Fargoer (20 page)

“The spirits have been in your favor, for after all of these ordeals you are still alive,” Eera blurted out after the long story.

“I feel like it’s the spirits themselves that always get me into trouble, hardship and sorrow, and with my own strength I have to overcome them. Did the spirits help me when my son and husband were slain? Did they brush honey on these lash marks when I was a slave to the intruders? Did they help me in my battle against Songman? Yes, the spirits have cursed me more, but from now on I will curse them back.” Vierra’s green eyes burned, and she sang.

Seita-stone you dog’s bone
Spirits big and small
I won’t fear your wretched warnings
I won’t hear your call

Try to meddle, try to settle
Do your worst to me
I cut your trees, ignore your fees
You can’t my fate foresee

Other tribe members listened to the mocking song, horrified, and many made a gesture protect them from evil.

“Stop this defiance at once! I understand that you have suffered a lot, and you want to find someone to blame for it, but this is not the right way. It is even worse that you chose to do so now.” Eera spread her arms around and toward the members of the tribe that sat beside her. “Is our tribe strong? The wisp’s disease and the southerners have taken half of us”.

Vierra’s expression didn’t change.

“Because you and Rika have healed me, I will obey your word. But my mind will not be easily changed.”

“Many of those, that you don’t see sitting here by the fire, have been taken away by the wisp’s disease. The very same that burned inside you. Still, when I asked the spirits of the plants to heal you, they bestowed it. Even though they’ve been silent when so many others have fallen ill and died. You should thank, not reproach.”

Vierra sat silently and thought about the words Eera had put on her. The tribe members were suddenly in a hurry to get back to their chores, wherever they might be. So it was they were reminded that this woman was the Fargoer, and the years hadn’t changed that. Rika looked sad, and Vierra looked at her old friend and softened her expression slightly, saying:

“Very well, I apologize for my words. My life hasn’t been easy. Every day since my son went to the underworld has been dark. Only defiance has kept me alive. Here in my homeland though, the sun warms me from the inside. Tell me everything that has happened while I was away.”

And Rika told her. She told of the lean years, how she had found a man from the winter camp, had a son. They both had died of disease last fall. The whole tribe had been afflicted by a serious wisp fever, and not only them but other members of the Kainu too. Rika, who usually was happy, had a grim expression on her face.

“And the disease didn’t avoid the chieftain either. All of Aure’s daughters fell ill and died, one after another. And then her husbands, two out of three were lost. Only the oldest and strongest, Kaira, was left alive.”

Vierra listened thoughtfully.

“Did my cousin go to the underworld too?”

“No, the spirits saved her. Even so ... I wouldn’t say it to her out loud.” Rika lowered her voice. Vierra remembered never seeing her friend scared like that. “She buried her family in the swamp herself. She buried them like old witches were buried once, without burning. Eera tried to stop her, but Aure was distraught with sorrow. I’ve never seen her like that. And after that ...”

“Where is she now?” Vierra interrupted and looked around, looking for Aure.

“As if it was not enough that the disease has thinned our numbers and the spirits have been silent, the southern hay-biting fur traders have started to steal furs during the last few years, and last spring they came with large groups of men and attacked our unsuspecting sisters. Many Kainu died, and they took women with them to the south, as prisoners. And they didn’t burn the bodies of those they killed, but left them to rot, desecrated.

“But where is Aure?” Vierra asked with a hint of impatience in her voice.

Rika smiled pallidly. “Be patient and I’ll tell you. Aure summoned a great gathering, all the Kainu. She’s planning a war expedition against the southerners. They are probably on their way here right now, now that the smiling sun has driven away the ice. Eera tried to talk to her, suggesting that perhaps we should wait another spring and build up our defenses. But Aure had made her decision.

“I too have seen what the southerners can do. Maybe I would have done the same, had I been in Aure’s position.”

Rika had no time to answer, because the tribe members that had escaped Vierra’s outburst silently returned to the village square. The reason for their return soon became apparent when the grim-faced chieftain of the tribe emerged from the forest.

Campfire council

The spring evening was rapidly darkening into a pitch-black night. The fires lit by the Kainu reflected a play of flickering lights and shadows onto the faces of those who were sitting in a ring around the flames. Aure stood in the center of the ring, close to the fire. The red of the flame played with her hard features as she explained what had happened at the gathering. The hood she had pulled over her head highlighted the furrows of her face.

“The great women of the Kainu were in discord, as you guessed,” Aure said while pointing to Rika. “And by following your advice, I persuaded them to stand with me.”

Aure took a small break.

“The speaker for our southern tribes is a man.”

“I told you it would be so.” Rika said with a smile in her eyes, a smile which didn’t reach her face though.

Eera wasn’t a part of the council. It was rumored that she would leave for her final journey this summer, and leave her place for Rika.

“You’ll become a witch one of these days, as long as the war party proves to be successful,” Aure replied. “I will take two hunters with me. We will unite with the others and make the dishonorable southerners fear our forests.”

Aure let her eyes move around the people of her tribe, people whose numbers had been depleted by disease and hunger. There weren’t many young, eager faces.

“Kaira,” Aure said, and an immensely strong man stepped toward his wife in the center of the ring. “Who else wants to come?”

“I want to break southerners’ skulls,” a tall young man blurted while squeezing his hands into fists.

“Any other volunteers beside Kaarto?” Aure asked. “Even though you’re eager, you’re too young and inexperienced for a hunting trip like this. And we may not return from this journey. We have so few of you young ones.” The expression on the face of the grim chieftain was darker than ever.

The silence was only broken by the crackling of firewood in the campfire. The tribe members, who had suffered so much, just wanted to move to the places of fire festival and rising salmon of the summer. The war party was like a torn moose skin to their normal circle of life.

“I can go with you.” The one who carried this deep and sonorous voice stepped confidently beside Aure and Kaira, even though Aure hadn’t chosen her yet.

Rika’s eyes widened with surprise. Her wits were quickly with her, though.

“Vierra, you cannot go into war, you are sick.”

Aure put her hand to her cousin’s shoulder. The gesture was warm, but Vierra felt nothing behind it. She remembered Aure as she had always been: sparkly like a campfire made of spruce. Now the chieftain exuded coldness and indifference. That person that stood beside her was unknown to Vierra. The old Aure would have surely made her opinion known by all.

“If there are no other volunteers, get the gathering rocks. Let the will of the tribe decide, who goes.”

It was made so, and more wood was added to the central fire. Lighted by the refreshed flames, the members of the tribe voted who would go to war. Most didn’t hesitate, and dropped their rocks straight to the jar. Rika’s expression was grim, when Aure poured the contents of the gathering jar to a lighted up spot near the fire.

Only one rock seconded Kaarto. Judging by the other votes, Vierra would be the one to go. The tribe spoke as if with one voice, and Rika’s grief poured over.

“Why did you volunteer?” she yelled to Vierra, with a rare anger in her voice. “I thought that you were my friend, but it seems I was wrong.” The red-haired woman turned around and disappeared to the dark with a determined, strong step.

“We leave at daybreak,” Aure stated. Nothing about her gave away what she thought about the incident, but the color of her rock as well as those of the tribe was clear.

Vierra shaded her eyes from the rising sun. It was engulfed by a light curtain of clouds that colored the light blood red. Squinting her eyes, Vierra looked toward a high hill atop of which a funeral was taking place.

All of the Kainu had gathered there, and Vierra climbed up on the hill among the others. The fire burned fiercely, and it was not possible to recognize the deceased as the body was already engulfed by the flames. Everyone stood there, silent. Someone should have said the funeral words, but nobody did a thing. Vierra looked at the expressionless, sad faces of her fellow tribe members. None of them looked back. She tried to sing on their behalf, but nobody listened, and her voice disappeared into the wind.

A huge eagle approached from the east, as if emerging straight from the rising sun. The light glowed on the tips of its wings as it came, gliding majestically toward the funeral. Skillfully and calmly it circled down and grabbed the deceased with its talons from amid the fire, like its earthly brother would have taken a hare.

Turmoil took over the tribe. If they were silent before, now they yelled together on top of each other’s voices and ran down from the hill, wherever they could. Vierra clapped her hands on her ears. The eagle had disappeared back to where it had come from, with its prey.

Vierra snapped awake. Anxiety burned her chest, and bad thoughts rose to anguish her from every direction. Her body, weakened by the long illness, screamed for rest, but her restless mind didn’t allow her to fall asleep again. She twisted and turned on her bed skin in the lone women’s hut, and tried to push her mind and thoughts aside for long enough so she could catch sleep.

Launi was snoring, just like during those countless nights that Vierra had spent in the same hut when she still resided with her tribe. Rika was nowhere to be seen, however. Since the family of the witch-to-be had died of disease, she too had been sleeping in the lone women’s hut; and would continue to do so until receiving the witch’s necklace after which she would have a lean-to to herself.

Finally Vierra got up, frustrated. If she couldn’t sleep, she might as well go and look for Rika. Maybe she could make amends with her friend before leaving.

Almost impenetrable darkness greeted her beyond the door skin of the hut. The Kainu huts along with the trees surrounding the camp loomed black in the dark gray surroundings. Soon the Kainu would leave to fish the salmon rising to the streams in the summer, and after the fire festival they would again separate along with their families to fish and spend the last warm days of the summer resting and gathering strength for the long autumn and winter.

The camp was silent, and indeed there was no reason in moving around in the dark. The night birds of the summer didn’t sing so early in spring, and the night was as silent as it was dark.

Vierra sharpened her eyes to catch her surroundings. A few dogs lifted their ears as she moved, but didn’t bark. She had spent enough time with the tribe so that the animals knew her scent, and counted her as one of the members.

Only red embers were left of the fire that had been burning in the center of the camp, and it brought a small and dim glow of light to the darkness. Vierra moved closer and soon heard the voices of women who were talking there, quietly. She sneaked closer, not daring to interrupt their discussion.

“I am tired, both of dealing with all the ills and squabbles of the tribe and of my own weakness. Besides, you take care of everything better than I now can. You don’t need me anymore, I’m just a burden. You have gathered your necklace and I’ve taught you everything I know. It’s time to summon the spirits to judge your next step.”

The talker was Eera. Vierra only saw a hunched figure against the glow of the embers, but the voice of the old witch was unmistakable. So was the voice that answered the elder, it was the one which had spoken to Vierra last night in anger and disappointment. There was a similar bitterness present this time as well.

“You can’t leave now, when the fate of the chieftain and the future of our whole people are at stake while we go to war against the southerners. I can’t persuade the spirits to be favorable in such great things. They haven’t even accepted me yet.”

“They will. Give me your necklace.” The shapes moved against the weak glow of the ember. “This is finely made. Perfect. You have nothing to fear while carrying this on your neck.”

“Then leave. Leave, all of you, die or leave!”

There was an angry determination in Rika’s step as she swept through the opening. Even if the young witch had seen Vierra when she passed her, she didn’t let it show.

Vierra got up from her hideout. Eera’s dark shape looked at her for a moment, but neither of them said anything. Soon Vierra slipped back into her hut.