The Storyteller Trilogy

by Sue Harrison

  “But you took a dog with you. Do you usually take a dog when you check your traps?”

  “No. But I needed his eyes in this storm. And if I got lost, I knew he would keep me warm until the storm cleared.”

  “Do you think most people would take a dog with them if they had to go out into a storm?” Night Man asked.

  Ligige’ narrowed her eyes. “I know only what I would do,” she said. “How can I tell you what others might do?” She flipped one hand toward the circle of people in the lodge. “You should ask them, not me.”

  Ghaden watched Night Man, saw he was angry at Ligige’. Why? She had found Star, but why be angry about that? Someone had to find her.

  “Twisted Stalk,” Night Man said, “would you take a dog?”

  “I would not go out,” said Twisted Stalk. “Not in a storm.”

  “If you had to. If you had no choice,” Night Man persisted.

  Twisted Stalk shrugged. “I might. How do I know what I would do?”

  “I would take a dog,” Take More said. “And I think most people would.”

  Night Man smiled, but it was not a smile of happiness. Ghaden felt his legs begin to tremble, and he had to hold his arms tight around himself to stay still.

  “Perhaps Snow Hawk did not go by herself to the women’s place,” Night Man said. “Why would a dog go out into the storm?” He lifted his head toward Cries-loud. “Where is the dog?” he asked.

  “I tied her again at our lodge,” Cries-loud said, and Ghaden, sitting beside him, felt Cries-loud begin to shake.

  “Go get her.”

  “It is enough that you ask us all to come to your lodge in this storm,” Ligige’ said. “Now you want this boy to risk the storm alone? Do you ask him to do such a thing because his father is not here to defend him or because he is Near River? If you want the dog, go get her yourself.”

  “Who are you, old woman, to tell me what to do?” Night Man asked. “Who are you, a woman of the Near River Village, to speak to a hunter of the Cousin People in such a way?”

  “Who are you, a man who sits all day feeling sorry for himself, to show such disrespect for an elder?” Ligige’ retorted. She lifted the hare still hung at her waist, then the wolverine. “At least I bring in meat.”

  Several of the hunters hissed at her, and the women covered their mouths.

  “You speak boldly for an old woman who has no one here in this village who belongs to you. Have you forgotten that your nephews have left us?” He lifted his hand toward the top of the lodge. “You hear the wind. Who knows whether they will return?”

  “Pray your words stay in this lodge,” Aqamdax said. “What will we do in this village without them?”

  Then, to Ghaden’s amazement, Night Man tilted back his head and began to laugh. It was not a good laugh. Biter began to whine, and again Ghaden clamped his hand over the dog’s muzzle.

  Suddenly Aqamdax stood. “Since you yourself are afraid of the storm,” she said to Night Man, “I will get Snow Hawk for you.”

  Ghaden waited, thinking Night Man would go, but he did not move. Aqamdax handed the baby to Ligige’ and pulled up her parka hood.

  “Biter and I will go with you,” Ghaden said, and did not care if his sudden words brought Star’s attention. She was a lazy one and even as spirit would not want to follow them into the storm.

  “You will stay here,” said Night Man.

  Ghaden looked at him in surprise. Why would he care what Ghaden did?

  As though Night Man knew Ghaden’s thoughts, he said, “My dead sister took you in as son. Now you are mine.”

  Then Yaa was on her feet. “We do not belong to you. Now your sister is dead, we belong to our sister, Aqamdax. We do what she says.”

  Aqamdax raised her eyes to Night Man’s face. “Ghaden, you stay here,” she said. “But I would be glad to have Biter go with me.”

  Ghaden took his dog to Aqamdax and watched as they left the lodge. Then he sat down beside Cries-loud and listened as Night Man spoke. Night Man’s words were filled with tears as he talked about his sister, but gradually the crying left his voice, and Ghaden realized he was not talking about Star or the one who killed her but about the Near River People, and about those who had died in the fighting. He spoke about the Cousin men who had given their lives, the Cousin women who still lived in the Near River Village, lost to their families. He spoke of burned lodges and empty caches. He spoke about revenge.

  Chapter Fifty-one

  AQAMDAX AND BITER RETURNED with Snow Hawk, both dogs whining as they walked back to Night Man’s lodge. The wind had shifted again and now blew from the south. A good sign. The worst storms often began with a wind coming from the east, changing gradually to north and then west.

  Biter nosed his way past the outer doorflap of Star’s lodge, and Aqamdax pushed Snow Hawk into the entrance tunnel. Snow Hawk snapped at her, but Aqamdax spoke in a soft voice. From the time Snow Hawk was a pup, she had been trained to stay outside. Aqamdax, her hand on Snow Hawk’s back, could feel the low rumble of the dog’s growling and knew she was frightened, forced into the dark, low entrance tunnel of someone’s lodge.

  As Aqamdax removed her snowshoes, she heard Night Man’s voice coming from inside. His words were harsh and loud, filled with hatred. A fool that one, she thought, but still she understood his anger. Someone had killed his sister. In considering all the people living in the village, Aqamdax could not imagine any of them doing such a thing.

  But then, it had been difficult to believe Red Leaf had killed people, had continued that killing, even taking Day Woman’s life. So perhaps Red Leaf had not died. Perhaps she had been able to stay alive, and she had killed Star. But why?

  Aqamdax could imagine K’os doing such a thing, but K’os would kill more subtly. A woman who knew plants like K’os did would use some poison like baneberry. Perhaps Awl was right. Aqamdax had heard her whispering of nuhu’anh. The First Men had no stories of nuhu’anh, but Aqamdax had heard Chakliux’s tales of those wild ones, giants who lived by eating other men.

  Biter pawed at the weighted doorflap, and Aqamdax pulled it aside. He trotted in, stepped over several people until he found Ghaden, shook his wet fur, then lay down beside the boy. Snow Hawk set her feet, and Aqamdax had to pull her into the lodge.

  “She has not been inside much,” Aqamdax said, though the explanation was unnecessary. Aqamdax tucked her legs under herself and knelt beside Snow Hawk, one hand on the dog’s back.

  “You say she chewed off her tie strap?” Night Man asked.

  Aqamdax nodded.

  Night Man lifted his chin toward the strap dangling from Snow Hawk’s neck. “It does not look chewed,” he said.

  “I put a new one on her.” Aqamdax lifted the strap. She had found it in Sok’s supplies. It was dark with age, but wide and strong, a braid of spruce root.

  “It looks old,” said Night Man, then came around the hearth fire to squat in front of Aqamdax and the dog. He lifted the strap. Snow Hawk growled.

  “Yes,” Aqamdax said. “I found it in one of Sok’s packs.”

  “It has not been chewed,” Night Man said, holding the end of the strap so others could see.

  “No. It has not.”

  He leaned in quickly, then, ran his hands over Snow Hawk’s belly. She jumped back, bared her teeth, barked. Aqamdax grabbed her collar.

  “I am not strong enough to hold her if she decides to attack you,” she told Night Man.

  “If she attacks me, I will kill her. She should have been killed long ago.” Night Man slipped a knife from its scabbard.

  “Then be prepared to give Sok one of yours, and pups to replace those she carries in her belly.”

  “You are so loyal to a man who once threw you away?” Night Man asked.

  “I believe in doing what is right. A dog for a dog.”

  “You believe such a thing,” he said. “That is something your people teach? A dog given for one taken?” His smile chilled her. “Perhaps you also believe a ch
ild for a child,” he said, and suddenly she understood what he was trying to do.

  “I did not kill Star,” she said, then regretted her words. Why put that idea into the minds of those who listened? Who did she have among them to defend her? Only Ghaden, only Yaa and Cries-loud, and they were children. Perhaps Ligige’, but who could say?

  Night Man pointed his knife at Snow Hawk. Again she growled. “Life for life,” he said, and raised his knife as though to throw it.

  Aqamdax slipped the tie strap from Snow Hawk’s neck, lifted the doorflap and pushed the dog out. “Go!” she cried, and blocked the entrance tunnel until Snow Hawk had run out into the storm.

  “Life for life, Aqamdax,” Night Man said. “You killed Star’s child because of your son.”

  THE FOUR RIVERS VILLAGE

  K’os was startled when Red Leaf came into her lodge. In the supplies River Ice Dancer had brought back from the Near River Village, K’os had found several small drawstring bags filled with beads; some were common, made of birdbone, but others had been cut from shell and wood and polished. She had dumped them out on a caribou hide floor mat in front of herself, was playing with designs.

  She glanced at Red Leaf, then jerked her chin toward the beads. “From my husband,” she said. “I am making a pattern for one of my parkas.”

  “Better you should make it for him,” Red Leaf said. She lifted the bundle of furs she had in her arms. “I brought the furs. I decided it was best to take the poison now before I lose my courage.”

  K’os went to her medicine bag and took out the bound packet. “I will make you a tea,” she said to Red Leaf, but Red Leaf shook her head.

  “Do not worry,” K’os told her, “you will not die here. I will make it weak so it takes a little time before the sickness comes.”

  Red Leaf held out a trembling hand. “Let me take it to my own lodge. I left my daughter there and I must get back to her.”

  “You think I am fool enough to let you have the poison?” K’os asked her. “How do I know what you will do with it? You might try to poison Cen or my own husband.”

  “Come with me, then,” Red Leaf said. “I cannot be gone any longer from my daughter.”

  K’os laughed. “Your husband is away?”

  “Hunting,” Red Leaf said. “He will be back by night, he told me.”

  “That is good,” K’os said. “You should not have to suffer without your husband near.” K’os smiled in derision and handed Red Leaf the small packet, tied in four knots with red-dyed sinew. She got her parka, pulled on boots, outside leggings. “Well, you and I, we will have a nice visit,” she said, then she picked up her knife from where it lay beside the hearth, slipped it from its scabbard and held the blade in the smoke rising from the fire.

  “A reminder for the spirits to protect me,” she said to Red Leaf, then strapped the scabbard to her leg as though she were a man and followed Red Leaf outside.

  THE COUSIN RIVER VILLAGE

  “That dog,” Night Man said, and lifted his head toward the door-flap, “she was fat.” He still had the knife in his hand, and he slapped the flat of the blade against his palm with each word. “She did not chew her tie loose because she needed food. You took her with you into the storm. You went to the women’s place, saw Star there and decided it would be a good time for revenge. You killed her and cut the baby from her belly.”

  “I did not go out into the storm this morning,” Aqamdax said.

  “And you have someone who will say you did not?” Night Man asked.

  “I will say,” Ghaden said, standing.

  Aqamdax closed her eyes, her heart full of love for what the boy was trying to do and filled with regret for what would happen next.

  “You were with her this morning and all night?” Night Man asked.

  “I was with her. Me and Biter.”

  Night Man raised his eyebrows, rubbed the side of his knife against his caribou hide shirt. “Ligige’,” he said, “where did this boy sleep last night?”

  Ligige pressed her lips into a thin line. “In my lodge,” she said softly.

  “Did he leave this morning?”

  “I would not let him.”

  “Because of the storm,” Night Man said.

  “Yes.”

  “Just you and this boy?”

  “Cries-loud and Yaa were there also,” she said.

  Night Man looked at Yaa. “You spent the night with Ligige’?”

  “You said we could,” she answered.

  “Yes, I said you could. Did your brother slip away in the night? Perhaps sometime when Ligige’ was sleeping?”

  “I do not know.”

  “You do not know? How can you not know?”

  “I was asleep. He might have. Sometimes he doesn’t do what he’s told to do.”

  “You think he and Biter might have gone to Sok’s lodge?”

  “I think so,” she said.

  “Cries-loud, what do you think?”

  The boy jumped when Night Man said his name. “I was asleep,” he said.

  “So you do not know if Ghaden left Ligige’’s lodge in the night and went with Aqamdax to help her kill my sister?”

  Cries-loud’s eyes grew wide and round. “He did not. He stayed with me. We slept under the same blanket.”

  “So you are telling me Ghaden stayed all night and all morning in Ligige’’s lodge.”

  Cries-loud lowered his head. “Yes,” he said softly. “He didn’t kill anyone.”

  Ghaden raised a hand to punch him, but Take More reached over and caught the boy’s fist. “So this Sea Hunter woman taught you to lie and to hit those who tell the truth?” Night Man said.

  “She didn’t teach me that,” Ghaden muttered, and wrested his fist from the old man’s grasp.

  “Leave the boy alone,” Aqamdax said to Night Man. “He has done nothing. You know that.”

  Aqamdax looked at the faces of those in the lodge. Hollow Cup and Yellow Bird, those two old women, were watching, lips pressed tight, leaning forward to catch each word. They did not care whether Night Man’s accusations were true, only that something had happened to break the boredom of their days. Take More was studying her as though he were seeing her face for the first time.

  “I have heard that the Sea Hunters are a people not quite human,” Night Man said.

  Aqamdax spoke in anger, in fear. “We heard the same of you,” she answered.

  “What right do you have to accuse her?” one of the old women asked, and Aqamdax saw it was Twisted Stalk.

  The woman’s words gave Aqamdax hope, especially when Ligige’ added in a sullen voice, “You are a fool, Night Man. You know she did not kill your sister.”

  But then Twisted Stalk said, “You killed her son. You and your sister. We know how you came and took the child when Aqamdax was still in the birth hut. What do you expect when you killed her son?”

  “The boy was given as gift to the Grandfather Lake,” Night Man told her. “You think our food caches are full because we are good hunters? You think the only reason we were blessed was because the caribou were pleased with our respect? I gave the child to assure we would have food for the winter.”

  “You lie!” Aqamdax screamed. She jumped at Night Man, scratched his face, clawed for his eyes. “You killed our son because you thought he did not belong to you. You told me that. You told Chakliux. Even Star!”

  By the time Take More and Twisted Stalk had dragged her away from Night Man, his face was streaming blood.

  When he was able to speak, he said, “You think she would not kill my sister?”

  In the lodge, the people were quiet, and Aqamdax saw the fear in their eyes.

  PART THREE

  THE OLD WOMAN ADDED wood to her hearth fire. It was good to be back in her winter lodge, her cache full of the summer’s dried salmon. But soon most of the lodges in the winter village would be empty again. Already families had left to follow the caribou. Tomorrow, the boy would go also, but she would stay, she and the
other old women. Like ghosts, they were, gray and brittle with years, not much good on caribou hunts. She shut away her thoughts of loneliness and smiled at the boy who was sitting beside her hearth.

  “In the morning you will leave?” she asked him.

  He nodded. “I will miss our stories.”

  “As will I,” said the old woman, “but remember, each caribou hunt tells its own tale, so listen well and bring that story back with you.”

  The boy looked down at his hands. He was plaiting strips of tanned caribou hide into a four-ply braid. “My father gave me a dog,” he said. “I am making a harness.”

  “Look! What do I see?” said the old woman, offering him a riddle. “With twists and turns it is made stronger.”

  “The braid,” said the boy, but then his eyes widened, and she saw him smile. “A story,” he said.

  “Two answers for the same riddle, and both are right,” the old woman told him. “But no more riddles. Today our story is riddle enough.”

  “The Cousin River Village,” she said, and began to weave her words through the smoke of the hearthfire, around the boy’s fingers and into the taut square braid. “Listen:”

  LIGIGE’, OF THE COUSIN RIVER VILLAGE:

  I spoke for Aqamdax, but my voice was small. My words were lost. We defended her, Yaa and Ghaden, Cries-loud and I, sure that because we were right they would listen. But who heeds the words of an old woman? Who listens to children? Unless Sok and Chakliux return, Cries-loud and I have no hunter to feed us, and now, because they stood against Night Man, neither do Yaa or Ghaden. We are nothing in this village.

  But why would the others believe Night Man? Where are their eyes? Do they not see that, like his dead sister, he carries the seeds of madness? Perhaps when Chakliux is away from the village, we do not have enough strength to balance our weakness. Or perhaps the horror of what happened has stolen our wisdom.

  I understand Night Man’s reasoning, that Aqamdax would seek revenge for her son’s death. But fear grows large within me that she would have been accused anyway, even if her baby was still alive. She is Sea Hunter. Who cannot see that difference in all her ways? Her voice carries the heavy sounds of their speech; her face is round and small-nosed like Sea Hunter faces. Even her stories and songs are different.