Breakaway: Clan of the Ice Mountains (26 page)

Attu knew his parents and Meavu must be frantic for him, and also for Elder Nuanu, although some would’ve assumed she’d passed to the Between of Death by now. Attu wondered if Paven was just as worried about Rika, or if he somehow thought she deserved this for angering Banek. It was hard to know. Paven was a complicated man.

Attu turned as he reached the edge of the ice sheet and noticed how the rottenness of the ice seemed to be eating at the rest of the surface even more quickly now. Glancing down, Attu could see where the ice had melted leaving only half a footprint from one of his earlier walks to the edge.

We have to get off this ice before it’s too late. But how?

Attu looked up and saw a large ice chunk floating between them and the shore. As he watched, Attu began to notice that once in a while large chunks were beginning to move in toward the shoreline. The water seemed to be pushing them closer as well.
Perhaps...

“Attu!” Rika hollered as Moolnik came staggering out of the shelter. He was naked, his hands still bound, his feet now freed.

“You do not kill me, but you keep me prisoner?” Moolnik shouted at Attu. “Where are my clothes? Where are my weapons?”

“He jumped up as I was untying his bonds to roll him,” Rika said. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” Moolnik screamed. “I’ll make you sorry you didn’t kill me while I was Between,” and he turned and raised his tied arms to strike Rika.

Attu reached Moolnik just as he threw himself at Rika, who dodged out of his way. Moolnik fell and began to writhe on the ground, having some sort of fit, as steam rose off his fevered body wherever the snowy surface of the ice came in touch with his burning skin. His eyes were wild, his cheeks sunk in from lack of water combined with fever.

Attu reached out to grab him, but Rika stopped him.

“Let him roll on the ice,” Rika said. “It’ll cool his body.”

Rika curled her lips at Moolnik’s naked form on the snow and stomped back into the shelter.

––––––––

A
ttu dragged Moolnik into the shelter a short while later. He had passed out again.

“He does feel cooler,” Attu said as he rolled Moolnik back onto the furs.

“Elder Nuanu is plenty warm enough without him, so keep him on that side of the shelter,” Rika pointed to the spot remaining, as far away from Elder Nuanu as Moolnik could be yet still be under some cover.

Attu dragged Moolnik where Rika had pointed, carefully retying his legs. He covered the man’s nakedness with a fur, leaving his upper body and legs bare to the cold to help with his fever.

“Rika?” A crackled voice whispered from the pile of furs.

“Elder Nuanu,” Rika cried, and she dove for the old woman, unwrapping her arms and hands from the furs as Elder Nuanu looked up at her.

“I knew you’d be able to help me,” Elder Nuanu said, but her mouth and lips were so dry, she could barely move them to speak.

“Here,” Rika said and spooned some warmed water into Elder Nuanu’s mouth. The old woman drank a few spoonfuls before motioning for Rika to hand her the bowl. Elder Nuanu took it in her trembling hands, and Rika helped her lift her head enough to drink. The old woman drank all the water, slowly, one sip at a time, wetting her cracked lips with the last few mouthfuls.

“I’ll need to drink again, soon,” she said, as she looked around the shelter, trying to focus on the Here and Now.

“Where are we?” Elder Nuanu asked. “This isn’t my shelter. Help me sit up.”

“Are you sure?” Rika asked, but as Elder Nuanu was struggling to sit up without her help, Rika put her hands behind the old healer’s back and helped her into a sitting position.

“Well, look at that,” Elder Nuanu said, noticing Moolnik, mostly naked, lying there tied hand and foot. “Moolnik, trussed up like a snow otter to be carried on a hunter’s back. Now that’s an interesting sight. I’m sure you have a very good explanation for it,” and she paused, looking at both Rika and Attu, her eyes gleaming with new strength and mischief. “Although, as far as I’m concerned, Moolnik should’ve been tied up and thrown into the corner of the shelter a long time ago.”

Elder Nuanu chuckled to herself, ending her laughter with a cough. “Now, tell me everything that’s happened,” she added. “I don’t have much time before I go to the Between of the Spirits, this time for good.”

“Elder Nuanu, don’t say that,” Rika protested.

Attu looked at Elder Nuanu, and for a moment, he thought he saw the man’s face looking out at him again, flowing white hair, on either side of Elder Nuanu’s face. Attu shuddered.
It was just a trick of the light in the shelter,
he told himself,
because Elder Nuanu’s braids have come loose
. She settled herself back down on the furs.

“Tell me,” Elder Nuanu repeated.

Rika told her everything that had taken place since Elder Nuanu had slipped into the Between, finishing with Moolnik rolling in the snow and Elder Nuanu waking up.

“Why didn’t you kill him, Attu?” Elder Nuanu asked.

“I asked him not to,” Rika answered for him. “I’ll explain later.”

“How long before the ice melts?” Elder Nuanu asked, looking at Attu, curiosity evident in her eyes at Rika’s words.

“I think we have only another day, maybe two,” Attu said.

“And your clans are behind you, you think?

“Yes.”

“And Moolnik is dying of the fever?” Elder Nuanu asked the question as she studied Moolnik. “Yes,” she said, almost to herself, but loud enough for Rika and Attu to hear her. The old healer nodded her head. “He’ll rage with another fever this very night,” she said to Rika. “Nothing you can do will help him. He’ll be dead before morning.” Elder Nuanu coughed again.

“The Spirits of the Between are coming for my breath,” she said. “My chest is fighting them.”

Elder Nuanu looked to Rika. “Help me lay back, Rika,” she said, “I need to talk to you. Alone.”

Elder Nuanu looked at Attu.

“I need to speak with you as well, Elder Nuanu,” Attu protested.

“Most important things first,” Elder Nuanu said. Her voice suddenly sounded stronger, determined.

“But-”

“Trust me, mighty hunter Attu, leader of the clan this giant ice chunk is carrying you away from. There will be time.” Elder Nuanu smiled at him and shooed him out with one arm. She coughed again.

Attu left the shelter.

“And no listening from behind the furs,” Elder Nuanu added.

Rika giggled.

Women.

Attu walked to the other edge of the ice chunk and watched the trees as they passed by. Once, he thought he saw a large shape moving along the edge of a bare cliff. But it was too far away to be sure.

R
ika spoke with Elder Nuanu for a long time. When she finally came out of the shelter, she called to Attu, turning away from him before he could see her face clearly. She walked to the other end of the shrinking ice chunk, her arms folded tightly across her chest. As Attu entered the shelter, the sun was disappearing behind the open water and the Great Expanse that lay beyond it. Rika had lit the lamp, and the shelter was bright and warm.

“Come close, Attu,” Elder Nuanu said. He sat down near her.

“Do you need anything?”

“No, Rika has taken care of all my needs, and I’ve slept a long time, Rika says, almost two days, so don’t worry. I’m not too tired to speak with you now.”

“You can see my thoughts,” Attu admitted.

“Tell me what happened before I went to the Between of the edge of the Spirit world, for I was indeed almost gone Between forever,” Elder Nuanu said.

Attu told her about the white-haired man’s voice, how he seemed to speak first through Rika in the dream, then through Elder Nuanu. Elder Nuanu started when Attu told her about the man’s blue eyes, but growing thoughtful, she nodded her head.

“This would be so,” she said, “And now? What do you think about it all now?”

“The chasm was real, the ice bears were real, Rika calling to me from the moving ice was real,” Attu said. “So, I must believe there’ll be a rock formation like the old man showed me by speaking through Rika in the dream, and we need to be first through the pass, Rika and me.”

Attu shook his head. “But how are we to get off this ice chunk before we all drown? Nothing else can happen if we die before we can get to the rock.”

“Somehow you will, Attu. This much you must believe. Remember, you were told not to give up hope.” Elder Nuanu touched his cheek. “Now, about the most important thing-”

“What? What is more important than getting off this ice sheet and finding the pass?” Attu heard his voice rising in agitation, but he couldn’t stop it.

“Oh, Mighty Hunter, Attu,” Elder Nuanu said. Her voice was as gentle as if he were a poolik and she were singing him to sleep. “You don’t understand the most important part of the prophecy is that you do these things, ‘with the one who will bear your sons and daughters.’ Your woman.”

“Rika,” Attu whispered. His cheeks burned.

“Yes, my lovesick hunter who didn’t wait for the spirits to make the way possible for him, but who declared himself too early and almost got killed for it.” Elder Nuanu winked at him.

Attu looked down.
How embarrassing. Rika must have told Elder Nuanu about my foolishness.

“Do you love her?” Elder Nuanu asked, breaking into Attu’s thoughts.

“Yes,” Attu admitted, “but she must think me the biggest of fools.” He shrugged and looked away.

“No, she doesn’t,” Elder Nuanu said. “Rika has told me of her dreams as well, and that you honored her wishes, showing mercy to Moolnik. She has told me many things.”

Attu looked at Elder Nuanu’s face again, studying her expression. She seemed to be telling the truth.
Was it possible?

Elder Nuanu continued, “Now, go to Rika and tell her, before we run out of time. We only have until the next sun.”

“What? Will the ice sheet be melted by then?” Attu felt his heart begin to race. He couldn’t tell if it was from Elder Nuanu’s warning about how much time they had left, or because she’d told him to leave the shelter and tell Rika he wanted her for his woman. Right now, both seemed equally perilous...

“Just go, boy, just go!” Elder Nuanu laughed. She began coughing. Attu helped her to lie back on the furs. “I’ll rest now,” Elder Nuanu shooed him out. “Go.”

Attu went.

I don’t know what to do, what to say,
Attu thought as he slowly walked over to where Rika was still standing, looking out over the water.
What if Rika tells me no? I’ll die.

No,
another part of him, a more practical part, said.
You won’t die. You’ll just wish you could.

Thanks,
he told that part.
So much for the mighty hunter reaching in and finding his inner strength.

Attu approached Rika, standing near the edge. Rather than watching the shoreline with its trees now turning dark as evening approached, she was facing west, watching the sunset over the open water. She looked beautiful in the light of the red sky. Attu knew what he wanted to say, but he simply could not say those words.

“Rika?”

Rika turned.

Attu held out his arms, holding them as if he had something very large and very weighty in them.

“I have returned from the hunt,” he said.

“Your hands are empty, Mighty Hunter, Attu,” Rika said. A hint of a smile was playing about her cheeks, and curiosity lit her eyes.

Good,
Attu thought.
That’s my Rika. I hope.

“Look again, Rika, Healer of the Great Frozen Clan, my hands are not empty.”

“What is in them, Attu?” Rika looked at him now, confused, hopeful.

“My heart.”

Rika drew in a sharp breath. Her voice grew positively mischievous. “And yet you live, hunter without a heart in his body.” She looked at Attu, tears and a smile both springing from her simultaneously.

“It is a mighty wonder.”

Still Rika stood, her arms at her sides, looking at Attu. He saw compassion, and something else...

“Will you accept it?” Attu asked. “A bad hunter, who has no patience, did not wait beside the nuknuk hole, but threw his spear too soon. He almost lost all. He almost lost his own life. Then another would have surely provided for the woman he loves. Can you forgive this hunter’s foolishness?”

“He loves?” Rika’s voice was a mere whisper as she seemed to breathe in those words.

“He loves.”

Abruptly, Rika bowed. “May the spirits be thanked for the offering of this heart, mighty hunter of the Nuvikuan-na,” Rika said, slipping into her woman’s role. She smiled.

Attu inclined his head to Rika and said, “Indeed may they be thanked, because they have brought us together when it seemed impossible, and our people are to be saved because of our union.”

“What? I don’t understand.”

“I’ll explain that part, later. But for now...” Attu smiled slightly, as he carefully pretended to hand over his heart into Rika’s upturned palms.

“I will protect it with my life,” Rika said, and then the ritual dropped away and Rika and Attu were holding each other.

I don’t know how this can work, for neither of us has the permission of our families...
Attu thought. He held Rika tighter, feeling how well her slight body snuggled against his.

But she’ll be mine, now.
Attu thought.
No one will take her from me.

“Now, I must go prepare,” Rika said, squirming out of Attu’s grip.

“Prepare?” Attu said.

“Yes,” Rika said. “Didn’t Elder Nuanu tell you? She’ll perform the ceremony of giving and taking as soon as the moon rises. It’s a full moon tonight.”

Attu felt his real heart start hammering in his chest.

“As elder of your clan, Elder Nuanu has the right to give you away to me. And I have the right to accept you because I saved your life,” Rika looked away, suddenly shy. “I protected you from the spirits of fever and of the ice bear taking over your body by telling my father you needed the Remembering rituals. So, I actually saved your life twice.”

Rika grinned up at Attu. “Elder Nuanu helped me to see that this is when I...” and she paused, her cheeks reddening. She turned her face away for a moment, exposing the bruise on her cheek.