Blooded Ground (Clan of the Ice Mountains Book 2)

by C. S. Bills

  “I continue to have the dreams, Ashukat,” Attu said as he and Rika sat beside the Elder at his fire near the Rock. “I’m gliding, like flying, and there is fire before me. I fly faster and faster and force myself into the flames. I feel my skin burning, and I hear a sizzling sound. Smoke, like steam from a cooking kettle, is all around me, blinding me, but I press on into the flames. I have to.”

  Ashukat nodded his head occasionally as Attu spoke. “I have spoken with Tingiyok. He’s coming to join us.”

  Tingiyok stepped into the firelight and sat beside his old friend.

  “Tell them what you told me,” Ashukat said.

  “I believe the fire is the Ravens, who, like fire, can’t be crossed without getting burned. Or it could be a dream from your ancient past. Some of Ubantu’s hunters have begun to trade with the Ravens again, and others have gone to look at their buildings and their boats. The Ravens have been civil enough with them. Perhaps it is a dream from the past.”

  “What do you think it is?” Rika leaned forward, her eyes searched Ashukat’s face in the flickering light for something, anything that would help them understand why Attu kept having this disturbing dream.

  “I don’t know.” Ashukat leaned back against one of his shelter posts. Attu thought he looked even more weary than usual. It was as if whatever battle was being fought between the spirits in the Here and Now was harming him, wearing him down. And Meavu’s disappearance had made them all feel helpless in this place. Attu’s stomach lurched, as it always did whenever he thought of his sister. She’d been gone for almost two moons now. Most had given up hope of ever seeing her again.

  “I bring no evil,” a voice said from outside the circle of firelight.

  “Come,” Ashukat said. He motioned for a place beside him at the fire.

  The Seer hunter sat. “The waves have calmed for two days now. I think we can prepare to leave.”

  “This is good news,” Ashukat said. His face brightened.

  Kagit walked into their camp the next day. He was alone.

  “What does he want?” Yural whispered to Attu, who had come running into their shelter, looking for his father.

  “I don’t know. He just strode into camp and sat down on one of the furs near your cooking fire.”

  Yural rushed out of the shelter and made the gesture of greeting to Kagit. He ignored her. She motioned toward the fish stew, simmering near the fire in a cooking skin. Kagit humphed at her offer, and Yural moved away from him, back toward the shelter.

  “I’m a good Nuvik. I offered the food. But-”

  “Kagit likes no one, especially a Nuvik woman,” Rika said from the door of the shelter where she had stepped inside, following Attu. Yural disappeared with Rika into the shelter, leaving Attu alone with Kagit. “Let him have it his way, then,” Attu heard his mother say. “And he can go hungry.”

  Attu doubted the Raven leader ever went hungry, but if it made his mother feel better, he’d go along with her idea of shunning this man who was so rude.

  Word spread of Kagit’s arrival. Hunters gathered in the clearing. Ubantu walked up from the beach, Paven came from a ridge of trees, Ashukat came with Tingiyok and the few others who’d been keeping watch on the ocean. Anyone who was near enough to come when the others had called or run to get them came and sat around the fire, not too near Kagit, but close enough to hear him when he spoke.

  “What do you think he’s here for?” one of the hunters asked.

  “What is he waiting for?” another one commented.

  “What could he want from us?”

  Kagit seemed to know when everyone had arrived. As the last person entered the group, the Raven leader cleared his throat, startling several men, who popped their lips. Kagit frowned as if annoyed before speaking. “Waves on water...” His hands made waves, first large then small. “Ocean flat.”

  Hunters nodded.

  “You leave.” He motioned, including them all.

  No one moved.

  “Raven not... good... no... not... please... pleased.” He growled these last words. “You stay.”

  “No,” Ubantu spoke up. “We are not Raven. Never Raven. We go.”

  Overhead, a group of the large black birds circled the camp. Attu’s heart raced. He clenched his hands together.

  Kagit smiled. He almost looked friendly. It made Attu’s blood run cold, this sudden change in Kagit’s demeanor. “Kagit know... Kagit, how say it? Understand. You Nuvik. Not Raven. I not stop people of ice and snow from to leave.” He grew frustrated with his lack of ability to speak their language. “Need go when waves calm. Not Raven Clan, not safe here.” He gestured around himself. “Eagle spirit not beat Raven spirit. Best you leave.”

  No one spoke, but everyone knew what Kagit meant. His son had been found, had been saved. But not Meavu. The Raven spirit only protected His own.

  “But trade one more time before go. Raven hunters want trade for ice bear teeth. Nuvik hides soft. Trade furs. Nuvik seem like Raven tools. Trade?”

  “We’ll trade,” Ubantu said.

  Attu felt the other hunters relax their guard as the men started discussing among themselves what they might want to trade.

  “I can’t believe Kagit wants us to leave,” Attu said to his father the next day as they worked to begin packing.

  “What he can’t control, he wants gone.” Ubantu rolled a large hide as tightly as he could, securing it with sinew, and setting it in the back of the shelter with the growing pile of things. “Anything less makes him look weak to his hunters.”

  “I still don’t know why they didn’t simply attack us and take us for slaves,” Attu said.

  “I think it has something to do with Farnook and his son. Kagit must have seen Farnook’s ‘death’ as a failure to control everything around him. He may be afraid of trying to make us slaves, afraid the spirits in this place will fight back. Remember, he thinks a bear stalked Farnook and killed her. He thinks his Raven spirit did not protect Farnook as Kagit probably thought it would. Then almost losing his own son has made him wary of the spirits, as well. Perhaps he’s not as much of a fighter as we first supposed. Perhaps he’s a bluffer and we called his bluff. So now, he wants us to leave before one of his own hunters begins to think he might truly be getting weak and try to wrest control of the Raven Clan from him.”

  Several of their own Clan had left for the Raven camp at first light, returning by midday with many items of trade. Rovek had been among them.

  “What did you trade for?” Rika asked Rovek as he came around the corner of the shelter and sat near the fire. Rika and Yural were preparing a small meal outside the shelter. Rika smiled at Rovek before turning back to one of the bubbling cooking pouches.

  “I have nothing the Ravens want in trade,” Rovek said. “But some of the Ravens are asking for help to finish hollowing out another of their great canoes. I thought Ubantu might want to work for a few days. The weather will clear soon, and we will leave. But in the meantime, the Raven hunters said they would trade work for more of their carving tools.”

  Ubantu and Attu left the pile of furs they’d been rolling and sat beside Rovek. The grief over losing Meavu and the strain of his father’s injury had drawn Rovek’s face down, making him look much older than his age. Even now, as he smiled, sadness lingered in his eyes.

  “What is this?” Ubantu asked. “Work for the Ravens?”

  “I know we’re leaving as soon as the ocean calms again and the weather clears. We’re packed and ready to go as soon as it does. In the meantime, the Ravens will trade our work on one of their great canoes for carving tools. I’ve tried these tools, and they work on bone as well as wood. I want some. I thought you might want some as well.”

  “I don’t want them,” Attu said. “But Rika wants to go into the Raven Clan’s settlement one more time, to trade with Limoot, and ask her a few more questions. Do you want to work for some carving tools, Father?”

  “I would like to see the great canoes again...” Uba
ntu narrowed his eyes. “Yes, that just might work...”

  “What?” Attu asked. “Can you take Rika with you?”

  Ubantu came back to the Here and Now with a start. “Oh, of course. Rovek and I will take her.”

  Chapter 21

  Rika tossed on the furs. Attu brushed her forehead to gently wake her from her dream, but she kept tossing, her hair dampened with sweat. When she moaned, Attu shook her, worried she had a spirit of fever. Still, she didn’t wake. He called to her spirit to come back from the Between of sleep.

  “No, I don’t know,” Rika murmured. Her eyes opened and her body stilled.

  “Attu,” she said, reaching for him.

  “You were dreaming.”

  “Yes. I saw Farnook.”

  “Farnook? Did she say something? Are she and Suka all right?”

  “I don’t know. That’s not what the dream was about. I dreamed Farnook was in one of the cedar houses, and she was looking at a basket, pointing to it. She said, ‘You know, Rika, you know. Trust you know.’”

  “Know what?”

  “That’s what I kept asking her. She wouldn’t tell me. She just kept pointing to the basket. It was a gathering basket, the kind all the Raven women use, and it was empty. She just kept pointing at it and saying over and over, ‘You know.’ I told her I didn’t know. This made her angry. Then I woke up. What does it mean, Attu?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll think about it. Maybe something will come to us.”

  The next day was warm again, but a sharp wind brought huge waves rolling into the bay, crashing against the beach.

  We need to leave soon. Attu felt his spirit moving within him as it had for days, like a fish caught in a net. He wanted to leap away from this place and back to the water, taking his whole family with him, away from these Ravens and this place that no matter where he looked, reminded him of Meavu.

  But he busied himself continuing to make preparations as Ubantu, Rika, and Rovek walked away toward the Raven camp.

  Attu worked to organize his fishing tools, folding his nets and covering them with protective sealskin. He packed most of his hooks into a skin pouch and repaired a chipped edge on his fish spear. All the while he worked, Attu felt his spirit struggling within him. He looked to the ocean, and his thoughts seemed to crash like the waves on the beach, tumbling everywhere and causing the pebbles to roil in the churning water. His spirit was churning as well. Something was wrong.

  Yural approached from the beach, where she’d been gathering a few larger shells to use for cooking. She held her spirit necklace in her hand, and Attu could tell she was praying.

  “What is it, Mother?” Attu asked.

  “I don’t know, my son, but something feels wrong with this day, with Ubantu and Rika and Rovek leaving us. I know it’s probably my spirit, fearful. I have often been afraid since-”

  “Mother, I have felt anxious all morning, too. I’m going to the Raven settlement to make sure all is well.”

  “Please, take your weapons.”

  As Attu reached the crest of the hill north of the Raven Clan’s camp, he saw the smoke of the usual fires. More smoke coming from near the beach looked like the Ravens were burning out the canoe, as Rovek had said. He stepped into the clearing and saw the hunters working amid the smoke rising from the cedar log. Ubantu and Rovek were working hard beside the Raven men, their bodies gleaming with sweat, their chests and faces smeared with ash from digging out the burned portions with the curved tools the Ravens used.

  “Where is Rika?” Attu asked.

  “With Limoot,” his father replied. “They went into the woods, to gather herbs Rika said she needed but wasn’t sure how to identify.”

  Attu took the path Ubantu indicated into the woods. He’d only walked a few spear lengths when he saw Limoot with Rika, headed back. The old healer looked ancient today, bent over as she walked. As Attu watched the pair, they stopped and turned to look at a plant. After a moment, Limoot turned from it and when she spotted Attu, she glared at him but said nothing.

  Rika looked up, in the direction Limoot was staring. “What’s wrong?” Rika cried as she saw Attu and rushed toward him. “Is someone hurt back at camp? Yural? Father?”

  “Nothing’s wrong,” Attu reassured her. “I just changed my mind about coming, that’s all.”

  Rika looked like she didn’t believe him, but said nothing more in front of Limoot.

  Attu fell into step beside Rika, behind the old woman. I just had a feeling.

  Oh? Rika looked a question at him.

  I don’t know what might be wrong, but it felt like something was. Be watchful.

  They continued walking toward the cedar houses. Limoot moved slowly, stopping here and there to look at a leaf or a plant, pointing it out to Rika and jabbering away in the Raven Clan’s strange tongue. Attu wondered how much Rika understood of the woman’s speech and how much was merely polite listening with no idea what the old healer was saying.

  It’s strange, Rika mind spoke. The hunters were glad to see the men, but when they saw me, they made me stand near the fire while they ran and fetched Limoot. I’ve been here so many times, but not since Meavu disappeared; I just didn’t have the heart to come after that, but I know my way around. A hunter stood by me as if guarding me until Limoot came. And she didn’t look pleased to see me. Not at all. She grabbed my arm and marched me into the woods as soon as I asked her about the plant I needed help with.

  First they’re friendly, then they treat us like we bring sickness. The Ravens have always been that way with us, Attu thought back to her. And they always seem sneaky, even when they’re smiling and trading.

  Limoot stopped at the edge of the clearing. Attu saw her look in the direction of one of the cedar houses. There was a woman standing near the entrance, but she simply stood there, as if she hadn’t seen Limoot.

  Rika stepped past Limoot and headed for the side entrance to one of the longhouses, the one where Limoot kept her herbs and other potions. Attu moved to follow her, but Limoot turned and put a gnarled hand on Attu’s chest, stopping him from taking another step to follow Rika.

  “What’s wrong?” Attu called to Rika.

  Rika turned to see Limoot holding Attu back. “Oh, I forgot. Only women in this section of the house now that it’s finished,” Rika said. “I’m all right, Attu. I’ll come get you when I’m done.”

  Attu frowned as he headed back along the side of the cedar house, toward the beach. As he neared the corner, he heard a rubbing sound. He looked to his right and saw children running around the front of the long house dragging sticks. They were laughing and he smiled at them, but they ignored him. Attu walked to the beach.

  Ubantu was standing beside a Raven hunter, apart from the rest, where many large canoes had been flipped over and were lining the beach above the high water mark. Ubantu had a rough flat stone in his hand and was rubbing one of the canoe bottoms. The Raven hunter nodded at Ubantu and, apparently satisfied with his work, the Raven walked away as Attu approached.

  “I’m checking for rotten areas in the wood and preparing the boat for a new finish of fat. It keeps the water from soaking in.”

  “Why aren’t you burning and carving out the new canoe?” Attu looked down the long row of boats. There must have been at least twenty, and the huge boats could each hold thirty people easily. “Why do they even need more?”

  “I think they’re always making one. It takes a long time. Some of these canoes are as old as an Elder,” Ubantu said. “I was curious to learn how the Ravens repair their canoes, keep them watertight.”

  An odd look crossed his father’s face before Ubantu turned away to scrape the canoe again with the heavy rock.

  All of a sudden, the beach erupted into shouts. Hunters were pointing at the horizon and shouting in their guttural speech. Attu looked in the direction they were pointing, north and east. A plume of something darker than wood smoke was rising into the sky.

  “What is that?” Ubantu
asked. He covered his eyes to see better.

  The land around them trembled as a low sound reached their ears.

  The Ravens rushed down to the beach, anxiously looking to the dark cloud rising from the mountain and spreading as they watched. The men clustered in groups, staring and jabbering loudly, their eyes wide as they pointed again and again to the sky where the cloud was growing over the mountain. The women clung together, trying to calm each other as they also tried to calm their children. Babies cried and toddlers screamed. Older children hid behind their mothers, burying their faces in their mothers’ woven skirts.

  Attu, Ubantu, and Rovek stood with the others as the ground shook again, their own faces stony, hiding their mounting panic. They would not show fear in the Raven camp.

  Kagit suddenly appeared among them, his face also a mask of calm.

  Limoot approached, and the people made room for her to stand beside Kagit.

  He bent as she clutched his arm and whispered something in his ear.

  Kagit turned to his people and shouted a few words, carrying across the clearing and echoing back from the trees.

  The Raven’s faces changed from fear to rejoicing in an instant. They whooped and slapped each other on the back before turning once again to watch the mountain spewing the darkness around itself. A wind had begun to carry the darkness to the east, making the mountain appear as if it had a black tail.

  “What did Kagit say?” Ubantu asked. “I couldn’t make it out.”

  Kagit walked past them, and paused in his stride long enough to flash a grin at them and repeat himself. “Raven send sign. Good sign! Fire mountain sign Raven beat Eagle spirit. Black smoke Raven’s wing over all. You come this night. Celebrate. All come. Scar-faced hunter come too, this time. He fight ice bear and live, Raven hunters say. He stab Raven hunter come in his house. No fear. Kagit like. Make him come. But no weapon this time. Show sign of peace. Now go. We prepare. Come after sun fall into great water.”