Blackfish City(81)

“Seagull,” Ankit said. “Ugly creatures.”

“I think it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Ora said.

“Ora was bonded to a bird,” Masaaraq said, and Ora whispered with her: “A black-chested buzzard eagle.”

“I think I remember that,” Kaev said. “It’s faint, but I feel like I remember seeing it circling the Cabinet. A long time ago. Roosting up top.”

“She stayed with me for the rest of her life,” Ora said. “Fifteen years.”

“And then?” Masaaraq asked. “What happened then?”

Ora said nothing.

Shouts from the cabin; an alarm sounded. A boat, coming from Qaanaaq.

“This can’t be good,” Kaev said, standing up.

Soq emerged from the cabin. Startling, the fondness that gripped Kaev when he saw Soq coming. The love for someone he never knew existed. This is what family is. What family does. Was it magic, some supernatural quirk of DNA recognizing its own? Or did humans simply spend their whole lives so steeped in the mythology of this primal thing called family that the emotions were already there, one-way relationships waiting for the people who would one day step into those slots?

“Is that Safety?” Kaev asked.

“That’s Go’s transport,” Soq said. “She’s going to pay a visit to a certain Martin Podlove.”

Kaev sat down, clumsily poured another cup of tea for Soq.

“Thanks,” Soq said. “What’d I miss?”

“A brazen invasion, explosions, death-defying feats of true scaling brilliance,” Ankit said. “Also, this is your grandmother. Soq, meet Ora.”

They shook hands. Awkwardly. Soq frowned at the old woman’s face and asked, “Have we met?”

Ora smiled. “Not directly. I’m a friend of a friend, perhaps.”

“Hey, yeah, cool, I get it,” Soq said, with the exaggerated smile you give someone you suspect might be quite mad.

“Yours?” Ora asked Ankit.

“Mine,” Kaev said, and then laughed. “I mean . . . not mine . . . Soq belongs only to Soq. But I’m Soq’s father.”

“This will take us all some time to get used to,” Ankit said. “But back to Martin Podlove. I knew the guy. The one who killed his grandkid? I’d been working with him on research into the breaks. Fascinating fellow. So knowledgeable. But angry. And sad.”

Soq laughed. “Well, then. If that’s your friend, I may have some bad news for you.”

The door to the cabin opened. Go came out first, followed by soldiers. Marching a man who moved in shuffling little steps, because he was extremely old or because his ankles were bound like his wrists. Or both. Probably both. Soq said, “That would be the bad news I mentioned.”

“She’s going to give him to Podlove?” Ankit asked.

“Maybe,” Soq said. “Probably. I’m holding out hope that it’s just a trick to get close to the guy in his office and gut him like a fish, but the chances of that are looking slim. I’m going along for the ride.”

Kaev watched their mouths move, heard the words, didn’t hear them. None of this mattered. He felt Liam inside his head, a calming beacon of mammalian wisdom, of animal objectivity, guiding him clear of the rocks. Words were useless, dangerous, dishonest. He loved these people and he wouldn’t let anything happen to them. He got up and lay down on the floor beside Liam.

“You look like you’re part polar bear yourself,” Ankit said, smiling down at them.

“That’d mean so are you.”

“I’m all monkey, baby.”

When she laughed, so did the ugly little capuchin that had been hiding behind her.

When Liam snarled at it, so did Kaev. Then everybody laughed. Except Masaaraq.

“Don’t mind her,” Ora said with a laugh, her smile radiant, and how could she be so sane, so whole, so happy, after everything she’d been through? Kaev wanted to lie in her lap and stare at her face forever. “She was always like this. A hunter. Out in the wilderness all the time. Killing things. Even when she was with us, she was somewhere else. Worrying about what might happen. You know how predators are.”

“No, actually, I don’t,” Ankit said.

“I do,” Kaev whispered.

Masaaraq scooped up a handful of seawater from a bucket at her feet and splashed it in Ora’s face. And then she laughed.

“She loves you kids,” Ora said. “Always did. Even if she was afraid to show it. Even if she thought that evil spirits might see her happiness and snatch it away from her.”

“Turns out I was right about that,” Masaaraq said.

“Know this,” Ora said. “She didn’t come all this way just for me.”

“Upper America is full of empty towns, empty cities,” Masaaraq said abruptly, uncomfortable—as Kaev was—with all these words. “Our enemies are gone. The warlords keep to the south. We can choose any place we want. Big mansions, tiny cabins, a dozen of each . . .” She looked up, saw Kaev and Ankit’s shocked expressions. “There are settlements there, still. Trade routes. You wouldn’t be giving up civilization entirely.”

Their mouths did not close.

Yes, Kaev thought. Yes. Liam raised his head, seeing what Kaev imagined, the boundless expanses of snow and ice, the wilderness, the hunt. His joy doubled, tripled, boosted by the bear’s. Let’s get away from all this human ugliness.