by C. S. Bills
“But you don’t believe this,” Suka said.
“Those who do not believe, die.”
“Farnook!” The old Raven healer stood at the entrance to Paven’s shelter. She walked off, not even waiting to see if Farnook was following. Farnook dropped her bowl and rushed after the healer.
Suka scowled at the old woman’s back and stood as if to follow them.
“Watch it, cousin. Don’t let your anger make you do something stupid.”
Suka turned his scowl on Attu and stalked away from Farnook and the healer, back toward the beach.
Chapter 12
Attu and Suka were putting their skin boats up from their latest hunt. “Race you to the river,” Attu heard Rovek call to Meavu as the two ran by. Meavu had kept her name.
“Yural and Ubantu chose well the first time,” the Clan had agreed when Meavu’s adult name was revealed.
Meavu squealed and then feet pounded down the path toward the small river that ran through the pass. Meavuria was the spirit of sunshine dancing on new snow, and Meavu was a bright spot in all their days. She had been working hard with her mother, gathering and preserving the edible fruits and plants that grew in abundance around them and Yural said she couldn’t ask for a harder working daughter or a more enjoyable companion.
Rovek had been helping Rika with their father when he wasn’t building his own skin boat, or working with the other hunters to catch fish for the women to dry, or hunting seals for more meat and skins. Oh, I hope Rovek will be able to use his boat and move north with us before too many more moons pass. Attu touched his own newly-finished craft. He loved the sleek lines of it and the feel of the seal hides stretched taut across its sturdy frame. I hope we all will.
Both Rovek and Meavu had been doing the work of grown Nuviks, although Rovek hadn’t had his hunter’s ceremony yet. Soon, Attu thought. He will be a man as soon as Paven can stand and do his part of the ceremony. Attu smiled as Meavu’s laughter carried to him on the breeze. It was good to hear his sister having fun for a change. Life had been serious since Paven had returned from the grasslands so close to death. Attu’s Clan wanted to be on their way, and some were grumbling about Paven and whether or not Attu had made the right decision to stay while Rika worked to heal her father. Having nothing else to think about, his people had been ignoring the ways of the spirits and had begun grumbling and gossiping among themselves.
Just the other day, Attu had found Rika crying again. “The other women are whispering about me,” she had finally confided in him when he pressed her to tell him what was wrong. “They say that being a healer exposes me too much to spirits of evil, and that is why I’m not with child yet. I know that’s not true. Our Clan’s healer had three children, and even Limoot had Kagit. But it hurts me to think they’re speaking of it when they don’t think I can hear them. And it’s wrong to do so. Don’t your people know better than to speak of the spirits in that way? Maybe they’re the reason, with all their talk...” Rika had cried in his arms for a long time.
“Rika, these people are your people now. They don’t mean to hurt you. They’re just frustrated with this waiting. I’ll talk with Yural,” Attu had assured her. “She will put a stop to the women’s gossip.” Attu didn’t mention that the men were talking as well. But he’d say something to his father and see if he could get the rest of the hunters to stay quiet. Every Nuvik should know such talk would only hurt Attu and Rika’s chances of having a child. Attu was angry with his people for not respecting the spirits and leaving them alone to wait without tempting evil.
Three moons had passed since they’d planned to leave for the north, and the warmth of the time Ashukat called summer was beginning to cool into the time the Seers called fall. Paven was healing slowly, and Ashukat seemed a changed man since he came back from his people. He spent time with Tingiyok, wandered among the trees surrounding the camp, or sat before the Rock of the Ancients, lost in some deep place of Between. Attu had tried to speak with him, to get Ashukat to continue to teach them about the Gifts, but Ashukat seemed confused, preoccupied or uninterested in what others were doing. Attu would start a conversation with the Elder, only to have Ashukat walk away, sometimes in the middle of his own words, as if he were being drawn against his will, back into the forest or toward the Rock once again. Attu had given up trying.
“Perhaps he’s nearing his time to go Between,” Yural had said.
But I can’t help thinking it is something more, something even Ashukat doesn’t understand, that’s causing him this confusion and wandering.
Attu and Suka finished lashing their skin boats to trees clustered near the beach. Attu picked up the otter he had speared, and Suka grabbed the one he had killed. They walked up through the gritty sand toward the shelters.
“Your balance in the boat is good now,” Suka said. Suka had taken to the skin boat like a seal, slipping and sliding among the waves and wind as if he had been born to paddle. “I can hardly wait until we can finally head north. It will be a great time, Attu, for us all, even if you still occasionally flip out of your skin boat.” Suka grinned wickedly at Attu.
“One flip in Tingiyok’s boat was enough.” Attu shivered as he remembered the horror. “You don’t have to remind me. You’re better at paddling than I am, but I can throw the spear farther.”
“For now.”
“It ruffles your spirit I’m better at something than you are.”
The two hunters continued their good-natured argument while they climbed the beach to the shelters. In the heat of the summer, the Clans had abandoned the caves entirely and moved down near the water and the cooling breezes. They remained there still, even though the nights were growing quite cool. It felt good to Attu.
As they grew close to the shelters, Suka asked, “How is Paven? He was yelling again this morning.”
“Yes.”
“Is he in a lot of pain?”
“No, but he can’t walk yet, can barely stand and bear his own weight. He’s growing discouraged and his temper-”
“Was never the best, even when he was whole and strong,” Suka finished. “Is he planning on going back out on the grasslands once he’s healed?”
“That’s what he says. He says he’s going with Rovek. But Rovek doesn’t want to go with him. I think Paven’s delaying Rovek’s hunter’s ceremony just because he thinks that Rovek will have to come with him if he’s not a man yet. He won’t have a man’s say in things.”
“Will Rovek go?”
“I don’t know. He’s torn between obeying his father and staying here, where Meavu is. He desperately wants to stay, and not just for Meavu, although we both know that’s a big part of it.” Attu grinned at his cousin.
Suka smiled back, popping his lips knowingly before adding, “Rovek is an excellent hunter on the water. He told me he hates the grasslands. But standing up to Paven is not easy for anyone. Imagine how hard it must be for his only son.”
“I can easily imagine that,” Attu muttered as he walked up to his shelter. He prayed to Attuanin, greatest hunter of the deep, that Paven would heal quickly and decide to allow his son his hunter’s ceremony, so once Paven left to join the others, Rovek could come north with them. Ashukat had been in contact with the Seers on the grasslands, and when it was time, he would be able to direct Paven to the others once again. “And it can’t be too soon.” Attu added to himself, even though he knew it would probably be next spring before Paven would be well enough to travel that far on foot. That was, if he ever healed enough to even try.
Attu and Rika walked along the beach. It was near sunset. A cold wind blew from the north. Overnight, the leaves on the trees had begun turning vibrant colors. It was beautiful to see them, nestled among the green of the pine and cedar trees, bright splashes of color against the sky and sea. Attu and Rika had begun walking the beach each evening it didn’t rain. It was one way Attu could get Rika to leave Paven for a while.
“Suka has been in a better mood lately,” Attu said.
“After Paven swore revenge on Moolnik, I know Suka and Kinak feared Paven might exact more revenge on their family.”
“Wasn’t spearing Moolnik to death enough?” Rika shuddered. “He deserved it for murdering Banek, of course, and also for trying to kill us all by unblocking the dam of water at the head of the pass. My father didn’t know that when he killed him, though.”
Rika stopped, looking out over the waves and the sky, fire red with the setting sun. She seemed to be lost in her own thoughts, and Attu wondered if she was thinking again about how many moons had passed since their bonding. Six moons? Seven?
“The spirits choose when a woman will become a mother.” Attu remembered the conversation he’d had with his own mother so many moons ago, as she had explained to him that soon he would have a baby brother or sister. “We don’t speak of it until we know it is to be so.”
But both Attu and Rika had caught others whispering about it, and it made them anxious. Newly bonded Nuvik women often carried a child by their third moon after the blanket tossing. After four or five moons, most Nuvik women became anxious if they weren’t blessed yet by the spirits.
Rika started walking again, her brows furrowed. Attu reached for her hand and they walked in silence for a while.
The trees along the edge of the beach reflected the bright color in their leaves. One blew across the sand and caught on the edge of a fallen log. Attu picked it up and held it out to Rika.
Rika smiled and took the leaf. “Elder Nuanu would have loved to see her tales coming true in this place. This leaf, once so green, a color like we had never seen, and now, like fire, it burns red. Ashukat said the leaves will fall and the trees will be bare for about four moons. Then they’ll grow new leaves again. It’s like a story from when we used to all gather in the long nights around the nuknuk lamps and listen to the Elders.”
Rika tried to slip the leaf into her hair, but it blew free and flew up over the waves, landing again far out into the water.
“This is a wondrous place,” Attu agreed, “so many living things. Crawling animals so small you can hardly see them. Slimy animals like moving sinews, the ones Ashukat’s hunters use as bait to fish. Flying animals and hopping animals and animals that burrow into the ground like we used to burrow into our snow houses.” Attu turned, looking back at the forest, now darkening in the twilight.
“And the Ravens haven’t been a problem since I helped Kagit’s son. Have you seen any Ravens near our camp lately?”
“A few have come to trade. And a few of our hunters have gone to their camp. They seem caught up in their cedar house building and all the boat building and repair they always seem to be doing.”
“Suka said that many of the hunters work constantly fishing while others are snaring rabbits and other small game. Some have gone further north to hunt deer and one group headed east to hunt tuskies. It must take a lot of food to feed them all. I’ve seen the women a few times out gathering. They seemed friendly enough then.” Rika looked off across the water. “I can’t help but wonder why I still feel so uncomfortable around them. It’s as if my eyes see one thing, but my spirit sees another, and my spirit is warning me that something is not right with these people.”
“I thought our Clan would want to leave, would be angry that we’ve chosen to stay and help Paven, and they do speak as if they’re frustrated, but what I’m more worried about now is that when the time comes, they won’t want to go.” Attu looked north, toward the bend in the bay and beyond it, as if he could see what lay far to the north with his eyes and not just his spirit and memories from dreams. “They seem to be settling in now, as if they mean to stay. They say they want to go, but act like they’re never going to leave, building up larger shelters and hauling rocks into the stream to make a place to net fish. That is a lot of work for people to do who are planning on leaving.”
“What if no one wants to follow you when we head north again?”
“Father is right. We must never force others to follow us. I think that when they see us preparing, the excitement of venturing north, going back to a place more like home to us all, close to our name spirits again, will be enough for most of our people to choose to go with us.” Attu sat for a moment on a fallen tree.
“I guess we should be pleased that others haven’t chosen to go north without us and leave us behind.” Rika sat beside him.
“They could have gone as soon as they got enough boats built, if they’d wanted to. But the others don’t seem as disturbed as we are by the Ravens. Without Ashukat’s constant warnings to beware of the Raven Clan, people have stopped worrying about them. Now it’s Ashukat I’m worried about.” Attu rubbed his hand along the rough bark of the tree as he thought. “He did say something about trying to find something, and he’s been nosing around the Raven Clan’s camp now and then.”
“He told me he has looked for the men carving the large totem tree, the one your father saw when the Ravens first arrived. He says he’s never found it. Could the Ravens have hidden it away somewhere? And if so, why would they do that?” Rika’s brow furrowed.
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll see if I can find out something tomorrow. I’m going to see if Limoot has anything I can give my father to help him sleep, without giving him a headache when it wears off.” Rika paused, then added, “and Suka asked me to check on Farnook. He’s worried about her.”
“I know he’s growing fond of Farnook and has been hanging around the Raven’s camp, pretending to be interested in building their boats, but I don’t know. She’s so fearful, so unwilling to let me mind speak to her. It’s as if she’s hiding something or from something.”
“Who knows what Farnook experienced when her people were killed? She may have no memory of it, but just the fear. It makes sense she might somehow blame the Gifts for them being killed, or at least be afraid of the Gifts because of them.”
At Rika’s last words, a cold wind rustled the tops of the pines, sending their sharp scent over the beach, mixing with the salty air and causing Rika to shiver. She drew her woven cloak tighter around her. “Are you still dreaming of the fire, the one you glide into, instead of running away?”
“Yes.”
“Anything else?”
“No.”
“I had another dream last night.” Rika moved over on the large log. “Let’s watch the stars of the Elder hunters grow strong in the sky while I tell you about it.”
Attu sat close beside his woman. “Have you had this dream before?”
“No. This was the first time. It is a disturbing dream and hard for me to describe, so I thought we might try something. Close your eyes.”
Attu closed his eyes, and a thick darkness overwhelmed him. His eyes shot open again.
“It’s all right. That’s the beginning of the dream.”
“Why didn’t I ever think to do that with my dreams?” Attu wondered aloud. “Ashukat seemed to lead us to believe that dreams were for communication only in the dreaming time itself, not later.”
“But you said Tingiyok showed Ashukat his love of the skin boats while he was awake, as if you were seeing it in a dream. More real than that, even, you said.”
“I’ve got to try and talk with Ashukat again.” Attu frowned. “Show me some more.”
Attu closed his eyes. Darkness surrounded him. He was instantly nauseated from dizziness and a dull ache in his head. He saw swirling figures, large and dark. He looked up. A dark form blotted out the sky. And he heard a scream, high and shrill, as if from a woman or a child. A swirl of flame surrounded a woman, the same woman Rika had told him of before.
“Yes, that’s her,” Rika said.
Attu shuddered.
The woman was not holding a child this time, but she was holding out her hands, as if begging. Attu was fascinated by her fiery for
m, but he felt Rika pulling him back to her memory of the dream itself. The woman wanted something. What was it?
Attu heard her voice as if speaking from the center of the flames. “Trust what you see, what you know to be true, and save those you love. Then trust what you cannot see, but what you still know to be true and follow those you love. It is too late for some of us, but not too late for you and your people, healer of the Ice Mountain Clan.”
The dream memory ended. Attu stood, reeling in the dusk, his eyes still filled with the sight of the fiery woman whose words burned him like a brand.
Attu said. “My spirit was keening within me as I experienced your dream memory.”
“Both of us are dreaming of fire, you moving into it, me seeing a woman speaking from it. But what does it mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Rika gripped his hand in her own, and they walked back in silence under the stars, listening to the waves breaking on the shore.
Limoot came to their camp a few suns later. Her reason, according to Farnook, was to see Paven and help Rika choose the best sleeping and pain potions for her father. But her darting eyes seemed to take in every detail of the camp as she walked through it, their few shelters, their small numbers, their unfinished boats and few supplies.
She conferred with Rika about Paven, examining him and giving advice. “I come again,” she said, through Farnook. “I help heal your father.” The old woman nodded, as if to herself, deciding something. “And you come to Raven’s camp. I have much to teach you. Come next sun.”
Chapter 13
“I know you feel you need to go to the Raven’s camp and learn what Limoot has to teach you,” Attu said. “And it will give you a chance to be away from your father for a while-”
