Island of Shadows (7 page)

“Hey, Lusa,” he began awkwardly. “Thanks for lying beside me last night, licking my wound.”

Lusa looked surprised. “I didn't. I went straight to sleep.”

Kallik and Yakone came up in time to hear the exchange. Kallik was carrying a huge fish in her jaws.

“You must have dreamed it,” she said, dropping her catch at Toklo's paws.

“I'm glad it was a good dream,” Lusa added, with an affectionate look at Toklo.

Toklo shrugged. “Good catch, Kallik. That's a nice change from seal.”

But as all four bears crowded around the fish to eat their share, Toklo couldn't shake the memory of what had happened during the night. He
knew
he hadn't dreamed it.

Some bear came and helped me, because I was cold and my shoulder was aching.

He swallowed the last gulp of fish and drew away from the others, looking up into the sky, which grew brighter as the clouds cleared away.

“Was it you, Ujurak?” he whispered, feeling a bit foolish to be talking to the air, but hoping that his friend's starry ears could hear him.

Anxiety, sharp as an orca's tooth
, nagged at Kallik as the bears set off again. She could tell that Lusa was weakening, however much the black bear tried to hide it. She could see pain in the smaller bear's eyes and knew that her belly was still aching, too. When Kallik looked around, she could see nothing but the wastes of endless ice.

When are we going to find land?

“Are you okay?” Yakone asked, coming to pad alongside her. “You look worried.”

“I am worried, about Lusa,” Kallik explained. “This isn't the right place for her.”

“But she traveled as far as Star Island,” Yakone pointed out. “She should be able to get home again, right?”

“It's not as simple as that,” Kallik replied. She glanced across to where Lusa was trudging along beside Toklo. They hadn't been moving long, but already Lusa's paws were dragging, as if walking was a massive effort for her. And Toklo was limping; Kallik guessed that his wounded shoulder had stiffened overnight, even though the skin had already started to heal. “For one thing,” she went on, “we're not going back the same way we came. The ice here all looks the same, and I have no idea where we are.”

Yakone looked puzzled. “You found your way before.”

“But Ujurak was with us then.”

Yakone's blank look made Kallik realize that this was no explanation at all, as far as he was concerned. “Ujurak was … special.” She looked for the words that would make her friend understand. “Sometimes he seemed so young and inexperienced, as if he'd just stepped out of his BirthDen. And at other times he was so wise. When we were with him, we were often lost, but somehow he always seemed to know where we should go next.” Her voice shook as she remembered the bright young bear. “And he had such confidence that we would end up in the right place.”

“I think I see,” Yakone said slowly, though Kallik wasn't sure that he did. “But why is it so different now? This time you know where you're going. Home! It shouldn't be so hard.”

Kallik sighed. “I told you, everything looks the same. I don't know if we're traveling in the right direction. For all I know, we've gotten spun around, and we're heading back to Star Island.”

“No, not possible.” Yakone gave her shoulder a comforting nudge with his muzzle. “If we were going back there, I'd know.”

Kallik was slightly reassured by what Yakone said. She wanted to enjoy the journey, and her fur tingled with excitement when she thought of reaching the Frozen Sea again and finding Taqqiq. And it was great to have Yakone with her. But her anxieties outweighed all that.

We might be wandering here forever!

Yakone gave her another nudge. “See that snowbank up ahead?”

Kallik nodded.

“Race you!”

Yakone took off in a flurry of snow and ice crystals. Kallik bounded after him, reveling in the feeling of her muscles bunching and stretching, her powerful legs eating up the distance. She reached the snowbank a bearlength ahead of Yakone. Scooping up a pawful of snow, she spun around and flung it at him. Laughter bubbled up inside her at the expression of surprise on his face.

“I'll get you for that!” he threatened.

“You'll have to catch me first!”

With a growl of mock fury, Yakone launched himself at her. Kallik slipped to one side, and he plowed straight into the snowbank. His paws threw up clots of snow as he scrabbled to get out. Then he turned and in the same movement flung a cloud of snow into Kallik's face.

She ducked, loving the icy spatter of snow on her muzzle and forehead.
I haven't had such fun since I played with Taqqiq!

“Look, Lusa, we've found a couple of white-bear cubs.” Toklo's voice came from behind Kallik; to her relief he sounded amused. “Do you think they'd make a good meal?”

“I'd like to see you try,” Kallik challenged him, spinning around to confront the brown bear. She would have sprung at him and bowled him over for a play-fight, but she remembered in time about his injured shoulder.

Yakone scrambled up out of the snow, shaking it from his fur. “White bears aren't good to eat,” he said, baring his teeth. “They're far too tough.”

Kallik shot Toklo a swift glance and was relieved to see that the grizzly hadn't taken Yakone's bared teeth as a threat. The two males faced each other with amusement in their eyes.
Good!
she thought.
We'll get along a lot better if Toklo doesn't feel he has to compete with Yakone all the time.

As the journey over the ice continued, Kallik began to feel as if she had known Yakone all her life. Or was it just that they shared the same instincts, along with the same white fur? When they hunted together, they seemed to know each other's ideas before speaking them aloud. And it was great to share her thoughts with another white bear. However close she felt to Lusa and Toklo, their true homes were under different skies, far from the ice, and she couldn't expect them to see the world as she did.

“It was so hard when the Frozen Sea melted,” she remarked to Yakone as they padded together across the ice. “I didn't know how to find food on land. Lusa and Toklo helped me when I got to know them, but for a long time before that I was on my own.”

Yakone nodded, with a grunt to tell Kallik he was listening.

“We all met at Great Bear Lake,” Kallik went on. “You remember, I told you how Taqqiq was there with the bears who stole food. You've never seen so many bears all together! White bears and brown and black bears… They had all traveled there for the Longest Day, and an old white bear called Siqiniq spoke the words of a ceremony. I wish you'd been there, Yakone!”

“So do I,” Yakone replied.

He sounded brusque, as if he didn't want Kallik to go on talking.

Have I said something to upset him?
Kallik wondered.
Maybe he's just not interested.

She cast a nervous glance at Yakone, admiring his strong muscles and reddish-tinged pelt, but asking herself if she really knew him as well as she thought.

A moment later, Yakone exclaimed, “Look—a seal hole!” and cast her a look bright with friendliness before bounding off across the ice.

Kallik followed, still not sure if she had imagined Yakone's brief coldness.

A few sunrises later, Kallik woke with a new scent in her nose. The other bears were still sleeping, huddled around her, and she edged away carefully before rising to her paws and giving the air a good sniff.

Land!

Excitedly she bounded back to the others and began prodding them awake. “There's land ahead! I can smell it!” she announced.

Toklo swatted at her sleepily with one paw. “Okay. Great,” he muttered.

Kallik prodded him again. “Wake up, Toklo! Land!”

Lusa had scrambled up and was staring around through bleary eyes. “Land? Where?”

“I can't see it yet,” Kallik replied. “But I know it's there.”

“Kallik's right,” Yakone agreed. He gave the air a deep sniff, then swiveled around until he chose a direction. “That way.”

Toklo, awake at last, lumbered to his paws and stood beside him. “I can smell it, too,” he said after a moment. He let out a satisfied sigh. “Let's go. I can't wait to get my claws on some real prey!”

Dark clouds were low on the horizon in the direction they were heading, and for a long time they couldn't see anything but the ice stretching out in front of them. At last the clouds began to clear, and Kallik spotted bulky snow-covered hills looming up in the distance.

“That's a pretty big island!” Toklo exclaimed, halting to stare at it.

Though she didn't say so, Kallik thought that the line of the hills looked familiar.
The Frozen Sea could be just beyond that range. I might be really close to home—and Taqqiq!

The bears bounded forward, running faster and faster in their eagerness to reach the land. Even Lusa somehow found the energy to keep up. Anticipation surged through Kallik as she splashed through pools of melting ice and the shore grew nearer with every pawstep.

But when she was only a few bearlengths away from the beach, Kallik's excitement suddenly died. She halted and let the other bears gallop past her. Her belly hurt as if she had swallowed a stone, and there was a chill underneath her fur. The snowy hills that lay across their path suddenly felt unwelcoming, as if something were warning her not to set paw there.

There's something here that doesn't feel right. Is this how Ujurak felt when he saw a sign?

Then she gave her fur a good shake.
I'm just imagining things. This is the land we've hoped for, with prey and somewhere to shelter and the right kind of food for Lusa. And it
must
be the way to the Frozen Sea.

But Kallik's paws still felt heavy as she padded forward to join her companions on the beach.

As Lusa's paws felt the stony
beach under the snow, her belly began to howl for something to eat that wasn't meat. Desperately she bounded across the stretch of pebbles and scrambled up the slope beyond, stopping to scrape the snow aside when she thought there must be soil underneath.

Before she had dug far, she spotted a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. Looking up, she saw two black dots against the white background, and she realized that she was looking at an Arctic hare, almost invisible in its white pelt.

“Is that you, Ujurak?” she called, heading toward it.
I knew he would come and help me find leaves and roots. I hope they're tasty!

As Lusa drew closer, the hare leaped up and began to run. Where it had been sitting she found a hole in the snow, stretching right down to some grass.

“Thanks, Ujurak!” Lusa exclaimed aloud, scrabbling to enlarge the hole.

As she spoke, Toklo sprang past her, racing after the hare. Lusa watched, horror-stricken. “No, Toklo, stop!” she yelled.