Call Down the Stars (27 page)

She was working on a trader’s boat. The sewing basket at her side was one that Cen had given her, and the thought that she still owned it clutched at his heart. Sometimes she came back to him in dreams, as young and beautiful as when he first knew her, when he wanted nothing more in his life than to have her as wife.

Long ago, he had heard rumors that she had been sold as slave to the Walrus. He had avoided their village for that reason. But then she had begun to visit his dreams so often, he had decided that she was dead. He had not allowed himself to mourn, but instead rejoiced that there was no chance he would see her again.

She was evil beyond anything and anyone he had ever known. He shuddered to think of her raising Uutuk and wondered what horrors lived behind that girl’s dark eyes.

As K’os worked, she lifted her head once in a while and studied the iqyan. Surely she had noticed his, and he doubted that she would have forgotten the colors and symbols he used to mark his belongings.

For a moment he shifted his eyes out to the inlet, a sheltered bay, perfect for a village, good fishing in calm waters, and easy access to the sea. Fog had begun to move in, fingers spreading up the valleys and into the hills that rose behind the bay.

As trader, he wore the clothing of the villages he visited, partly because it was usually the best choice for the weather, partly so the villagers would accept him as one of their own. The First Men’s sax was a comfortable garment, loose in the shoulders for paddling, and the birdskins easily shed rain. But he had worn caribou hide pants for too many years to be warm when wearing only the long-skirted sax. The air was damp, and he felt the chill of it in his hips and knees.

He sighed and looked again at K’os. She bound her hair like a First Men wife, in a tight knot at the nape of her neck, and as she worked she raised a hand to twist several strands back into the bun. The gesture was too familiar. Suddenly he could feel the warmth of her hair lying over him as they lay naked together in his lodge. He could taste the woman smell of her.

Cen thought when he had found Gheli that K’os had lost her power over him, but how could he deny that there was still some part of her lodged in his heart? He was suddenly angry that he had so little control over what he felt. A man old enough to be a grandfather should not act like a young hunter, his lust ruling his mind.

He had been too long away from his wife. Perhaps there was a First Men woman who would trade favors for oil or dried caribou meat. If so, he needed to find her.

His disgust prodded him into movement, and he crossed the beach to the iqyax racks, purposely kept his back to K’os as he pretended to study the boats.

“I see you found yourself a First Men husband,” he said in the River tongue, though he directed his words at the iqyan.

“And you, have you found a new wife?” K’os asked, as though she had been waiting for him, as though they spoke often and there was no greeting or politeness necessary between them.

“A new wife?” Cen asked, puzzled. Then he tilted his head back and nodded. Of course, when K’os had left the Four Rivers village, Gheli had been sick. He had to admit that K’os had been good to them, had given Gheli many different kinds of medicines, but K’os must have believed that there was no hope.

“You think I’d live without a woman?” He turned to look at her as he asked the question.

She had changed more than he thought she would. For years she had remained the same, her skin unlined, hair dark, eyes bright. Her life, after leaving the Four Rivers village, must have been difficult. Deep lines scored her cheeks from her nose to her chin. Folds webbed out from the corners of her eyes, and her skin still carried the scabs and sores of sea travel. Of course, even Uutuk’s face had been marred with sores, and they would heal, but where Uutuk’s cheeks were unmarked like a River woman’s face, K’os had taken the tattoos of the First Men. Blue lines, nearly black, crossed the flats of her cheeks.

The wind had pushed up her sax, exposing a bit of her thigh, and there, too, he saw the marks that proclaimed her a First Men woman. Still—though she looked older, and in spite of the tattoos—she was beautiful. No man would pass her without looking again to enjoy that face, and he supposed that for a First Men hunter, the tattoos enhanced her beauty. He had a sudden and foolish urge to pull the sax down over her leg, a possessiveness that should belong only to a husband.

She’s not mine, he told himself. She has never been mine, and I do not want her.

“But why would I need a new wife?” he asked. “It’s difficult enough for a trader to care for one, and to find a woman who is loyal even when her husband spends long months away from their lodge.”

“I didn’t think you would want to raise Daes without a mother,” K’os said. “I’d have been a good mother to her. You know I did not kill my young River husband. You above all people know that.”

He took a step toward her, squatted, squinting his eyes against the grit the wind blew into his face. “I still think you killed him.”

She smiled at him. “You’re wrong. How terrible for me that you convinced the Four Rivers People I did.”

“If I had convinced them, then you’d be dead. As it was, they only asked that you leave.” He raised his hands and spread them wide. “It seems that you’re doing well. I met your daughter Uutuk. She’s a fine young woman, and she speaks well of you and your husband.”

“Be glad for me, Cen,” K’os said. “I’m old, but my life is good. Tell me about the Four Rivers village and your family. Have you found a husband for Daes? She must be past the age of marrying.”

“She’s promised to a hunter, but she still lives in my lodge. Her mother says she’s a good worker, and she helps care for her younger sister.”

“So you’ve given Ghaden another sister,” K’os said. “The last time I saw Ghaden, he was just a boy. He must be a man now. Is he married? Does he have children of his own?”

Cen did not answer, but instead turned back to his iqyax. It was one thing to speak about his daughters, who lived far from this Traders’ Beach, beyond the reach of K’os’s wickedness, another to think about Ghaden. Surely he had changed enough that K’os would not recognize him.

Cen ran a hand over his iqyax and K’os said, “It’s by far the finest on the beach. Where did you get it?”

“In trade,” he said. “There’s a River hunter who makes iqyan in the way of the First Men.” He faced her, met her eyes and said, “He has the gift of the sea otter.” He looked down at his feet, just a flick of his eyelids, but he heard her hiss, and knew that she understood that her son, Chakliux, had made the iqyax.

K’os took a few quick stitches in her husband’s boat cover. With her eyes on her work, she said, “So you found another wife.”

“Your medicine was stronger than you thought. Gheli is alive.”

Disbelief, anger, hatred twisted her face, each like a dancer’s mask falling off to be replaced by another, but finally she smiled. “I’m glad. For you and for Gheli. Now tell me about your new daughter.”

Cen shrugged. He wanted to be done with this conversation. K’os was like a deadfall trap, ready to catch and crush anyone who was not wary. “She’s a baby,” he replied. “What is there to say? She cries and she sleeps and she eats.”

Before K’os could ask another question, he walked away, flexing his shoulders, brushing his hands through his hair, like a man in the tundra during the moon of flies and gnats.

T
HE MORNING TRADING WAS
slow, and after a time Ghaden asked if he might go with several of the First Men out into the inlet to fish.

Cen had shrugged his permission. Why keep Ghaden with him when one man could easily handle the trades? Besides, it would be good to give a few fish to Qung, especially if they decided to leave the village in the next day or two.

Ghaden caught several pogies, the delicate-flavored, green-fleshed fish so prized by the First Men, and Cen told him to give them to Qung, then come and take his place so Cen could spend some time on the ulax roofs talking to the elders. Often the best trades were made because of friendship. But by midafternoon, Ghaden had not yet returned, and finally Cen left his trade goods and went to Qung’s ulax.

Ghaden was there, beside Uutuk, across from Qung, the three with their heads bent together. Playing some game, no doubt, Cen thought. Ghaden was always lucky with casting bones, and more than once had won some hunter’s prized treasure.

Traders had to be careful about their luck in games. Good luck usually twisted itself into bad trades. But when Cen squatted beside them he realized that Ghaden was showing the women the scars left by the brown bear that had killed Ghaden’s old dog Biter and nearly killed Ghaden as well. So, his son had been telling stories to storytellers. Why not? It was a good tale, and the boy told it without boasting, save about his dog. But there was too much sadness in the dog’s death, and the pain in Ghaden’s voice when he spoke of what had happened always tore at Cen’s heart.

He saw this same pain on Uutuk’s face, and suddenly felt as protective toward her as though she were his own daughter, so his voice was harsh when he spoke to his son.

“You sit here when I asked you to come and watch over our trade goods? I guess you would rather be a woman and stay in the ulax all day.”

Ghaden’s jaw tightened, but he got to his feet and pulled on his parka, then left without speaking except for a word of politeness to Qung.

Uutuk offered Cen a water bladder and then fish, gestured toward the mats, and asked him to sit down. He remained standing and waved away the fish, but lifted the bladder to his mouth, squeezed out a stream of water, and, when he had drunk his fill, wiped his hand across his lips.

Qung shook her head, rousing herself as though she were waking from a dream, and looked at him from slitted eyes. “You have not changed much, Cen. You still have more words than necessary. Your boy tells a good tale.”

Cen opened his mouth as though to reply, but Qung held up one hand to silence him. “You have no reason for worry. He will never be a storyteller. He has the words and the gift, but not the desire.” She struggled to her feet, and Cen leaned down to offer his hand. When she was standing, she lifted one finger and wagged it in his face, began to scold him as though he were a child. “Do not make him into a trader. Hunting is in his hands and his heart. If you have not yet realized that, then you are more foolish than your words.” She turned her back on him and busied herself with women’s work.

Cen had no answer for her, so rather than stand there trying to decide what to say, he left the ulax. He paused when he was on the roof and looked out toward the beach. He saw Ghaden pulling packs into place, arranging trade goods. For what little he had given the boy, Ghaden was a far better son than Cen deserved. Too often he had left Ghaden in the care of others, too often depended on Ghaden’s sisters and their husbands to teach him and take care of him.

Cen had never even asked Ghaden to come to his own lodge in the Four Rivers village, but that was because of his wife Gheli. She was a shy woman, strong in many ways, but unsure when it came to her own worth. Cen saw the dread in her eyes every time he talked about Ghaden. And why not? He was the son of the woman Cen had loved above all others. Gheli, as fine a wife as she was, could not drive the dead Daes from Cen’s heart. He wished he had not given Gheli’s daughter Daes’s name. She had grown into a fine woman, tall and strong like her mother, but too often Cen found himself comparing her with that first Daes, seeing his daughter’s shortcomings rather than her abilities.

As he watched his son, Cen’s heart seemed to grow until it ached in the tight spaces of his chest. Finally he turned his eyes away, looked off into the foothills, and thought of other things besides good sons and strong daughters.

K’os ran her hands over the sides of Seal’s trading boat one last time. The seams were as good as she could make them. Perhaps the boat would get them to the River People’s villages, but her stomach knotted when she thought of that journey. More than once Seal’s stubbornness had brought them trouble.

She was wise enough to know that arguing with him about a new boat cover would only make him more determined to keep the old. She had seal bellies of oil that were her own, and she could trade those, but she hated to waste them on hides for a boat cover. Perhaps she could convince Seal to leave her and Uutuk here while he traded at some First Men’s village a day or two down the coast. Surely he would not try to take the unwieldy boat by himself, but would invite another trader to travel with him. Without doubt, any man would be quick to point out that Seal needed a new cover, and Seal would listen to a stranger long before he would hear what she had to say.

K’os hated her helplessness. In many ways, her life would be easier without Seal, but how could she and Uutuk go by themselves to the River People? They could not paddle a boat all that way, and even if they could, she would not risk returning alone without a husband to the Walrus Hunters. What would keep them from reclaiming her as slave?

She was not welcome at Chakliux’s village. Of course, there were other River villages, but they were farther away from the coast. It would be very difficult to travel that far, she and Daughter alone, walking the tundra. Too bad Cen held so much anger against her. He knew all the River villages.

She thought of Gheli. K’os had given the woman enough poison to kill more than three men. How had she survived?

Suddenly K’os found herself smiling. She would like to have another chance at that one. She and Gheli saw the world through the same eyes. Theirs would be a fine battle, and K’os would have the advantage because Gheli did not know K’os was still fighting. Women were warriors in ways that men would never understand.

K’os allowed herself a moment to think about the wars she had fought and won: with Chakliux’s first wife, Gguzaakk; with Fox Barking; with Ground Beater. Each victory brought its own kind of power, and now, though she was years away from those conquests, she felt them strengthen her anew.

She lifted her eyes to the rise of land at the back of the beach and saw Uutuk standing there. K’os forced herself to smile. Uutuk lifted a hand in greeting and hurried toward her. The girl’s dark hair blew free in the wind, and K’os’s heart beat hard in fierce gladness. This daughter would bring K’os everything she wanted.