Ivory Carver 02 - My Sister the Moon by Sue Harrison Page B

Kiin's bride price to Gray Bird's ulaq. Gray Bird was on the ulaq roof, the two of them together, alone, the women on the beach digging clams at low tide. Qakan was direct, telling his father rather than asking. His father was weak— Qakan did not doubt that—and Qakan knew that a request was often met with refusal only because refusing gave Gray Bird some feeling of power. 
    "I am not a hunter," Qakan had said. "I want to be a trader. 

    I will bring honor to you and bring you furs and shells and harpoons from other villages." 
    But instead of commenting on Qakan's desire to become a trader, Gray Bird had said, "No, you are not a hunter. If spirits hid the roots and berries from the women, the seals from the hunters, still you would not even be able to bring in a puffin." 
    And Qakan, angered by his father's words, gritted his teeth and said what he always said, what he had first heard from his father: "It is not my fault. I want to be a hunter, but the girl, your daughter, she took my strength." 
    Gray Bird spat a blade of grass from his mouth and looked away from his son, looked toward the sea. 
    For a moment Qakan waited, then when his father did not speak, Qakan said, "Traders bring as much honor as hunters do and sometimes more skins." 
    Slowly Gray Bird turned his head, slowly he looked at Qakan. "You want to be a trader." 
    "Yes." 
    "You think you can bargain, can make a man take less for his goods, for his furs or shells than he thinks they are worth?" 
    And this was the question Qakan had hoped his father would ask. It was a question he had heard discussed among traders, those who came to his father's ulaq, who came to use Qakan's mother for the night, to cast hopeful eyes on Kiin but to look away when Gray Bird told the story of Kiin's shame. 
    "No," Qakan answered and held his smile inside his mouth when he saw his father's eyebrows raise. "I would not make a man take less than what he thinks his furs are worth. That makes enemies. I would make him think he is getting more, but he would not be. I would trade fine seal furs for shells rare on this beach, but common on another or for whale meat which the Whale Hunters have in abundance." 
    His father had nodded and nodded again, then he said, "But you must have something to trade. What do you have?" 
    Qakan lowered his eyes. His father should not see the  mocking there. What did Qakan have to trade? Many things, many, many things. Woman's knives carelessly left on the beach, chunks of ivory from his father's carving basket— things Kiin or Blue Shell were beaten for losing. And each time traders came, each time they visited Gray Bird's or Big Teeth's or Kayugh's ulaq, later that day or the next, things were missed—women's sewing needles, awls, crooked knives, small things that could be easily hidden in the sleeve of a parka. Ah yes, everyone said, traders. Some could not be trusted. 
    So Qakan kept his eyes hidden and said, "Perhaps you and Samiq and Kayugh have extra furs, something I could take with me to trade, and in return, I will bring you walrus tusks or bear hides, something you might like to have." 
    Again his father nodded. "What would you get in exchange, for bringing us walrus tusks or bear hides?" he asked. 
    "Good food, honor among other tribes." Qakan laughed, "Women for my bed." 
    Gray Bird smiled, a crooked smile, and his chin hair quivered. 
    "Perhaps," Qakan said, gathering his courage, "perhaps you could let me have one thing." 
    "What?" 
    "My sister." 
    His father had turned sharply, his eyes widening. "Who would give anything for her?" he asked. "She has no soul. She has never even had a bleeding time." 
    "Who beyond this village knows that?" 
    "A few traders," his father said. Then with his eyes on the sea, he said, "She is not ugly. How many furs do you think you could get for her?" 
    "Ten," Qakan had said. Ten, though he thought perhaps even twenty. 
    "Ten," Gray Bird said. "If you got ten, I would expect you to