Ice Blink

9: Circle

The first thing to draw Nuna's eyes was the fire, a huge blaze on a stone island in the middle of a little circular pool.

Banners hung from the walls, embroidered with a symbol of an arrow and a crescent moon. Feeling light-headed, Nuna followed Siru around the pool towards the huge table behind it, around which a group of people stood.

Not people.

Gods.

"Behold," Isitoq said to the gathering as way of announcement. "The spies of Mortu and Annoatok."

An ageing woman with a round face webbed in wisdom and waist-length hair pursed her lips. "You say they were captured by the Nigak?"

Siru bristled. "Excuse me for saying so, Mistress Sedna, but the Nigak are capable of capturing anyone. We outlaws take pride in our abilities. How do you think we manage to evade capture ourselves?"

"Indeed. You would do well not to remind the Circle of this fact, Siru – you are permitted free reign only because of your title."

"You never fail to remind me, Mistress."

A younger girl at Sedna's side flashed Siru a warning look, but the reindeer goddess simply smirked.

"Can you please just let us speak?" Toklo said loudly.

All eyes turned to the humans.

Nuna's insides shrivelled. It was her job, as the angakkuq, to speak for her tribe, but she didn't feel ready. She wasn't Qignaaq. Until now, she'd barely felt the spirits.

"O mighty deities," she began shakily, "we have heard much about you. We tell your stories to our children, we sing songs about you, we make offerings in the hope that you will let our prey roam freely and send favourable weather. We –"

"Well, they're definitely from Mid-Ice, there's no mistaking that," a man remarked, and amusement rippled around the table.

Nuna's face heated as she fell silent, unable to gather the courage to speak up again. Were they laughing at them? Why? Confusion mixed with the humiliation.

"We need your help," Toklo said. "We believe soldiers from Annoatok have arrived and captured our tribe, destroyed our homes –"

"We are aware of the spreading war."

"You have to stop them! And that's not all. A blizzard which has no end has been plaguing our people, driving all the prey south."

"Please, mighty gods, stop these soldiers and calm the weather," Nuna added. "Return our tribe to their home. I know not what we have done to anger you, but just let us know, and we'll stop. We'll send you more offerings. Just help us. Please."

There was a small silence. Nuna tried not to break eye contact as the gods studied them intently. The gods... who Qignaaq had told her tales of every day... who the tribe left gifts for and prayed to all the time to bring prey and combat sickness... They were in the same room as she and Toklo, and it did not feel real.

Nuna was a baby rabbit in a room of wolverines.

"Mortu would not employ people from Mid-Ice as his spies," a slim young man said in a musical voice.

Toklo's hands curled into fists: a danger sign. "We've told you, we are not spies. Mortu is the one responsible for our home being destroyed – he's the reason we're here!"

"Spies wouldn't be so clueless about us, either."

"They're lying," Isitoq leered. "Can't you see? It's all a story."

"I don't think so."

Someone believed them? This caused a stir. Sedna was staring straight at them, ignoring the others' shifting and whispering. Beautiful siqiniq tattoos flowed along her chin and cheeks: proof of her authority.

"Who cares if we're spies or not? The blizzard is still a problem. Surely you know about it," Toklo said. "And our tribe have been threatened by Annoatok. They were threatened, and then we returned to find our village empty! How many will die if you don't act now?"

"Qailertetang?" I asked cautiously. My voice sounded small and weak in the grand chamber.

A masked man stepped forwards. Masks, always masks. Like Isitoq's, the god's mask did not resemble the crude, frightening ones the soldiers had worn, although it was still intimidating. It vaguely resembled an animal, or perhaps a monster, but she couldn't make it out.

"Master of weather, please stop the blizzard and bring the prey back."

The mask turned to face Sedna. This god's silence was unnerving.

"It is not a problem with the weather," Sedna said. "Not directly."

"Then what is it?" Toklo asked helplessly.

"In the Far North," Sedna said, "there is no earth. Just sea. Sea which is completely frozen in the largest sheet of ice in the world. Some of that ice has broken away to form a glacier. It's heading south and changing the air currents as it goes. The blizzard is due to this, a precursor of what is to come. The further south the glacier gets, the worse the weather will become. Eventually it will crush everything."

The ground was falling away beneath Nuna's feet.

"Stop giving them information," Isitoq snapped.

"You think Mortu doesn't know that already?"

"I still think they do not look like Mortu's usual ilk," the slim man said.

"I agree," Siru added.

Everyone looked at her in surprise, even Nuna and Toklo.

"You helped me apprehend them and bring them here –" Isitoq began.

"Mortu's lot always put up more of a fight."

"Perhaps they wanted to be taken to Illulik and we've done them a favour?"

"Why would Mortu need spies taken here this way?" the slim man said. "He knows Illulik already – if he does have spies here, we probably don't know about it. They'll have found a better way in."

An uncomfortable silence fell. Nuna wiped her sweaty palms against her parka. She didn't care what they thought of them when the image of a mountain of ice destroying Nualik island was stark in her mind.

How could they save the tribe if there was no Nualik to return to?

"I trust that Amarok and the Takaani have secured our defences," the masked weather god said. "And these Mid-Ice tribespeople have their own gear, their own clothes. I can tell it is truly Nualik-made. They even look Nualik."

"Is that an insult or a compliment?" Nuna asked.

"Who cares whether there are spies in this place?" Toklo said. "Surely the glacier is the bigger issue?"

Nuna threw her arms up. "You're gods! Why haven't you stopped the glacier yet?" If they were really so powerful...

"Because," Siru began, pulling her antlers out of her hair. She paused, and it was a pregnant, heavy pause, one which tasted of secrets as poignant as lightning.

"We are not gods."