Chapter Three
Next morning, there were two conspicuous absences in the school line up. Magna sent Lint to look for Dec and Ithil.
‘Dec’s Ma says he went to school as normal. Ithil’s Ma says the same thing.’ Lint reported when he came back, and tried his hardest to look innocent. ‘I wonder where they are,’ he added.
Magna narrowed her eyes. Lint shuffled back into place at the bottom of the line. He suddenly felt glad to be at the bottom, far away from Magna’s penetrating stare.
Magna turned to Olgan.
‘Where are they?’ she asked.
Olgan gulped. Why was Magna asking her?
‘I don’t know,’ she said.
It was the truth. She was the only one who had not been present yesterday when Dec and Ithil had made their plans.
‘Ayat?’ Magna asked.
Ayat looked startled. He had been hoping to avoid actually speaking to Magna for a good many more days yet.
‘Well?’ Magna prompted, when Ayat did nothing but look surprised.
‘What?’ he asked, confused.
Magna shook her head. She looked like she wanted to shake Ayat.
‘I want to know where Ithil and Dec are.’
Ayat still said nothing. He felt as if he was in his Ma’s cooking fire. His face was getting hotter and hotter.
‘Tell me where they are,’ Magna repeated, her voice rising. With Dec and Ithil gone, Ayat was at the top of the line, in a position of authority. To Magna, this seemed absurd.
‘Not here,’ Ayat suggested, looking around.
‘No, not here,’ Magna agreed, through clenched teeth. She looked like she wished it was Ayat who had disappeared. ‘So they must be somewhere else. Did they tell you where they were going?’
Lint blanched. This was the moment, he thought, when even Ayat’s stupidity could not save him. The answer to the question was simple. Yes, they had told Ayat where they were going. They had gone to get Ekk, and that was going to cause trouble; big trouble. Ekk and Magna did not get on well. They did not see eye to eye. In fact, if Lint had to choose one word to describe their relationship, it would be hate. They hated each other.
Ayat thought very long and very hard, and then eventually answered Magna’s question.
‘Yes,’ he told her.
Magna’s face changed colour. It was almost the same colour as her hair. She looked like she was having difficultly breathing.
‘Where?’ she gasped.
And then Ayat did something that took Lint completely by surprise. He used his brain. He didn’t lie to Magna, but he didn’t tell the truth either. He told her,
‘They said they were going to see their teacher.’
And Magna no longer cared what words Ayat spoke. She wasn’t listening to him any more. She was so fed up with him, she just expected for him to say something stupid. She didn’t realise that he had told her the answer she wanted. All she cared about was putting him in his place.
‘Enough with this ridiculous line up,’ she screeched. ‘It’s time to change it.’
And so she did.
Ayat was sent right to the bottom of the line beside Lint. Lint looked up at Ayat in bewilderment. What was Magna doing? Dec and Ithil, in their absence, also lost their places at the top of the line. Olgan was put at the very top of the line. Hohn was next to her then Jet. Ban went down the line next to Ayat, which left Lint, Unta and Kelc in the middle.
Everyone looked around at their new places in amazement. It was obviously a crazy line up. Ayat, who was the strongest, was at the bottom. Nothing made sense. Ban, who everyone knew had an impressive right arm, was next to him. Lint raised his hand. He had to ask. He liked Ayat. Ayat had just done a good and loyal thing for Dec and Ithil. He did not deserve to be at the bottom of the line.
‘Why is Ayat at the bottom of the line?’ he asked. ‘We normally have the strongest at the top.’
Lint didn’t mention the bit about the weakest going at the bottom; it was a bit too personal.
‘Because the line needs to be strong at the front and at the back, for when you attack and when you retreat. The weaker members of the group need to be put in the middle,’ Magna explained.
This made Ayat a bit happier, but not Lint, Unta or Kelc. Lint wished he’d never asked.
With Olgan at the front, Magna marched her new line to the boys’ cave. There was a pile of nettle stalks as big as a bonfire waiting for them. Several of the boys cast longing glances towards the back of the cave where they knew their tools were kept. But Magna had no interest in anything but the precious nettles. The children spent all day splitting open the nettle stems, and rubbing the stalks over a stone to separate the bark from the pith. The pith was thrown in the ground. The pile of bark was kept and guarded closely by Magna. It was tricky, and all the boys found it difficult to concentrate. Their thoughts were on Dec and Ithil, trekking through the forest, searching for Ekk. At the slightest sound of a disturbance outside the cave, all the boys dropped their stalks and were outside the cave, looking eagerly to see what was happening.
‘What’s going on?’ Olgan asked Lint at the end of the day. ‘What are you all waiting for?’
Lint shook his head and refused to tell her anything. Olgan was now top of the line. Olgan was the one Magna turned to if she wanted to know anything. There was no way he was going to tell Olgan anything. He didn’t want Ekk back, but he wasn’t going to betray the other boys either.
‘It’s Dec and Ithil, isn’t it?’ Olgan asked.
She stared hard at him. Lint stared back at her. For a moment, it felt like he was staring into Magna’s eyes. It was a creepy feeling. He said nothing and walked off.
Dec and Ithil still hadn’t returned by the next day, or the day after that. At school they did more work with the nettles, pulling apart the bark into separate green fibres, which they then began to weave together to produce a simple net. Magna watched the work progress with satisfaction.
With every day, Olgan’s net became bigger and stronger. Not all the nets were as good. Lint’s net looked more like the mass of unused pith on the floor. But at least it didn’t fall apart. Ayat and Ban only had a mass of unused pith on the floor.
That night, there was a lot of noise coming from Clan Chief Ghun’s hut. Dec’s Pa, Bil, had gone to see the chief about his missing son. Dec’s Ma, Fen, was also worried. She wanted a search party sent out.
At first, Clan Chief Ghun was reluctant to do anything. He was well aware that Dec was the natural leader of the boys. He had all the makings of a good clan chief. This was a problem. Clan Chief Ghun wanted his son, Unta, to be the next Clan Chief, not Dec. When Dec had disappeared, Clan Chief Ghun had been pleased. It was the perfect solution to his problem. The last thing he wanted to do was search for the boy and bring him back.
Bil, though, was very insistent. He was quite fond of his son; more than fond, proud. He, too, was well aware that Dec would make an excellent Clan Chief. In fact, many people had realised this. Eventually Clan Chief Ghun agreed to go looking. It seemed the only way to make Bil leave his hut.
In the morning the boys watched enviously as the men gathered in the village. They all carried their spears. It was supposed to be a search party but it looked more like a hunting party. Clan Chief Ghun who, last night, had not wanted to go searching, was now feeling quite important and excited. He kept shouting at the other men. Nothing that made any sense, of course, but he did make a lot of noise.
As the children lined up, the men began to leave the village. Magna could see every boy was eyeing the village in the distance. She waited patiently. When the men had all gone, the children focused on Magna.
‘Magna?’ Hohn asked.
In the few days since Magna had moved Hohn up the line, next to Olgan, he seemed to have grown in height and in confidence. There was only Olgan between him and the top spot. It will only be a matter of time, Hohn thought, before the top spot is mine.
‘Why don’t we help look for them?’ he
suggested.
While Bil had been talking to Clan Chief Ghun last night, the boys had had a meeting of their own. They were all surprised it had taken Dec and Ithil so long to return. Ayat said he wanted to go looking, and, one after the other, all the boys decided they wanted to help too. Hohn had been given the job of persuading Magda to lead them. Actually, Hohn had given himself the job of persuading Magna. Olgan had not been present at the meeting. The favour Magda was showing her was turning the other boys against Olgan. It wasn’t because they suspected she was a girl. They had no idea. It was just because she had somehow become top of the line, when no one thought she deserved to be there. Her muscles were simply not big enough.
‘It’s only because Magda likes him,’ the other boys muttered about Olgan behind her back. The logical consequence of this was that, if Magda liked Olgan, there had to be something wrong with Olgan.
Magda rolled her eyes and sighed.
‘I guess that's not a bad idea,’ she said. ‘The men are going to need all the help they can get.’
She sent the boys up to the cave to fetch their tools. They came back with their lumps of half sharpened flint.
‘What use are those?’ Magna scoffed, looking with scorn at the unfinished tools. ‘Only bring tools that are ready for use.’
The boys scowled and thought very dark thoughts. Some of them began imagine what it would be like to hunt Magna. It was considered an unforgivable offence to insult another man’s tools, and Magna had just crossed that line. Previously, she had just been a teacher they disliked because she was a woman. They just instinctively knew that was wrong. Now they had a reason for their discontent. Magna had insulted their tools and made an enemy of every single boy in her class.
The boys came back with their sharpened sticks. Olgan came out with a sharpened stick in one hand and her net in the other. This pleased Magna greatly.
‘Good thinking,’ she told Olgan.
All the other boys gave Olgan a dark look.
Magna led the boys towards the Nightwoods. They were known as the Nightwoods because under the trees it was as dark as night all the time. The villagers seldom came here because the land was uneven and covered in needle like leaves all year round, making it treacherous. Also fewer animals lived in these woods, and those that did, were difficult to hunt. Many of the villagers believed these woods were cursed. No one used any of the wood in the cooking fires.
The boys followed her uneasily. No one wanted to go in there. Lint shook his head. He was absolutely sure Dec and Ithil had not gone this way.
‘This is the wrong way,’ he announced.
Magda turned on him at once.
‘How do you know?’
‘Because they went that way.’
He pointed to the Huntingwoods. That was where Ekk had gone when they chased him away in the summer. That was where Dec and Ithil would have gone to bring him back.
‘Did you see them?' Magna demanded.
Lint was about to shake his head. Then he decided it would better to say yes. It was easier to say he had seen them go rather than explain they were following Ekk.
‘Yes, they went that way.’
Magna made a funny noise in her throat. Lint felt like his tummy was full of worms. He could see why the other boys wanted Ekk as a teacher rather than Magna. It was tough having a teacher who knew what you were thinking better than you did yourself.
‘All right,' Magna decided. 'We'll go into the Huntingwoods. But stay in line. And stay alert. We’re looking for Dec and Ithil but anything might happen.’
Magna had brought with her two spears. Most women were not supposed to carry tools; Ma and Magna were the only exceptions to this rule. Lint wondered why this was. Maybe it was because neither Ma nor Magna were with a man. Lint did not know what had happened to Magna’s man. Maybe she had never had one; maybe no one had wanted her. Lint thought this explanation the most likely. Magna was a giant of a woman, taller than all the other women, taller than almost all of the men. She was strong too. Not like his Ma, whose arms were as big as her legs, but strong because she was so tall. Everything about Magna was big. Her voice was loud, her hair was bright as the sun and big as a bush, and her eyes glimmered with intelligence. She was not a nice woman.
Despite this, Lint was glad she was with them. The woods were full of signs. Magna pointed them out as they walked past. There were trees where the bark had been gored by the tusks of a wild boar, scratched by a lion, clawed by a bear. There were marks too on the forest floor: dusty footprints of foxes and imprints of something bigger, like a wolf, and lots of them. In a tangle of thorns, there were the long hairs from a horse’s tail. Lint loved eating horse, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to face one yet.
By midday, everybody was having a really good time. They had forgotten all about Dec and Ithil. They had spent the morning eating nuts and berries, and listening to Magna as she taught them many different ways to track prey. The boys had learnt more from her in that one morning than their entire time at school so far. Even more exciting, they had found some signs of a reindeer. All their appetites were whetted. Every boy imagined himself walking back to the village, a reindeer slung across his shoulders.
When they found soft, fresh prints in some mud, the hunt began in earnest. Magna whispered instructions in Olgan’s ear, who then set off on her own. Then Magna separated the rest into two groups. Hohn, Ban, Jet and Dec were in one group, Lint, Kelc, and Unta stayed with Magna.
At first Magna crept forwards, and Lint struggled not to walk into her back. Then, abruptly, Magna started running, and the boys were left behind. Suddenly she stopped running, and froze, her knees bent, her arm raised, her spear ready. But the boys didn’t follow her example. They blundered on, thinking to catch up with her, their footsteps thudding as they ran.
‘It heard you,’ Magna hissed when they reached her. ‘And it’s fled, over there.’
She pointed in the direction where the second group had gone.
‘But that means the others can catch it.’ Lint said.
Magna snorted.
‘We shall see.’
Together, they ran on, their backs low, their feet soft, Magna leading the way. Before they found the others, there was the sound of an animal bolting towards them, hooves pounding, crashing through the undergrowth.
‘It’s coming…’
But before Magna could finish speaking, the reindeer came flying into view, with antlers the size of small trees, and legs longer than Lint. Only Magna was ready for it. She sent a spear hurtling towards it, whizzing through the air. Her aim was good. Lint thought it was going to hit. At the last moment, the deer swerved, changed direction, and the spear sank into the ground. But Magna wasn’t finished. Already she had her second spear aloft.
Before the spear had even left her hand, Lint saw the deer ahead stumble. It thrashed its legs, as if caught in something then sank to its knees. Magna did not let lose her spear. Instead she darted forwards, the boys with her, closing in on the deer.
They did not find out why it had fallen until they were right in front of it. Its front hooves were tangled in a net, and there was a sharpened stick lodged in its neck. It was his sister’s stick, his sister’s net, and, behind the deer, his sister stood, watching it, not quite knowing what to do next. Magna buried her own spear in the animal’s neck, and then looked up at Olgan. Behind her, Magna could hear the sounds of the other boys approaching.
‘Your first reindeer?’ she asked Olgan.
Olgan nodded. All the other boys felt uneasy. None of them had managed to hunt down a reindeer, and this one, by the look of it, was a whopper.
Magna did not need to say the words. The whole woods echoed with them. Every boy could hear them before she said them, but she said them anyway.
‘Well done. You have proved yourself today.’
Magna smiled. Olgan could not stop herself from smiling back; everyone else present snarled. Olgan, in Magna’s eyes, could do no wrong. But in the boys’ ey
es, Olgan could do no right. Trouble, Lint could see, was on its way.