Icebound

Chapter 21

Anyu had seen lakes before. There were several of them just a few miles west of Nenet village where men would go to try their luck at ice fishing when game was scarce. The surfaces were almost always frozen over by a hard, crystalline layer of ice, but even so, Anyu had heard all of the warnings about wandering out too far onto unfamiliar ice. The frozen crust was equally deceptive and delicate. Put one foot down on the wrong patch of ice, and suddenly you were plunged into the icy depths to be swallowed by the qalupalik and aklut that lurked on the lake bottom.

She'd had a friend once who'd met that fate. Anyu hadn't though about him in a long time and the memory was dusty and decrepit. She and Yura had been playing along the shore's edge, and he'd run out onto the lake to collect a pretty piece of ice crystal. She didn't even remember him falling through. Her eyes had blinked and then he was gone. She had only been six then and hadn't understood enough to be sad, although Yura's mother's wails had kept her up every night for weeks afterwards.

Kesuk Lake was not like any lake Anyu had seen before. For one, the ice freezing the top was consistently thick and sturdy. If Kano and Tavra hadn't pointed out the start of the lake as they'd crossed it, Anyu never would have noticed that they were standing on anything but solid ground. At first, she'd been wary, calculating her every step before taking it and scrutinizing the surface for any slight cracks. But as they'd moved farther and farther away from the lake edge and the ice still remained solid underfoot, she'd pushed away her unease and followed Kano's lead. Astride Shesh's back, he moved forward with complete confidence, but his eyes still glanced around nervously. Looking not for flaws in the ice, Anyu observed, but for the things that lurked beneath it.

The other unsettling trait of Kesuk Lake was its incredible vastness. A hazy mist hung over the icy expanse, obscuring their view of any shore and making it seem like the lake stretched on forever. Kano assured her that they would reach the far shore after only a day, but the ominous feeling in the air still made the hair on Anyu's neck stand up. Like many other things she'd encountered since arriving in Adlivun, this lake screamed 'unnatural' to her mind. The place just about oozed a message of unwelcome, present in the wispy shadows that darted beneath the ice and the sense of barely repressed magic hanging stagnant with the mist. The sooner they were past this lake, the sooner Anyu would be able to shake the haunted feeling that had taken hold of her.

A small whimper broke the creepy silence, and she reached down to pat Tavra's snout soothingly. If Anyu was feeling affected by Kesuk's atmosphere, Tavra was positively petrified. He insisted on staying in his wolf form and kept his hackles raised, as if constantly expecting an attack. Too proud to hover near Kano, he'd decided at some point to make Anyu his unofficial protector, always staying in her shadow and occasionally urging her to pet him.

Anyu didn't mind. She was coming to feel more and more pity for Tavra as she spent more time around him. It seemed like his fierce attitude was mostly bluster, hiding a scared young boy who didn't know what to do with himself. Perhaps it was her sisterly instincts taking over, but Anyu felt obligated to watch out for him. He clearly craved attention, and after seeing how he'd been all alone for so long, she couldn't even blame him.

Shesh, jealous that another animal was stealing his spotlight, nudged Anyu's shoulder with his nose and huffed indignantly. With a quick eye roll and a smile, she scratched under his chin to appease the temperamental beast.

"You want to switch?"

Kano had been taking his turn riding on Shesh's back for the past few hours, the usual amount of time they took before switching off. Normally Anyu would have taken him up on his offer, but not here. She felt too jittery to sit down. She needed to be ready and on her feet, where she could count on her reflexes to defend herself in a split second if anything went wrong.

"No thanks," She replied, idly caressing her tamga.

Kano frowned at her action and she dropped her hand self-consciously.

"What?" She snapped.

"Nothing," He said, shaking his head. "I'm just trying to figure out how you got that tamga in the first place." He raised a brow at her. "Are you sure you don't remember anything about when you received it?"

"Yes, I'm sure," She said with a hint of exasperation in her voice. "Don't you think I would've told you if I did?"

"I know, I know," He muttered. His eyes drifted away from her, and he seemed to be almost speaking to himself as he continued. "But I can't get around it. The only way you could have it is that..." He hesitated to complete his thought. "Someone in the Nenet must be an indweller."

Anyu, shocked, was saved having to respond by Tavra. Her head whipped around as he suddenly growled, his ears flattening against his skull. In a second he had shifted back into human form, still on all fours with teeth bared, but fear evident in his eyes.

"Something's out there," He said hurriedly, standing up and taking several steps away from the direction he was facing. "I can smell it... And it smells us too."

Kano and Anyu exchanged quick glances before they started running. Anyu pulled herself up onto Shesh's back behind Kano and Tavra reverted back into wolf form in order to run faster. Their speed was impressive, but not enough. Tavra kept craning his neck to look backwards, his eyes widening every time. Nothing was visible through the mist, but soft, almost imperceptible reverberations could now be felt through the ice, indicating that something large was indeed trailing them.

"How far are we from the edge?" Anyu asked loudly to be heard over the wind. They hadn't been traveling nearly long enough to be close to the far edge of the lake, but perhaps there would be a closer shore to escape to, even if it delayed their journey.

"Too far," Kano shot back immediately, dashing any hopes Anyu had of escaping. Her mind whirled, running through every possible option before them as fast as possible. There was no way to get off of the lake in time, that was a given. They could try to lure their pursuer into some kind of trap, somehow cause them to fall through the ice... Anyu entertained the idea briefly but quickly eliminated it. The risk would be too great. They couldn't make any kind of hole in the ice without a high chance of them falling in as well. Besides, they'd never be able to cut through this thick ice fast enough.

There was only one option left. There had only ever been one option, really. To fight. The thought calmed Anyu's hectic mind. Fighting was something simple, something she could understand even if there was great danger to it. A straightforward solution.

She didn't know what was following them, but she had to assume that she could win or else she wouldn't be able to summon the nerve. A small thrill fluttered in her stomach, accompanying the fear there. She was a skilled hunter, had killed many of the most vicious creatures of the tundra. She'd defeated Nanuk, a powerful indweller just like Kano and Tavra, even if it remained a mystery to her how she'd done so. She stood a chance. Not a good one, but a chance nevertheless.

Inhaling deeply through her nose, Anyu reached into Shesh's saddle and affixed a few extra daggers to her belt, in case she needed extra weapons in the fight. Her spear was already strapped to her back, ever ready for battle. Kano, noticing her rummaging, tried to look back at her while also holding Shesh by the reigns.

"What do you think you're doing?" He asked, eyes widening in surprise, as he realized her intentions.

Anyu lifted her hand to her tamga and squeezed it once for good luck.

"Saving our lives," She replied brusquely and slipped from Shesh's back.

Kano's protestations faded away as he struggled to pull on Shesh's reigns and get Tavra's attention. Anyu wished they would keep going, but she supposed it wouldn't matter either way. With Kano's lacking physical strength and Tavra's debilitating fear she doubted that either of them would be able to help in this fight. It was up to her.

Anyu moved her legs into the proper stance, her spear raised slightly above her head and her arms coiled gracefully around the weapon. There was definitely a shape visible through the mist now. Still just a shadow, but growing ever closer. She tensed in anticipation. The creature was right upon her, just about to burst through the mist-

Anyu didn't get to see whatever it was that was pursuing them. In the split second before the creature approached, Anyu heard a strange splintering sound. She only had time to widen her eyes a fraction before she fell through the ice and into the dark waters below.