Ice Blink

12: Memory

Nuna returned to their igloo to find Toklo pacing furiously.

She eyed the woven-branch mat. "You'll wear a hole through the floor if you keep doing that."

He glowered at her. "I spent ages wandering around asking after Qailertetang, but no one knew where he was. He travels a lot, apparently, which will spell disaster for us if he's gone while Sedna makes her decision."

A sewing kit complete with bone needles stashed in a corner caught her eye. "Look, they've given us supplies. We could use these if we escape."

"But they took our weapons," Toklo bit out.

"They weren't too strict though. These needles are sharp enough to do some damage."

"Spoken like a true Nualik."

Nuna allowed a smile. "I found Niju, and he wants to meet me tomorrow to go collecting herbs."

"Is that wise?" Toklo asked. "His intentions might not be honourable. It could be a trap."

"A trap, when he's the only person on our side?"

"We don't know this place – we don't know how it runs! These people's minds could work differently to ours."

"They're just people."

"People who like tricking others into thinking they're gods. People who live in a city, when the southern tribes never exceed two hundred people. This place is unlike anything else on the ice."

"I'm going to go anyway. You were just complaining about Qailertetang disappearing, which means right now Niju is our only hope."

"Maybe I should go with you."

"I don't know. It sounded like he was offering to me alone."

"If you're sure... Then I'll find Siru tomorrow. At least I know where the Nigak are: I had to wait with them while Niju saved you. I don't like any of this," Toklo said.

"Neither do I, but we're going to have to deal with it."

A man arrived with a tray of freshly-cooked food, and they devoured every last morsel: a stew of seal meat and deliciously fatty blubber, sweetened with cloudberries. Fat would be their saviour, their insulator, out here, and they needed their strength for what was to come. Nuna knew in her heart that they wouldn't be at peace for long, and a familiar dread had settled into her heart, squeezing like the coils of the great snake Tizheruk.

She and Toklo had eaten in silence, and in silence they crawled into their reindeer hide sleeping bags, pulling the furs to their chins. Their stomachs were full for what felt like the first time in moons; they were warm and comfortable and drowsy.

"Toklo," Nuna began.

"Yes?" His words slurred a little; he'd let his guard down.

"How did it start?"

"What?"

"With Aniu."

He bolted upright to glare at her, the firelight dancing on his face making him stark against the white-blue walls of the igloo around them. "That is a personal question."

"We're stuck here together. We might be the last remaining members of our tribe, Toklo."

"Don't say that. What are you trying to insinuate? The last remaining members..." He looked at the distance between them with an air of disgust. "Are you saying we're the only hope of continuing the Nualik bloodline?"

"What?" Molten heat flooded through Nuna and she tried to wriggle away from him, her limbs trapped in the sleeping bag. "No! Of course not! I have a measure of self-respect, you know. What made you even think – I was just trying to make conversation!"