Icebound

Chapter 23

I only need to comb her hair, She told herself, swimming towards the mass of dark tresses that floated behind Sedna. This shouldn't be too difficult.

Her hopes of having a quick and easy time of it immediately fell once she had positioned herself behind Sedna and had a clear look at the challenge.

Sedna's hair was a living breathing thing, as alive and thriving as the ocean itself. Fish swam casually through the waving strands. Other creatures, crabs and oysters and seahorses, seemed to have made it their home as well. And that wasn't even to speak of the other objects tangled in it, the sand dollars and coral that had become hopelessly ensnared over the years.

"Well?" Sedna asked, a note of impatience in her voice. "You do know how to comb hair, don't you?"

Anyu glanced at her own straight black hair, combed into two neat braids that hung just past her shoulders. It was one thing to be able to comb her own hair and quite another to go through this monstrosity. Still, it had been a command, not a question. She would have to either finish the task or find another way to escape.

Gripping the comb tightly, she began to disentangle Sedna's hair.

It was impossible. She spent what must have been more than an hour teasing a large seashell out of a mess of knots, and when she finally plucked it out, a crab latched itself onto the newly freed hair and tangled it up again. At this rate, it would take weeks to complete the task. That couldn't happen. She would have to find another way.

"So," Anyu said, trying to sound conversational. "How is it that I can breathe underwater here? Is this grove magic?"

Sedna chuckled lightly, and Anyu imagined she was rolling her eyes. "Of course not," She said. "This place is no different than the rest of the sea. You can breathe because I've allowed you to. I have the power in this domain."

Anyu paused in shooing away a school of fish to nervously grab her tamga. That meant that if Sedna so wished, Anyu would be drowning right now. The information was useful, but only made the prospect of escape more complicated. Growing more desperate by the minute, she gave the tamga one last hopeful squeeze before deciding to take a risk.

"Have you heard of the human who has entered Adlivun?" She asked. She could only hope her voice sounded unconcerned. "It's quite unusual, isn't it?"

"Ah, yes," Sedna sighed. Her tone had a strange, almost wistful quality to it. "It has been quite a long time, hasn't it? I do quite miss them."

"Miss?" Anyu prodded, yanking the comb harshly through a not of stubborn barnacles. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I miss the humans, of course," Sedna snapped. "Siku was a fool to close us off from them." She twisted around slightly to pinpoint Anyu with her unsettling gaze. "Don't you agree?"

"I..." What was she supposed to say? Would it look suspicious to say something in favor of the humans? "I'm not quite sure. Why do you say so?"

"They worshipped us!" Sedna said, her voice rising passionately. "Of course precious few indwellers dared travel to their world even before Siku's ban, but I conversed with them constantly. I was a goddess! The source of their livelihood, the recipient of all their prayers and tributes!" She sagged forward slightly, as if the memories of those days tired her. "It's been years since I had such respect. They've most likely forgotten me by now."

You are certainly not forgotten, Anyu thought. To the Nenet, Sedna was the Great Sea Mother, the giver of all life, and no deity was held in higher regard. Anyu recalled all of her grandmother's songs and ceremonies to appeal to Sedna for guidance. She could only imagine what the shaman woman would think if she knew her granddaughter was in the very presence of the great goddess.