Broken Rock Bay (Clan of the Ice Mountains Book 3) Read online

  Ubantu released his gentle hold on the fish, and it slipped back into deeper waters. He rose and moved to the rock he had been balancing on before, spear at the ready.

  Attu joined his father, standing to his right on a flat rock. He raised his own spear and worked to quiet all other thoughts so he could concentrate on spotting a flashing tail or shining scales beneath the swiftly moving water.

  Chapter 4

  “Why didn’t you tell me about the falcon dream right after you dreamed it?” Rika was sitting with Tingiyok and Attu around their shelter’s outdoor fire that evening. Attu had tried to ask Farnook to join them as well, but Suka had said Farnook was already asleep. Attu would have to explain the dream to her next sun.

  “You should have told me immediately.” Rika clenched a small fur she’d been sewing into a baby’s garment, her task forgotten in her agitation.

  “He has told us now, child.” Tingiyok patted Rika’s leg. “And you say it was Keanu you saw?” He frowned.

  “Yes. And when I mind shouted to you today, it was because someone spoke into my mind, pulled me back into my body. I was fighting joining with the bird, but I couldn’t seem to release myself.”

  “Was it Keanu’s voice?” Tingiyok asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “How could it be, from such a distance?” Rika wondered.

  “She shouldn’t be able to do that,” Tingiyok said. “But even among my people, people with so many unusual Gifts, Keanu stood apart. No one could do what she could do. It created a problem sometimes.”

  “What kind of problem?” Attu asked.

  “Some of the Seers, especially those without Gifts, thought she might use her power to enter and control humans’ minds as well as animals,” Tingiyok explained. He looked away from Attu, toward the fire. Attu could see that talking about Keanu like this disturbed the Elder.

  “What?” Rika asked. “Did they have reason to suspect her of this?”

  “Keanu was quiet and careful with her Gift. Still, some of our people avoided Keanu,” Tingiyok said, “especially those who had no Gift.” He looked down at his hands as if embarrassed.

  Attu got the feeling Elder Tingiyok wasn’t telling them everything. He thought about their time with the Seers. “Is that why we rarely saw her?” Attu asked. “I just thought she was out in the forest, keeping watch through the animals, keeping your Clan safe.”

  “That’s what Ashukat encouraged her to do,” Tingiyok said. “And she gathered plants for our healer, also. Ashukat never spoke to me about it, but I think he was trying to shield Keanu from those others who were afraid of her Gift.”

  “It does seem to be a powerful one, difficult for Keanu to control. Otherwise, how could it still have such an effect on me, even after the dreaming?”

  Attu felt embarrassed that he’d been unable to stop his spirit from attempting to join his mind with the gull. He didn’t know how to explain his longing to fly again, to experience what he’d felt in the dream. It overrode his ability to resist. It had been amazing...to fly... to soar... He was the bird, the wind on his face, his wings beating steadily. He felt the warmth of the sun, the wind riffling through his feathers...

  “Attu!” Rika was shaking his shoulders.

  “What?” He pulled away from her.

  Attu felt his flesh tingle as Rika and Tingiyok stared anxiously at him.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  Rika looked away, hiding her face. Tingiyok stared at him, brows furrowed.

  What just happened? Attu unconsciously mind spoke to them both, too overcome to speak aloud.

  “You went somewhere Between for several moments,” Tingiyok finally answered him. “We had a hard time getting you back.”

  Attu wiped a hand across his face. It was cool this evening, but beads of sweat covered his upper lip and forehead. When he pulled his hand away, it was shaking. His words tumbled out as he tried to explain. “It felt like the Remembering, like after the ice bear attacked me the first time and I kept seeing it happen over and over again.”

  Attu saw the confused looks on Rika’s and Tingiyok’s faces and realized he’d been rushing. He took a deep breath and tried again, more slowly this time. “In a Remembering, the event comes back to you, every detail, and it’s like you are experiencing it again. For a moment, just now, I was the falcon again, as if it weren’t a dream, but in the Here and Now. I was flying.”

  Attu turned to the Elder. “Tingiyok, do you know about this? Can you help me?”

  “Keanu is the one who pulled you in the dream. I don’t–”

  “Attu, there you are,” Meavu interrupted Tingiyok as she walked into the firelight where the three were sitting. “I need to talk to you. Oh,” she added as she noticed Tingiyok, “I’m sorry, Tingiyok, I didn’t see–”

  “Do not apologize,” Tingiyok said. “Come, join us. You should have been here from the beginning of our talk, anyway. Forgive us for not thinking to include you as well.” Tingiyok glanced at Attu.

  Meavu. Meavu has Gifts. How long will it take me to accept that Meavu is a Seer as well, and to treat her with the respect she deserves, even though she cannot mind speak?

  “Yes, sit with us, Sister. We have much to tell you.”

  “But first, you must hear what just happened to me,” Meavu insisted. She didn’t stop to ask if they were willing, but jumped into her story. “I was at the river just now, filling the seal bladders with water, when the strangest feeling came over me.” She paused, and Attu saw that familiar look of one who has Seen come into her eyes. “I don’t know how to explain it because I didn’t actually see or hear anything. But I knew someone was in my mind, a woman, and she was very worried. It was as if her thoughts were traveling down the river from a great distance, through the water, and I touched them as I stood in the shallows with my seal bladders.” Meavu stared into the fire, her brow furrowed.

  They all sat in silence for a few moments, letting Meavu gather her thoughts to explain.

  Finally, when she didn’t speak, Tingiyok prompted her. “You were at the river getting water, and you felt the presence of another mind in yours, coming to you out of the water...”

  Tingiyok repeated her words casually, as if such a thing happens every day. Attu marveled at the Elder’s skill in making Meavu feel at ease about explaining what she’d experienced.

  “I was at the river,” Meavu repeated, smiling at Tingiyok for a moment before staring into the flames again. “I’d just filled the first bladder and rolled the top closed, sealing it with the bone clip, and... I just knew. The woman was Keanu, and she’s coming down the river.”

  Rika inhaled sharply and clutched her spirit necklace.

  Attu felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise.

  Meavu folded her arms around herself, even though it was warm by the fire. “I know it is such a strange thing, but Keanu is coming down this very river where we’re camped, and she’s not alone. Two others accompany her, and she’s worried about them. She’s worried about reaching us in time, before we get too much further north. She’s worried her efforts to communicate with you...” Meavu paused. “I don’t understand why she’s afraid to try speaking to you or Rika or Farnook in a dream, but she’s very worried about something. She feels responsible for whatever it is.” Meavu shook her head. “It makes no sense. It’s something about an animal. She is afraid for you.”

  She knows where we are! The falcons. Both the real one and the one in my dream. Both were sent by Keanu. Attu saw realization dawning on both Rika’s and Tingiyok’s faces as well.

  Meavu turned to look at Attu, studying his face intently. “You’re not going hunting soon? Something dangerous that could kill you?”

  Attu sighed. “What you have Seen is very important, my sister. Let me explain.”

  “I’m not ready to stand in the full Clan as a Seer and tell them something as strange as what I Saw this night,” Meavu said. Meavu stood just outside the light of Attu’s fire. Ri
ka and Tingiyok had headed over to the central fire, but Meavu and Attu had lingered a moment. The moon shone down on the two of them, and Attu could see Meavu’s drawn brows and the thin line of her lips.

  “I know I must be strong when I stand before our people as a Seer for the first time, and I know there will be those times. My Gifts are growing with each passing moon. But I’m not strong. Not yet, not since...” Meavu shuddered at the remembrance of her time with the Ravens. She put her hands protectively over her stomach as if to shelter the baby within from her memories.

  “This time,” Attu agreed, “I will speak for you. But my sister the Seer must learn to speak for herself, or those who listen will not respect what she shares.”

  “It seems to me that it is no longer a matter of respect, but of belief,” Meavu said. “Often what any of us with Gifts says is not believed to be true by those outside our immediate families. Ubantu, Yural, Suka, and a few others believe what we See to be true, but many others are skeptical until they see things with their own eyes. Haven’t you noticed how some of our own people are still behaving like they did on the Expanse?”

  “They follow ritual and traditions, but more out of custom than understanding.”

  “Yes. Just like when most thought Elder Tovut was merely telling stories.”

  “But what do we do about that? How do we teach our people to respect and follow the spirits, as Mother and Father have taught us?”

  “Sometimes I think there is so much more I do not understand than what I do.” Meavu looked up to the stars at the hunters gone Between, now lighting up the night sky. “There is much all of us need to still learn about following the true ways of the Nuvik, including Seeing and following the spirits’ guidance. I wish I felt strong enough to face others with what I already know. That would be a beginning.”

  “We must trust the spirits will continue to teach us all. And soon you will be strong again,” Attu reassured her, and he reached for his sister. He held Meavu close, and she clung to him – her arms wrapped tightly around his neck – much as she’d done when she’d been little and greeted him home from the hunt. Attu lifted her from the ground for a moment, aware of Meavu’s slightly rounding body against his. He didn’t try to twirl her around, but she giggled as he swayed her gently from side to side. The same wave of protection he’d always felt for his sister washed over him, and he felt tears spring to his eyes as he gently set her down again.

  Meavu smiled through her own tears and headed back to her shelter.

  As Attu walked toward the fire, he found himself wondering if Meavu would ever be that spontaneous and bright person again, the woman she had been before the Ravens had held her for so many moons, threatening her daily with their intent to sacrifice her. She’d been named Meavu because it was the perfect fit for her personality. Meavuria was the trysta spirit of bright sunlight on new snow, when the world of Nuvikuan-na sparkled after the darkness of a snowstorm and everyone’s spirits were lifted at the sight. That had been his little Meavu, his Kip.

  Attu prayed that someday Meavu’s spirit would shine again as brightly and as innocently as it had when she was small. But even as he did so, Attu knew Meavu’s torturous time had changed her forever, much as his own experiences had. He should not wish her to be naïve once again.

  “She is strong. Stronger than I am. Attuanin, help my sister to see herself as who she truly is, an amazing woman of many Gifts, capable, right now, of teaching us all how to be Nuviks of honor, as she is,” Attu whispered his prayer as he approached the central fire.

  “The waves still pound on the peninsula,” Attu said a while later as the hunters and women sat gathered around the embers of that evening’s blaze. Attu glanced around, seeing Meavu had returned to the fire, also, and now sat in front of Rovek, his arms encircling her. “Until the ocean calms, we must remain here. And once it calms, we must remain until Keanu arrives. She must have a reason for making such a journey.”

  “But how did she even know we are here?” Yural asked.

  Attu opened his mouth to explain about the falcon, but Elder Nuka spoke first.

  “I believe I know.” All turned to hear what the Elder would say. “You remember I said that when the falcon looked at me, it was strange, as if I were looking into the eyes of someone more intelligent than the falcon? Someone studying me as closely as I was studying them?” She nodded to herself as she spoke. “It was Keanu. I should have known it right away. Who else can See through animals?”

  Rika shot Attu a look.

  He felt her worry.

  “But who would have thought she’d be searching for us in the first place? Why would she?” Veshria asked, frowning at Attu.

  “We don’t know,” Attu answered for them all, ignoring the derisive tone of Veshria’s questions for now. “But we know she has two others with her, and they’re headed down the river. Meavu couldn’t say if they are in a boat, but I think we must assume they are. It would be the safest and fastest way. And they want us to wait for them to get here.”

  “I say we paddle up to meet them,” Tingiyok said.

  “Me too,” Rovek and Rusik said, at the same time.

  Surprised at their joint outburst, the older and younger hunter studied each other for a moment before Rovek grinned at the older man and a slow answering smile spread across Rusik’s face.

  “Three to journey. Who else wants to go?” Tingiyok asked.

  Attu could see Tingiyok could hardly wait to paddle his skin boat up the river.

  That would be a challenge a man like Tingiyok would love.

  Veshria slid closer to her man and whispered angrily into his ear.

  Rusik tried to shrug her off, but she pulled at him until he finally bent over so he could hear her.

  “That is nonsense,” Rusik said, and turned away from his woman, striking his hand down into his palm to end the discussion.

  Veshria sat, silent and angry.

  “Wait a moment,” Suka said. His loud voice carried over the other hunters vying for the chance to head up the river with Tingiyok. “Shouldn’t we just wait here until Keanu comes with the others?”

  “Why wait?” Rusik asked, ignoring his woman’s glare.

  Everyone began talking at once.

  It’s like trying to get sea otters to all swim in one direction when these decisions need to be made.

  Attu looked his thanks to Suka for trying to be sensible, even though it hadn’t worked. Suka shrugged before turning to the hunter next to him, who was asking Suka a question. Attu understood now why Paven had always demanded his people follow him without question, always acting strong and certain and not allowing others to have their own opinions about what should be done.

  My father didn’t like others to think for themselves. Nor did he care to try to get others to see reason, Rika mind spoke to him. You could act like a male nuknuk and break these other hunters’ will with your tusks if you tried hard enough. You are stronger than Paven ever was.

  Attu looked at Rika in disbelief.

  I am?

  But, she added, if you began acting like my father, you would soon find your furs cold, without a woman to fill them.

  Attu scowled at her. You’re not funny.

  And you’re not Paven.

  Attu searched his woman’s eyes, remembering how difficult it had been for Rika to learn to trust him when her own father hadn’t treated her as the precious Nuvik woman she was. But Attu saw that trust now. His woman had reminded him again. He must lead in his own way. She trusted in that way. It gave him strength.

  Attu turned from Rika as all around them, every member of the Clan voiced his or her opinions loudly. Some wanted to join Tingiyok up the river; some thought that idea was dangerous. Some wanted to wait for Keanu to arrive, and a few wanted to ignore the Seeing and head north again as soon as the waves calmed.

  Attu listened to his people arguing, just like the Seers had loved to argue. He’d hated their arguing. Arguing bred dissension and bad feelings a
mong a Clan.

  “I think we need to head out, continue north, just as soon as the waves recede.” One of the hunters who most openly scoffed at the Gifts was shouting his opinion among the others.

  Attu moved away from Rika, closer to the fire. He sat and placed his hand, palm down, into the center of the area toward the flames. He waited there, unmoving. Silent.

  Others, seeing Attu, quieted. Several hunters moved to sit in the traditional manner, crossed legs, spears – if they had them – across their laps as a sign of peaceful negotiation around the fire. The women moved back slightly, opening up room for the rest of the hunters.

  The hunter who’d just been shouting – when he saw the others move into the position to speak, Nuvik-style – snorted something under his breath, but found a place in the group and sat with the rest.

  “The Seers brought us many new ideas, many new things which we now enjoy,” Attu began, inclining his head briefly toward the skin boats.

  The others popped their lips in agreement.

  “But one of the things we learned from them we must work to now leave behind.” Attu looked around the group, pausing to make eye contact with the louder hunters for a moment longer than the others. “It is not the Nuvik way to bluster and shout as the Seers do. It is not the way of the hunter to lose patience and to disrespect the opinion of another by acting like a charging tuskie.” Attu thought of Kinak, a flash of the dream coming to him. He felt the sadness.