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“Raet rid of some … waste?”

The wolanced in the direction that Ayla had inadvertently looked, and smiled “You want the toilet trenches, I think See over there, toward the eastern edge of the terrace, not out front where the signal fires are lit, but toward the back There’s a path”

“Yes, I see it,” Ayla said

“It goes uphill,” Ramara continued “Follow that a little way and you will come to a split The left trail is steeper It continues up and will take you to the top of this cliff But take the right path It curves up around the side until you can see Wood River below A little beyond is a level open field with several trenches—you’ll set there,” Ramara said “It has been a while since we dusted it, and you can tell”

Ayla shook her head “Dusted it?”

“Sprinkled it with cooked cliff dust We do it all the ti over and picking up Robenan, as getting restless

“How do you cook cliff dust? And why?” Ayla asked

“How you do it is to start with cliff rock, pound it into dust, and heat it in a hot fire—we use the signal fire hearth—then strew it in the trenches Why is because it takes away a lot of the smell, or covers it up But when you pass water or add liquid, the dust tends to get hard again, and when the trenches fill up aste and hardened rock dust, you have to dig new ones, which is a lot of work So we don’t like to dust the Cave, and the trenches get used a lot Just follow the path You shouldn’t have any trouble locating them”

“I’m sure I’ll find them Thank you, Ramara,” Ayla said as the woman left

She started to pick up the bowl, had another thought, and ducked inside to get the waterbag so she could rinse out the woven basin Then she picked up the s food for such a large Cave of people is a lot of work, she thought as she headed along the trail, but so is taking care of the waste Brun’s clan just went outside, the woed their places every so often Ayla thought about the process Raued

The heating, or calcining, of li it to decrease the smell of waste products was not a practice she was familiar with, but for people who lived in limestone cliffs and used fire continuously, quickli a hearth of ashes, which would invariably include the accidentally accu the for the deodorizing effect to be noticed

With soin one place,the suone for periods of time, there were many tasks that required the effort and cooperation of the entire co toilet trenches or, as she had just learned, roasting the limestone cliff rocks to make quicklime

The sun was near its zenith before Ayla returned from the trench field She found a sunny place near the back path to dry and air out the woven bowl, then decided to check on the horses and refill the waterbag at the sareeted her when she reached the front terrace, some of whose names she recalled, but not all She smiled and nodded in return, but felt a trifle embarrassed about those she couldn’t remember She took it as a failure of memory on her part and made a decision to learn who everyone was as soon as possible

She re the same hen ht she was somewhat slow because she couldn’t resters As a result, because she wanted to fit in with the people who had found and adopted her, she disciplined herself to reht the first time it was explained She didn’t know that in the process of exercising her native intelligence to retain what she learned, she was training her ownability far beyond that which was normal for her own kind

As tirew to understand that their h she didn’t fully understand what they were, she knew that people of the Clan had “memories” that she did not have, not in the sa a soent track, the people of the Clan were born with e they would need to survive, inforenes of their individual ancestors in the sae was acquired by any ani the human one