She remembered Voro saying something similar. Somehow she believed it of Qirum. ‘How can that be? I never met anybody like you before.’
‘Like me?’
She looked at him, his slab of a body, his scars, his arrogant bearing. ‘A fighter.’
‘So nobody fights in Northland?’
‘Not the way you people do.’
He grinned. ‘That fascinates you, doesn’t it? And that’s why we fight, you know. Deep down, underneath it all. The glamour. The thrill of hard muscle, the stink of blood. The finest sport anybody ever invented — war! You Northlanders don’t know what you’re missing.’
‘Then why do you say we have something in common?’
‘Because we’re both outsiders. We’re neither of us here for our own reasons, are we? I’m here because of what the Tawananna wants to achieve, which is to rebuild the Hatti’s relationship with Northland, use that to win back her own position at home, and skewer her enemies. And you are here because — well, I’m not sure. You’re no trader, are you? Must be something to do with your famous mother. And that nice Hatti arrowhead you wear around your pretty neck.’
She frowned. ‘You don’t know anything about me… How do you know it’s Hatti?’
He reached out and cupped the arrow-point in his fingers. The back of his hand brushed her bare flesh, as he surely intended, and she tried not to show how it thrilled her. ‘Only they can manufacture iron hard enough to use as a weapon.’ He glanced across the village space. ‘So here we are in the presence of an exiled Hatti queen, and a Northland trader who seems hungry for a little power himself, and a bit of weapon-quality iron. How does it all fit together, do you think?’ He pulled back. ‘Listen, daughter of an Annid — let’s you and me stick together. We each need an ally.’
She said grudgingly, ‘As long as it’s convenient.’
He laughed. ‘I wouldn’t expect anything else. Well, I’d better go have a nap before it’s time to service the Tawananna again. Goodnight, Annid’s daughter.’ He leaned over and kissed her cheek, quite gently. Then he got to his feet in a single bound, and walked off to the house he shared with Kilushepa.
She wiped away the meat grease he had left on her cheek. And then she touched the place he had kissed her, again.
19
The Year of the Fire Mountain: Midsummer Solstice
The visitors from the Land of the Jaguar were staying at Medoc’s home, a place called The Black, a few houses, sheep and cattle pens and potato fields tucked into the lee of the Hood. This place had taken its name from the layered black rock that protruded from the ground hereabout. Deri liked to go whale-hunting from the little natural harbour on the coast below.
On midsummer morn itself, and despite the rolled eyes of his wife Vala, Medoc decided it would be a good idea to take Tibo and Caxa for a walk up to the summit of the Hood. A unique chance to see a fire mountain in its pomp!
It was almost noon by the time Tibo met Medoc with the Jaguar girl, at the head of the track leading out of the little settlement. Already The Black was alive with its own celebration of midsummer, the day of Northland’s Giving. A party of boys, both Northlanders and Ice Folk, went from house to house, handing over gifts of food, leather, carved stone, fine bone fishhooks, and receiving gifts in return. They were followed by a procession led by the village’s chief priest, singing songs of earth and sky in a mixture of tongues. It was noisy, pleasant chaos. And nobody seemed bothered by the tremendous column of smoke that loomed into the sky from the mountain just to the north, or by the steady drizzle of ash that turned everything and everybody a faint grey, coming down in the brilliant sunshine of the year’s longest day.
As Tibo arrived, Medoc was loading a pack on his back the size of a mountain itself, stuffed with water and food. Caxa stood beside Medoc, with sturdy boots on her feet and a leather cap on her head to keep the drifting ash out of her hair. She looked bewildered, as so often since she’d arrived on this island. But today she had particular cause, Tibo thought. Medoc was explaining to her what was going on. ‘See, we’re a mix of Northland folk and Ice Folk, each with their own traditions. But we merge them happily together. To us, the whole world is a gift of the little mothers, and today we give back in return. And where the Ice Folk come from there’s nothing to eat but animals and fish and the beasts of the sea, and they know that an animal will only give you the gift of its flesh if it is willing. So today everybody gives back, you see, in thanks for the gifts of others. And at the end of the day there’ll be the Burial of the Bladders. The hunters keep the bladders of every single sea animal they kill during the year, all the way since last midsummer, and tonight they’ll climb this slope to bury them. It’s quite a sight, I can tell you, and quite a stink too..’
Caxa just listened to all this, expressionless. There was a rumble, like distant thunder, and Tibo thought the drizzle of ash fell a bit more heavily.
Medoc hitched his own pack on his broad shoulders, turned, and began the walk up the steep path out of the village. ‘Keep up, you youngsters. You’ll soon warm up.’
Tibo followed, grumbling, with Caxa at his side. ‘We’re hardly cold, grandfather. And we’re walking up a fire mountain…’
That column of smoke towered before them, black at the base and feathering in the air. Birds swooped around the column, distant specks of darkness themselves.
‘Ravens,’ Medoc said. ‘The Ice Folk believe they are the souls of the dead, guarding an entrance to the underworld. Whatever you do don’t kill one, or you’ll spend the rest of your life apologising to the gods for it. Step out, you two!’ He strode boldly on.
They breasted a shallow rise, and the Hood was revealed before them. It was a bleak, ridged formation that loomed above the greener lowlands, streaked with flows of black rock — a lifeless thing, Tibo thought, like a skull emerging from the living earth. And after a few more paces, it seemed to Tibo that the ground was growing warm beneath his feet.
Milaqa’s party of Northlanders, Hatti and one Trojan reached Etxelur and the Wall in the early morning of the midsummer solstice itself. Their journey had been long and arduous, and to make it here for the special day they had had to finish the journey overnight, hurrying along the last few tracks in the eerie light of a night that was never quite dark.
Bren brought them to his own home, one of the famous Seven Houses of Etxelur, an ancient neighbourhood of properties demolished and rebuilt many times, that overlooked the Bay Land itself. Inside they dumped their packs, drank nettle tea, and hastily smartened up for the day. Bren and Voro donned their ceremonial cloaks of jackdaw feathers, cheerfully complaining about how heavy and hot they would be to wear. Qirum polished his bronze armour clean of dust with a corner of his tunic.
Kilushepa meanwhile borrowed some garments and a bolster of cloth from Bren’s wife and used Qirum’s knife to make some brisk modifications. The result, when she emerged into the light of day, startled Milaqa. The Tawananna wore a sweeping gown that left her arms bare but covered her legs to the floor. Her growing hair was brushed back into a tight bun, and she wore a necklace of iron pieces borrowed from the traders. Picking at a stray thread, she noticed Milaqa watching her. ‘How do I look?’ she asked in her own tongue.
‘Like a queen of Hattusa,’ Milaqa replied honestly.
Kilushepa snorted. ‘Well, since you’ve never been near Hattusa I won’t take that remark too seriously. But your words are meant kindly, so I thank you.’
Now Qirum emerged from the house, alongside Bren. Strutting, Qirum had his armour on and his horned helmet jammed on his head. As usual he looked as if he was spoiling for a fight. He saw Milaqa and winked at her. Then he sniffed the air. ‘Can I smell something? Like smoke, ash?’
‘Some of the Swallows, the travellers, say there’s a mountain spewing fire on Kirike’s Land.’
‘Where’s that?’
‘Across the Western Ocean — a long way from here. But it’s not unknown for ash and dust to be carried far across the sea. Anyhow I think it’s more likely you’re smelling meat cooking up on the Wall.’ She gestured. ‘Take a
