Breakaway: Clan of the Ice Mountains (34 page)

A smile spread across Moolnik’s face at Attu’s words. “You may kill me, but that won’t stop me. It’s too late to stop me from killing all of you.” Then Moolnik chuckled. Attu’s stomach twisted at the sound.

“I’m through playing games with you, Moolnik,” Attu said. He slid his knife up to Moolnik’s throat.

“No,” Rika said. Her voice firm, unyielding. “This is the time. We will show mercy, at least long enough to find out if this is another one of Moolnik’s lies.” She turned to Moolnik. “So you think you’ve done something that will kill us all? I don’t believe you. Prove it. Prove you are not just a coward trying to buy a few more breaths with your ranting.”

“I’m not lying, girl. You know nothing. You are very stupid for one who is supposed to be a healer.”

“Watch your tongue, Moolnik,” Attu hissed. “Or did you forget my knife is at your throat?” He pressed the knife blade into Moolnik’s skin. A trickle of blood oozed from the edge.

“You may have the knife, boy,” Moolnik said, his voice a harsh whisper in an effort not to move his throat, “but you are not the only one to have dreamed. Did you think you were the only one to know of the pass?”

Attu released the pressure on his knife, slightly.
What was Moolnik talking about?

“I have dreamed of the pass, and more, boy, and I have moved with the spirits to seek my revenge on this clan, and yours too, girl.” Moolnik suddenly twisted his arm, trying to pull free of Attu’s grip, grabbing for the knife at his own side, but Attu held firm.

“You dreamed of the pass?” Rika asked.

“Yes, and I knew I must be the first one through it. Once the clans vowed to kill me, I vowed to kill you all. And I have succeeded.” Moolnik started looking around now, his eyes wild, his forehead dripping sweat.

“He’s crazy,” Attu said. “I’m finishing this.”

“Go ahead. It will make no difference now,” Moolnik said. “You’re all dead, anyway.” He twisted again, as if trying to look behind him. He was becoming increasingly agitated, and it seemed to have nothing to do with Attu holding a knife to his throat, which made no sense.

“What were you doing?” Rika asked. “Why are you so filthy?”

“Just making sure you all die, and soon.” Moolnik grinned.

She leaned forward to look more closely at Moolnik’s clothing.

“But not me!” Moolnik shouted, startling them both. He slumped forward and down, slipping under the knife, twisting, and pushed past Rika. Instead of running back down the pass, he ran for the edge of the ravine.

Rika recovered her balance, and both of them chased after Moolnik. They saw the rope at the same time, hanging hidden against some trees and tied far up the side of the ravine on the ridge.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Attu yelled and for the second time crashed himself into Moolnik, who hit hard on his chest and face in the dirt. He came up struggling and pulled away from Attu. Attu stood in front of the rope, blocking Moolnik’s escape. Moolnik grabbed inside his parka and pulled out two knives.

“You think you can stop me, boy?” Moolnik leered. “I think it’s time you knew the truth. What difference does it make if I tell you now, since you’ll be dead before sunset?”

A deep rumbling noise made them all stop and listen. The ground underneath them trembled. “Sooner, I think,” Moolnik added.

“What was that?” Rika asked.

Moolnik leered at her. “Your death sentence, girl. Serves you right for drugging me on the ice, for stealing my knife, for preferring this boy over me.”

Another rumble echoed down the pass.

The hair on Attu’s neck stood.

“I have dreamed since I was a child,” Moolnik said. “And while you were dreaming of ice bears and chasms of open water, I dreamed of the pass. I saw it, too. But I certainly wasn’t going to tell anyone of my dreams. Dreams are for children.”

Suddenly Moolnik sounded far away, as if he were speaking with someone from the past, someone long gone. His voice became bitter. “You taught me well, Father, to pay no heed to dreams. But I dreamed of the pass, Attu, the pass I heard you tell Rika about as you two sat by the fire, and I dreamed of the blockage in the pass, which you did not!” Moolnik looked at them both in triumph.

“There is a wall of rocks and trees and ice, a new avalanche, which has stopped the flow of water along this ravine. Behind it the water is rising, waiting to rush through this pass when it is finally freed. I was going to be the hero of the clans, save you all, by telling you of this blockage once we got here, showing you how to break it, let the water flow, stay high above the rushing torrent until it was safe to travel through.” Moolnik shook his head, and his voice grew hard. “But no, once again my brother must be the one all look to, and his son, and all listen to his dreams, even Elder Nuanu. All look to Ubantu and to Paven. And then even Banek thinks he is better than me, pushing me off the rope, willing to let me die so that he might live. But I showed him.”

Moolnik clutched his knives in his hands, raising them up, as if remembering how he had stabbed Banek.

Rika blanched, but she did not move.

“What have you done, Moolnik?” Attu asked.

“I have killed you all,” Moolnik said. “I moved a few rocks, dug out a bit of ice here and there, slid a tree or two from the blocked pass, just like I was told to do in the dream...” He looked back the way he had come, smiling. “The water will soon break over what remains, and everyone in its path will be swept away. Everyone will die. But not me!” And Moolnik leaped for the rope. Attu hit him from the side, pushing him into the rocks, and one of Moolnik’s knives was knocked from his hand. Attu pulled his own knife.

“Climb!” He yelled to Rika. “Climb to the top of the ridge and run. The clans are coming. Our families will all be killed. Run to warn them!”

Rika stood for a moment longer, her face blank with shock.

“I’ll hold him off as long as I can! Climb, Rika! You’ve got to get back to the clans and warn them.”

“But...”

“Just climb!”

“I’m not leaving without you,” Rika said, but she leaped for the rope and began hauling herself up it, quickly gaining height.

“No!” Moolnik shouted and as he looked up at Rika, Attu took advantage of his distraction and hit him in the side of the head with his fist. Moolnik fell in a slump.

Attu grabbed the rope and began to climb. Rika had reached the top. She threw her leg over the ridge and then turned and grabbed the rope.

“Go!” he yelled. “Don’t wait for me!”

“The rope is coming loose,” Rika shouted down to him. “I need to hold it for you.”

Attu was about to answer her, tell her he’d take his chances on the loose rope, when he felt the rope below him jerk.

Rika screamed.

Moolnik was climbing the rope. He had one knife in his mouth, the other in his hand, and his leg was wrapped around the rope as Banek had done with his arms. Attu had a sudden vision of Moolnik climbing up his body, one knife strike after another while he dangled as Banek had, trapped on the rope, bleeding to death.

“Release the rope!” Attu yelled. “You have to let me go!”

“No!” Rika yelled.

Attu reached out for a scrubby tree, growing from the side of the ravine. “I’ll hang on to this and drop to that narrow ledge below. From there I can climb down. You’ve got to let me go, Rika. This is what Elder Nuanu prophesied when she spoke through me. Let me go, and run to save the others.”

Moolnik was gaining on him. Attu could almost feel himself being stabbed...

“Let go!” he yelled.

“I love you,” Rika said.

Attu grabbed the tree branch and let go of the rope. The branch held.

Rika dropped the rope.

Moolnik screamed. Attu looked down to see Moolnik land face down on the rocks below. He didn’t move.

“Are you all right?” Rika called. She was on her hands and knees, peering over the side of the ridge at him. “I think Moolnik’s dead.”

“Yes, now go, Rika. Run. Warn the others, before it’s too late.”

As if on cue, a deep rumble and the sound of falling rocks echoed through the pass.

Rika’s head disappeared. Attu hung from the tree branch a few moments longer, working out how best to drop to the ledge below. He looked down, judging how far he would need to climb, and that’s when he saw Moolnik’s body was gone.

How could Moolnik have possibly survived that fall?

Attu felt the hair on his arms and neck rise at the thought of what kind of spirit controlled Moolnik. What evil power was in him to make Moolnik seek vengeance, even to the point where he no longer cared if his own woman and sons were killed? Surely, Moolnik must be more than a mere man; he must have become the embodiment of a Moolnikuan. Attu prayed it was not too late, and Rika would reach the clans in time, before Moolnik caught up with her. For surely that must be what he would try to do? Attu shuddered at the thought. He had to get down from this ridge and help Rika.

Attu decided to push himself out from the edge a bit before dropping. He pushed out with his legs as a rumbling sound rose up from the opposite side of the ravine. Attu looked out across the ridge to see snow spraying in all directions on the other side and debris flying. A small branch hit his face, and a roaring sound rushed at him. The tree he was hanging on to broke away from the side of the mountain, and Attu had just enough time to swing himself out, once, then in, and he fell onto the narrow ledge below, the tree toppling past him, tearing at him, almost ripping him off the side of the mountain, also. But Attu saw a narrow opening at the base of the ledge where the rock was still attached to the mountain, and he shoved himself into it, squeezing his body as far under its protection as possible. A rain of ice and rocks and tree debris came pouring down on him.

Had the avalanche trapped Rika? Or had she made it far enough down the ridge before the ice and debris began to fall? Attu poked his head out from under the crevice and at that very moment, a rock loosened from the avalanche fell off the side of the mountain and cracked Attu on the back of the head. He was unconscious before his face slammed onto the ledge.

I
t was growing dark when Attu awoke from the Between of sleep, rubbing his hand on the back of his head where he felt a lump the size of the hide balls he used to play with as a child. His head pounded in rhythm with his heart. He tried to stand, but waves of dizziness crashed down on him and pain seared across the back of his head.

Slowly, Attu managed to slip into a sitting position on the ledge. He wiped his eyes clear with his hands, flinching at even this slight movement.

Across the pass, the entire side of the snowy mountain had been swept off as if with a giant ice bear’s paw. Bare rock now showed where before had been deep ice and snow and a few straggly trees. It had fallen with such force, bumping and crashing down the mountain, that the rain of snow and ice had spread out over the pass and much had hit Attu’s side of the mountain pass.

Below Attu, a rushing body of deep water coursed over the path of rounded stones he and Rika had walked earlier. It was moving fast through the pass to the sea.

“Rika!” Attu shouted, wincing as pain shot through his head. Some snow had stuck on the ledge, and he made a loose ball of it and placed it on the injury. His head was excruciating to the touch, but Attu held the snow there, anyway. Soon the pain began to ebb slightly. Attu tried to think.

Rika couldn’t have gotten far before the snow slide had begun flinging debris at them from across the pass. There was a bend in the path, so it was possible she escaped the worst of it.
But when had the blockage broken and the waters begun to flow? He had no way of telling. Had Rika made it in time to warn the others? Or had she been caught in the avalanche backlash, hit by a rock or ice hunk? Was she lying injured right now, needing him?

The thought made Attu try to stand again, but the pain in his head made his stomach clench and he threw up over the side of the ledge instead. Sitting again, Attu forced himself to take a drink from his water pouch, which was still inside his parka where he always carried it. The water seemed to clear his head and ease the pain a bit, so Attu sat for a while longer, taking drinks and putting fresh snow on his head. Then he tried again to stand.

This time he managed to get upright without throwing up. But as soon as he removed the snow from the back of his head, it began to throb painfully, making him feel sick to his stomach. Attu rigged a wide strip of hide around his head, resting a mixture of ice and snow against the lump on his head, and forcing it to stay there by tying the band tightly around his forehead. It was awkward and freezing on the back of his neck as the ice and snow melted and dripped down into his parka, but at least with it on, he could walk without his head feeling like it was going to burst.

Attu labored up onto the ridge, slipping on the loose rocks. He headed back down the path toward the opening of the pass.

“Rika,” Attu called every few steps, wincing at the pain that erupted in his head every time he shouted. He listened and looked around for any sign of her. He saw and heard nothing. It soon grew dark, and there was a moon, but the ridge was filled with rocks and other debris. Attu forced himself to move slowly, even though he longed to hurl himself down the mountain like the water roaring below him, screaming Rika’s name.
I can’t risk another fall; I can’t risk missing Rika, injured on the side of the path somewhere. I have to search carefully.

There was also the matter of Moolnik.
Could the man have gotten to Rika? Could he now be waiting for an opportunity to kill me? All I’ve got is my knife.
Attu was in no shape to fight anyone, let alone a Moolnikuan spirit. He should be sneaking along, watching for Moolnik. But he couldn’t. He needed to make sure Rika wasn’t hurt somewhere along the path. He had to take the risk. And so he continued calling for her, knowing it made him a target every time he cried her name.

It had taken them half a day to journey as far into the pass as they had come. It took Attu most of that night to walk back. He searched along the path and called until he was walking just a few feet above where the water flowed. He knew from his height on the path that the water was still very deep, much deeper than a man was tall, and it seemed to be moving fast. Attu tried not to think of what had happened to the clans if they’d been caught in what must have been a torrent of water and debris when the blockage first broke through. Instead he walked faster, calling Rika’s name more often.