Bonesetter 2 -Winter- (3 page)

Tando had walked over to the smoke hole. Now he stretched and jumped to show that it was quite a bit higher than he could reach. He said, “I went out looking for a small slender tree, taller than I could reach when I jumped.” He picked up the tree he’d dragged in. He’d trimmed off all the branches except for a big tuft of them up near the top. Now he lifted it up toward vertical and stood it so that the branches stuck up into the smoky recess next to the smoke hole. He looked at Pell, “We should be able to hang the meat strips on this, don’t you think?”

Happy that Tando had put so much thought and effort in, Pell said, “Good idea. I’d been thinking we needed to build a frame like Deltin made for us back at Cold Springs cave, but that’d be really hard without Deltin.” He looked up, “Especially getting it all the way up by the smoke hole. I think your little tree should work fine. Then he noticed the three Aldans men gaping up at the tree in confusion. Turning to them, he said, “Go, set your snares and,” Pell grinned at Exen, “do your tuber hunting. When you come back, Tando and I’ll teach you about making ‘spirit meat.’”

Once the three Aldans’ men had left, Tando worked with the women to densely suspend strips of meat over the branches at the top of Tando’s tree. Pell sent Gurix to wash out the goat’s intestine while he, Lessa, and Ontru chopped up meat from the fattier parts of the goat, mixing them with dried onions.

When Gurix returned with the intestine, they stuffed it with the fatty meat and onions, tying it off into finger length sausages like Pell had made at the Cold Springs cave. They suspended the sausages in Tando’s tree as well, then Pell and Tando carried the tree over and stood it so that the tuft of branches loaded with meat was up in the smoky recess by the smoke hole.

The two men stood staring up into the recess. Despite the general darkness in the cave, they could see fairly well because of the light coming in through the smoke hole. Tando said, “I don’t think it’s as smoky up there as it gets in the recess of your cave at Cold Springs.”

Pell said, “I think you’re right. The smoke hole’s so big that the smoke goes out through it without clouding around the meat.”

“We could put a piece of leather up there to cover most of it, but then it’d be even darker in here,” Tando said thoughtfully.

Pell shrugged, “Meat’s more important than light, I think.”

“Okay,” Tando said, “but how are we going to get our leather flap up there and hold it in place?”

“Put it on a long stick and lean it up against the hole.”

Tando smiled and thumped Pell on the shoulder, “Good idea! I’ll go cut the stick.”

Exen came in carrying an arm load of large tubers. Pell was pleased to see that they all appeared to be edible; he’d wondered if Exen would try to get away with bringing in just any kind of thick roots. It didn’t look like he brought in twenty of them though. Pell’s eyes narrowed as he counted.
Thirteen.

Exen had been watching Pell. He said, “Not enough, huh?”

Pell’s eyes flashed to Exen as he wondered what Exen was trying to get away with. Then he saw the honest question in Exen’s eyes. Quietly he asked, “Don’t you know the counting words?”

Looking a little embarrassed, Exen shook his head, “Hardly anyone does. How’d you learn them?”

Pell rolled his eyes, “Listening to Pont use them in his interminable ceremonies. He droned on with them all the time.”

Exen frowned, “Those are counting words?”

“Not all of them, but a lot of them.” He lifted his chin, “The ones that start, ‘One, two, three…’”

“Oh!” Exen said. “Four, five, six, seven, eight…” He actually continued on up to thirty.

Pell grinned at him, “You
do
know them!” He pointed at Exen’s stack of tubers, “Now, you can count up how many you brought in.”

Looking proud, Exen turned to his stack of roots and counted them, stopping at thirteen. Then he tilted his head curiously and turned back to Pell, “So, how many more do I need to get?”

Pell lifted an eyebrow and held up his hand. Saying, “Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen…” he stuck up a finger for each word. “You try it. Stop when you get to twenty.”

Frowning in concentration, Exen turned back to the roots for a moment, then he faced Pell and started counting with fourteen holding up a finger with each number. When he got to twenty he stopped with all the fingers up on one hand and two up on the other. “Now what?”

Pell said, “Now, you count your fingers that are sticking up, starting with ‘one.’”

Exen did so, counting from “one” to “seven.” He turned curiously to Pell, “Now what?”

Pell lifted his eyebrows again, “Now, you get seven more tubers. Then you’ll have twenty.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Frowning in concentration, Exen left the cave. Pell was relieved he didn’t look angry about having to get more tubers. In fact, it looked to Pell like Exen was more interested in the numbers than he was upset about having to work.

Pell looked around, wondering where Gia had gone. He tried to think whether he’d seen her since they’d been outside first thing in the morning.
No, I saw her while we were eating breakfast, and I’m pretty sure she was here when we came back with the goat.
Pell knew he’d been focused on his worries about the Aldans, but he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought about Gia for the past hour or so. She’d been at the forefront of his thoughts for what seemed like forever.

He couldn’t really believe he didn’t know where she’d gone.
Could she have left? What if she’s mad at me?

Pell got up and walked toward the entrance of the cave, glancing this way and that to be sure he hadn’t missed Gia in the dimness. He picked up his extra furs and stepped out through the flap. It was still cold, but the snow was melting quickly which he took as a good sign. He didn’t see Gia.

As he stood there looking around, someone else shouldered through the flap behind him. He glanced back and saw Gurix. Briefly, he wondered where she was going, then forgot about that question and started out across the ledge, looking around for Gia. He didn’t see her and began to worry even more.

Could she be hurt?
Her absence felt like a palpable void to him, but he wasn’t sure what to do. He’d heard people talking about being in love and wondered whether that was what he was feeling.
Am I supposed to go look for her? Will she be mad that I’m checking up on her?

Something touched Pell’s shoulder, startled, he spun and found Gurix standing behind him pulling back her fingers. She said, “Sorry. Can I help you find something?”

“Um, I’m looking…” Pell wondered if he should say “girlfriend” or whether that presumed on the new relationship he had with Gia. Probably not since they’d agreed to be mated, but he still felt uncomfortable about it. He settled for, “looking for Gia. Did you see where she went?”

Pell’s eyes had gone back to searching for Gia so he didn’t see the flash of disappointment cross Gurix’ face. Gurix quickly hid the expression and said, “I saw her leave, but I don’t know where she went. Should I help you look for her?”

Grateful for the help, Pell said, “Sure.” Feeling the need to explain rather than just looking like he was worried about nothing, he continued, “She doesn’t know this area. I wouldn’t want something to have happened to her without someone checking on her.” He stepped back inside to get his spear and started toward the right end of the ledge, expecting that Gurix would go to the left so that they would spread out their search. He felt surprised then, when she turned and walked with him to the right. Pell almost
suggested
she go a different direction, but then felt like it’d be rude to criticize someone who was trying to help him.

Ginja ran to the side or ahead of them as they walked down along the stream. Though Pell didn’t notice, Gurix kept an apprehensive eye on Pell’s wolf for a while. Then she shook her head and turned to Pell. She said, “So you’re a bonesetter now! How did you learn to do that?”

Pell glanced at her. Gurix, a year or two younger than he, had always been friendly. He’d teased her some when they were younger, after all, she was a girl and that’s what boys did. Now he realized that she was becoming a pretty young woman. He thought back to when he was trying, but stumbling while talking to Gia. His mother had recommended that he pretend he was talking to Gurix. Since he’d always been comfortable talking to Gurix it’d helped him. He launched into explaining how he’d learned bone setting, “I started to figure it out when I tried to rip my own finger off after I dislocated it…”

Gurix was a good listener, inserting perceptive questions whenever Pell started to run down. They walked down into the valley and looked out over the huge meadows where the large animals fed. They walked back up along another path into areas where Gurix said the women frequently did their gathering. The whole time, Gurix gently kept their conversation going, not saying much herself, but pulling things out of Pell.

It’d been quite a while since Pell had had much time to talk to someone his own age. Gia was his age, but Pell had been too timid to hold much of a conversation with her. As he thought about her, he suddenly cast his eyes around, realizing that in the midst of talking to Gurix he hadn’t been very vigilant in looking for Gia. Gurix brought him back to her conversation by saying, “And now, you’re the leader of two tribes! Are you going to bring them together into one?”

Pell gave her a startled look, “I’m the leader of
no
tribes! Agan is the leader of the Cold Springs tribe and Gontra is the leader of the Aldans.” He paused for a moment, stunned by her thoughts. Hesitantly, he said, “I, I’m just a boy who has a trick for setting bones!” He looked Gurix in the eye, “I’m hardly older than you, you know?”

Unsettlingly, Gurix shrugged her shoulders and said, “That may be true, but we all know that everyone does what you tell them. You may be young, but you have the… I don’t know what it’s called, maybe the ‘power’ to
do
things. Everyone respects that.”

Having, less than a year ago, been the useless, weak, bullied, butt-of-jokes, Pell felt a shiver run over him at Gurix’ words.
Can she be telling the truth? Do people really respect me now?
He’d been so hungry for esteem for so long that the thought that people truly did value him was heady. Of course, he’d had inklings when Tando thought he could do so much more than bone setting and had thought that Pell should be the leader of the Cold Springs tribe. At the time he’d thought that Tando just hadn’t understood his limitations. And then, last night, Gia had said she wanted to be his mate!
Gia!
Pell surveyed the area around them and resolutely reminded himself to keep a better eye out for her. As he did so, he noticed that the snow was almost all gone. To Gurix, he said, “Where else do you think Gia might have gone?”

Gurix indicated a trail off to their right, “Let’s go this way. We gather oats out here. I think they’ve all been harvested, but perhaps someone suggested she might look that direction.”

“Do you think it’s safe for her to be out here by herself?” Pell asked. “You women usually go in groups don’t you?”

“Well, yes,” Gurix smiled shyly up at Pell, “but we only go in the daytime and I think it’s pretty safe then. Anyway, I’m not sure that a group of women could protect ourselves if we were attacked by wolves or big cats. I think mostly we go together because we like to do things with our friends.” She touched his arm, “I
do
feel much safer out here with
you
beside me, carrying your spear.”

Pell felt a little shiver run through him at her touch.
If I didn’t already love Gia,
he thought
, maybe I could’ve fallen for Gurix. She’s… nice.
They surveyed the area where the wild oats grew, but didn’t see anything and turned back toward the cave. Gurix continued to ply him with questions whenever the conversation faltered.

They were almost back to the cave when they rounded a bramble patch and found Gia sitting cross legged and pecking at a chunk of limestone with a piece of chert.

Exen knelt beside her!

When Gia had finished stuffing sausages, she’d watched as Pell and Tando hung them on the little tree Tando had brought in. It’d puzzled her at first, but when she saw them tilt the tree up so that the tuft of branches Tando had left on the tree were up in the smoky recess by the smoke hole, she immediately understood what they were trying to do.

The women had mostly broken down the carcass of the goat the hunters had brought in. Lessa had begun preparing to tan the skin into leather. Tonday and Ontru were scraping the rest of the meat off the bones. They were planning a big feast for later in the day but also cutting a good part of the meat into strips for Pell and Tando to smoke.

Looking at the pile of bones the women were producing, Gia realized she could harvest the marrow fat from them for a lamp. Earlier she’d said that the Aldans shouldn’t waste the animal fat on lamps, but now she was thinking that occasionally they might really need lamplight. It’d be a shame if they didn’t even know how to make or use one.
I’d just as well make one,
she thought, putting on all the furs she’d brought with her so she could go out in the cold.
I need to find some juniper.