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Renn was right. It had been two days since their last ptarmigan. It
was now vital to find the reindeer: not only to find the Mountain
clans, but to eat.
By midmorning, they reached a river which, surprisingly, was still
awake. It rushed noisily between stony hills crowned with three
more of the strange turf men. Its shallows were free of ice. Torak
and Renn grubbed up clumps of brilliant green horsetails, and
munched the swollen root-buds raw.
As he straightened up, Torak's head whirled. The horsetails had
done little to assuage his hunger. His belly was beginning to hurt.
Renn slumped on a rock and took off her mask. Her eyes were
ringed with blue shadows. "You'd think there'd be fish in it," she
said. "But I haven't seen any."
They glanced at each other. How long could they go on?
98
"When we find the reindeer," said Torak, "I'm going to eat a whole
one. Starting at the neck and working my way down. I'll kill
another one for you."
She smiled wanly.
He squatted to refill his waterskin. "What river is this, anyway?"
"I don't know and I don't care. If I don't get meat soon, I'll eat my
medicine pouch."
But Torak had stopped listening. Whipping off his mitten, he
plucked something from the water.
"What is it?" said Renn.
He showed her: a light-brown hair, as long as his thumb.
Reindeer.
"They must be upstream," said Renn.
They listened. The river was too loud.
Its banks were boulder-strewn and impassable. They'd have to
make a lengthy detour around the hills, or climb them. They
decided to climb. It would be quicker, and give them a better view
of whatever lay on the other side.
Climbing proved harder than they expected. Torak was appalled
at how weak he'd become. Black spots swam before his eyes,
and every step was an effort. Beside him, Renn's breath came in
gasps.
Wolf appeared above them, pausing beside a turf man before
racing down to Torak. His fur was fluffed up with
99
excitement. Reindeer! Hurry! We hunt! Torak translated for Renn.
Behind her snow mask, her eyes gleamed. "Let's go."
Swiftly, Torak told his pack-brother in wolf talk that he must hunt
without them, as he'd have a better chance of making a kill. Wolf
didn't argue, and disappeared over the hill.
The thrill of the hunt gave Torak and Renn new strength. As they
neared the top of the hill, they dropped to the ground and belly-
crawled. Reindeer have keen senses. If there were any on the
other side, it was vital not to spook them.
Slipping his bow from his shoulder, Torak took an arrow from his
quiver. Renn had already done so. She'd also tied back her red
hair and tucked it inside her hood, so the prey wouldn't see.
Catching his eye, she touched her clan-creature feathers and
gave him her familiar, sharp-toothed grin.
The wind chilled Torak's face. Good. It was blowing his scent
away from the prey.
Stealthily, he crawled forward. He crested the ridge. He caught
his breath.
Below him the hill fell away to the glittering sweep of the river.
Another river flowed across it: a river of reindeer. Clouds of frosty
breath hazed golden in the sun from thousands of muzzles. The
air rang with the bleating of calves and the grunts of their
mothers; the nasal hoots
100
of rutting bucks. And beneath it all, like the beating of a great
heart, the steady drumming of thousands of hooves.
Torak had only ever seen small groups of reindeer in the Forest.
Awestruck, he watched the herd flowing slowly, purposefully,
endlessly across the river. The hill where he lay dropped steeply
through a thicket of willows to a flat expanse of gravelly riverbank,
then rose again to another hill, also thick with willows. He
guessed that the gap in between was one of the reindeer's
ancient crossing places. Fin-Kedinn had once told him that the
herds have followed the trails of their ancestors for thousands of
winters.
He saw how they converged in a dense press of bodies as they
passed through the gap. He saw the lifted heads and jostling
antlers of swimming reindeer, the quick heave as they climbed the
banks and scattered on the other side. He knew that this river of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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