Free Soul Eater by Michelle Paver Page B

Tanugeak, examining Renn's wrist. "They can be dangerous; you should have lightning marks for protection. I'm surprised your Mage hasn't seen to that.""She wanted to," said Renn, "but I never let her."112"Let me. I'm a Mage too. And you'll need them, I think. You carry a lot of secrets." Turning to a woman who sat apart from the others, she asked for her tattooing things. Then, without giving Renn time to protest, she laid her forearm on her ample lap, stretched the skin taut, and began swiftly pricking it with a bone needle, pausing to dip a scrap of gull hide in a cup of black dye and rub it into the punctures.It hurt at first, but Tanugeak kept up a stream of stories to keep Renn's mind off it. Soon her anger slipped away, leaving only the worry that Torak might do something stupid, like trying to escape without her.She felt safe in here. On the sleeping-platform, three children slept in a heap, like puppies. Over the blubber lamp, a baby dangled in a seal's bladder snugly stuffed with moss. The women chatted and laughed, spangling the air with specks of frozen breath; only the one who sat apart, Akoomik, kept silent.As the drowsy peace stole over her, Renn felt cared for in a way she'd never experienced before: as if the prickly shell she'd grown to protect herself were being gently peeled away.Tanugeak started on the other wrist, and the women laid out Renn's new clothes, stroking them with weathered brown hands.There were outer leggings and a parka of shimmering silver sealskin, to which someone had sewn her 113clan-creature feathers. There was a warm jerkin and inner leggings of eider duck hide, with the soft feathers worn against the skin. There were undermittens of hare fur, and sturdy outer mittens; ptarmigan-down slippers, to be worn over fluffy stockings made from the pelts of young seals. And to keep out the wet, there were magnificent boots of dehaired seal hide, with crisscross bindings of braided sinew and finely pleated soles."Beautiful," murmured Renn. "But I've nothing to give you in return."The women looked astonished,* then laughed. "We don't want anything in return!" said one."Come back in the Dark Time," said another, "and we'll make you a set of winter clothes. These are just for spring!"Akoomik didn't join in the laughter as she packed her needles in a little bone case. Renn noticed tiny toothmarks on it, and asked who'd made them."My baby," replied Akoomik. "When he was teething."Renn smiled. "Is he over the worst?""Oh yes," said Akoomik in a voice that made Renn shiver. "That's him over there." She pointed to a ledge cut in the wall, on which lay a small, stiff bundle wrapped in hide."I'm sorry," said Renn. She was scared, too. In the Forest, the clans carried their Dead far from their114shelters, so that their souls couldn't trouble the living."We keep our Dead with us till spring," said Akoomik, "to save them from the foxes.""And to stop them from feeling left out," Tanugeak added comfortably. "They like chatting just as much as we do. When you see a star traveling very fast, that's one of them setting off to visit their friends."Renn found that a comforting thought; but Akoomik pinched the bridge of her nose to hold back her grief. "The demons took his breath a moon ago. Now they've taken my elder son, too."Renn remembered what Inuktiluk had said about the boy lost on the ice."My mate died of fever in the Moon of Long Dark," Akoomik went on. "Then my mother felt death coming, and went out to meet it, so that she wouldn't take food from the young ones. If my son doesn't return, I'll have no one." Her eyes were dull: as if a light had gone out. Renn had seen that before, in people whose souls were sick.If I lose Wolf I'll have no one.At last she understood what Torak had meant. His mother had died when he was born. He'd lost his father to the bear. He'd never even met the rest of his clan. He was more alone than anyone she knew. And although she too had lost people, she realized that with Torak, as