Read Online Seekers #6: Spirits in the Stars by Erin Hunter - Free Book Online Page B

themselves, let alone a cub. Kissimi is mine now!”
    Toklo was taken aback. “Are you so bee-brained that—”
    “Stop!” Ujurak yelled. His eyes were focused on the sky. Toklo was surprised by the unusual note of authority in his friend’s voice. “The Iqniq are leaving,” he whispered. “Then this is our destiny: to make them return.”

Chapter Seven
    Lusa
    Lusa squirmed uncomfortably in the snow-den beneath the thornbushes. Sleep had never seemed so far away. She couldn’t forget the way that Aga had looked at her, with eyes as piercing black as holes in the ice.
    Why did she call me Tungulria . . . “black one”? Is it just her name for me? It sounded more like . . . It sounded as though she was expecting me.
    Lusa shivered at the thought that the old bear had seemed to know so much about her. There had never been black bears on Star Island before.
    I’m the very first one!
    Lusa gave another massive wriggle, feeling as though she were lying on the sharpest pebbles on the whole island. Toklo, curled up next to her, gave an irritable grunt, and from her other side Lusa heard Kallik’s voice, raised in anxiety.
    “Kissimi? Are you all right, little one?”
    “Sorry to wake you,” Lusa muttered.
    Trying her best not to disturb her friends even more, she pushed her way out of the den and through the thorn branches into the open. The moon was floating high above in a clear sky, washing the snow-covered hills with silver.
    Lusa skirted the bushes and climbed a little way up the hill, above the den, staring up at the moon and the thick sprinkle of stars. But there was no sign of the spirit-fire.
    What did Aga call them? The . . . the Iqniq. Have they left us already? Are we too late?
    Below her, through the snowy roof of the den, she could hear Kallik’s voice. “Now that your eyes are open, little one, you can look up at the sky and see the stars in the shape of the Great Bear, Silaluk. She runs around and around the Pathway Star, hunting seals and beluga whales. She is the greatest hunter in the world.”
    Lusa’s belly rumbled, distracting her from the sound of Kallik’s voice. Scrabbling around in the snow, she found a piece of lichen she had hidden there earlier. It was crispy from the cold as she bit into it, but still tasty.
    Out in the open Lusa felt more at ease, but she still couldn’t forget what the old bear had said.
    She told us the white bears are dying. Could it be a curse from the lights in the sky, from the Iqniq?
    Lusa wasn’t sure why the bear ancestors would want to punish the living bears. Maybe there was another reason why the bears were getting sick. Her mother, Ashia, had been taken out of the Bear Bowl when she was sick and taken back there once she was well again. Lusa had no idea what the flat-faces had done to help her. She didn’t even know what had made her mother sick in the first place.
    What makes bears get sick?
    She remembered how sick she had felt when she was out on the Endless Ice, eating nothing but meat. And she remembered further back still, when Ujurak had fed her herbs to help her heal after she had been hit by the firebeast.
    Maybe the bears are eating something that is making them sick. Like those horrible-smelling seals.
    Lusa gasped. What if that was it? The white bear Sura ate the seals, and then she died . What if it’s the seals that are killing the bears, and not an Iqniq curse?
    Lusa sprang up and charged back into the den, spraying snow behind her as she ran. “Listen! Listen, everyone! I know why the bears are dying!”
    Toklo blinked at her blearily. “Great, Lusa. Now leave us to get some sleep.” He closed his eyes and wrapped a paw over his nose.
    There was a faint wail from Kissimi. “Look what you’ve done!” Kallik exclaimed crossly. “I’d just gotten him to sleep!”
    To Lusa’s relief Ujurak sat up, looking alert, and gave Toklo a prod in the side. “Wake up. Lusa just said something important. Go on, Lusa.”
    When Toklo