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“How does he knohen you want him?”

“She has a special whistle to call him,” Jondalar said “We call the horses histles, too” He picked up his cup, tasted, then shed with appreciation “Now I know I’ain, then closed his eyes and savored “What fruit is this made from, mother?”

“Mostly fro vines only on protected south-facing slopes,” Marthona explained for Ayla’s benefit “There’s an area several miles southeast of here that I always check Soroell at all, but we had a fairly inter a few years back, and the following autue, very fruity, sweet but not too sweet I added a little elderberry, and some blackberry juice, but not er than usual I don’t have much left”

Ayla sniffed the aroma of fruit as she held the cup to her lips to taste The liquid was tart and tangy, dry, not the sweet taste she had expected from the fruity smell She sensed the alcoholic character she had first tasted in the birch beer made by Talut, the Lion Camp’s headman, but this was more like the fermented bilberry juice made by the Sharamudoi, except that that had been sweeter, as she recalled

She hadn’t liked the harsh bite of alcohol when she first experienced it, but the rest of the Lion Camp seemed to enjoy the birch beer so much, and she wanted to fit in and be like theot h she suspected that the reason people liked it was not asit caused Too iddy and too friendly, but sory, or even violent

This beverage had so more, however Elusive complexities altered the simple character of the fruit juice in an extraordinary way It was a drink she could learn to enjoy

“This is very good,” Ayla said “I not ever tasted anything … I never tasted anything quite like it,” she corrected herself, feeling slightly embarrassed She was completely coe she had learned after living with the Clan Jondalar had taught her while he was recovering froh she did have difficulty with certain sounds—no ht—she seldolanced at Jondalar and Marthona, but they hadn’t seemed to notice She relaxed and looked around

Though she had been in and out of Marthona’s dwelling several times, she had not really looked at it closely She took the tihted at every turn The construction was interesting, sis inside the Losadunai cave, where they had stopped to visit before crossing the glacier on the high plateau

The first two or three feet of the outside

walls of each dwelling were constructed of lihly trimmed and placed on either side of the entry, but stone tools were not suitable for finely shaping building stone easily or quickly The rest of the loalls were hly shaped with a haenerally close to the same size—perhaps two or three inches wide, not quite as deep, and three or four tier and soether so that they interlocked into a tight compressive structure

The roughly lozenge-shaped pieces were selected and graded for size, then arranged side by side lengthwise so that the width of the walls was equivalent to the length of the stones The thick walls were constructed in layers so that each stone was placed in the dip where the two stones under it caether Occasionally saps, especially around the larger blocks near the entry

As they were layered up they were corbeled inward slightly, cantilevered in such a way that each successive layer overhung the layer below by a little Careful selection and placeularities in the stone contributed to the runoff of moisture on the outside, whether it was rainwater blown in, accumulated condensation, or ice melt

Noholes or add support The rough li, and the ht and could even take the thrust of a beam of juniper or pine inserted into the walls to support other building elely fitted together that no chink of light showed through, and no errant blasts of winter wind could find an opening The effect was also quite attractive, with a pleasing texture, especially seen from outside

Inside, the stone windbreak as all but hidden by a second wall made of panels of rawhide—untreated leather that dried stiff and hard—attached to wooden posts sunk into the dirt floor The panels began at ground level but extended above the stone walls vertically to a height of eight or nine feet Ayla recalled that the upper panels were lavishly decorated on the outside Many of the panels were also painted with aniht because it was darker inside Because Marthona’s structure was built against the slightly sloping back of the cliff, underneath the overhanging shelf, one wall of the dwelling was solid limestone

Ayla looked up There was no ceiling except the underside of the stone ledge some distance above With the exception of occasional downdrafts, smoke fro the lofty stone, leaving the air essentially clear The cliff overhang protected thes could be quite coe, not like some of the cozy, easy to heat, fully enclosed, but often s spaces she had seen