Read Online The Gathering Night by Margaret Elphinstone - Free Book Online Page B

met Sendoa’s family at their winter Camp. I told them who I was, and they took me in. Then Sendoa and I decided to come early to White Beach Camp because we’d seen a lot of auks about already, and we wanted to be at the cliffs early.’
    My wife’s father was silent, looking Kemen over. Kemen politely avoided the older man’s gaze. I watched Kemen too. I liked what I saw. He had thick dark hair and blue eyes like Alaia’s; it wasn’t hard to believe he was her kin. He wasn’t as tall as I was, but he looked sturdy. On this warm day he was only wearing his loincloth and a deerskin tunic without sleeves, so I could see how strong his muscles were. If he had skill to go with his strength he would be just the sort of man one would wish to hunt with. I liked the way he stood up to my wife’s father’s scrutiny, standing there as tall as he could, with the confidence of one who had nothing to hide.
    â€˜Why do you say you have no kin?’ asked my wife’s father abruptly. ‘How can that be? Didn’t you leave kin behind you in the lands under the Morning Sun Sky?’
    A shadow crossed Kemen’s face. ‘I expected you to ask that,’ he said. ‘I have a terrible story to tell. This winter – it was like no winter that ever happened since the Beginning. No, I have no kin, except for the three I left among the Heron People.’
    My wife’s father looked at Sendoa, as startled as I was. Sendoa nodded. ‘It’s true,’ he said. ‘Kemen, tell them!’
    â€˜No!’ My wife’s father held up his hand. ‘If a man has no kin . . . This is indeed a terrible thing to hear, before you even begin to tell your story. But we must . . . Before we go back to Camp, just tell me this: you’re not saying “I have no kin” because you’ve been cast out, are you?’
    â€˜Before all the spirits who live in your lands,’ said Kemen, stretching both hands towards the sky, ‘I say to you that I’ve done nothing wrong. My kin loved me as I loved them, and the terrible thing that happened was none of my doing. Look, let me show you that I’m telling you the truth!’
    Kemen untied the strings of his tunic and pulled it off. He swung round to show his naked back. Five blue lines curved round one another and wrote something that was swift and lithe – an Animal stilled in a heartbeat of flowing movement – an Animal that knew how to creep, climb, hide, stalk, spring . . . something shy and fierce – an Animal we’d never seen written on a man’s back before, but which we all recognised at once: Lynx!
    â€˜That reads true,’ said my wife’s father, ‘though your word should have been enough.’
    â€˜I have no lies to tell,’ said Kemen. ‘But I want to tell you how—’ ‘You shall. But you’ll also tell the Wise among us. Come!’
    My wife’s father turned on his heel and strode back to White Beach Camp. I glanced at Kemen and gave him a small smile, which he could read as he pleased. Sendoa slapped me on the back and linked his arm through mine. He seemed happy, but I couldn’t help wondering if Kemen was telling the truth. Supposing he had been cast out? Had he murdered a kinsman, or raped a sister, or a cousin? How could a man say ‘I have no kin’ unless his People had sent him away? I didn’t say anything though. Sendoa and I walked together and Kemen followed us, and so the three of us followed my wife’s father back to Camp.
    Kemen said:
    This was the story I told them as we sat round the fire that evening at White Beach Camp. I told it as well as I could but it was difficult: their tongue was different from mine. I tried to speak as they did so they’d understand. But sometimes my words didn’t work with them, and we had to seek for other words as I went along. Now, of course, I can tell you very easily. Nor