Bonesetter (41 page)

Pell stopped him, “No.
I’ll
be gone tomorrow night.”

At this statement, Gontra’s eyes flashed a look of dismay, but he called for thongs and set about tying the healer up.
As he worked, he demonstrated the knots for Pell, first tying Pont’s hands behind him.
Then Gontra dragged him to his feet and marched him to the back of the cave.
There he forced him to the ground and began tying his feet together.
Then he tied each of Pont’s bonds to pieces of firewood, small enough that the healer could move them, but large enough that moving them would take effort and make noise.
They laid dry twigs and grasses about Pont and placed bedding of grass and furs for Gontra and Pell
between Pont and the rest of the Aldans
.

Meanwhile, the women had eagerly set about butchering the boar and preparing a small feast.
Pell had eaten some of his smoked meat just before he and Gontra arrived and, not wanting to incur any obligation by partaking in the feast, he pled weariness and lay down in his place in front of Pont to sleep.

Despite his pleas, he thought he wouldn’t be able to sleep because of the excitement of the day’s events.
Lessa brought Pont some of the food and fed it to him though neither of them spoke.
The next thing he knew, Pell was waking, freezing cold, just as dawn broke outside.

He checked to be sure that Pont was still securely bound, then stepped around Gontra and went out to empty his bladder.
The sky was clear, the last stars were fading and, it was bitingly cold.
He stamped his feet, passed his water and came back in to stoke the fire.
He sat before it trying to warm back up and decided to leave as soon as he could decently get away.
He couldn’t help thinking morbidly of all the problems this little tribe faced, the worse for the loss of two of its hunters.
He wanted to get away and back to his own, simpler problems.
Perhaps he could send some spirit meat back with Belk when Belk had recovered enough to return?
For now, Pell just wanted to get away.
In fact, his feet were nearly warm.
Perhaps he could get out before they awakened and not even have to be reminded of their despair as they woke and set about the new day.
He set about assembling his things.

He was nearly packed and ready to go when Gontra woke and saw him getting ready.
“No, Pell, don’t go!
Tonday!
Exen!
Ontru!
Lenta!
Pell
’s getting ready to leave!”
The others bolted up out of their
own
sleeping nests, exclaiming.
Soon the entire camp was up, even the children who, disturbed by the adult’s emotional displays, began crying.
Pell’s heart filled with despair as they began to beg him to stay.
One of the women cried, “The children will starve without your help.”“We don’t have enough hunters.”“The hunting has been so bad.”

“We talked until late last night.
We want
you
to be the new leader now that Roley is dead.”

“We know that you have become a gr
eat hunter and a mighty shaman.
Please, save us.”

“Please?”
Pell looked over at Pont, whose sullen glare told him that he certainly couldn’t remain safely with the Aldans while the healer still lived.
Though Roley’s second wife, Ontru, was pleading for Pell to stay, he could see that hate remained in the eyes of Fellax.
He turned to Lessa, who was begging him to stay and said, “Look Lessa, deep into the heart of your husband, Pont.
Can you truly tell me that I will be welcome here?”

She looked over at Pont, then turned and looked out to the horizon, biting her lip.
A tear formed and rolled down her cheek, but she said nothing.

He looked over them all, catching each one’s eye in turn, “I must go.
I’m not welcomed here by some and, truth be to tell, I like my new home and my
new
tribe.
When Belk is healthy enough to travel, we’ll send some meat back with him.
Some of our ‘spirit meat that doesn’t rot’ so that you will have something for when your hunts don’t work out.
Maybe without Denit leading your hunts your luck will improve.”

“No!
Then take us with you.
Let us join your tribe.
We will do whatever you say.”

“I’m not the leader of my new tribe.
I have learned many good things from Agan, our leader, but one is that she leads from her own wisdom, not through others’ dread,
like
Roley
did
.
Agan
may be an old woman, but she is wise and
therefore
mighty.
So it would not be up to me to decide whether you could join us.
It is not even up to
Agan.
S
he would consult with everyone in our tribe before she decided.”

Gontra stared at Pell incredulously, “Pell, I’ve seen the way they look at you there.
If you asked, they would take us.
They would do
anything
you asked.”

Taken aback, Pell considered
. Could
Gontra’s
estimation of his own influence
be true?
He shook his head, “Even if that were true Gontra, I
won’t
ask the members of
my
tribe to make an exception to their rules for me.”
He looked around at all of their expectant hopeful faces, “I will put the question to them when I return.
In the meantime I will stay two days and hunt for you.
I will also teach you how to make your cave warmer.”

“Can you teach us to make the spirit meat?”

“Uhh…
no, that is our tribe’s secret.
I would have to ask the others before I could teach you that.
But I
will
ask them.”
Pell thought to himself with some irritation that it
was
his idea—he should be able to teach
that
secret if he wanted.
But, Tando thought of the smoking process as a very important secret and—Tando was very important to Pell as a friend, so…

Pell spent an hour planning out a mud wattle closure for the cave.
He looked at the cave opening and laid it out.
Then he took members of the tribe out and showed them the kind of staves, sticks and grasses they would need to collect.
He found some good mud at the stream’s edge and organized others to carry skins of it up to the cave.
Then he borrowed some thongs and a hand axe and set out to lay some snares.
He
said
he was going hunting and, when he did, Gontra and Exen wanted to come.
He didn’t want them along, first because he didn’t want his image as a great hunter tarnished and second, because he wanted them to put in some labor improving the cave.
Under Roley the hunters had lolled about watching the women and children doing
the
laborious chores.
Pell felt that, since he’d been doing those chores for himself and then with Tando and Donte, it would do the hunters of his old tribe some good.
He tried to deter them by explaining that his hunting technique required him to be alone to be successful.
Then they became excited and wanted to learn this new technique, but he
insisted
that today they needed him to bring back some food and that to close off the cave opening the others in the cave needed their strong backs.
Perhaps he could show them some other time?

As he
walked about
, setting snares, he thought of his dilemma with one mind and with another saw his old homeland around the Aldans’ cave in a different light.
He had come to think of this area as “different” than his new home, as he had had so little success while hunting in the area when he was a boy (he thought of himself as a “boy” back then for, though it was only a Spring, Summer and a Fall ago, so much had happened that it seemed as if it were ages ago).
Now he saw that it had all of the same kinds of wildlife that he regularly saw at Cold Springs.
He saw the rabbit runs in the brambles and set snares in them.
He noticed the game paths now, though they must have been there before.
He used his traveling rope to drape nooses across two places where game paths narrowed next to sturdy trees.
He perceived the tuber bearing plants, including one of the tubers that he had not known of before Cold Springs.
He had discovered it when he was digging up
every
kind of plant looking for tubers, because he didn’t know what the tuber bearers looked like.
A large number of them grew in one area, the parts of the plants that were above the ground were withered, but he saw no evidence that any of them had been dug up.
He realized that the women of his old tribe must not recognize that this plant
had
an edible tuber, any more than he had known
about
that particular tuber before being cast out.
He dug up an armload of the tubers to take back.

When he neared the cave, he saw that there was a large pile of staves and smaller sticks beside the entrance of the cave as well as mud and dried grass.
It didn’t look like enough to wattle the opening though, and he was angered to see everyone sitting about the fire.
He realized that they didn’t know how much would be needed.
He should have told them what to do next anyway.
But Spirit!
They should be out trying to hunt or gather if they didn’t have anything else to do!
Were they just waiting for him to bring them some food?!
He thought back on old times and realized that his old tribe had spent little of their time either trying to improve their lot, or to stock up for winter.
If there wasn’t an immediate need, i.e. an empty stomach, they simply laid about relaxing.
The women did try to stock up on tubers and grain for winter and the men would have a big hunt at the
time of the
expected first frost, but otherwise little thought went into their future.
Perhaps the better situation of his little tribe at Cold Springs was more due to hard work than to good luck?

“Hey, it’s Pell,” called Gontra as he walked up.

Pell stopped before the fire and set down his armload of tubers.
Exen snickered, “Look what the mighty hunter killed!
Tubers!” He burst into a laugh.

Pell’s face darkened as he stood back up.
Then he walked around the group, many of whom, even the women, were also smirking at this evidence of a man doing a woman’s job.
He bent, swept his traveling gear into his carrying sling and stood, throwing it back over his shoulder.
His gaze swept over the group, now looking apprehensive and uncomfortable.
As they focused a moment on Exen, Pell’s eyes dripped contempt.
Then he stepped back around them and headed out of the cave.

Gontra leapt to his feet, “Pell!
Don’t leave!
No, we’re sorry!
Please, we need you!” But Pell stalked out of the cave and down the path towards his new home.

Exen stood as well, but only to grasp his father’s elbow and say, “Come on Gontra, let him go, we don’t need him.”

Gontra struck a backhanded blow that sent him flying into the gaggle of women behind him, then turned and shouted, “
You
… you are
going
to
starve
this winter without his help.
Look at him!
Is he skinny and wasted like you?
No!
He has been
eating
, eating
very
well!
The
Spirits
themselves are on Pell’s side!
I’ve
seen
what the spirits do to those, like Denit and Roley, who don’t respect him.
He
knows
things that
you
desperately need to learn.
Now get your ass down the hill, apologize to him, beg his forgiveness, and urge him to return… or… or…
I’ll cast you out of this tribe myself!
My own son or not, I swear I’ll cast you out for the harm you’ve just done to all of us!

Pell was far enough down the path in his rage that he heard Gontra yelling but not the substance of his words.
When he heard someone running down the path behind him, he looked to see who came.
Seeing Exen, he gathered himself to resist an assault.
He was
horrified
when Exen fell to his knees, begging for him to return.
His heart remained hard as the others came down the path behind Exen, also pleading.
His heart melted however, when several of the children ran up to throw their arms about his thighs, sobbing piteously.
Eventually he turned to climb back up to the cave again.