Seekers #6: Spirits in the Stars (17 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Ujurak

Standing on the hilltop, Ujurak was
hardly aware of when Kallik left him. Instead he was lost in the memory of what he had dreamed the night before.

Starlight sparkled on the snow. Ujurak gazed into the black depths of the sky, tracing out the shape of his mother, Ursa. She looked so close that he felt he could almost reach up a paw to touch her.

Then, as Ujurak gazed upward, the stars began to spin. Ursa’s shape was lost as they swirled into a glittering whirlpool, then spun outward again and began to take on a new shape.

Ujurak held his breath in astonishment as he saw the widespread wings, the wedge-shaped tail, and the strong beak, and heard the harsh cry that came from it.

A raven!

The star-bird swooped down, circling Ujurak’s head, and landed on the snow by his side. As soon as its claws touched the ground, it began to grow, its feathers billowing outward. Its beak shrank away, and the feathers vanished from its face and wings. A tall, imposing flat-face stood by Ujurak’s side, clad in a cloak of black feathers. Snow swirled up and glittered around him, forming an icy mist.

As Ujurak watched, stunned to silence, the flat-face turned to him and beckoned. Then his form faded into the mist. Before he finally disappeared, he opened his mouth, but all that came out was the harsh caw of a raven.

Ujurak blinked, shivering, and realized that he was still standing on the ridge, looking down at the snow-dens below. He remembered the call of the star-bird and the flat-face; it was exactly the same as the cry of the raven that had swooped over his head and then flown down to the flat-face denning area.

This flat-face has something to tell me,
Ujurak thought.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw no sign of any other bears. He hesitated for a moment, then began to plod downhill toward the snow-dens. As he walked, he reluctantly let his bear shape slip away, relinquishing his fur for the almost hairless skin of a flat-face. He rose to his hindpaws, staggering a little before he found the balance of this unfamiliar shape.

By the time he reached the snow-dens, he was naked and shivering, hugging himself in a vain attempt to keep warm. His bear senses had not entirely left him; he crept up to the nearest of the dens and made sure by sniffing and listening that there was no one inside.

Ducking into the entrance tunnel, Ujurak found himself in a circular den. Pale daylight filtered in through a square of ice set in the roof. At the opposite side from the tunnel was a raised section of packed snow, spread with twigs and caribou hides.

Investigating, Ujurak found some flat-face pelts there, too: He slipped on a coat made of caribou and some pelt-wraps for his legs. Glancing around, alert in case the flat-face who lived there came back, he spotted a pair of pelts the same shape as his awkward flat-face hindpaws. Ujurak slipped his feet into them and headed out of the tunnel again.

Just as he emerged into the open, he heard a shout behind him. Startled, he spun around to see a female flat-face—
no, a woman
, he reminded himself, trying to gather his memories of the language of the flat-faces. She was tall, with a tanned, lined face and gray hair wisping from underneath her head covering.

“What were you doing in Akaka’s igloo?” she demanded.

Ujurak ducked his head respectfully. “I . . . I was looking for someone,” he stammered. “I’ve come a long way to speak to the man who wears a black cloak of feathers.”

The woman frowned. “You mean Tulugaq?”

Hoping he was right, Ujurak nodded.

To his relief the woman’s face softened. “Not many people visit Tulugaq in the deep snow,” she said. “He is an old man now. He will be glad of someone to talk to, but you mustn’t tire him out.”

“I won’t,” Ujurak promised.

The woman beckoned. “Come with me. My name is Anouk,” she went on as she led the way among the igloos. “What’s yours?”

“I’m Ujurak.”

“Well, Ujurak, I don’t know how you managed to travel in the depths of winter like this. Where did you come from?”

Even though Anouk’s tone was friendly, Ujurak wanted to evade her questions.
There’s no way I can tell her the truth!

“Er . . . I’m from a tribe on a different island,” he replied. “I had a dream that told me to come and find Tulugaq.”

Anouk smiled. “Ah. A lot of his visitors say that.”

Before she could ask any more questions, a black-haired young man appeared from behind the nearest igloo. He wore white bear pelts like the hunter Ujurak and Kallik had seen, and he carried fish fastened together with a hook through their jaws.

“Hey, Mother, who have you got there?” he called out as he approached.

“This is Ujurak,” Anouk replied. “Ujurak, this is Akaka, my firstborn son. He—”

“Just a minute,” Akaka interrupted. He strode up to Ujurak and stood looking down at him with a thunderous frown on his face. “You’re wearing my clothes! Thief!”

“I’m sorry.” Ujurak took a step backward, intimidated by the man’s rough voice. “I—I lost my clothes in a storm, and I was so cold! I’ll put them back before I go, I promise.”

Akaka narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Lost your clothes in a storm? What sort of a tale is that? Who are you, anyway? Did you come from the military base?” He let out an exasperated sigh. “Don’t tell me you want us to move our igloos
again
?”

Ujurak was bewildered by the flurry of questions. He didn’t know what Akaka was talking about, let alone how to answer him.

“Akaka!” A clear voice rang out, and Ujurak spotted a young woman hurrying to stand at Akaka’s side. Her dark hair was in a long braid down her back, and her eyes were a piercing green. “Akaka, you’re scaring the boy. I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm.”

Akaka just snorted, but Ujurak was pleased to see that the man’s frown faded as he looked at the young woman.

“This is Eva, Akaka’s wife,” Anouk told him. “Ujurak has come a long way to see Tulugaq,” she added.

“There! You see?” Eva said to her husband, as if that were a good excuse for stealing clothes. “But you’d better come with me first,” she went on to Ujurak. “Anyone can see that you need a good meal and a rest.”

She pointed to a bigger igloo near the center of the denning place. The tempting smell of burned meat drifted from it, but Ujurak hesitated, hunger warring with his need to speak to Tulugaq and find the answers to the questions that were tormenting him.

“Better do as Eva says,” Anouk advised, laughing. “My son’s wife can be very bossy, but she has a good heart.”

“And take care of my clothes!” Akaka still looked stern, but he clapped Ujurak on the shoulder before striding off with his catch.

Ujurak followed Eva into the big igloo, intrigued to meet more of her people.
They seem so different from Sally and her friends. They don’t have all those firebeasts and the other machines I saw there
. They reminded Ujurak more of the Caribou People he had met in Arctic Village, when he had almost died from swallowing a fishhook, and the village healer, Tiinchuu, had saved his life.

As soon as he emerged from the entrance tunnel, smoke caught him in the throat, and he coughed. His eyes stinging, he peered through the haze, trying to make out his surroundings.

The igloo was similar to the first one he had entered, though much bigger: a single round space with a raised area spread with pelts, which Ujurak guessed was where the people slept. A second tunnel led away at the far side, probably to another of the snow-dens. Ujurak stared in astonishment to see that the smoke was coming from a fire in the middle of the area. There was a hole in the roof above the fire to let the smoke out, though it wasn’t working very well.

Fire? But this igloo is made of snow! Why doesn’t it melt?

A metal pot was balanced on top of the fire, with the enticing scent of seal meat coming out of it. Around the fire several people were crouching, holding out more pieces of meat and fish, speared on sticks, to burn in the flames. They were all dressed in the pelts of caribou or bears. They looked up as Ujurak and Eva entered the igloo, and murmured greetings.

“Hi, everyone, this is Ujurak,” Eva announced cheerfully. She thrust Ujurak forward, and two younger men moved aside to make a space for him near the fire.

“Hi, Nauja,” Eva continued, bustling up to the pot and stirring it with a spoon. “How’s your cough?” Hardly waiting for a reply, she went on, “Irniq, Akaka has the fishhooks you wanted. You need to go and get them.”

While she was speaking, she ladled out some of the meat from the pot onto a flat metal plate, which she gave to Ujurak. “There, eat,” she invited with a broad smile. “You look half starved.”

Ujurak sniffed suspiciously at the meat; his bear instincts made him uncertain about eating anything that had been burned. But his flat-face belly rumbled with hunger. Ignoring the spoon Eva gave him, he picked up a lump of meat in his fingers and swallowed it in one gulp. He closed his eyes with pleasure at the delicious taste and the warmth spreading inside his belly.

This is the right sort of food for bears,
he thought.

Kind laughter broke out all around him. “You certainly were hungry,” someone commented.

Ujurak stared at his plate, embarrassed. “Sorry.”
I’ve got to remember how flat-faces eat!

Eva ruffled his hair. “Don’t worry, Ujurak. I like to see people enjoying their food.”

While Ujurak picked up the spoon and ate more slowly, he listened to the quiet voices of the people around him.

“I feel a storm coming,” one of the older men said. “My bones ache.”

“Your bones are always aching, Amaruq,” the man beside him said, giving him a friendly nudge.

“And there are always storms,” Amaruq responded calmly. “I hope we’re sheltered enough, here below the ridge.”

As soon as Ujurak had finished eating, Eva beckoned him out of the igloo again. “Now I’ll take you to see my grandfather Tulugaq,” she said.

She led the way to an igloo on the far side of the group. Ujurak’s skin began to tingle as he drew closer, and he shivered inwardly with anticipation. A loud caw overhead made him jump, and he looked up to see a raven flying above the igloo.

“Don’t be afraid,” Eva laughed. “My grandfather loves to feed the birds. It’s a waste of good bread,” she added, but she was smiling as she said it, and Ujurak realized that she was only teasing.

Eva stooped to enter the igloo, and Ujurak followed her, all his senses alive with curiosity. Inside, the only light came from a lamp set on a snow-ledge at the far side; the air was still with the musty smell of birds and unwashed pelts. Ujurak brushed past something on the ground and realized it was the cloak of feathers, lying there folded and empty, like a fallen bird.

At first he thought that the igloo was unoccupied, until something stirred among the furs on the raised sleeping area.

“Grandfather, you have a visitor,” Eva said.

A very old man peered out from the midst of the furs. His hair was white and wispy, and his face seamed with lines of wisdom and experience. His dark eyes shone brightly in the dim light.

“Can I get you some food, Grandfather?” Eva asked, bending over the old man and helping him sit up. “Or water? Are you warm enough? I could fetch you some more furs.”

A thin, bony hand appeared from the coverings, motioning her away. “I’m fine, Eva. Leave me in peace.”

Eva gripped his hand for a moment before turning to leave. Before she entered the tunnel again, she glanced back at Ujurak. “Remember not to stay too long and tire Grandfather,” she told him.

When Eva had gone, Ujurak stood silent in front of Tulugaq. The old man fixed a piercing stare on him, for so long that Ujurak started to feel uncomfortable.

“So you came,” Tulugaq said at last. “I wondered if you would figure it out.”

“You . . . you looked different in my dream,” Ujurak stammered.

Tulugaq let out a hoarse laugh. “In my dreams I am still a young man.”

“And a raven!” Ujurak blurted; excitement surged up inside him, warring with his nervousness.

“Yes.” Tulugaq bowed his head. “I am always a raven.”

“Are you like me?” Now words were tumbling out of Ujurak. “Can you change into anything?”

Tulugaq raised his brows in surprise. “No, just a raven. Or perhaps I am a raven that changes into a man,” he added with a sly smile.

“How do you know?” Ujurak asked.

The old man’s gaze grew fixed, as if he were looking far beyond the walls of the igloo. “When I was younger,” he began, “I lived for the air, the silent sea above the ground where my wings could carry me anywhere. I learned so much on those journeys; I could find answers for anyone who came to see me.” He paused, sighing. “But now I am old, and I want my family around me as I prepare to join my ancestors in the sky.”

Ujurak stared at him. “You mean the lights? Those are your ancestors, too?”

“Oh, yes,” Tulugaq replied. “They are the Selamiut, all the people who have lived on the ice before us.”

Ujurak’s heart pounded, and he felt he could scarcely breathe.
So they aren’t just bears,
he thought. “Do you know where the lights have gone?” he asked out loud.