Bonesetter 2 -Winter-

by Laurence E. Dahners

  Sidean had felt quite surprised when he learned that the evil spirit had apparently kept him from being able to see clearly. Or, somehow had allowed him to see people apparently happy, eating well, and going about normal business, who instead were actually hungry, miserable, and engaged in depravities he’d been unable to witness.

  He’d listened to the medicine men, initially with wide-eyed surprise, and later with narrow eyed suspicion. But then, he’d wondered what reason the medicine men could possibly have for painting such a bleak picture right over his pleasant description. Surely there was no benefit in it for them. Eventually he began to wonder if indeed his eyes had been deceived. Then he wondered how the medicine men could see the true picture when their eyes hadn’t been on the journey with Wenax and himself.

  By their description, the two medicine men had engaged some of their clairvoyant powers to enable them to travel to Cold Springs in spirit form. There, they claimed to have witnessed the agony and suffering of the people of Cold Springs. Torments that were limited to the depths of the Cold Springs cave where no one from the outside could see it.

  Nosset shook his head mournfully, “It’s our sacred duty to these beleaguered neighbors to free them from this oppression.”

  Staring, Sidean looked at Nosset, “How would we do that?!”

  Pont turned his gaze on Sidean as if he thought Sidean was particularly dense. “The evil spirit resides within the fading husk of the boy Pell. We need do no more than kill what appears to be a boy, but is actually only the boy’s shell. Without the support of the boy’s remaining life force, the evil spirit will fade back whence it came.”

  Wenax spoke at last, “If Pell’s the one I think he is, he doesn’t look like no ‘husk.’ He’s big and healthy lookin’. I know I wouldn’t want to challenge him!”

  “That’s why we need to go after him with all six of our hunters,” Nosset said.

  Pont said, “He may be big, but he was always a clumsy and inadequate hunter. He won’t be able to stand against six of you.”

  “Pont and I will be right behind you,” Nosset said, “using all of our powers to restrain the evil spirit so that you’ll just be fighting the human boy. With our restraint protecting you, a spear will kill him just like it would any other boy.”

  Pont intoned ominously, “Not only do we owe this to our neighbors the Aldans and the Cold Springs tribes, but we owe it to our own people here. If this evil spirit isn’t stopped now, it will only become more powerful. Soon it will spread its power over all the tribes in this area, wreaking its foul and malevolent will on people everywhere!”

  Sidean felt chills run over his body at Pont’s words. To his surprise he found that he wanted the boy dead! So did the others apparently, after some raucous shouting and raised fists they made plans to set out in the morning.

  That night, as Sidean lay on his bedding waiting to fall asleep, he wondered what had happened. He’d gone into the Oppos’ meeting feeling sure that there was nothing to fear from the Aldans, nor any evil in Cold Springs. He’d believed firmly that Yadin had simply decided he’d rather live in Cold Springs. Sidean’d certainly felt that he knew better than anyone here in the Oppos what was going on in those two tribes, after all, he’d actually gone there and seen what was happening.

  Yet, somehow, the two medicine men had managed to muddy his thoughts! He’d come to believe that what had seemed so clear to him in the light of day, was merely a deception brought on by an evil spirit. What if that wasn’t true?

  Well, if it’s not true, the worst that will happen is that we’ll kill that boy Pell. He may never have brought us any harm, but he hasn’t done us any good either. Better that the boy lies dead in error, than we fail to kill him only to later find that he truly is possessed of an evil spirit. An evil spirit seeking to destroy us and our children.

  Gritting his teeth against a sick unease roiling his stomach, Sidean wished that sleep would overtake him.

  ***

  Yadin set his flint knapping equipment up out on the ledge in front of the Cold Springs cave. Choosing a spot next to where Donte usually worked, he brought out a stack of ten of the huge pile of small furs the tribe had to sit on. It was still kind of cold, and Donte hadn’t come out yet, but he hoped when she did she’d wind up sitting down next to him and they could talk. He’d been worried that she was going to think he was just following her around like a young boy with his first crush. This way, she would be coming to him.

  As he sat, idly turning a nodule of flint this way and that, seeking the tool that might be hidden in it, his mind turned to the things he’d learned since joining the tribe. How to make spirit meat. How to make traps for mice, grouse, and fish. He suspected the tribe used the same traps for rabbits and other small animals as well. Though he’d never thought of knowledge as a prized possession before, he’d realized that if he left here and went to join another tribe, the ability to do these things would make him very welcome. This kind of knowledge was a kind of wealth just as concrete as a well done spear point.

  He found it hard to believe the assertions of the people here; that the boy-man Pell had come up with almost all of these ideas. However, he’d witnessed the “handled axe” come into being himself. The axe wasn’t perhaps on the same level as the traps which brought you food without effort, but it was something he could make which would—at least until others learned to replicate it—trade high at the summer meetings.

  Suddenly, his mind’s eye saw the head for another handled-axe head in the nodule he held.

  A hard blow with his antler hammer sheared off the first piece of flint.

  As Yadin worked, chipping off flake after flake on the way to shaping another axe head, his mind settled into the routine. After a bit, his consciousness began to roam and he thought about his old tribe the Oppos for the first time in days. His first thought was how he should ask permission to go back to them and teach them some of the things he’d learned here at Cold Springs. When he’d left the Oppos, he’d been unhappy. He’d wanted to leave, but now a little distance had left him feeling more benevolently toward some of the people back at his home cave. Not Nosset. Nor the new medicine man, Pont; but some of the others. He couldn’t help but think how much better their lives would be if he taught them to trap small animals and make spirit meat.

  After thinking about how he’d like to visit them, he considered guiltily that he’d said he’d return long before now. After all, they’d sent him on a mission to scout out the Aldans and Pell, a mission he’d finished… except for the part about reporting back.

  Uneasily, he realized that he really should have reported back to ease their fears. Otherwise, they might think that he’d been taken over by the “evil spirit” Pont claimed inhabited Pell.

  He snorted to himself, thinking that hardly anything could be farther from the truth than the idea that an evil spirit controlled Pell.

  What if Pont, and that idiot Nosset, talk Jalgon into doing something regrettable? Jalgon had always been aggressive, ever since he’d been young. He liked to fight, and though he didn’t exactly seek out confrontation, he was never one to back down from it. Yadin worried that perhaps the kind of tales Pont had told would be just the kind of thing to give Jalgon an excuse to… Yadin wasn’t exactly sure what Jalgon might do, but somebody would probably get hurt.

  Yadin wondered whether he should explain his concerns to Pell, but decided the boy was too young to burden with such issues. He might have had some good ideas, but he surely wouldn’t have any idea what to do if another tribe decided to attack Cold Springs. Yadin didn’t consider speaking to Agan about it. Although he’d heard the people calling her their leader, the whole concept of a woman leader was foreign to him.

  He saw Tando walking his way.

  “Tando,” Yadin called out.

  Tando’s eyes turned to Yadin’s direction, and he came over. Looking at the nodule and Yadin’s hand, he frowned and said, “What’re you working on?” Then his forehead smoothed as Ya
din turned it and Tando recognized the underlying form. “You’re making another axe head!” he said with a grin. Then his look changed to dubious, “Does Deltin need two?”

  Yadin said, “Probably not. But that first one may break, and even if it doesn’t, eventually it’ll have to be sharpened. After I sharpen it enough times, it’ll be too small to be much good.”

  Tando said, “True, but why not just make another axe head when you need it?”

  Yadin grinned, “Well, I thought someday we might go trading.” His eyes twinkled, “Then I thought, if Deltin mounted some of these ax heads on handles, we might trade them dearly.”

  A smile spread over Tando’s face, “Oh… Yeaahh! That’s a great idea!”

  Tando stood there pondering a minute. Then, saying, “Good idea,” he turned to go.

  Yadin said, “Hold on, I was wanting to talk to you.”

  Tando turned back. Taking a deep breath, Yadin picked his way through a description of what had happened back in the Oppos. The arrival of Pont, his depiction of what had happened to the Aldans, his blaming of Pell, and the claim that Pell was inhabited by a demon spirit. “So, our leader Jalgon, dispatched me on a mission to find out what’s really going on. I wasn’t actually supposed to talk to any of you, just observe.” He shrugged, “And, I was supposed to be back quite a while ago.”

  Tando didn’t look alarmed, but he did look unhappy. “Pont!” He said in a disgusted tone, “That bandy legged… I swear, he didn’t enter this world through his mother’s birth canal; he passed through the opening right behind it!” Tando shook his head as if to clear it, “What’re you thinking might happen?”

  Yadin pursed his lips in thought, “I don’t really know…” he said hesitantly. “But Jalgon, our leader, he became the leader because he’s a fighter, better than anybody else. He tends to think that the solution to every problem is a fight of some kind. Nosset, our medicine man, who by the way is completely useless, seems very enamored of Pont.” He paused for a moment, then continued sadly, “I’m afraid that Pont and Nosset will convince Jalgon that something must be done and that Jalgon will think the best solution involves a spear.”

  Dawning horror spread across Tando’s face, “You think they’ll try to kill Pell?!”

  Yadin nodded slowly, “Or maybe…” he looked grim, “the whole tribe. Jalgon’s fond of a story by one of our best storytellers about two tribes fighting each other until one of them has killed all the hunters in the other tribe.”

  Aghast, Tando said, “Leaving the women to starve?!”

  A little shamefacedly, Yadin said, “No, taking the women as slaves.” He shrugged, “As I say, it’s only a story. But the fact that Jalgon likes that story…” he trailed off as if he didn’t think it needed to be explained any further.

  “Spirits!” Tando said vehemently. Then he astonished Yadin by turning to leave, saying, “I’ve got to go tell Agan about this!”

  Agan? What in the world could she do about a problem like this? Yadin wondered. After a few moments thought, he decided he’d done what he could and turned back to his axe head. He looked up again when Woday went by carrying his crayfish basket.

  Minutes later Gurix hurried past, her eye on Woday’s retreating form. He frowned. Is she following him? I thought she loved Pell.

  Woday walked the familiar path down along the stream. He wondered how his two fish traps had done overnight. The water, always chilly, seemed to be getting even colder and slower. He knew from growing up with the Falls-people that crayfish were harder to find in wintertime. Ordinary fish could still be speared occasionally, but they were seen less frequently as well. He wondered whether the basket traps would stop working as winter arrived.

  As he walked on, he thought about this and wondered whether the fishing would be better down in the main river. After all, the stream here in Cold Springs ravine was colder than regular water. If crayfish and regular fish didn’t like the cold, perhaps there were more of them in the warmer water of the big river.

  Woday glanced up at the sky. Though the day was cold he didn’t feel too chilly since he was walking steadily. There weren’t many clouds, so he didn’t think the weather would suddenly turn worse. After I empty the traps, I think I’ll take them on down to the main river and see how they do there. Behind him he heard a girl’s voice, “Woday?”

  Startled, Woday turned and saw her on the path behind him, “Gurix! What are you doing down here!”

  She gave him a sly smile, “Stalking you! You’d better be glad I’m not a lion!” She waved at the forest around them, “You really should pay more attention to what’s going on around you.”

  “I’ve been told that too many times to count,” Woday grimaced, “I get to thinking about something, and I lose track of the world around me.” He smiled at the pretty young girl and continued, “You still didn’t tell me what you’re doing down here.”

  She shrugged, “I like eating your fish, even those funny things you call crayfish. I thought I’d come with you and see how you catch them.”

  “Well, we’re just about where I put out the traps.” He looked around, then pointed to where one of the ropes came out of the water. “Over here.”

  He walked her over and they pulled up the fish trap. There was only one fish, though it was a good-sized one. Shortly they pulled up the crayfish trap from an area that Woday had thought would be good, but it only held twelve crayfish. Gurix said, “I thought you usually got more fish than that?” She glanced further down the river, “Or do you have more traps to pull up?”

  Disappointed not to have a huge haul to show the girl, Woday said, “No, only the two traps so far. Usually they bring in plenty, so there hasn’t seemed to be much of a reason to build more.” He shrugged, “I think that as the weather and the water gets colder, the fish stay in their homes… Or burrows, or wherever they live.”

  “Oh,” Gurix said with a disappointed look. “Does that mean that you won’t be feeding us fish all winter like I hoped?”

  “Maybe not, though I did have this idea to try putting the traps down in the warmer water of the main river.”

  Gurix gave him an admiring glance, “That’s a great idea! Are you going to set traps down there now?”

  “I was going to,” Woday said, feeling very proud that she liked his idea, “but it’s quite a bit farther downstream. I should probably get you back to the cave.”

  “I don’t mind walking on down to the main river with you,” Gurix said curling her hand into the inside of Woday’s elbow, “I think it’d be fun.”

  “Um, okay…” Woday said, wondering if it really was. Would the people of Cold Springs feel like it was a little too dangerous to take a young girl all the way down to the main river? Maybe they wouldn’t think he should be alone with her so far from other people?

  Gurix tugged at his elbow to start him on his way.

  His guilt gave way to the enjoyment of walking with a pretty girl…

  ***

  Tando walked over to Pell where he sat at the dinner fire. With Gia sitting close on one side and Woday next to him on the other side, there wasn’t a place beside Pell for Tando to sit, so he squatted in front. Pell and Woday were talking about making a trip to get some honey in the morning, but Pell turned his eyes to Tando, smiled and gave him a questioning look. Tando said, “We need to talk about some news Yadin gave me today.” Pell merely lifted an eyebrow, so Tando went on to explain what Yadin had said about Pont and the Oppos.

  Pell lost his happy look, gaining a grimmer and bleaker expression as Tando told what he’d learned. Finally, he said, “What are we going to do?”

  Tando felt taken aback. He’d come to think of Pell as the one with the solutions, even though his rational mind realized that Pell was young, inexperienced, and couldn’t possibly have a solution to everything. “Um, I talked to Agan…”

  For a moment Pell looked pleased. As if he hadn’t been thinking about the fact that the tribe had a leader who should decide those things.
When Tando paused uncomfortably, Pell tilted his head and asked, “What did she say?”

  Tando shook his head, “She reminded me that Aganstribe hadn’t been in any fights. She hadn’t known what to do when the Aldans came to attack us and she wouldn’t know what to do if the Oppos did the same. She, uh…” Tando looked embarrassed.

  Pell frowned, “What?”

  “She said that fighting was a thing for men and that I should organize the men so we’d be ready if the Oppos came.”

  “Oh, okay. What should we do?”

  “Well, um, I was hoping you’d have some ideas.”

  Pell grimaced, “The only fights I’ve ever been in were Denit beating the crap out of me. I don’t know how to win a fight.”

  Tando drew his head back in surprise, “You won the fight against the Aldans when they came to attack us! I was thinking that the first thing you would do would be to ask the ‘trap spirit’ to be ready to attack again in case they came.”

  Exasperatedly, Pell said, “There wasn’t any ‘trap spirit’! I just tried to set up a human sized snare like we make for animals!”

  “But the trap spirit sent down all those rocks to attack the Aldans!”

  “But… but…” Pell spluttered to a stop, then shook his head as if realizing he’d never be able to explain what had happened so people understood. Resignedly, he said, “Okay, I’ll set it up tomorrow afternoon. Woday and I are going to get some honey in the morning.”

  Tando said, “What if the Oppos come tomorrow?”

  Pell got an obstinate look on his face, “Pretty soon it will be too cold to travel to where the honey is. Besides we have no idea when or even if the Oppos are going to come. We can’t stay here all the time just in case they do.”

  “But you could set up the trap spirit in the morning and go for the honey in the afternoon.”

  Pell shook his head, “In the morning it’s cold and a fast walk to get the honey will keep us warm. Climbing the cliff carrying cold rocks for the trap would be miserable in the morning. It’ll be better in the afternoon when the cliff’s a little warmer.”