Ice Blink

4: Great Wanderer

Nuna's first irrational thought was that she had ended up in the wrong place entirely. This was the wrong village – no, no, it couldn't be, everything was recognisable. Perhaps this was the whiteout's doing – the spirits had swallowed and distorted everything to play tricks on her. Or Qignaaq had decided they had to leave. They'd heard rumours that other settlements were migrating south for the winter in order to find better hunting routes, abandoning their ancient trapping trails, but Qignaaq would never have made a decision so quickly.

Nuna began to run, careening through the empty streets, forgetting Nanuq entirely. "Qignaaq!" There was no answer. "Aua!" The boy's home was dark and silent. "Meriwa?" She slowed when she reached her house, seeing the door which hung like a broken tooth but not believing it. "Mother?"

She pushed the door open.

Inside it was empty and cold, only ashes at the hearth.

Nuna backed away and fought the urge to retch. What had happened to everyone? Had the blizzard caused this destruction, or...?

Or the masked men had not arrived alone.

But that didn't account for the silence and lack of people. Where could everyone have gone? Even if they had been slaughtered, there would be signs of blood and a struggle and the bodies would have been put somewhere, but Nuna refused to entertain that notion.

She staggered on through the street, calling out names in a broken whisper. It was all she could manage. This had to be a nightmare, which explained Nanuq's return and the way nothing seemed real and she would wake up soon in her sleeping bag and everything would be fine and...

A hand landed on her shoulder.

Nuna tore free and whipped around, letting out a shriek.

"It's me!" Toklo said angrily. "Calm down."

Breathing heavily, they stared at each other.

"What happened here?" Nuna asked.

"How should I know? I only just arrived."

"But – you were at the breathing hole with the others."

"Aneguin sent me to get help. They had Aniu, and told us they would kill her if we tried to fight."

Nuna swayed. Not Aniu. Please, not Aniu.

"Aneguin wanted to negotiate, but he wanted Qignaaq to talk to them, being our leader, elder and angakkuq. So he sent me, and they let me go."

"The channel that opened..."

"I found a way around it."

"Was anyone hurt?"

"Not badly, no."

Nuna hugged her arms. She was shaking. "Everyone's gone, Toklo."

"They can't be."

"They must be. Look around. Have you been to your house yet?"

"I have."

"What did you find?"

"Nothing."

"Me, too."

"No, no, we can't be the only ones left. We just can't. It doesn't make sense! How can a village disappear? An entire village?"

Nuna shook her head. "I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know? Qignaaq was training you to be the next angakkuq, surely she taught you something useful? Find out what happened!"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"It doesn't work like that."