Bonesetter 2 -Winter- (20 page)

Pell responded to Gurix’ questions, though Woday paid little attention to the subject of their conversation. He ate his fish, thinking that it was good, but not as good as the two fish he’d cooked the night before. At first he took some pride in his fish cooking skills, but then realized that the difference might have been the salt Gia had given him to flavor his fish. The excellent stew apparently contained the pigeon they’d trapped as well as some porcupine. Porcupines were slow and easy to kill with a spear, but they were difficult to skin. He wondered who’d done that scary job. Probably Manute or Deltin, they seemed to go hunting every day. Besides, having been with them, Woday knew that Pell and Tando hadn’t gone hunting. Yadin had been gone for a while, but he’d come back while the snare had been catching the rock pigeon and Woday knew Yadin hadn’t been carrying a porcupine carcass.

Since Woday’s experience with cooking the fish had been positively reinforced by the compliments he received for it, he found himself much more interested in how the stew had been prepared. It was particularly good and he wondered whether it’d be too embarrassing to ask Ontru how she’d cooked it. Because of the flavor, Woday thought that Ontru probably put garlic and onion in the stew along with whatever grains and chopped roots she’d added. He wondered if she’d also added some salt.

Woday felt a touch on his arm and turned, hoping that Pell wanted to talk to him. Instead he saw that Pell had turned to talk to Gia. Gurix was the one touching his arm. “Your tribe was the Falls-people, to the west, right?” she asked.

Woday nodded, realizing Gurix was pretty. If Gia hadn’t been so unusually attractive, Gurix could have been quite a threat.

“Your people live on the main river and eat a lot of fish?”

“Yes, we’re called the Falls-people, because there’s a big waterfall there. We probably eat more fish than we do land animals, even though fish are harder to spear.”

Gurix frowned at him, “Why’s that?”

Woday explained how you had to aim your spear below the fish to actually hit them. He got the impression she didn’t really believe him, but was merely listening to be polite.

At least,
he thought,
she hasn’t asked me if I’m any good at spearfishing
.

Yadin sat next to Donte for the meal. Shortly after he’d taken his place next to her, Tando sat on the other side of him. He was wondering how to start a conversation with Donte, when she leaned forward and spoke to Tando. She lifted an eyebrow, then said, “I got Yadin to help harvest some barley today.”

Yadin felt embarrassed, but Tando slapped him on the shoulder and said, “Hah! We’ve got you doing
women’s
work! Welcome to Cold Springs!”

Yadin shrugged, “I’d never harvested grain before. It was interesting,” he laughed, “and, a lot harder than I expected.”

Tando looked curiously back at Donte, “I thought the grain harvest was all done?”

Donte said, “Yeah. It’s pretty late and a lot of the seeds have already fallen. Falin and I went up to explore the plateau and see what there was to be seen up there. When I saw a small stand of barley that still had quite a few seeds, I thought it’d be a shame not to harvest them.”

Tando glanced at Yadin, then back at Donte. “So it was just you and Falin?” He grinned at Yadin, then turned back to Donte, “How did Yadin happen to be there to help you with your harvest?”

Donte gave Yadin another one of her sly smiles, “Oh, he just climbed up on the plateau to look around, see if it was the same as the plateau over by the Oppos.”

Tando laughed and elbowed Yadin, “See anything up there that you liked?”

Yadin had thought he was too old to blush, but he felt a little heat rising his cheeks. He cut his eyes to Donte as he said, “Maybe.”

She grinned back at him.…

As the evening meal wound down, Yadin got up and moved toward Agan, hoping to ask her whether he could be taught any of Cold Springs’ secrets. She looked up as he approached and somehow he felt like she already knew what he wanted to ask. Before he opened his mouth, she sidestepped him by asking, “Will you tell us a story tonight Yadin? Something about the Oppos, like Woday told us about the Falls-people last night? As you can see, Pell’s wolf is already here in the cave, so you don’t have to worry about being startled by it like happened to Woday.”

Yadin felt frustrated to be deflected from his purpose. However, if telling a friendly story would induce them to tell him some of their secrets, it’d be well worth it. When he’d left the Aldans, he’d thought that the stories Lessa, Belk, and Gontra had told about Pell’s capabilities
had
to be exaggerated at best, or blatant lies at worst. However, by now he was starting to wonder if they might have understated the young man’s abilities.

From his first meeting when Pell had fish that hadn’t been speared, to seeing him unerringly throwing stones and then today, to witnessing him today, apparently catching a rock pigeon without even being there…

Yadin shook his head, but then smiled, “I’d be happy to tell you a story of an amazingly lucky hunt we Oppos had, though I must warn you that I’m a poor storyteller.”

Agan waved a hand, indicating Yadin should proceed though, out of the corner of his eye, Yadin saw Tando, Ontru and Gurix wincing. After all, they’d all heard his story when he told it to the Aldans. They knew that it wasn’t a terribly interesting story and also that Yadin was a poor teller of tales. Nonetheless, Yadin began his story and worked his way through to the end, everyone listening politely. This was better than he’d have received back in the Oppos, where Yadin’s reputation frequently had people jeering even before he began speaking.

When he’d finished, Tando snorted and turned to Agan, “I
told you,
he’s a good flint knapper, but a
terrible
storyteller.”

For a moment, everyone gaped at Tando’s rudeness, but then they all broke into laughter. Some laughing so hard they were wiping tears from their eyes. Yadin found himself struggling not to laugh himself, though he protested, “I
told
you I wasn’t good at this!”

Agan had kept her face still despite all the mirth expressed by the others. Once the laughing settled down she said, “Well, I hope that you all realize we
did
learn something important from Yadin’s story.”

Yadin saw several of the others biting their tongues. After a moment Woday turned to Agan with a puzzled look on his face, “What did we learn?”

Agan turned slowly to him, a serious look still on her face as she sonorously replied, “We learned… not to ask Yadin to tell stories.”

The cave broke into gales of laughter once again. Somehow, having the serious Agan make a joke without cracking a smile made it all the funnier.

Agan then called on Gia to tell a story. She launched into a fascinating story which she later admitted to just making up as she went along. It featured a lion which fell in love with a deer, and if that wasn’t ridiculous enough, went on to describe an elaborate wedding ceremony in which all sorts of other beasts participated!

Yadin never got an opportunity to ask Agan about Cold Springs’ secrets.

***

Fellax stalked back to the rear of the Oppos’ cave where Pont and Nosset were supposedly carrying out some kind of magical ceremony. As she’d suspected, the ceremony featured a small fire with dried hemp smoldering on top of it. At present both of them were lying on their sides. Nosset was giggling and Pont looked like he was nearly unconscious. “What are you two doing?!” Fellax hissed furiously.

Nosset swayed upright. Pont slowly lolled his head into a different position that let him loosely focus his eyes on Fellax. Slowly, but with an attempt at haughtiness, Nosset said, “We’re performing a ceremony to fend off disease.”

Pont said dreamily, “You’re interrupting the ceremony. Please leave before you muddle it.”

Fellax stared at them in disgust. Though it was too dark to tell, she felt certain that if she
could
have seen, she’d have found their eyes bloodshot with the effects of the hemp. “I think you’re just hiding back here, leglessly hemped—trying to avoid any real work!” she said scathingly. Although she hated Pell, she’d liked his idea that everyone should work harder to get ready for the hungry months ahead. She’d tried to influence the Oppos in that direction, but, though they were happy for
her
to slave away, only a few of the women had made any effort to follow her lead. She’d come back to talk to the medicine men in hopes that, through Pont, she could get Nosset to influence his tribespeople to work at least a little harder.

Pont struggled partially upright, then cast an imperious finger toward the cave opening. “Go! Don’t meddle in things you don’t understand!”

Fellax stood her ground, chewing her lip and wondering how to bring these two idiots to their senses. Finally she said, “How long has Yadin been gone?”

Pont still had his arm pointing at the exit and for a moment Fellax thought he’d repeat his demand that she leave. But then he dropped the arm and turned to Nosset with a puzzled look on his face, “Nosset, do you know how long it’s been?”

Nosset frowned uncertainly, “Quite a few days.”

“Shouldn’t he be back by now?”

Nosset nodded thoughtfully.

Fellax wondered whether Yadin might have recognized that Pell’s rules might help the hungry Aldans survive the winter. Maybe even survive the winter better than the Oppos were going to. The Oppos had stores of food, but not as much as she thought they would need.

Pont had obviously been thinking as well. He said, “We should send someone to check on him. I’ll bet he’s been taken over by the same evil spirit that captured Pell!”

A little eagerly, Nosset said, “We should have a big ceremony with the evening meal. We’ll tell them…” Nosset paused for a guilty look at Fellax, then changed his words. “We’ll try to divine what’s happened to Yadin, and if we can’t tell from here, we’ll suggest that someone should go to check on Yadin from afar.”

Feeling a little lightheaded from the smoke, Fellax turned to leave. The two men reminded her of children playing make-believe.

Dangerous children, since other men followed them.

She wondered how she’d come to follow Pont when he’d left the Aldans.

Pell murdered Roley,
she thought.
I couldn’t stay with the Aldans while they were in his thrall! Or, the thrall of the spirit controlling Pell, if you believed Pont.

Still, she hadn’t loved Roley for quite some time. She wondered why she’d been so upset over his death. Had her pride caused her to make a decision she’d regret forever?

***

In the morning, Manute and Deltin invited Yadin to go on a hunt with them. Tando enthusiastically invited himself along and asked Boro if he wanted to go as well. Woday glanced at Pell, worried that Pell would decide to go on the hunt as well. Not having much skill with spear throwing or facing down charging animals, Woday had little desire to expose himself to the derision other hunters usually heaped on him. Realizing Woday would never have much success killing large game himself, the Falls-people hunters had used him almost exclusively as a beater the past few years.

To Woday’s relief, Pell made no effort to join the hunt. As the five men started up the ravine, full of braggadocio and enthusiasm, Pell turned to Woday and grinned, “Let’s go try out your new fish trap.”

Pleased to be going somewhere with Pell, and even more proud to have it labeled
his
fish trap, Woday picked it up and tugged on the door they’d made at the end of it. He also got the fish guts he’d set aside the night before. Woday blinked, realizing that although he’d happily thought of the trap as
his
, really the only part of it that could actually be thought of as Woday’s would be the door. The concept of the fish trap belonged to Pell, yet Pell had readily given him credit, calling the trap Woday’s! He wondered if Pell really thought of the trap as Woday’s or was just such a cordial person that he dispensed recognition to others—rather than bragging like most people did.

Or, did Pell just naïvely think it
was
Woday’s?

Pell came out of the cave carrying another basket. It was similar in shape to the one Woday held in his hand, but much more loosely woven. Woday narrowed his eyes, “When did you make that one?!”

Pell laughed, “My mother made it for me. Then, when you had your genius idea to put a door in them, she had to work late last night making a door!” He lifted an eyebrow at Woday, “You’re not on her good side, you know?”

Woday threw his free hand up in a peacemaking gesture. “Wait! You didn’t tell her that
I
said she should fit it with a door, did you?!”

“No,” Pell said in a jokingly ominous fashion, “but she knows it was
your
idea.”

“But… but I can’t help having an idea. If it’s a good idea…” he trailed off plaintively.

“Ah, but you see,” Pell smiled, “in her mind, you should have had this idea
before
she made the basket.”