Song of the River (18 page)

“So,” K’os said, her lips curling, “has he decided to give you a dog?”

Chakliux had avoided his mother since he had been in the village, but a hunter has to visit the village cooking hearths, otherwise how would he eat?

Now she stood, alone at the hearths, stirring one of the boiling bags as though she always took her turn cooking like other women in the village. She nodded toward his empty bowl. “Have you eaten yet?” she asked.

“This morning with Cloud Finder,” Chakliux answered.

“Then why eat here?” she asked. “Besides, if you are hungry again, I have better food in my lodge.”

Her food was good. The hunters often brought her the best meat for the favors she bestowed. She seldom shared any of it with other families, and she seldom used the village hearths except during celebrations when the men were nearby, and K’os did not have to worry about village women throwing ladles of hot food at the one who bedded their husbands and young sons.

“I cannot. I must return to the hunters’ lodge. They wait for me.”

“You are wrong. They have grown weary of your pleas for peace, your stories about the good and generous Near River People. They have not forgotten that the Near River People cursed our fishing. Have you told them that the Near River daughters do not want you?” She raised her eyebrows and laughed. “No, of course not. What honor would you have in this village if they knew what the Near River People know?”

Had he been younger, less experienced in dealing with his mother, anger would have brought careless words from his mouth. He would have told her that the young hunters did not care about the honor he received—or did not receive—at the Near River Village. They were more interested in learning the secrets of winter den hunting. But he kept his mouth closed, his thoughts hidden. The less she knew, the better for everyone.

Of course, she had many ways of discovering what she wanted to know. Under the joy of her hands, a young man would soon answer any questions she asked. As a child, Chakliux had listened from his sleeping robes and even then recognized her cunning.

An old woman made her way to the hearth. When she saw K’os, she wrapped her arms around herself, as though to hold the edges of her parka away from K’os’s touch. The woman pushed back her parka hood and dumped a handful of dried berries into one of the boiling bags. Chakliux approached her, held out his bowl. She raised her eyebrows and glanced at K’os, a smile lifting one corner of her mouth. She filled Chakliux’s bowl. He walked away without looking at his mother, but he felt her eyes burn against his back.

“I have decided,” Cloud Finder said. He and Chakliux were sitting at the back of the hunters’ lodge, an honored place given to them by the younger men.

Chakliux held his breath, then let it out in disappointment as Cloud Finder said, “There is not enough. I cannot give my dogs for what you offer.”

Chakliux fought against the anger that pushed foolish words into his mouth. Cloud Finder had said he understood, had seemed to want peace between the villages as much as Chakliux did. Why then would the man ask for more? Chakliux had nothing else. In three days of bargaining, he had even borrowed pelts from his father to add to the trade goods.

“My dogs belong not only to me but to everyone in this village,” Cloud Finder said. “How can I give them to another village without asking something for other hunters besides myself?”

Chakliux held out empty hands. “You know I have offered all I have, even my extra boots. There is nothing else. You know my wife and son are dead, so I cannot promise a child to be given in marriage.”

“I ask nothing more from you,” Cloud Finder said. “What I want is from the Near River People.”

Chakliux held the man’s eyes with his own. He did not see greed but wisdom, and so waited for Cloud Finder to speak.

“The Near River People need our strong, golden-eyed dogs, but they also have something we need.” He paused and turned his head to look at the men around them.

Each was busy doing something—smoothing a spear shaft, hafting a blade, retouching a spear point. Though their eyes were not on Chakliux and Cloud Finder, Chakliux knew they listened to what was being said, and that they would take the words they heard back to fathers and uncles and the women they courted, so soon the whole village would know.

“What animal is more honored than the bear?” Cloud Finder asked. “What animal has more power? Yet in late winter and early spring when our people long for fat meat, we cannot hunt bears because we cannot find them.

“The dogs are yours,” he said, “the bitch and her five pups, for the trade goods and one other thing. You must take me with you to the Near River Village. While I am there, I will teach the Near River People how to care for my dogs, and their hunters will teach me how to find bears. Then I will come back and tell these young men.” He lifted his chin toward the hunters on the other side of the fire.

Chakliux felt hope glow in his heart. It was a good plan, something that might work. He wished Tsaani were alive to share his knowledge, but Sok was a gifted hunter, and he had sent trade goods. One of the pups would be his. Perhaps he would be willing to teach Cloud Finder what Tsaani had taught him.

Cloud Finder was wise. Why not, when buying peace for your village, also do something to help yourself? He would come back with knowledge every hunter wanted. With just a few bear kills, he could claim the honor of being chief hunter. There was now no true chief hunter in the village. Chakliux’s father, Ground Beater, still held the respect of most men, but other hunters brought in more meat. It was time for one man to be seen as chief, one man to take the place of honor.

“Yes,” Chakliux said, and felt the young hunters move close to him. Their excitement was like something alive within the lodge walls.

“You will take me back with you?”

“I leave tomorrow.”

“That soon,” Cloud Finder said, then added, “I will be ready.”

Chakliux nodded. If they did not return now, there would be no denned bears to find. The warm weather would draw them outside. Besides, it was best to go before his mother found out, best to keep the knowledge from her as long as possible. She would not want Cloud Finder as chief hunter. He did not visit her, so how could she twist him into her plans?

Of course, Chakliux had seen most of these young hunters enter his mother’s lodge at one time or another. Best to keep them here for the night until he and Cloud Finder were on the trail to the Near River Village.

When Cloud Finder left the lodge, Chakliux stood, spoke. “Any man who is willing to learn the sacred songs and who carries respect in his heart can hunt denned bears,” he said. “Stay here this night. I will teach you songs given to me by the chief bear hunter of the Near River People. Even as an old man, his strength was legend. When Cloud Finder returns to this village, you will be ready to learn what he has to teach you, then you can hunt.”

Several men moved nervously. Chakliux knew they were the ones who wanted to fight the Near River People. Now they were being told to honor them by learning their songs, but most spoke in excited voices. They asked questions, and Chakliux answered in such a way that even the men with downcast eyes began to listen. So when Chakliux again offered to teach songs, all the men stayed, singing with him until they knew the words that Tsaani had taught Chakliux, grandfather to grandson.

Early in the morning Chakliux went to Cloud Finder’s lodge. He was met at the entrance tunnel by Cloud Finder’s daughter, Star. Chakliux had heard stories of her strangeness, that at times she seemed like a child too young to leave her mother, and at other times like a woman, wise in all ways.

Looking into her large eyes, Chakliux felt himself drawn to her.

Star leaned forward, whispered to Chakliux, “Take care of my father. He thinks he is still young. Even now, my mother hides herself in our lodge, ashamed of her tears.”

“Your father is a wise man,” Chakliux answered, allowing his eyes to linger on the girl’s face, on her smooth skin, the pink flush of her cheeks. “His wisdom will ensure his safety, and probably mine also, but I will do whatever I can to protect him.”

“I have heard the Near River women wear shell-beaded leggings,” Star said.

Chakliux, surprised by her boldness, thought for a moment, trying to remember what the women wore. “Yes,” he said, “some do.” He looked down at Cloud Finder’s daughter, again felt himself caught by her eyes. “If I have any trade goods left after dealing with your father,” he said, “I will try to get some leggings for you.”

She smiled, showing a dimple at the corner of her mouth. Then her father called from within the lodge, and she ducked inside. Cloud Finder came out. In his fur parka, he was as large as a bear. How had such a man made himself a small, beautiful daughter? Chakliux wondered. Then he pulled his mind from the girl and watched Cloud Finder fasten the dog Snow Hawk to Sok’s sled.

Chakliux was pleased when he found that Cloud Finder had decided to trade Snow Hawk. She was strong, with a wide chest and well-formed legs. Unlike other dogs, she would pull a sled, never fighting against the harness. She had also just given birth to a litter of healthy pups.

Cloud Finder handed them to Chakliux. They were in pouches of caribou skin hung from a sling.

“Put them inside,” Cloud Finder told him, pointing to Chakliux’s chest. He draped the sling around Chakliux’s neck and slid the pups down under his parka. They were still small, each no larger than Chakliux’s hand. He felt their warm tongues against his skin as he settled them into place.

Cloud Finder strapped on his snowshoes, hoops of willow bound into a circle with a webbing of rawhide. They were longer and wider than the snowshoes Chakliux wore. He gave a command, and Snow Hawk leaned her weight into Sok’s sled.

“Four females, one male,” Cloud Finder said, pursing his lips toward the bulge of pups under Chakliux’s parka.

Chakliux raised his eyebrows to show he understood. Four females, five counting Snow Hawk, and a male. And Cloud Finder to teach the Near River People how to raise strong dogs. A better trade than he had dared hope for.

Cloud Finder clasped Snow Hawk’s harness as she pulled the sled past the dogs still tied in the lee of his wife’s lodge. Snow Hawk raised her nose and howled. Chakliux looked nervously back toward K’os’s lodge. It was on the other side of the village, but she was a woman of sharp ears. He leaned toward Snow Hawk, cupped his hand over her muzzle. Her howling stopped, but she pranced as Cloud Finder untied one of his larger male dogs.

“Big Neck,” he said to Chakliux.

Chakliux remembered the dog. He had been the runt of a litter so large, the mother had trouble feeding them all. The owner had decided to kill the pup and add his meat to the village boiling bags, but Cloud Finder had seen the dog for his true worth, traded some small trinket for him. Now any man in the village would be proud to own Big Neck.

Big Neck carried his curled tail high, ears forward, and his feet danced as he met Snow Hawk. The dogs touched noses, then, responding to Cloud Finder’s command, led the way from the village.

“They are anxious to meet the Near River dogs,” Cloud Finder said, and laughed.

Chakliux smiled but did not speak his gladness. What could be better? They had Snow Hawk and her five pups. Perhaps while Cloud Finder was visiting the Near River Village, Big Neck would father litters to Near River females. Then even the young hunters would have to admit the generosity of the Cousin River People.

They walked through that day, stopping only to break away balls of snow that formed between the pads of the dogs’ feet and to allow Snow Hawk to nurse her pups.

That night they made a fire with wood Cloud Finder had loaded on the sled. They ate the hardened fat, berry cakes and dried meat Cloud Finder’s wife had packed for them, then tipped the sled up on its side, a break against the wind, a shelter for the fire, and spoke of times they had shared in the village.

Finally Cloud Finder asked, “Tell me about these Near River People. I have been in their village often, have bedded some of their women, but I do not know them like you do.”

“They are hardworking people,” Chakliux answered. “Their ways are much like ours. They are gifted hunters, but their dogs are not as good as ours, and their women are not as beautiful.”

Cloud Finder laughed, his voice loud in the cold air. “You told me the shaman’s daughter did not want you, but have you spoken for some other woman among them?” he asked.

“No,” Chakliux answered. He had taken the pups from beneath his parka. They lay now on a bed of spruce branches covered with a caribou skin, nursing from their mother. He leaned over and stroked Snow Hawk’s flank. He thought of Blueberry, but said, “I have no wife among them.”

Cloud Finder did not speak, and Chakliux understood the man waited for an explanation. Finally Chakliux said, “There is something I must tell you, something I did not know myself until I visited the Near River Village.” He straightened and turned to face Cloud Finder. “There is a woman in the Near River Village who claims me as son. She says she threw me away, left me for the wind because of my foot.”

“So,” Cloud Finder said, “to the Near River People you are not animal-gift. Do they see you as cursed?”

“Some of them. Others do not. They remember that I swim. They see my feet as proof of otter blood.”

For a long time, Cloud Finder watched the flames of their fire, then he said, “That is how I see you, as otter. A man who works for peace is a good man, no matter who his mother is.”

And Chakliux knew he did not refer to his Near River mother, but to K’os.

They awoke to storm, the dogs curled tightly against the wind, tails tucked over noses. They had allowed the pups to sleep with their mother for the night, and Chakliux crawled on hands and knees from the shelter of fur robes and crusted snow to check them.

The wind flung snow and ice, sharp as stone. He spoke to the dogs, though the storm whipped away his words. He did not want to startle Snow Hawk, face her teeth as she leapt to protect her young. But she did not move. Carefully, he slipped his hand into the mound of snow that covered her, trying not to dislodge it, knowing it held in her warmth, but she raised her head at his touch. He slipped his caribou hide mitten from his hand and worked his fingers down to Snow Hawk’s belly.