by C. S. Bills
“We don’t have to go,” Attu said to his father as they walked toward their camp. “We can just leave. Now. By the time the Ravens know we’ve left, we’ll be a half-day’s journey ahead of them.”
“Then what do we do if they decide to come after us in their canoes?” Ubantu said. “No, we need to go back, one more time. This celebration is the perfect excuse. We’ll tell the others what I’ve planned, and we’ll be careful. This has to work. We can’t take the chance on them following us once we leave this place until we’re too far north for them to catch us.”
Attu, Rovek, and Ubantu worked out the details of Ubantu’s plan as they walked the rest of the way back to camp.
When the Clans arrived at the Raven settlement, the sun had just slipped into the ocean. The last rays of golden light sliced through the few trees near the beach, and the water lay sparkling and quiet in the bay. Torches prepared for the night’s celebration stood unlit around the perimeter of the camp. Occasionally the earth under their feet shook, as if all of Nuvikuan-na were trembling. In the distance, the mountain had begun to spew fire, and the horizon to the north had turned a sickly purple with moving streaks of red flames occasionally bursting upward like blood flowing over a bruise.
Attu felt naked without his weapons, not even the small knife he always carried, but the Ravens had taken their own knives off as well and there wasn’t a spear in sight. Ravens were everywhere, men, women, and children, dressed in festive clothing decorated with shells and feathers. The men wore their hair standing up around their faces as they had the last time the Ravens had celebrated, with high braided loops of hair at the back, laced with Raven feathers. It made them look fiercer and taller.
The women wore their hair looped as well, elaborate interlaced braids that stood up, like ruffled bird feathers, held up by carved painted sticks. As Tuunti walked by, Attu noticed she had the most complicated mass of braids in her hair. He realized he’d never seen Kagit’s other two women. Perhaps they had passed into the Between. A shiver ran down his arms at the thought of what might have happened to the others. Tuunti was an evil woman.
Raven children ran and played, screaming among the crowd of people. The children of the Expanse Clans and Seer Clan stayed near their mothers, eyes wide as they took in the sights and sounds of this crowded place. The Raven children ignored them. They seemed to regard Attu’s people as oddities, nothing more.
Rika gripped his hand more firmly as they stood around a large fire in the center of the camp.
“Welcome to the Raven celebration of victory,” Kagit said. “You are here. We will begin. The Great Raven will have His way. Our people will prosper as we say goodbye to you.” Kagit raised his arms, creating wings with the raven feather garment he was wearing for the celebration, laced at his neck and wrists.
Ashukat moved to stand by Attu. He appeared a bit dazed, but much better than the last time he’d been in the Raven camp.
Did you notice how well he spoke those phrases of our language? Ashukat mind spoke to Attu. He sounded like he’d memorized what to say, as if it were a litany for a ritual he had taken part in before. The old Seer swayed on his feet.
What’s wrong?
I’m better than I was last time I was here. I’ve been doing some work to counteract anything Limoot is trying. Ashukat lifted a small bone amulet from under his shirt. It’s a spirit protection amulet. Your women helped me make it. Their prayers infuse it. I asked Rika not to tell you. I wasn’t sure it would work, but it seems to be helping me think clearly while I’m here. My stomach and head still hurt, though.
Ashukat turned and caught sight of the front of the largest cedar house. “What is that?” He grabbed Attu’s arm to steady himself.
“What? Are you all right?” Attu asked the Seer.
“My spirit is pounding within me, as if to warn me. What is that in front of Kagit’s cedar house?”
Attu looked to where Ashukat had pointed. He saw a huge hole had been dug a few spear lengths from the house, toward the beach. “That wasn’t here this morning.”
They walked over to the hole.
“It’s deeper than a man is tall, almost two men. What is it for? And why dig it now?”
Kagit’s voice boomed again over the crowd. “Come, eat, drink, and enjoy. Soon you must say goodbye.” Kagit paused, as if now unsure of what to say in the Clan tongue.
Kagit moved in a large circle, his wing-arms slightly out from his sides, feathers rustling. “Come, eat, drink, and enjoy. Soon you must say goodbye.” He sat down on a thick grass mat as the women moved among the people with food.
Why is Kagit suddenly sounding so awkward? Like he is a poor storyteller repeating memorized words?
Ubantu appeared at Attu’s shoulder. “Now’s our chance. Rovek and I will be gone for as long as it takes. Then Yural will pretend to become ill, and we’ll have our excuse to leave.”
The two hunters slipped away into the shadows, toward the beach.
Attu and Rika ate with the rest of the Clans. The smell of roasted meat filled the camp as several Raven hunters pulled smoking mats of wet grass off a large pit lined with embers and lifted a roasted carcass of a huge animal out onto the mats. The women hurried to cut thick slabs of meat from it, loading them on to wooden planks and circling the camp, handing out the greasy, smoky chunks. The Raven hunters seemed excited by the meat and moved to get pieces of it as fast as the women could cut it. They laughed and joked among themselves while the children ran in and out among them. Attu’s small group sat apart, quiet and subdued amid the cacophony of shouting Ravens.
“What is it, a huge paddle antlers?” Attu asked.
“Moose,” Tingiyok said. “Biggest one I’ve ever seen.”
Rika handed him a cup of the beverage they’d drunk before, their first time in the camp. Attu had remembered it had been good. He took a large swallow. His mind seemed to clear and the headache he’d had all day abated after a few moments. He drank some more.
Ashukat sniffed at the pouch when Rika handed it to him. He took a small sip. Smiling, he took another.
“Thank you,” the old man said. “I was thirsty.” He continued taking small sips of the drink, and Attu noticed that after a while, Ashukat looked more relaxed.
How are you? Attu asked him in mind speak.
I think the amulet’s working. I feel quite good. Not as dizzy as before.
Several women built up the fire, and the Raven people started to dance. Their dances were exaggerated, wild and provocative, all of them around the fire at once, leaping, sliding and twisting their bodies in and among each other. It was the only time Attu had seen all the men and women interact. Their sudden familiarity with each other disturbed him. It seemed so out of place in a group of people who normally kept men and women apart.
“They are being Ravens,” Tingiyok said. He’d come to sit with them before the dancing had started, and he popped his lips as he realized what the Raven Clan was doing. “See, there is the hop the ravens do, there is the flying away. There is the roosting in a tree. Hear the scolding?”
“You are right,” Rika said. “They are acting like a bunch of ravens.”
Attu’s people watched the Ravens dance. It seemed like they would dance until dawn. Attu grew sleepy. He took another drink. The meat had made him thirsty.
“How much longer, do you think?” Yural whispered to Attu. “Before I become violently ill? I took the potion Rika made that will make me hot and break out in a rash. That should scare the Ravens into letting us leave.”
“Father and Rovek will come back when they’re done,” Attu answered her. He wasn’t so sure about their plan, now that they were here.
Attu looked up to see Rika was studying him. Your head isn’t hurting anymore, is it?
No, I feel good. My head feels better than it has in days.
I feel really good. The feeling reminds me of the drink our healer used to make for our Elders, so they could slip into the Between of the spirits more easily.
It’s beginning to give me that same light-headed feeling of not caring. My Clan’s healer trained me to watch out for that feeling in all potions. A bit might help someone with pain or to speak with the spirits, but too much is deadly.
Look around. The Ravens are drinking it, so it must be safe, but I think we need to pour out what is served to us when no one’s looking. We need to stay alert.
Rika moved away to tell the others.
Attu sat back, his eyes, half-closed. He did feel very tired...
Chapter 22
“Sha,” someone said, and Attu felt someone prod him with their foot. I must have fallen asleep.
The Raven hunter prodded him again.
Attu got up as quickly as he could. His tongue felt thick. His head hurt. He realized he was one of the last people around the fires. Everyone else was moving toward one of the cedar houses, Kagit’s, the largest.
Rika was right. There was something in the drink.
“Where’s Rika?” Attu asked as he caught up with Rovek, Yural, Ubantu, and Paven, who was now limping beside his son, leaning heavily on a staff.
“Last I saw her she was telling the women to pour out the drink.”
“Some Ravens came by,” Ubantu whispered. “We almost got caught. We weren’t able to finish them all. And now the Ravens are herding us into one of the cedar houses. Kagit said it’s the last part of the celebration. I don’t think we’ll get a chance to go back. We’ll have to trust it’s enough.”
“Yural took the potion. Is she getting sick yet?”
“It doesn’t seem to be working like Rika thought it would.”
“Did Yural drink some of the Raven Clan’s drink?” Attu looked to his mother, who was stumbling toward the cedar house. She did. And it must be affecting how fast the potion takes effect. Or maybe it’s causing the potion not to work at all...
“I need to find Rika. I’ll be right back.”
Attu looked around the clearing. Most of the people had already moved up by the cedar house. Rika was nowhere in sight. He walked toward another of the houses.
Rika.
No response.
Attu hastened his steps toward the house, but as he approached it, two hunters moved out of the shadows, barring his way.
“I’m looking for my woman, Rika. The healer. Have you seen her?”
The two men stared at Attu as if he hadn’t spoken. He tried to continue, but one of the hunters shoved him aside. They continued to glare at him, their faces fierce in the flickering of the torches.
Rika?
Nothing. Could Limoot be somehow stopping me from communicating with Rika?
The men stood their ground. Attu turned and headed back toward the others, calling in his mind the whole way.
Everyone stood around the front, near the huge hole. As Attu drew closer, he saw why.
Twenty Raven hunters stood near the hole, in an area closest to the forest. They carried a long carved tree, painted red and black and white like the fronts of the Raven Clan’s canoes, with figures and shapes carved along its entire length. Attu’s heart skipped a beat. He recognized it from the descriptions they’d heard before. It was a totem. Along the tree were shapes he recognized, symbols of his Ice Mountain Clan, Paven’s Clan, and the Seer Clan, mingled with those of an eagle and other animals Attu didn’t recognize. At the end that would be its top, over all the other carved symbols once the totem had been lowered into the ground, were two large slots. Several other men were sliding carved wings into the slots, one on each side of the totem. Each wing was at least three spear lengths long, and Attu knew they must be the wings of a giant raven.
As the men stood, balancing the totem and staring straight ahead, Attu realized the entire crowd of people had grown silent. The only sound was the crackling of the large central fire and the sputtering of the torches. There was no wind, no sound of waves, no sounds from the forest. He felt his heart hammering in his chest.
Looking around, he saw his people, so few in this crowd of Ravens, as they stood mesmerized. They stared at the giant carved tree, which when it stood upright, would be the tallest, most intimidating work of a man’s hands that any of his people had ever seen. It was so finely detailed, so large. It must have taken the Ravens this entire time to create it. His flesh crawled.
All around him lips popped and a few women groaned as if in mourning. Yural swayed on her feet, and Ubantu had turned sickly white in the light of the torches as the symbols that were sacred to the people of the Expanse and, he knew, to the Seers as well, seemed to dance in the light of the torches. And the colors! White, the color of death for the Nuvik, as the body grew pale in death. Black, the color of the waters they feared to fall into on the Expanse, and the red, the symbol of life, and of the swearing of oaths.
What does this all mean? Are we to be taken captive after all?
Rika!
I’ve got to find Rika. And where is Ashukat?
“Where is the Seer?” Attu asked his father.
“He went into the forest a few minutes ago.” Ubantu made the sign for having to relieve yourself. “He has not returned yet. He said his stomach was hurting.”
“What do we do now?”
Rika! Where are you? Attu mind spoke as strongly as he could, trying to keep the panic out of his thoughts.
No reply.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Attu hissed, and he reached for his mother and turned to flee, mind speaking to Ashukat and Tingiyok as he did so. But two hunters grabbed his arms and Attu realized, too late, that they were surrounded. Kagit was forcing them to enter the cedar house.
Rovek’s eyes were wide with terror. He pulled to free himself. So did the others. But the Ravens were now bristling with weapons, and Attu’s people were dragged into the cedar house, rounded up to the front, and dumped by the Raven hunters onto the floor in front of Kagit.
Rika!
Where could she be? Has someone already grabbed her and dragged her off?
Bile rose in Attu’s throat at the thought of what might be happening to Rika at this very moment. He jumped to his feet again, but a Raven hunter hit him on the back of his head with his spear butt. Pain exploded in Attu’s skull as the weapon struck him right where the rock had injured him in the landslide. He fell to the ground, his head pounding. Attu felt like his head was a rotten water skin that could split at any moment. He held his face in his hands, trying to overcome the pain by sheer will.
We have to do something... oww...
Yural slid over beside him. “We’ll find her,” she whispered. “Sit still. Don’t draw attention to yourself again. The potion Rika had me take isn’t making me sick, but it has seemed to clear my mind. We’ll think of something.”
Attu knew his mother was right. He had to go along with the Ravens until he could think of some way they could escape, but everything in him screamed to fight these people, even though they were so outnumbered it would be no real fight at all.
Why did they wait until now to show us their true feelings toward us? Because we’re leaving? That makes no sense...
Attu tried to clear his mind, but the pain in his head was so intense he thought he might pass into the Between. He struggled to look around him, to look for a way out, a way to get to Rika, wherever she was.
Kagit had moved to sit on the raised platform, surrounded by his hunters. Large woven mats hung from the top of the shelter at the front corners of the cedar house to the floor of the platform, shortening the width of the platform. Attu saw the mats rustle. People were moving behind them. Attu wondered what they were doing.
“You,” Kagit pointed to Paven. “Sit here,” he motioned for Paven to sit beside him on the raised platform. “You,” he pointed again at Ubantu then looked around for Ashukat. When he didn’t see him, Kagit frowned and sent two of his hunters to look for the Seer outside.
Someone shouted behind the cedar house. The crowd inside disappeared for a second and Attu saw darkness before him, heard screams, and a shape loom
ed, dark and huge over his head. He looked up. He saw something. What was it? And he heard Ashukat in his mind. I saw it. I know what it means. I’ve seen it before- but then he was back in the cedar house, people crammed in to it so tightly Attu thought the planks would pop outward from the walls with their numbers.
What had Ashukat seen before?
Attu’s head reeled. The pain was not subsiding, but pounding in a rhythm with his pounding heart.
It has always been about their great numbers. We’re afraid of Raven’s people because there are so many of them. How can you fight so many people? But we’ve got to. If not, we’ll all become his slaves.
Attu looked around, trying to think, trying to figure out some way for them still to escape, and hoping he would see Rika. Attu noticed the smallest Raven children were gone, probably taken to bed. The few Clan children were curled up in their mother’s laps, or were leaning against them, most sleeping.
The sweet drink must have affected the children more than the adults. What should we do? What should I do? And where ARE you, Rika?
Two hunters came in through one of the back doors of the shelter, half carrying, half dragging Ashukat between them.
Attu jumped to his feet. Kagit said, “Sha, sha,” but Attu ignored his command to stop and tried to get to Ashukat. Two Ravens grabbed him and threw him back down on the floor of the long house. Attu’s head was spinning, but he reached out with his mind, anyway.
Ashukat. What’s wrong?
I saw it. I saw it. The old Seer’s mind seemed distant, as if he were speaking from a long ways off. It was the same, the same, the screams, the people. It is what I saw. Oh, why couldn’t I... his thoughts trailed away.
I know. I saw what you were trying to show us. What is it?
The same... Ashukat’s mind speak drifted away as the men stopped and lay Ashukat down in the spot reserved for him.
Kagit laughed at the sight of the sprawling Elder.
His people laughed in response, and more pushed their way around the sides and back of the cedar house until they stood along every wall, several deep, as if to get a better view of the raised platform. And all the Raven hunters had weapons at the ready.