THE SHELTERS OF STONE

Broud didn't need her help when he asked, but he made demands all the time. He invented things for her to do just because he could make her do them-bring him a drink of water, tie on his leg coverings. He could claim that she was just a girl and had to learn, but he didn't care if she learned, and it didn't make any difference when she tried to please him. He wanted to show his power over her because she had resisted him, and women of the Clan did not willfully disobey men. She had made him feel less than a man and he hated her for it, or perhaps at some instinctual level he knew that her kind were different. It had not been an easy lesson for her to learn, but she had learned, and it was Broud, with his constant demands, who taught her, but Jondalar was the recipient. She was always aware of him, and it occurred to her that was why she was always uncomfortable when she didn't know where he was. She was that way about her animals, too.

Suddenly, as though thinking about him had made him appear, Wolf was there. It was her right hand and Jondalar's left that were tied together, and she stooped down and hugged him with her left. She looked up at Jondalar.

"I've been worried about him, wondering where he was," Ayla said, "but he seems rather pleased with himself."

"Maybe he has reason," Jondalar said with a grin.

"When Baby found a mate, he left. He came back to visit once in a while, but he lived with his own kind. If Wolf has a mate, do you think he'll decide to leave and live with her?"

"I don't know. You've said before that he thinks of people as his pack, but if he's going to mate, it has to be with his own kind," he said.

"I want him to be happy, but I would miss him so much if he never came back," Ayla said, standing. Most of the people around her were watching her with the wolf, especially those who didn't know her well. She signaled him to stay close to her.

"He's a very big wolf, isn't he," one of the women said, edging back a little.

"Yes, he is," Levela said, "but people who know him say he has never threatened people."

At that moment a flea decided to annoy the wolf. He sat down, hunched himself around, and started scratching. The woman tittered nervously. "That certainly doesn't look very threatening," she said.

"Except to the bug that's bothering him," Levela said. Suddenly he stopped, cocked his head as though he was hearing or smelling or perceiving something, then stood up and looked up at Ayla.

"Go ahead, Wolf," Ayla said, signaling his release. "If you want to go, go ahead."

He raced off, weaving his way around people, some of whom looked rather startled when they caught sight of him.

The next joining was not of a couple, but of a triple. One man was mating identical twin sisters. They did not want to separate, and it was not uncommon for twins, or just sisters who were close, to become co-mates, although it could be difficult for one young man to try to provide for two women and their children. In this case the man was a little older, well established, with a good reputation and high status. Even so, the chances were that they would bring in a second man someday, although one never knew.

By the time the final couple was reached, people were getting bored with the inevitable repetition, especially when the ceremony was for someone they didn't know, but the last ones brought some interest again. When Joplaya and Echozar came forward, there was a collective gasp from the people watching and then a buzz of conversation. Though neither one of the two had the usual appearance of the Zelandonii, and the audience knew that they were in fact not Zelandonii but Lanzadonii, they were still a shocking sight for some of the people there.

They saw a tall, slender, exotically appealing woman with dark hair and an ethereal beauty that was hard to describe. The man beside her could not have looked more different. He was slightly shorter, with such strong and unusual features, most people saw them as ugly. His thick browridges, accented by heavy, unruly eyebrows, protruded like a shelf over his dark, deep-set eyes. His nose was prominent, partly because the front of his rather long and broad face jutted forward, and partly because his nose, sharply defined and shaped rather like the beak of an eagle, though not as narrow, was enormous, yet it was in proportion to the size of his face. Like many men, he usually let his beard grow in the winter, because it helped to keep his face warm, but he shaved it in summer. He had recently shaved and his heavy jaw was clearly defined, but like the people of the Clan, he lacked a chin-almost. He had the hint of one, but with his nose protruding out so far, he appeared to have a weak, receding chin.