Breakaway: Clan of the Ice Mountains (21 page)

Attu felt the older hunter’s eyes on him. His heart started hammering in his chest.
Rika wasn’t bound to Banek yet? Why didn’t she tell me? I didn’t give her a chance to even hint at it.
He felt his cheeks reddening, but he held his gaze on the tools in front of him, willing himself to take steady slow breaths.

“Banek is throwing himself around like a lone male nuknuk, but he’ll have to wait awhile longer for my daughter. As I will for Tenukik,” Paven said, and chuckled to himself. Ubantu joined in, obviously relieved his woman was safe from Paven’s schemes.

Attu’s bone chisel slipped, cutting his finger. He sucked on the wound, turning away from the conversation while he thought about what the two men had said.

Paven’s using Rika to keep Banek with his clan until they get safely off the ice. He knows Banek is an adventurer, and keeping Rika from him will keep another strong hunter with his clan, strengthening them. Doesn’t he care about Rika’s feelings in any of this? Is she just a tool in her father’s hands to be manipulated like he manipulates everyone around him, to his own plan?

Will he hold Rika like bait until Banek tires of the game and simply disappears with her one night, shaming her by taking her away from her clan without the ritual of giving and taking being performed? What if Banek grows so frustrated he attacks Paven? But Paven thinks he is invincible. After all, he survived an ice bear attack, didn’t he? The attack of the bear has made me more cautious. Has it made him arrogant? And Rika is caught in the middle...

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F
ive suns later, the clans still hadn’t found the end of the chasm of open water. Paven and Ubantu conferred with Attu and the other hunters late in the day and called an early halt. Doubling the size of the group had put a strain on their resources, and most of the hunters moved off to seek game while it was still light. The rest set up camp.

“Attu, Ubantu, stay with me,” Paven said. “We need a few hunters here to guard.”

Ubantu moved to follow Paven. Attu followed reluctantly. He’d rather be hunting. How quickly Ubantu had slipped into following Paven’s every request. It rankled Attu, but he found himself going along with Paven also.
What else can I do if Father trusts him to lead?

“Sit here,” Paven said. Paven motioned to a seat beside him in front of his shelter on the edge of the encampment where they had a good view of the clans.

“So tell me, Attu, have you had any more dreams, lately? Any advice to give?”

Attu looked at Paven.
That same edge in his voice, that same leer. Is he teasing me, or is he serious?
“Everyone dreams,” Attu replied. “I have no new knowledge to share.”
Nothing I understand, and certainly nothing I’m going to tell you.

“That’s too bad,” Paven replied. “We headed for the great land when I saw the signs in the weather and the ice and finally believed the stories of my childhood, but I, too, dreamed about the Warming, at least twenty moons ago. Did you know that?”

“What?” Attu was shocked.
Why hadn’t Paven told us this?

“I did nothing about them. If I had, we would be off the ice now. Still, I do not trust in dreams. Last night I dreamed Rika’s mother was alive. It is as I said, we dream of what we wish for or what unsettles us. Dreams cannot be trusted.”

Attu and Ubantu shared a look of disbelief at the hunter so sure of himself that he was ignorant of the ways of the Between with its many kinds of dreaming, and had ignored the warning of the spirits when the prophetic dreams had come. He had waited too long before setting out, putting his whole clan in danger, just like Moolnik had their own.

He plays with his whole clan regardless of the danger. Just like he’s playing with Rika and Banek.
The thought made Attu feel sick.

“We need to-” Paven began, but he was interrupted by a shout coming from across the Expanse.

Paven and Ubantu grabbed their spears and headed toward the sound. Attu hefted his new spear with its ice bear tooth point he’d finished just the sun before, and he ran with the older men toward the shouting.

Kinak and Banek came loping over the Expanse, their voices calling out to the clan in excitement.

“Clear ice ahead!” Banek cried as the two came close enough for the rest to hear him.

“And a great land of hills just beyond it!” Kinak yelled. “We saw it!”

The clan erupted into shouts and yells. A few women began dancing the hopping and spinning dances of thanksgiving as they called out to their name spirits. The smaller children began running about wildly, not understanding what the adults were so excited about, but knowing it was something very good.

Attu looked to Paven. “We go?”

“As soon as we can,” Paven replied.

“Even if we must travel at night,” Ubantu asserted. “We must take advantage of the ice reaching to the shore of this land before it, too, melts, like the ice did on the land from which we just came.”

Attu and Paven popped their lips in agreement, and the clans’ celebration turned immediately into preparation to travel again.

The clan traveled the rest of that day and into the night. Even though Banek and Kinak had seen the ice and land, it was still a far distance over the ice to reach it. Paven called a halt for a few hours of sleep when the moon set and it became too dangerous to walk ahead in the dark on untested ice.

People hastily erected their shelters. Attu rolled into his sleeping skins and tried to sleep with the others. He listened to Meavu’s soft snoring and his father’s more rough breathing as he tried to keep Rika and the dreams out of his mind. But he kept seeing her. First as the gap of open water moved her away from him, and again, standing by the stone wall with all the carvings on it, speaking with the man’s voice.

Find the rock shaped like a nuknuk spearhead at the top of the mountain near the pass, and follow the path through the mountains. Then you and your whole clan will be safe.

Attu saw the rock, high above him, as if it were right in front of him, not something he’d seen in the Between. He saw its two points, like a nuknuk spear’s tips, rising up and curving back. He heard the man’s voice, over and over again.
Find that rock, that rock...

Attu had heard of a person speaking to another in a dream. One of the Great Frozen storytellers had told of a clan healer of long ago who dreamed he spoke to the clan’s leader, even though the leader and three of the other hunters were gone hunting. The clan leader had told the healer that one of the hunters with him had died. Two days later, the clan leader and his hunters had returned, without the man he’d spoken of in the dream, who had fallen through the ice and drowned the very day the healer had dreamed his death announcement.

Attu had marveled at that story.
But what of my dream?
If someone had spoken to him, it was from a great distance, and it was someone he didn’t know. Yet they somehow knew him and had conveyed a crucial message, a plan for his clan’s survival. Perhaps what he was hearing was the voice of a spirit, sounding and looking like a man.

He needed to talk with Elder Nuanu about these newer dreams, how they seemed to be developing into a plan he must follow. If it meant the survival of his clan, and Attu was becoming convinced it did, he needed to tell her, seek her advice. He would not be ignorant as Paven had been with his own dreams. He’d talk with Elder Nuanu first thing in the morning.

Attu rolled over, trying to get comfortable on his bed of furs, and he fell asleep thinking of the land ahead, the twin pointed rock, and the journey south they must make once they got to the shoreline. But when he fell asleep, Attu dreamed instead of the golden-eyed Rika, spinning off over the dark waters, gone forever.

“T
hrow me that rope, Attu,” Yural called from the other side of the shelter. She had the last hide down, and Attu threw her the rope to tie it together with the others into a pack bundle.

“Kinak saw land,” Meavu repeated for the hundredth time as she scurried about picking up odds and ends of the few supplies still not packed. “We’re almost there, Attu, almost there!”

Meavu, her cheeks flushed, paused a moment, grinning at Attu in delight before she turned back to her work.

“Tell your father we’re ready,” Yural said.

Attu walked to where Ubantu, Paven, and Banek were taking down Elder Nuanu’s shelter. Moolnik stood off to one side, his family packed, watching Elder Nuanu rewrap his woman’s ankle for travel. He didn’t offer to help the men with the shelter, but scowled at the other hunters instead.

He thinks he’s too good to help an old woman,
Attu thought
. Even the one who was healing his woman Tulnu of her ankle injury.

Attu hurried to grab the hide Ubantu was holding so he could help roll it. He’d talk with Elder Nuanu once Tulnu left.

Elder Nuanu finished wrapping Tulnu’s ankle. Attu heard her say, “One more sun with the wrapping should be enough,” as she patted Tulnu’s leg.

“Attu, come here,” Elder Nuanu called.

Attu turned away from the shelter and walked to where the two women were sitting.
Does she know I need to speak with her?
Attu wondered.

“Grab that small pouch dangling out of my potions pack,” Elder Nuanu said.

Attu grabbed the small pouch from where it was hanging and brought it back to her.

Elder Nuanu took the small bundle from him, handing it to Tulnu. “Remember to keep drinking this in the tea I gave you, one bowl, every night. It will help keep down the swelling while the ankle finishes healing itself. You may begin walking the whole day now. No more need for the sled.”

Attu heard Moolnik’s satisfied “Humph,” as he heard Elder Nuanu’s words.

“Yes, Elder Nuanu,” Tulnu said. She flashed a glance at her man then looked down at the ice in front of her. She seemed disappointed she no longer needed to ride for part of the day. Attu knew Tulnu had enjoyed traveling that way, especially when Moolnik pulled her. She’d smiled widely the whole time her man dragged her sled, while he grumbled with every step.

“Thank you,” Tulnu said finally, standing up. Tulnu reached out her hands to help Elder Nuanu up as well.

“These old bones,” Elder Nuanu groaned, as she leaned heavily on Tulnu. “I’m too old for this much walking.”

Attu popped his lips at her statement. Who’d been keeping up with the strongest hunters these last several moons if not Elder Nuanu? She was tough meat, like his father said.

“We’re almost there,” Tulnu said. “Soon.” She patted Elder Nuanu’s arm as if Elder Nuanu were a child, and not the embodiment of Shuantuan, most powerful of all land spirits.

Tulnu turned and started walking toward Moolnik. Apparently seeing she was done, Moolnik strode away, leaving Tulnu to catch up with him.

Attu looked down at Elder Nuanu as she stared off into the distance, past where Moolnik and Tulnu had gone. He opened his mouth to begin telling her about his dreams, when he realized she was already speaking. Her voice was too low for Attu to hear, and she clutched the amulet she wore around her neck with her free hand. Elder Nuanu reached for Attu and grasped his arm fiercely. A shudder passed through her body.

“You must be first through the pass,” Elder Nuanu said in a voice that Attu recognized. It was the white-haired man’s voice, the voice of the man in the dream, the one with the blue eyes, the one who had spoken through Rika.

Attu tried to pull away from Elder Nuanu, but she grabbed his arm still tighter, her fingers like claws digging into him as she swayed on her feet. Her eyes were unfocused, staring out over the Expanse toward the way they must go. The voice came again, almost a whisper. “Before the others. You must travel first through the pass, along with the one who will bear your sons and daughters. Do not give up hope, Attu, even when things seem grim.”

Attu was terrified.
What dark force of the spirits was this? What was happening to Elder Nuanu?

Attu stared at her as Elder Nuanu released her amulet with her free hand, raising it as if to brush a few strands of grey hair away from her eyes. But Attu saw the look of pain on her face. For a brief moment, her face looked like that of Rika’s in the dream, like it was both Elder Nuanu’s face and the face of the man, someone powerful. Her grey braids seemed to change, to become white flowing hair, her face, the face of the old man, heavy white brows, impossibly blue eyes...

“Elder Nuanu?” Attu asked. “What’s happening to you?”

“I need to sit down,” Elder Nuanu said, and Attu was relieved to hear her own voice coming out of her mouth again. He helped her sit on the pack she’d used as a seat earlier. He studied her face. It looked normal, wrinkled with age, tanned by the sun.

Suddenly, however, Elder Nuanu began to shake violently. Her whole body pulsed, as tremors ran from her head to her feet.

“Get Rika,” Elder Nuanu managed to say through gritted teeth. “Tell her to hurry.” Elder Nuanu fell sideways off the pack.

“Father!” Attu cried as he grabbed Elder Nuanu up into his arms before she could hit the ice. She had passed out.

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“I
tell you, I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Rika said, as Paven, Banek, Ubantu, and Attu stood in Elder Nuanu’s hastily re-erected shelter in which she now lay, still unconscious. Rika hovered over her, wringing her hands.

Attu wanted to tell Rika about Elder Nuanu talking in the man’s voice before she convulsed and passed out, but he couldn’t say it in front of everyone, so he just said Elder Nuanu had started trembling violently before she went into the Between of unconsciousness. He’d tell Rika the rest as soon as he could get her alone for a moment. Attu knew he should say more now, but he couldn’t, not in front of Paven and Banek. He didn’t want them to know about Rika and the dreams.

“She has no fever. She wasn’t injured,” Rika was saying. “I’ve examined her and found nothing wrong. I don’t know what to do.”

“We have to leave, daughter,” Paven said, pacing back and forth in the small space. His scarred face looked even worse as he drew his brows together in thought. “We can’t risk staying here until we can figure out what’s wrong with Elder Nuanu. We have to move onto the land while we have the chance.”