The Gathering Night (13 page)

‘Yes,' I said reluctantly.

‘Well!' Osané said, ‘I never heard of a woman Go-Between!'

I didn't answer. Osané had been a woman for three winters, and she seemed quite old to me. I only knew her from Gathering Camp, and I'd hardly spoken to her before. Everyone said she was pretty. I admired her because she could walk on her hands, turn cartwheels without stopping and lean over backwards and grab her own ankles. She had rows of blue lines tattooed on her hands and feet – lots of women had those, but Osané's were the best – and she could climb trees almost as well as I could.

‘It can happen.' Zorioné cracked a fresh nut between her teeth the way my mother had warned me not to in case I broke a tooth. ‘But my uncle Zigor is very angry about it. Does Nekané know that?'

‘I don't know.'

‘Of course Nekané knows!' Itsaso said. ‘She's Go-Between, isn't she? She knows everything!'

Zorioné spat out bits of nutshell and said thickly, ‘She doesn't know as much as my uncle. He's been Go-Between all his life.'

‘You can't be Go-Between all your life,' pointed out Itsaso. ‘Zigor must have been a child once.'

‘Well, since he was initiated anyway.'

‘No, that's impossible. Because a boy would have to—'

‘But the point is,' Osané interrupted, ‘that he
was
initiated. I mean he's a man. Nekané can't speak to the Animals about the Hunt!'

‘So?'

‘
So
, that's what the Go-Betweens are
for
, isn't it?' retorted Zorioné. ‘To speak to the Animals about the Hunt! That's why we're all
here
!'

‘No it isn't! We've come to the Gathering for
lots
of reasons.' Itsaso held up her hand with fingers spread. ‘Like seeing everyone, and hearing what's happened, and People getting married – and . . . and . . . like us here now. We've come to be with our kin.'

‘But that's not what it's
for
. The only thing it's actually
for
is about the Hunt. My uncle—'

‘
My uncle
,' mocked Itsaso. ‘My uncle says . . . my uncle is . . .
Your uncle
shits sunshine, I suppose.'

‘Itsaso!' they all cried out at once.

‘He'll
hear
you!'

‘Are you mad?'

‘Itsaso, Zigor is Go-Between!'

‘Zigor could strike you dead if he wanted to!'

‘If I tell my uncle . . .'

‘If you tell your uncle on her, Zorioné, we'll
do
you!' I was startled to hear Osané sound so fierce. ‘D'you hear?'

‘Forget she ever said it! Itsaso, make the sign!'

Itsaso looked defiant, but even so she made the sign. The others breathed a sigh of relief. ‘But,' Itsaso said, ‘what I'm still telling you is my aunt Nekané
is
Go-Between, and even if she can't speak to the Animals about the Hunt, she can speak to them about anything else if she wants to. What's more, she already has!'

I was pleased by Itsaso's loyalty to my mother, but also surprised. Itsaso and Nekané didn't like each other much. They were too alike. Later I understood how People in a family almost always stick up for each other at the Gathering even if they're not getting on by themselves. That's why things have to be really bad before a family brings its silly grievances to the Go-Between in front of everyone. I've always thought it was stupid to let things get to that state. All that happens is that everyone mocks you, and they tell stories and laugh about it for ever after. And the Go-Between asks horrible questions and shouts insults at you all. It always turns out to be everyone's fault anyway. No one goes away feeling as if they'd been right. I reckon that if I ever had trouble with my own family I'd just go with some cousins instead and not make a big fuss about it. In fact that's what Itsaso did in the end, and she and her mother get on quite well when they meet now.

‘How has she spoken to the Animals?' demanded Zorioné. ‘What did she do? Haizea, what did your mother do?'

I didn't want to talk to them about my mother, and still less about my brother. I'd answered enough questions about Bakar when we'd arrived at the Gathering. But now I didn't have to: Itsaso told them – even though she'd not been there – what had happened at River Mouth Camp, and how Nekané had found her Helpers, and how at White Beach Camp her Helpers had told her that Kemen was a good man. ‘And he's been with us ever since,' finished Itsaso. ‘And it's true. He's all right.'

‘How can you be sure? Anyway, he'll have to come before the Gathering.'

‘My uncle Zigor will find out if he's bringing any bad spirits.'

‘Your uncle—'

‘My mother says,' Osané interrupted, ‘that there
is
a bad spirit, because Kemen came just after your brother was lost, and that means—'

‘It doesn't!' cried Itsaso. ‘Nekané would have known if it did!'

‘Well, it'll still have to come to the Gathering,' declared Osané. ‘I'm not saying my mother is right. She usually isn't. I'm just telling you what they're saying.'

‘What do you mean, “she usually isn't”?' I was glad Itsaso had asked; it was a new idea to me that anyone would think her mother was usually wrong.

‘Oh,' Osané sighed. Then she sat up so quickly her branch shook and she had to grab hold. ‘I
hate
my mother!' she burst out. ‘She just does everything my father tells her – she lets him tell her that I . . . But she's
wrong
!'

‘So? Why should you care? You're a woman; she can't make
you
do anything.'

‘Is that what you think? Itsaso, you don't know anything! You just think with your belly! And that's so stuffed up with your feast – which you keep going on about as if most of us here hadn't had one too – it's not telling you anything at all!'

‘All right, all right,' said Itsaso, too curious to argue. ‘So what's your mother doing to you?'

Edur, you may not want to hear what I'm going to tell next, but it's the truth.

‘You know Edur?'

‘
Him
!'

‘The one who raped—'

‘They're not trying to make you—'

‘But he
raped
—'

‘I don't know that! Who?'

‘Don't
touch
him!'

They clamoured like rooks, while I looked from one to another, trying to make sense of what they said. My brother had told me Edur was the greatest living hunter among the Auk People. Listen, you boys, and I'll tell you what he was like back then. Actually he's not changed much since: I'm the one that's changed. Even in summer Edur wore a thick bearskin tunic that came from a bear he'd killed when he was hunting alone with just a couple of dogs. He was more tattooed with signs of dangerous Animals he'd killed than any of the other men, and when he wasn't hunting he was all hung about with amulets made from the teeth and antlers of Animals that had given themselves to him. I'd always thought he was admirable.

‘Tell me!' commanded Itsaso. ‘I didn't know this! Who got raped?'

The other girls looked at each other. ‘If we tell you, don't say anything!'

‘All right.'

‘I mean that.' Osané looked at Itsaso severely. ‘She's his first cousin. If the men knew . . . She's not married yet. And it wasn't her fault.'

‘Did she go with him?'

‘She didn't know. He was her
cousin
. She admired him. But if the men knew . . . If I tell you, Itsaso, you must
never
say. Not even when we're all married!
Never!

‘But doesn't her mother—'

Osané spat loudly. ‘Her mother's worse than mine! And now
my
mother keeps telling me I must take Edur. He is after all' – she mimicked her mother's voice – ‘“the greatest hunter among our People, and he'll always bring back plenty of meat, even in the very worst seasons”. My mother wants him for our winter Camp, and that's all there is to it!'

‘But your mother can't decide what man you take! Why don't you—'

‘Oh grow up!'

There was another pause. Then Itsaso said tentatively, ‘At least you were going to tell me her name.'

‘You'll never tell?'

Itsaso balanced on her branch and spread her arms wide. ‘Before all the spirits, I'll never tell!'

‘Lean down!'

Itsaso swung round and hung down, holding on to her branch with her legs. I saw Osané whisper into her upside-down ear.

Itsaso's eyes grew round. She swung back to her place without a word. I could see she had something new and alarming to think about.

I lay looking up into the leaves. They turned green and then white and then green again as the wind moved them, changing like the colours of a dance. A few leaves were already brittle and brown at the edges. One leaf broke away and floated down just past me. It was the first leaf I'd seen fall in that Year.

‘I reckon the Go-Betweens will search this Kemen after the Animals capture the boys,' said Zorioné, breaking the silence. ‘Anyway, they can't speak to the Animals about the Hunt until everything's cleared up. And I mean
everything
, not just this Kemen man.'

‘You mean about Edur and—'

‘Hush! No, no, that mustn't come to the Gathering! I told you.'

‘
That
wouldn't matter for the Hunt,' said Zorioné dismissively. ‘No, I just mean the
important
things that have to be dealt with before the Go-Betweens speak to the Animals about the Hunt.'

Kemen said:

It was much easier sailing up the Long Strait with the Auk People! The tide surged under the boat-hide ; I felt it singing through the soles of my feet. It filled my body with its strength. It found its voice in my breath as I sang the paddling songs of the Auk People with the others. Since I'd first landed on Mother Mountain Island – eleven Moons ago now – the Auk People's words had become mine. I understood their speech. The Lynx People's songs lay silent in my heart, hoping that one day they would find a new voice. Now the Auk People's songs were finding a space in my heart beside those silent songs. As we paddled up the Long Strait in Gathering Moon, the Auk songs and the Lynx songs lay with one another inside my heart and a small hope was born: that one day all the songs I knew would find their voices in one People. That hope drew its first breath as I sang. It had no voice: it wouldn't find a voice for many a long day yet.

I thought of my lonely voyage into Long Strait last Yellow Leaf Moon, and shuddered. My life was very different now! There were more than two hands-full of us at Salmon Camp, and we met as many more at Boat Crossing Camp, all preparing to sail up the Long Strait to Gathering Camp. If I'd met so many Auk People in one place in Yellow Leaf Moon I'd have feared for my life. Now, coming as I did with Sendoa and his brothers, I felt mostly excitement, with only the faintest tinge of fear.

We paddled out of the bay at Boat Crossing Camp and Sendoa raised the sail. I looked back the way I'd come in the autumn. I saw two high peaks standing alone between the Morning Sun Sky and the High Sun Sky. I couldn't help exclaiming, ‘There's the Heron People's Grandmother Mountain!'

Haizea, facing me from the bows – she'd chosen to travel in Sendoa's boat that day – blazed up at once. ‘
Heron People's
? What do you mean? How can you say that! That's our very own Grandmother Mountain! That's where the spirits gave life to our People at the Beginning. How could you not know
that
?'

Sendoa pulled the sail rope tight. ‘Kemen's right,' he said mildly. ‘Grandmother Mountain belongs to the Heron People too. You know that, Haizea!'

‘Of course I know that!' Haizea fixed her gaze on me. ‘
Surely
you know that Grandmother Mountain had
two
daughters. They lived with her – right there, on the Mountain. Then a man came from under the Sunless Sky, and he took one daughter, and they were the Father and Mother of the Auk People. And then another man came from under the High Sun Sky, and he took the other daughter, and they were the Father and Mother of the Heron People. And so the two sisters were parted. But from the Beginning the Grandmother Mountain has kept watch over both her daughters, and over all their children from the Beginning until now. That's why she stands where she does. We hunt here, on this side of her, and as for the Heron People' – Haizea pointed down Long Strait – ‘they hunt beyond Grandmother Mountain, way over there.'

I paddled silently for a while, letting the songs flow past me. Wind filled the sail-hide, and the shore of Mother Mountain Island slid by easily. There was no point mentioning that I knew more about the Heron People than Haizea was ever likely to. The Heron People were nothing to me. I became a man a long way from here, among the Lynx People. Even the smallest Auk children knew the Ancestors in this land better than I did. I watched young Ortzi's back as he paddled in front of me. His skin was as smooth as a girl's, and, although I could see that his muscles were already strong, he was very skinny: all his ribs showed when he bent forward. He was only a boy, and yet in some ways I had more to learn than he had. Amets had also been a stranger when he first came to Gathering Camp, but his grandfather was from the Auk People, so although he came from far-off he'd already belonged more than I did. I guessed I'd be tested more severely, but how I didn't yet know.