"Did you examine it closely?" he asked.
"Yes," I said. "But Karjuk is the guard," I said.
"Yes," said Imnak. "But whom does he guard?"
26
Imnak Makes A Camp; Poalu Boils Meat
The wind howled about us, and I could hardly keep my footing.
"We must stop!" I called to Imnak, over the storm. I do not know if he could even hear me, and yet he was little more than a yard away. It was utterly dark. The moons, the stars, were obscured. Winds struck against the hides I wore, almost tearing them from me. I kept my left hand, mittened, on the supplies on the sled. It then began to snow, the crystals whipping against our faces, driven almost horizontally over the level and among the pinnacles and turrents of the jumbled, bleak terrain. I pulled down my hood. The lart fur, with which it was trimmed, snapped against my face on the left, and was almost torn from the hood on the right I felt my face might freeze. I could see nothing. I stumbled on, holding the sled. I could not see the girls but I knew they were fastened to the sled. Imnak had had us tether them thusly, that they might not be swept away from us and lost in the storm.
"We cannot see where we are going!" I cried out to Imnak. "We must stop!"
I heard the sleen in the traces squeal ahead of us, the noise torn in the fierce snow and wind. I sensed Imnak turning about, and then again he was at the tabuk-horn uprights at the sled, glimpsed momentarily in a break in the clouds. I saw the girls then, too, their hands on their neck tethers, small, pelted, coated with snow, pathetic in the storm, weary, with us. Then again it was dark. Ahead I had seen Ram's sled for a moment I had not seen Karjuk's sled.
"It is madness to continue!" I cried to Imnak.
The sled stopped, wedged between two ice blocks. Imnak and I tilted it and it slid on one runner and then righted itself and again moved on.
"Let us stop!" I called out to Imnak.
I thought I heard a scream but I could not be sure, in the howling wind.
Imnak threw his weight back on the uprights. I held back too, on the sled. The sled stopped. I fumbled for the tethers of Audrey and Arlene and pulled them to the sled. Then I went toward the head of the sled. The sleen was there, already curled in the driving snow. Its pelt shook under my touch. It would be asleep in moments. Snow was almost to my knees. I felt my way back about the sled to the uprights. Imnak was shouting to me, but I could not hear him. Audrey and Arlene, as I could tell by putting forth my hands, were crouched beside the sled. I went about the back of the sled. I could see nothing. The wind howled fiercely. On the other side of the sled, extending my hand, I felt Poalu. She, like the other girls, was crouched beside the sled. Imnak was at my side. He pressed a strap into my hand. I drew it to me. Barbara was gone. The end of the strap had been cut. I made to move out into the snow, to search for her, but Imnak, bodily, obstructed me. He pushed me back. I did not resist. Imnak, of course, was right. It would be madness to go forth into the howling darkness, the snow and wind, to search for her. In moments one's trail would be obliterated and, shortly, wandering foolishly in the darkness, the storm, one might find oneself lost, and dangerously separated from the sled and its supplies.
I do not think the other girls even realized, at that time, that Barbara was gone. Poalu, exhausted, fell asleep almost immediately, beside the sled. The other girls, too, were soon asleep.
"What are we going to do?" I shouted at Imnak, putting my face near the side of his head.
"One will sleep, one will watch," called Imnak.
I found it hard to respond. I found it hard to believe he had said what he had.
"Are you sleepy?" asked Imnak.
"No!" I shouted.
"You watch first," shouted Imnak. "I will sleep."
I stood beside the sled. Imnak then lay down by the sled. It was hard for me to believe, under the circumstances, that he could sleep. Yet, in moments, I think he was asleep.
After a while I crouched beside the sled, and peered into the darkness.
The wind howled about the sled. I wondered how far Ram had continued on. I had not seen Karjuk when the clouds had parted for a moment earlier. I wondered where Barbara was. I did not think she was lost. The strap which had held her had been cleanly cut. The lovely blond slave had been taken prisoner, but by whom, or what, I did not know.
After a time Imnak awoke. "Sleep now," he said. "I will watch."
I then slept.
I awakened, Imnak's hand on my shoulder.
"Observe the sleen," said Imnak.
The animal, some nine feet in length, twisting, was awake, and restless. Its ears were lifted, its nostrils distended. The claws in the wide, soft paws emerged, and then retracted. It did not seem to be angry.
It lifted its snout to the wind.
"It has taken the soent of something," I said.
"It is excited, but not disturbed," said Imnak.
"What does this mean?" I asked.
"That we are in great danger," said Imnak. "There are sleen in the vicinity."
"But we are far out on the ice," I said.
"The danger is thus much greater," said Imnak.
"Yes," I said, understanding him. If the snow sleen had taken the scent of sleen in this area it might well be one or more sleen wandering on the ice, sleen driven by hunger from the inland areas. Such animals would be extremely dangerous.
"Perhaps Karjuk or Ram are in the vicinity," I said.
"The sleen knows the animals of Karjuk and Ram," he said. "If it were they he would not be as excited as he is."
"What can we do?" I asked.
"We must hasten to build a shelter," said Imnak, getting to his feet. The girls were still sleeping. The storm had passed, and the light of the three moons was bright on the snow and ice. "There is little time," he said.
"What can I do?" I asked.
Imnak, with his heel, traced a circle, some ten feet in diameter, in the snow near the sled. "Trample down the snow inside the circle," he said. "Then unload the sled and place our supplies within the circle."
I did as I was told, and Imnak, with a large, curved, bone, saw-toothed knife, a snow knife, began to cut at a nearby drift of snow.
The sleen grew more restless, and it began to make noises.
"Listen," said Imnak. I listened, in the cold, still air. In the cold air I did not know how far away it was.
"They are on a scent?" I asked.
"Yes," said Imnak.
"Ours?" I asked.
"That seems quite likely," he speculated.
He had begun to take snow blocks from the drift and place them in a circle, within the edge of the area I was trampling down. The first block was the most difficult block to extract from the bank. The first row of blocks were about two feet in length, and a foot in breadth and height.
I started, suddenly, Audrey screaming. Imnak ran toward her, snow knife in hand.
"Where is Barbara!" screamed Audrey. "She is gone!" There was horror on her face. In her hand she held the severed strap, that which had tethered Barbara before it had been cut. She had awakened, crawled to the strap, understood its import, and screamed.
I saw Imnak strike her to the snow. She fell, twisting, to his feet, her own neck tether, seeming to emerge from her furs, still fastening her to the sled.
Imnak stood over her, his head lifted, listening. There was a distinct modulation in the hunting cries of the distant sleen pack., It was almost as though the sound began afresh, energized and renewed.
Imnak tore back Audrey's hood. His hand was in her hair, pulling her head cruelly back. Her throat was fully exposed. She was on her knees. The blade of the saw-toothed snow knife was at her throat. Then Imnak threw her angrily to her stomach in the snow.
There was no doubt now that the sleen pack was turning in our direction.