The Glaciermen #14: Claiming

Early access prepublication manuscripts of "The Glaciermen"

Hello Readers,

It’s been too long. I blame myself, laziness primarily, and the annoying way that a never-arriving “stable schedule” seems to erode the best of my habit-forming intentions. And laziness. But—I’m committed to this story and to you as a reader, so I’m gonna keep at it, keep writing, and keep posting.

Anyway, here it is, the next part of the story. It’s a bigger chunk to make up for the long gap.

(Link to previous segment if you missed it, and a link to the beginning, if you’re new).

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The Claiming

Lee sat on his bed mat in the back room, wringing his hands nervously. Aguta had brought him back, then left without saying a word, going by himself into the main chamber. Minutes passed, and Lee grew increasingly anxious, dread building as he waited for Aguta to return. Eventually he couldn’t take it anymore, and, despite himself, he walked to the flap, threw it aside, and stepped through into the main chamber.

Aguta was sitting with his legs crossed on the woven mat in the center of the room, facing toward the exit. He did not react in any way to Lee entering the room, though he must have heard the boy come in. Lee stood for a few seconds pensively, then started to say something. Aguta did not react except to raise one hand. Lee shut his mouth immediately. The bald man pulled a deep breath into his lungs and held it for a few seconds. Then he slowly let it out in a long exhale through his nostrils.

“I was mistaken, boy.”

Lee was surprised at this admission. He was expecting to get yelled at, or worse.

“I wanted to protect you. This place is hard. The weak do not survive, and you were weak from your injuries. You needed to recover, to learn our tongue. I did not think you were ready to understand our true ways… to learn what you must do. You are brave, if reckless, and you have shown my error. One is a fool to teach a dog to hunt by locking it in a cage.

“You will receive the answers you have been seeking. But first you must know this: the only way forward involves much pain, and you may not survive. I wanted to give you more time, to let you grow stronger, but we have no choice. You have shown yourself, and the others know you are here now. We have little time before word spreads too far.”

Aguta shifted himself around to face the boy. Lee stared at him wide eyed. He didn’t know what to ask—he had so many questions. Finally, he picked one that had been bothering him for a while.

“Who are… they?” he asked, blanking for a specific word to use, then pointed toward the chasm.
“They are sikanuk, ice men,” Aguta repliced, “They have always been here… at least that is what they say.”

Lee thought again, concentrating to remember the new word, then said, “Fisher-man… Muktuk. He said ‘not-claimed.’” 

“Have you not wondered how we survive the tunlaq?”

Lee was confused. “Hiding?” 

Aguta shook his head, then said, “I have hidden you, yes, but the sikanuk do not hide from them—they are enslaved by them. All are claimed by the tunlaq to be servants of their tribe, and so am I. Without being claimed, we would be treated as a mere animals, to be hunted like those you arrived with.”

“Ah…” Lee said, then after a pause, “Then claim me.”

“It is not that simple, boy.”

“Why?”

“You are still weak from your injuries. The process may kill you.”

“But you said…hunted...without claim,” Lee countered.

Aguta grunted in frustration. Then he said, “You have noticed these scars, yes?” 

Lee nodded.

“These are the marks of the Claiming. To claim you, I must give you your own,” Aguta said, pointing to Lee’s chest, his voice softening uncharacteristically as he spoke the words.

Lee was about to retort, but his words stopped in his throat as he looked more closely at the scars on Aguta’s chest and arms. He was covered in them. Some were thin streaks, others were broad and ugly. Lee shivered at the thought of the pain Aguta must have endured to receive them. Sighing, Lee slumped to sit down on the floor next to Aguta. They sat together for a few minutes, neither saying anything. Finally, Lee broke the silence.

“Thank you. For saving my life...”

Aguta grunted.

Solemnly, Lee continued, “You… have to claim me… yes? Not just for me… Muktuk say, ‘punish’ you. You… be killed if they find me. Have to claim me.”

Aguta nodded, but didn’t say anything, turning his face away.

“Well,” Lee said, cracking a deranged smile, “why wait?”

There was a look of bafflement on Aguta’s face.

“Come on,” Lee said, “No choice, right? Plus, I do not like… it hanging over me.”

Aguta blinked at the boy and shook his head. Then his lips parted in a smile, a rare moment for the man, and he began to let out billowing laughter. He clapped Lee on the back. 

“You are truly not a weakling, boy. Your courage enlivens me. Let us prepare.”

• • •

Aguta had started a small fire in the corner.  Lee had been sent to find a few lengths of rope from the back chamber. When he returned with the rope, Aguta directed him to tend the fire and disappeared into the back chamber. Lee prodded the flames with a small poker, his mind overflowing despite his best efforts to avoid thinking about the impending pain.

What am I doing? This is crazy, he thought. I should just try to run away… but I’d probably get killed, and I bet Aguta would too. Ugh! Why does every other option end up with somebody dying?

 Aguta returned from the other chamber, interrupting Lee’s reverie. He was carrying a small urn, which he set next to the fire, and two barbed metal spikes. He jammed one into a crack in the chamber wall, grunting at the effort, then repeated the process on the other side of the room. He tested each one with a jerk, then, satisfied they were secure, began tying a length of rope to one of them.

“Uh… what are you doing there?” Lee asked.

Aguta finished tying the first rope and moved to the second.

“They are to help you during the Claiming.”

“Okay…” Lee said, skeptical, then, “Oh yeah, I have… question.”

“Very well, ask,” Aguta replied.

“What is offering, and first trial? Muktuk said these words.”

Aguta finished with the second rope and moved to crouch next to the fire. He filled a small pot from a waterskin and hung it over the fire on the tripod. Then he unrolled a leather sheet, revealing a set of bone knives of varying grisly designs. He selected two of them and placed them blade-down in the pot.

“When a child is born among the sikanuk—”

“You have kids?” Lee interrupted.

Aguta shot Lee a grimace.

“Sorry,” Lee said sheepishly.

“Yes, children are born here,” Aguta replied, “Once the child weans from his mother, he must be presented to the tunlaq in the Offering. Some are returned, and others are not. It is usually the weak or sickly ones who are not returned—but sometimes healthy infants are taken as well—I do not know why or how they are chosen, and I do not wish to ponder what happens to them.”

He paused to remove the lid from the urn he had brought in earlier. He measured out a small pile of a gray powder onto his palm, then sprinkled it into the fire. There was a low whoosh and a crackling as the tongues of flame swallowed the powder, shifting from their natural red-orange to the familiar blue color Lee recognized from the torches in the ice caverns.

Aguta continued, “Those that are returned are allowed to come of age until the time for the First Trial, which normally happens when they are little younger than you are. It is a test, similar to your time in the freezing pit, but with a different purpose. The tunlaq use the pit to kill those they have captured after a hunt while still preserving their corpses.

“The First Trial, however, is meant to cull the weak, not kill all. A child comes of age and is placed in an empty chamber within the ices of the glacier. The child must remain for one day. No clothing is allowed for the child besides a covering for the feet, but neither are the mists used to hasten their cooling. The weak die of the cold, and the strong who survive are allowed to be Claimed.”

Lee stood enraptured, waiting for Aguta to continue his explanation, but it quickly became clear that was all he was going to say.

“What was it like… when you were claimed?”

Aguta simply ignored his question and said, “It is ready.”

He took Lee by the arm and guided him over to the ropes. He stood the boy in the center of the room, then he tied a rope to each of Lee’s wrists so that his arms were suspended out his sides.

“Do I have to?” Lee asked, growing nervous.

“Yes,” Aguta said, “The pain will be great, probably too much to bear. Your mind will make your body sleep and you will fall—bite down on this.”

Aguta held a piece of rolled leather in front of Lee’s mouth. Lee understood the direction and bit down on it. His apprehension was building with each passing moment, and he tugged nervously at the ropes constraining his wrists. They were tightly secured to the hooks in the walls, and Aguta had tied them in such a way as to leave almost no slack at all. 

Aguta then returned to the fire. He produced a short rod and wrapped the end of it with a strip of cloth. He then drizzled lamp oil over the cloth and dipped it into the urn of powder before holding it over the flames. The small torch came alive with dazzling azure flame. Aguta then retrieved one of the knives from the pot and returned to stand in front of Lee. He held the knife to the flame, taking up a posture of reverence. Then he spoke.

“I, Aguta of the Sikanuk, claim you, child of the ice, to join our number. You shall serve the tribe and its ends, and you shall heed its masters. By these wounds I join you to us. Your pain unites with our pain, and by these marks you shall be known as one among us. I give you a new name, Tigua’ak, adopted one.”

Lee braced himself as Aguta reached forward with the knife, now scorching hot, and began the first cut. The blade pierced lightly into the skin of Lee’s chest, and fiery pain exploded across his torso. He jerked back, tugging against the ropes and yelping in pain, the leather roll flying from his mouth. Unintentionally, his reaction pulled his body further across the blade, leaving a curved, steaming gash across his chest.

Lee panted heavily as Aguta retrieved the leather roll and held it out again for Lee to bite down on. Again, he held the knife over the flame for a few seconds. The next time the blade met Lee’s skin, the boy clamped so hard on the leather that the ends began to split. He cried out past it, the sounds of his pain traveling out from the chamber and echoing across the chasm.

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And that’s it for now folks

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