There were general expressions of agreement to his suggestion, then Brecie said, "I think a big contest is a good idea, Talut. I wouldn't mind seeing two or three days of it. We've been working on a throwing stick. Some of us have gotten several birds from a flock with one throw. In the meantime, I think we should let the mamuti work out the best day to leave, and do some Calling for mammoths. And if we have nothing more to talk about, I have to get back to my Camp."

The meeting started to break up, then there was a sudden flurry of interest as Vincavec strode into the clearing, followed by his Camp, the delegation that had been talking about adopting Ayla, and the last of Lion Camp, Nezzie and Rydag. The people from the delegation began to spread the news that the Mamut-headman of the Mammoth Camp was willing to pay any Bride Price Tulie wanted for Ayla, in spite of the fact that she was already Promised.

"You know he claims the right to name his Camp after the Mammoth Hearth, just because he's Mamut," Jondalar heard a woman saying to another woman nearby, "but he can't claim any hearth until he's joined. The woman brings the hearth. He just wants her because she's a daughter of the Mammoth Hearth; to make his so-called Mammoth Camp acceptable."

Jondalar happened to be standing near Ranec when he overheard someone tell him. He was surprised to feel a sense of compassion when he saw the dark man's expression. It occurred to him that if anyone knew how Ranec was feeling at that moment, he did. But at least he knew that the man who had convinced Ayla to live with him loved her. It seemed obvious that Vincavec wanted Ayla just to serve his own purposes, not because he cared about her.

Ayla, too, was overhearing pieces of conversation in which her name was mentioned. She didn't like overhearing. In the Clan, she could have averted her eyes so as not to eavesdrop, but when communication was entirely verbal, she could not close her ears.

And then, suddenly, she wasn't hearing anyone, except the tone of taunting voices from several older children, and the word "flathead."

"Look at that animal, all dressed up like people," an older boy said, pointing his finger at Rydag, and laughing.

"They dress the horses, why not the flathead?" someone else added, with more laughter.

"She claims he's a person, you know. They say he understands everything you say, and can even talk," another of the youngsters said.

"Sure, and if she could get the wolf to walk on his hind legs, she'd probably call him a person, too."

"Maybe you'd better be careful what you say. Chaleg says the flathead can make the wolf go after you. He says the flathead made the wolf attack him, and he's taking it to the Council of Brothers."

"Well, doesn't that prove he's an animal? If he can make another animal attack?"

"My mother says she doesn't think it's right for them to bring animals to a Summer Meeting."

"My uncle said he doesn't mind the horses, so much, or even the wolf, so long as they keep them away, but he thinks they ought to be banned from bringing that flathead to meetings and ceremonies that are meant for people."

"Hey, flathead! Go on, get out of here. Go back to your pack, with the other animals, where you belong."

At first Ayla was too stunned to react to the openly derogatory comments. Then she saw Rydag close his eyes and look down, and start to head back toward Cattail Camp. With blazing anger, she stormed up to the youngsters.

"What is wrong with you? How can you call Rydag an animal? Are you blind?" Ayla said with barely restrained fury. Several people stopped to see what was going on. "Can't you see he understands every word you say? How can you be so cruel? Do you feel no shame?"

"Why should my son feel shame?" a woman said, coming to her youngster's defense. "That flathead is an animal, and shouldn't be allowed at ceremonies that are sacred to the Mother."

Several more people were crowding around now, including most of the Lion Camp. "Ayla, don't pay attention to them," Nezzie said, trying to cool her rage.

"Animal! How dare you say he's an animal! Rydag is just as much a person as you are," Ayla cried, turning on the woman.

"I don't have to be insulted like that," the woman said. "I'm no flathead woman."

"No, you aren't! She would be more human than you are. She would have more compassion, more understanding."

"How do you know so much?"

"No one knows better than I. They took me in, raised me when I lost my people and had no one else. I would have died if it hadn't been for the compassion of a woman of the Clan," Ayla said. "I was proud to be a woman of the Clan, and a mother."

"No! Ayla don't!" she heard Jondalar saying, but she was past all caring.

"They are human, and so is Rydag. I know, because I have a son like him."

"Oh, no." Jondalar cringed, as he pushed his way forward to stand beside her.

"Did she say she had a son like him?" a man said. "A son of mixed spirits?"

"I'm afraid you've done it now, Ayla," Jondalar said quietly.

"She mothered an abomination? You better get away from her." A man came forward to the woman who had been arguing with Ayla. "If she draws that kind of spirit to her, it might get inside some other women, too."

"That's right! You better get away from her, too," another man said to the obviously pregnant woman standing beside him, as he led her away. Other people were drawing back, their expressions full of repugnance and fear.

"Clan?" one of the musicians said. "Those rhythms she played, didn't she say they were Clan rhythms? Is that who she meant? Flatheads?"

As Ayla looked around, she felt a moment of panic, and an urge to run from all these people who were looking at her with such disgust. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, lifted her chin and stood her ground defiantly. What right did they have to say her son was less than human? From the corner of her eye she saw Jondalar standing beside, and just behind her, and was more grateful than she could say.

Then, on her other side, another man stepped forward. She turned and smiled at Mamut, and Ranec as well. Then Nezzie was standing with her, and Talut, and then, of all people, Frebec. Almost as one, the rest of the Lion Camp stood beside her.

"You are wrong," Mamut said to the throng, in the voice that seemed too powerful to come from one so old. "Flatheads are not animals. They are people, and children of the Mother as much as you are. I, too, lived with them for a time, and hunted with them. Their medicine woman healed my arm, and I learned my way to the Mother through them. The Mother does not mix spirits, there are no horse-wolves, or lion-deer. The people of the Clan are different, but the difference is insignificant. No children like Rydag, or Ayla's son, could be born if they were not human, too. They are not abominations. They are simply children."

"I don't care what you say, old Mamut," the pregnant woman said. "I don't want a flathead child or a mixed one. If she already had one, that spirit may linger around her."

"Woman, Ayla is no threat to you," the old shaman replied. "The spirit that was chosen for your child is already there. It cannot be changed now. It was not Ayla's doing that gave her baby the spirit of a flathead man, she did not draw that spirit to her. It was the Mother's choice. You must remember, a man's spirit never lingers far from the man himself. Ayla grew up with the Clan. She became a woman while she lived with them. When Mut decided to give her a child, She could only choose from the men who were nearby, and they were all men of the Clan. Of course the spirit of one of them was chosen to enter her, but you don't see any men of the Clan around here now, do you?"

"Old Mamut, what if there were some flathead men nearby?" a woman shouted out from the crowd.