Read Online The Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel - Free Book Online

seen many things.” He glanced at Ayla. “If you had not seen it, would you have believed people could ride on the backs of horses or make friends with a wolf? I have more things to tell you that you will find hard to believe, and some things to show you that will make you doubt your own eyes.”
    “All right, Jondalar. You have convinced me. I will not question you again … even if I do find what you say hard to believe,” she said, and then smiled, with a mischievous charm that Ayla had not seen before. For a moment, the woman looked years younger, and Ayla understood where Jondalar got his smile.
    Marthona picked up her cup of wine and sipped it slowly, encouraging them to finish eating. When they were done, she took the bowls and skewers away, gave them a soft, damp, absorbent skin to wipe their personal eating knives before they put them away, and poured them more wine.
    “You’ve been gone a long time, Jondalar,” she said to her son. Ayla had the feeling she was choosing her words carefully. “I understand you must have many stories to tell about your long Journey. You, too, Ayla,” she said, looking at the young woman. “It will take a long time to tell them all, I would think. I hope you do plan to stay … for some time.” She looked significantly at Jondalar. “You may stay here as long as you like, though it may feel crowded … after a while. Perhaps you will be wanting a place of your own … nearby … sometime.…”
    Jondalar grinned. “Yes, mother, we will. Don’t worry, I’m not leaving again. This is home. I’m planning to stay, we both are, unless someone objects. Is that the story you want to hear? Ayla and I are not mated yet, but we will be. I already told Zelandoni—she was here just before you came in with the wine. I wanted to wait until we got home so we could be joined here and have her tie the knot, at the Matrimonial this summer. I’m tired of traveling,” he added with vehemence.
    Marthona smiled her happiness. “It would be nice to seea child born to your hearth, perhaps even of your spirit, Jondalar,” she said.
    He looked at Ayla and smiled. “I feel the same way,” he said.
    Marthona hoped he was implying what it seemed, but she didn’t want to ask. He should be the one to tell her. She just wished he wouldn’t try to be so evasive about as important a matter as the possibility of children born to her son’s hearth.
    “You might be pleased to know,” Jondalar continued, “Thonolan left a child of. his spirit, if not his hearth, with at least one Cave, maybe more. A Losadunai woman named Filonia, one who found him pleasing, discovered she had been blessed soon after we stopped. She’s mated now and has two children. Laduna told me that when word got around that she was pregnant, every eligible Losadunai man found a reason to visit. She had her pick, but she named her first, a daughter, Thonolia. I saw the little girl. She looks a lot like Folara used to, when she was little.
    “Too bad they live so far away, and across a glacier. That’s a long way to travel, although on the way back, it seemed close to home.” He paused thoughtfully. “I never did like traveling that much. I would never have traveled as far as I did, if it hadn’t been for Thonolan…” Suddenly he noticed his mother’s expression, and when he realized whom he had been talking about, his smile faded.
    “Thonolan was born to Willamar’s hearth,” Marthona said, “born of his spirit, too, I’m certain. He always wanted to keep moving, even when he was a baby. Is he still traveling?”
    Ayla noticed again an indirectness to the questions Marthona asked, or sometimes didn’t ask but made clear nonetheless. Then she recalled that Jondalar had always been a little disconcerted by the directness and frank curiosity of the Mamutoi, and she had a sudden insight. The people who called themselves the Mammoth Hunters, the people who had adopted her and whose ways she had struggled so