GrayHeart by Tara K Harper

Author:Tara K Harper [Harper, Tara K]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-01-07T07:28:30+00:00

When Coale was done with Rezs for the day, and Rezs returned to the rest of the scouts, Bany or Gradjek grilled her on her lessons. Afterward Ukiah made remarks or asked questions, but they centered more around how Rezs felt or interacted with Coale than about the subtle differences between animal tracks.

Rezs eyed the tall scout more than once. The handsome men she had met at home generally talked more of themselves than anything else. This scout seemed almost as distant from his recognition of his own good looks as he was from the rest of the group. Vlen seemed to trot beside Touvinde's dnu more than anywhere else, but the cub tolerated Ukiah better than any of the others, and the packsong that rode the back of Rezs's mind was more distinct when she was near him. Curious, she tried to get Ukiah to talk, but he was as close-mouthed as a clam at low tide. Finally, she deliberately tried to provoke him.

The first time, they were riding just ahead of Bany, and Ukiah had just come back from gathering tribeetle eggs for the group. Rezs looked down at the globules in her hand, then up at Ukiah. "You really eat these," she said flatly.

He popped a couple in his mouth. "Suck on them first You get the sweet taste from the shell that way."

"I thought we couldn't eat anything without combining it with extractors."

"For the most part," he agreed. "It's too difficult to teach children and most people the subtle identifications of what they can and can't eat, so the general rule is, no food without extractors. For fruits, roots, and most animals, it's very true—they're all toxic. But there are eleven insects you can eat, three different moss bulbs, one seaweed, two types of Yucky leaves—"

"Yucky leaves?" she interrupted.

He nodded. "They grow only in the alpine areas, but they're a good source of vitamins. In a pinch, they'll sustain you better than most other foods."

"How did you learn all this?"

He shrugged. "I've been running trail nearly thirty years."

She studied his remote expression. "How many times has someone saved your skin?"

"Three times. Bany makes it four."

"You say it as if you owe him a debt."

He gave her a sharp look. "I do."

"But how can you repay a life?"

"That's what loyalty is for."

"As in, you'd do anything for him now?"

He shrugged. "As the Celilo folks would say, Bany now owns my soul."

Rezs watched him crunch down on the beetle eggs.

"I wonder," she said softly, "how many souls he owns now."

Something flickered in Ukiah's eyes. "Too many," he answered shortly.

Gingerly, she put an egg in her mouth. "Sometimes I wonder how a person gets to be the way he is," she said around the egg, careful not to bite down yet.

"Same way as the rest of us—we take our child selves and make them older."

"I have a hard time imagining Touvinde as a boy."

Ukiah looked away as he answered. "He didn't have much of a childhood."

"You knew him when he was younger?"

"We were neighbors.

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