And she didn’t want to be near him any longer than she needed to be, especially as she admired the way he walked and the way his coat fit over his long torso.
Yup. Get her fucking truck and be gone.
A strange hum tickled her feet as they entered the village. No physical thing, but a tension quivering on a different level of sensation. Kuci was ripe with fear.
No children rushed out to greet them. She’d never been to a traditional village where the kids didn’t hurry to see who had come to visit. That was far more unnerving than Sedge’s warning.
A fur-clad woman scurried from behind a cabin to the long house. As Saskia and Sedge entered the village center, over a dozen men filed out of the main building. Most were young and obviously the warriors of this tribe. No one wore a smile, and all clutched spears.
Sedge’s stride grew stiffer. Clearly this wasn’t the welcome he expected either.
Saskia stood beside him as he stopped in front of the group. With a simple gaze, she could tell none would be more than a bother to her if they were looking for a fight, and all would be fluff on a breeze to Sedge. A sniff also told her that the car thieves were not in the pack.
An older man pushed his way to the front. Gray streaked his long black hair, but his arms were as thick as any of the warriors. He didn’t carry a weapon but neither did he smile. She knew a chief when she saw one.
“Nanuk.” The man held out his hand and nodded, and Sedge grasped his forearm.
“Toklo.” Sedge nodded, and the warriors visibly relaxed.
The people of the north did not bow or kneel to their gods. Respect was shown in other ways like not breaking taboo and making offerings. Saskia found far more honor in this than the western religions. Not that Inuit beliefs could even be compared to any other religion.
Sedge and Toklo spoke quietly in Inupiat—one of the dialects of the northern Natives—and seemingly ignored the rest of the world. Saskia turned her head to glance in the direction of her truck. From her angle, she couldn’t see it, but she’d hear it if someone cranked the engine. Maybe it would be okay if she went to retrieve it now. It didn’t seem as though Sedge was going to introduce—
“And Saskia. The she-bear is mine.”
Her head whipped around to stare at him. Did Sedge just tell the chief she was his? The bastard could not have forgotten she understood Inupiat. She didn’t speak it well, but she recognized her name with the possessive statement of “mine.”
She held back the growl in her throat. To correct The Bear in front of his people? No, she wasn’t that stupid. But he would hear about it later.
“Saskia. Be welcome.” Toklo dipped his head as he held out his hand to her.
Saskia shot one more narrow-eyed look at Sedge and clasped the chief’s forearm. She replied in the best Inupiat she could. “Toklo. Thank you. I am honored by your hospitality.”
Her gaze darted to Sedge to catch a glimpse of surprise as his eyes widened. Good.
Toklo smiled a little, clearly pleased with her response. He motioned to the long house. “Come inside. Food and drink await.”
“I would hear your troubles before the meal. But first,” Sedge said as he gestured to Saskia. “She wishes her truck returned. Your people have stolen it.”
Several men hissed and shifted from foot to foot. Toklo clenched his jaw and pinched the bridge of his nose. “We did not know it was stolen. They told us they purchased it in trade from a hunter. Retribution will be made to the owner and the tribe.”
“They should not have it here at all.” Sedge stated with a curl of his upper lip.
The thieves not only broke the law, but they broke taboo. Which meant they not only disrespected their tribe, but also the gods. Saskia’s heart beat a little harder. And retribution depended on Sedge’s mood. The straining of his jaw muscles told her it didn’t bode well for the thieves.
Toklo turned to walk toward the east side of the village. “The men only wished to take their families and leave swiftly.”
“You make excuses for them?” Sedge raised a brow as he strode alongside of the chief.
“No. I merely state a fact. They are thieves, and they have broken taboo. Justice must be served.” Toklo said it without a change in his expression, but Saskia noted his shoulders slumped slightly and his lips tightened.
She followed Sedge and didn’t look back as she heard the warriors join the parade. No one else joined the procession, though. Where were the women and children?
They weaved between the little homes and rounded a corner to find two men loading furniture and bags into the back of the pickup. A woman stood on the flatbed organizing everything. When she spotted Sedge, she cried out and fell to her knees, pleading for him to just let them go.
The men—their scent named them the thieves—dropped the bags they carried and hung their heads. Neither attempted to run. One, shaking his head, muttered he was sorry, but his family must come first.
What the fuck was going on?
Three children bundled in fur coats burst out of the nearest cabin. The two boys gasped and gaped at Sedge.
The youngest, a girl no more than four, pounced and hugged Sedge’s leg. “Nanuk has come to save us!”
Saskia bit the side of her tongue to keep from laughing. Not at the notion Sedge would save them from whatever was going on, but at a child latched onto his huge leg. She almost expected him to flail and try to kick the kid off.
“Aluki!” The woman wailed from the back of the truck as she tumbled out onto the rocky ground. She scrambled forward. “Forgive her, please. She’s just a frightened little girl.”
Sedge bent over and plucked Aluki off him, holding her up so that she was as tall as he. She didn’t squirm or scream, but gripped his forearms as she held his gaze. He nodded once and set her on the ground. “Aluki, go to your mother.”
Aluki bobbed her head and hopped to her mom, who scooped her up and held her tight.
“Aujaq and Dave. You have lied to your people.” Toklo folded his arms and lifted his chin. “This truck belongs to Saskia.” He gestured to her with a hand. “And she did not sell it to you.”
The juxtaposition of names almost made Saskia laugh, but it was typical in villages. The mix of the old and the new. Dave probably had an ancestral name, but his father or someone else in his family might have had it too.
She said nothing as the thieves glanced at her. Sweat beaded on Aujaq’s forehead as his fingers flexed and curled. “We know our crime, and we do not deny it. We would have returned the truck after we found a new home. But we did not have a choice. The dogs could not move fast enough nor could a sled protect us from—”
“It does not matter.” Toklo’s voice rose. “You have disgraced yourself and your people.”
“Is honor more important than the lives of my family?” Aujaq trembled as he shouted.
Several exclamations and hisses erupted from the warriors. The children cowered against their mother.
“Enough!” Sedge bellowed. Everyone went silent. “Liars lose tongues. Thieves lose hands.”
The woman wailed again, and a sob escaped Dave.
What? Was he really going to do that? Saskia only doubted for a few seconds. Holy fuck. He most certainly would.
“Wait.” Saskia stepped forward between the family and Sedge. “This is my truck. Do I not get a say in the matter?”
Sedge glared at her. “What more do you have to say? We know they stole from you. I saw your anger. You would rip off their hands yourself if I allowed it.”
If he allowed it! Saskia snorted without making a noise. When it came to the old ways, justice was harsh. It had to be when the life these folks lived was equally as unmerciful. It was one of the things she never came to terms with when training to be a Black Shaman. All was black and white to them. But what about the gray?
“I do not excuse their crime, but something has scared them, and I want to know what could frighten your people so much that they would break the law.” And s
aying they were Sedge’s people said a lot. He’d not give his blessing to anything less than a strong and noble tribe.
“The reasons matter not.” Sedge pronounced each word with fierce clarity.
How many fights did they have that started much like this? Saskia wanted to yell, to punch, to throttle him. She shook with the urge. Could he just not grant her this one thing? If he would only bend a little…
“Jinxioc.” Aluki whimpered.
The girl’s mother hushed her, but one of her brothers nodded and whispered the word. A word Saskia had never heard before.
Glancing at Sedge’s stony face told her nothing. He seemed to have remained unmoved by the ominous declaration by the child. Toklo, on the other hand, rubbed his face with a hand. He was a man worn down, taken to the edge.
“Call everyone to the long house. We will discuss it there.” Sedge turned and marched past the warriors without looking back.
Everyone followed, even Dave, Aujaq, and his family.
Saskia waited until the end of the line and walked beside Aluki’s brothers. She leaned over and asked in a quiet tone, “What’s the Jinxioc?”
“Little people. Bad little people,” the youngest boy murmured.
The other boy glanced up at Saskia with wide eyes. “And they’re trying to kill us all.”
Saskia had never met the little people, but she’d heard many tales from Natives and Azarius. Most of them were tiny, benevolent creatures that lived in the walls of houses. If someone were really lucky, they’d get the helpful ones.
Sometimes they’d become mischievous. But evil? She’d say the children were overreacting if it weren’t for the fact everyone in the village believed it to be so.
The rest of the tribe sat packed in the long house. The building could maybe sit seventy to eighty people comfortably, but there had to be near twice that. And the rank smell attested to the overcrowding. Every head turned to them as they entered and followed Sedge, who took the spot at the head of the main table.
Saskia stayed back by the door and crouched beside the boys sitting on the floor. The fewer folks who noticed her, the better she could watch their reactions to whatever was said.
She unbuttoned her coat and brushed her hair back from her face. Aluki peered over her mother’s shoulder and smiled, pointing. “Girl bear!”
Aluki’s mother shushed her, but the boys gazed at Saskia. The youngest pointed to the tattoo on her neck. “The paw. You are a bear!”
“We’ve never met a girl bear before.” The other boy’s words drew the gazes of several people.
Saskia’s fingers twitched with the desire to cover her tattoo, but it didn’t matter here. The tribe knew the old ways, and being seen as a shifter and a Black Shaman would garner her immediate respect.
“Quiet now lest I take a bite out of you. I want to hear what Toklo is saying.” Saskia winked as she whispered to the children.
They turned their attention back to their chief and Sedge, except Aluki. She continued to stare at Saskia with big brown eyes. Let the kid stare. Probably good for the girl to see a woman in a position of power. Life didn’t have to be about having babies and serving the men. Not at all.
“There are nine missing now. Six children and three adults.” Toklo’s voice echoed through the rafters and off the walls. “All taken by the Jinxioc.”
Murmurs broke out, and Toklo raised a hand to his tribe. “The first about five weeks ago. A boy didn’t return from fetching wood. We searched, but none of us found a body. The second child, her body we did find. Ravaged.”
Saskia clutched her hands within the sleeves of her coat. That was just after the hunters tried to kill Ametta and Lucky. But those were humans. This was something else.
“Then our people started to catch glimpses of them. Small figures, darting between the trees and rocks. Unnaturally quick. When none of us could manage to catch them, they grew bold. The third child was taken from within the village. We attempted to appease them with gifts and meat. But next, they stole a baby from his furs.” A woman’s cry echoed off the walls. Toklo ran his shaky hands over his head. He started to speak again, but stumbled over the words. Taking a few deep breaths, he continued, “We set up traps, attempted to hunt them, but they killed one of our warriors and dragged away an elder, my aunt.”
A few of the women wept, and children began to cry. But it seemed to Saskia that most of the tears had been shed. There was only hollow terror left in their eyes.
“We stay together in here for safety, but we must live. We must hunt and gather.” Toklo clasped his hands together on the table in front of him and stared at Sedge. “I think their numbers grow as they feast on our tribe. It is no small pack. None of us have managed to harm any of them, but they pick us off one by one, each attack more vicious than the last.”
Toklo hung his head. “Many of our people want to leave. But they are afraid to go out.”
So this was why Dave and Aujaq stole her truck. If Saskia was in their position, she’d do the same thing. If Sedge still wanted to cut off their hands, she’d fight him on it. They only wanted to save their family.
“I will get rid of the Jinxioc.” Sedge announced. Instead of cheers, there seemed to be a great exhalation of relief from the tribe.
Then weeping was replaced by laughter and praises for Nanuk. Yes, he must be loving that. The great savior. Hooray for the hero.
Not that Saskia thought he couldn’t do it. He was The Bear, after all. He’d go out there, squish the Jinxioc, eat them, or whatever. Sedge just didn’t need any more fluffing of his ego. Though, really, it couldn’t get any bigger without imploding.
She slipped out of the long house and stood outside, breathing in deep the fresh cold air. Odd things happened in the north. The land held many old secrets. But this? She shook her head as she stuffed her hands into her pockets and wrapped her coat around herself.
The door opened, and the boys slipped out along with their sister.
“Are you going to stay?” Aluki tugged on Saskia’s coat.
“We’re going to have a big feast after Nanuk kills all the Jinxioc.” The oldest boy smiled.
“We get to see him fight!” The younger boy growled and roared, pawing at the air like an enraged bear.
Saskia smiled a little. “No. What you get to do is go back in there with the others and wait until it’s safe.”
“But you’re not inside.” The boy pointed out.
“That’s because I’m strong like Nanuk. None of the Jinxioc could take me on.”
“But you’re a girl bear.” The eldest protested.
Saskia snorted. Maybe she should go with Sedge and exterminate the menace. Let them see a woman was just as powerful as a man. “I can do anything Nanuk does.”
“Well, she is pretty tall,” the littler boy said to his brother.
“And I guess she can turn into a bear.” The elder one nodded, pursing his lips as he debated it.
“She can!” Aluki clapped her hands and grinned.
Saskia held out her hand for a high five from the girl, but all three kids stared at it bewilderedly. Oh yeah. That’s right. Good thing she didn’t hold out her hand for a fist bump. She might have scared them.
The sled dogs howled, sitting on the houses. Were they celebrating too? Funny how no one mentioned any of the dogs had been taken. They’d be easier prey. Saskia walked through the town center to get a better view of the dog yard. The children skipped around her, singing a song about the great Nanuk and his friend Raven.
Something ran by to her left. Did one of the dogs get loose? That would explain the ruckus. Or could it be one of the Jinxioc? Her body tensed as she put her nose up and breathed in. She couldn’t smell anything other than the village and canines. So close to their dog houses, it reeked of them.
The littlest boy screamed, and Saskia spun to see him dragged off by a small figure in dirty dark furs. The Jinxioc.
She sprinted after him, but the other children cried out. More. The chief
had said there was a pack. Why wouldn’t they hunt together?
The evil bastards whipped Aluki about by her hood and yanked the boy to the ground. Being closer to them, Saskia leapt in their direction and shifted.
The Jinxioc weren’t as small as she expected. Most were about three feet in height. More gnomes than what most considered little people. The dark skin on their faces was withered and sharpened their rodent-like features.
But all those wrinkles couldn’t disguise their surprise to see a bear lunging at them.
She bellowed and drew back her right paw, swinging it to smack the Jinxioc holding Aluki. The girl crumpled to the ground as Saskia swatted at a second monster.
Like a bulldozer, she trampled another little fucker in order to stop the one that had the boy. She bit the Jinxioc’s shoulder so he released the boy, and then she flung the creature over the roof of a cabin.
Sedge’s roar joined hers as he charged out of the long house. The remaining Jinxioc ran outward, and he gave chase. Saskia’s immediate instinct was to follow, but she turned back to the children. Tenderly, she picked up Aluki by the back of her coat with her teeth and carried her to her brother. She nudged the unconscious girl into her brother’s arms.
As Aujaq dashed out of the door toward his children, Saskia chuffed at the boy. He needed to be strong. Sedge would find his brother. He nodded as if understanding, and she turned to take off out of Kuci.
Sedge and the Jinxioc were out of sight. Those fuckers could move fast, but so could a bear. Saskia easily followed their trail over a rocky hill and toward a patch of woods. Did they think they could hide? They had no clue who they were dealing with.
Saskia chuckled inwardly. Her chest heaved as she ran, breathing in their horrid scent. She’d smile if she had any lips. This was going to be fun.
Snarls and high-pitched cries tumbled out from between the trees. She wasn’t going to let Sedge get them all. The Jinxioc were going to pay for hurting those children.
Cloak of Snow (Totem Book 3) Page 2
