Blooded Ground (Clan of the Ice Mountains Book 2)

by C. S. Bills

  Tingiyok dropped his hand as Ashukat turned back toward the path and walked into the forest. Attu watched Tingiyok as the man sighed and brushed his hand over his face before walking toward the beach, alone. Silence fell over the camp as the last Seer turned a bend in the path and disappeared into the forest.

  “Using the Seer Clan’s old boats and practicing at the hunt will make us ready to leave once our boats are finished,” Attu said. He and his father were working on Attu’s skin boat. “Perhaps it’s because Attuanin is my name spirit, but I don’t feel strange when I’m on the water.”

  “He is most powerful there,” Ubantu agreed. “Attuanin will help you on the hunt. We need hides. Suka is very good at spearing the seal animals. He has enough now for his own skin boat and will share with us.” Ubantu fastened a hide to the side of Attu’s boat with small stitches of sinew.

  Meavu sat at the edge of Attu’s parents’ shelter, motionless in the late afternoon shade. She was crying.

  Attu knelt beside her. “What’s wrong, little Kip?”

  “Tomorrow, I go to the shelter the women have built for me, near the great forest. I’ll remain there for seven days and seven nights. I will seek my spirit name. When I return, I will remain as Meavu, Meavuria, if the Elders happened to choose rightly at my birth, or I will become someone else.”

  “You will still be my little Kip,” Attu assured her.

  “No, I will never be little again. I’ll be a woman. It’s a great responsibility. I’ve been instructed in the ways of the women, Attu. Secret ways, the ways I must tend the fire and provide the home and clothing and cook the food in the Here and Now, and the ways I must fight and protect our people in the Between beyond death, when I am one of the hunters and the men are the keepers of the great starry fires in the sky.”

  “You are brave and a true Nuvik, my sister,” Attu moved to sit beside Meavu. “You’ll be a great woman in the Here and Now, and you will be a great hunter, like Elder Nuanu, in the Between. You are wise like our mother and you will be strong.”

  “How can you know this?” Meavu’s eyes searched his for reassurance.

  “Because when you faced an ice bear your first thought was to protect little Shunut, not to save yourself. You could have left him, but you picked him up and ran with him. This proves you are brave.”

  “Oh.” Meavu had stopped crying and her face grew thoughtful.

  “I’m proud you are my sister,” Attu added, and put his arm around Meavu. “I’ve thought of you as young for too long. All the while we traveled across the Expanse you were growing up before my eyes, but I couldn’t see it. Now, I do. You will be a strong woman of our Clan, and someday, a strong woman of your man’s Clan.”

  “I don’t ever want to leave Mother and Father and you.” Meavu sniffled. “Now that Rovek is gone...” she began crying again.

  Attu wrapped his arm more tightly around his sister. “Someday you will meet another good hunter. And you will want to be with him. But until then,” Attu reassured her again, “you’ll still be my little Kip.”

  Meavu clung to him.

  Late afternoon sun slanted between the cedar trees as Meavu walked ahead of the women of both Clans. Her hair was slicked into two shiny braids, rich with seal fat. It dripped onto the woven grass dress covering her to her knees. Her arms, legs, and feet were bare, and her hands and feet had been painted with bright swirling spirit designs of fire and wind and ice. Her front teeth had been blackened to appear worn down, a sign of great beauty to the Nuvik because it meant she had chewed the hides well, making them soft. In time, Attu knew, Meavu’s teeth would indeed wear down, once he took his people north again.

  The women sang and moved in step to the hide shelter among the trees.

  “It should have been made of ice,” his mother had remarked to Attu, “and perhaps we should have waited another moon or so. But who knows what it will be like as we move north again? This will have to do.”

  Yural disappeared into the shelter with her daughter, pulling the flap closed behind her. The rest of the women stood outside, surrounding them. Stone bowls appeared, and the flicker of flames grew as each woman lit her own from the one beside hers. They continued singing, high clear voices drifting back toward the caves. Attu thought he heard Rika’s voice mingled with the rest, but he couldn’t see her. She must be on the other side of the shelter. His chest tightened at the thought of Rika, singing for his sister.

  “Soon Meavu will be bonded,” Attu heard one of the hunters say to another as they gathered around a nearby fire.

  “Yes, then perhaps Yural and Ubantu will have the grandchild they’ve both been waiting for.”

  “The spirits favor whom they will favor with children,” the first replied, tutting like an old woman over a worn out mik.

  Attu felt his face redden in the shadows. He moved away from the fire and into the darkness.

  Is everyone talking about us? He wondered. I am to be the father of many sons and daughters. I must believe in what Elder Nuanu said. She knew more than these old hunters ever will. But his spirit sank within him as he walked down to the water. It hasn’t been that long yet. But others think we should have children right away because we have Gifts, so must have the favor of the spirits...

  Clutching the spirit necklace he always wore, Attu turned his back on the others and faced the ocean, praying to Attuanin to allow him to ride the waves above his kingdom safely, his woman behind him in the boat, his parents and his sister beside him in their own, heading toward the land of his dreaming, of ice and water, rocks and trees. There he imagined the sounds of many children, his children, calling to him across the fire in his own shelter, as the sound of singing, the breeze through the trees, and the smell of smoke from the endless fires filled the air around him, drawing his spirit on the wind, north again, where his heart longed to be.

  Chapter 9

  “I’m trying to ignore the sense of evil lurking about this place,” Attu told his father. “But we must also leave soon. Even though the Raven Clan haven’t threatened us, this place is not safe.”

  “Earlier, a Raven man came to Suka to trade. Did you know that?”

  “No.”

  “And I heard Yural say other hunters went with this Raven man to discuss trading ice bear claws for some tool the Ravens have.”

  “We should go back to the Raven Clan’s camp, pretending to trade as well, but really to keep an eye on them,” Attu said. “Do you think we should start having two hunters watch them, as we did before?”

  “What good would it do? If the Ravens wished to attack us, we wouldn’t be able to survive, warning or not. I think we need to have every hunter working on boats, so we can leave sooner, while the weather continues to warm as Ashukat said it would for a few more moons, and the ocean remains calmer than he says it is in the colder moons.”

  “I have dreamed again.”

  “Of what, my son?”

  “The same dream I told you about before. I see a wall of fire, of flames, like liquid coming down upon me. And I move into the flames instead of away.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Rika has dreamed. But I don’t think she’d want me to share it.”

  “When she is ready, I hope she will share it with me.”

  The next morning, Attu was working on his boat when Suka came by. He studied Attu’s boat, tightening a piece of sinew that had worked loose on the opposite side where Attu was currently pulling it tight to the frame.

  “Yours is finished?” Attu asked.

  “Yes. I was able to use one of the Seer Clan’s boats since I’m slimmer and taller like they are. It just needed a bit of widening at the top hole. Now I’m working on a larger one to carry supplies.”

  The two worked together in silence for a while before Suka sighed and sank down onto the sand. He began sifting it through his fingers as he stared out over the water.

  “I just keep thinking how I want to take a woman and head north, travel far enough to find the ic
e again. Maybe not always frozen ice. Maybe that doesn’t even exist anymore, but a place where the ice would bear the weight of a hunter at least in the colder moons, and the rest of the year I could live on the shoreline, like here.”

  “I keep thinking about it, too. The way things used to be, when the most important thing was which of us would get the most snow otters and when the storytelling would last through the whole long night.”

  “The games of spear throwing and blanket tossing for the pairings, and even though we were sometimes hungry, those were mostly good times.”

  And this time you wouldn’t have your father harassing you all the time.

  “It will not be the same as before,” Attu said. “Nuvikuan-na will never be the same as it was when we were children.”

  “Perhaps it can be better,” Suka said. His voice was now eager as if he, too, was considering life without his abusive father. “We can make our own way. Paven’s Clan and the Seers are gone. Now we can do as we please. It’s our time.”

  “Yes, it is,” Attu agreed. “We’ll finish our boat building and go. But what is this talk of a woman to go with you?” Attu suddenly had a disturbing thought. “Meavu?”

  Suka’s face dropped. “No. She is like a sister to me. I could never think of her that way. And there are no unbonded young women with us, now that the other Clans have left. Those women didn’t want a life in the cold north along the ocean. I tried...”

  “Keanu?” Attu asked.

  “How did you know?” Suka picked up a stick and drew patterns in the sand. “She wouldn’t consider leaving her brother or the other Seers.”

  “You know, I’ve been thinking about that,” Attu said. He stopped working and sat beside Suka, facing the rolling waves out on the bay and enjoying the breeze blowing through his hair, drying the sweat on his face. It was hot work, pulling on the hides and holding them taut while he sewed them together. His fingers were raw, too. He rubbed his hands. “When we head north there will be few of us. We won’t have other Clans to meet up with as we used to, or the lone hunters who sometimes came into our camp, looking for a woman.”

  “What will I do then?” Suka asked. “And what will the younger ones do when they are grown and need a bond partner?”

  “I know the Seers will be quite far away most of the time,” Attu answered. “But there are many Clans that have gone before us into the grasslands, and they’ll circle north to south with the tusked animals. I believe we’ll be able to communicate still, much as we did when we were called off the ice. I have experience with the dreaming now, and I believe Rika and I will be able to learn where the Seers or other Clans are, at least the ones with Gifts. Tingiyok will be able to help us, too. Those other Clans will probably be eager to meet somewhere in the middle, between our normal ranges, and exchange women and hunters much as we did on the Expanse.”

  “But that won’t be for some time, probably,” Suka said.

  “No. It won’t.”

  The day after his conversation with Suka, Attu found his father down by the beach, working on his large skin boat, big enough for four people, or three with many packs or much game.

  “Come with me to the Raven Clan’s settlement, next sun,” Ubantu said.

  “Why?”

  “To learn how they work the trees, the ones they cut down and call ‘wood,’” Ubantu answered. He hefted a large stone tool with a handle made from a tree limb attached at both ends and a sharp blade. “Suka traded this for two ice bear teeth, some that I gave him. Suka called this tool a shaper. He said the Ravens do many things with wood. North, there will still be some trees, don’t you think? Shouldn’t we learn what we can about working the wood into things we might be able to use?”

  “And we can use trading as an excuse to keep an eye on the Ravens, also, like I was thinking we should,” Attu commented as he looked at the tool. “But north, will there be much wood? Enough for us to use?”

  “I want to be prepared, in case we do find there are trees big enough to use to build things as far north as we decide to travel.” Ubantu hefted the shaper tool in his hands, as if getting used to its weight. “I want to know how they cut such long pieces of flat wood to make their shelters, too.” He put the tool down on the skin boat rack. “Come with me to the Raven’s camp next sun,” Ubantu urged. “Bring Suka. We’ll learn together.”

  The next morning, Attu, Suka, and Ubantu went to the Raven Clan camp. At the last moment, Rika joined them, along with Yural and Meavu. Yural and Meavu wanted to see how the women of the Ravens preserved food. They’d learned much from the Seer women about how to preserve meat combined with nuts and berries – foods they’d never seen before coming to this new land – and after having eaten some of the Ravens’ food, the Clan women thought the Raven women might also have skills they could learn. Rika wanted to speak with their healer.

  Kagit gestured a welcome as they entered the clearing. He was standing near the entrance to the largest cedar house, looking up at a tree. The tree was covered with bits of food and bone, tied with sinew and dangling in the wind.

  “We bring no evil.” Ubantu bowed, showing his empty hands. “What is that?” He pointed to the tree.

  “Ganhada,” Kagit said. “You call raven spirit tree.” From the woods the sound of cawing preceded a flurry of large black wings. Three ravens, their black feathers iridescent in the sunlight, landed on the tree and began picking at the food dangling from it. One bird attacked another, stealing its bit of meat and flying high up into the tree, where its weight caused the branch it was perched on to sway wildly. Still, it managed to gulp down the morsel.

  Kagit laughed.

  “But why do you do this?” Ubantu asked.

  Kagit smiled and snapped his fingers. Farnook appeared from behind one of the cedar houses, her arms loaded with firewood. He spoke to her.

  Farnook turned and explained about the tree. “The Raven Clan offers a bit of every meal to the Raven spirits. This is the Raven tree, Ganhada, place where the Raven is supreme, or you might say is held high. To the Ravens it is sacred, all places like this, set aside for the Raven spirit. Ravens tie the food on its branches. Also, Ravens offer small shiny objects to their Raven spirit, their Ganhada. The Raven spirits like to use them to line their nests. In return, the Raven spirit warns this people of what is to come. Storms, and other things. Raven knows all. These are His messengers, His watchers. The Raven Clan always treat ravens with great honor, great respect.”

  Kagit asked Farnook a question and she relayed it to them. “Kagit asks what is your totem animal? I think you do not have one. My people believed in the Great Spirit, but Kagit has asked me about that and he does not understand. He says all must have a spirit, a totem. Do you have one?”

  “The Seers thought highly of the eagle, because he, too, can see far, but they do not give the eagle gifts or believe the eagle is anything other than an eagle,” Attu said. “Although Tingiyok said the Great Spirit might see through the eagle. Our spirits are of the water, the wind, the ice and snow, and of the ice mountains from where we came. We don’t hold any one animal sacred, like it seems the Ravens do. All animals are sacred to the Nuvik. All give their bodies for us, and their spirits are reborn again in new bodies. This we believe. And we believe in the power of our ancestors gone between-”

  Kagit interrupted Attu with a loud barrage of what seemed like half-questions, half scolding, directed at Farnook. She began to reply, but after just a few words, Kagit cut her off.

  “The eagle,” he beamed.

  “No-” Ubantu said, but Kagit turned and began walking away, as if he’d gotten the information he wanted and their conversation was now over.

  “Wait,” Ubantu called after Kagit. “We wish to know how you work the wood. Our women wish to know more about how you preserve the food in this damp place, and my son’s woman, Rika, would like to speak with your healer. She is our Clan’s healer and wishes to gain knowledge. Is this acceptable to you? We have nothing to trade, but will wo
rk for our instruction.”

  “This is a good thing,” Kagit said, as Farnook interpreted for them all. He grinned again.

  Why does this man make me feel like he is the tooth fish, and I am the smaller fish he is about to swallow?

  “I heard you,” Rika drew back, startled.

  “Heard what?” Meavu looked at them both. “What’s going on?”

  Later, Attu motioned to Meavu. He looked at Rika. Her eyes were wide.

  Attu can mind speak? I heard him!

  Attu grinned. And I heard you.

  You did? But how?

  I have no idea. I felt very strange just now, when Kagit grinned at me, like I was in danger. Maybe we’ve always been able to mind speak but never knew we could until Ashukat somehow opened that shelter flap in our heads when he mind spoke to us. I thought we could learn to speak to others in dreams, but somehow, I didn’t think about like this...

  Rika shook her head in wonder. She glanced back at Kagit then lowered her eyes. The man frightens me, Attu, and it’s not just because of his fierce-looking tattoos. I don’t know-

  Kagit suddenly grabbed Farnook by the shoulder and shook her. Attu realized that while he and Rika had been making this amazing discovery, Kagit had been speaking to the girl, but she hadn’t been listening. Farnook shot Attu a surprised look before she translated again, her eyes once more downcast.

  It’s as if she heard us, Rika mind spoke.

  Could she?

  Her people were of the Clans long ago. She said she dreamed.

  The men were hard at work with the Raven men, carving out a smaller canoe, one used for fishing, while the Clan women watched the Raven women at their work. Attu caught a glimpse of Farnook again, speaking briefly with Rika, before she turned to tend the large outdoor fire the men were using to burn out parts of the canoe.

  I wonder if Rika’s found out about Farnook?

  Attu turned back to the task one of the Raven men had given him, using the curved stone blade to shave off pieces of the inside wood of the canoe. He looked up when he realized Suka was no longer working, his hands still beside Attu’s. Suka was watching Farnook. He seemed to be deep in thought for a moment before turning back to the canoe and carving again with the rest.