He regarded her in surprise. "Bunny's good at that."
"Yes, but when I ask how I am to repay someone for leaving fuel by my door when I haven't asked for any, or giving me fish I don't know how to cook…"
He laughed with kindly amusement at her disgruntlement. "I see what you mean. It's so obvious to her that she doesn't realize how new and confusing it could be for you." He tucked her arm under his and guided her out of the laboratory, firmly clanging the metal door closed behind him. "Well, now, everyone knows you're new, and new to the ways of Petaybee, so they're helping you out. Old custom… especially for people they want to like…"
"Want to like…"
The silver eyes glinted. "They like heroes. No, they genuinely do," he amended when she snorted in disgust. "You're worth your weight as a role model…" Then he took a second look at her gauntness. "That'll improve," he said kindly. "So they'll sort of ease you into the environment the best way they can. What you do"- He held up one admonitory finger when she started to protest. -"is return the courtesies to the next stranger who arrives on our frozen shores. Or," he said, giving her that sly sideways glance that challenged her, "you compose a song to chant at the next latchkay."
"I don't think they really want to know about Bremport," she said very slowly.
His arm pressed hers encouragingly against his side. "They're tougher people than you realize. And they have a need to know, Yana. As much as you have a need to sing about it, even if you don't know it." His eyes were somber.
"Whatever," she said noncommittally, not willing to accept the truth, or the inevitability, of his suggestion.
They walked the rest of the way back to the main house in silence, a silence that was the most companionable one she had enjoyed in many a year. Scan Shongili was a most unusual man. Where under what sun could she possibly have encountered him before?
Chapter 5
When they reached the house, they almost ran Bunny over: she was in the process of reaching for the door latch just as Scan flipped it up. Seeing her face, Yana knew that something had happened-something bad.
"Message from Adak, Scan. A hunting party found one of the lost teams."
"They did?" Scan took the hands that Bunny had held out in an unconscious appeal for comfort. "And?"
"There are five still alive…" Her voice trailed off.
"Which five?"
Yana read into that question that he was amazed that anyone had survived.
"Two of theirs this time, three of ours."
He dropped Bunny's hands and started to gather items about the room, cramming them into a pack at the same time he put on outerwear. He was ready in one circuit of the room.
"Where are they?" he asked.
"Clodagh's." As if that should have been a given.
"Drive us there, will you, Bunny?"
"Sure!" And the girl began to shrug into her wraps.
Yana wondered at how lightly Sean Shongili had dressed for a long drive in freezing temperatures. He hadn't even rolled down his sleeves or done up his shirt collar, and the smooth pelted fur jacket he donned wasn't nearly as thick as Bunny's or hers. He grinned as he caught her expression.
"I'll be warm enough."
Then he hurried them out to the sled, where the dogs were already standing in their harness, yapping as if infected by the urgency that possessed the humans.
With deft movements, Scan settled Yana into the sled, bundled the furs about her, ignoring the cat's attempts to get into her lap, and gave her custody of his pack, telling her not to let it fall off.
Then he snugged his hood over his head, tying it under his chin, and shoved his hands in the thick fur mitts that were fastened by thongs to his sleeves.
"Come on, Bunny!" he yelled, and whistled at the team; the dogs strained against their harness even as Bunny wrenched the brake free of the ice and paddled with her foot to set the sled in motion.
The sled bumped forward, Yana clutching the pack for fear it would tumble off her fur-encased lap. If she had thought the outbound trip was fast and jarring, though she knew that Bunny had gone easily for her sake, the inbound journey was another matter. Scan ran beside Maud, the red leader dog, urging her to her best pace, chivying Bunny down steep inclines when she would have taken safer routes.
Yana hung on, determined not to close her eyes when the sled tilted at alarming angles and the landscape seemed to fly past her. She was particularly aware of the increased speed when the sled thudded from one hummock to another, crashing her bones together. Or when the cat, who had somehow crawled back under the rugs, sunk its claws through her pants leg to keep from being thrown about. Stands of hardwoods that had seemed miles apart during the outward journey streaked past her with barely an interval between them.
The abrupt arctic daylight had waned by the time they neared the settlement and saw its lit windows blinking welcomingly through the trees at them. The dogs slowed as they reached Clodagh's, making their way through a welter of other teams parked there. Scan grabbed the pack with a flash of a grateful grin at Yana and charged up the steps, Bunny right behind him as soon as she had hauled on the brake.
Grunting but telling herself that of course she understood their haste, Yana peeled back the furs and extricated herself from the sled. The cat jumped out and disappeared under the pilings. Oddly enough, as Yana straightened up she found that she wasn't nearly as stiff this time. She felt for the bottle of Clodagh's elixir and wondered what it contained. Then, hesitant about intruding, she climbed the steps to the porch. She could hear the subdued buzz of many voices even before she opened the door and slipped inside. The warmth was like a blanket surrounding her, but the press of people almost made her withdraw.
Peering over and around the bodies packed inside the room, she could see no part of the injured survivors, though there was a long clear space in one corner of the room where they might be lying obscured by the crowd. Clodagh's head and hips appeared from time to time, and once she saw what looked like the top of Scan Shongili's head. Bunny was standing by the stove, where she was precariously dribbling coffee into two cups, trying to keep from spilling any as she was repeatedly jostled.
Yana hoped one was for her, and it was: Bunny threaded her way through the throng and offered Yana a cup. She reached eagerly to accept it, for the warmth on her hands as well as her innards. She blew across the surface and at the first careful sip wondered if Scan used Clodagh's recipe or if it was the other way around.
"Could you see? Arc they going to make it?" she asked, nodding toward the corner.
Bunny nodded, her eyes dark with worry.
"Ours'll recover a lot faster'n theirs, so there'll be more questions an' tribunals and inquests and stuff."
Which Bunny felt were irrelevant, Yana decided. "Isn't it just that your people are better acclimated?"
Bunny looked disgusted. "Of course they are and we try to explain that to them, but they"-the pronoun was used in contempt-"never admit the fact. Their people should somehow be better able to cope when most of 'em's never lived outside at all. And," she added with perplexity in her voice, "that's not the real problem anyway. The real problem is that they think they have to know everything about everything, and they don't. Even we who live here don't. But we know enough to pay attention to what the planet tells us, and they don't seem to pay attention to nothin'."
Yana sipped, letting the warmth thaw the ice in her blood. Maybe she would do better if she ran like the others did. She had done nothing but sit, and she was whacked-whereas Bunny's face was ruddy with stimulation, and Sean hadn't even looked puffed when he had grabbed the pack off her lap. Everyone in the room had settled down to what might be a long wait, one of many they endured with great patience. Yana felt her own running out, complicated by a growing sense of claustrophobia in a room packed with folk she didn't know well enough to wait equably with. She shifted her feet restlessly, wondering if she could withdraw without giving offense. Not that that was so much a problem, since she doubted anyone would notice one less body in the room except with gratitude. A more realistic concern was whether she could make it through this bunch to the door. And if and when she did, what would she do then, back at her cold and lonely cabin? That half hour in Scan's company had emphasized the disadvantages of solitude. She had felt oddly alive and on the alert in his company, the first time she had felt that way since Bry.