better than to show it, and we have enough probleer But her totery if she’s upset? If we find a cave … no, e find a new cave, Iza will have to make her drink for the cave cerery spirits couldwith the ceremony for the new cave

Let her take the child, he thought She’ll soon get tired of carrying the extra load, and the girl is so far gone, not even h to save her Brun tucked his sling back in his waist thong, picked up his weapons, and shrugged noncoirl with them or not as she pleased He turned and strode off

Iza reached into her basket and pulled out a leather cloak She wrapped it around the girl, hoisted her up, and secured the unconscious child to her hip with the aid of the supple hide, surprised at how little she weighed for her height The girl ly, then fell into place behind the two men

The other wo back from the encounter between Iza and Brun When they saw theup and take it with her, their hands flew in rapidit with excited curiosity Except for the otter-skin pouch, they were dressed the sa them they carried all the clan’s worldly possessions, those that had been salvaged from the rubble after the quake

Two of the seven women carried babies in a fold of their wraps next to their skin, convenient for nursing While they aiting, one felt a drop of etness, whipped her naked infant out of the fold, and held it in front of her until it was through wetting When they weren’t traveling, babies were often wrapped in soft swaddling skins To absorb moisture and soft milky stools, any of several athered fro, down from birds’ breasts, or fuzz from fibrous plants But while they traveled, it was easier and si a step, let theround

When they started out again, a third wo hi cloak After a few et down and run by hiot tired again An older girl, not yet a wo a wo back now and then at a boy, very nearly a h distance between himself and the up the rear and not one of the children He wished he had game to carry, too, and even envied the old e hare over his shoulder, felled by a stone fro

The hunters were not the only source of food for the clan The woreater share, and their sources were ed as they traveled, and so efficiently it hardly slowed them down A patch of day lilies was quickly stripped of buds and flowers, and tender new roots exposed with a few strokes of the digging sticks Cattail roots, pulled loose from beneath the surface of ather

If they hadn’t been on thethe location of the tall stalky plants, to return later in the season to pick the tender tails at the top for a vegetable Later still, yellow pollen mixed with starch pounded frohy unleavened biscuits When the tops dried, fuzz would be collected; and several of the baskets were athered only what they found, but little was overlooked

New shoots and tender young leaves of clover, alfalfa, dandelion; thistles stripped of prickles before they were cut down; a few early berries and fruits The pointed digging sticks were in constant use; nothing was safe from them in the wos for newts and delectable fat grubs; freshwater molluscs were fished out of streams and pushed closer to shore for easy reach; and a variety of bulbs, tubers, and roots were dug out of the ground

It all found its way to the convenient folds of the woreen leaves rappers, sos, and grass, and dung froh the selection would be more varied later in the summer, food was plentiful—if one knehere to look

Iza looked up when an old man, past thirty, hobbled up to her after they were on their way again He carried neither burden nor weapon, only a long staff to help hi was crippled and s agility

His right shoulder and upper arm were atrophied and the shriveled arm had been amputated below the elbow The powerful shoulder and ar of his fully developed left side er than those of the rest of the clan, and the difficulty of his birth had caused the defect that crippled him for life

He was also a sibling of Iza and Brun, first-born, and would have been leader but for his affliction He wore a leather wrap cut in the masculine style and carried his war fur, on his back as the otherfro and a cloak si object to his back

The left side of his face was hideously scarred and his left eye was ence, and sorace that careat wisdo-ur, the ician, most awesome and revered holy man of all the clans He was convinced that his wasted body was given to him so that he could take his place as intermediary with the spirit world rather than at the head of his clan In many ways he had more power than any leader, and he knew it Only close relatives remembered his birth name and called him by it

“Creb,” Iza said in greeting and acknowledged his appearance with a motion that meant she was pleased he had joined her

“Iza?” he questioned with a gesture toward the child sh

e carried The woman opened her cloak and Creb looked closely at the s and suppurating wound, then back to the irl moaned, and Creb’s expression softened He nodded his approval

“Good,” he said The as gruff, guttural Then he h have died”

Creb stayed beside Iza He didn’t have to conform to the understood rules that defined each person’s position and status; he could ith anyone, including the leader if he chose Mog-ur was above and aside from the strict hierarchy of the clan