The Melting Sea (25 page)

“Sakari … Pakak … Tonraq …” she whispered. “Those bears killed them all.”

When Toklo turned his attention to Kallik, he saw that she wasn't badly hurt. Her white pelt was spattered with blood, but most of it was Taqqiq's. The only injury he could see was that one of her front claws had been ripped out, probably caught in Taqqiq's pelt.

Toklo's heart ached for his friend.
Her hopes were so high when she was looking for Taqqiq. Now she's found him, and all it's brought her is more pain
.

As he was gathering himself to lead his companions away, a quiet voice spoke behind him. “I didn't kill any bears. That's … that's not what we do.”

Toklo spun around to find himself face-to-face with Taqqiq, who limped up to him and stood with his head bowed. Blood still oozed from his shoulder, and one eye was swollen shut.

Kallik was glaring at her brother. “I don't believe you!” she snapped. “Get away from us.”

Taqqiq didn't move. “Please, don't think I'm a murderer,” he begged. “Okay, we've caused trouble—destroying dens and chasing other bears away from their prey—but that's just because there's so little food, and not enough ice.”

“Oh, sure!” Kallik growled sarcastically. “So that makes it all okay!”

“How would you like it if some bear stole
your
prey?” Toklo demanded.

Taqqiq hung his head. “We didn't kill any bears,” he insisted, obviously taken aback that he hadn't been forgiven right away. “Please don't hate me. I can't stand it.”

Kallik took a pace backward; her gaze was full of pain, but her voice still sounded as cold as the ice. “I don't know you,” she said. “You are not my brother! I should have realized that at Great Bear Lake.”

The silence dragged out. Toklo wanted to claw Taqqiq's ears off for hurting Kallik, and for all the trouble he had caused, but he kept his paws fixed to the ice.

At last Taqqiq turned to Shila. “I think I know where your family is,” he told her. “They ran away when we attacked the den.”

Shila drew in her breath in a rough gasp, gazing at Taqqiq as if she wanted to believe him but didn't dare.

“I know which way they went,” Taqqiq added. “I'll help you find them.”

“No, you won't,” Toklo growled, taking a step forward. “Go away. We don't want anything from you.”

“No—no, wait.” Shila pushed her way past Toklo to stand facing Taqqiq. “Are you telling the truth?” she demanded.

Taqqiq nodded his battered head. “I am, I promise.”

“Then prove it,” Shila challenged him. “Take me to them.”

Kallik gazed at Shila as if she could hardly believe what she had just heard. “You can't trust him!” she protested.

Shila turned her head and gave Kallik a sorrowful look. “What choice do I have?” she asked. “If he's lying, I'll just have to start searching again.”

“Okay,” Toklo said decisively. “We'll come with you,” he told Taqqiq, “but put one paw wrong and I'll scatter your guts from here to the Endless Ice.”

Shila turned and limped away beside Taqqiq.

Toklo gathered the others together with a jerk of his head and trudged after them. He doubted they were ever going to find one little den in all that empty, snowy space.
I just hope Taqqiq really is ashamed of what he did and isn't leading us into a trap
.

As they plodded along, Toklo stayed alert, stretching all his senses to spot bears creeping up on them through the mist. He saw that Kallik was keeping well away from her brother, still looking very upset. Yakone padded close beside her, his concern clear in the gentle looks he gave her and the way he was talking quietly to her, his words inaudible to Toklo.

When they set off, Lusa had refused to ride on any bear's back, and was trudging sturdily along, but Toklo could tell she was exhausted. The injured Shila was just as bad, stumbling as she forced her paws across the ice.

Toklo halted. “This is ridiculous,” he asserted. “We're all so tired we can hardly shift our paws. We have to stop and rest.”

“I can't,” Shila protested. “My family needs me.”

“What help do you think you can be to them if you fall over from exhaustion?” Toklo asked.

Shila held his gaze for a moment more, then reluctantly nodded. “Okay.”

“Hey, there's a seal hole over there!” Yakone pointed with his snout. “We can rest here, and Kallik and I will hunt.”

“Good idea,” Kallik agreed at once. “Come on, Yakone. You others, keep back.”

She and Yakone padded over to the seal hole and crouched down beside it to wait for a seal to appear. Meanwhile, Toklo helped Shila to settle with her weight off her injured leg, and flopped down in the snow beside her. After a moment, Taqqiq limped across and sat beside them.

“So, Kallik's replaced me with a new brother,” he growled with an unfriendly look at Yakone.

Toklo guessed that Taqqiq felt threatened by the presence of another male white bear in their group. “Er … no,” he said. “I don't think Yakone wants to be Kallik's brother.”

Taqqiq's eyes widened. He made no comment, but hostility was rising from him as clearly as mist from the surface of a lake. “So,” he went on after a few heartbeats' silence, “what happened to the weird little brown bear that was with you—what's his name—Ujurak? Did you finally get tired of following him around?”

Fury started to swell up inside Toklo, and it took all his self-control to stop himself from giving Taqqiq a blow across the ear. “Ujurak's dead,” he snapped.

“Oh … sorry.” Taqqiq blinked in embarrassment, as if that was the last thing he had expected to hear. “I didn't know, or I'd never—”

A yelp of alarm from Kallik cut off his words. Whipping his head around, Toklo saw that Kallik had lunged for a rising seal. But as she moved, the ice around the seal hole crumbled away under her weight. Frozen with shock, Toklo watched as Kallik scrabbled vainly at the disintegrating edge of the hole. Yakone grabbed for her, but he was too late, and Kallik, still struggling, slipped down into the sea.

As Kallik plunged down into the
water, she tried to push with her paws and thrust herself back up again. But somehow her body wouldn't obey her.
I'm a strong swimmer
, she tried to tell herself. But panic was shrieking inside her head.

All she could think of was that Nisa had died in these waters. Now Kallik was certain that an orca was surging toward her from behind, its jaws gaping to tear her flesh.

Still she couldn't move. Black spots bloomed in front of her eyes, and the pale smudge of light that showed her where the seal hole was seemed to dwindle and fade with every heartbeat. She was sinking to the bottom; above her was only the ice, translucent and suffocating.

A shape swirled in the distance, heading toward her.
It
is
an orca!
Kallik felt a moment of pure despair.

Then she realized that another bear was in the water beside her. At first she thought it was Ujurak in white bear shape, and listened for his voice inside her head. But as her panic eased, she recognized who it really was.

Taqqiq! He dived in to save me!

Taqqiq's body pressed against Kallik's, urging her up toward the surface. Her fear ebbed as she realized she wasn't alone, and she began to swim, pushing herself upward through the water.

Kallik's head broke the surface, and she gasped in air. Behind her, Taqqiq gave her an enormous shove, boosting her over the edge of the ice, where she lay panting. When Taqqiq tried to pull himself out of the hole, the edge started to crumble away again; Yakone leaned over and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, helping him to haul himself to safety.

“Are you okay?” Yakone asked Kallik anxiously.

Kallik nodded, but most of her attention was for Taqqiq. “I remembered how our mother died,” she whispered. “It was like I couldn't move down there.”

Taqqiq nodded jerkily. “I feel her here, too,” he responded, his eyes sad as he leaned forward to touch his nose to Kallik's. “And when I saw you fall through the hole … it was like I was losing you all over again.”

“And you saved me,” Kallik murmured. “Thank you, Taqqiq.”

“I couldn't stand it if you died, too,” Taqqiq told her. “You're the only family I have.”

A sea of emotions surged inside Kallik.
Taqqiq's my brother. He saved me—but he stays with Salik and those other fish-breaths
. “I know Nisa watches over me,” she murmured. “She watches over you, too.”

“I know she'd hate to see how I live,” Taqqiq admitted. “But I have no choice. You saw how the ice cracked beside that seal hole,” he added defensively. “It's breaking up sooner than it ought to. That's why they—why we—felt we had to claim the territory. There's not going to be enough ice for every bear.”

“But that's no excuse,” Kallik growled, determined not to let Taqqiq get away with justifying what he had done. “There is
no
reason for terrifying these bears.” She paused, pinning Taqqiq with her gaze until he looked away. “You're going to help us put things right,” Kallik went on. “First by helping us to find Shila's family.”

Taqqiq nodded. “I will, I promise,” he said.

Lusa padded across the forest floor
. Sunshine angled through the branches of tall, leafy trees, and delicious fruit dangled from vines in front of her watering jaws. She enjoyed the feeling of good, warm dirt under her paws.

This is great
, she thought.
So why are my paws and my nose freezing?

Opening her eyes, Lusa let out a long sigh of resignation, wishing that the dream could continue. But the warmth and the scents of fruit vanished as she woke fully. Instead of wandering through the sunlit forest, she was still stuck on the ice, which was creaking alarmingly around her. Even the white bears were looking worried.

“Come on,” Kallik said. “It's time to get moving.”

The air was gray and misty; Lusa needed a moment before she realized that dawn was breaking. The night before, after Kallik's plunge into the seal hole, they had huddled together on the ice to sleep. But as Lusa rose to her paws, she still felt exhausted, her muscles aching, and she guessed that the others were suffering in the same way.

As they started off, Lusa noticed that Taqqiq looked especially tired, haunted, and sad. But she found it hard to feel sympathetic.
It's great that he saved Kallik yesterday, but I can't forgive him for what he did to the other white bears. It's no excuse that he and his friends didn't have enough food
.

Lusa turned away from Taqqiq, not wanting to encourage him to talk to her. Shila clearly didn't trust him, either: She kept well away from him, on the other side of Toklo. The whole atmosphere was tense and anxious, and Lusa plodded along unhappily.

Before they had been walking for long, Lusa noticed that Taqqiq was moving very slowly across the ice, often stopping to look around. Lusa still couldn't see any landmarks, and wondered what Taqqiq had seen that needed studying so intently.