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Bear meat roasted over the coals, sending up little fragrant spurts as drops of fat fell from the richly marbled flesh; a slight blue haze hung under the ceiling, until it drifted out the unblocked ventilators. The air smelled of cooking, and the dryish earth beneath them with its residues of old crops long rotted away to nothing, and less nameable things. They?d found human bones here too, but very old, and much scattered by small scavengers except for the skulls. He?d judged them to be a man, a woman and a young child by the size, and victims of the Change. You still found the like anywhere protected from quick decay, and not near living settlements.
There had been a message in shaky hand scratched on the wall: Two weeks out of Green Bay. We?re all sick. I think from bad water. Please, God, someone, help us.
I hope they?ve found peace in the Summerlands, Rudi thought. And better luck next time.
They?d buried what remained. Father Ignatius had said the words and planted a cross, it being most likely that they were Christians. ?I said, oft evil will will evil mar,? Mary repeated a little louder.
Her half brother raised a brow, sitting cross-legged with the small of his back against his rolled sleeping bag, gnawing mouthfuls off a rib; it was good if a little strong tasting, and much like pork.
Much like wild boar, he thought. Gamy but not too much so.
The rich taste of the meat and crisp fat filled his mouth pleasantly; the bear had been eating beechnuts and roots and berries that gave its flesh an aromatic tang. Garbh was lying on her back near Edain in an ecstatic daze, her belly rounded out to tautness and her tongue dangling over her fangs. ?And what would you be meanin? by that cryptic remark?? he asked Mary, a teasing light in his eyes.?And yes, I realize it?s from the Histories. You needn?t give chapter and verse.?
Then he took a bite of roast potato-they?d traded for some spuds several days ago at the last farmstead they passed-and a sip of hot spruce-tip tea. ?I mean that loathsome morn-curuni, that black wizard in the red robe,? she said owlishly.?Sending us storms like Saruman did to the Fellowship on Caradhras.?
Ingolf looked over her head-she was leaning back against his chest with his thick arms wrapped around her-and said: ?Yah hey, that?s more sensible than I?d like to admit,? he said reluctantly. ?And maybe the bear,? Ritva said thoughtfully.?That would be canonical, too. Well, nearly. Sending wargs and crebain was.? ?Same thing,? Mary said. ?Is not.? ?Is! Well, yes, it was a clean bear. Anyway, the storms made it easier for us to move by ski and sled earlier, and now this bear has helped with our food supplies; so the evil will is marring evil. Pass me another skewer of the liver, would you?? ?Bad medicine, either way,? Pierre Walks Quiet said.
He took some of the meat between his teeth, sliced it off near his lips with his curved ski
Virginia Kane shuddered.?You mean, that bear was… was sent to get us? Like some sort of hex??
She made a sign against sorcery that Rudi had seen used among the Lakota. Fred Thurston waited a moment and signed the Hammer with his fist, a bit self-consciously, as if reminding himself. ?Father Ignatius?? Mathilda said from beside Rudi.
His hand rubbed her back companionably; she was sitting with her sleeping bag around her shoulders like a blanket, and her arms wrapped around her knees. ?It?s a matter of dispute how much actual power the Adversary can give those who serve him,? the monk said soberly.?And why God permits it.?
He finished wiping down his sword with an oily rag and sheathed it before winding the belt around the scabbard and setting it aside… where he could draw instantly. Then he gazed into the fire for a moment before signing himself and going on: ?I think the empirical evidence indicates that the answer to the first question is quite a bit, in this case. As for the other, He moves in mysterious ways, to make even evil serve His plan in the end. We can pray for protection, and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints.? ?Please do!? Rudi said, and heaved himself upright.?The expedition,? he added to Matti as she looked a question at him.
That was Portlander dialect for need to piss. He did make use of the area where they?d dug a pit and screened off with sections of board; that privacy was a luxury, of course. They?d put it by the entrance, on the other side of the horses, which meant he had to spend a few minutes with Epona as well, resting his head on her neck while she nibbled at his hair. The strong earthy-grassy smell of her was reassuring; he?d spend a lot of time as a boy with her, just drifting about and thinking in the meadows below Dun Juniper. That had been perfectly safe; for him, at least, if not for anyone or anything that tried to harm him while she was there.
The doors had been roughly repaired and strongly braced, but they rattled and sent sprays of snow and cold at him through the slits and gaps and the blanket-covered gap where sentries went in and out.
The sleds were arranged to shelter the ramp and tightly lashed together; the dogs were staked out on a line, sleeping easily beneath the snow but ready to wake at clues a human could never sense. Most of the gear was inside, along with as much firewood as all thirty-odd of them had been able to drag before the weather got too thick. On the other side of the entranceway to the building was a dark nook where they?d put the head of the bear, and buried the rent hide and such of the body as hadn?t gone to feed the folk or the sled dogs. Though Edain had kept the claws, to give to friends of his whose sept totem was Bear, when he got home.
Rudi paused there on his way back and made reverence, clapping his palms twice and then pressing them together with his thumbs on his chin and fingers touching brow as he bowed from the waist. For a long moment he went down on one knee and stared into the dead eyes; shadows from the fires made them seem almost alive, coals in a mask of snarling ferocity.
Then he spoke softly:?Horned Lord of the Beasts, witness that we killed from need, not wanto
He thought for a moment, then drew the Invoking Pentacle and continued:?And You strong spirit of the forest, Father of Bears, if wrong was done to Your child, know that we are guiltless of it. We have given Your son his honor and seemly rites. My blood father was called the Bear Lord, and though my totem is Raven, we are kin, You and I. Let Your just wrath fall on those who broke the laws laid on humankind in their dealings with the other kindreds. So mote it be!?
When he came back to the main fire the frozen blueberry turnovers were ready and sending out a toasty-sweet smell. He bit into one, relishing the buttery taste of the envelope and the tang of the filling. It took several before he felt replete, despite pounds of bears? flesh and potatoes and hard twice-baked rye bread. He?d always been a hearty eater; he was a big man, and his lean height was active beyond the common run even when he didn?t have to be, but this style of winter voyaging and the demands it made were something new to him. ?Wendigo weather,? Pierre Walks Quiet said, after they?d all spent a little time in song and tale-telling.?The colder it is, the more they walk.?