Blooded Ground (Clan of the Ice Mountains Book 2)

by C. S. Bills

  The area around the fire was crowded, women and children of all three Clans were sitting in groups around smaller fires, and it appeared that all but the two hunters watching the strangers were present tonight.

  “Yes, we leave in three suns,” Ashukat said. “It will take that long to pack and ready ourselves for the journey.”

  Stannik added, “We’ll move our women and children ahead of the tusked animals and leave only a few hunters to keep an eye on the herd from the safety of the eastern ridge, farther north.”

  “You found a good spot to keep watch over them, then?” Ubantu said. “Kinak told me he thought Bruna had.”

  “How will you know when and where the tusked animals begin to move north?” Paven asked.

  “We’ll know,” Ashukat said. “Our watchers will be Seers with Gifts.”

  Paven looked frustrated by his answer, but he said nothing.

  He wants to go with them, Attu realized. He’s trying to show he can cooperate and not challenge everything Ashukat says.

  Bruna stood. The shadows from the firelight cast long wavering shadows away from his lanky body and made him appear even taller. “We have decided to take anyone of your Clans who wishes to come. Ubantu, we welcome you and your hunters. You also, Paven, if you will agree to allow Stannik and Ashukat to lead without challenge.”

  Paven looked as if he were about to protest, but held himself in check. “Rovek and I will come. And I will follow Stannik.”

  Attu saw the look of despair on Rovek’s face. Meavu turned away, into her mother’s embrace, hiding her tears. As Rovek was not a hunter yet, he had no choice but to follow his father unless Paven allowed him to stay. Clearly Paven wasn’t going to.

  You don’t even see what you’re doing to your own son. And you agree to follow only Stannik. Not Ashukat. Attu looked to his father. Ubantu held his gaze, his eyes sharp in the firelight. But he did not speak. Instead, he held his spear out to Attu, and then hit his chest.

  A few of the Seer hunters seemed surprised, but Attu’s Clan understood. A few of Paven’s hunters scowled, but most of the other Ice Mountain hunters made the same motion toward Attu with their spears, fists thumping hard on their chests.

  “It has been my desire to move north again,” Attu said, as he stood tall in the firelight. “I believe I have been given our Clan’s destiny in my dreams, to live among the Ice Mountains along the coast of the great water you call the ocean and to hunt there by boat in the warm seasons and over the ice when it turns cold. We will not be coming with you.”

  Ashukat spoke. “Could your dream be a remembering of your people’s past, as we remember our past? Are you seeing the past of your people, now that you are here where your people lived long ago? Perhaps being here has sparked deep memories within you. You may have the Gift for seeing the past. If that is so, then you are not seeing your future at all. You need to come with us.”

  Attu stood speechless. He felt foolish at the real possibility Ashukat was right and he had only been seeing the past, not the future. And on the heels of embarrassment, he felt anger rising.

  If you had been training me as you promised, Ashukat, maybe I would have KNOWN this might be a dream of the past, or at least I’d know how to tell the difference.

  Attu felt his cheeks burning. He moved to sit, but Ubantu put his arm around his son, holding him steady at his side. “I believe my son may be seeing both,” Ubantu declared. “I have pondered his dreams for many suns and this is what I believe. I think Attu is Seeing what once was and what will be again. All of Nuvikuan-na comes full circle, like the coming and going of the moon, the passing of the days, now the changing of the seasons, and over the great time in the Here and Now, the Warming and the Cold.”

  Several of the older hunters of all the Clans nodded in agreement. Suka stood. “I do not See,” he said, “but I know this hunter, and have known him since we were pooliks fighting over a hide ball.” This brought a grin from many, and chuckles from the women. “I don’t know if he dreams of the future or the past, or both,” Suka continued. “All I know is that just because all other Clans went out onto the grasslands does not mean we, the last off the ice, need to follow the others. As on the Expanse, probably only a small group of people can live in one large area in the far north. It makes sense to think this because game will be scarcer there than here. I believe we are the people destined to live there again. I know many others of our Clan feel the same. We long to be near the land of our ancestors and of our name spirits. I am named for the fleetness of dry snow flowing over the ice, when the wind blows hard from the west and the snow is like moving water up to our knees. Where will I ever see my spirit again on the grasslands?”

  Men and women of both Attu’s and Paven’s Clan popped their lips in agreement.

  “We will return north,” Attu said.

  “But it’s not safe to stay here with these strangers.” A young woman Attu recognized as being Bruna’s sister, Keanu, stood in the shadows, her voice quiet, but insistent. “Have you not felt it, fellow Seer? Something is wrong in this place, and since the strangers have come, it is growing worse every day. The animals are restless, and they flee the dark shadows of the black birds who came with the strangers, now flying among them. They sense a danger they cannot understand, for it feels like the time before a great storm and yet no storm approaches.”

  Concerned questions and discussion broke out around Attu as everyone seemed to have something to say at once. Attu looked to the young woman, who shrugged and sat again. I’m sorry I won’t get to know her, Attu thought. I would like to know more about the Gifts she has. But I wish she hadn’t decided that now was the time to speak up.

  Attu moved to sit beside Rika and began discussing with the hunters and their women now surrounding them. Some wanted to know more about his dreams, some about his plan to move north. How soon could they go? How long would it take to build enough skin boats? The Seers would be leaving their boats behind. Several hunters suggested they use those skins, rework them onto the wider frames they would need. This would save time and much hunting.

  But how much time do we have?

  Attu thought of the skin boats now laying under layers of pine boughs, a few spear lengths into the forest. How long before small animals and the incessant dampness of this place ruin the boats we already have? The boats need to be put back on racks so my Clan can remake them before the skins begin to rot. But then we could be so easily seen. What should we do?

  “I don’t know,” Attu said aloud. Rika held his hand, under the blankets, giving him strength as the people around him grew more and more anxious. Ubantu moved to sit beside them also, and finally Attu said, “Let’s meet tomorrow, at first light. I need all of you to consider how we might keep ourselves safe and work to build the skin boats we need to move north. I agree we must stay hidden from the fiery canoe people if at all possible. We might be able to move our camp a few days north using the Seer Clan’s skin boats, where we can work on building the rest of them at a safer distance from the strangers.

  Heads nodded.

  Then the sharp sound of snapping branches echoed through the clearing and Attu and the others turned. Two shorter men stepped out from the trees, standing on either side of a huge man, dark and gleaming with tattoos that somehow caught the firelight and made his skin seem to dance.

  How did they get past the guards without being seen?

  Attu and the others raised their weapons as the two men lifted large objects to their mouths and blew into them. A blast of sound erupted into the clearing and echoed off the Rock behind them.

  Women and children screamed in terror and some ran into the shadows.

  Hunters stood, ready to defend the Clans.

  Attu reeled at the sound, clapping his hand on the back of his head over his old injury as it erupted in pain.

  “I bring no evil,” the tattooed man said in a heavily accented voice. He stepped further into the firelight, his arms up to show he carried no weapon. �
��Believe I, this greeting?” He smiled, and Attu felt his heart lurch and the ground shift beneath him. If he hadn’t been sitting already, he would have fallen. His head throbbed and his heart pounded.

  Attu had never seen anyone who looked like this man. The stranger’s face was completely tattooed. Somehow, the artist who had done it had been able to create the look of a large bird with a hooked beak, deep-set eyes, and what seemed to be feathers drawing back into the man’s hair, which was short around his face, and standing straight up. All down the man’s body were tattoos of what seemed at first to also be feathers, but as Attu looked, he saw strange symbols, which also seemed to move as the man breathed, as if his skin were a live animal he was somehow wearing.

  Attu felt his flesh crawl.

  The man smiled again.

  “I bring no evil,” he repeated.

  Chapter 7

  The tall, muscular man with the tattooed face they had first seen at the Rock entered the clearing of the fiery canoe people’s camp where Attu, Rika, and Ubantu waited with Ashukat, Stannik, Bruna and his sister, Keanu, and Paven with one of his hunters. The stranger spoke in the tongue of his people, with a word or two in their language and many hand signs. His broad grin made his fierce-looking face appear almost pleasant. He called a woman over to his side, spoke a few words to her, and she ran off.

  They stood looking around, not knowing what to do next, as the man stood as well, a slight smile still on his face. The others around them continued to work, but Attu knew they were being watched.

  The night before, the tattooed man had used signs and a few words to indicate they were invited to come to his camp, meet his people. He had encouraged them with many signs and smiling that his was a peaceful people, and they were curious to meet their neighbors before they left to hunt the tusked animals.

  How he had known the Seer Clan’s plans to leave?

  Attu, as well as the others, had been asking this and many other questions about the fiery canoe people from the moment the tattooed man and his shell-blowing companions had walked back out of camp and into the darkness once again.

  Now that we know they’re aware of us, we have to find out more about them.

  Attu studied the camp. The people of the canoes were taller than his people, slim like Ashukat’s people, their skin a dusky color. Now that he was closer than he had been while on watch, Attu could see their hair was brown too, not black and the women wore theirs in some kind of loop, like rope, on top of their heads. The men’s hair was striking. The front was cut short and greased to stand up, like the feathers of a ruffled bird animal. The back was slicked down flat or looped like the women’s.

  The women’s clothing was plain, skirts made of grasses and nothing on top. Attu tried not to look at their nakedness. The men wore almost nothing, too. A men’s cloth barely covered them, made of some kind of flimsy bark flapping open at the sides when they walked. Rika and Keanu, after one look, were keeping their eyes averted. Rika’s cheeks flamed.

  Soon the woman returned, bringing a young woman about Attu and Rika’s age with her.

  Attu gasped. The girl had skin folds on her eyes, and although her skin was darker and she was slightly built, shorter than most Nuviks, she bore a strong resemblance to Attu and Rika’s people.

  The tattooed man spoke to the girl, his face still cheerful, although Attu noticed he reached out and grasped her firmly by the shoulder as he spoke to her. She didn’t look at him, but stared at her feet. Still, she seemed to understand, and nodded her head.

  “I will speak our great leader’s words,” the girl said.

  “How does she speak Nuvik?” Ashukat asked, astounded.

  The tattooed man laughed when the girl repeated his question. The girl flushed red, and for a moment Attu thought it was in anger, but when she answered, her voice was steady.

  “Kagit says there will be time enough for that later. But first, as leader of his people, Kagit, the Raven, the Ye-ul, or as you would say, ‘top of the mountain,’ welcomes you and invites you to eat with his people.”

  She stepped to Kagit’s left, moving to stand behind him.

  Kagit motioned for them to follow him.

  They were led to what appeared to be a central fire. With hand motions, one of the women showed them where to sit. Kagit smiled and walked away, back toward the edge of one of the stone rectangles. He spoke to another man and gestured toward the building in progress. The girl who could speak Nuvik helped to build the fire up and tended it, while other women prepared food.

  “He certainly isn’t overly curious of us,” Ashukat remarked. “At the Rock, and now, he hasn’t asked us a single question.”

  Attu thought the old man was piqued by the apparent leader’s lack of interest in them, as if Ashukat felt his presence warranted more. Still, his apparent nonchalance about their arrival was odd. No Nuvik would have treated a guest so rudely. It made Attu’s stomach tighten.

  “What is your name?” Rika asked the girl as she scuffled by, bent under a large armload of wood.

  The girl stared at Rika for a moment, as if surprised she’d been spoken to.

  “I am-”

  An older woman hissed at her and waved the stick she was using to stir a pot, as if she might hit the girl with it. The girl looked down and scurried away.

  “Why can’t she talk to us?” Attu asked.

  “I don’t know,” Ashukat said. “I want to find out where she’s from and why she’s with these people. Perhaps, if they’ve come from far to the south, she’ll know something about the great killing of our people there.” Ashukat moved to stand, but seemed unable to get his feet under him. “Oh,” he said, surprised at his lack of strength. “I feel odd. I guess the walk here tired me out more than I thought.” He sat back down and closed his eyes for a moment.

  “What’s wrong?” Rika asked Ashukat.

  “I just feel light-headed, that’s all,” Ashukat said. “I’m sure I’ll be fine in a bit. I just need to rest.”

  The Raven Clan gathered around the fire. Everyone helped themselves to large portions of fish, some meat Attu didn’t recognize, and berry paste spread on cattail root patties the women had formed into flat round shapes with their hands and cooked on hot stones. The cattail shapes sizzled on the hot surfaces. Several naked children ran in, grabbing the cooked cattail food. Some was dropped, but the children left what had fallen and took more, reaching their fingers into the berry paste, smearing as much on themselves as they got in their mouths.

  “What wealth they must have to waste food,” Rika whispered, as a child dropped another piece of the cooked cattail root and a woman tossed it into the fire. One of the women brought Attu’s group wooden slabs heaped with food.

  Rika gasped at the amount they’d been given. “I can’t eat all this!” Rika exclaimed. “It’s enough for three hunters.”

  Paven grunted and began eating. The others followed. They ate in silence as the others feasted. Kagit walked among his people, talking and laughing as he carried a plank of food. A woman followed him, carrying a large skin flask of some beverage, which Kagit occasionally signaled for.

  The men spoke with their leader, but not the women. And as Kagit moved from group to group, everyone seemed to be watching him out of the corner of their eyes, always aware of where he was.

  They watch him, Attu thought, like I might watch a hunter, if I were a young tuskie.

  “No one else has tattoos, just him,” Bruna said. “Not even Clan tattoos on their arms as we have.”

  “The women eat apart from the men,” Bruna’s sister added. “The women talk to women, the men to men, mostly. But see, a few of the women are talking to a man, here and there. I wonder why most of them seem separate?”

  “They are so loud,” Ubantu said.

  “The noise is overwhelming,” Ashukat agreed. “All these people.” Ashukat sat, his hand brushing across his forehead often, as if to wipe sweat away from his brow. But it wasn’t hot today, and Ashukat kept drawing h
is cloak around himself as if he were cold, hunching himself down into the garment as if to hide from all these people.

  “I’m worried about him,” Rika whispered to Attu.

  “Perhaps he’s getting sick,” Attu replied.

  Attu took a bite of the cattail with berries. It was probably delicious, but Attu’s mouth was dry and everything he tried to eat tasted like old dried nuknuk. He was feeling odd himself, and it wasn’t just from being in this new place.

  “That’s probably why they’ve stopped traveling north, as Kagit said they’d been doing,” Stannik added. “They’ve found a place they think will sustain this huge Clan. They haven’t been here long enough yet to experience what the constant rain and the dampness does to you after a while...”

  Attu ate slowly, as did Ashukat and Rika, and he felt like a fat nuknuk sunning itself by the time he finished what he’d been served. He’d eaten as much as he might eat in many days, if there’d been that much food available.

  The sounds of the people swirled around him, the odd sound of these strangers’ tongue with their clicks and hisses and a sound like burping some of them made occasionally. Attu took another gulp of the cool beverage he’d been given, trying to get rid of his dry mouth. He felt disoriented and sleepy. Looking around at his group, Attu saw his father was yawning. Paven’s eyes were half-closed, and Ashukat looked dazed.

  Why are we all suddenly tired?

  As if on cue, Kagit appeared and sat across from them. The girl who looked like them knelt off to the side, her eyes downcast.

  “I know you are curious about us. Ask what you will,” Kagit said as the girl interpreted. “We have no secrets from anyone.” He smiled again, a confident smile that looked so strange on a face so heavily tattooed. It was an uncanny likeness to a bird...a great black bird... calling into the sky...