Rika jerked her chin toward Banek then turned away, apparently afraid Banek might catch her looking at Attu.
So, it HAD been Banek...
“Attu, are you deaf?” Banek shouted.
“Yes?” Attu answered him this time, keeping his voice as calm as he could. He wanted to strangle the man, right there, right then, for hurting Rika. But he couldn’t. Attu had to pretend everything was fine, for Rika’s sake.
But Attu’s anger was spinning him out of control. He almost didn’t catch Banek’s next words, but jerked his mind back to the Here and Now as he heard Banek speaking again.
“I said,” Banek was obviously repeating something he’d just said and Attu had missed, “we’re last off the ice and there’s still quite a distance to go. Pull the sled now.”
Banek smiled, dropped the rope, and stepped aside.
Attu gritted his teeth and moved over to pick up the sled rope, fastening the harness across his chest as Banek, grabbing Rika’s arm, moved to walk in front of him.
Banek isn’t tired of pulling the sled. He just wants to order me around in front of Rika because he knows he can get away with it and it will hurt her. He knows I’ll do whatever he tells me to do to avoid causing her any more harm.
Attu had a sudden vision of what the future would hold if their clans stayed together. Not only would he have to watch Rika with Banek every day, Banek could make Attu work like a slave, doing everything for him he didn’t want to do for himself. And Attu would do whatever Banek ordered him to do, not to protect himself, but to protect Rika.
And it won’t stop there,
Attu thought.
I saw how Banek looked at Paven in Elder Nuanu’s shelter, and Paven’s reaction afterward. Banek isn’t going to leave with Rika once they’re bonded. He’s going to fight for leadership. And if our clans don’t separate soon, our hunters will be drawn into the fight. How many of my people will die because of their lust for power?
It made Attu sick to think of leaving Rika behind with Banek and Paven, but he knew it was the choice he had to make.
To protect Rika, and to protect our clan, we have to get away from them.
Who’s the great leader now, Elder Nuanu?
Attu’s thoughts were bitter as he dragged the sled closer to the shoreline. W
hy now, when I need you more than ever, have you fallen into the Between and can’t seem to find your way out?
Attu stopped a moment, and turning to look at Elder Nuanu, searched her face for any sign she might be about to wake up. But the old woman lay as still as death, her wrinkled face calm, her body still wrapped tightly in furs.
What would Elder Nuanu tell me to do if she were in the Here and Now with me?
Attu thought. He remembered her words, back before they’d even begun their journey.
...The spirits do not call the man who is worthy in his own eyes, but the one who is willing to listen and to sacrifice for his clan...
I’m definitely not worthy. Instead, I’m a fool.
But Elder Nuanu hated people who took pity on themselves. She would say,
Do what you can do, Attu.
“Off the ice, just get off the ice,” he whispered, trying to pull himself out of his self-pity.
Then worry about what to do next to protect your people. Do what you can do for now.
His father would understand. He’d tell him about Banek’s attack, and Ubantu had witnessed the exchange between Paven and Banek. His father would agree to separate from Paven’s clan. Their clan would go south to the pass through the mountains alone.
Attu took a deep breath and tried to relax. Banek had frightened and angered him so much, hurting him, hurting Rika, that Attu’s spirit had been in turmoil, and he hadn’t been able to think clearly. Now, having had time to think and make his decision, Attu strode forward with the sled, catching up to Banek and Rika.
Attu began whistling the same tune Banek had whistled after leaving him on the ice. He’d prove to Banek he couldn’t care less about being ordered around. Banek’s shoulders stiffened at the sound, but he didn’t turn or speak, just kept walking, pulling Rika along as if she were a sled, too.
After a few moments, Rika put her free arm behind her back, the one Banek did not have trapped in his, and waved her mik at Attu slowly, a teasing gesture the children used to taunt others into running after them in chasing games. Attu knew she was trying to make him feel better, but he stopped whistling as tears stung his eyes. It was going to be impossible to watch her walk away again. Proud Rika, who even now was asserting herself in the only way she could.
But he would leave her, Attu told himself. When it was time, he would. Rika wasn’t the woman to bear his children. He’d been wrong. His dreams had been of his own making, his own desires.
But what of the man’s words, somehow spoken through Elder Nuanu? “You must be first through the pass... along with the one who will bear your sons and daughters. Do not give up hope, Attu, even when things seem grim.”
Wake up, Elder Nuanu,
Attu pleaded with Elder Nuanu’s spirit in his mind as he pulled the sled closer to the shoreline.
I need to talk with you about what happened, what was spoken through you. I need you. Don’t go to the Between of Death just yet. Please.
M
oolnik and Paven stood at the edge of the shoreline as Banek, Rika, and Attu approached with Elder Nuanu on the sled. One by one the two hunters were hauling people across the last bit of ice, which was jagged and tumbled looking as if it had broken apart, been tossed around, and then refrozen. The large pits and crevices in the ice made it difficult to traverse.
Paven must have ordered Moolnik to help him,
Attu thought as he saw the scowl on Moolnik’s face. The man was strong, and he was easily lifting the last few people over a deep crevice in the ice and into Paven’s grasp. Paven lifted each person up again over the last sheer tumble of ice and let them slide down the other side, into the arms of the families waiting for them.
As Attu grew closer, he realized that getting Elder Nuanu’s sled across this jagged ice was going to be difficult, if not impossible. Attu drew the sled as close as he could to the first crevice and butted it up against a large chunk of ice that had been thrown back from the tumbled shoreline and refrozen to the smoother surface. It was about the size of a man squatting, large enough to keep the sled from sliding into the gap if the ice shifted again. Attu took off the harness and draped the ends of the rope over it.
“Are we going to have to carry her?” Attu shouted to Paven.
“What do you think, Banek?” Paven asked.
So he’s going to ignore me, too?
Rika brushed by Attu, going to stand beside Elder Nuanu on the sled. She rewrapped a fur that had come loose in the pulling, keeping her head down and her face hidden in the waves of her loose hair. Something about the way her shoulders were slumped now, how she carried herself, told Attu that Paven had spoken with her once Attu had left the shelter.
But Rika seemed to be hiding her face from her father as well.
She’s probably ashamed,
Attu thought.
She shouldn’t be. No man has the right to hit a woman. Her father should know.
But Attu knew it was up to Rika to tell her father if she wanted Paven to know her future man was violent. He wondered if what Meavu had told him about Paven’s own attitude toward women was true after all.
Attu clenched his teeth to stay quiet and stood beside the sled, waiting for what the men would decide to do with Elder Nuanu.
Rika sat on the edge of the sled with the old woman, her arms wrapped tightly around herself, looking down at nothing.
Attu’s heart sank to see her so miserable.
“Moolnik and I are strong enough to carry Elder Nuanu, sled and all,” Banek said, stepping up to the edge of the gap.
Banek looked at Attu, a fierce grin on his hairy face.
“You are no longer needed,” Banek said, and pointed to the shoreline.
“We don’t need HIM,” Banek shouted this time to Paven, pointing at Attu.
Paven nodded his agreement, his scarred face stony.
I’ve had enough
. Attu jumped the first ice chunk, and moving past Moolnik and Paven before they could even try to help him, leaped the crevices and slid down the last ice sheet. He landed on his feet and walked away.
Solid land, again.
He thought. In spite of his anger toward Banek and the way Paven was now treating him, Attu felt a deep fear in him ease. Land couldn’t suddenly open up and drop him in to his death. Here he was safe.
Attu turned to walk in the direction he’d seen his family, just ahead. Meavu, seeing Attu, rushed toward him, her arms outstretched. Attu picked her up, spinning her around before setting her down on the land again. Ubantu and Yural walked to meet him.
“Paven doesn’t need your help with the sled?” Ubantu asked as the two men turned to see how Moolnik and Banek were going to get Elder Nuanu and the sled over the jumbled ice and crevices.
“Banek ordered me to leave it to him and Moolnik,” Attu said.
Attu felt his father’s eyes studying him. Attu had gotten hot pulling the sled, and he’d thrown back his hood and opened the top of his parka. He looked at his father just as Ubantu’s eyes widened when he saw the knife knick on Attu’s throat.
“What happened?” his father asked. He took a step closer to Attu.
“Banek,” Attu whispered through gritted teeth. “He threatened to kill me when I left Elder Nuanu’s shelter.”
Ubantu grasped his son in a fierce hug, then apparently seeing Yural and Meavu moving closer as well, released his hold on Attu and motioned for him to close the front of his parka again, hiding the wound from his mother and sister.
“We’ll figure out something,” his father said. He placed a strong hand on Attu’s shoulder as Meavu and Yural came to join them, and both hunters pretended nothing was wrong as they turned to watch Moolnik and Banek prepare to move the sled.
Rika had remained with Elder Nuanu, so apparently she was going to help steady the sled as it was lifted over the first crevice. The hunters could carry the sled over the other crevices to safety. Paven stood at the end to help them. Rika would be last off the ice.
It should be me, not Rika.
Attu thought.
What are they thinking?
Banek stood on one side of the sled and Rika on the other as Moolnik approached the crevice. Banek held out his hand for Moolnik to help him up, but Moolnik ignored it, and leaped up to the higher ice where the sled sat against the ice chunk.
A sharp crack, as loud as any Attu had ever heard, ripped through the air as Moolnik landed heavily on the ice shelf. The sound echoed off the hills behind them, and in their confusion, Attu saw some of his people turn to see what had made such a loud noise in the hills. But Attu knew. The ice at the shoreline was breaking.
Attu raced up the slick ice toward the men. Rika fell onto the sled on top of Elder Nuanu, and Banek tumbled forward into the crevice, his arm still outstretched. Moolnik lost his balance also, the sudden thrust of the ice away from the shoreline causing him to fall backward into the crevice where Banek had just disappeared. The ice moaned, and a large dark stain spread across the snow. Open water.
Attu, along with some of the other hunters, reached the edge of the rapidly expanding crack. A few feet below them, Moolnik and Banek struggled in the water, trying to stay afloat in their heavy fur clothes. They were losing the battle.
“Rika, the rope from the sled,” Attu yelled across the chasm to Rika.
Rika pulled herself up from the sled and ran to the edge of the chasm.
“Throw the rope down on each side of the ice chunk,” Attu motioned with his hands, showing Rika how to take the sled rope and dangle it but still keep the sled wedged against the chunk of ice.
“But what if it breaks off?” Rika screamed. “Elder Nuanu...”
“Roll her off the sled first.”
Rika grabbed the furs under Elder Nuanu and hauled her off the sled as if she weighed nothing. Standing on the sled herself, Rika threw the long loop of rope over each side of the large ice chunk.
“The rope! Go for the rope!” Attu and the other hunters hollered down to the two men, who were struggling to keep their heads above the churning water. Large pieces of ice were dropping into the opening chasm around them, mostly from the shore side, and the water was roiling around the men like stew boiling in a soft stone bowl.
Banek must have heard Attu, or seen him point, because he pushed himself off from a floating ice hunk he’d been scrambling to climb on and reached the rope first, Moolnik right behind him.
Banek grabbed the rope. He began climbing, fighting against his own weight to pull himself up the side of the ice chasm, his miks slipping on the rope, slowing his progress.
Moolnik had somehow gotten his parka off, and he reached for the other rope and began climbing as well.
Suddenly, Banek began screaming at Moolnik, striking him on the side with one fist while he held onto the rope with the other. Moolnik turned. He’d made it halfway up the rope already, probably because he was lighter without the heavy fur parka weighing him down.
“One at a time or the rope will break!” Attu heard Banek shout. “Get off!”
Moolnik said nothing, but he raised his foot mik out of the water and stepped on Banek’s head, using the other hunter to boost himself up further. Attu cringed at the sight.
Banek yelled in pain and grabbed Moolnik’s foot mik. He began hauling himself up Moolnik’s leg, then his back, as if Moolnik were another rope.
But Moolnik couldn’t hold on with Banek’s weight on him too, and with a cry, Moolnik let go of the rope and both men plunged back into the water.
“No!” Attu heard a voice cry out, and he realized that most of the clan were now behind him, balancing on the shoreline ice and watching the two men fight with each other to get out of the water.
Suddenly, Rika screamed.
“Attu!”
Rika was pointing behind her. Another crack had opened up in the ice, which left Rika and Elder Nuanu caught on what appeared to be a long peninsula of ice, at least a spear throw wide with the water of the edge of the chasm to the left of them and a narrow strip of jumbled pack ice to the right, extending off into the horizon. Unfrozen water lay in front and behind them.