Breakaway: Clan of the Ice Mountains (20 page)

“Where is Elder Nuanu?” Attu asked his father. “She didn’t do the ritual for the beginning of the journey day. Why?”

Ubantu shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“She’s with Rika, helping with the new baby,” Paven said. “Last night Umikuk had her first child, and it wasn’t an easy coming into the world. Rika said it was the spirits’ intervention that brought Elder Nuanu just in time to save both mother and child. Both Umikuk and the baby live. And it’s a boy!”

The look of pride on Paven’s face was as fierce as if he had fathered the infant himself.

Attu felt both relief and pride rise up in him.
That’s where Rika was last night.

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R
ika came to Attu when the clans stopped for their first rest of the day, which on this day would be their only rest since they’d gotten such a late start.

“Would you like a drink, mighty hunter Attu, leader of the Ice Mountain clan?” Rika was suddenly at Attu’s side, a hot bowl of blue algae drink in her hands.

Attu jumped, almost knocking the bowl aside. Rika pulled it back just in time.

How does she do that, sneak up on me like I’m a child?
Attu thought. He wasn’t frustrated by Rika’s trick this time, but he was by what she’d said.

“Elder Nuanu is filling your head with stories. My father is the leader once again, not me.” Attu took the bowl from Rika’s hands and drained it in one long sip. When Rika frowned at him he added, “Thank you, Rika, healer and worker of miracles for the people of the Great Frozen clan.” He flashed a teasing grin at her.

“Elder Nuanu saved Umikuk and her baby; I just followed her instructions.” Rika moved to sit down beside him on his pack.

Too close.

Attu felt his stomach begin flopping like a tooth fish pulled out onto the ice. He grabbed Meavu’s pack sitting next to his own with his free hand and plunked himself down on it just as Rika’s backside came to rest on his own pack.

“More room,” he said.

“Oh.”

Attu turned to look at Rika. Her parka hood was thrown back and she was wearing her hair loose. Its black waves gleamed in the late sunlight. Attu knew his gaze was frankly admiring. He couldn’t help himself. This time, Rika looked away first.

“The drink was good,” Attu said.
What a stupid thing to say.

“How’s your back?” Rika asked.

“Healed,” Attu answered. “I hardly notice it anymore.”

“I should check it for you, just to be sure.”

“No, it’s fine.” Attu leaned back, afraid Rika would try to pull his parka off right there to examine his new scars.

Rika’s mouth thinned to a tight line across her face.

Attu could see dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep.
She was up all night with the baby coming and must be exhausted.

“How are Umikuk and the new baby?”

“Both are well. The baby will be named Yupik when he is grown, in honor of the hunter from your clan who died with no sons of his own. Elder Nuanu told Umikuk’s man about Yupik, and both Umikuk and her man thought it a good idea. Right now, he is called Niverpok.”

Attu laughed. “One who is ‘backward’?”

“Yes, because he tried to come into the Here and Now backside first. The baby was coming the wrong way.”

“What did Elder Nuanu do?” Attu asked.

“She gave Umikuk a drink to make her sleep then put her hand up inside Umikuk and had me put my hands on Umikuk’s swollen belly, and together we turned the baby within her so it would come out as it should, head first.”

“I don’t believe it,” Attu said, shaking his head. “If the baby can’t come out the right way, the woman dies. Sometimes the baby can be saved, by cutting it out, but never both the mother and the baby.”

“We did it,” Rika said and smiled, her expression fading quickly to wistfulness. “Elder Nuanu said she wasn’t going to lose another mother to a backward birth. She said putting Umikuk to sleep so we could attempt to turn the baby was worth the risk. It worked.”

“Did you know that Suka’s mother died having him?” Attu asked. “He was born backward and Elder Nuanu had to cut him out. His mother had already died. Tulnu is really Kinak and Suka’s second mother. That is why Shunut, her son, is so much younger than his brothers.”

“Is that why Moolnik hates Elder Nuanu so much, because she couldn’t save his woman?”

“Partly. And it’s one reason he’s so mean to Suka all the time. I think he blames Suka for his first woman’s death.”

“That’s crazy.”

“That’s Moolnik.”

Attu shifted uncomfortably on his pack. He’d wanted to talk to Rika for such a long time, ever since she’d fled his shelter. He’d wanted to ask her why she’d run from him. It seemed like throwing salt water in his heart’s wound to find out, but still, Attu had wanted to know if Rika had any feelings for him. But then she had left, and now it was too late. Paven had made his decision. She was Banek’s.

Silence grew between them. “Please tell Umikuk and her man they honor us by planning to name their son after one of our hunters,” Attu said after he could no longer stand the quiet between them.

“Anything for the new leader of the Ice Mountain Clan,” Rika smirked.

“I don’t seek to lead. That’s just what Elder Nuanu wants.”

“And what do you want, Attu, mighty hunter?” Rika’s signal ornaments jangled on her parka as she shifted around on the pack so she was looking directly at him.

You,
Attu thought. But he said nothing.

Rika pushed her hair back and studied him, a strange expression building on her face.

Attu stared back at her, looking for answers in her face to the questions he couldn’t ask. If she were happy with Banek, wouldn’t it show? But Rika didn’t look happy. She looked sad, and confused, like something wasn’t right...

No, I’m just wishing she cares when she doesn’t. Who’s the fool now?

Attu looked down at the bowl in his hands.

“Like I said, I don’t seek to lead, but I’m helping my father lead, that’s what I’m doing. That’s what I want, Rika. That’s all I want.”

With those words, he stood up and handed Rika back the empty bowl.

“Thank you,” Attu said in Rika’s general direction. He couldn’t look at her again. Attu started to walk away.

“Wait!” Rika jumped up from the pack and stepped in front of him.

Attu looked down at Rika’s upturned face. She seemed so small, suddenly so much more like a child than a woman as he stood in front of her, his own body so much larger and stronger in comparison to her slight build.

Rika was smiling at him, reaching out her hand to him, like Meavu might, apparently to draw him back to sit with her awhile longer.
As if I’m her big brother. As if we’re just friends. As if we could ever be just-

“Wait,” Rika said again, and tried to grasp his mik, to pull him back toward the packs.

Attu felt his anger rising like a sudden snowstorm over the ice. “Wait for what, Rika?” He glared at her. “Just what am I waiting for?”

Rika stepped back, her hand falling to her side, fear in her eyes.

He hadn’t meant to scare her. “Rika,” Attu said, his voice now an intense whisper. “You belong to Banek. Don’t play games with me when you know I can’t win. Don’t be so foolish.”

He turned from Rika and strode away, leaving his pack and the girl he loved behind.

T
hat evening, Attu sat in his family’s shelter by himself, carefully repairing his spear. He needed to be alone. He needed time to think. Besides, one of the tips of his two-pronged spear had been split when the bear attacked, and he hadn’t had time to fix it properly. Sitting here, studying the damaged weapon, Attu convinced himself it was time to try something entirely new for a spear instead of just repairing his old points.

“What are you doing?” Ubantu said as he entered the shelter and sat down next to Attu in front of the lamp.

Attu had a tough hide across his lap to protect himself from slips of his rock chisel. On the hide rested a massive back tooth from the ice bear he’d killed. He was studying it, considering how best to carve it into a new spear tip.

“I’m thinking to split the tooth, here,” Attu pointed to the place where the tooth had a small vertical crack in it. “I’ll shave it to look like this,” and Attu took the edge of his rock chisel and scratched a crude drawing on the hide to show his father the basic shape he had in mind.

“The tip will be as long as a man’s hand with his fingers extended,” Attu held up his own hand to show his father. “It’ll be sharpened the full length on both sides in notches, like the jagged teeth of the tooth fish, each notch as sharp as my bone knife.”

Attu was getting excited now that he’d started explaining his idea to his father. “I want a spear that will plunge deeply into a large animal, such as an ice bear, but not stick like a nuknuk spear does because of its two curved prongs.”

“This will work well to kill an ice bear,” his father said as he studied Attu’s design. “You must make it as thick as you can so it won’t break off easily in an animal.”

“It won’t throw as well then. It will be too heavy.”

“But you won’t need to throw it far.”

“That’s true.”

While his father watched, Attu slowly tapped the rock wedge into the crack with his bone hammer. After many taps, when it seemed firmly in place, he moved the tooth to rest on a large flat rock he’d placed on the ice floor of the shelter. Raising his bone hammer, Attu struck down on the rock chisel as hard as he could. The tooth split cleanly.

The two hunters grinned at each other. The edges of the tooth in the split were already as sharp as a rock tipped spear.

“This spear will kill other large animals, too,” Attu added as he felt along the newly split half of the tooth.

“You believe Elder Nuanu’s stories?” His father asked, picking up the other half of the tooth and examining it.

“Yes. And I want to be prepared the next time a mountain of snow turns into an attacking animal with teeth and claws.”

“But how will you hunt nuknuks with that spear?” His father suddenly seemed concerned.

Attu laughed. “I’ll make another for hunting nuknuks.”

Ubantu shook his head. “Why can’t a man have different spears for different game?” He asked the question out loud, but Attu knew he was reasoning it out for himself, much as Attu had.

“This is wise,” Attu’s father concluded, and he looked steadily at Attu. “As our people move off the ice to the land, we’ll all have to learn new ways of hunting the new animals. It will take new tools, if Elder Nuanu’s stories are to be believed.”

“I believe them,” Attu said. “And I’m going to be ready. If this works, I’ll teach the other hunters how to make these new spear tips. I have plenty of ice bear teeth.”

“I bring no evil,” a voice called from the other side of the shelter’s doorway.

Paven.

“You’re welcome here,” Ubantu answered and motioned for Paven to come and sit with them. “See what Attu is working on.”

Paven studied the tooth and the drawing on the hide Ubantu showed him while Attu began to shave thin slivers off the bear’s tooth. It was the hardest material he’d ever worked on, even harder than the male nuknuk’s tusks.

“I’ve never seen a spear tip like that,” Paven said. He frowned, making the furrows of his scars seem even deeper.

“It’s to kill ice bears and other large game on land,” Ubantu said.

“Other large game on land?” Paven looked confused. “There are no other large land animals besides the rock bears Banek speaks of.”

“And ice bears only live in the Between,” Attu snapped.

Both men looked at Attu, shocked into silence at his rudeness. Suddenly, Paven threw his head back and laughed. “You’re right, Attu. I think like a child, like I know all there is to know. Then-”

“An ice bear attacks,” Attu finished for him.

“True.” Paven stopped laughing.

“You must have Elder Nuanu tell you the stories of the Warming,” Ubantu urged Paven. “It’s more than just ice bears and open water. She will tell you of the evergreens and the Great Fire and all the rest. Your clan needs to know these things.”

“I will,” Paven said. “We lost our storytelling elder, who was also our healer, just before Rika’s naming ceremony. That’s why she was named the new healer, even though she was so young. The old healer had taught her well, but she didn’t have time to tell Rika everything, especially not stories, when there were sicknesses to be healed and spirits to be appeased.”

“Rika has done well with the knowledge she was given,” Ubantu said. “Attu’s back is healed.”

Attu nodded his agreement. He was glad he had to concentrate on the spear point in his hands. Paven and his father’s talk of Rika made him feel uncomfortable.

“So, with Rika bound to Banek now, you’ll be needing a new woman to prepare your game,” Ubantu began, his face serious.

He’s trying to find out if Paven still wants Mother,
Attu realized.

“Oh, I have eyes on one, Ubantu,” Paven said. He sounded as if he was teasing, but Attu couldn’t tell for sure.

Attu felt Ubantu tense beside him, but he didn’t speak.

Careful, Father
.

Paven continued, “Her hunter was lost to Attuanin many moons back.”

“Tenukik? She’s a good choice,” Ubantu said, relief evident in his voice. “Her front teeth are worn almost to the gums.”

Both men nodded. It was a mark of great beauty in a woman of the clan to have her front teeth so worn down by chewing furs that when she smiled, they barely showed. It was a sign she was a hard worker, careful to chew the furs of her hunter until they were soft and desirable to be worn. This made her desirable, too, in the eyes of the men.

“She’s willing to have me, scars and all,” Paven said, his face macabre in the dim light. “But I’ll have to wait awhile longer,” Paven added. “Banek has yet to take Rika as his woman. We’ve been on the move, and I thought it wise to wait a little longer. We passed far south of Tooth Fish territory, and he has promised to stay with us once he is bonded, and not take Rika back to his own clan, but...” Paven’s voice trailed off.