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“What can a baby eat besides milk?” Folara asked

“Many things,” Ayla said “If you scrape cooked et a soft substance that a baby can eat, and they can drink the liquid left after you boil rain that has been ground very fine and cooked, are good for theetable can be cooked until it’s soft, and soh the seeds have to be strained out I always poured fruit juice through bunched-up fresh cleavers They’re full of prickles and stick together easily and catch the seeds Babies can eat al their h”

“How do you know so much about food that babies can eat?” Folara asked

Ayla stopped and flushed with dismay She hadn’t expected the question She knew babies were not liht her how to ot sick and lost her e had expanded manyfold when Iza died, and Ayla was so devastated by the loss of the only h the other wo all fed Durc, she’d had to suppleular food to keep him satisfied and healthy

But she wasn’t ready to tell Jondalar’s family about her son just yet They had recently said they wanted to accept her into the Zelandonii, h they knew she had been raised by the people they called flatheads and considered to be aniet the pain she had felt at Jondalar’s first reaction when she told him that she had a son as a mixture of both, of mixed spirits Because the spirit of one of those people he thought of as ani inside her, he had looked at her as though she were a filthy hyena and called her an abomination She orse than the child, because she had produced him Jondalar had learned more about the Clan since then, and he did not feel that way anymore, but what about his people, his family?

Her mind raced What would his mother say if she knew that her son wanted to mate with a woman as an abomination? Or Willamar, or Folara, or the rest of his fah usually she could discern his feelings and knohat he was thinking by interpreting his expression or his demeanor, this time she could not She didn’t knohat he would wish her to say

She had been raised with the understanding that she had to answer a direct question with a truthful answer Ayla had since learned that unlike the Clan, the Others, her kind of people, could say things that were not true They even had a word for it It was called a lie For aa lie, but what could she say? She was sure they would know it if she tried; she didn’t kno to lie At , but it was hard not to reply when she was asked a direct question

Ayla had always supposed that his people were bound to find out about Durc sohts, and she knew there would coet or decide not to refrain fro about Durc forever He was her son But this was not the time

“I know aboutbaby food, Folara, because after Uba was born, Iza lost her ht me how toits mother can eat if you make it soft and easy to s,” Ayla said It was the truth, but it was not the whole truth She refrained fro her son

“You do it like this, Lanoga,” Ayla said “You pull the scraper across the ets the essence out and leaves the fibrous part behind See? Now you try it”

“What are you doing here?”

Ayla jumped with a start at the voice, then turned to face Laraa how to prepare some food that this baby can eat, since her mother has no more milk for her,” she said She was sure she detected a look of surprise flit across his face So he didn’t know, she thought

“Why should you bother? I doubt that anyone else cares,” Laramar said

Not even you, she thought, but held her tongue “People care They just didn’t know,” she said “We only found out when Lanoga caan was hurt”

“Bologan is hurt? What happened?”