Breakaway: Clan of the Ice Mountains (19 page)

Everyone else drew in a breath, then laughed as they realized the two were in no danger.

“Stupid boy,” Moolnik said. “You want to break through the ice and drown both yourself and your mother?”

“I’ll try it,” Kinak offered, while his new wife Suanu rushed up to Tulnu and arranged hides around her to keep her warm.

Moolnik growled at Suka. “Your brother will have his turn soon enough, Suka. Try again and do it right this time. And watch the ice ahead of you.”

Kinak shrugged his broad shoulders at his younger brother and turned away with Suanu at his side.

“It’s not as easy as it looks,” Suka mumbled, and he stood up with difficulty and straightened the rope that ran up from one side of the sled, across his chest, and back down to the other side of the sled. He began pulling again, this time more slowly.

The smallest children followed the hide sled for the rest of that day. The ice was thick here, and no one objected to them taking turns riding on it with Tulnu. She didn’t seem to be in too much pain, Attu noticed as they stopped for another break later in the day. She seemed to be enjoying the attention of the little ones as well as Suanu and the other women. They clustered around Tulnu whenever they stopped, talking and putting poultices on her ankle, covering her with furs to keep her warm.

Coming up over the final icy ridge late that day, Attu paused to catch his breath. Ubantu labored the last few feet and stood beside him.

“This last climb down isn’t going to be easy,” Attu said, looking down at the Expanse below them. When his father didn’t answer, Attu looked in the direction his father was gazing.

“Is that what I think it is?” Attu asked. His mind reeled at the sight as his heart skipped one beat, then another.

“Unfrozen water,” his father said. “See it gleam in the light of the late sun?”

Far into the distance, a band of dark water stretched across the horizon. It appeared to have no end.

“And look,” Ubantu said. He pointed off to the right.

Attu, looking to where his father was pointing, saw a cluster of dark dots moving out across the Expanse, single file, in three lines, like tiny mussels hugging the shoreline of the great unfrozen water beside them.

“Rika’s clan,” Attu said. “I mean... Paven’s clan.”

Ubantu turned, and Attu could see his father was studying him. Attu felt his face flush. He looked away, but he knew his father was still watching him closely.

“Yes, my son, I think it is Paven’s clan,” his father replied finally.

Attu chanced a look at Ubantu. Sad understanding flashed across his father’s face.

Pity. Attu didn’t want anyone’s pity, especially his father’s. He was angry with himself for not guarding his feelings for Rika more carefully as a hunter should for a woman he could not have without a fight, one he would have surely lost against Banek. He would’ve had to fight Paven, as well, to get Rika. And he didn’t believe in fighting for a woman or trying to take one from another hunter by trickery. He didn’t even think Rika wanted him, anyway. But if Paven had tried to take Yural, both he and his father would have fought to the death to keep her. She was theirs to protect.

It was the Nuvik way to obtain what one desired through violence if necessary. Most hunters were like his father, able to wait beside a nuknuk hole or their fishing lines for hours at a time, unmoving. Only the most patient hunters and their families survived. Holding on to what was his, each hunter was also vigilant against possible theft, be it tools, game, or a woman. Among the Nuvik, dwelling in this harsh land where only a few could live, there was no room for mercy. And now, there was Rika before him again, and he had to pretend he didn’t care about her or risk violence upon himself and his family. His father knew this, and Attu hated seeing the pain on his father’s face, his understanding, his sympathy, his pity.

Attu pulled off his pack and threw himself down on it, overcome by what he saw before him, what his father now knew, and what he’d seen in the dream, what he’d heard, those whispered words, “Soon, soon.” Rika’s voice had called to him. Now, there she was, with her whole clan spread out before them. And there was the water, stretching off into the horizon as far as he could see, both ways, effectively trapping them on this treacherous ice.
And against all common sense, all I can think about is seeing Rika again.

“What are we going to do?” Attu asked.

“They’ll stop soon to make camp,” Ubantu said. “Once we make the bottom of this last ridge, we should rest, too.”

“But-” Attu began to protest.

“But not make camp,” his father finished. “We rest and then move on, catch up with Paven’s group while we know where they are.”

“All right,” Attu agreed.

Ubantu motioned to the others behind him. “Last one,” he cried.

A few hunters gave a shout of triumph, and the group quickened their pace up the last rise.

“What?”
Why didn’t Father tell the others?

“Let them make it to the top of this last hard climb; then we’ll all face the unfrozen water together,” his father explained. “No need to discourage everyone just yet.”

Ubantu pulled off his pack and the two of them sat, watching as Paven’s clan continued to trek along the edge of the impossibly large body of unfrozen water. Attu couldn’t even see any ice chunks floating in it.

Attu closed his eyes.
What if Moolnik had been right to believe they needed to stay on the land they’d found and not move on as Elder Tovut had said they must? What if it was already too late to get to the safety of the great land, the place of New Green Elder Nuanu spoke of in her stories?

Attu tried to concentrate on the dream. They’d be joining Paven’s clan soon. Rika’s message in the dream had come true. They had met again and it had been “soon.” The man’s voice in the dream had said they’d make it to the land. Rika had been there in the dream. Did that mean she’d be with him when they made it to safety?
Or was she there simply because the old man, whoever or whatever he was, needed a person I would recognize to speak through? Why not my father, or mother, or Meavu?

The man was obviously some sort of shaman, like Elder Tovut had been, like Elder Nuanu, a man of great wisdom, if he could somehow communicate with me through a dream. But how did he know about our clans on the Expanse? And of all the people to choose from, why reach out to me? It makes no sense.

And what about the other dream where I couldn’t reach Rika, where the ice split and the water came between us, me on one side, Rika on the other? Was it this water, ahead of us? But we are both on the same side of it, so that can’t be true. What does that dream mean?

Elder Nuanu had said Attu would save his people. Right now, it looked like he was walking them into a dead end if they couldn’t find a way around the water.
Was that why Paven’s clan was right here, instead of ten days’ further journey onward? Had they been stuck here for that long, trying to find a way around? We’ll find out soon enough,
Attu supposed. But whatever their reasons for losing so much time, it couldn’t be good, that was for sure.

One by one the people of the Ice Mountain Clan reached the top of the ridge, and one by one they pulled off their packs and sat, looking out over the Expanse at Paven’s clan, walking along the edge of seemingly endless water.

Moolnik took one look at what lay ahead and began swearing as he steadied his woman’s sled on the top of the ridge of ice, while Suka and Kinak, with Suanu at his side, edged themselves away from Moolnik as if trying to avoid his biting words.

Attu and Suka exchanged glances.
Now what?
Suka’s eyes seemed to say.

Elder Nuanu, one of the last to reach the top, took one look at the scene before her, and raising her arms to the sky, began a keening cry to Shuantuan.

Yural got up and began to cry out to her trysta as well. Soon every woman stood, their voices carrying eerily across the valley of ice and water before them. They called to their name spirits to protect them, called out their past obedience to ritual, telling how the Ice Mountain clan had never failed to follow all necessary ceremonies and observances.

Their keening grew louder and louder. Attu felt the hair on his arms rise and his spirit vibrating within him. He felt their pain; it was his own, and their women’s cry gave voice to his own fear.

Looking around, he saw the same look of hopelessness on the other hunters. Tears streamed down Meavu’s cheeks as she cried out to the spirits. Tears formed in Attu’s eyes, but he bit them back. Hunters did not cry. Instead, he gave way to the crying of the women, felt his spirit lift with theirs. As he did, he knew what he must do.

Attu stood, and with him the other hunters rose. They began to shout, deep warlike shouts of challenge, challenges to the unfrozen water to come and fight them, challenges to the Expanse to try to thwart them. They shouted to the spirits of their strength, of their willingness to do the spirits’ bidding, of their accomplishments as hunters, as protectors of their clan. Their voices rose to a crescendo carried with the wind across the Great Frozen.

“The spirits have heard us,” Elder Nuanu said as their voices died away across the Expanse. She pointed off into the distance, towards Paven’s clan. “And so has the Great Frozen Clan.”

Attu’s clan grew quiet, and as their own cries faded, the faint sound of returning cries from Paven’s clan came drifting up to them where they stood.

“Then there is hope,” Ubantu announced. “Let’s go to them, my son,” and Ubantu led the way down the steep slope towards Paven’s clan. He walked slowly, careful of his leg on the slippery decline, but his steps were sure, his back straight. The clan followed. For once, even Moolnik obeyed without a fight.

A
ttu’s clan reached Paven’s in the middle of the night. But instead of setting up camp and sleeping, Attu’s people set up their hide tents together, forming a large covering under which most of the two clans gathered.

The two women who had been given at the bonding ceremony were reunited with their families, and their joy spilled over to the rest of the group, creating a mood of celebration amongst the two clans, even with the threat of the unfrozen water lurking in everyone’s mind.

Attu looked around, studying the groups of people sitting around the many lamps.
Where was Rika?

“Sit here, my son,” Ubantu called, and Attu reluctantly walked over to where his father, Suka, Kinak, Paven and two other hunters from the Great Frozen clan gathered at a lamp, away from the women and children. Their shadows flickered on the walls of the hide tent as Attu sat down in the place his father made by his side.
Why wasn’t Rika here, with the others?

“We went as far as we dared travel to the east,” Paven said, apparently continuing his story of what had transpired with his clan since the two clans had parted. “Then the ice became so rotten, we were forced to turn back. We lost much time in the attempt.”

He shook his head.

“Now we’re heading west. We must find a way around the chasm.”

The two hunters of the Great Frozen Clan popped their lips in agreement.

“So tell me, Attu,” Paven asked, “why do the other hunters come to you and your father now with their questions, instead of Moolnik? You seem to have gained great status in a short time with your clan. How is this so?”

Paven was speaking in a low voice to Attu, who was sitting directly across from him, but the others heard as well. They looked at Attu.

Attu stayed silent, not wanting to speak of Moolnik’s shame in front of his sons.

“Attu and Ubantu have served our people well since we began our journey,” Kinak answered for Attu. “We honor them for their bravery and their willingness to serve.”

“And their willingness to allow a foolish hunter his mistakes,” Suka added quietly.

Both Ubantu and Paven shot a glance at Suka, but Suka continued studying the flickering light of the lamp’s flames as if he hadn’t just spoken derisively of his father.

Attu met Kinak’s eyes and gave him a quick nod of thanks. Suka, however, avoided looking at anyone. He continued to stare at the row of flames licking up from the long wick laid across the soft stone bowl filled with nuknuk fat. He studied it as if it held a secret only he could see.

In a quiet voice, Suka began telling of the attack on Taunu, of Yupik’s bravery, of the second attack, and the ice swallowing up both the bear and the hunter. He left out the part about Elder Nuanu’s fight with Moolnik and about his mother throwing a fit of grief to get her man to come with the rest of the clan. The women would carry those stories back to Paven, and his whole clan would know about it soon enough, if they didn’t already.

Thankful that Suka had changed the subject, Attu relaxed and listened to Suka’s telling of recent events.
Someday, Suka will tell the stories of the warming and cooling cycles like Elder Tovut,
Attu thought as he listened in growing wonder to Suka’s version of the events of the last moons. He knew his cousin was a good storyteller, but tonight Suka made what had happened to their clan sound as good as Elder Tovut’s stories of the Between.
But Moolnik will never let his son be a conduit for the spirits through his stories, as his own father had not let him be for his dreams. What a waste for both them and the clan.

Suka looked up. Attu caught his gaze, and Suka smiled at him, never missing a beat in the storyline. For that moment, it felt like old times between them once again.

The conversation lasted until almost dawn, when one by one, the men, women, and children of both clans simply rolled up in the furs they’d carried with them to the large shelter and fell asleep.

Attu lay down, sick at heart that Rika had chosen not to see him, had hidden from him instead. Rika didn’t have feelings for him. She belonged to another. He needed to call his heart back from her. But he didn’t know how.

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I
t was midday before the clans began their now combined trek to find a way around the open water. Attu walked with Ubantu and Paven, scouting ahead, amazed at the size of the chasm in the ice and trying not to lose all hope.