Beyond Belief (Clan of the Ice Mountains Book 4) Read online

  “The gulls are worried that Ganik’s getting too close to their nests with his stone throwing and bow and arrows,” Keanu said. “You must warn him again. He can bring home all the rock birds he can kill in the rocks near the caves, but the hill where the gulls are is off limits. I must keep my promise to the gull Clan.”

  Attu nodded. “And no sign of the Tuktu?”

  “I don’t think they can travel north yet in all the mud. Not until the ground thaws more and dries out.”

  “I hope they come north close to us again,” Attu said. “We need to know if other Tuktu Clans have fought the thieves.”

  Attu and Keanu exchanged looks, and Keanu rubbed her arms, shivering as a chill overtook her.

  Chapter 15

  “And that was the last full night of sleep I’ve had in six moons,” Attu said as he and Suka laughed about the day Attu’s twins had been born. They were preparing their skin boats for their first hunt since the ocean ice had broken. A few large chunks still floated in the bay, but it was safe to paddle once again.

  Attu worked his fingers along his rope, checking for splits. The breeze off the bay was warm today. Attu was eager to go seal hunting again. The seals were swimming north along the coastline, and many swam into the bay to rest before braving the currents again.

  “And what are your pooliks to be named?” Suka teased as he readied his boat, checking the seams near the front one more time.

  “I’m glad that’s not up to me. But it’s been interesting, listening to the women giving hints to one another and trying to figure out what to name each child without using the same name twice.”

  Suka looked out over the bay, his eyes drinking in the beauty of the blue water, calm today under a clear sky. “Oh, it will be good to be back on the water again.”

  Attu, help! Tishria’s high mental voice cut through Attu’s thoughts.

  What is it? A wild dog?

  Ganik, Chonik, me. North. Along the shore. A nuknuk.

  Attu grabbed his spear, shouted to Suka and the others, and ran up the beach. A nuknuk roared, its voice echoing against the rocks.

  “Oh no,” Attu said, and he ran faster.

  Around the first jumble of rocks, Attu saw Ganik, Chonik, and Tishria. Ganik was high up, wedged into a crevice in the rocky hill where he had been forbidden to gather the gull eggs. Chonik and Tishria were at the base of a narrow opening between the rocks, blocking the only path to the water for the male nuknuk that stood up on its hind flippers just a few spear lengths from them. It bellowed again, then dropped to all fours and began weaving back and forth.

  Attu searched for a clear path around the jumble of boulders, so they could flank the animal, but there was none.

  “What do we do?” Suka asked.

  “We-”

  Grey Wolf ran at the nuknuk, barking fiercely, the hair on his back standing up, his ears flat to his head.

  No! Attu heard Tishria’s voice. Don’t get too close, Grey Wolf. Listen to me.

  Grey Wolf stopped a spear length in front of the nuknuk, between it and the children. The huge animal reared up and roared at him.

  Attu pushed at Grey Wolf’s mind, but Tishria’s thoughts stopped him. I can do this. Too many voices in his head will confuse him.

  The nuknuk lunged at Grey Wolf. The dog danced away from the huge beast, and Attu felt Tishria encouraging Grey Wolf to draw the nuknuk away from them, farther north on the path. One spear length more, then another.

  “Run!” Attu hollered at Tishria and Chonik.

  Tishria ran to Attu, then turned to face Grey Wolf and the nuknuk again. But Chonik didn’t move. He looked at them, his eyes wide, his face blank. The terrified boy had never seen a full-grown live male nuknuk this close. Chonik knew what had happened to Ganik’s father and was obviously too scared to move, for fear the animal would turn from the dog and attack him as it had Rusik.

  Grey Wolf snapped at the nuknuk’s sides as the animal moved away from Chonik another spear length.

  Not so close! Tishria mind shouted. Grey Wolf backed away again and the nuknuk lunged, barely missing the dog’s flank, and drawing closer to Chonik again. But Attu could see that Grey Wolf’s instincts had kicked in. He was learning about this prey, and he moved quickly in and out, drawing the animal farther away from the boy again.

  “Stay back,” Attu ordered Tishria and she nodded, but kept her eyes on Grey Wolf and the nuknuk.

  “I can get him,” Suka said.

  Attu nodded and Suka ran toward Chonik. He grabbed Chonik up like a seal and turned, sprinting back up the beach where the others stood.

  “Stop!” Attu shouted at Grey Wolf and mind spoke to him as well. He and the other hunters backed away from the nuknuk, opening up a space for it to get to the water.

  Let it go. We’re safe now, Attu heard Tishria coaxing Grey Wolf to give up the fight.

  Attu watched as Grey Wolf backed away from the nuknuk, closer to where the hunters stood ready in case the nuknuk charged them. The nuknuk followed, keeping its tusks facing the dog. The water near shore was deep, and when the nuknuk reached it, he gave one last roar toward them all and then disappeared under some broken ice near the shore.

  Attu looked up. Ganik was gone. He’d apparently been able to climb the rest of the way up the hill to safety. For now, Attu thought, until Keanu finds out you broke her promise to the gulls...

  Tishria slapped her leg and Grey Wolf ran up to her. He licked her outstretched palm and whined.

  “You are a good wolf. A good protector of your Clan,” Tishria said aloud. Attu could feel her mental push in pictures toward the animal’s mind. Grey Wolf stopped his whining and stood tall before Tishria. Their eyes met and Attu felt a deep communication between them, deeper than any he had ever felt between a person and an animal. Then they turned and began walking up the beach where the rest of the Clan had gathered.

  “Mother will be worried about us. And Ganik is in big trouble,” Tishria said as Attu walked beside her. “I told Ganik not to go. But he said he wanted fresh eggs to eat and no one would stop him. So I found Chonik because you said we weren’t to go this far alone, and we came to bring him back.”

  “And Grey Wolf?”

  “I made Ganik leave him behind. I called for you, then I called for Grey Wolf, too.” They walked a few more steps before Tishria reached for Attu’s hand, pulling him aside.

  “The nuknuk wouldn’t listen to me.” Her eyes looked to Attu’s with concern.

  “You tried to mind speak to the nuknuk?”

  “I did mind speak with him. Before I called to you. I thought if I could convince him we would just go, he’d leave us alone. But then Chonik wouldn’t budge and...” Tishria shuddered and Attu caught a fleeting image of an angry nuknuk eyeing the children. “He told me he was defending his part of the beach. He would have attacked us if you hadn’t come.”

  “Tishria mind spoke to Grey Wolf and was able to keep communicating with you at the same time?” Rika asked Attu as they sat talking about the morning’s near tragedy.

  “After she couldn’t convince the nuknuk not to attack them.” Attu took a bite of his stew. “Tishria is incredibly brave. And Grey Wolf may have saved a hunter’s life today. Who knows what would have happened if one of us had been forced to confront that animal?” Attu shuddered at the memory of Rusik, gored by the nuknuk.

  “And the nuknuk was going to attack them for being on the beach he’d claimed?”

  “Yes. I caught a glimpse of his thoughts through Tishria. The children must not play along the shore until all the ice has melted and the nuknuks have moved north again.”

  “And Ganik?”

  “Tingiyok asked to take care of his punishment. Ganik will be hauling wood to every shelter for the next moon. And I know Tingiyok already took his bow and arrows.”

  “I hope he learns from this. His actions almost got his sister and his best friend killed.”

  “Do you know how many fish Soantek’s going to have to give the gul
ls because our promise has been broken?” Keanu stirred her cooking skin so hard, Attu thought it might spring a leak. “I can’t risk what the evil spirits might do to our Clan after I told the birds they would be safe and then Ganik took their eggs anyway.”

  “Are the gulls refusing to let you fly in them?” The gulls were the fastest flyers, and Keanu had been relying on them because there were so many and they’d been willing to take turns flying with her for almost half a day so she could look as far as possible from camp.

  “They will continue to fly, but I’ve lost their trust, at least for this spring, so I might need to find more willing birds, anyway,” Keanu said. She moved from the cooking skin, her stirring stick still in her hand. She waved it for emphasis. “Birds have short memories, and I’m sure the gulls will have forgotten about it by next spring. But the spirits never forget. I prayed about it, and my name spirit gave me the idea of making amends with fish.”

  “Tingiyok will make Ganik fish, too. And I will ask Yural if there’s anything else you need to do. She may need to perform a ceremony to make sure we’re doing everything we can.”

  “And as angry as I am at Ganik, I don’t want him to invite evil spirits to harm him by being the one to break our Clan’s promise. He just doesn’t seem to understand how serious this all is.”

  Attu left with the promise to speak with both Yural and Tingiyok. Punishment was one thing, but Ganik needed to see the danger he was putting himself in by breaking such a serious promise to the gull Clan. If the spirits chose to, Ganik could grow up to be the unlucky hunter, never getting game and always wondering why, when the reason was that he’d been disrespectful of the animals of Nuvikuan-na as a child and was now paying the price. Perhaps that nuknuk was part of some immediate retribution from the spirits...

  The Clan gathered the next evening at sunset. The full moon would rise soon, but they’d begun when the fire spirit met the water spirit, to honor the Nukeena Clan. Each mother stepped forward, her man beside her, and all the Clan formed a protective circle around them, the sign of the Clan’s strength and unity in the raising of the young. Soantek spoke a few words over each poolik, sprinkling each with both water from a nearby spring and ash from the sacred fire he had built at sunrise and prayed over until it had burned completely.

  As the full moon rose over the mountains to the east, the mothers moved closer to the water. One by one, each man and woman knelt on Yural’s ceremonial robe, laid out on the ground in the sand. When it was Yural’s turn, Soantek would perform the ritual, but right now he stood aside, watching and learning as Yural performed the naming for each new family.

  Meavu chose the name Tovut for her son, and all agreed the Elder’s name should live on in the Clan. Attu knew Meavu secretly hoped her boy would have some of the Gifts Elder Tovut had possessed, even though the Clan hadn’t recognized them as more than the ramblings of an old storyteller until it was almost too late.

  Attu laughed with the rest as Farnook named her daughter Nipka. She grinned at the Clan’s approval. As if to seal the appropriateness of being named “she with the spirit to speak loudly, is strong, is heard among the Clan,” Nipka began crying, her tiny body squirming in frustration at being bound with her parents’ hands in the ceremonial rope. Once again, Attu was amazed at the loudness of the squalling red-faced poolik.

  Yural took her turn before Attu and Rika. The honor of being last would go to the Clan’s leader and healer. As Yural and Ubantu knelt on the robe, Soantek spoke the words over them and their son. “I name him Kavut,” Yural said, and all was quiet before heads began to nod. Kavut meant “of strong brows,” and Yural and Ubantu’s son had his father’s strong features. But the Clan knew it also meant possessing the Nuvik spirit of inner strength, a calmness and wisdom greater than the person’s age. Attu hardily agreed with his mother’s choice of name for her quiet, alert boy.

  When it was Attu’s and Rika’s turn, Rika handed Yural the rope, and Attu remembered the two of them, not so long ago, holding out their hands to Elder Nuanu as she bound them together under the light of the full moon as they floated on the ice chunk. That night they had sworn to share their lives forever, even though they might never escape the ice chunk to have any time together.

  Attu looked to Rika and saw she was remembering, too. She placed her hand upon his, and Rovek, holding his nephew’s tiny hand, placed it upon Rika’s. Meavu, standing on their other side, held out her niece’s hand. Yural wrapped them together. For once, their pooliks didn’t squirm.

  Attu’s daughter looked at him, her eyes wide in the moonlight. Attu’s heart melted yet again at the sight of her. His son was studying his grandmother, watching her hands as they moved over the bound ones, speaking the words of binding yet again. “And you will be one family. Your children will be protected with your lives. No one and nothing will take them from you until the Between of death separates you. You will guide your daughter, Rika, and you will guide your son, Attu, in the ways of the women and men. Rika, you will love the child of your heart, your son, and teach him to respect all women and treat them as precious. And you will guide your daughter, Attu, in the ways of the true honorable man, so she may trust the man of her own heart one day, and have no fear of him, but be assured he will hunt for her and protect her always.”

  Rika flinched. Attu knew she was thinking of her own father, who had also sworn this oath in front of his whole Clan, then dishonored it.

  Our daughter will never fear me. He looked into Rika’s eyes, baring his spirit to her to the deepest part of himself.

  I know. Thank you. She smiled and looked up to Yural.

  “What do you name these children?” Yural asked.

  All around them the Clan leaned in to catch Rika’s words.

  “Our son shall be named Gantuk,” Rika said, “‘he who smiles and makes others smile,’ for he was born second, bringing a smile of surprise to all of us.”

  Lips popped in agreement with her as Attu chuckled, remembering what a shock he’d had when Suka had first told him his woman had given birth to twins.

  “I could tell you that I have set my spirit to the search, and it has returned time and again with the name our daughter will have,” Rika continued. “But I cannot. This child was named before she was born, by her namesake. On the night I was bonded, before the ceremony had even been performed, Elder Nuanu told me my first child would be a girl. I was to name her Nuanu, ‘For she will be my eyes and ears in the generation after you. She will be as I was, for the Clan.’ Therefore, because the spirit of Shuantuan within Elder Nuanu bid it, I name our daughter Nuanu.”

  Some of the women gasped in astonishment. Others shook their heads. It was one thing to name a child after a beloved Elder, such as Elder Tovut. But to name a child after the woman all believed had become the personification of Shuantuan, the most powerful of all trysta spirits? And to say Elder Nuanu had told her to do so before Rika was even bonded?

  Rika opened her mind then, and Attu, Farnook, Tingiyok, Keanu, and Soantek all saw her memory. Tears flowed down Farnook’s face, and Attu realized Farnook was remembering how she’d seen Elder Nuanu in visions, guiding her along with Vanreda and Farnook’s own mother from the Between.

  “It is true,” Elder Tingiyok said. “It must be so. Elder Nuanu told Rika to name her child Nuanu.”

  Rika drew in a deep breath. As she let it out, the Clan had also drawn a collective breath and was relaxing into the celebration once again. Their daughter would be raised until her woman’s ceremony with the name of Nuanu. Attu was convinced she would remain with the name, as Meavu had and he had, but that her name was Nuanu was enough for now.

  Fires were lit on the beach, and the sound of the waves accompanied the drumming and singing and dancing that followed. The Clan feasted on some of the new greens the women had collected, smothered in the fat from fresh moose meat. The moose were heading north again. Attu wondered, as he took a juicy bite, if the Tuktu would come back soon, driving their tuktu herd before t
hem through the fast-growing grass of the small plain to the east.

  “Come! Dance with the men,” Suka held out his arm for Attu to join him. Attu took his last bite of meat before letting Suka haul him up. The men were dancing the dance of the seal hunt. Soon Attu was sweating with the rest of them as they circled the fire. Feet pounded and arms flung imaginary spears. Wind swirled the smoke among them and rustled the pine trees until all of Nuvikuan-na seemed to be joining in the celebration of the naming.

  Chapter 16

  “They are about two days travel to the south, I think,” Keanu said to the group gathered outside Attu’s shelter. She had been flying in the gull and had returned to tell the Clan that she’d seen the Tuktu coming over a rise in the hills. “But their numbers are few. Less than half the people they had in the fall. Perhaps it’s another group. I couldn’t recognize any of them, but I was far away. The gull was afraid of them and wouldn’t fly too closely.”

  The Tuktu arrived late the next day. The men guarding the camp to the south alerted the others, and Attu went out with most of the men to greet them.

  “We bring no evil,” the Tuktu leader said as he approached with his men, “but we bring news of evil.”

  “Before you draw closer, brothers, are any among you sick with body sores?” Attu asked.

  Some of the Tuktu herders murmured among themselves, but said nothing loud enough for Attu to hear. Several said nothing at all and looked away, instead, eyes to the ground.

  Finally, Toonuk spoke up. “No. We know what you’re describing. Our Clan escaped that sickness. But we have suffered in other ways this winter. I have much to tell you.” The Tuktu leader’s face was drawn, and he looked older than Attu had remembered him. He also seemed to have lost much of his arrogance.

  “Come then. You are welcome to set up your camp and take care of your herds. Tonight we’ll feed you all as you rest yourselves by our fires. You can tell us everything then.”