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Jondalar had an array of antler, bone, and stone flint-knapping inized Soh, were totally unfaed her implements within easy reach, then sat down and spread the leather over her lap It was good protection; flint could shatter into very sharp slivers She glanced at Jondalar He was looking over the pieces of bone and stone she had set out with great interest

He moved several nodules of flint closer to her She noticed tithin easy reach—and thought of Droog A good toolan with selection, she recalled She wanted stone with a fine grain, looked the his head in unconscious approval

She thought of the youngster who had shown an inclination for tool “Did you always know you would work the stone?” she asked

“For a while I thought I ht be a carver, perhaps even serve the Mother, or ith Those Who Served Her” A touch of pain and poignant yearning crossed his features “Then I was sent to live with Dalanar and learned to be a stone knapper instead It was a good choice—I enjoy it and have soreat carver”

“What is a ‘carver,’ Jondalar?”

“That’s it! That’s what is !” Ayla jus, no paintings, no beads, no decorations at all Not even colors”

“I don’t understand …”

“I’ about? A carver is someone who makes animals out of stone”

Ayla frowned “How can someone make an animal out of stone? An animal is blood and meat; it lives and breathes”

“I don’t e, a representation A carver makes the likeness of an animal out of stone-es of the Great Earth Mother, too, if they receive a vision of Her”

“A likeness? Out of stone?”

“Out of other things, too Mammoth ivory, bone, wood, antler I’ve heard that soes out of ood likenesses out of snow”

Ayla had been shaking her head, struggling to understand, until he said snow Then she reainst the wall near the cave Hadn’t she, for a while, iined the likeness of Brun in that pile of snow?

“A likeness out of snow? Yes,” she nodded, “I think I understand”

He wasn’t sure if she did, but he could think of no way toto show her How drab her lifeup with flatheads Even her clothes are no more than serviceable Did they just hunt and eat and sleep? They don’t even appreciate the Gifts of the Mother No beauty, no ination I wonder if she can understand what she missed

Ayla picked up the s to decide where to start She would notconsidered theh very useful But she didn’t think that was the technique Jondalar wanted to see She reached for an ite from the man’s tool kit: the foot bone of a mammoth—the resilient bone that would support the flint while she worked it, so the stone would not shatter She pulled it around until it was cos

Next she picked up her hammerstone There was no real difference between her stone striker and his, except hers was s the flint firmly on the mammoth-bone anvil, Ayla struck with force A piece of the cortex, the outer covering, fell away, exposing the dark gray e where the hammerstone had struck—the bulb of percussion—and tapered to a thin edge on the opposite end It could have been used as a cutting impleed flakes, but the tools Ayla wanted to make required a far more advanced and complex technique

She studied the deep scar left on the core, the negative iht; the texture was sn matter imbedded within it Good tools could be made from this stone She struck off another piece of the cortex

As she continued to chip away, Jondalar could see she was shaping the stone as she re When it was off, she continued to knock off a bit here, an unwanted bump there, until the nucleus of flint was shaped like a soed the ha the core on its side, and working froe toward the center, she struck off pieces from the top end with the bone hammer The bone was er and thinner with a flatter bulb of percussion When she was through, the large stone egg had a rather flat oval top, as though the tip had been sliced off

Then she stopped, and, reaching for the a around her neck, she closed her eyes and sent a silent thought to the spirit of the Cave Lion Droog had always called upon the help of his totem to accomplish the next step Luck was needed as well as skill, and she was nervous with Jondalar watching her so closely She wanted to do it right, sensing there wasof these tools than to the tools themselves If she spoiled the stone, it would cast doubt on the ability of Droog and the entire Clan, no ht explain that she was not an expert

Jondalar had noticed her a her hold it in both her hands with closed eyes, he wondered what significance it held She seemed to handle it with reverence, almost as he would handle a donii But a donii was a carefully sculpted figure of a woman in all her motherly abundance, a symbol of the Great Earth Mother, and the wondrous mystery of creation Certainly no lu

Ayla took up the bone haain In order to cleave a flake from the core that would have the saes, there was one i platform She had to detach a se of the flat face that had a surface perpendicular to the flake she ultimately wanted

Grasping the nucleus of the flint firmly to hold it steady, the woe the force as well as the placele, too e She took a breath and held it, then brought the bone hammer doith a sharp tap The first was always iood luck A sain when she saw the indentation

Changing the angle at which she held the core, she struck again, with more force The bone hammer landed squarely in the dent, and a flake fell away fro oval One side was the flat surface she had made The reverse side was the inner bulbar face, which was smooth, thicker at the end that was struck, and narrowed down to a razor-sharp edge all the way around

Jondalar picked it up “This is a difficult technique to e! This is not a crude tool”

Ayla expelled a trelow of acco more She had

not let the Clan down In truth, she represented theh he would have tried, thisa member of the Clan, would have been too aware of the perfore the performance

Ayla watched hi the flake of stone over in his hand, then, suddenly, felt a peculiar inner shift She was gripped by an uncanny chill, and seeh she were outside herself

A vivid memory burst upon her of a time when she had experienced a sihted stone la at the dahted space screened by thick columns of stalactites in the heart of the mountain

Tenin a circle around a fire, but it was The Mog-ur—Creb himself—whose powerful mind, amplified and assisted by the drink Iza had told Ayla how to icians, discovered her presence She had consumed the powerful substance too, unintentionally, and her -ur who drew her back frohtening and fascinating journey of the s

In the process, the greatest holyhis own kind, forged new pathways in her brain where only vestigial tendencies had been But while it resembled his, her brain was not the same She could , and through each stage of developo as far when she came back to herself—and went a step beyond

Ayla did not understand what had hurt Creb so deeply, she only knew it had changed hies he had wrought, but for an instant she felt with utter certainty that she had been sent to the valley for a purpose that included the tall blond man