Island of Shadows (23 page)

“There's no need for—” Yakone began.

A roar of fury burst from the old male, and he lashed out with one paw, raking his claws down Yakone's foreleg.

For a moment Kallik froze with shock.
What did we do?
Yakone was gaping as if he couldn't believe the old bear's hostility. A heartbeat later Kallik pulled herself together. She gave Yakone a shove, just as the old bear lashed out at him again. “Don't talk—run!”

Shoulder to shoulder, she and Yakone fled back across the ice. The old bear let out another roar and galloped after them. When she glanced back over her shoulder, Kallik thought that he was gaining. With his injured leg, Yakone couldn't move so fast, and Kallik wouldn't leave him behind.

“I could stop and fight him,” Yakone panted.

“No, cloud-brain! What if you got badly hurt?” Fear welled up inside Kallik. “Then you couldn't travel.” Though she didn't look back again, Kallik imagined that she could feel the old bear's hot breath on her neck. The edge of the ice was in view; Kallik could pick out the shapes of Toklo, Nanulak, and Lusa, but they seemed a long way off.

We shouldn't lead this bear toward them!
she thought desperately. Then she spotted a stretch of broken ice, where jagged shards jutted upward, glinting in the sunlight.

“That way!” she gasped.

With Yakone hard on her paws, Kallik pelted toward the broken ice, then at the last moment veered aside and skirted it. A couple of heartbeats later, a bellow of pain and fury sounded behind her. She risked another glance back to see the old white bear in the middle of the broken stretch. He had obviously charged right into it; now he was limping as he headed for the edge.

Yakone gave her a swift nod. “Good plan!”

As they drew closer to the end of the ice, Nanulak trotted out to meet them. “Toklo caught a goose,” he announced, as proudly as if he had made the catch himself. “We saved some for—”

He broke off with a squeal of protest as Yakone gave him a shove, nearly knocking him off his paws. “Run!”

For the first time Nanulak spotted the old white bear, who still hadn't given up the chase, though he was lumbering along more slowly now on sore paws.

Nanulak's eyes widened in horror. “A white bear!” he shrieked. “It's coming to get me!”

Kallik bundled him off the ice to where Toklo and Lusa were waiting.

“What happened?” Toklo demanded.

“We didn't do anything!” Kallik replied. “We've got to get out of here.”

“But Yakone's hurt,” Lusa objected, blinking worriedly as she gazed at Yakone's leg, where blood was trickling out of a deep scratch and dropping onto the snow. “And I don't know where to find herbs up here.”

“I'll be fine,” Yakone said. “Let's go.”

Kallik boosted Lusa onto Toklo's shoulders. Grim-faced, Toklo pushed Nanulak ahead of him, then led the others away at a gallop. Bringing up the rear, Kallik dared to look back, and she realized that the old bear had halted at the edge of the ice.

“Don't come back!” he roared.

Indignantly Kallik watched as he snatched up the remains of Toklo's goose.
That was ours!
she thought, hunger griping in her belly. Suddenly the ice cap that had seemed so welcoming had become a dangerous and frightening place. Kallik couldn't imagine ever wanting to make her home there.

Nanulak told us the white bears here were dangerous
, she reflected sadly.
He was sure they were out to get him. And it looks as if he might be right.

Lusa sniffed deeply, her nostrils quivering
as she picked up the faint scent of lichen. Nanulak had taught her how to detect it through the snow, and now she felt quite proud of herself as she followed the trail. Her jaws watered as she thought of digging down to expose the crunchy flakes.

They had traveled for half a day since the old white bear had chased them away from the ice, and Toklo had decided to stop while it was still light so that Yakone could rest his injured leg. They had managed to find a safe place for a den in the middle of some thorns; Toklo and Kallik had gone hunting, leaving Yakone to keep an eye on Nanulak.

But the lichen scent soon petered out. Lusa snuffled in a circle but couldn't pick it up again. “I'm not as good at this as I thought,” she muttered aloud. Glancing around, she realized the sun had gone and twilight was gathering. She jumped at a creaking sound under her paws and thoughts of the tasty lichen faded. Trying to ignore her grumbling belly, Lusa began to hurry back toward the den. She had wandered farther than she'd meant to, and she wanted nothing more than to see a friendly face.

But following her own trail back was difficult in the half-light. Rocks and stunted trees cast weird shadows, and she couldn't see where she was putting her paws. The wind was rising; Lusa could imagine hostile voices in it as it whined over the flat landscape.

Suddenly the snow gave way beneath her; Lusa let out a squeal of alarm as she felt herself sliding into a shallow concealed hollow. She landed with a thump at the bottom, feeling sharp stones underneath the covering of snow.

“Stupid bear!” she scolded herself. “That's what happens when you try to go too fast.”

A sharp pain stabbed through one of Lusa's hindpaws when she tried to scramble up. Awkwardly she turned to peer at it and realized that her paw was jammed between a rock and a thick sheet of ice, evidence of a stream that had once flowed here. Lusa tugged hard, but she couldn't move her foot.

Now what do I do?
she wondered, fear surging over her. She wrenched hard at her paw again. The ice sheet must have shifted as she'd broken through it, trapping her. Cold started to seep into Lusa's fur. She stretched up so she could see over the banks of snow on either side.

“Help!” she called, not sure if any of the others were in ear-shot, or whether they could hear her above the blustering of the wind. “Toklo! Kallik! Help me!”

But no bear answered her cries. Lusa waited, still struggling vainly to free herself, then called again. “Help me! Over here! I'm stuck! Help!”

Still there was no reply.

They're bound to find me eventually
, Lusa told herself.
After all, we found Toklo underground. Only… I wish they'd be quick about it!

Darkness had fallen, and the sky was thickly strewn with glittering stars. Lusa looked up to see Ujurak's shape and felt reassured, knowing that her friend was watching over her.

Please, Ujurak
, she begged silently.
Send some bear to find me!

Almost at once she heard the sound of pawsteps approaching through the snow. Glancing around, she spotted a brown bear skirting a thicket of thornbushes a few bearlengths away, his head down as if he was following a scent trail. At first she thought it was Toklo, but as he drew closer, she recognized Nanulak.

“Nanulak!” she called out, her voice shaky with relief. “Nanulak, help me! I'm stuck!”

Nanulak raised his head, looking around as if trying to find the source of the noise.

“Over here!” Lusa shouted, though her voice was almost drowned out by birds shrieking overhead; she wondered if she had disturbed Nanulak's prey.

Nanulak turned his head, and Lusa was sure he had seen her. “Thank you, Ujurak!” she exclaimed.

But a heartbeat later Nanulak veered away from her and headed back past the thornbushes, picking up the pace until he was running.

Lusa froze with shock. “Nanulak!” she cried. “Nanulak, don't leave me!”

But he had gone.

Lusa wrenched at her paw in a panic, scraping it against the ice in her efforts to free herself. A flurry of wings sounded overhead; she looked up to see birds circling around her, flying lower and lower, until one of them darted down to peck at her.

Lusa lashed out a paw at it. Though she missed, the birds drew off a little way, only to fly down again a moment later. Their wings buffeted her head, and their beaks flashed out, pecking at her shoulders.

I'm going to die here! The birds will eat me alive!
Lusa thought, terror flowing through her body like ice.

Then Lusa heard more pawsteps approaching at a run, and Kallik's voice: “This way! Those birds have found some prey.”

“Oh, thank Arcturus!” Lusa exclaimed. “Kallik! Toklo! Help!”

Toklo came galloping up. “It's not prey; it's Lusa!”

“Get me out of here!” Lusa begged. “My paw is stuck.”

Kallik plunged down into the hollow to investigate, while Toklo reared up on his hindpaws, snarling and battering at the birds until they flew away. Their frustrated shrieking died into silence.

Lusa felt Kallik scraping at the ice beside her paw. “Try it now,” the white bear said.

Lusa tugged at her paw again and felt it come free. Staggering slightly, she managed to stand up and haul herself out of the hollow.

“Is your paw hurt?” Kallik asked.

Lusa flexed her foot; it felt a bit sore, but she could put her weight on it and walk. “It'll be fine,” she said. “Thank you for rescuing me. I thought I'd be stuck there forever.”

“Just watch where you're putting your paws in future,” Toklo grunted, giving her an affectionate push with his snout.

“Have you seen Nanulak?” Lusa asked as they headed back toward the den.

Kallik shook her head. “I thought he stayed with Yakone.”

“No, he was out here,” Lusa went on, indignation rising inside her. “I saw him and called out to him, but he just kept going and left me there. I guess he didn't see me,” she added.

“Oh, that's awful!” Kallik responded. “I'm sure he'll feel terrible when he finds out.”

I felt terrible when he left me
, Lusa thought.
And I'm almost certain he saw me.

When she pushed her way through the thorn thicket to the den they had made in the middle, Yakone and Nanulak were there together. Nanulak was curled up and looked half asleep.

“Nanulak, you left me stuck in the ice!” Lusa growled as soon as she saw the mixed bear.

Nanulak sprang to his paws. “I did what?”

His eyes were wide with shock. Lusa wondered whether he was genuinely appalled to hear what had happened, or whether he hadn't expected her to come back.

“I got my paw stuck,” she explained. “I saw you and called out to you, but you just turned away.”

“Well, I didn't see you,” Nanulak replied, blinking at her. “I'm sorry, Lusa, but I really didn't.”

He would say that, wouldn't he?
“You looked right at me!” she retorted.

“Lusa, remember what it was like out there—dark, and you were down in that hollow,” Toklo pointed out. “There was the noise of the wind, and those birds… It would have been difficult for any bear to see you.”

Kallik nodded. “We wouldn't have spotted you if it hadn't been for the birds.”

“I still think he saw me,” Lusa muttered, frustrated at the way her friends were taking Nanulak's side.

“Why would Nanulak leave you stuck out there and then lie about it?” Toklo growled.

Lusa turned away with an angry shrug.

“I'm really sorry, Lusa.” Nanulak's plaintive voice came from behind her, but Lusa ignored him.

She curled up at the edge of the den, with thorn branches scraping her back, and covered her head with her paws. She knew that if she said any more there would be a real quarrel, and she couldn't face it, especially when it looked as if no bear would be on her side.

I've been their friend for ages
, she thought.
Why would they believe him and not me?

Then she wondered whether perhaps she was making a mistake. It was so unlikely that any bear would leave another to die. Kallik was right that between the darkness and the noise of wind and birds, Nanulak might have missed her.

Still, she couldn't stifle a nagging suspicion of the young mixed bear. She had made eye contact with him over the edge of the hollow; he must have seen her as clearly as she'd seen him.
I don't care what the others think. I'm keeping an eye on him from now on.