Bonesetter (36 page)

The next day they fed Boro three good meals.
The abundance of food put some energy back into him.
Manute made him a good pair of moccasins while everyone else contributed some labor to a patchwork of furs for the cloak.
It was ill made, as they didn’t want to cut the skins until Manute could work out a final cutting for a good coat.
They just roughly stitched many overlapping layers into an approximate shape.
It didn’t leave him much use of his arms but it was thick and warm and, with it, they were ready to leave the next day.
Boro wouldn’t be able to move very fast, but neither would they, as each of the able bodied pulled a travois loaded either with stores or an invalid.

The morning they were to leave, Tando brought up another problem.
From Boro’s arrival, it appeared that people in the Aldans must know where they lived.
They were leaving many of their important stores behind during the first trip, planning to come back for them in a second trip.
“What if Denit comes to raid us while we are gone?
We still have many important goods stored openly here in the cave awaiting our second trip.
We could lose almost everything—without even a chance to defend ourselves or our possessions!”
After some discussion and a little argument, they began moving supplies to locations up the Cold Springs Ravine from the area of the cave.
They found crevices in the sandstone up there and hid their goods in them, packing rocks and thorn brush in on top to conceal the hoards.
They left the food that was already hidden under the floor of the cave where it was, as it seemed unlikely that Denit would think to look under there.

Most everything had been moved and Pell was inside with Gia, Agan, Panute, Boro and Falin, packing up to leave.
Tando, Deltin, Manute and Donte had climbed up ravine to hide a final load of stores.
They had had to go quite a ways away on this final trip, as all the suitably sized crevices nearby were full.

That was when Pell heard a familiar voice calling out.

“Tando?
You in there?” The voice broke as it spoke so that Pell wasn’t sure of its intended tone—was it threatening?
Querulous?
Friendly?
That voice belonged to Denit though, broken or not, there was no doubt in Pell’s mind.
Ginja raised her head, growling.

Saying, “Great spirit!
That’s Denit!” Pell grabbed his spear and ran over to peer out the flap covering the cave entrance.
Ginja shouldered his knees aside to look out herself, her growl turning into a low, vicious sounding snarl, hair standing up all along her back.
Pell heard rattling as the others grabbed spears behind him, but desperately thought to himself that their three strongest hunters were all up on the cliffside.
Pell got a clear look, it
was
Denit!
He was about thirty feet from the entrance to the cave, down at the foot of the little walkway leading up from the clearing.
Denit was skinny, though not nearly as skinny as Boro.
Dirty, disheveled, unkempt, he looked like an animal
that had been
dead
for
several days.
Pell remembered how difficult it had been for Denit’s mother Fellax to get him to wash occasionally, or to cut or braid his hair.
His furs lay in ragged layers, looking like they hadn’t been off his body for months.
Behind Denit stood Roley, looking like he had been chewing Pont’s beloved hemp.
In fact, it looked like he had a wad of it in one cheek at present.
The healer stood behind Denit too, as did Belk, Gontra and Exen.
Pell suddenly realized that with the loss of Pell, Tando, Bonat and Boro, these six were all the hunters
that were
left in Roley’s band.
Still, there were more than in the Cold Springs band.
The huge and dominating Roley, all by himself, was a formidable force.
Pell found himself trembling, “Hello Denit, what do you want?” Pell was pleased that his own voice didn’t break.

“Pell?”

“Yes.”

“Doesn’t Tando live here?”

“Yes.”

“I want to talk to him.”

“He’ll
be back very soon.”
Pell certainly hoped so.

“Then I’ll wait and talk to him when he gets back.”
Denit turned and began talking to Pont.

Gia was looking out the other side of the flap.
“Pell,” she whispered, “is that all of their hunters?”

“Yes,” he whispered back.

“Do you think they’re here on a raid?”

“Yes…
Maybe we should just give them some spirit meat?”

She didn’t respond for a moment, “Do you think if we gave them some, they’d leave?
Then we could finish moving before they came back to demand more.”

“Maybe.
But the more I think about it, the more I think it’s pretty risky.
After we gave them some, they’d realize we must have more and they might just decide to attack us for whatever they think we have left.”

Denit turned away from the healer.
“Hey Pell, is that sniveling whiner Boro back with you?”

“Boro’s here, yes.”

“You know, he wasn’t any better at hunting than you were.
Worse really, kept driving away all the game.
Does Tando really think he can bring in enough meat to feed both of you girls?” Denit laughed at his own joke.
Some of the others hunters snickered with him.

Pell swallowed.
Embarrassed to be insulted so openly in front of Gia, he tried desperately to think of a witty response.
None came to mind and he couldn’t bring himself to look toward her, especially knowing that his face was flushing bright red.
But then he had a thought that might worry Denit a little.
“We’ve joined with another group now.
We’ve got more hunters than just the three of us.”

“Great!
We had some really bad hunts when Boro was bringing us bad luck.
Now that we’re rid of him, we’re planning a big fire drive hunt down in the valley to put in a big supply of meat just before winter’s freeze.
We need more ‘good’ hunters to do it well.
Maybe Tando and your new hunters could join us.
We’d split the meat with them.”
Pell was afraid to say that they didn’t
need
any meat.
That would certainly make them the target of a raid.
“Well maybe we could,” he said, stalling for time.
How far did Tando and the others go back anyway?
Why weren’t they
back already!

Denit laughed.
“Not ‘we’ Pell.
Girls like you and Boro aren’t what we need on this hunt.
We want your
hunters
.”
He laughed some more at his own wit, jabbing Exen with his elbow.

Gontra looked at Denit, “I know Boro was bringing bad luck Denit, but Pell could certainly help with a fire drive.”

“Oh come on Gontra.
You know he’s just as worthless as Boro.
He almost killed Tando in that last hunt.”

“Tando must have forgiven him.
He lives with him now.”

Pont leaped in front of Gontra, practically slavering in his face.
“You
know
that’s just because Tando
thinks
that Pell ‘fixed his wrist’, I’ve explained
over and over
that it was
my
intervention with the Spirit of the horses, the horses which we were hunting that day.
My intervention
, which eventually resulted in the healing of Tando’s wrist!”

Denit snarled, “Yeah, Gontra, just because Tando believes Pell’s rubbish doesn’t mean that you should too.”
The group fell to arguing among themselves in a confused rumble that Pell couldn’t interpret.

“What can we do, Pell?”

Pell turned to see Gia looking at him fearfully.
Why was she asking him?
He wasn’t the leader of their little band.
He looked over at Agan and said, “Agan?…” but Agan was looking at him with wide eyes.

Agan said, “Our old tribe seldom got into fights with others.
I’m not sure what to do.
I know that in tribes that do fight, their hunters do the fighting, but with Tando, Manute and Deltin gone you’re our only hunter.
What do you suggest?”

I’m the hunter?
Pell thought desperately. They certainly couldn’t win by brute strength alone… he knew he wasn’t a good “hunter” much less a fighter.
His father would have said to use a tool but what tool?
They needed to outwit the others.
Suddenly he remembered the trap that he’d set up on the path to the cave moons ago!
“Wait!” he said excitedly, moving to the other side of the cave entrance flap and peering out.
Yes!
He could still see the braided leather rope going up the cliff side.
It looked OK, though he realized that he hadn’t checked it for weeks, who knew how much it might have deteriorated.
What of the smaller rope up to the trigger brace?
Yes, it looked OK also.
He peered up the cliff.
The net full of rocks that served as the counterweight to drive the trap also appeared intact.
Denit and the others were farther down the path than the noose though, so there wasn’t any point in trying it right now.

“Boro!
No Gia!
Here, hold this rope.
Hold it as if it were our lives.
If I call out ‘pull’ jerk on it with all of your might.”
Gia, looking puzzled, took the rope and gave it a tentative tug.
“No!
I’m sorry!
I didn’t mean to yell, but
don’t
pull on it until I say!
Then pull
hard
.
It’s very important
not to pull it before I say.
” He moved over to peer back out the flap.
Denit and the other’s argument had petered out but they were still talking among themselves and looking furtively over at the cave entrance.

Denit turned, “Pell, why don’t you come on out and talk to us?
You don’t have to hide in your
cave;
we don’t mean you any harm.”
A
little snicker at the end of his words belied the friendly words.

Pell took a deep breath and stepped just outside the flap.
“What do you want to talk about?
I thought you were just waiting for Tando and our other hunters?”

Denit’s little group looked startled.
Though Pell didn’t know why, they were astonished by the vigorously healthy appearance of the strapping young man who had appeared at the entrance of the cave.
After a moment’s hesitation Denit said in a calculating tone, “Oh, aren’t your other hunters here either Pell?
Is it just you?” Then, before Pell could think of a response, “Oh my, look at you Pell, Tando’s been feeding his ‘little wife’ well hasn’t he?
Did you know we’ve decided that Tando must be mating with you, now that Tellgif’s dead?
We can’t imagine why else he would stay with an outcast girl like you.”
Again, Denit ribbed Exen and barked a laugh at his own humor.

The color rose in Pell’s cheeks. With a sinking sensation, he realized that, without the fear of other hunters who might’ve been present in the cave, Denit and his band were shuffling forward a little, preparing to attack.
Despite the sinking sensation in his stomac
h, Pell felt his rage building. A
stonished at his own temerity
he heard himself say,
“Well now, if Tando
were
that sort,
why
wouldn’t he have mated with
you
, Denit?
Could it be
because you smell so bad?” Denit flushed with anger and stepped forward, hefting his spear.
The others shuffled forward behind him but then they stopped, staring at a spot just behind Pell.
When Pell glanced back, he saw that Ginja had shouldered the flap aside.
Hackles up, lips curled back in an ugly rictus, she stood there just outside the cave entrance, snarling.
Spittle dripped from her maw as she took a few stalking steps forward.

Denit turned to snap at Pont, “I
told
you that he’d trapped the
W
olf
S
pirit!”

Astonished only momentarily, Pont pulled out one of his rattles, admonished, “The wolf spirit will be on our side soon,”
he said, then
began chanting.

Pell was greatly relieved that Ginja’s appearance had at least stopped them for now but his mind roiled.
When would Tando and the others get back?
Could the healer really bring Ginja under his control?
He looked down uncertainly at the animal, which, now that they had stopped approaching, had stopped advancing herself.