Island of Shadows (14 page)

Now faint light was filtering through the passage from somewhere up ahead. Drawing closer, Kallik saw that it came from a ragged hole in the roof, above a mound of earth and stones. Dust still hung in the air, catching in her throat.

“What happened?” she asked hoarsely. “Where's Toklo?”

“Toklo!” Yakone let out a full-bodied roar. “Toklo!”

“Look!” Lusa darted forward, and started scraping soil from the bottom of the mound.

Kallik stared at her in surprise for a moment, then realized that Lusa was uncovering a patch of brown fur. “Toklo!” Lusa gasped. “He's buried!”

Lusa whimpered as Kallik came to scrape beside her. “Oh, spirits, don't let him be dead!” said Kallik.

Kallik's heart thumped so hard she thought it would burst out of her chest. Her paws flung soil and pebbles to one side, uncovering more of Toklo's pelt. Working together, she and Lusa gradually uncovered Toklo's body, while Yakone climbed the mound of debris beside them and poked his head out of the hole.

“The BlackPath is just here,” he reported, his voice almost drowned by the roaring of a firebeast. “And the hole should be big enough to get Toklo out.”

Kallik finished brushing earth gently away from Toklo's muzzle. His eyes were closed, and at first she thought he was dead. Then she saw the grizzly's breath stirring the dust on the floor where he lay. “Lusa, he's breathing!” she exclaimed. Her legs felt shaky with relief, and she had to pause for a moment. “Wake up, Toklo,” she urged him. “It's us. We're here!”

Toklo grunted, as if he had heard Kallik and was trying to respond, but he didn't open his eyes or try to raise his head. His pelt was still clotted with soil, and he was bleeding from countless small cuts.

“How are we going to get him out?” Lusa asked, gazing up doubtfully at the hole where Yakone was still peering out. “He's so heavy.”

“Yakone and I will manage,” Kallik replied. “Yakone, let Lusa climb out first; then you and I will lift Toklo.”

Lusa looked as if she was about to protest, but then seemed to accept that she was too small to lift a brown bear. After hesitating briefly she scrambled up the mound of debris and over Yakone's shoulders, to disappear through the hole.

Her voice came floating down to Kallik. “It's so good to be out of there! Quick, get Toklo out while there are no firebeasts coming.”

Yakone followed her out, his body blocking the light from the hole for a few moments. Kallik could hear him grunting and puffing with the effort of dragging himself through the gap. A light rain of soil pattered around her; then light filtered down to her again, and she looked up to see Yakone's head outlined against the night sky as he gazed down at her.

“Can you lift him where I can reach?” he asked.

Kallik began working her shoulders underneath Toklo's unconscious body until she could balance him on her back. At first she thought that his weight would pin her to the ground, but after taking a deep breath she straightened her legs and hauled him up the heap of rubble, every pawstep an effort. Yakone stretched down with one paw and hooked his claws into Toklo's pelt. Leaning farther over at a precarious angle, he sank his jaws into Toklo's shoulder.

“Push!” he urged Kallik, the word choked out around his mouthful of fur.

Kallik heaved upward, almost losing her balance as the mound of earth and stones started to give way underneath her. Suddenly she felt Toklo's weight grow lighter, and she stretched upward to give him a final push as Yakone hauled him through the gap and out onto the surface.

“You did it!” Lusa squealed excitedly.

Kallik scrambled up the disintegrating pile and launched herself at the edge of the hole. Her forepaws sank into snow; she felt herself start to slip, but then Yakone grabbed her pelt in strong jaws and yanked her upward. With one last frantic scrabble Kallik heaved herself through the hole, feeling splintered wood raking along her sides. Then she was standing shakily on the surface beside the BlackPath, taking in huge gulps of the freezing night air. The icy wind that probed at her fur felt wonderful after the stifling darkness of the tunnels.

“Thank the spirits!” she exclaimed.

Lusa was bending over Toklo, and she looked up anxiously at Kallik. “He still won't wake up,” she said.

“Give him time,” Yakone replied. “He needs to rest. We'd better get him away from this BlackPath before the no-claws spot us.”

Glancing around, Kallik spotted a rocky bluff a few bearlengths away, overhung by thorn trees. “That would be a good place,” she pointed out.

With Yakone's help, she managed to drag Toklo across the snow and into shelter. Lusa padded alongside, her eyes wide with worry. The brown bear was limp, showing no signs of waking. But Kallik could still see the faint movement of his chest that told her he was breathing.

At the foot of the bluff the ground fell away into a hollow, with only a light covering of snow over tough grass and lichen. Kallik and Yakone tugged Toklo into the deepest part, out of the worst of the wind. The sound of the firebeasts sank to a distant rumble.

“You stay here with him,” Yakone suggested. “I'm going to hunt. Food will give us all more energy.”

“Okay.” For the first time Kallik realized how hungry and thirsty she was; she had cramps in her belly, and her jaws were so dry it was hard to speak. Toklo was right: They had to eat. They couldn't worry about every piece of prey being Ujurak. Ujurak wouldn't want them to starve.

As Yakone climbed back to the top of the hollow and disappeared, Kallik licked up a few mouthfuls of the powdery snow, then settled down beside Toklo, pressing close to him to keep him warm and feeling the steady beating of his heart.

“I don't think he's badly hurt,” she murmured to Lusa. “Just a few bumps and scrapes. He'll be fine when he wakes up.”

Lusa still looked anxious. “I hope so.” She sniffed at one of the scratches on Toklo's shoulder and saw the bleeding had already stopped. “I wish Ujurak were here. He would know what to do for him.”

Kallik was shaken once again by a sharp pang of loss as she remembered Ujurak's knowledge of herbs, but she made her voice sound confident as she replied. “Even Ujurak couldn't do anything for Toklo while he's sleeping. Besides, Toklo is strong. He'll be fine, Lusa; you'll see.”

Lusa nodded, but Kallik could see she wasn't convinced. She curled up on Toklo's other side, and soon her rhythmic snoring told Kallik she was asleep.

Kallik tried to stay awake until Yakone came back, but her eyes were heavy, and her muscles ached from the long trek through the tunnels and the struggle to escape. A sound startled her; she jumped to her paws, heart racing, to see Yakone dragging an Arctic fox over the rim of the hollow. Behind him the sky grew pale toward dawn, with one lone star spirit left to look down on them.

“How's Toklo?” Yakone asked as he dropped his prey at Kallik's paws.

“I—I'm not sure.” Kallik scuffled her paws in shame. “I must have fallen asleep.”

Turning to Toklo, she saw that the brown bear was stirring. He let out a grunt of pain, and his eyes flickered open. He gazed at Kallik and Yakone.

“Are you spirits?” he muttered. “Have you come to take me to the river?”

Kallik exchanged an alarmed glance with Yakone. “It's us, Toklo,” she said. “Don't you recognize us?”

Toklo raised his head and let it flop down again. “I was buried,” he went on. “Sticks and earth … that's the right way for brown bears.”

“Toklo!” The sound of his voice had roused Lusa; she sprang up with a cry of joy. “You're awake! How do you feel?”

Toklo didn't reply. Blinking in confusion, he gazed from Kallik to Lusa and back again, but he still didn't seem to know who they were.

Cold fear gripped Kallik's heart.
He must have hit his head
, she thought. “I'm Kallik,” she prompted him. “And this is Lusa.”

At last recognition flowed into Toklo's eyes, but it was followed by a terrible grief. “Then you're dead, too,” he murmured. “And we're here together in the place of the spirits. I'm sorry you had to die.”

“Toklo, we're not dead,” Kallik assured him.

“Then why did they bury me?”

“You fell into tunnels under the ground.” Lusa faced Toklo, forcing him to meet her bright gaze. “We followed you and found you, and I think you must have fallen again, trying to get out. But we're all safe now. We're all alive.”

Toklo let out a long, bewildered sigh. “I thought I was dead. My head hurts.”

“Have something to eat,” Yakone invited, pushing the body of the fox toward Toklo. “That should make you feel better.”

Moving stiffly, Toklo worked his paws underneath him so that he could crouch beside the fox. He sniffed at it uncertainly, then began to eat, but slowly, as if he had lost his usual ravenous appetite. He couldn't finish his share of the prey, turning his head away with a grunt.

“We should keep moving,” Kallik said, feeling apprehensive as she wondered if Toklo would be fit to travel. “We're too close to the BlackPath here. Sooner or later the no-claws will find us.”

“Yes, they might come after us with vines,” Lusa said, swallowing a last mouthful of lichen. “Let's go!”

Toklo heaved himself to his paws, but then looked around vaguely as if he had forgotten where they were going and why. Kallik's doubts deepened, until she felt as if she were sliding down into another dark hole. “It's not right, seeing him like this,” she whispered to Yakone. “He always wanted to take the lead, but now…”

“He'll be okay,” Yakone reassured her, touching her shoulder lightly with his snout. “He just needs time.”

Kallik brushed her pelt against his. “Come on, Toklo,” she said out loud. Kallik tried to keep her voice cheerful. “We have to cross these hills or we'll never get home. This way.”

Toklo glanced at her, blinked, then broke into a lumbering walk. Kallik padded beside him, with Lusa on his other side, while Yakone took the lead.

Kallik looked up at the mountain ridge, a dark outline against the rapidly brightening sky. All her misgivings about this place seemed to be coming true.

Spirits, please let there be something better on the other side.

Lusa kept casting uneasy glances at
Toklo. The brown bear was plodding along with his head down, as if it took a massive effort for him to put one paw in front of the other.

I wish Ujurak were here
, Lusa thought.
He would be able to find some herbs to help Toklo. There must be something that would bring the old Toklo back to us.

She tried to remember the herbs Ujurak had used while they were traveling, but the only ones she really knew were the leaves she had helped him find to cure the bears on Star Island who were sick from eating poisoned seals.

And Toklo isn't sick like that, is he? Could he have eaten something poisoned down there in the tunnels?

Passing a clump of low-growing thorns, Lusa stripped off a mouthful of leaves and took them to Toklo. “Try these,” she suggested, dropping the leaves at his paws. She didn't know what they were, but figured they might help and couldn't do any harm.

She was nervous in case Toklo roared at her, furious with her for trying to take Ujurak's place. But Toklo just gave her a bleary glance, then crunched up the leaves without protest and trudged on. Somehow his obedience was even more troubling to Lusa than anger would have been.

Toklo hardly ever does what other bears tell him!

Lusa watched anxiously to see if the leaves had any effect on Toklo, but the brown bear didn't change. He didn't even talk to the others, just shambled along with his eyes on his paws.

When their path led between lichen-covered boulders, Lusa clawed off some of the lichen and brought it to Toklo.
I guess it's worth a try
, she thought, trying to force down her growing desperation. Once again Toklo licked up the lichen without objecting, his eyes dull and uninterested.