People of the Nightland(143)
“Raven Hunter will find a way. Perhaps, at the last moment, he’ll divert the water.” He searched the ice roof over their heads, as though expecting to see Raven Hunter swooping down to speak with him.
Skimmer pulled her cape more tightly around her shoulders and shivered. “Have you seen him lately?”
“Yes, often.”
“Ti-Bish, doesn’t it frighten your people when you tell them that?”
“Does it frighten you?”
“I … I don’t know.”
He bowed his head and smiled. “Skimmer, every man walks away from the herd sometime. When he chooses to stand alone in the meadow, he knows the predators will see him. He also knows they will be waiting. There was a time”—he hesitated—“a time when I moved too far from the herd. I’ll never do that again. I only tell my people what they need to know. It keeps them at bay.”
How strange that he thought of his own people as predators. But why wouldn’t he? It had been only ten summers ago that he’d been a homeless outcast, loathed by almost everyone, chased from village to village.
They walked closer to the black cavern, and Skimmer said, “You once told me that you’d brought me here to pray with you. But we haven’t prayed together. Not yet.”
He stopped and looked at her with luminous eyes. “Prayer is … not what you think. Not what most people think. It isn’t begging the gods for something. It isn’t undertaken to enlighten, or bring tranquility. It is an act of service done for the sake of the world. If people truly work to maintain harmony, the world will stay in balance. If they don’t, the Spiral of life will tilt, and everything will wither and die.”
Sorrow tinged the last few words, and tears welled in his eyes.
“Is that why there’s been so much war and sadness? The Spiral has tilted?”
“Yes, Raven Hunter has been trying to bring it back into balance, but his evil brother won’t allow it, and that’s why we must go back.”
“Back to the Long Dark?”
“Yes, back to a time before the brothers fought. Back to a time before they were even born.”
As though in response, a deep agonizing groan shook the Ice Giants, and massive slabs of ice cracked loose from the ceiling and crashed down. When they splashed into the lake, brilliant sprays of light burst into the air. Waves washed high onto the shore, wetting her to the knees. She felt the sand slide under her.
Skimmer lurched back against the wall, panting like a hunted animal.
Ti-Bish just smiled. “It’s all right,” he said softly. “The pain is almost over.”
Sixty
Nashat caught his balance as the quake hit. Impulsively, he cast a quick glance up at the ice overhead. Only a couple of gravel pellets clattered down around him. He could hear the ice moan, screech, and crack.
“Blessed Raven Hunter, I can’t wait to get out of this death trap!” Then he glanced around to make sure no one was close.
A sensation of doom was closing in around him, making breathing difficult. He hurried along, passed the opening to the Council Chamber, and stopped short. A huge block of ice had smashed down on his robes. White, and crusted with bands of gravel, it had shattered to send angular chunks of ice around half the room.
If I had been sitting there … No, don’t even think it.
In half panic, he trotted down the tunnel, feet crunching the gravel underfoot.
At the great opening, he stopped, staring. People had been coming from all over. Literal mountains of packs stood beside small camps. But for the moment, the people were congregated down at the shore. It took a moment for the meaning of the darkened sand to sink in. A large wave had washed up and then receded.
He glanced out at the Thunder Sea. He could see debris bobbing in the choppy water. Among the packs, boats, and floating hides, people splashed around. Some clung to wreckage, calling desperately.
Those on shore were dragging bull boats down to the water, intent on rescuing the survivors before the cold water claimed them.
He took a deep breath. When strong quakes shook the ice, it often broke off, splashing down into the Thunder Sea. His people knew better than to camp too close to the beach.
“Fools! Serves them right.”
Then he returned his attention to the piled packs. The people were ready to move. He shifted his glance to the south, as if seeing beyond the tundra and spruce barrens to the oak and maple forest beyond. A land abandoned, ready for a new people to move in and enjoy the bounty, far from this miserable ice and cold.
“I am sorry, Ti-Bish. But I think it’s time that Skimmer finally served her purpose.” He actually felt a sense of delightful relief. His long ordeal was over. At last, he need no longer endure the wide-eyed innocence of the Idiot.