by Sue Harrison
Take More made a vulgar gesture at Fox Barking, then hurried to catch up to Sok, but Sky Watcher shook his head. “I will stay. You do not need to be alone here with these people.”
“Your brother is a fool,” Fox Barking said, rubbing the side of his jaw. “But I do not have to tell you that.”
“We have your meat,” said Chakliux. “If you need it, send some of your women to get it. Do not come yourself and do not send your men.”
THE NEAR RIVER PEOPLE
They spent four days in mourning. Most of the men had wanted to return to the winter village and from there go out in twos and threes to hunt what caribou or moose they could find. Anaay insisted that they stay where they were, and most stayed, but Black Mouth took his dead wife and left, though Anaay told him the wolves would smell death, steal the body before Black Mouth could get back to the village.
Later, in the privacy of his tent, Dii saw her husband dance a curse against Black Mouth, and she shuddered to think what would happen to the man, alone with his dead wife on that long trail to the winter village.
Others wanted to go. Dii could see the wanting in their eyes. Several families—those who had not lost anyone—stayed two days into the mourning, then they also left. Anaay was right about the wolves, many said. It was best to burn the dead bodies after the mourning. Was that not a custom that their grandfathers’ grandfathers had followed? Then bones could be cleaned and taken with them to the winter village. At least they could do that.
Dii was one of the women chosen to stay awake the night of the burning, to guard the bones and ashes from wolves and ravens, from spirits who would smell the smoke and think there was a gift for them in the people’s fires. She trembled when she thought ahead to that night, and she protected herself with amulets and every chant and prayer she knew. She did not eat anything the day before—none of the fish the men were catching from the river, none of the ptarmigan K’os took in her traps. Why flavor her breath with the taste of meat? Spirits drawn by the smell of burning flesh did not need to be reminded that they could no longer eat.
She wished Blue Flower’s husband, the Near River shaman, had not been killed in the fighting. If they had a shaman, he would probably be the one to guard those burning bodies, and she could stay safe in the camp.
Anaay had lit the fire when it was still light, but by night, he and the hunters with him had gathered on the farthest side of the camp, a good way upriver from the byre. Anaay sent her with a curt nod of his head and only one word, “Go,” as though even in speaking to her, he took risk. Six women were chosen. All but one were Cousin, and the truth of that smoldered in Dii’s breast.
“We are wives now, not slaves,” Green Bird said as their husbands sent them off. “Wives have the same value whether Cousin or Near River.”
But the other women laughed at her. Light Hair, the one Near River wife, laughed the hardest.
“Even if you give your husband two handfuls of children, all strong sons, you will not have the value of a Near River wife,” she said. Then, though she, too, had been condemned to watch the bone fire, she held her head high and looked at them from haughty eyes.
Two women had babies under their parkas, but the children belonged to their Cousin husbands. The other three, Dii among them, had no children, and Dii had had her moon blood time during their journey to the Caribou River, and so knew she had not conceived during those nights of caribou singing.
They walked in the darkness, stumbling over tussocks and uneven ground. The men had given them torches, but said not to light them until they reached the fire. Too much light might give spirits a path back to the camp.
Dii had pulled the hood of her parka tight around her face, kept her mouth closed, pinched her nose shut, releasing her nostrils only when she had to breathe. Why give those spirits that live in the night more ways to enter her body?
One of the other women, Owl Catcher, leaned close to Dii, asked, “What about K’os? Why didn’t Anaay send her instead of you?”
Dii had wondered the same thing, had felt the hurt of her husband’s choice, but she only said, “Who can trust K’os? Would you want her here with us?”
Owl Catcher did not answer, so Dii knew she had given the right response to a question asked spitefully. At the fire, though repulsed by the sound and smell of burning bodies, Dii felt her empty belly twist at the reminder of fat and meat. Then suddenly she had to turn from the heat and light of the flames, stumble into the darkness to retch.
She rejoined the others, trembled at the change the fire had made in their faces; brows, noses and cheeks threw shadows that distorted eyes and mouths, as though the passage through darkness had been a birthing into some other world.
Dii looked away, then went to the brush pile the men had heaped some distance from the fire. She brought back branches, began to feed them into the flames. Then one by one the others did the same, until finally Light Hair called out that two should go together, one holding a lit torch to keep spirits and animals away. Dii trembled again, realizing her foolishness in going alone into the darkness, her eyes dimmed by looking into the light of the flames.
When each woman had brought back wood, they sat in silence. Dii, Light Hair and Owl Catcher were on the far side of the fire. The other three women—Cut Ear, her cousin Green Bird and Willow Leaf—huddled together on the camp side.
Earlier that day, Dii had overheard Anaay tell the men how the fire should be made, that each body should be placed on a separate layer of branches one on top of the other. But Sun Caller, a man who usually agreed with all Anaay suggested, had told them in a stuttering speech that there were too many bodies for that. The fire would burn away the bottom branches and the top layers would topple.
“Have you forgotten how many died?” he had asked them, then answered his own question. “Two handfuls in all, not counting Two Fist, taken by her husband.
“And what about the women? Can they be burned with the men?”
Dii was not sure what had been decided, but the fire looked wide enough for three bodies to lie side by side, and she had felt some comfort in knowing someone besides Anaay was making choices for the camp.
If she and the other women kept the fire going all night, then by tomorrow they could dig out the bones and perhaps start back to the winter village. Though they were camped here on Cousin hunting grounds, it no longer seemed Cousin. At this river her people had always known more joy than sadness. Now she would remember only the terror, the stink of burning bodies, the sorrow and the mourning songs.
Above the snapping of the fire, one of the women on the other side of the flames began to speak. The voice was different, as though it belonged to none of them, but the words were familiar, and it seemed the woman spoke Dii’s own thoughts.
“We could leave and go to the Cousin camp. We could be there before the Near River men know we are gone.”
The words swirled up with the flames, became the smoke, and it seemed that Dii breathed them into her chest. They shimmered there like sun on water, cutting the darkness.
Back with her own people. Back in her own winter village.
Her mother and father and brothers would not be there, but Sky Watcher had been one of those who brought the dead to Anaay. Perhaps he would take her as second wife. She would even be wife to old Take More, though his first wife was a woman of sharp tongue and harsh ways.
From the corners of her eyes, Dii glanced at Light Hair. The Near River woman’s face was harsh in the firelight, her mouth pulled down in a frown. But she was the first to answer.
“If I were you,” she said, “I would go. This is not good, this hunting camp, and the winter will be long.”
Her words were no surprise. If some of the Cousin River wives left, there would be more food for those who remained. What had they taken, five, six caribou? That was hardly enough to feed the hunting camp during the journey back to the winter village. They would bring nothing for the caches except the hides, and what were six caribou hides amon
g so many?
“How will we know the way?” one of the other women asked.
“They are camped on this river,” said Owl Catcher. “All we have to do is follow it to their tents.”
“What if they do not want us?” asked Cut Ear.
“That is foolish. We are their daughters. Their sisters. Would you turn them away if they had been taken?”
“What if they have already left for the winter village?”
“We know the way to the Cousin River Village. That is not so difficult.”
“I will go,” Cut Ear said.
“I also,” said Green Bird.
“Dii?” Owl Catcher asked.
Dii’s heart leapt in hope. But how could she leave Anaay? “What about our husbands?” she asked.
“Throw them away,” Owl Catcher said. “They do not care much for us if they sent us to watch these bones burning.”
“Awl is here with her husband, and she is hurt. I should not leave her.”
“Do what you want,” Owl Catcher said. “I am going.” She dipped her torch into the fire to renew its flame, then she, Green Bird, Cut Ear and Willow Leaf left, walked away from the death fire.
Dii stood and watched them until the light of Owl Catcher’s torch was only a tiny star in the darkness. When she sat down again, she felt an emptiness in her chest, as though a part of her had gone with them and she carried only half her soul.
Chapter Twenty-six
THE COUSIN RIVER CAMP
CHAKLIUX SAW THE WOMEN come out of the brush at the east side of the camp. It was just past midday, and at first he thought nothing of their appearance. They were Cut Ear and Willow Leaf, Green Bird. He had grown up with them.
But then Chakliux realized that the three had been among the group of women and girls K’os took with her to the Near River Village. Following the three younger women was Owl Catcher, one of the women taken as a slave during the revenge raid.
Others in the camp looked up, for a moment continued their work, then screamed out their joy. They left boiling bags and drying racks, ran to the four women, opened arms to welcome them.
But Chakliux and Sok went for weapons and stood ready. These four were slaves or perhaps Near River wives. Who could tell where their loyalties would lie?
Sky Watcher left the camp, took a dog with him, but Chakliux did not relax his vigilance even when Sky Watcher returned to report that the women had not been followed.
The Cousin men met at Chakliux’s tent, discussed what should be done. If the women’s story was true, and it seemed that it was, they had slipped away in the night. If their husbands decided to come for them, they would arrive soon, unless they planned an attack. Then perhaps they would wait a day or so, preparing weapons, making prayers.
Either way, it was best to leave soon. Most of the butchering was done. The frosts were harder each night, and the ground stayed frozen well past midday so it would not be as difficult to walk the tundra, even with heavy packs and travois.
They called Twisted Stalk, told her the women must prepare to move. The men made ready their weapons, watched, guarded.
Twisted Stalk carried the men’s message to the wives, and though Aqamdax was glad they would soon be back in the winter village, she understood why the other women grumbled their discontent. They were not waiting to throw away a husband. They were not rejoicing in the hope of becoming wife to a man as good as Chakliux. They wanted two, three more days to finish what they were doing before they had to pack.
Much was done already. All the organ meats—those not eaten—had been boiled and chopped, stuffed into cleaned intestines with dried berries brought from the winter village, then sealed with melted fat. The bellies, too, were done. Most had been roasted whole, and Aqamdax could still remember the sour and sweet taste of each slice, the juice running over her fingers and down her arms as she ate. Other bellies had been scraped out to use as storage containers. Bladders had been emptied, blown up and dried to use for water.
The women saved all the windpipes, scraped them inside and out, washed them and filled them with old grass. If frozen until dry, they turned white and soft, good to decorate parkas and boots. Aqamdax would sew the gut and windpipes she could claim into waterproof chigdax, a kind of parka worn by the First Men. Though the other women scoffed at her when she made them, she was the one to laugh when their furred parkas soaked up the rain and she remained dry. She had made a chigdax for Ghaden and another for Night Man, though he would not wear it.
All the hides had been removed from the caribou carcasses, the sinew taken from along the spines and hung to dry. It amazed Aqamdax how quickly the Cousin women did such things, working together over the large, heavy carcasses.
The first days after the caribou were taken, the women had boiled the heads. What was better than the soft meat of cheeks and the sweet taste of the fat around the eyes? Now they were fleshing hides, though with the cold weather, they could fold and roll those that remained, take them back to the winter camp, without worry they would rot. A few of the women were still slicing meat, but the bones had all been boiled to render out the oil and marrow.
A day or two to finish the hides, that would be best, but Aqamdax understood Chakliux’s need to move. She more than any of the women rejoiced that Owl Catcher and the others had been able to return to their village. She knew what it was to long for home. But what if their Near River husbands tried to take them back?
Owl Catcher, in coming to the camp, had traded a living husband for one killed months before during the fighting.
“I am a widow now,” she said, “though yesterday I was a wife. But how much better to claim a spirit-husband who was Cousin than a living man who is Near River. Do not expect to see me mourn. During all those moons I lived with the Near Rivers, that was when I sang my mourning songs.”
She and the other women, though they had walked all night, worked to help pack and load. Aqamdax caught their excitement, and her hands seemed to work even more quickly.
Only once since her son was born had Night Man taken her into his bed, and she had had a moon blood time since then. Surely, during their traveling, he would stay with the men, guarding the camp, and the next child that grew under her heart would belong to Chakliux.
Their marriage would not come without difficulty. Night Man would be angry when she threw him away. But since her son’s death how many women had raised a hand to her ear, leaned close to whisper their anger, their sympathy?
As they worked, Owl Catcher made jokes about her Near River husband, and soon they were all laughing. Then suddenly above the babble, Aqamdax heard Star’s cry: “No, no! It is not good that these slave women have come back.”
Aqamdax left the others and found Star. She was outside Chakliux’s tent, arguing with the boy Black Stick.
“What do you know?” Black Stick yelled, his feelings so intense that spittle flew from his mouth as he spoke. “Green Bird is our sister. We thought she might be dead. What if one of your dead brothers had returned? Would you tell him you did not want him here?”
“You want another fight with the Near River warriors?” Star said. “We have only six men left to us. You have forgotten that?”
The women left their work and gathered near Chakliux’s lean-to.
“Are the Near Rivers trying to get the women back?” Aqamdax heard Little Mouse ask.
Then Twisted Stalk raised her voice, said, “What good does it do to fight among ourselves? We must be ready to move tomorrow morning. We have meat to pack, dogs to feed, travois to fill. What good will it do to worry about the Near Rivers? Will it make our work lighter?”
But several women lifted their voices into mourning songs and huddled together as if the Near Rivers had already attacked.
“This is foolishness!” Twisted Stalk said to them, and she stomped away, muttering that at least she would be ready to leave, that her tent and meat would be packed, that her dog would be fed and fit to haul a travois in the morning.
St
ar crouched on her haunches, and several others squatted beside her. Aqamdax knew what it was to be afraid, but what good did fear bring? She went to the women, spoke a riddle.
“Look! What do I see?” she said, and repeated the words until she had their attention. “They come in anger and have no sympathy for our tears.”
“The Near Rivers, they come in anger,” Star said, her voice like a child’s.
“No,” said Aqamdax. “Our own men come in anger when they realize we are not ready to travel. You think they will have sympathy for our tears?”
“Who are you to tell us this?” Little Mouse asked. “You were Near River before you came to us and Sea Hunter before that. It seems that no village wants you. Why should we listen to you?”
Several of the others also made insults, and Aqamdax turned away. What good would it do to force their eyes open if they still refused to see?
Then, to her surprise, she heard Star say, “Aqamdax is right. We are foolish to sit here crying when there is something we can do to help ourselves.”
She prodded Little Mouse until the woman stood up. Soon they were busy, sorting meat, dismantling drying racks. And Aqamdax hoped that the work would lift the fear from their hearts.
Chapter Twenty-seven
THE NEAR RIVER CAMP
ANAAY CLASPED HIS HANDS together, gritted his teeth. He wanted to reach out and thrust Sun Caller aside. Though Sun Caller was repeating what Anaay had told him to say—that it was foolish to fight so quickly after such a disastrous hunt—his stuttering stretched and distorted the words until even a careful listener lost patience.
Best to interrupt before some other hunter does, Anaay told himself, but before he could get to his feet, Many Words stood. He slashed the air with one hand as though to clear away Sun Caller’s broken speech.
The Cousin woman Owl Catcher had been Many Words’s second wife. She was a slow, witless woman, and Anaay had thought Many Words would be glad she was gone. There was a shortage of men in the Near River Village. Why not be rid of Owl Catcher and choose one of the young girls?