page236 (1/2)

She put the traveling cakes in the basket without indulging her taste, saving theh as leather but nourishing—a few dried apples, sorasses of the steppes near the cave, and threay a rotten root On top of the food she put her cup and bowl, her wolverine hood, and the worn foot coverings

She untied herand rubbed her hand over the sleek waterproof fur of the otter skin, feeling the hard bones of the feet and tail The thong that pulled the pouch closed was threaded around the neck opening, and the oddly flattened head, still attached at the back of the neck, served as a cover flap Iza had hter when she became the clan’s medicine woman

Then, for the first ti Iza had made for her, the one Creb had burned the first time she was cursed Brun had to do it Wo her sling for several years But he had given her a chance to return—if she could survive

Maybe he gave ht I wonder if I’d be alive now if I hadn’t learned how a death curseDurc, I think it was harder the first tis, I wanted to die

She hadn’t been able to think about Creb; the grief was too new, the pain too raw She had loved the old , and Brun’s too Missing an eye and part of an arreatest holy -ur, feared and respected—his scarred, one-eyed old visage could inspire dread in the bravest hunter, but Ayla knew his gentle side

He had protected her, cared for her, loved her as the child of the mate he never had She’d had tih she grieved for the separation, she knew Durc was still alive She hadn’t grieved for Creb Suddenly, the pain she had kept inside since the earthquake that killed him would stay inside no more She cried out his name

“Creb … Oh, Creb …” Why did you go back in the cave? Why did you have to die?

She heaved great sobs into the waterproof fur of the otter-skin pouch Then, froh-pitched wail rose to her throat She rocked back and forth keening her anguish, her sorrow, her despair But there was no loving clan to join their wails with hers and share her rieved for her loneliness

When her wails subsided, she felt drained, but a terrible ache was relieved After a while she went to the river and washed her face, then put herinside the basket She didn’t need to check the contents She knew exactly what it contained

She snatched up the digging stick, then threw it aside as anger welled up to replace the grief and added fire to her determination Broud will not make me die!

She took a deep breath and willed herself to continue packing the basket She put the fire- materials and aurochs horn into it, then took several flint tools out of the folds of her wrap From another fold she took a round pebble, tossed it in the air, and caught it again Any stone of the right size could be hurled with a sling, but accuracy was better with smooth round missiles She kept the few she had

Then she reached for her sling, a deerskin strap with a bulge in thetapered ends twisted fro lace of leather that ound around her soft chamois-skin wrap in such a way as to create the folds in which she carried things The wrap came off She stood naked except for the small leather pouch fastened to a cord around her neck—her a more naked without her amulet than she did without her wrap, but the s

That was it, the sum total of her possessions, all she needed to survive—that and knowledge, skill, experience, intelligence, detere

Quickly, she rolled up her a in her wrap and put them in the basket, then wrapped the bearskin around it and tied it with the long thong She enfolded the bundle with the aurochs-hide tent and tied it behind the fork of the log with the vine

She stared at the wide river and the far shore for a while, and thought of her tote with all her precious possessions into the river downstrea herself at the forked end, Ayla grabbed the protruding stubs of former branches and launched her raft with a push