Sacred Ground

Finally, he broke contact and pulled back. He turned to Derek and Godwin. “We will talk of this woman in the lodge. The others are waiting.”

He turned and walked toward the largest of the buildings. Godwin and Derek followed him. Annja started to walk with them, but then Wishman stopped and turned back to Annja.

“You must stay here until you are called.”

Derek shrugged and held up a hand. “Shouldn’t take too long,” he said. “Just hang out and be cool.”

Annja frowned. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

She watched them go and then the sudden realization that she was all alone washed over her. The camp seemed lonely and without much cause for celebration. Annja suspected the camp was there to make sure that nothing in these lands would be left behind. Perhaps the Araktak had once used this area for something else other than burying people. If so, there would be relics that would need to be cared for and transported to a new place.

Otherwise, the company would destroy them.

Annja took a stroll around the camp. It was utilitarian and nothing more. She saw the latrine and the firewood pile. Each shelter seemed to have its own cooking fire inside where meals would be prepared. Apart from that, she spotted several long axes for chopping wood and little else.

The forest stretched before her and Annja decided a little exercise might be a good thing. She felt a pull toward a certain section and ducked under the frozen pine boughs.

A bit of snow fell on her head as she walked. She crested a small hill and the trees broke apart into another clearing that sloped down and away from her for some distance.

This must be the place, she thought. Already she could feel the tug of something almost otherworldly. The unbroken snowfield before her looked like one continuous blanket of white.

“Beautiful,” she said aloud.

And then she heard the terrible growl behind her.

Annja turned slowly to see a massive polar bear rearing back to stand up to its full height. It was only ten feet away from her.

And it didn’t look happy.

10

Annja stood motionless as the giant polar bear swayed slightly on its haunches. She could see the sharp teeth in its mouth and the claws of its front legs loomed large in her vision.

How in the world had this bear sneaked up on her? She frowned. She should have known better than to wander around so carelessly.

She stared at the polar bear, willing herself to look right into its eyes. She’d never seen a creature like this up close before. Usually, she saw most of her dangerous animals from behind the safety of iron bars at a zoo. Not having some type of fence between them made Annja’s stomach twist into knots.

The polar bear’s breath stained the air with mist as it stared at Annja. Clearly, she must have been trespassing on its land. But she was curious. Didn’t polar bears usually hunt closer to the water for their diet of fish? Or was this an anomaly of some type?

The bear closed its mouth. Annja wondered if she would need her sword. She could draw it in an instant, but the last thing she wanted to do was kill the bear. Even worse, if the Araktak considered polar bears as sacred animals, she could be committing a grave cultural faux pas. They’d chuck her out of the dig site and all of this would have been for nothing.

And Annja hated wasting time and effort on something only to see it falter.

The polar bear came down off its haunches. Annja relaxed further but kept absolutely still. The bear could easily kill her if she wasn’t careful. She had to play this right.

She could hear the bear inhaling and exhaling all around her as it seemed to sniff her scent.

This close, she could smell the bear. It wasn’t a good smell by any means and it reminded Annja of a wet dog that hadn’t had a bath in weeks. She wrinkled her nose and tried to breathe less.