Island of Shadows (28 page)

“Lusa first,” Nanulak said sulkily.

“Okay.” Lusa sounded determined. “I'll be glad to get it over with. Toklo, be ready to catch me.”

Unhesitatingly the black bear bunched her muscles and pushed off, her paws splayed, reaching for the opposite side of the ravine. She landed with her hindpaws dangling, scrabbling at the cliff face. Toklo sank his jaws in her shoulder and hauled her up to stand, panting, on the far side.

“Great, Lusa!” Kallik called.

Without letting herself think about it for too long, she made her own leap, landing neatly beside Lusa. Turning back, she saw Nanulak and Yakone standing side by side on the spur of rock.

“I'm coming next!” Nanulak announced. “Keep back, all of you, and give me space.”

Kallik and the others took a few paces backward, though Kallik could see that Toklo was ready to spring forward and grab Nanulak if he looked like he was falling.

Nanulak fussed around for a moment, getting into exactly the right position to jump, then let out a roar as he hurled himself at the far side of the ravine in a great leap.

He landed well away from the edge, stumbled, and righted himself. “See?” he said, looking around at the others. His eyes shone. “I'm a great jumper!”

“So you are.” Toklo touched the younger bear's shoulder with his muzzle. “I knew you would be.”

When Yakone had joined them, the bears set off again, trying to follow the line of the gully and skirt around the area where the no-claws were tearing up the earth. But they found themselves in a landscape of deep crevasses, where they had to keep turning away from the path they wanted. Sometimes they could jump across the cracks; sometimes they had to climb laboriously down one side of a ravine, only to toil up the other. Kallik's paws felt as heavy as rocks, she was so tired.

“This is hopeless,” Yakone said at last, as they hauled themselves out of yet another gorge. “We're getting nowhere.”

Toklo grunted agreement. “I'm not sure where we are anymore, but we must be skylengths away from where the she-bear told us to go. We don't even have the sun to guide us.”

“What are we going to do?” Nanulak whimpered. “I'm so tired and hungry!”

Ujurak would know
, Kallik thought.
Are you watching us, Ujurak? Please tell us which way will get us off the island!

As the thought went through her mind, she spotted movement in the sky. A gull was hovering over a tumbled heap of boulders outlined against the horizon.

“Look!” Kallik exclaimed, pointing with her muzzle.

By the time the others had turned to follow her gaze, the gull had vanished.

“What?” Toklo asked, an edge of irritation in his tone.

“I saw a gull,” Kallik replied. At the others' blank looks she added, “I think it was Ujurak, showing us which way to go.”

“That way?” Yakone shrugged. “One way is as good as another, I suppose.”

This time Kallik took the lead, heading in the direction where the gull had appeared. At first the going was easier, across gentle slopes of scree and thorn, and her optimism began to rise. She picked up the pace, only to halt in dismay as another ravine opened up in front of her paws, this one even deeper than the other.

The other bears joined her and stood looking down into the depths. The cliff face fell down in a series of huge steps, far deeper than a bear could stretch. These steps were slick, topped with snow. At the very bottom was a jumble of boulders with thorn trees growing among them; beyond that was what Kallik guessed was a frozen river, the surface covered with snow. As they stood gazing down, the first flakes of a new snowfall began drifting down.

“We have to climb down there?” Lusa asked doubtfully.

“I—I think so.” Kallik was beginning to wonder if the gull had really been a sign from Ujurak. If any bear slipped and fell to the rocks below, they might be killed or badly injured.

“I think we could manage it if we're careful,” Toklo said, crouching down to examine the cliff face.

Kallik half expected Nanulak to protest, but the younger bear remained silent, staring into the ravine with wide, scared eyes.

Yakone had padded a few bearlengths along the top of the cliff; now he turned back and called, “There's a sort of path here.”

Kallik hurried to join him, with the others following. Yakone pointed with his snout to where the rock of the cliff face had crumbled, making a thin track that zigzagged down into the depths.

“If that's a path, then I'm a flat-face,” Toklo muttered.

But they all realized that they had no other choice if they were to go this way. Yakone took the lead, edging his way down, followed by Lusa and then Nanulak.

“Go on,” Toklo said to Kallik when they were left alone on the cliff-top. “I'll be right behind you.”

Nervously Kallik ventured out onto the track. The loose stones shifted under her paws, making her feel that she would slip and fall countless bearlengths into the ravine.

If I slip, I'll probably bring at least one other bear down with me.

Kallik found that it was better not to look down. Thinking of how far she had to fall made her head swim and her legs shake. It was better to take each small step with her gaze fixed on her paws. Snow was falling more thickly now; it was harder to see ahead, and the stones under Kallik's paws grew slippery.

She was beginning to feel that she had been creeping downward forever when suddenly she had to stop to avoid bumping into Nanulak ahead of her. Risking a glance down, she saw that Yakone and Lusa had halted, too.

“What's the matter?” she called out.

“No more path!” Yakone replied.

From behind Kallik, Toklo let out a groan. “Don't tell me we have to climb back up this cliff!”

Kallik's heart began to pound as she twisted her neck to look back the way they had come. Through the whirling snow she saw that the cliff stretched above her head for many bearlengths; she guessed they were about halfway down. She knew they would never manage to climb back all that way. The daylight was fading, too, and in the dark they would have no hope of finding another path.

Nanulak glanced over his shoulder to glare at her. “This is all your stupid fault!” he snarled. “You wanted us to come this way, and now we're stuck!”

Kallik wanted to snarl back at him, but guilt washed over her as she realized he had a point. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I must have been wrong. Ujurak would never have sent us this way.”

“What do we do now?” Lusa asked. Kallik could tell that she was trying to be brave, but her voice was quivering.

“Give me a moment,” Yakone replied.

Kallik could see him a little way below, his claws digging into the shifting stones of the track while he peered down into the ravine.

“There's sheer rock here,” he went on eventually. “But it doesn't stretch that far. And below it the path goes on again, wider this time. I'm pretty sure I can get down there, and then every other bear can slide down onto my back. What do you think?”

“It's worth a try!” Kallik agreed. “But for Silaluk's sake, be careful!”

“Yes, go for it,” Toklo grunted, then added, “Thanks, Yakone.”

Kallik knew how hard it must have been for Toklo to say that. She had no doubt that if Toklo had been in the lead, he would have made the same offer. But there was no way for him to get down to where the path ended until the other bears had cleared out of the way.

Every hair on Kallik's pelt prickled with tension as she watched Yakone lowering himself headfirst down the sheer face of the cliff. He reached out with his forepaws as if his pads could stick him to the rock, while his hindpaws remained at the end of the track. His body stretched out. Then with a sudden lurch he was sliding downward.

“Spirits, help him!” Kallik whispered, half expecting to see him go plummeting to his death.

But a heartbeat later Yakone landed on a ledge jutting from the rock. It was barely wide enough for him to stand, and he teetered on the edge for a moment before he regained his balance.

“I'm down!” he called.

“Good job!” Toklo responded.

Kallik was so relieved that she couldn't speak.
Thank you, Silaluk.

“Okay, Lusa, you first,” Yakone ordered.

The small black bear balanced herself at the edge of the track just above Yakone's head. Hardly seeming to hesitate, she launched herself down the cliff face and landed on Yakone's shoulders.

“Way to go, Lusa!” Kallik called, finding her voice again. “You make it look so easy!”

Lusa's voice came up faintly from below. “Yeah, I think I'll be a flying bear!” She clambered down from Yakone's back and withdrew a little way farther along the ledge, where Kallik could see that the track opened up again. Yakone had been right; it was much wider there.
If only we can get down there, we should find the rest of the climb a lot easier.

Nanulak edged his way forward until he stood directly above Yakone. “Here I come!” he called.

Instead of sliding down, he jumped. Kallik gasped in horror, prepared to see him overshoot the ledge where Yakone waited and go hurtling down to the rocks below. But somehow Yakone swung his hindquarters outward, colliding with Nanulak as he fell and thrusting him back toward the cliff face. Instead of landing on Yakone's back, Nanulak crashed down onto the ledge.

“You moved!” he howled.

“If I hadn't, you would have been smashed to bits on the rocks,” Yakone retorted. “Now go over there beside Lusa and stay out of the way.”

Baring his teeth bad-temperedly, Nanulak did as he was told.

Kallik's heart beat faster as she crept down to the end of the track. Yakone's white pelt was almost invisible in the snow, but she could see his eyes gleaming as he gazed up at her.

“Come on,” he encouraged her. “I won't let you fall.”

Kallik remembered how he had stretched down the cliff face toward the ledge, and tried to copy him. She squeezed her eyes tight shut as she felt herself beginning to slip. A couple of heartbeats later she landed on Yakone's solid back, with his scent all around her.

“Thanks,” she murmured as she scrambled down to the ledge. “Good catch!”

“I'll have bruises until burn-sky,” Yakone said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

Kallik padded to the end of the ledge where Lusa and Nanulak were waiting. The new path led down steeply, but it was wider than the one they had just left, and her spirits began to rise again.
It won't be long before we're down.

Toklo was crouched at the end of the upper track, preparing himself to slide down to where Yakone was waiting.

“Come on, Toklo!” Nanulak called. “It's easy!”

He bounded forward as Toklo slid down, as if he wanted to help break the grizzly's fall, jostling Kallik as he passed her. Kallik felt her paws slip on the loose, snow-covered stones of the path. The edge gave way under her weight, and she let out a terrified wail as she felt herself start to fall.

“No!” Lusa darted forward and fastened her teeth in Kallik's leg, but she was too small to drag her back to safety.

Kallik scrabbled vainly at the crumbling edge, but she knew she was toppling over, and could almost feel the wind of her fall and the crushing impact as she hit the rocks.

“Help me!” she cried.

Suddenly Yakone was there, his teeth in her shoulder, hauling her upward until she could set her paws firmly on the path again.

“You cloud-brained excuse for a bear!” he snarled, swinging around to face Nanulak. “Haven't you got any sense?”

Nanulak took a step back. “It wasn't my fault!” he wailed. “I was only trying to help!”

“There was no need for your help. I had Toklo just fine.” Yakone spat each word out through his teeth. “Kallik could have been killed because you didn't think.”

“Leave him alone.” Toklo shouldered his way forward. “He's only a cub.”

“He's not so young a cub that he doesn't know not to go pushing another bear when you're halfway up a cliff,” Yakone retorted.

Nanulak shrank away, pressing himself into Toklo's side. “I didn't mean to,” he muttered. “I'm sorry, Kallik.”

Kallik was struggling to stop her paws from shaking, and the pounding of her heart was beginning to subside. She reminded herself that Nanulak was less experienced than the rest of them, and she remembered what Ujurak had said to her in her dream; that she had to be the peacemaker.

“It's okay,” she said.

Yakone brushed her shoulder with his muzzle. “
I
don't think it's okay,” he growled.

“There's no point in arguing,” Toklo said. “No one got hurt. Let's go—unless you want to stand here all night.”