Chapter six

“Tell me, Aimek, back in your time, did all people could be frozen into the ice and then brought back to life again? Or was it only you?”

Rikter spoke the old language fluently now and was quite able to express complex thoughts in it. Some questions he asked were like well-aimed shots, as if he tested some hypothesis of his own and Aimek was a test subject.

“It’s a long story, Rik,” Aimek tried to evade the question, but his friend’s stern gaze didn’t allow him that. “All right, all right,” he gave up. “I came to see a glacier with my friends. It was a hike for them, and a little private expedition for me. I needed a few samples of the ice from this area. We suffered from cold there even though we were well equipped for the journey. But the natives, they were a lot like your people. I mean, they wore light clothes and didn’t mind the cold at all. I befriended them and asked for their secret. They gave me some purple moss they used to add to their every meal, and it helped. I chewed it most of the time then and didn’t feel cold anymore. I guess I consumed so much it helped me survive the freezing. And then…”

“You melted the ice shard from the inside,” said Rikter. “You were feverish, burning all over”.

“Yes,” Aimek sighed. “It could’ve been a great scientific breakthrough in my time. And now… I doubt there are any scientists left in the world at all”.

Rikter made no comment, occupied with his own thoughts as he sewed seal skins together for the ship’s sails.

Chapter seven

Building a ship is hard work. Aimek was right that he wouldn’t make it alone, without Rikter. Now, when the ship had been finished and named - “Swift Seagull” was written on her side in the old world’s language - it was the time to test it. Elie wanted to sail with the men, but Aimek didn’t let her.

“I don’t know whether Seagull is safe now,” he said, tenderly. “But when she is, I’ll take you with me where the icebergs come from. There we will learn all the secrets the world holds for us. I promise”.

Elie gave Aimek a hug and kissed him on the forehead. Rikter, who happened to stand not far away from them, silently clenched his fists and made a deep breath. A minute later he seemed perfectly calm again, helping Aimek with launching the ship.

“Swift Seagull” turned out to be far from perfect. Very far. No wonder: it was the first real ship Aimek had ever built. He had always been a fan of everything ship-related and knew a good deal about that but the ships he used to build before were small models supposed to decorate your home and surprise your guests but never go anywhere near water. Building a real, seaworthy ship was a very different thing.

The iceman didn’t give up, though. Months of trial and error, launches and repairs were exhausting for both him and his friend, but they made progress.

Rikter practically lived in the little dock they built under the cliff and worked harder than ever. He had learned so much since the day he appeared on the doorstep of Aimek’s home! It gave the iceman hope. He dreamed of the day when he returned here after his journey to see dozens of little ships sailing on the sea, exploring, fishing, moving passengers between the islands. It would give local people a new, better life, a hope, a future.

But that was up to Rikter. Aimek spoke to the guy about that, and he agreed. As to the iceman himself, he was going to find out the fate of the world he knew and he planned to take Elie with him.

Soon. Very soon…

Chapter eight

Kalare was blind. In the semi-darkness of the cave, her motionless eyes shimmered bleakly, milky white, like shards of ice in the moonlight.

The old woman had a keen hearing which developed as compensation for her blindness. Thousands of subtle sounds filled the dark world she lived in. Right now, where a normal person wouldn’t hear a thing through the noise of the waves, she heard little hands сlapping on the icy walls of a cliff she lived on, and a sound of light steps on the stony path. Those were the sounds of familiar hands and feet, her beloved granddaughter’s. Elie was coming to visit her.

“Grandma! I brought you some berries!” the girl announced happily. “Aimek calls them rubinika. Because they’re as red as rubies. And rubies are gems. And gems are...”

Kalare held out her marble white, wiry hand, slightly shaking, and accepted her granddaughter’s gift: a handful of tiny red spheres. They smelled good but tasted sour. Kalare ate them all savouring each one.

“Rubinika!” she gave a short laugh. “Another strange word. You use them a lot now, my girl...” Kalare squinted her eyes, her voice changed: “Why do you keep learning that ancient language? It’s been dead for ages. Perhaps because it’s no use in the world where you have to shout to be heard over the roar of the dying ice”.

“But it’s beautiful, this dead language, when Aimek speaks it,” Elie blushed. “And he told me so much! I translated his tales to you, remember? About the blue sea, the hot summers, and the people of old. And the ship! I wish you could see “Swift Seagull” sail, catch the wind, carry people from island to island. It feels like you can fly!”

“I am blind, but I see many things, Elie,” Kalare signed, “Come, sit beside me… You fell in love with the iceman, right? Don’t answer if you don’t want to, it doesn’t matter. If there is light in my dark world, it comes from you, my dear. You are like a burning little sun before my blind eyes”.

The old woman held out her hand and touched Elie’s face gently.

“My dear,” she said. “I see a threat, as dark as a storm cloud, hanging over your man. A hateful evil spirit is prowling about seeking his death…”

“No! Why?! He is a kind guy, he’s never harmed anyone!”

“Don’t cry, Elie. Every trouble can be helped. Just listen to me and do as I say…”

Kalare stood up, rattled the dishes on the shelf searching for something for a while, and then returned to Elie with a tiny leather bag.

“Take this. Purple dust, that’s what must be inside. Yes, purple, if my memory still serves me well… If you want to save your Aimek, make sure he eats a pinch of this dust every day without knowing it. It won’t save him from his enemy’s hatred, but it will save him from death”.

“Grandmother…” Elie wiped her tears. “What is this?”

“Purple dust is a secret we pass down from grandmother to granddaughter in our family. My grandmother said it came with wandering ice. Just like your man did. Sometimes icebergs bring strange gifts, indeed. Hundreds of years ago they brought a beautiful purple plant frozen in an ice shard. Once on the shore, it burned through the ice and turned into dust. That dust we’ve been keeping since then. Maybe it remembers the time when the sea was blue and people spoke the strange language you learn. It is a remnant of a world now gone. It will save your man”.