Still no one would say.
"I think we'd better take you back and let the Councils decide what to do with you. The Sisters will find some way to let you work off your urge to fight, and make a good example of you, besides. Maybe they'll even ban all of you from mammoth hunts."
"Don't tell on them, Tarneg," Druwez pleaded. "Dalen was only trying to stop them."
"Stop them? Maybe you should tell me what this fight is about," Tarneg said.
"I think I know," Danug said. Everyone turned to look at the tall young man. "It's because of the raid."
"What raid?" Tarneg said. This was sounding serious.
"Some people were talking about making a raid on a Sungaea Camp," Danug explained.
"You know raiding has been banned. The Councils have been trying to negotiate a friendship fire and establish trading with the Sungaea. I hate to think of the trouble a raid would cause," Tarneg said. "Whose idea was this raid?"
"I don't know," Danug said. "One day everyone was talking about it. Someone discovered a Sungaea Camp a few days' away. The plan was to say they were going hunting, and instead go and wreck their Camp, steal their food, and chase them away. I told them I wasn't interested, and I thought they were stupid to do it. They would just make trouble for themselves and everyone else. Besides, we stopped at a Sungaea Camp on our way here. A brother and sister had just died. Maybe it isn't the same Camp, but they probably all are feeling bad about it. I didn't think it was right to raid them."
"Danug can do that," Druwez said. "No one's going to call him a coward, because no one wants to fight him. But when Dalen said he wasn't going on any raid, either, then a whole bunch of them started saying he was afraid of a fight. That's when he said he'd show them he wasn't afraid to fight anyone. We said we'd come with him so they wouldn't gang up on him."
"Which one of you is Dalen?" Tarneg said. The boy with the broken tooth and bleeding mouth stepped forward. "Who are you?" he said to the other one, whose eye was already turning black and blue. He refused to answer.
"They call him Cluve. He's Chaleg's nephew," Druwez volunteered.
"I know what you're trying to do," Cluve said sullenly. "You're going to put all the blame on me just because Druwez is your brother."
"No, I wasn't going to put blame on anyone. I'm going to let the Council of Brothers decide. You can all expect to get a summons from them, including my brother. Now, I think you'd better clean yourselves up. If you go back to the Meeting looking like that, everyone will know you were fighting, and no one would be able to keep it from the Sisters. I don't have to tell you what will happen to you if they find out you were fighting about a raid."
The young men hurried to leave before Tarneg changed his mind, but they left in two groups, one with Cluve, the other with Dalen. Tarneg made a point of noticing who went with whom. Then the three of them continued back to the Meeting.
"There's something I'd be interested in knowing, if you don't mind," Jondalar said. "Why would you let the Council of Brothers decide what to do with these young men? Would they really keep it from the Council of Sisters?"
"The Sisters have no tolerance for fighting, and won't listen to any excuses, but many of the Brothers went on raids when they were young men, or were in a fight or two, just to make a little excitement. Didn't you ever fight someone when you weren't supposed to, Jondalar?"
"Well, yes, I guess I did. And got caught, too."
"The Brothers are more lenient, especially toward the one who was fighting in a good cause, even though Dalen should have told someone about the raid rather than fighting to show them he wasn't afraid. It seems easier for a man to condone that sort of thing. The Sisters say fighting always leads to more fighting, and that may be true, but Cluve was right about one thing," Tarneg said. "Druwez is my brother. He wasn't really encouraging the fight, he was trying to help out his friend. I hate to see him get into trouble for that."
"Did you ever fight anyone, Tarneg?" Danug asked.
The future headman looked at his younger cousin for a moment, then nodded. "Once or twice, but not too many men want to challenge me. Like you, I'm bigger than most. Sometimes those competitions are more fight than anyone admits to, though."
"I know," Danug said, with a thoughtful expression.
"But at least they are under watchful eyes that won't let anyone get badly hurt, and they don't get carried any further and start a revenge fight." Tarneg glanced at the sky. "It's close to noon, later than I thought. We'd better hurry if we want to hear about the mammoth hunt."
When Ayla and Talut reached the clearing, he led her toward a slight rise off to one side that lent itself naturally as a gathering place for smaller groups and was used for both casual and special meetings. One was in progress and Ayla scanned the crowd of people looking for a glimpse of Jondalar. That was all she ever saw of him lately. From the moment they arrived, he seemed to lose himself in the throng, leaving Cattail Camp early in the morning, and coming back late, if at all.
When she did see him, he was often with some woman, usually a different one each time… She found herself making disparaging remarks to Deegie and some others about his many partners. She was not the only one. She'd heard Talut remark that he wondered if Jondalar was trying to make up for the whole winter in one short season. His exploits were talked about by many around the Camps, often with humor and a backhanded sort of admiration, both for his apparent stamina, and his obvious appeal. It wasn't the first time that his attractiveness to women was the subject of talk, but it was the first time he didn't really care.
Ayla laughed at the comments, too, but in the darkness of night, she held back tears and wondered what was wrong with her. Why didn't he ever choose her? Yet there was a strange comfort in seeing him with many different women. At least she knew he hadn't found any particular one to replace her.
She didn't know that Jondalar was trying to stay away from Cattail Camp as much as possible. In the closer quarters of the tent, he was much more conscious of her and Ranec sleeping together – not in the same bed every night, since she felt she needed the privacy of her own bed sometimes – but next to each other. It was easy enough to stay around the flint-working area during the day, and that led to invitations to meet people and share meals. For the first time since he was a young man, he was making friends on his own, not with the help of his brother, and he discovered it wasn't so difficult.
The women gave him an excuse to stay away at night, too, if not all night, at least until late. He had little real feeling for any of them, but he felt guilty about using them for a place to stay, and made up for it in the way he knew best, which made him all the more irresistible. It had been the experience of many women that a man as handsome as Jondalar was more concerned with satisfying himself than her, but he was skilled enough to make any woman feel well cared for. It was a release for him, he wasn't having to fight his own powerful urges as well as trying to cope with his confused feelings, and he enjoyed the women, but in the same way he had always enjoyed women, on a superficial level. He hungered for the deeper feelings he'd always searched for and that no woman aroused in him, except Ayla.
Ayla saw him coming back from the Wolf Camp's flint mine, along with Tarneg and Danug, and as she often did when she saw him, she felt her heart pound and her throat ache. She noticed Tulie approach the three men, and then saw her walking away with Jondalar while Tarneg and Danug continued toward them. Talut waved the two over.
"I want to ask you about the customs of your people, Jondalar," Tulie said when they had found a private place to talk. "I know you honor the Mother, and that speaks well for you and your Zela… Zelandonii, but do you also have a ceremonial initiation into womanhood with understanding and gentleness?"