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

by C. S. Bills

  “Why Soantek? I’ve never even seen the two of you together.”

  “Soantek says the moment he helped pull me out of the river, he knew I’d been sent to him by the spirits. That I was to be his.” Keanu blushed as she continued stroking the grass beside her. “He sensed my Gifts.” Keanu met Attu’s eyes, hers pleading with his for understanding. “And he’s not frightened by what I can do. Or overwhelmed. He has his own way with the spirits of fire and water, and in many ways our Gifts are alike. Did you know he communes with those spirits and they speak to him?”

  Attu drew back, trying to comprehend what it would be like to communicate with water and fire.

  “It wasn’t just that one time facing the killer whale fish. In his own way, Soantek mind shares with these forces of Nuvikuan-na, much like I can with the animals and birds.”

  “Oh.” Attu was beginning to understand how Soantek and Keanu would have been drawn to each other.

  “But why all the secrecy?”

  “I told him we needed to be careful.” Keanu plucked a green stem, rolling it between her fingers.

  Attu raised an eyebrow, studying her.

  “And just for that reason!” Keanu threw the piece of grass into the air in disgust. It caught on the breeze from the river and floated farther than Attu would have expected. He watched it finally fall to the ground a spear’s length in front of them. “I know what people would say,” she added. “What is Keanu, weird Keanu with her weird Gifts, the woman who left her own people to follow a grief-stricken woman and her son back to another Clan, what does she want with another Clan’s shaman? Why did she come in the first place? Did the Seers finally shun her? Is that the real reason she came? Did she do something to the Seers? Did someone finally catch her dabbling in their mind and convince the others to make her go?”

  Keanu stood up as if to leave, turning away from Attu, brushing at the sudden tears falling down her cheeks. “You’ve heard Veshria’s tirades. And I know she’s crazy with grief right now. I feel sorry for her. But I lived with that prejudice my whole life with the Seers. Not loud and in my face like Veshria’s rants, but it was always there, just under the surface. A few thought that because I could, I must be entering their minds as well as the minds of animals, to listen to their thoughts, or perhaps I might try to control them in dreams.”

  Keanu took in a deep breath, trying to steady herself. “Ashukat worked to make his people understand that the last place I would ever want to put my own consciousness is in another person’s mind, but a few didn’t believe him. And those few seemed to influence the rest.”

  Keanu’s whole body shook with emotion as she turned back to Attu, searching his eyes as she continued. “When I was very young, I did accidently enter Veshria’s mind. It happened before I got control of my Gift. At first, I didn’t even know what was happening to me, I was just suddenly seeing out another person’s eyes, hearing her thoughts, knowing how she felt. It was a terrifying experience, being inside a person’s mind, not anything like being in an animal’s. And I’m sure it was frightening for Veshria as well. She never forgot. Nor has she ever forgiven me.” Keanu shuddered. “She had the darkest thoughts...” Her voice trailed off and she stood, her eyes now vacant.

  Attu stood and reached for Keanu’s shoulder, but when his fingers touched her, Keanu pulled away and turned her back toward him again. “My Clan does not think you are evil and should be shunned,” Attu insisted. “No one has said such things.”

  “Your people have been supportive of me, so far.” Keanu brushed the back of her forearm across her face. “And Meavu has been amazing through all of this trouble with Veshria. Meavu has become my friend. Do you know I’ve never really had a friend before? She is another reason I wanted to stay with your Clan. But perhaps, with Veshria still blaming me, and what little help I’ve been able to give you, you’d rather I just stay here with Soantek.”

  With those words Keanu seemed to lose the energy to stand, and she collapsed back on the grass. She was turned toward Attu now, but she looked down, her light hair hiding her face as it sparkled like golden drops of rain in the sunlight.

  “We just want to be together,” Keanu said, her voice barely a whisper, her eyes full of unshed tears. “Soantek is willing to give up his people for me. For you.” Keanu turned back, her eyes now clear. Steady.

  “Me?”

  “I told him I wouldn’t go with him because you need me. I explained to him that without proper training, your Gift will kill you. I’m responsible for you having the Gift in the first place. I’m the one who came to you in the dream, and only after that did your mind start fighting you, trying to enter into the minds of birds again. I have no idea how it happened, but it happened. Somehow, your struggle now must be because of me.”

  “You could just stay here with Soantek,” Attu spoke softly now, meeting Keanu’s eyes to make sure she understood. “You could stay and have a fresh start with these Nukeena, who have nothing but regard for what Soantek does as their spiritual leader. You could stand by his side, and everyone would look up to you as both his woman and a Gifted person in your own right, as someone they would respect and welcome. I won’t force you to stay with us. I see how painful it is for you with Veshria right now, and I don’t know if and when that will end. If I were you, I’d want to escape, too.”

  Keanu looked out over the river, tilting her head as if to listen better to the water tumbling over the rocks. The two sat in silence for a moment before Keanu spoke again. “I do not run from my responsibilities, Attu. I face them, just like you. You are needed by your people, and you need me as well. I must somehow teach you how to use your Gift.”

  Keanu wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m afraid to allow you to enter my mind, but I will have to; it’s the only way I can think of to teach you. And you must have that instruction.” She glanced back down the path, back toward the camp, where even above the rush of river, Attu could hear the sound of someone calling to someone else and children playing a game of sticks and hide ball.

  “And this Clan needs another woman to help, now that your woman and so many others are with child. I can do both. Help you as Clan leader and help the others. New spirits are coming into the world, and as your Clan’s leader, you must make sure good decisions are made by all for the sake of Attuanin’s gift, so many Nuvik children coming from the spirits of the Between. In this new world we are headed to, they will be our strength. I want to be part of that world, Attu. And Soantek wants to be part of mine.”

  Keanu pulled her hair back with one hand and met Attu’s eyes again. This time hers were clear and bright, no tears. They compelled Attu to listen to not just Keanu’s words, but her spirit as well. “You must lead your new Clan to Broken Rock Bay and the waters that have been prepared for you all. Soantek says it’s the ideal place for the two of us as well. He’s willing to learn the ways of the skin boat and give up the whale hunt. He’s willing to turn his spiritual leadership over to Dran, the Nukeena healer. And Cray is willing, also. Cray says it’s good that two of his people will join ours. Then we’ll always be not just friends, but family.”

  “And he is willing to do this for you. For me.” Attu held up his hand in the signal of the hunter for her to wait. He needed to think. How can I agree to Soantek giving up his Clan just because Keanu might be able to help me? That is too much to ask of another Clan’s spiritual leader, isn’t it? We saved their lives; perhaps the Nukeena feel they owe us such a great favor in return. But is it the right thing to do?

  Keanu took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. She rested back against the grass, and Attu felt the tension in her mind as she struggled not to say anything more, but give him time to consider what she’d already said.

  Attu sat for a long time, looking out over the river, thinking. He needed Keanu to teach him, and his Clan would soon need another woman’s capable hands to help as babies started coming into the Here and Now. Soantek was willing to make a great sacrifice in giving up his own p
eople, both for Keanu and for him. Keanu was willing to risk the ongoing problems with Veshria. Both Keanu and Soantek were people of honor. They would strengthen his Clan.

  Attu let his thoughts wander again, away from himself and Keanu, allowing them to drift like he did in his skin boat sometimes, letting the currents carry him where they would. It had worked in the past when he’d been trying to make an important decision. He needed to give room for his spirit to move, giving the deep parts of him a chance to have a voice. He sat. He drifted...

  Then, the river was gone. Attu was standing halfway up a point, a bay on one side of him, and in the distance, the mouth of the bay, littered with huge broken rocks. It was winter, and the bay was frozen. As Attu studied the six snow-mounded hills to the east, an odd feeling passed over him, as if he’d been here before, in this same spot, looking at these hills. The same light, the same sound of the wind over the ice, and something else...

  “Look!” Ubantu shouted. Coming over one of the hills was the strangest sight Attu had ever seen. Fast running animals that looked like small bears with long curling tails were moving toward Attu’s Clan’s snow houses. Somehow, these animals were tied together, like a string of fish, and on the tail end were sledges.

  Attu’s heart pounded as he saw men riding on the sledges, dressed in furs but with their heads bare, holding onto some sort of support with one hand and moving spear-like tools with long ropes attached to them over the backs of the animals. They were like long fish spears, only much more flexible, and Attu sensed they caused the animals to run. He stared in wonder as one man jerked back his hand, and a moment later he heard a sharp crack, as if ice had split under foot. The sound echoed out over the bay. With the echo came a sense of dread rolling over Attu like a wave.

  Lips popped.

  Attu turned to his father, Rovek, and Soantek, who’d accompanied him on this hunt today.

  And now we are too far away. How can we save our families? Attu’s cry was desperate. He called to Rika to warn the others, prepare. He flashed her a picture of the men and the beasts.

  I see them. I will protect our children. Do what you have to do.

  He heard her cry out to Farnook, Tingiyok, and Keanu, and knew his people would be as ready to defend themselves as they could be if the strange men and beasts came up over the last hill and saw their camp.

  But Attu realized they might be able to gain time to flee to the caves, if he, Soantek, and Keanu could enter the animals’ minds and turn them. If they could get them to race away from the camp for a good distance, then, by the time the men got control of them again, Attu’s people would be in the caves, ready to defend themselves.

  And then Attu saw the future, flashing before him like the Here and Now, but moving rapidly. He saw the beasts turning, saw his people fleeing, saw them sheltered in the caves, and saw all the defenses in place. He fell to his knees. The plan will work. But how do I know it? This is not just the foreknowledge Gift, Attu thought. This is more...

  “Attu, what’s wrong?” Rovek asked.

  How do I know this? How can I see this future as if it’s happened before?

  Attu’s body shook as if he were standing wet in a freezing wind... And then he remembered. I HAVE seen this before, a long time ago, back by the river that day when I spoke with Keanu...

  Attu felt his heart hammering within him. He was no longer standing on the frozen point. He was sitting on the grass, Keanu beside him, and it was warm. A breeze ruffled his hair, and no enemies pulled by strange beasts were anywhere in sight.

  Keanu had sat up and was staring at him, her eyes wide with fright. “What was that?” she said.

  “Did you see it, too?”

  “Yes, like how we communicate in mind speak, only I could see and hear it, too. I saw the men and beasts.” She shook her head. “I’ve never experienced anything like that. Have you?”

  “No. Not like this. Not since I saw what Meavu showed me. But that was just a moment or two ahead of the Here and Now. What I just Saw must be many many moons in the future, several turnings of the seasons ahead. Rika said ‘children.’”

  Keanu clasped her hands tightly together. “You saw the future through Meavu?”

  “Just a moment ahead. This was like that time, but also much more...” Attu felt his spirit shaking within him. “This can’t be happening to me.”

  Attu’s mind was spinning. “It was so real, as if I were there. Not watching from some other point, but there, inside myself, experiencing it. It was like flying with the falcon, only even then I was aware that something was happening to me. This time, I was just there, unaware I was Seeing the future until I remembered I’d seen it before. Then I was back here again.”

  “And you weren’t dreaming. Your father, and Rovek, and Soantek were there, too,” Keanu said. “Rika cried out for me in mind speak. I was there. Back at our camp. So we must come with you to your new home.” Her voice held an awe that matched Attu’s own.

  “Yes. You both come,” Attu said. He stood, willing his knees not to shake. “The spirits have made it clear. You will come with us and both of you will be needed in ways I will only know when it’s time for you both to use your Gifs. Please go tell Soantek. Tell him what you saw, and have him come back with you.”

  Chapter 19

  Everyone with Gifts, along with Yural and Ubantu, had been called to gather in Attu’s shelter. Soantek and Keanu arrived first. They sat in silence, their hands joined.

  “You look like you’ve seen a spirit,” Rika whispered to Attu as sat beside him. “What is this all about?”

  Attu took her hand, but he did not speak. It was strange to be sitting in his shelter in the middle of the day, but he’d needed a private place for them to talk. And as he sat, Attu drew comfort from the familiar things of their shelter surrounding him. He was still shaking, as if his body had been dragged by an ice bear’s sharp claws across the Expanse. At that thought, Attu felt his back tighten across the scars from the real ice bear’s attack. They still pained him, especially after a day’s hard paddling. He’d grown used the chronic pain of them the rest of the time. But this? This upheaval within my spirit is far worse.

  Attu’s parents and Farnook slipped into the shelter, followed by Tingiyok and after a moment, Meavu. His sister looked pale, and Rika moved to help her sit.

  “Something happened. You Saw into the future without me, didn’t you,” Meavu said, not waiting for Attu to begin explaining. Her hands moved restlessly as she spoke.

  “How could he–” Yural began.

  “I felt it,” Meavu interrupted. “How could that happen?”

  “Calm, my young Seer,” Tingiyok said. “Attu doesn’t have the Gift to See beyond the Here and Now except in dreams. Right, Attu?”

  Attu looked at Meavu. She sighed, then explained to Tingiyok and Farnook what the others already knew, what she’d done the night of the bonding, and how Attu had Seen what she’d experienced.

  “That doesn’t give him the Gift for his own,” Tingiyok said. “Attu, what happened?”

  Attu began explaining.

  Rika looked skeptical, and she started to interrupt Attu, but Keanu said, “It’s true. You need to believe him. He saw this future. He was at Broken Rock Bay, and the others were with him as he described. We were about to be attacked–”

  “–by people on sledges pulled by small bears,” Tingiyok said, his voice smooth although he looked as if he, too, did not believe them.

  “Yes,” Attu said. “I’d been talking with Keanu, and I was thinking about Soantek’s willingness to leave his Clan for me. It felt like too much to ask of him, of the Nukeena–”

  “You said yes.” Rika smiled and reached for Keanu’s free hand, the one Soantek was not still holding. Both of them were grinning.

  “I’m so glad for you,” Yural said. “The spirits bless your bonding.”

  The others spoke words of congratulations as well, then Meavu touched her spirit necklace, fingering it gently, as she brought t
he subject back to what Attu had experienced. “Seeing into the future is a tricky thing, like the dreaming, Attu. You could be mistaken about what you saw.”

  “It was as clear as the other night,” Attu said.

  “It had to have been as if he were there, or I wouldn’t have seen it like I did.” Keanu turned to Tingiyok. “I’m wondering. Is it possible the old stories are true?”

  “It couldn’t be.”

  “But doesn’t this seem like the same thing? What’s happening to Attu?”

  “What stories?” Ubantu asked. His eyes searched between the two Seers.

  “There are ancient stories among the Seers about a person who was born with Gifts.” Tingiyok paused.

  “And?” Farnook pressed the Elder.

  Tingiyok sighed. “As time passed, this person acquired more and more Gifts. He figured out a way to take the Gifts of others. He was called ‘The Snatcher,’ or sometimes ‘Devourer.’ In all of the stories, this Gift snatcher is described as more spirit than person. He could travel in the Here and Now and also in the spirit world of Between like only spirits are supposed to be able to do. He stole the Gifts of other Seers and made them his own.”

  “I haven’t stolen anything!” Attu said, his face reddening. “What are you talking about?”

  “They’re stories, Attu,” Tingiyok said. “Tales the Elders would tell to young children with Gifts to make them appreciate what they were born with, to protect their talents and nurture them. Nothing more.”

  “But as we learned from Elder Nuanu, many of our old stories were more than that. Many were true, passed down so that when it was time to come off the Expanse, our people would know what to do,” Yural said.