The Blessing Stone by Barbara Wood Page B

luck. She had in fact started out as any other girl. Laliari remembered when the clan had celebrated No Name’s first moonflow, how special she had been treated, according to tradition, everyone speaking her name in joy, pampering her and lavishing her with gifts and food. An even bigger celebration was held when a woman became pregnant for the first time and her status in the clan was greatly elevated. But when No Name’s moonflow kept appearing regularly, and the seasons came and went and she produced no baby, the people had begun to look at her askance until finally she became a pariah, stripped of her name and standing in the clan.
    Although Laliari had gotten used to the poor creature that had followed them from the Reed Sea, No Name’s shadowy presence now sent fear shooting through her. Without the moon, would they all eventually end up like her?
    Laliari curled anxious fingers around the magical amulet she wore about her neck, an ivory talisman that had been carved during the increase of the moon. She also wore a necklace made of over a hundred hornet bodies that she had painstakingly collected, dried, and cleaned smooth. They resembled small nuts and made a soft clacking sound as she walked. It was not for decoration but for the power of the hornet spirits to protect her and her clan, hornets being such fierce defenders of their own homes. And in a tiny pouch that hung from the woven waistband of her grass skirt were the precious seeds and dried petals of the lotus flower, her personal spirit-protector.
    But Laliari found little comfort now in amulets and necklaces. She and her sisters and cousins had lost their land, their men, and the moon. If only she could speak the name of her beloved Doron, what a comfort it would be.
    But names were powerful magic, not to be uttered frivolously, for a name embodied the very essence of a person and was directly connected to his or her spirit. Because names involved magic and luck and determined how a person’s life was to run, they were not bestowed lightly but only after great thought and a reading of signs and omens. Sometimes a name changed at adolescence, or after a major event in a person’s life. Or depending on a specific occupation they adopted, like Bellek, which meant “reader of signs.” Laliari, meaning “born among the lotuses,” had been so named because her mother had been drawing water from the river when her birth pains began. For the rest of her life Laliari was protected by the lotus flower. Keeka, “child of the sunset,” since that was when she had been born. Freer, “hawk spreads his wings,” had been the most powerful of their hunters. A name once used was never used again. Finally, it was bad luck to speak a person’s name after death as this summoned his unhappy ghost. And so Laliari had to let Doron’s name go unspoken, and therefore Doron himself, ultimately forgotten.
    She drew the gazelle hide tighter about herself. When they had found they could stand the cold no longer, the women had untied the bundles they carried on their backs, animal skins meant for creating shelters. At home, when the river was low they lived by the shore, but when the river started its annual rise and flooding of its banks, the people tore down their shelters and relocated to higher ground, building new shelters out of skins and elephant tusks. When they had been forced to flee from the invaders, the women had tied the precious skins into bundles and carried them on their backs. Now they used them as capes against the chill of this foreign land.
    As she shivered, Laliari thought of Doron again and how he had warmed her at night in her mother’s hut. Tears sprang to her eyes. Laliari loved Doron because he had been so kind and patient with her after the death of her baby. Although most men grieved over the death of any child, since it was a loss to the clan, they quickly got over it and could not understand a mother’s prolonged grief. After all, the men