Blooded Ground (Clan of the Ice Mountains Book 2)

by C. S. Bills

  “And there is something else,” Meavu said. “I feel it in my spirit, don’t you, Mother?”

  Yural nodded. “They have no need of us, other than just because Kagit sees a chance to take what lies within his grasp. So why the delay? Why don’t they attack us now? Take us now? They’re waiting for something, something not of this world but of the spirits. Meanwhile the dark spirits swirl around us, growing stronger every day. I feel it, don’t all of you?”

  Around them, heads nodded in agreement.

  Rika spoke up. “It’s affecting you the most, Ashukat. What do you think it is? We saw how Limoot used the smoke to daze you. It was hurting us as well. What is this game they’re playing?”

  “I don’t know,” Ashukat said. “I feel so strange, as if a fog is in my mind, causing me to forget things, not See what I need to See. I am sorry,” the old man hung his head. “I’m not leading as I should, not Seeing whatever it is I need to See to protect you. I can’t think clearly enough to try. I believe your women are right. There is something moving toward a purpose in the Between of spirits. But there’s something else as well. I need to know something, see something, and I mean in the physical world, a clue that will tell me what is happening here, why these Ravens are so powerful in the spirit world of Between and why the Great Spirit has allowed us to become trapped like this. But I don’t know what it is I need to understand.”

  In the firelight, the Elder looked defeated, a frail old man, no longer the powerful Seer Attu once knew.

  A rustling in the bushes nearby caused the men to stand, weapons at the ready. A large dark bird erupted from the bush and flew away, black wings through a blacker night sky.

  “A raven,” Yural said. “Flying at night?”

  Tingiyok turned to Ashukat, his voice suddenly eager. “What if some of the Ravens have Gifts?”

  “Like seeing through the eyes of animals,” Rika added, as she caught on to Tingiyok’s idea.

  “Maybe even somehow controlling them,” Attu said. “Kagit is always boasting of being able to ‘see all...”

  “And the tusked animals moved too soon, just when he said they would,” added the Seer hunter.

  “If they do, how could we not know?” Ashukat asked.

  “Maybe Limoot is somehow preventing us from recognizing their powers, using her herbs and potions and whatever prayers and ceremonies they have to block our Gifts.”

  “Block all our powers?” Attu asked.

  “Except among ourselves,” Tingiyok added. “We know we can still use our Gifts that way.”

  “And in dreaming,” Rika said. “Farnook is afraid of her Gifts,” she added. “She says that Gifts got her Clan killed. She won’t mind speak to us at all. I’ve continued trying. She ignores me, though I have the sense that she is hearing me.”

  “Being Nuvik, perhaps the blocking would work on her as it does on us. Hearing each other but not the Ravens,” Ashukat said.

  “That might be why they treat her the way they do,” Meavu said. “She has the Gifts and so is dangerous, but also works hard, which allows Kagit’s woman to be lazy; so they keep her, but they’ve made sure she knows that using her Gifts will result in punishment or death if they grow tired of her.”

  “So are these Ghost Ravens being sent by Kagit because our people won’t bow to his leadership, because we won’t give him a woman to be his fourth?” Paven asked. “I also believe that’s what I saw. What I took for fur on those creatures must have been feathers. And I saw them before Kagit threatened us with his storyteller.” His face looked gaunt in the firelight. “Does the Raven Clan have that kind of power, to call forth a spirit from Between into the Here and Now? Or does he know of some giant bird we do not, migrating north as it has warmed, and he’s controlling its presence here now to make us believe he is that powerful?”

  “Or,” Attu said, “are they simply men, dressed in bird feathers, using an herb to dye their eyes, and trying to scare us into doing what Kagit wants?”

  “Are they a sign? Or are they really dangerous?” Ubantu asked.

  “So far, no one has been hurt by them,” Paven said. “I think they’re just men, dressed to scare us.”

  “If they are Kagit’s men, then they’re dangerous even if they haven’t done anything yet,” Ashukat said.

  The Clan popped their lips at this truth.

  “So we set out a guard around both camps every night,” Attu said.

  “And no one goes to the river or into the forest alone,” Ubantu added.

  “Children stay within sight of the main fire.” Attu looked across the camp at the small children playing. “We avoid the Raven camp, and as soon as possible, we leave, either by boat or through the grasslands.”

  “I will work with Tingiyok to see if we can figure out how the Ravens might be using powers against us.” Ashukat said. He looked determined, almost like the Ashukat Attu had first met.

  “We will assist you,” Yural said. Meavu and the other women added their assent.

  “And us,” Rika added, looking to Attu.

  “As soon as the weather calms a bit, I’m heading north by boat to make sure there is no way past the area with no beach. I need to make sure.”

  Heads nodded in agreement with Attu’s decision.

  “It’s too dangerous to be out on the water now, isn’t it?” Rika asked.

  “Someone’s got to try.”

  “And everyone must pray to their name spirits to keep us safe until we can leave this evil place.” Ubantu’s words ended the gathering, and all moved back to their shelters with their families.

  “Suka!” Attu was paddling his skin boat north several days later when he spotted Suka as his cousin’s boat rounded one of the rocky islands near the shore at the northern edge of the bay.

  Suka waved his paddle, then headed back the way he had come.

  Attu followed.

  The two hunters sat around a fire Suka had started in a shallow pit lined with rocks above the high tide line of the small island. Attu filled Suka in on what had occurred with the Ravens since he left.

  “Have you been here the whole time?” Attu asked.

  “No,” Suka answered. “I traveled north for many days. On the second day, I came to a stretch of land where there is no more beach. There are sheer walls of rock on the mainland, and the fire mountain rises above and behind them. It’s an amazing sight, Attu, especially at night. Red spears of fire fly into the sky, like huge weapons from a giant hunter within the mountain. And sometimes the whole mountain rumbles. It made the water along the shore rise up in strange quick waves. My insides shook.”

  “So people couldn’t walk the shoreline north?”

  “No, you must come north by skin boat. And I barely made it back, the waves were so rough.”

  Attu’s heart sank.

  Suka poked the fire, sending up a shower of sparks. “There are high walls on the islands near the shore as well. Water flows between the shore and the islands, but it swirls and there are many rocks just under the surface. I tried to go around the islands to the west, out into the ocean, but I couldn’t make it, at least not in a skin boat. Perhaps the Raven Clan’s giant canoes could travel there.” He spat off to the side.

  “I saw whale fish swimming along the surface along the edge of the islands,” Suka continued, “but the shape of the islands and the way the ocean water hits them creates a current I couldn’t paddle through.”

  “So a skin boat can’t just paddle around the outermost islands?”

  “I couldn’t do it, at least not the way the waves were.”

  “And you are the best paddler I know, besides Tingiyok.”

  Suka flashed him a grin. “I had to go back to the narrows between the land and the islands and wait for high tide. I was able to paddle through them and head further north. I came across no more dangerous places. I saw no people.”

  “Why did you return?”

  Suka gazed at the fire for a long time before answering. “I wanted you t
o know about the water narrows, so when you come north, you’ll wait until high tide and take the safest route.” He paused and cleared his throat as his brows knit together in a fierce scowl. “And I decided I cannot, I will not, be alone anymore. I’m going to steal Farnook, take her with me. And I need your help.”

  “Before now, I would have thought that a very bad idea. But perhaps, if we plan it right, it might help all of us. I won’t put my Clan in any more danger, not even for you. But if we plan this carefully-”

  “So you’ll help me?” Suka interrupted.

  Attu moved to grasp his cousin’s forearm. “I will help you.”

  “Don’t ask me why,” Attu told Rika later that day, “But I need a woman’s set of clothing, including a parka, miks and foot miks, and undergarments. Do you still have your old ones?”

  “Yes, but-”

  “And I’ll be gone tonight. I won’t return until early morning. You will say – if anyone asks you – that I was with you the whole night. Can you do this?”

  Rika stared at him for a moment as understanding flooded her face. “Suka has returned?”

  “You know nothing about it.” Attu studied her face.

  Rika nodded, frowning.

  “The Ravens will be fooled, if our plan works. Pray it does.”

  Kagit stood in the middle of their small cluster of shelters the next morning, surrounded by several of his own hunters, his face a mask of rage. “Where?” He yelled. “Where is one who defy Kagit and touch woman, steal slave?”

  Attu gave the sign of greeting to Kagit, who scowled and shouted again. “Bring me coward took Farnook.” He glared at Attu.

  Attu felt a firm hand on his shoulder. Ubantu stood beside him. Tingiyok stood at his other side.

  “Suka left two days after his last visit to your camp.”

  “I no believe. Search camp.” Kagit shouted orders at his hunters in the Raven Clan’s tongue. They tore into the few surrounding shelters. Women and children came tumbling out of them, standing in a huddled mass behind the rest of the hunters who had gathered behind Attu, Ubantu, and Tingiyok, weapons at the ready.

  One hunter moved to attack the Ravens.

  “No,” Attu said to the man, and another hunter restrained him. “Let them search.”

  One of Kagit’s men hollered and came limping out of Paven’s shelter. Paven stumbled after him, leaning on his spear, knife at the ready in his free hand.

  The Raven hunter struck out at Paven with the butt of his spear, but Paven stepped aside and tripped the Raven hunter with the spear he’d been using as a crutch. The hunter roared and rose to his feet, murder in his eyes.

  “Sha!” Kagit yelled, and the hunter stopped, turning to look at his leader.

  Kagit walked over to Paven who stood, knife still dripping with the man’s blood, his face a mask of anger mixed with pain. The two hunters stared at each other until Kagit broke his gaze, his eyes traveling down the pale ice bear scars from face to neck to chest and down to Paven’s healing thigh with its wide red scar. Kagit turned away, scowled at his own hunter, and the man slinked away to search in another shelter.

  Attu watched as Kagit received report after report from his hunters, barely containing his fury as each hunter returned empty-handed.

  Just when Attu thought Kagit was about to explode and order them all killed for hiding the pair somewhere else, a young hunter came running up from the beach, calling out and swinging something wildly. He slid to a stop in front of Kagit, bowed his head and stood panting, holding out his arm. A thin piece of skin clothing, more rag than hide, dangled from his hand.

  “Where?” Kagit asked.

  The hunter spoke quickly, gesturing with the clothing.

  Rika tried to translate as much as she could with the phrases she’d picked up while working with Limoot. “The bottom of some cliff or something, I’m not sure.”

  “And?” Kagit asked. The hunter spoke again.

  Kagit turned to them, frowning. “Hunter say blood. Everywhere. And in snow, tracks of bear. Big. Drag body to woods. Hunters find pieces of clothes. No body.”

  Rika cried out and covered her mouth with her hand as her tears flowed.

  Kagit stared at her.

  “Oh, Farnook, Farnook!” Rika cried.

  The women of the Clans keened, their voices shrill as each gave way to her grief.

  “Down by the narrow part of the river,” Ubantu said. Attu realized he’d been continuing to question the hunter. “Where Kagit’s woman sends Farnook for wood, at night, alone.” Ubantu gritted his teeth and stood, looking at Kagit as if he might kill the man with his bare hands.

  Kagit looked confused, out of place in this mass of crying women, angry hunters, and children beginning to cry because their mothers were. The Elders looked grim, holding their spirit amulets and praying loudly to their name spirits.

  “She slave,” Kagit’s voice, as always, was full of arrogance. “She nothing. Not your slave. She Raven slave...” but his voice had lost its haughtiness by the end, and he seemed baffled by the Clans’ reaction to the death of Farnook. Kagit looked around, finding himself no longer the center of attention as the people around him mourned. Kagit tried his leering smile, but only Attu noticed. The Raven leader shouted something to his hunters, and they marched out of the Clans’ settlement.

  “Perhaps this will buy us some time,” Attu murmured to himself and turned away from the scene. “Kagit didn’t see this one coming... it might make him a bit less confident for a while.”

  Chapter 18

  “All is well,” Attu said to Rika as the two of them walked back to their shelter a short while later. “Ashukat bonded them on the small island before they left for the north. That’s why he was gone when Kagit came. He said he wanted to walk back alone and have time to think. Once he got away from the camp, Ashukat seemed better. Whatever influence Limoot or Kagit have over this place, it doesn’t extend too far north of our camp.”

  “Thank you,” Rika said, and held on to Attu. “You and your cousin tricked the mighty Kagit. I must say I’ve never been more proud of you both.” She pulled away and grinned at Attu.

  “With the help of some well placed footprints made from Paven’s old ice bear skin with the feet and claws still on it.”

  “And you had fun stomping around in it,” Rika teased.

  “That was the easy part. Convincing Farnook our plan would work after Suka snuck up on her and grabbed her – that was another thing entirely. But Suka was able to persuade her...” Attu let his words trail off as his grin broadened before he added, “eventually. Suka knew just what to say and do to convince her to come with us.”

  “I bet he did,” Rika smiled back, twining her arms around Attu. “I bet he did.”

  Attu woke up and reached for Rika in the darkness of the shelter.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “I saw Farnook in a dream.”

  “You did?” Rika rubbed her eyes. “What did you see?”

  “I saw Farnook and Suka on the other side of a narrow stretch of water. Suka is right; it is a dangerous place to paddle through. But they were on the far side, and Farnook said, “We are safe, and we will wait for you, Attu, as Suka promised. Now that I’m safe to use my Gifts, I want to thank you.”

  “Was that all?”

  “No, and here’s the strange part. She was fading away – I felt the dream ending – when I heard her ask a question, as if to someone else, not me. I heard her say, “Who are you, Elder Nuanu?”

  “Elder Nuanu came to her in a dream? The same time she was dreaming about us?”

  “I think so.”

  “Why would she do that? Why would she come to Farnook, a stranger to her, from the Between?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Farnook came to you in a dream?” Ashukat eyes widened at Attu’s explanation of what he had seen.

  “She’s no longer afraid to use her Gifts, now that she’s escaped the Ravens.”

  Attu’s fa
mily, Ashukat, and a few of the other hunters had gathered around a large fire beneath the Rock of the Ancients. Ashukat said he felt less influenced by the dark spirits here.

  “And,” Attu added, “at the end of the dream, Farnook spoke to Elder Nuanu, asking her who she was.”

  “Your healer? The one who Paven told me was able to save the woman whose baby was being born backward?”

  Yural nodded. “With Rika’s help, Elder Nuanu saved both the mother and the baby.”

  “I wonder why her and not Vanreda?” Ashukat wondered. “Although Farnook didn’t know either woman, so...” the old man appeared lost in his thoughts.

  “Who is Vanreda?” Yural asked. “I haven’t heard anyone mention someone by that name in all the moons we’ve been here.”

  The old man appeared startled by Yural’s question.

  The firelight moved across Ashukat’s lined face. Attu could see he was struggling with something. He looked hard. Bitter. Then he sighed and his face softened again. “Vanreda was one of the Seers who called your Clans from across the ice. I believe we wouldn’t have reached you without her. She was a powerful Seer. She could see into the past and into the future. I believe she even saw her own death.”

  Lips popped at his words.

  To see your own death. What a cruel Gift that would be.

  The old man wiped a tear from his wrinkled cheek. “She was my granddaughter. She died in childbirth. Her child would have been my great grandson.”

  Several people started at his words. The man before them was truly ancient, to have lived long enough to see a great grandchild come into the Here and Now.

  “He died with his mother?” Rika asked. She had begun trembling. Attu moved closer to her.

  “Yes. And her man left after her burial ceremony, packed his skin boat and paddled out into the ocean. No one’s seen him since. I believe he’s dead.” Ashukat sighed. “Probably none of the Seers spoke of them to you out of respect for my grief.” He paused and cleared his throat before continuing as his voice had gone thick with emotion. “I’ve since learned your Rika might have saved them, had she been here. As you say, with your Elder Nuanu, she turned a baby inside its mother.”