Icebound

Chapter 29

Yahal grew closer with every step they took.

At some point while they had been trapped beneath the ice, smoke had started to pour from the mouth of the peak, as if from a giant bonfire. Anyu couldn't shake the feeling that it was a message for them from Siku herself: Take your time. I am waiting.

The moon shone down upon them from a clear sky, showing them the way. But even without Mother Moon's glow they would have been able to see easily; lights moved across the night sky like ripples in water, creating swirling patterns of blue and green. They were a comfort, even as Anyu's entire body tensed in fear.

They all walked on foot this time. Yahal's slope was significantly easier to climb than the first mountain they'd crossed, and Shesh deserved a slight reprieve from carrying them on his back. Anyu stayed by the reindeer's side, patting him every so often. She didn't know if it was more for his comfort or her own.

Tavra and Kano kept to the back, also walking side by side. They didn't look happy about it, but Anyu could at least feel gratified that they weren't at each other's throats.

"Okay," Anyu said, breaking the heavy silence between them. "I think it's time you tell me exactly how this is going to work." Her right hand rose to clench tightly around the tamga hanging from her neck. "How do I use the tamga to free the summer indwellers?"

Kano and Tavra glanced at each other briefly. Tavra just shook his head, and Kano shrugged.

"I would've told you by now if we knew," Kano replied.

"You mean... You don't know?" Anyu tried to keep herself from hyperventilating.

"Not precisely," Kano said. His words were about as vague as Anyu was used to at this point. For once, she wished there could be a straight answer to a question. "Tamga are almost as mysterious to us as they are to you. They're a bit unpredictable."

"But..." Anyu tightened her grip around her own tamga. "But then how do you know it will work at all?"

"Remember when you broke my chains?" Kano asked as they moved around a boulder blocking their path. She nodded.

"Those were similar to what Siku's using to imprison the summer indwellers, though on a much smaller scale." Anyu recalled the hundreds of chains that had kept Kano imprisoned, and how long it had taken to cut through them all; that had been on a small scale? Anyu's hope of them succeeding was growing smaller and smaller by the minute.

She shook her head. Shesh nudged her back with his nose, and she pat his head with a sigh.

"Where do they come from?" Anyu asked. "And why doesn't everyone try to get one if they're so all powerful?"

Kano was silent, continuing to trek forward without looking up.

"Because only humans can create a tamga."

Anyu turned, surprised to hear Tavra speak up on the subject. He was currently in the form of a young boy again, his black hair such a mess that Anyu had to restrain herself from trying to comb it out.

"It's the real reason why Siku shut all contact with the human realm in the first place," Tavra continued. "She was too scared of the possibilities."

Anyu opened her palm and brought the tamga up to her face. It was clearly a piece of bone, but someone had meticulously carved it into a beautiful shape. She examined the dulled edges, the off-white color. Naither Kano nor Tavra had told her explicitly, but she had come to understand that a tamga had to be a part of an indweller's very body- whether that be a bone, antlers, a lock of hair... Whatever form it took, it was sure to be a painful experience for the indweller.