Bear Heart

by K. J. Colt

  Bear Heart

  by K. J. Colt

  Copyright ©2013 K. J. Colt

  All rights reserved

  Editing: Red Adept Editing

  Cover Design: Phatpuppy Art

  Formatting: Ted Risk

  Dedication

  To all women. You’re stronger than you think.

  Chapter One

  The smell of burning flesh lingered in my nostrils and stuck to the back of my throat. My stomach churned, and I squeezed my eyes closed, focusing on breathing through my mouth. Father kept pushing the scorching steel against my arm. I growled like a bear to fight the pain, and onlookers returned my call. Beads of sweat trickled down my temples and cooled my skin. Father removed the glowing iron that bubbled with the remnants of my flesh. I braved a glance at my shoulder, eyeing the raw wound. Soon, it would scab and turn into a bear claw scar to match Father’s.

  But before then, I would take part in the Bestial Passage tomorrow, competing against the firstborn of four other tribe leaders. My tribe were known as the Bears, and thus I knew I would have to fight a bear and return with a limb or bone from it. I didn’t know exactly which part or how I was to kill it.

  Father made me stand up. I met the eyes of warriors, mentors, counsellors, and other Bear kin who served my father directly. The cries and shouts of other tribes emanated from other parts of the city encampment, which consisted of several wooden huts, a council hall, and thousands of large tents. Flames from a nearby bonfire licked at the first stars penetrating the afternoon sky.

  ‘They believe in you, Klawdia,’ Father said. He smiled at me and stroked my arm lovingly.

  His nearness put me on my guard. From him, closeness usually meant a threat of some kind. Mother had died giving birth to me and so had never borne sons. Behind closed doors, Father condemned me for her death, but tonight, for the sake of presenting a united front to my people, he acted like a loving father.

  The mountain pass between my home, Vilseek, and the ocean was silhouetted in the warm reds and oranges of the setting sun. To the left, the Death Peaks were stark and breathtaking. The largest of the mountains disappeared into the clouds. They towered so high people said climbing them would take you to the stars. That was where I would be tomorrow.

  A reveller jumped through the fire, and one of his feathers caught alight. He landed clumsily on the ground while his friends stomped at his pants, laughing and pointing. Father’s upper lip curled at the spectacle. The city overflowed with tribes from across Ruxdor. They had journeyed here through the snow for weeks to witness this momentous event, but Father had tired of the noise and the constant partying from dawn ’til dusk.

  Despite the disruption to my city, the Bestial Passage was vital. The Bear tribe had ruled all others for centuries, and now I had to fight for my right to rule Ruxdor after Father’s death. If I had been a boy, this would not have happened, but since I am the first and only child, and a girl, I must prove my worth.

  ‘You’re deep in thought, my daughter,’ said Father. ‘Even though you are the youngest of the challengers, you are the best with a dagger. Your tenacity and agility make you deadly, but still the Wolf will be crafty and the Lion silent and swift.’

  Praise from Father was rare. Following my first steps as a child, Father put a dagger in my hand then had scolded and criticised me since. I’d learned from the best warriors, listened to the wisest men, and hunted many animals. I was strong now, determined, swift, and deadly. I couldn’t lose.

  Daylight loitered while the slush on the ground froze in the icy winds. The bonfire grew as more people added wood. Dancers jumped and kicked and twirled. The moon rose behind the Death Peaks, bathing them in a soft white light. The greentimes were ending, and the snowtimes would soon smother the land, and the people of Ruxdor would struggle and fight over the limited resources.

  ‘I do not fear the others,’ I said to Father. I knew these lands as well as I knew the swirls and lines etched into the hilt of my dagger. I’d spent years studying the snow bears. I knew how they fed, slept, and played. They were like us in many ways. They preferred to live peacefully but, under threat, would fight to the death. And soon I would face and kill a bear.

  Father moved away to greet the tribes gathering around the fire. They filled the gaps between the huts and tents. The other competitors stepped forward: Skelkra of the Wolves, Jeykal of the Hawgrald Birds, Ketnal of the Lions, and Lild of the Snakes. Skelkra was dressed in a cape with wolf headdress and tail. He wore a hardened expression. Tribal girls gathered about him, fetching him wine and feeding him meat. I watched them with envy until Father returned to my side.

  ‘Tell me your plan again.’ Father wanted me to reassure him I was truly ready. However, I was insulted that he would even ask. Fighting was as natural to me as breathing and blinking. From the age of two, I had spent thirteen years of my life mastering every skill. To say I was ready was an understatement.

  I lifted my face to the sky. ‘I will follow the sun and moon until I find the bears’ feeding grounds in the valley of the Death Peaks. I will kill one and fight the elements to return home quickly.’

  Father clasped his hands and looked down at the snow made yellow by firelight. I studied his worn features; the harsh weather of our lands had taken its toll on his once-smooth skin.

  ‘Remember, do not challenge a mother bear. Find one without young to protect; their fight will be weaker.’

  I took an arrow from a nearby quiver and twisted its wooden shaft in my hands, thinking how the lines of the steel resembled the ridges of a mountain. Both contained a deadly tip. ‘I could rule now. I would see us through the winter fed and safe. Why should I prove anything?’ I glowered for a moment. I rarely lost a fight, and I’d been with Father to every diplomatic meeting. I knew how to govern my people.

  Father stared at me. His twilight eyes had paled with age, and his once-fiery hair had greyed to the colour of the moon. Tonight, he wore a cape made from the white pelt of a snow bear. He also wore a circlet of bear teeth around his forehead, and his hands were painted white like bear paws. The Wolf leader, Skelkra’s father, wore a necklace of wolf teeth. The Snake clan leader wore the fangs of snakes. The Lion leader wore the soft white furs of the snow lion, and the Hawgrald leader wore the jade-coloured feathers of a hawgrald, a deadly bird known for terrorising Ruxdorians.

  ‘Women serve men, and you must prove that you can be a man before you may lead.’

  ‘I know,’ I said, unable to keep the bitterness from my tone.

  Gevilka, Ruxdor’s oldest medicine woman, stood dressed in a black robe before my four challengers. Her frizzy white hair blew across her face in the strong breeze. Her hips had hardened with age, and she walked as though she were crossing a rocky stream. The large crowd fell silent.

  With two slender arms, Gevilka raised her hands to the sky. ‘And so it begins! The challenge of the five strongest tribes: Bear, Wolf, Lion, Snake, and Hawgrald. Come forth, challengers.’

  Placing the arrow back in its container, I joined the others. Every eye fell on me. I puffed out my chest, took lengthy strides, and kept my chin high. It felt degrading to act like a strutting man, but I did what I must to win the respect of my people. The others lined up beside me. We grasped each other’s hands. Gevilka shuffled closer. Five plates of blood were placed before her. She picked up mine first; I knew it contained bear’s blood. She marked my forehead. Next, she marked Jeykal, Lild, and Ketnal. Lild and Ketnal were seventeen and Jeykal sixteen. Gevilka moved to the oldest challenger, Skelkra, the next leader of the Wolf tribe. Skelkra and I had hunted many times together. We’d grown up having snow wars and hunting rabbits in the greentimes.

  He caught my eye. I swallowed. My body tingled as he continued to stare at me. My attention fixed on his l
arge fingers twitching around mine, the movement engulfing my senses, making the unexplored areas of my body burn with desire. I thought about rubbing my fingers across his, but decided against it. We’d flirted, and we’d wrestled, but he’d given no certain indication he felt as deeply as I did.

  His chest rose and fell in the firelight. His nipples hardened from the icy breeze, and my notice of it flooded my body with a strange sort of energy. I turned away for a moment, collecting my thoughts. His hand flexed over mine. Memories of our play fights flooded my mind, both of us grappling for the advantage in a scrap. On occasion, I’d pinned him to the snow, only to have him pin me back again. One day he’d hovered over me, ice in his hair, mud on his face, and I was sure he would kiss me. He hadn’t.

  We were destined to bond one day, bringing the Bears and the Wolves together. Everyone expected it, and over the past few weeks, we’d grown closer; my heart swelled with the memories of our hunts. I tried to steal a glance at his face, but he caught me and smirked. My cheeks warmed with embarrassment. I turned back in time to see Gevilka leaning toward me. I flinched a little.

  She whispered in my ear, ‘Beware the wolf that shows you his fangs.’ She lowered her head, and a cautioning look replaced her sombre expression.

  A wolf? I looked back at Skelkra, and he smiled at me, showing his teeth. Did she mean him? Skelkra had worked with my father and his father to negotiate an alliance between our country and the country of North Senya, just south of our borders. Why should I be afraid of him? When we were bonded, he would rule alongside me. I should not fear.

  To my right, Jeykal, my closest of friends, squeezed my hand to get my attention. He was small, but Lild, the Snake boy, was smaller. Jeykal was an expert marksman, which made sense given that the only way to kill a bird was to shoot it down. His bow sat diagonally across his torso. He’d made it himself. It had taken him a year, but he’d finally finished the beautiful weapon.

  Intricately carved vines wound around the bow’s top and bottom. Two golden wings stretched from the grip. The silk bowstring gleamed under the firelight. Someone had started the rumour that Jeykal had been born with a bow in his hand. I’d later joked that he’d probably been born clutching his nether regions. Well… at least I’d found it funny. I owed everything I knew of archery to him.

  ‘Nervous?’ he asked me, squeezing my hand again.

  I shook my head. ‘Never. You?’

  He snorted, but his gaze fell on something afar. ‘Wonder where I’ll wake up?’

  ‘Base of the cliff face. No doubt they’ll make you hunt a hawgrald. The imeks have flown south, and the pekats are too far north. I’m sure of this. You’ll be scaling the cliffs, so be careful.’ I worried about him. While he had the lean figure needed to climb the Death Peaks, the hawgralds were aggressive and would happily devour him if they could. Not to mention he’d be easily carried off.

  Jeykal rubbed his hands together, and his decorative feathers swished. ‘Haven’t been to the nesting grounds since my father took me last year. Do you know what you have to bring back?’

  I shook my head. ‘A claw, I bet, or a head maybe.’

  Jeykal bit his lip. ‘I hope it’s a claw.’

  I agreed with him. A bear head would be heavy, maybe weighing a sixth of my own body weight. A claw would be easy to bring back.

  Gevilka raised her hands again and spoke a prayer to the surrounding world. ‘Let these cubs, pups, chicks, and snakes return home whether they bring their prizes or not.’

  ‘Here comes the bad part,’ Jeykal whispered from the corner of his mouth.

  Gevilka held a tree-shaped goblet. The Cup of Sleep. It hadn’t been used since the last Bestial Passage. People gasped and whispered as she gripped it with two bony hands.

  Tomorrow we would wake, cold and alone, our heads pounding with headaches, and we’d be constantly stalked by Watchers, select elders from other tribes who watch to make sure we don’t cheat. Watchers wouldn’t intervene—not even to save our lives. I wondered who’d follow Jeykal, though. Someone plagued with the stiffness of age would never be able to climb the cliffs with him.

  ‘Who’s your Watcher?’ I asked him.

  ‘Don’t know. You?’

  I shook my head. ‘I don’t know either.’

  ‘Been many years since the last Bestial Passage. At least two hundred.’

  ‘Yes.’ I thought of Mother. I had never known her, but I was sure I would have liked her. She’d favoured the arts over fighting and worked for peace and cooperation between the tribes. Father had said she’d brought many of them together. In the north, tribes such as the Fox and the Boar clung to ancient grudges. They kept their distance, but we knew the ice valleys in which they dwelt brought them suffering. Mother wanted them to move south to live in Vilseek, but the idea only angered them.

  I looked around at the other challengers. Ketnal, the Lion boy, seemed confident; Lild, the Snake boy, appeared focused. Lild stared at the ground, and I knew he was considering his plan. Tomorrow, I might be forced to kill one of these challengers. I didn’t want to, of course, but if they threatened me, I would fight back.

  Ruxdor’s armies consisted mainly of Bears, Wolves, and some Lions. The rest of the Lions focused on hunting and trading. The Snakes and Hawgralds ran Vilseek’s farms, organising produce and wares and managing the workers. Those workers consisted of people from the Frog and Goat tribes that served the rest of us, not by choice but by force.

  I felt Skelkra’s sea-blue eyes tugging at the back of my head, and I turned around. He was smirking at me again, and I was distracted by the curves of his strong body. Did he want me? I closed my eyes. Love. I’d been tossing that word about in my mind for the past week. Did I love him? A Wolf and a Bear, once bonded, would be a strong alliance for my people.

  We moved into a circle and passed the Cup of Sleep around, taking large gulps. The liquid tasted of salt and sap; the smell of it overwhelmed me. A common game among the tribes called Strength of Somnus involved taking bets on who could fight the effects of Devsod, the drug I was ingesting. Gevilka took the cup away, and we stared each other down while the effects took hold on our minds and bodies. My thoughts grew sluggish, and I noticed other challengers’ limbs buckle, then straighten, and then bend again. Amusement germinated inside of me. Heads sagged, eyes rolled, and I fought the drug. A smile touched my lips as I looked at Jeykal, whose legs trembled.

  Skelkra fell to the side of me, and I chuckled, but then my own body began to buckle. I fought my heavy eyelids, my numb fingertips, and my weakening legs. My knee bent for a moment, but I straightened it. Lild and Jeykal were on the ground trying to sit back up. Ketnal, Skelkra, and I remained upright, although Skelkra fell to his knees. Slowly, I did the same. I decided to play dirty and make the others laugh.

  ‘Floppy and wobbly,’ I said, knowing my tongue was slack, which made the words sound like child speak.

  Ketnal laughed the hardest, and his legs gave way. Once on the ground, his body went limp. Skelkra gave a small chuckle but stayed kneeling.

  And then everything went dark; I couldn’t see. I knew I was still on my knees. My eyes were open, and I was awake. When Skelkra fell into me, I knew he’d passed out. From behind, someone pulled me to the ground. For a moment, my vision returned, and Father’s face stared down at me.

  ‘Win,’ he said, and I sank into blackness.

  Chapter Two

  Thump. Thump. Thump. Pain throbbed in my temples. Something moved beside me. I sat upright, and the world rushed by as if someone was spinning me about. I shut my eyes and grasped at my aching jaw. My ears ached too, and my nose. I peered to the side. A woman sat nearby, her gaze steady. It was Thixal from the Lion tribe, my Watcher. When I was young, Thixal had told me stories of my mother to help me sleep. I hadn’t seen her in months, and now I knew why.

  ‘Greetings, Watcher,’ I said through gritted teeth. The ache in my head overwhelmed me.

  She moved closer and handed me a square of something fib
rous. ‘For the pain. Eat.’

  The dry herbs stuck to my mouth, and I swirled my tongue around, trying to dislodge them. She threw a knapsack at me. I searched for water and found a half-filled skin. I slurped at the contents and rinsed my mouth. I gauged my location, recognising the mountains in the distance, the summits nearby, and the trees in the valley. I resumed digging through the bag, hoping to find boots or cloth, anything to wrap around my feet.

  Impatiently, I dumped the contents into the snow. I glanced at Thixal hovering over the fire. She ate bread, and her face glowed as she faced the rising sun. I looked down at my body. My shirt and pants had been taken, leaving me with undergarments that did little to cover my skin. I fumbled with the knot of a smaller bag and accidentally ripped its sides. I cursed, took a breath, and slowed my movements. Mistakes were often made in haste.

  I lined up my items: dagger, skinning knife, bow, salt, water pouch, small pot, and a piece of parchment with a drawing on it. It showed a bear’s head severed from its body and the picture of the knife that lay on the snow before me. I picked up the weapon and touched the tip with my thumb. A droplet of blood swelled and trickled down my finger. I wiped it on my undergarments, grabbed the cord of the main bag, and slid the blade along it. It split apart in one stroke. A bear’s skin was tough to penetrate, but once it was pierced, only a soft insulating layer remained.

  I stared up at Thixal. ‘Anything else? ‘

  ‘You must kill the bear with the knife. Other than that, no.’ She placed a finger over her lips, signalling the end of any further communication.

  I looked up at the blue sky. With the sun peeking over the eastern mountains, long morning shadows stretched across the lands. Clouds were scarce, and the fog had mostly lifted. I was amongst the Death Peaks, close to Death Valley. The bear they’d drawn was specifically a snow bear; other bears could not survive in our harsh climate, anyway. Most of the snow bears would have found caves to hibernate in. The rest would be gathering food at the river. Their bodies would be slowing for the long sleep through snowtime. They’d be slow and sluggish, making them slightly easier to fight.