The Banished by Betty Levin

Author:Betty Levin [Levin, Betty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-206289-5
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1999-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

15

By the fifth morning Siri realized she was losing all sense of time. If she was uncertain of how long they had been under way, if she had to think back to yesterday and the day before to recollect the small same events that barely set each similar day apart, there was a chance that this voyage might swallow her up altogether. Suddenly it seemed necessary to keep track, to mark the passing of each day.

She found a splinter of bone the man had used to draw pictures on a bear tooth. The man had discarded the splinter when the tip broke off, but it was sharp enough for Siri to scratch a yellow groove in the skin boat that roofed their shelter. She made five strokes for five days and then hid the splinter under her sleeping mat.

She wanted to ask Uncle Thorvald how far they had come and how much longer the journey would take. But even when he came to talk with the man in Furfolk speech, he avoided all contact with her. He wouldn’t even meet her eyes.

The sameness of the ocean was oppressive. The evening the Furfolk man harpooned a porpoise from the deck and was able to haul it into the ship, the Starkland men rejoiced. Not that they were hungry, but they were starved for any action. The sight of a distant whale drew the most comment from them. It showed up the difference between the mariners, who were used to being at sea, and the men from the settlement, who chafed at the vastness all around them.

Thorvald gave them small tasks to perform to make them feel occupied. But when he and the Furfolk man bound the she-bear so that the enclosure could be cleaned, no one would go close enough to the savage beast to risk a swipe of her powerful forepaw. With Thorvald and the man across from each other holding the bear, the children had to be called in.

Thorvald remarked loudly that as the she-bear was used to the Furfolk, the young ones would be safe. Siri supposed it was his way of informing her of what she was expected to do. So when the man spoke to the Furfolk child, Siri followed her into the enclosure.

It was impossible to shovel bear droppings into the manure basket with the cubs so curious and wild. To clean the enclosure, the girls had to let the cubs scamper around the lower deck. As long as the she-bear could see them chasing each other in circles and tumbling in mock battle, she didn’t strain against the ropes that could choke her. But when it was time to herd the cubs back inside and they resisted and then became alarmed, the she-bear began to struggle and cough.

The man spoke to Thorvald. They each payed out rope, allowing the bear to drop to all fours and move toward the gate. Siri kept one eye on the ropes while she stalked the cubs. Was the

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