At that moment, her relationship with Sumpter changed. He was aware of her thoughts, and instantly marked the difference in her attitude. He shook his head; keeping her in line until she learned what she had to learn would take some doing. He was very aware of her swift steps, the swish of her robe, and amused by his own illogical sense of hurt over her … comparative rejection. Rampa had instantly taken to Orona. Ma-ah had not been so compliant. And if she did not take to him, eventually someone else must be found to take his place. She must have children.

Ma-ah strode ahead silently, but now with a certain amusing arrogance, he thought. She was going to tease him quite purposely.

“Did you take to me at once?” she asked, suddenly stopping and turning to face him.

“Of course,” he said.

The simple statement disarmed and infuriated her. Sumpter didn’t even seem embarrassed.

“Good,” she said, shortly.

At this, he couldn’t help but laugh.

Later that day he tried to prepare her to attend the time-of-joining. “Just watch and listen,” he said. “I’m not going to explain what will happen now. I want to know how much you’ll understand on your own.” He told himself that she would do very well, yet when the day of joining came, he was vaguely uneasy. Would her resentment over Rampa and Orona inhibit the proceedings?

Ma-ah, however, was aware of no resentment at all. She stood with Sumpter amid groups of his people. A bare spot of land was before them. They all stood staring at it and smiling, splendid giant-sized people with bare heads now, their robes bright and festive. “Watch well,” Sumpter whispered.

“Everything is a lesson,” Ma-ah said, adding, “some lesson,” as she stared over at Rampa and Orona, who stood together in the center of the clearing.

An odd expectant silence fell. Even knowing as little as she did about Sumpter’s people, Ma-ah was alerted. Each face was quietly smiling, but no one spoke. Around the clearing chunks of rock were piled, haphazardly it seemed, some very large, some hardly bigger than stones. No one moved, yet Ma-ah sensed some change in direction that she couldn’t comprehend. Her fingers tingled as they did when she touched the sound-embossed cave drawings, yet she was touching nothing. She heard no sounds, either normal ones or the inner kind that the embossed drawings gave her.

Inquisitively she turned to Sumpter. What was he doing? What were all of them doing? Sumpter’s head was thrown back, his eyes oddly masked, secretive, dreamy, yet excited. They glittered. His lips were closed, yet very gently. His throat muscles weren’t moving, yet she had the impression that they were. Ma-ah sensed the weirdest kind of rising tension, weird because everyone looked so delightfully relaxed and quiet. How could they stand so still, though, she wondered. Could Rampa? She glanced over at him.