One definition of justice is the administration of law according to prescribed and accepted principles. Which means it varies according to who is doing the prescribing and who is doing the accepting, and as all should be aware it changes from one place to another.

Another is that which is handed down by a judge, magistrate or other person or body socially recognised as authorised to so do. Which of means such a person or body can not hand down injustice for that is a contradiction in terms.

“How is she?”

“Shocked, hurt and damaged. He was rough with her. She has not started her moon times and is too young to be thinking of offering herself to a boy, and too small to be taken by a man. We’ll remove the stitches long before we taper off the herbs, and when she awakes in three handfuls of days or so, her woman hood will have healed and the bruises will have gone, but her mind will take many moons to heal. The Thing of Herbsters say best she be married as soon as she wakes, so as to ensure she has no time to brood and think herself to be spoiled and of interest to none, and they and her family are looking around them for an appropriate boy. A distant cousin of her father has expressed interest on behalf of his grandson, so as to amalgamate their two family’s grazing grounds. It will be a good match and advantageous to both children. The Old One says all will be in readiness for him to conduct the ceremony at her bedside before she is fully well. Given the circumstances the Thing of Herbsters will ask the boy’s folk that he live in her parents’ family rather than she going to live in his.”Alvek nodded his understanding and Helija asked, “What of the law?”

“The Law Givers have consulted The Old One and decreed at his suggestion that it shall be settled the old way, for that is the best way to protect our folk from the power of the Yinko soldiers. It will be deemed an act of the men and all losses and the meat will be shared. How will the women see it.”

The old woman pondered and said, “The last time such was done was before most were born, but all know the tale, and he was an outsider too. It is a harsh act to come to terms with, but they have done so. Lillija summed up the feelings of the younger women, especially those like her who are in child, by saying she was glad it was a man’s thing for she would else be afraid it would affect her child.” Lillija was Helija’s third daughter and was being readied to take over her mother’s place when Helija retired.

Alvek nodded again, he was usually a man of few, but always relevant, words, a major reason why he was the leader of his folk. He eventually said, “The Old One said the taking of a life in cold blood is an act that can never be done without consequences, and that is why it is a man’s thing, for none can tell when a woman is in the early times of being in child.” That protection of the pregnant and children was paramount to the interest of his folk he did not add for it did not need saying.

Helija asked, “When?”

“At the next full moon. We’ll lose fewest of the herd that way.”

“How many?” she asked. “How many of the herd will be involved?”

Alvek face was harsh as he replied, “All. The younger men are working the domestic herd round to the other side of the main herd and the older ones rounding up the distant animals to join the main herd. They will be in place at the full of the moon in a handful and one days. The Old One said the women must not be here and they must move to the valley by then. See to it, Helija, and go with them. They will need your wisdom and support, for even though not here they will suffer somewhat for it being done.”

Helija looked at the face of the man whose furs she had shared since her first moon time, two hand fulls of hand fulls of seasons ago when they had been barely out of childhood, the face that was full of love and concern for her well being and that of the women of the folk, six of who had sprung from her loins. She nodded and said, “It will be done. I’ll talk to the older women and they’ll see to the packing. I’ll have the boys ready the dogs for departure in two days. Best if all who have not yet been made a man by a woman stay with the women and children.”

“Agreed.”

The necessary goods were packed and the women, children and older boys set up camp in the valley. The men who had helped them had returned to their camp with the dogs where the prisoner was confined, for none wished to absolve himself of his share of responsibility for what was to follow, or indeed his share of the care to his folk.

The full moon rose high and it was almost as bright as day when the prisoner was escorted out of his guarded tent. He was dressed as a private of the Yinko army of five hundred men that were based in the fort, four maybe five hours walking away, that they maintained as a ‘peace keeping’ force in the high north. That there had never been a lack of peace they ignored for their real task was to prevent interference with the geologists who were looking for oil. They’d been there since the spring thaw and had proven to be difficult neighbours to the Clennel.

The soldiers were planning on staying the winter, so before the bite of winter, Alvek was going to move his people four days away, not far, for the livestock grazed as they moved. Twenty miles a day was as much as they ever covered. But it meant the Yinko soldiers could die in peace, for they had no concept of what winter was like on the open tundra. Next spring there would be no trace of their fort or them. The cold, the wind and the wolves would see to it. Alvek was moving his people to ensure their better natures were not abused by the soldiers, who early in the winter would have run out of food and fire fuel, and their consciences were clear regarding their deaths.

The prisoner was sneering and threatening all sorts of dire consequences from his people if they did not let him go. In the presence of the two hundred men, The Old One spake the words, first in his own tongue then in Yinko. “You have been found guilty by the Law Givers of our people, The Clennel, of vaught. You forcibly took a young girl against her will. The penalty will be exacted by every man here. You may go. That is the way to your camp.” The Old One pointed near to due South.

The prisoner had never stopped sneering and never stopped shouting how his people would exact vengeance for the way he had been treated, and he said he spat on their law, for only Yinko law counted and Yinko justice would find no crime in being seduced by a slut. He only stopped when he realised the men holding his arms had released him and he was free to go. He believed that these primitive savages had finally become afraid of his people’s power.

Sneering one last time at the silent and expressionless men behind him he set off for his camp promising himself to return with a platoon of his comrades. It was cold, fifteen below, but he was sure he could make the twenty-odd miles back to camp. He spurned the thought of asking for food and clothing. He had too much pride, the food was vile and the Clennel wore nothing but furs, even the girl he had raped had worn no underwear.

His mistake had not been in having sex with the eight year old girl, for that her people would not have considered to be a matter anyone else had a right to have a say in, had she consented. His mistake was the coercion, in the words of her people the vaught, and it was of that he had been found guilty.

He had covered maybe fives miles across the almost flat wind swept plain that crunched as his boots hit the frozen lichen, and though tired and cold he knew he had to continue, or he would die. He hoped fervently the thunder storm he could hear did not break over his head, for if he became wet that would be a real threat to his survival. The thunder became louder and louder and it seemed to be behind him, but all he could see was a shimmering dark line on the horizon.

After the millions of reindeer had passed, there was nothing but the stink of excrement and the odd mangled reindeer carcass, ones that had fallen victim to a misstep in the tail end of the stampede. Of the earlier victims nothing remained, not even a blood stain. The sharp hooves of their kind had cut them to pieces and then into smaller and ever smaller pieces to end as motes to become one with the dust. The men loading the meat from the dead that remained on to the dog sleds had not expected to find any trace of the prisoner.

Justice had been done.