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The One Who Was First led the way toward the sacred burial ground Thethe body followed her, and the rest of the Zelandonia placed themselves around the pallbearers Relona with her two children and then Ranokol walked behind the swaying hammock The rest of the people fell in behind in the same order they had assumed for the feast
Ayla again walked with Marthona near the front She noticed Lara her as he headed toward the last of the people of the Ninth Cave, which put hih Manvelar tried to keep a slight distance behind the Ninth to create a gap that would separate the two Caves, Larae brood of children, slowed down enough to keep the gap in front of hiive the impression that he was the first of the Cave behind hih of course everyone knew his status and to which Cave he belonged
The long line of people followed the path in single file as it narrowed in front of Big Rock, then used the feell-placed flat
tish stepping-stones to traverse Fish Creek, which ran down the ain in front of High Rock, they stayed in line until they reached the Crossing, but instead of continuing south after gaining the opposite bank, as they had done before to go to Two Rivers Rock, they turned left back toward the north and followed another trail
No longer constrained by a narrow track between river and rock wall, they spread out and walked two or three abreast through the level field of the floodplain, then began to cli hills Ayla had seen across The River The sun was descending in the west, nearing the tops of the cliffs behind when they came to an outcrop and a small, secluded, fairly level depression The procession slowed and then stopped
Ayla turned and looked back the way they had coreen that stopped at the shadow cast by the sun setting behind the steep cliffs The natural soft yellow of the limestone, streaked with the black wash of leached-out iloo at the foot of the stone ramparts It stretched across The River to shroud the row of brush and trees that lined its bank, though the tops of the tallest trees still threw an abbreviated silhouette beyond the creeping darkness
Seen froed at the top with grass and an occasional bush, displayed a unified randeur she hadn’t expected, and she tried to identify the places whose na close to the water’s edge, the sheer walls of High Rock and Big Rock straddled Little Valley The cliffs that pulled back to create the recessed rear wall of the Gather Field led then to the sculptural relief of the shelters in the cliff of Down River and then, just as The River took a sharp turn to the east, the huge overhanging stone ledge that housed the Ninth Cave
As they started totorches “Should I have brought a torch, Willa beside her “It will probably be dark before we return”
“It’s supposed to be dark,” Marthona said; she alking on the other side of Willamar, “and there will be round, they will light torches to find their way, but they will not all go in the sao down to The River, and some uphill toward a place we call Lookout As Shevonar’s elan and any other spirits that are near watch us go, they may try to follow us We need to confuse theet beyond the boundaries, they won’t knohich lights to follow”
As the procession approached the burial ground, Ayla noticed thefire from behind the outcrop and an aromatic scent detectable from quite a distance away They moved around the obstruction toward a circle of lit torches that produced ascloser, she saw the boundaries, a circle of carved poles just beyond the torches that surrounded and defined the sacred area
“The torches have a very strong smell,” she commented
“Yes The zelandonia make special torches for burials It keeps the spirits contained so people can enter the burial ground without danger, or perhaps I should say without as er,” Marthona explained “And if there is a smell, the torches make it easier to bear”
The Zelandonia of the six Caves placed themselves at equidistant intervals around the inside of the circle, offering another layer of protection The One Who Was First stood at the head of the grave pit, then the four pallbearers with their sad burden carried the haht The two ht side of the hole they had dug until they faced the First and stopped, leaving the other two men at the foot
The fourthe body in the burial harave Other family members and the leaders of Shevonar’s Cave filled up the area within the torchlit circle, the rest of the people crowded around the outside of the boundaries created by the carved poles
Then the Zelandoni of the Ninth Cave stepped forward She paused, and for a le sound wasInto the silence came the distant roar of a cave lion, followed by the cackle of a hyena, which seemed to set the h-pitched Ayla was stunned She felt a shiver down her back; she was not alone