Broken Rock Bay (Clan of the Ice Mountains Book 3)

by C. S. Bills

  “I bet they would have traded a few women for some of those iron stone tools,” one of the hunters whispered.

  Attu had been thinking the same thing. He looked around to see if any other Nuvik hunters had heard the man’s comment, but instead his attention was drawn to Soantek and the others, who had pulled out their sacred objects and were now holding them in their hands as Cray continued to speak to Farnook.

  Rika reached for Attu’s hand, and he saw Meavu and Rovek sitting side by side, Rovek’s arm around his sister.

  Attu forgot about tools as he looked around at all the women and children of his Clan. What would I have done, he considered, if much time had passed and I had no one to hunt for, no woman to warm my sleeping skins at night, no children or elderly to protect?

  You would find someone to protect and hunt for again, for you are a mighty hunter of the Nuvikuan, Rika spoke softly into his mind, her voice tender, full of love and pride.

  “The Nukeena offered them much. All they could possibly afford to give up, even some of their iron stone. But the other Clans would not trade with the Nukeena,” Farnook translated.

  Lips popped as the Nuvik hunters reacted to what seemed an impossible turn of events.

  “Not trade for iron stone?” Rovek said.

  “They must not have seen how it cuts wood,” another hunter said.

  Then the Clan grew quiet as tears filled Farnook’s eyes. Everyone knew she was thinking of how Suka had tried to trade for her, and even with a necklace of ice bear teeth and claws, had failed. He’d become desperate enough to steal Farnook from the Ravens and make it look like she’d been killed, dragged away and eaten by a rock bear.

  “And it is not the Nukeena way to take women by force,” Farnook added as Cray’s brows drew together in a fierce scowl.

  Several Nuviks popped their lips in agreement.

  Cray spoke again and gestured north with his hands. “They abandoned their search to the south and turned north,” Farnook said. “One of the men from the Clan they’d tried to trade with said the Ravens had never come back south. Everyone was on the lookout for those vile people, and–” she paused and asked Cray something. He answered her, and she spoke again. “He says they finally realized the Nukeena men were telling the truth about the raid on their Clan and that they weren’t friends with or part of the Raven Clan. For an iron stone knife, he was willing to tell the Nukeena the Ravens must have continued north, never returning south.”

  How angry they must have been, realizing they’d been searching in the wrong direction all that time and no one had trusted them enough to tell them.

  Attu thought about how his own Clan’s experience with the Ravens had changed the way they’d looked at the Nukeena. The instant Attu’s people had seen those large canoes, they’d been afraid and ready to kill every Nukeena hunter if they had to. Fortunately for the Nukeena, even their strongest men had been near death. Attu’s people had remembered their honor and had saved these men. He understood how other Clans would fear the Nukeena on sight.

  “They headed north until the ice stopped them,” Farnook continued.

  “How did they miss the Raven settlement?” Ubantu asked. Others wondered aloud with him.

  “Rika and I found the Seer Clan by following the curved rocks on the mountain heights when we came off the ice,” Attu said. “The rest of you walked south and found our signs on the beach. But the bay and river where the Ravens set up camp is just one of so many others we’ve seen along the coast, doubling back on itself, hidden from just a short distance out on the water.”

  “Ubantu saw this bay, and if he hadn’t, we would have paddled right past it,” Yural added.

  “Some mist from the trees or a day of fog on the water and the smoke from our fires would be hidden. That must be what happened,” Rovek said.

  Heads nodded

  Farnook listened to Cray as he spoke again, and Attu could tell she was explaining what the others had said. He nodded.

  “Finally, just a short while ago, the men gave up searching to the north. They headed back south, back to their own settlement. They’d decided to wait a while, then go in a smaller group, one canoe at a time, and try again to trade for women. It was all they could think to do.”

  “Ai,” Cray said, and the other Nukeena men agreed. “Ai.”

  Soantek spoke rapidly now, and Attu could tell Farnook was having a hard time understanding him. Her ability to speak the Nukeena tongue had grown rapidly over the last two days. Farnook said she hadn’t realized just how much Caanti had taught her until she’d been called upon to use it again.

  “I believe the spirits knew I would need it,” Farnook had added.

  Farnook interrupted Cray, who repeated something to her.

  “He says that on their way back to their own settlement, they were attacked.”

  Chapter 10

  “Who attacked them?” Ubantu asked as several of the men popped their lips and leaned forward. “More Ravens?”

  Farnook looked confused as Cray continued speaking. He was watching her face as he spoke, making sure she understood him, and now he gestured as well. With one hand he imitated a large animal swimming up out of the water, and with his other hand he made a cup, like a boat. The one hand circled the other, faster and faster, and Cray showed the boat spinning. The creature he’d made with one hand grabbed the boat he’d made with the other and shook it like a nuknuk shaking a fish.

  Killer whale fish, Attu thought. That’s how they killed the Ravens, by circling the boats and capsizing them and eating the men. They must have attacked the Nukeena the same way.

  “Wait,” Attu said. He moved to the firelight and taking a stick, drew an animal in the sand. He took some ash from the edge of the fire and sprinkled it in the right places to show the black areas on the killer whale fish’s body.

  “Ai,” Cray said. Several other Nukeena hunters stood and examined the drawing. “Ai.”

  “Killer whale fish attacked their canoes,” Attu said. “How many?”

  Cray shrugged, then spoke to Farnook.

  “He says he doesn’t know how many killer whale fish there were. Many.”

  “Nadowna,” Attu said. “What I was trying to ask was how many Nukeena there were. How many canoes were lost in the killer whale fish attack?”

  Farnook spoke to Cray again. He held up nine fingers.

  “Nine?” Attu heard the collective gasp of his people as his stomach tightened. Attu felt light-headed as the killer whale fish attack on the Raven’s canoes he’d witnessed with Tingiyok flashed back into his mind. The screams, the blood in the water, the man severed in two with one snap of the killer whale’s teeth...

  Cray spoke again. Farnook paled. “That was just a few days after–”

  Cray interrupted her. Farnook nodded. Soantek added something, and another Nukeena hunter said something else.

  “Twelve canoes of hunters returned that day long ago,” Farnook relayed, “the day they found their people slaughtered by the Ravens. And just about two moons ago they were north of here, twelve canoes heading back south to their old settlement, when they were attacked by the killer whale fish. One by one their canoes were overturned. The men tried to fight off the whale fish with their spears, but the killer whale fish were not like the large ones they hunt far out in the Great Ocean. They were smaller, quicker, and smarter. They circled the canoes, targeted them one at a time, and destroyed them. The others could do nothing to save their fellow hunters. They watched,” Farnook flinched, “and heard their men being eaten. Most were eaten alive.”

  “How did these men survive?” Meavu asked. Several other hunters and women asked the same thing, and soon everyone was talking so loud that Farnook could not hear Cray.

  Attu motioned for all to be quiet.

  “They cried out to their spirits of fire and water,” Farnook said as Cray spoke again. Cray was motioning his plea, holding his sacred object over his head and calling out as if he were surrounded by killer wh
ale fish at that very moment.

  “An answer came to Soantek.” Farnook looked to the Nukeena’s spiritual leader.

  Soantek stepped forward and spoke softly, almost reverently. Farnook interpreted, her voice now also low, hesitant. “The spirits told them what to do. They said, ‘Do not fight back. Lie down in the bottoms of your canoes, very still, and drift. Do not cry out; do not move. Pretend you are dead.’”

  “He heard directly from his spirits?” Yural asked. Her eyes grew large with wonder.

  Farnook didn’t answer her, but kept speaking, translating Soantek’s words, occasionally asking him something, then having him repeat. Attu could see she was both tired and having difficulty following him, but was determined to figure out what he was trying to tell her.

  Finally, she spoke again. “Soantek says it was the hardest thing he has ever done, not to fight the killer whale fish, but to lie down in their canoes and wait to be eaten.” She paused and looked around at her people. She clenched and unclenched her hands.

  “What else did he say?” Attu asked.

  Farnook took a deep breath, careful not to meet anyone’s eyes. “He said they were terrified.”

  All around Attu, lips popped, people gasped, then murmured.

  Farnook had turned away from Attu and was staring at the fire. For a moment she was the old Farnook, the one Attu remembered interpreting for Kagit, present in body only, the rest of her having fled to some safe place deep in her mind.

  “He said that?” one of the Nuvik hunters asked Farnook. “He said he was afraid?”

  Some of the older Nuvik hunters shook their heads. One spit off to the side in disgust. An older woman reached for Farnook as if to grab her by the arm to make her repeat what she’d said, but Farnook shook the woman’s hand off, folding her own arms tightly across her chest. She continued to stare into the fire.

  The murmuring continued. The hunter who had spat rose in disgust, as if to leave.

  “No,” Attu glared at him. “Sit down.”

  The man sat again, scowling.

  Attu stood and made the motion for silence. Still, the murmuring continued.

  Something inside Attu snapped.

  “Of course they were afraid.” Attu heard the sarcasm in his voice, but he didn’t care. He stood, moving his arms outward to include every one of his people in his gesture. He raised himself up tall, balancing on his toes and letting himself take the traditional leader’s pose, the one he’d always hated to see Moolnik using to get his way. But something inside Attu drew him on and he let it control him, feeling a rush of power in his spirit even as he stood.

  “Enough of this hunter lie of never admitting fear,” Attu commanded. “These Nukeena are strong and brave. But they think they are about to be eaten, swallowed alive. They are trying to survive by doing the one thing that is hardest to do – nothing. How would you feel if the spirits told you to stand still in the face of an ice bear attack? Could you do it? I’ve seen men eaten by killer whale fish. It’s a horrible death. Of course they were terrified. You would be, too.” He glared at the man who had spit.

  The hunter looked away, dropping his head.

  “The brave among us are those who admit their fear but do not give up, do not quit or run.” Attu’s voice carried to the edges of the camp, and he felt the power in it. “That is the true Nuvik way. You will not lose respect for these men because they tell the truth about their terror. Instead, we need to learn from such brave men as these. We must also tell the truth and admit our fear when we are afraid. It shall be so from now on.”

  Attu felt himself growing taller and stronger as he spoke these words. It was as if his declaration was not his own, but something his name spirit, Attuanin, and all the other spirits of the hunters gone Between were saying through him. He felt their strength within him rising up and commanding obedience.

  Attu’s hand sliced down on his outstretched palm, signaling the end of all discussion, all argument. Silence had fallen as he spoke. As his words echoed back to him, a log cracked in two, its pieces falling on each side of the fire, loud in the quiet.

  The Nukeena hunters stared at Attu, then back at the fire, which had seemed to emphasize Attu’s hand gesture, finalizing his words. They looked confused, obviously not knowing what Attu had said, but seeing the reaction of the others, they knew it was important.

  Attu looked around at his people and brushed aside the Nukeena’s confusion. When he’d spoken, it had felt as if he were speaking from a great height, as if he were speaking for all Nuviks, past, present, and future, as if his voice held the voices of others, others who had desired to be honest with how they had felt, but had been denied the right because of some stupid tradition started by men. Attu thought about all the things a man might do or believe just to make himself seem more of a true and mighty hunter. He thought of the lies of Moolnik, the abusiveness of Banek, and Yupik demanding that he alone kill the ice bear that had killed his woman. He thought about Kagit and his thirst for power at all costs.

  All around the fire, both hunters and women stared at Attu, and he saw the wonder he was feeling at his own power reflected in their eyes.

  I am not those others. I will lead by truth. And the spirits are with me!

  Attu stood, as still and as strong in the firelight as one of the tall thick pines in the stillness of the forest behind him.

  “So be it.” Yural rose, and her voice carried to the edge of the firelight as she broke the silence. “You heard him speak with the voice of the spirits and hunters gone Between. Truly both are with him.”

  The Nukeena hunters were still watching them, looking even more confused and anxious.

  They have no idea what just happened, but they know something did, and it has disturbed them as much as it has the rest of us. How do I explain this difference of our peoples? How do I tell them that until this moment, my people held fast to a lie I’ve been fighting my whole life? And they have given me the opportunity to change my people’s way of thinking forever? Or at least to take an important first step?

  Attu stood there, not knowing what to do next. He felt suddenly deflated, as if he were a seal skin float pierced with a spear, the air rushing out of it as the power rushed out of him, leaving him feeling weak on his feet. He felt himself staggering as everyone continued to stare at him.

  They look like they think I’ve actually grown the wings I’ve had in the dreaming and the visions.

  Attu sat, sliding himself back into the shadows away from the firelight.

  Rika took his hand, but said nothing.

  “What happened then?” Rovek asked, as if Farnook had paused for only a breath and nothing else had happened.

  Attu flashed Rovek a grateful look, but Rovek’s attention was on Farnook. The others turned to her again, and Attu felt the weight of everyone’s gaze lift from him.

  What just happened? Attu thought, feeling overwhelmed by the sudden power he had felt and the certainty he was right that had come upon him out of the blue, before it fled as quickly as it’d come.

  “The men did as their spirits told them,” Farnook said.

  Rika squeezed Attu’s hand, pulling him back to the Here and Now.

  “They’d been at the rear of the group of canoes, separated from the others by many canoe lengths. After the last of the men in the other canoes were gone, the killer whale fish circled their canoes, and they thought they’d be next. But although the killer whale fish bumped their canoes roughly, many times, they didn’t use their bodies to flip them over. A storm was coming from the east, a rare occurrence, and the wind blew their canoes. He says they were moving fast, out into the deeper water and away from the bay. The killer whale fish did not follow them, but continued north along the edge of the bay. They lost sight of them within a short while.”

  “Nadowna fuva owani nosha,” Cray said. Cray shuddered as he spoke, and his eyes held a vacantness that tore at Attu. It had been excruciating to witness the Ravens’ death by killer whale fish attac
k, and they’d been vile men set on killing every one of Attu’s people. He couldn’t imagine watching his own hunters being killed in that same way. It must be causing Rememberings among the Nukeena hunters worse than Attu’s had ever been from the ice bear attack.

  “Nadowna help,” Cray said.

  We could not help them.

  Cray motioned with his hands, many days. Many, many days they’d been blown out to sea in the storm. He gestured rain falling, and bailing water out of canoes to drink. He moved his arm as if trying to spear something. “Nadowna fuva owani nosha,” he said, rubbing his stomach.

  They had water but no food.

  Cray motioned again. Attu and the others watched as he gestured a wind change, now from the west. He held up his sacred object. He motioned paddling. More paddling. He wiped his brow. He moved as if staggering.

  Heat. Now, no more water. No food.

  Soantek moved up beside Cray. He motioned tying one canoe to the other. More paddling. Then, seeing this bay, seeing a place to land their large canoes. Hands grasped sacred objects again.

  Answered prayer to their spirits.

  Soantek shrugged as if to say, “You know the rest.” The Nukeena hunters sat down.

  “What do they wish to do now?” Ubantu asked. “There are so few of their Clan left, and they are still very weak. Do they want to return to the Raven camp and find their women?”

  Attu glanced around the group. Many of Attu’s hunters clutched their weapons now, eyes watchful, faces still. Attu knew what they were thinking. These Nukeena men wanted women. In the past, Nuvik Clans had sometimes fought over women. Would the Nukeena consider trying to take some of ours?

  If the Nukeena grabbed a few of the women in the night and headed out to the Ocean depths with them in their large canoes, where the People’s small skin boats could not follow, they could go north or south, and if they were careful, Attu and his men would never find them. The shoreline was vast, the bays endless. Even the Nukeena, searching with all their skills, had missed the entire Raven Clan’s settlement, as well as Attu’s and the Seers’. Attu’s men might never get their women back.