Beyond Belief (Clan of the Ice Mountains Book 4)

by C. S. Bills

  “I believe you. There’s no need for that. But promise me you will try very hard not to look into Senga’s mind any more.” Attu looked at Tishria, his eyes steady.

  “I promise.” Tishria’s bottom lip trembled, and Attu was struck with how young she was and how hard it must be for her to have such a great Gift and not be able to control it. He reached out to brush away a loose hair from Tishria’s braid, but she leaned into him and Attu hugged her instead.

  “Didn’t you know you couldn’t survive on your own?” Attu asked Senga as they pulled skin boats back to shore a few days later. Tight hide wrappings had replaced the sticks, but Senga still moved slowly. He’d taken to paddling and fishing to provide for Veshria. He couldn’t swim well, but he was good in the boat.

  “All Tuktu boys fish when we’re near the rivers or the ocean. I had never hunted big game, but I thought I could fish and survive.” He looked out over the water. “I wanted to fish and to learn to hunt the tuktu again, like our ancestors, maybe even start a herd of my own.”

  “But the bay had frozen once you got to the ocean again.”

  “I was starving. Then I found the meat. When the meat was gone, I wandered again. I was near starving when I thought to return here, to look around farther east, to see who lived here and had stored the meat. But before I reached your camp, I fell and twisted my leg and the boys found me.”

  Attu popped his lips. “It’s a good thing that you fell, then.”

  “Why?” Senga let the rope he was holding go slack. His eyes widened as he realized Attu’s meaning. “You would have killed me like the sick thief who attacked you?”

  “One of us would have probably shot you with an arrow before you even got close enough to explain yourself.” Attu lifted his skin boat back onto its rack above the high tide mark.

  “It has been a few moons since I came. Do the others still think of me as an enemy? Do you?” Senga asked. He sounded desperate again, as he had on that first day, a man with no Clan to belong to. “I am grateful to be here. I have bonded with Veshria; I have done what you asked of me. What else can I do to show you I want to be part of your Clan?”

  “We don’t trust you,” Attu said. “Because of all that’s happened with the other thieves, it’s going to take a long time before everyone accepts you. Veshria has, and Tishria, too. But in our Clan, Veshria’s opinion about things has often been wrong...” Attu let his words fade. He knew the truth hurt Senga, but the man needed to know where he stood with the others.

  “I have seen that Veshria is not well liked by many,” Senga said, setting the skin boat he’d borrowed from Suka on the rack beside Attu’s. “It hurts her deeply.”

  What has Veshria been telling Senga?

  As if Senga could read Attu’s thoughts, he added, “Veshria has told me many things. It has been a long time since she has had someone to share her heart with.” The man turned away, as if he’d said too much. He lowered his eyes and studied the ground in front of him as walked away, leaving Attu standing beside the skin boats, wondering.

  “Didn’t any of the thieves try to take women again, make a life for themselves like before?” Suka asked Senga as they gathered their catch the next afternoon. Several of the hunters had gone fishing, and now they stood, gathering up their fishing tools and catch to head back to camp.

  “The leader of our group wouldn’t let us,” Senga said. “We had three leaders while I was with those men. They were always fighting among themselves for leadership, just like the Tuktu Clans.”

  “Did you ever hear of one called Korack?” Ubantu asked as the men walked back up the beach toward their shelters.

  Senga struggled through the sand, and Ubantu slowed beside him. Senga was walking now without a limp. He still wore tough hides around his leg, however, and the deep sand at the top of the beach was hard for any of them to walk through.

  “I never heard of him,” Senga said. “Why?”

  “He was the leader of the thieves who attacked the Tuktu Clan we met. He shot one of his own men when he tried to run away from the fight. Why didn’t your leader shoot you?”

  The other men leaned in to hear Senga’s reply. “Because I snuck away from the others just before the attack on my Clan. I got away in the commotion that followed. I knew I couldn’t stop the attack, so I got close enough to the camp to set the dogs barking as the others approached. That gave my Clan a better chance when the attackers came.”

  “If this is the attack Toonuk told me about, many of your people died. But they did fight the thieves, and many of the attackers died as well.”

  Senga looked at them all, deep sadness etching lines in his face. “When will this all end? If our leaders can’t stop fighting their own people, throwing men out of our Clans and causing those desperate men to seek revenge, we’re going to destroy ourselves.”

  “I tried to tell Toonuk that his Nuvik ancestors weren’t violent and controlling like the Tuktu are now, by telling him of our ways when they first arrived,” Ubantu said. “He didn’t believe us.”

  “He said we were naïve and fresh off the ice,” Attu added.

  “The leader of my group of thieves, as you call them, was just as bad as this Korack that Ubantu speaks of. They mimic the leaders who’ve pushed them out. No one seeks the peace I see you have among yourselves. Toonuk should have listened to you.” Senga regarded the other men solemnly before turning to struggle through the sand again.

  A brisk wind was blowing as the men neared their shelters. The scent of the Clan’s cooking fires filled the air. Trees in the distance had turned to bright reds and yellows. By the next moon, snow would fall again.

  “Ganik! Climb down from there,” Veshria called to her son as he scrambled among the rocks behind the camp.

  Senga stepped out of the shelter into the crisp air. “Your mother calls,” he said. “Come down.”

  “You can’t tell me what to do. You are NOT my father!” Ganik shouted back and scrambled over the top of the hill.

  Attu turned back to his tool sharpening and wondered if Veshria had made a mistake. Attu knew Kossu was angry with his mother, and obviously Ganik was as well. Only Tishria seemed content to have a new father.

  “No, Nuanu. Hot,” Rika said, and Attu heard rustling as Nuanu was scooped up and Rika walked out of the shelter. “Watch her,” Rika said and plunked the poolik in Attu’s lap. “I have cooking to do.”

  Attu snatched the arrowhead he was sharpening away from Nuanu’s little fingers as she reached for the small, notched stone. “Oh, no you don’t,” Attu said, and gave his daughter a strip of sinew to play with. She took it, her eyes intent as she waved it back and forth, concentrating on how the dangling part moved.

  “She misses nothing,” Veshria said. She stood beside the fire, and Attu could see the longing in her eyes as she watched Nuanu. “May I?” Veshria reached out.

  Attu gave Nuanu to her and Veshria sat beside him, cuddling the poolik and talking to her. She looked up. Tears were flowing down her cheeks. “This could have been my time to be a new mother again. I was a fool, Attu. And my man’s life was taken because I disregarded the life within me.”

  Attu was speechless. Does Veshria believe Rusik died as her punishment for not following her healers’ directions about using the root for her toothache when she was pregnant?

  “The spirits do not-”

  “I know no one else believes me, but in my spirit I know it’s true.” For a moment Attu saw the old Veshria, the petulant stubborn one. But her face cleared and she spoke again, this time with no malice or spite in her voice. “I believe I was punished, yes. But it is over now. I came to talk with you about Kossu. Senga does not know our customs, so he can’t speak for Kossu, and Kossu is angry with me right now. I can’t talk to him. But you can. I know he wants to be bonded to Chirea from the Tuktu Clan when they return. Can you help him?”

  “Yes. And from what Kossu has said, Chirea was willing when the Tuktu moved farther north for the summer grazing. She
promised him she would be back. It could be any day now. But he will have to have something to trade as well.”

  “He’s been making a few more bows and arrows for the Tuktu, to go with the wood we gave them and the few we had to spare last time they were here.” Veshria grabbed one end of the sinew string Nuanu was holding and tugged it gently. Nuanu tugged back. Veshria tugged again. Nuanu pulled her hand back, giggling at the game. Veshria looked up, smiling. “Will you help him?”

  “Yes. And bows and arrows will be more than a fair trade. I can’t believe Spartik will say no to those.”

  “Thank you.” Veshria smiled at Nuanu through her tears as she stood and handed the poolik back to Attu and walked away. Attu sat with Nuanu playing in his lap as he wondered if Veshria had taken Senga just so she might have one more chance at having a child before she grew too old. Perhaps she thinks that through Senga, the spirit of her stillborn baby will come to her again, now that she has paid the price of grief she insists was necessary.

  Attu knew the rebirth of a baby’s spirit into another baby was possible, but the Nuvik had never believed someone else you loved had to die first. That is Veshria’s guilt at work. Attu decided to speak to Yural about it.

  The Tuktu came three days later. Attu and a few of the other hunters were upriver in their skin boats when a sound like thunder came rolling over the water. Attu looked up and in the distance saw a rising cloud of dust. The fall had been dry and as the tuktu ran, they were leaving a trail of flying dust and dirt behind them.

  “Why are they running?” Kossu said. He stood in his skin boat to see better, but the slim craft veered and he fell back into his boat, nearly capsizing it.

  “What if they’re being chased?” Suka turned his skin boat and began paddling furiously back toward camp. The others followed.

  Chapter 19

  “This animal is the reason the tuktu bolted.” Toonuk held a long rope. On the other end was Grey Wolf, pulling and twisting and biting at it as the leader of the Tuktu yanked him along. “One of my tuktu just had to be killed because your dog bit its back leg and cut the main tendon. You will give us something in payment for it.” The Tuktu leader glared at Attu.

  “So much for the friendliness of last visit,” Suka whispered. “And here we stand, having run to help them, weapons ready, for nothing.”

  The other hunters stood with Attu, looking equally chagrined.

  Grey Wolf, however, just struggled at the end of the rope. Toonuk could barely hold him.

  Enough. Attu mind spoke to Grey Wolf. He stared at the dog.

  Grey Wolf quit struggling. His tail dropped, and his eyes slid away from the humans and toward the camp.

  “He ran away, like I said he would?” Toonuk asked. He looked surprised at the dog’s sudden stillness.

  “Yes. In the early spring. This is the first we’ve seen of him. We will repay you for the loss of your tuktu.”

  Toonuk made a sound in his throat. It sounded derisive.

  Attu said nothing, but he couldn’t help agreeing with Suka. Toonuk seemed as arrogant as he’d been on their first visit. Perhaps Yural was wrong, and Toonuk hadn’t really learned anything from the experiences of last winter.

  “Grey Wolf!” Ganik cried as he came around the corner of his shelter.

  Grey Wolf began wagging his tail, and Toonuk let go of the rope. “He’s skin and bones. I think he’ll be glad to be back among you. This time, perhaps he’ll stay.”

  “Keep him away from our herd,” Toonuk added as Grey Wolf bounded over to Ganik. The dog jumped up and the boy fell backward, laughing and hugging Grey Wolf to his chest. Attu was amazed at how large the animal had grown in the few moons he’d been gone. But Toonuk was right. He was also very thin.

  “Are you hungry?” Ganik asked. He took the rope off Grey Wolf and shot a glance at the Tuktu leader before the two headed back toward Ganik’s shelter.

  “My men will kill him if he harasses the herd again,” Toonuk said. He turned angry eyes on Attu.

  “I have spoken with Ganik and the others. Neither Grey Wolf nor our other two dogs will come near your herd again,” Attu said as Toonuk and Spartik walked into camp later that day and moved to sit by Attu’s fire.

  “He was fast, I’ll say that. He grabbed at one of the smaller animals, and before we could stop them the tuktu were stampeding across the small plain just north of here. They didn’t stop until they came to the lake.”

  “I think some of the older animals recognized the place,” Spartik said. “They stopped well back of the water and by the time we caught up with them, the dogs had circled the herd back and they’d settled down to eating the lush grass by the lake. It’s the best grazing we’ve had for the tuktu in many days.”

  “The smell of fine grass will stop any tuktu from running,” Toonuk said. The men exchanged nods. Toonuk no longer looked angry. Instead he seemed relaxed, as if his earlier sternness had been more of a show of power than true anger.

  “I am glad you’ve come back,” Attu said, feeling the tight coil in his stomach relax a bit.

  “I would have been forever banned from my shelter if we had not,” Spartik said, and he grinned broadly at Attu. “There is a certain young hunter a certain daughter of mine could not stop talking about all summer. We have much to discuss. It has been a peaceful and good summer for us. For you?”

  “No attacks. And it has been interesting. But I will tell you about it all when we meet later. Do you wish to receive the gifts Kossu has for you now?”

  “Someone said they include bows Kossu has been able to make. Are they as good as the talk I have already heard?”

  “Yes.” Attu smiled.

  “Then they can wait. Let the young pair have some time together first. They have not seen each other for a long time. I want to make sure Chirea still wants her young hunter before I accept his gifts.”

  Attu nodded, but he would bet a nuknuk that Chirea’s answer would still be yes.

  And knowing how skittish these Tuktu are, it will be good to have the young people back together again, where all can see how well matched they are, before I tell the Tuktu about Senga.

  The sun was dipping below the ocean as the Clans gathered to exchange stories and information, as well as to make the announcement that Kossu and Chirea would be bonded. The young people sat at the fire, and as Attu approached, he could hear congratulations and teasing surrounding them. Both looked uncomfortable, but Kossu kept Chirea’s hand tucked firmly in his own and they kept stealing longing glances at each other. Attu couldn’t help remembering his own tempestuous feelings toward Rika and how hard it had been when he’d thought he’d lost her forever. Hopefully, this young pair would never have to endure such hardship. Their time apart had been with the promise of future bonding, and it seemed to have made them both sure of their choice.

  The early evening passed in celebration and good eating. The Tuktu brought fresh meat from the animal they’d had to kill and berries from the north, dried and mixed with some seeds the women harvested from the longer grass they walked through as they followed the herd. Attu’s Clan provided fresh fish and the greens and roots the women gathered and cooked in seal fat on hot stones. Everything was delicious.

  “Now there are some things we need to discuss,” Attu began as most had finished eating. “We have one among us who is new since the last time you came through our land. It may seem strange to you, so I wanted to explain before you met him. We took in an injured Tuktu this spring.”

  “One of our men was injured and came to this place?” Spartik asked. “What Clan was he from?”

  “Actually, he had been cast out of his Clan.”

  Spartik leaped to his feet, grabbing his staff and shoving it butt first into the ground. “You have an enemy in your camp? You have allowed him to live?”

  “No,” Attu said and stood to face Spartik, his own weapon held loosely at his side. “No, we have a man named Senga in our camp, who was banned from Poltow’s Clan and traveled with a ba
nd of thieves for a while, but he left them. We took him in and helped him heal. He has taken a woman. He is part of our Clan now.”

  Toonuk and the other Tuktu stood. “You have let our enemy come into your camp and you welcomed him? And he took one of your women for his own?” Toonuk spit to the side in disgust. “I don’t believe it. After all we have been through with these murderers? You are a weak leader. And your people are stupid for following you.” He motioned for the other Tuktu to leave.

  Spartik pulled Chirea away from Kossu. She began crying, fighting her father. He picked her up and put her over his shoulder, as Kossu pulled his own spear back.

  “You will not take her from me,” Kossu took a step forward, menacing Spartik with his spear.

  “I had just begun to explain. Let me tell you,” Attu said, his voice rising so all could hear above the commotion.

  “Tell us what? That you are friends with thieves? After they attacked us? After they brought sickness to both our peoples? You’ve welcomed this murderer into your camp and you didn’t think we’d mind?” Spartik looked at Attu with such hatred, Attu took a step back from the man. “Show him to me. I will kill him myself.”

  “Enough!” Yural appeared in the light of the fire, Senga at her side. “This is the man. We are not your enemies or your enemies’ friends. We know what the thieves have done, to us and to you and to others with their attacks and their killings and their bringing of sickness. But there is a good reason this man is among us, alive and almost well.” She glanced at Senga’s still-wrapped knee. “Sit down. Hear my son.”

  Ubantu stood beside Yural. “Think with your heads and not your weapons, my brothers, for we are indeed still your brothers, your distant kin. We would not let this man among us if it were not for the best for both our Clans.”