The Gathering Night (48 page)

She returned my smile, radiant as the Sun coming out from a dark cloud. ‘You can make it right, Uncle? You can make it right!'

I put my hand on her shoulder. ‘Anything I can do for you, Osané, I will do. I owe you more than you can ever ask.'

Amets said:

Nekané and Hodei went Go-Between that evening. I was furious. After all we'd lived through – after everything we'd done to put things right – we had to go picking over these dead bones and bring the whole thing back to life again. I'm not Go-Between, but I've hunted long enough to know when the spirits are happy to leave things alone. I said so. I told Hodei, ‘When Alaia's father died he asked me to look after this family. That's what I've done ever since. I welcome any guests who care to come to River Mouth Camp. But I expect them to remember they're in
my
hunting lands, Go-Between or not.'

Hodei opened his mouth to answer. I hadn't finished. I went on telling him: ‘We've been through all this already. Kemen is as much Auk as I am. His kin – if any live – are Lynx People. My kin are Seal People. We both brought good blood to the Auk People. People are always the better for new blood. Young men will travel. The spirits made things that way in the Beginning. No one ever said to me, “Amets, I think you'd better go back under the Sunless Sky and just make sure all your cousins among the Seal People are dead for ever.” No one suggested to
me
that would be a bright idea! They wouldn't dare! I'd have knocked their heads off if they'd even whispered such a wicked thing. If you
want
to bring bad spirits among us, I can't think of a better way of doing it than punishing a man because his People have strong blood and many children. If we Auks want to rid this world of People, we might as well make short work of it and cut off our own pricks!'

‘Amets!' Hodei roared at me. ‘Stop shouting! Will you
listen
to me for one heartbeat!'

‘I've listened enough! And I never heard—'

‘Amets!' shouted Alaia. ‘Stop it! That's not what he's saying!
Listen
!'

‘As for you, woman—'

‘Amets! Amets!'

Even that young upstart Itzal joined in the shouting. He and Kemen and Alaia were all holding me back. ‘Amets! Listen to the Go-Between! Amets! That's not what he's saying!'

In the end it was Alazne's sobs that brought me back to my senses. I turned my back on them all and picked her up. ‘It's all right, little daughter! Don't cry! I'm not angry now – at least, not with
you
.'

Kemen said, ‘Amets – brother – no one could be more loyal to me than you. I know it. But listen, please. I
want
Hodei and Nekané to speak to the spirits. I
want
my mind set at rest. Please, listen to what Hodei's saying to us. He's on our side. The spirits are on our side! Please, listen to what he says!'

I let Hodei tell his story again. I glowered at the fire while he spoke. I didn't look as if I was listening. I was, of course. I heard everything he said.

‘I didn't tell you this last night, but I came here to speak to Nekané about this very thing,' said Hodei. ‘The spirits told me at Gathering Camp that the child in Osané's belly was a stranger. The Go-Between who's left us knew it too. We weren't worried. That other Go-Between reminded me how the spirits promised Kemen that Lynx names would live among the Auk People. We agreed that a Lynx stranger would be as welcome among us as – as our little Esti here. 'Hodei smiled at my elder daughter. ‘Don't look so frightened, Esti! You came to us as a stranger. Your father recognised you. Now your name lives among us.'

Esti spoke up.
She
wasn't scared of a Go-Between! ‘It lives among the Seal People too! Dada says so! Esti belonged to his family where he was born among the Seal People. She was the mother of his mother. And now she's me!'

‘And you are Auk,' agreed Hodei. ‘And so our lives roll on, caught between the Beginning and the End.

‘I went to my winter Camp,' Hodei went on. ‘I was happy. I thought that the rightness of things had been restored at Gathering Camp. The Animals gave themselves. The winter was kind. Then the message came from Zorioné that my fellow Go-Between lay dying, and wished to see me.

‘As I hurried towards the High Sun Sky the spirits spoke to me. They recognised my sorrow, but they showed me how that Go-Between's task was done. Through him, more than any other, the rightness of things had been restored. Why should he linger in an ageing body, when all he'd worked for was fulfilled? I wept as I walked, but I felt no anxiety.

‘Only when I knelt at his side did I realise that anything was still wrong. When Osané spoke to me yesterday I already knew what she was going to say. I'd heard it already, from the mouth of a dying man troubled in his mind. He reminded me of Kemen's promise: “Lynx names shall live among the Auk People.
And nowhere else
!
”'

‘“I thought I was clever,” the dying man whispered. “That made me blind. The spirit who told me to say those words was cleverer than I was.” He struggled to catch his breath. He tweaked my sleeve with restless fingers. “Hodei!”

‘“I'm here,” I said.

‘“There's no such thing as a bad spirit. No such thing . . . Hodei!”

‘“I'm here.”

‘“You have to make them change sides . . . Hodei!”

‘“I'm here.”

‘He gripped my hand. I waited while he found the strength to speak. “Hodei, you must . . . I made a mistake.”'

Hodei looked round at us all. Our faces shone in the firelight. I'd forgotten to look as if I wasn't listening. Hodei's next words echoed my thought:

‘You see what a great man he was, the Go-Between who's left us. Those were the last words he spoke in this life: “
I made
a mistake.”
Only the greatest of men can bring themselves to say that.'

For a while we all thought our own thoughts. Then I said, ‘I agree with that. But as I said before, I'm just a hunter. I'm not Go-Between. What was this mistake? Was it a mistake to force a promise from Kemen that he couldn't possibly keep? Is that what the Go-Between meant?'

Hodei looked me in the eyes. This was my hearth, not his. The Go-Between's gaze pierced me though. I think he searched my soul and saw everything inside it. But this was my hearth, not his. I stared him out.

‘Amets,' Hodei said to me at last. ‘You hide nothing, and you want nothing hidden. If you were Go-Between, you'd find it much harder than you realise to drag everything into the daylight. How should I understand, any better than you, the words of a dying man?'

‘Because you're Go-Between,' I growled. ‘We feed you enough!'

‘Amets!' I ignored Alaia's shocked whisper, just as I ignored Nekané's mocking laugh.

Hodei took no notice of the women either. This was between him and me. ‘Amets,' he said. ‘You want me to say, “The Go-Between made a mistake when he made Kemen promise ‘
and
nowhere else'.”
You want there to be no doubt about it. Well, I'd like that too! But how can I say it? For all I know, the mistake was to let Kemen become Auk. For all I know, the mistake was to let any Lynx man live at all!'

I leaped to my feet. I wasn't the only one. Everyone was shouting at once. Only Kemen and Nekané sat where they were and didn't say a word.

‘Stop it!' shouted Alaia. ‘Stop it, all of you! You're terrifying the children. You two – you call yourselves men, I suppose! Then stop frightening us! You're supposed to look after us, not scare us to death!'

What could I say to a guest when my woman had spoken to him like that? I had to laugh. I shook Hodei's hand up and down and clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Hodei, what kind of Camp have you come to? We let our women have the last word here, as you can see. You thought we were hunters, until you saw this! Well, perhaps we all make mistakes sometimes.'

‘That's true.' Hodei's cold gaze went through me like a spear. He searched my soul. I let him. Deep down I was still chuckling when I thought of our unruly women. As Hodei said himself, I had nothing to hide. At last Hodei spoke: ‘Amets, this is your hearth. We two Go-Betweens wish to speak to the spirits, here and now. The spirits will answer your questions better than I can. Then we can put the matter to rest for ever. I want that – we all want that – as much as you do. Will you let Nekané and I speak to the spirits from this hearth?'

I looked round at my family. Every face was turned to me. I searched each one. It was quite clear what they all wanted. ‘Yes,' I said to Hodei, looking him in the eye. ‘You can make your journey from my hearth, if you think that will put things right at last.'

Nekané said:

Night fell. Thaw Moon was a little curl of light above the treetops, paler than the Evening Star. The stars under the Evening Sun Sky were cloud-hidden; the salt wind smelt of rain. We fed the fire with dead leaves and pine branches until it crackled and smoked. Dark crept among us and wreathed around the hearth. The children knuckled their smarting eyes. Bakar began to cry. People were blurred shapes moving through shadows. I fetched my Drum from its sleeping place. I came back to the hearth and took Basajaun from his mother's arms.

Osané clutched my arm as I held her baby. ‘You won't let the spirits hurt him!'

‘He's as safe with me as with you, Osané.'

People hear what they want to hear. My words comforted her. She let me take her boy. I tied his sling inside my cloak so both my hands were free. Hodei and I stood downwind of the fire. Beyond the smoke we felt the eyes of the People turned towards us, although there was nothing they could see.

I awoke my Drum. As soon as it began to beat, Hodei's Drum echoed back to mine.

We drummed the heartbeats of the earth. Our Helpers came. Fox barked from the wood behind us. Swan's wing gleamed through a mist of smoke. Through the wintry air came the honey-smell of heather, like a shaft of light in a dark cave:
pee-wit
pee-wit
called to us from far-off summer moors. Even as my Dolphin rolled through the unseen sea, I glimpsed the shadow of Snake gliding through the hearthstones. She coiled herself once around my feet, and vanished. A breath of cold air sighed against my cheek. That Snake had led me on many journeys; I knew I would never see her likeness on this earth again.

My Drum never faltered. For Basajaun it was the familiar beat of his mother's heart. Too young to fear the spirits – too young to have forgotten – he fell fast asleep.

Stars surrounded us like glittering fishes when Dolphin dives into deep water. Deeper and deeper we flew, into the high darkness. We drifted among the stars. The stars go down deep as the sky itself: no earth-spirit ever reaches the far depths of the sky beyond the Moon. At last we turned and saw our earth far-off, which the spirits gave to Animals and People at the Beginning. We looked through the web of stars that held us. We saw how the kind earth stretched from sea to sea. We saw shores and woods, rivers and lochs. We saw how the mountains divided one part of the earth from another, and how the waters flowed away from the hills towards many different hunting lands. We saw Birds and Animals living joyfully on the earth below us. We saw how they spoke with the spirits, and how the spirits knew every one of them. We saw how the People lived on the earth among the Birds and Animals. We saw how the spirits watched them, even though the People had forgotten how to speak to the spirits in the way they did at the Beginning.

I gazed far away to the drowned lands of the Lynx People under the Morning Sun Sky. I saw white beaches, and the waves breaking. I couldn't see who moved across the earth. When I tried to peer into the darkness the stars dazzled me. I looked towards the Sunless Sky. I saw rocky islands rising from the Open Sea. Those were the hunting lands of the Seal People. But even as I looked the cloud came over, like a hide drawn across the door, and hid the islands from me. I turned to the High Sun Sky. I saw the sharp ridge of Grandmother Mountain outlined against the stars. She wouldn't let me see beyond her. The hunting lands of the Heron People were closed to me. But when I looked down at the hunting lands of the Auk People I saw with the eyes of the Swan that flies from the Sunless Sky. I saw the white-fringed coast and the salt flats beckoning, and gleams of water shining in the folds of the hills. I saw smoke rising from many hearths. Every one of those hearths was open to me. There were no names among them that I did not know.

‘Anyway, why shouldn't we?' A shrill voice broke into my mind like a shower of freezing rain. The voice was clearly arguing. ‘I thought we were all cousins anyway. It was two sisters that came from Grandmother Mountain to begin with. And
my
name comes from the Seal People. You
told
me so. So everyone's our cousin anyway. Anyway, why can't we have cousins wherever we like?'

At my ear I heard Hodei's mocking laugh. ‘I think we have our answer, Nekané!'

Esti said:

I've heard that story so often. I don't actually remember saying those words. But the others all say that I did. My father says we were sitting by a cold fire, because the Go-Betweens had smothered it in wet leaves. I was complaining – so he says. He was trying to make me understand what the Go-Betweens were doing, and why Nekané had taken Basajaun with her. My father also says I was born arguing. Well, that shows he doesn't always speak the truth! All I can tell you now is that I don't remember.