Chapter 3 Part 9

They walked in a blanket of snow and ice on their last day of their northward march. Avery had regained consciousness and had soon after proclaimed that Seymore was presently beyond his ability to revive. It was all that he could do to keep the man alive.

Samson had been so enraged by the news that for a moment everyone thought he would enter a berzerker rage and kill everything in the vicinity. It had been Marlena who had calmed him with a smooth and motherly voice. They had all felt the impact of Scarlet's death. Now with Seymore in a coma and Tyson lost, Samson was without his three closest friends. He buried his head into Marlena's shoulder and wept soundly. The others honored his pain by turning away and letting him weep in privacy. Or perhaps it was because they too had a tear or two to shed.

Crossing a ridge, they saw the buildings and towers of a sizable city in the distance. Avery rode slumped in his saddle still weak from his own injuries and efforts. Keeneye rode nearby, watching over his friend lest he fall to the ground from exhaustion.

Norwind was afoot and took the occasion to play on the slick surface of the frozen sea. He had been wanting to do that since they had emerged from the woods to see thousands of icebergs floating in the cold waters. That had been two days ago. During their northward march, the ice had covered more and more of the ocean until it by the third morning the sea was a solid surface of ice.

Ultrecht and Armegon were fascinated. They were certain that the temperature was not low enough to freeze the entire ocean, but before them stood a fact that they could not deny. They had spent hours trying to hypothesize the chemistry of an ocean with such a high freezing point.

It was decided that they should take a chance and enter the city directly as time was of the essence. They had tried stealth and had been ambushed. The time had come to try to outrun their unseen pursuit.

Marlena insisted that they find lodging until Norwind and Keeneye could buy passage to the Ice Kingdom. She claimed that she needed a bath, and Seymore needed to be kept warm and dry. She also pointed out that the others could use a bath themselves.

Keeneye and Norwind washed up quickly. Then they made their way through the usually crowded streets to the docks where they discovered a fleet of the most marvelous ships they had ever seen.

Hundreds of huge catamarans sat before them--some as large as two hundred feet long were berthed along the wharves. The ships had no deep hulls like conventional sailing vessels. Instead they ran along the ice on blades of metal attached to the underside of unusually wide, flat hulls.

The two elves were intrigued. In addition to the marvelous fleet of ships, the city seemed to be composed of a delightfully mixed population of elves, dwarves and men. A few of the local ladies were quite friendly and pleasing to the eye, which made the temptation to stop and chat great. But Keeneye and Norwind didn't care to have to explain their tardiness to Marlena, so the ladies would have to wait until another day. Instead, the companions turned their attention to locating an inconspicuous yet available ship.

It took two hours to find it, but when they did, they instantly knew that they had found their quarry. The craft was not a shining example of beauty, but if given a close inspection, one got the impression that there was more to it than met the eye. The ship was sleek and sturdy. It was far smaller than the big crafts but still large enough to carry them all to their destination.

As they approached the vessel, they looked for the owner, but found only a small, chubby little child lying face down on the deck looking down into a hold. Norwind walked up to the youngster and spoke, "Son, do you know the owner of this craft?"

"I haven't been called 'son' in over a hundred years," said a deep voice from the open hold.

Startled, Keeneye looked at Norwind, who in turn stepped back. The youthful body stood and turned a bearded face toward them, yielding battle ax in its left hand. "And I had better not hear it again for another hundred years," the dwarf said with a grin that was anything but forgiving. "Get me?"