Broken Rock Bay (Clan of the Ice Mountains Book 3) Page 14

  “We go. Caanti,” Cray said, struggling to speak in Nuvik. “Find. Caanti and women.” He held up two fingers.

  The other two surviving Nukeena women.

  Cray said something else to Farnook.

  “He says the other women were bonded to hunters who went Between in the killer whale fish attack,” Farnook said. “But other Nukeena hunters will take them. And they will take any other women and their children who want to start a new life with them. But he wants to make sure they can find the settlement. He is asking for some of our hunters to go.”

  “And they want me to go with them, too,” Farnook said.

  Everyone began talking at once. Most people had believed Farnook when she’d said the Raven women could get along fine without their men. Some wondered if the Nukeena hunters would be attacked if they went too close to the settlement. Some thought the Nukeena men should just take their own women and leave the rest, since they were evil.

  Meavu voiced Attu’s own biggest concern. “Won’t it take too long? We need to find a place to settle, and we need time to get winter shelters up before the cold weather comes and the babies are born. We have only two or three more moons of safe travel, don’t we, Rika?”

  Eyes turned to his woman. “Three for most of us, I believe,” Rika said, her voice taking on the smooth healer’s tone that helped ease those she treated. “We need time to prepare our new place. Another moon. Then it will be time.”

  “Keanu said she would be here with the others next sun?” one of the hunters asked.

  Yes, but she didn’t say which others. We still don’t know if Suka, Tingiyok, and Rusik even reached her.

  Agitation was growing as the women vocalized their concern over doing anything that wasn’t north-bound journeying to find the ideal location for their permanent camp. Babies were on the way. Attu knew they would have trouble thinking of anything else. It was the way of a woman growing a child within. Even Rika, as able as she usually was to see alternatives and possibilities to their plans, seemed set on continuing north no matter what the Nukeena men wanted.

  “Our people should return tomorrow,” Attu said, after making the sign to speak and getting everyone’s attention. Many people looked embarrassed as they realized that once again, they’d fallen into the argumentative ways of the Seers.

  The Nukeena looked on, confused again, but also curious as they saw order quickly replace the arguing as Attu’s Clan settled. “We’ll see why Keanu has come so far and who has come with her,” Attu said. “Once we know that, we can decide what to do. Until then, we should agree to nothing.”

  Heads nodded.

  Attu sensed the women calming. No decision would be made past Keanu’s arrival tomorrow.

  But Soantek scowled as Farnook relayed what Attu had said to the Nukeena. He spoke rapidly and once again, as before when she’d interpreted for Soantek, Farnook had to hold up her hand to make him speak more slowly. She looked ready to collapse from exhaustion as she struggled to understand him.

  “Farnook’s got to stop translating for the night,” Rika whispered to Attu. “It is not good for the baby.”

  “He says he knows a location for our new home, and it’s only a half a moon’s easy travel north of here,” Farnook said. She looked relieved even as she spoke the words. “Oh, it would be good to get there soon and set up our shelters, prepare for the coming winter with much dried meat, new chewed hides for clothing and sleeping furs, and provisions from the land gathered while we women can still move around without too much discomfort. We need to be settled before the pooliks arrive!”

  Lips popped as the women agreed with her.

  “Perhaps we can strike a deal,” Rovek said. “Maybe help each other find what we are looking for?”

  Meavu was sitting beside Rovek, and Attu saw her nod with the other women, but he also noticed her lips were pulled tight and her brows furrowed. As the others continued to talk, this time taking turns while the others listened, Attu stood and walked around the fire to sit beside Meavu.

  “Something is wrong,” he whispered, studying his sister’s face. She looked pale in the firelight.

  “Something is,” Meavu agreed. “I wish I knew what it was.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “As the hunters talked of moving north again, I felt afraid, as if a great danger lurked there, just to the north of where we are now.”

  “The killer whale fish may still be in the shallows north of us,” Attu said, thinking out loud. “They would certainly be dangerous. We can’t expect them to leave our skin boats alone, not after having eaten so many hunters so easily. It is more than foolish to think we’d be protected twice from them. Attuanin will expect our hunters to understand the killer whale fishes’ ways and be wary around them from now on.”

  “True. That might be it,” Meavu said, but she looked unconvinced. She played with the fringe on her woman’s garment, letting her fingers trail through it over and over again as if trying to calm herself with the repetition. Attu wondered if it was a habit she’d picked up while being held captive. He’d never seen her do that before she’d been taken, but now she often ran her hands over an object or her own clothing, over and over again, and as she did, her eyes would grow distant, as if she were partly in the Here and Now, and partly Between. It worried Attu. He couldn’t imagine the fear Meavu had lived through in the Raven’s Camp, but it also must have been excruciatingly tedious being kept, moon after moon, in Limoot’s potions room with nothing to do. She would have had to do something not to go crazy. Perhaps going almost Between was what she had done...

  Meavu spoke again, breaking into Attu’s thoughts. “I just feel this danger, lurking there in our future.”

  “What?” Attu reached for Meavu’s hand and held it in his own.

  “I wish I knew.” She leaned into him, and Attu held his sister close as if she were his little Kip once again. She shuddered, then slowly relaxed into him. Soon her eyes closed, and she was asleep as the discussion continued around her.

  Rovek stepped up, and seeing his woman asleep in her brother’s arms, he smiled his thanks and picked her up, gently cradling her head against his shoulder. He walked into the shadows toward their shelter.

  What will we do once Suka and the others return? Attu thought. Escort the Nukeena hunters back to the Raven settlement in return for them showing us a good place for our own camp? He shuddered at the thought of any of his people going back to that awful Clan. Even though their hunters were all gone Between, evil must still lurk near the Ravens. Shouldn’t I warn Cray and his men? They should take their three women and leave, even though the rest of his men have no women. It would be better than taking some of those Raven women for their own, wouldn’t it? Who knows what evil practices they might bring with them, infecting the Nukeena with spirits who demanded blood sacrifice?

  And why is Keanu coming? When she gets here, will she be able to help me? Tingiyok didn’t seem to know what to do, and I can’t just stop dreaming. Even just thinking about the dreams makes my spirit restless within me. I want to fly. Fly with the falcon, be the falcon...

  “Attu!” Rika was pushing at him.

  “What?” Attu realized she was watching him, her eyes wide. Most of the other people had left the now smoldering remains of a fire.

  How long was I lost in the Remembering of flight?

  “I’m frightened for you, Attu.”

  Attu tried to smile reassuringly at his woman. “I’m all right, now. Let’s get some sleep,” he added, and in spite of Rika’s squeal of protest, he picked her up and carried her all the way to their soft sleeping skins.

  Chapter 11

  Attu was carving a new wood rib piece for one of the Nukeena’s canoes. Like the skin boat ribs of bone, it supported the inside and gave the Nukeena hunters a place to fix other hunting tools, ones that held long ropes as well as other gear still unfamiliar to Attu. Soantek was holding the rib as Attu took his turn carving. It was hard work creating a matching cu
rve for the curve of the bottom of the canoe, even thought they’d started with a circular slice from the center of a tree. Attu was sweating in the late morning sun as he pulled the tool toward himself again and again, each time taking off another sliver of wood.

  Attu? The voice inside his head startled Attu, and he almost dropped the iron stone tool he was carving with. He caught it as it slipped from his hands, nicking himself.

  “Ai?” Soantek asked.

  Attu straightened and motioned he needed to stop. Without waiting for the man’s reply, Attu turned and walked up the edge of the beach, his bare feet crunching in the gravel.

  Tingiyok, is that you?

  Yes. Good. We have been trying each day to reach you. This must be as far away as you can mind speak. We are less than half a day’s journey from you. We’ll be there before sun setting.

  Are you all right? Are Suka and Rusik all right? Who does Keanu–

  Keanu is helping me speak at this distance. I can’t continue long enough to explain now. We’ll explain when we get here, but I wanted you to know we’re coming and we are all fine. Suka and Rusik want their women to know.

  Yes. I’ll tell them both.

  Good.

  Attu could feel something snap in his mind as the connection between them was broken. As it did, he collapsed on the sand, aware now of how much energy he must have been using to speak with Tingiyok. He’d been so eager to communicate with the Elder he hadn’t realized what effort it had taken to talk with him.

  One more thing I needed to know that no one thought to teach me. Mind speaking over distances, when not in the Between of dreaming, takes tremendous energy.

  Attu tried to stand, but his knees buckled under him.

  Soantek approached. “Help?” he asked.

  “Ai,” Attu replied, and Soantek held out his hand. Attu grasped it and stood. His legs wobbled, but he didn’t fall.

  “Help?” the Nukeena hunter inquired again. He looked confused.

  “I need to go back to camp,” Attu said and motioned toward the Clan’s shelters.

  Attu slowly headed up the beach. His whole body felt weary, as if he’d paddled his skin boat for an entire day with no break.

  I’ll have to warn Rika and Farnook of the danger of attempting to mind speak over distances greater than the camp and nearby area. Attu turned toward Farnook’s shelter. Farnook will be delighted to know Suka is safe and coming home.

  Yural had been talking each day with Veshria and said she seemed better. But what will happen when her man Rusik returns with Keanu?

  It was near sun setting as Attu and several others waited near the mouth of the river.

  “So much has happened since they left,” one of the women said.

  “It’s been ten days,” Farnook replied, “but it seems like much longer.”

  “Too long when your man is needed in your shelter,” Veshria said. “Especially when you told him not to go in the first place.” She frowned before turning watchful eyes upriver again.

  “There they are!” Rika called to the others.

  Lips popped in excitement. Attu could make out something coming around the bend.

  What is it?

  The boat coming toward them was much like the boat of logs the Nukeena had made to float their dead out into the ocean. Wide and flat and floating low in the water, with someone standing in the middle of it using a long pole to guide the boat around rocks. Attu looked closer, straining his eyes to see.

  “It’s Keanu!” Rika cried.

  Keanu held a wide stance, her knees bent as she pushed the boat away from rocks and tried to keep it in the middle of the river. The currents were tricky this close to the ocean, with swirling eddies on both sides of the banks pulling even their small skin boats off course toward the rocks. Attu couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to steer that lumbering craft.

  In the center of the boat was what looked like a large bundle, but as Attu watched, the bundle moved. It was a person, sitting under furs.

  “It’s Suanu,” Meavu said, “and her son. Kinak and Suanu’s child is a boy.” Meavu had stepped into the water up to her ankles and was studying the approaching craft. “The others will be coming around the bend in a moment. Rusik’s boat has been damaged. He’s struggling with it. Keanu is very tired. She didn’t realize this last part of the river would be so difficult to steer through. And something has gone wrong. Tingiyok was connected to her by ropes, but her boat broke free of his.”

  “How do you–” Rovek began.

  “She knows,” Yural said. She was clasping her spirit necklace. Her mouth moved silently.

  “Attu. She needs our help,” Meavu said, her voice carrying over the sound of the rushing water. “She won’t make it to the landing place.”

  Some of the Nukeena had joined them on the river’s edge. Bashoo, the Nukeena’s largest hunter, pushed his way to the front of the group, his eyes alert. He reached the edge of the river and walked into the current until he was almost a spear throw from the bank.

  Attu couldn’t believe the Nukeena could stand that far out in the rushing water. It was up to his waist and should have knocked him off his feet. But the burly man stood like a stone, his eyes fixed on the log craft careening toward them.

  “There they are!” Farnook cried as the three skin boats appeared around the bend. Two of them were paddling furiously, as if they were fleeing from something. The third was moving more slowly, and as Attu watched, Rusik paddled into a small area of calmer water and jumped out of his skin boat, pulling it to the river’s edge between two rocks. He ran along the bank toward them.

  “They are trying to catch up to Keanu. They won’t make it in time.” Meavu took another step out into the river, but Rovek stopped her.

  “It’s too dangerous.” He reached to pull her back. “Let them come to you. They’ll land in just a moment. Look. Keanu seems to have gotten control of the log boat–”

  “No!” Meavu cried, and a heartbeat later, Keanu’s boat spun, caught in an eddy between a rock and a fallen log. The skin boats were too far away, and Attu realized they couldn’t help Keanu even if they’d been near her. The log boat struck the rock and pitched upward. Keanu fell off and the boat flipped.

  Bashoo dove into the deeper water and swam toward them.

  “Do you see them?” Attu called, searching upriver.

  “Bashoo is going for Suanu,” Ubantu called. “Keanu’s clinging to that rock. We have to try to get to her!”

  Soantek grabbed the rope he’d been carrying back to his camp and ran downstream, waving wildly for Attu to follow.

  Attu realized what the other man was planning to do and bolted after Soantek. It was many spear throws to the place where the river became shallower and broader, just before it reached the ocean. Attu raced into the river at this point, grabbing one end of the rope from Soantek and splashing through the water to the other side, sending sheets into the air as he sped across.

  Then the two hunters raced back upstream, the rope strung across the river between them.

  Hang on! Attu mind shouted to Keanu. We’re coming!

  When they reached her, Keanu was still grasping the slippery rock, her hands wedged into a crevice in its upriver side. But the current was pushing her, trying to force her body around the rock and back into the deadly current.

  “Grab on!” Attu yelled to Keanu, then he mind shouted, You’ll only have one chance before the current will pull you under. Grab the rope and hang on. We’ll haul you in.

  There were others on Soantek’s side to help. Attu was alone on his side. Once Keanu grabbed the rope, Attu would let go and allow Soantek and the others to pull her to safety.

  One of Keanu’s hands slipped out of the rock crevice. Hurry! She held on with one hand and tried to reach the rope with her other. But the boulder she was clinging to stuck up out of the water, getting in the rope’s way.

  Wait. We’ll get it closer. Attu and Soantek maneuvered the rope over the high point of the boul
der to where Keanu was clinging, desperately trying to keep her handhold on the algae-covered rock. The rope touched Keanu’s head.

  Grab it!

  Keanu gave Attu a mental grunt, reached up, and grabbed the rope with her free hand.

  I’m going to let go of my end as soon as you let go of the rock.

  No!

  Keanu was clinging to the rope with one hand, and Attu could see she was barely hanging on to the rock as the current pulled on her.

  Yes. Listen. When I let go, wrap some of the loose rope from my end around your arm. It will hurt, Keanu, but you must secure yourself to the rope and that’s the fastest way. Loop it around your body if you can. Let go of the rock. Now!

  Attu dropped his end, and Keanu used the sudden slack in the rope to wrap her arm several times around the loose end before the current caught her and she shot around the rock, moving swiftly downstream toward several other boulders. Knowing she would be crushed against them, Keanu fought the current, trying to pull herself toward the bank with the rope Soantek was holding.

  “Just hang on!” Attu yelled aloud. Keanu stopped struggling as the current rushed her downstream even faster than before. Soantek ran with her, letting rope slip between his fingers because he couldn’t keep up with her, and Attu knew he didn’t want to jerk Keanu to a halt and risk injuring her or dragging himself into the river with her.

  Still, he came to the end of the rope within another spear throw’s distance, and as he was forced to stop, Soantek braced his legs. Attu watched helplessly as Keanu’s head disappeared under the water.

  “Keanu!” Attu cried.

  Keanu’s head bobbed up again.

  Soantek began moving first upstream again, then down, steering Keanu around several rocks as he also pulled her closer to shore.