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“Well, I’lad he did,” Marthona said

“It see to adopt you,” Zelandoni said She couldn’t help but wonder at the strange story Ayla was telling She wasn’t alone in her reservations It all seemed rather farfetched, and she still had more questions than answers

“At first, I’m sure it was Nezzie’s idea—she was Talut’swhen he had a bad … proble eak in …” Ayla didn’t know the correct words and was frustrated Jondalar had never taught theiven her precise words for various kinds of flint, and specific words for the processes of shaping it into tools and weapons, but y was not a part of his normal vocabulary She turned to hilove? That plant I always collected for Rydag?”

He told her, but even before Ayla could repeat it and attempt to explain, Zelandoni was sure she understood what had happened As soon as she heard Jondalar say the word, she knew not only the plant, but its uses She had a good idea that the person Ayla was talking about had an internal weakness with the organ that pumped blood, the heart, that could be helped by the proper extraction of elelove It also made her realize why soh to kno to use soerous, as that plant And if that someone was in a position of authority, as a headht be adopted so quickly After listening to Ayla tell essentially what she had guessed, she made another assumption

“This person, Rydag, was a child?” she asked, to confirm her final speculation

“Yes,” Ayla replied, feeling a moment of sadness

Zelandoni felt she understood about Ayla and the Mamutoi, but the Clan still left her perplexed She decided to try a different approach “I know you are very skilled in the healing ways, Ayla, but often those who beconize the a tattoo on her forehead above her left temple “I see no mark on you”

Ayla looked closely at the tattoo It was a rectangle divided into six sles, als above that, if connected, would have les was dark, but three of àie squares were filled in with shades of red, and one with yellow

Although it was a unique s of one kind or another, including Marthona, Joharran, and Willa in particular, but after Zelandoni had explained the ht

“Ma the place on her cheek “All the iven one, if I had stayed Ma me soon after he adopted me, but I was not fully trained before I left, so I was never marked”

“But didn’t you say you were adopted by the woman as the mate of the headman?”

“I thought Nezzie was going to adopt me, and she did, too, but at the ceremony, Mamut said Mammoth Hearth, not Lion Hearth He adopted me instead”

“This Ma, so she was training to be One

Who Serves

“Yes, like you The Mammoth Hearth was his, and for Those Who Serve The Mother Most people choose the Mammoth Hearth, or feel they have been chosen Mamut said I was born to it” She flushed a little and looked aside, feeling rather eiven, which she hadn’t earned It made her think of Iza and how carefully the woood Clan woman