by Renee Hart
One morning, Ulriq woke up first. Iliana was curled up against him and her warmth was making him feel very strange towards her. He tried to get up without waking her, but the cold air slipped in and brought her around.
“Where are you going,” she asked drowsily.
He didn’t answer but quickly turned away from her and headed out of their camp.
Iliana sat up and looked after him wondering at his behavior. He wasn’t inclined to be so abrupt with her. She scanned the area for any sign of a disturbance, but nothing seemed to be wrong. The horse was quietly munching on a bit of shrubbery and the fire still gave off a bit of heat from the rocks surrounding it. Shrugging her shoulders, she got up and rolled up their bedding before looking through their foodstuffs for breakfast. Ulriq came back while she was foraging through their packs and sat down on the far side of the fire.
“Iliana,” he said quietly, “do you love me?”
“You know I love you. I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember.”
“Iliana, do you remember when you said we’d be married someday and we’d never have to be apart ever again?”
Busy scraping some mold off a bit of cheese, she didn’t look up at him, but just nodded her head.
“I think this is that ‘someday”, Ulriq said firmly.
As his words sunk into her, she froze and stared down at her hands.
“Ulriq, how can we get married,” she finally asked. “We’re all alone out here.”
“That’s true, and I think that’s why we need to get married.”
Iliana sat there for a long time without speaking. Thoughts of weddings and churches ran through her head followed by flowing dresses and flowers, lots of flowers. She’d only been to a couple of weddings in her short life, but the images were burned into her brain. Nothing out here in this wilderness lent itself to such an event. There wasn’t even a priest anywhere to speak all the words needed to be spoken. Tears came to her eyes as she considered this matter. How shall I get married without my Mama and my Papa, she thought to herself.
Ulriq, seeing tears in the eyes of his beloved, nearly started to cry himself. His greatest fear in this moment was that she didn’t want to marry him now. He didn’t know how he would go on knowing she didn’t love him enough to be his wife.
“If you don’t want to marry me…” he began and then choked on the rest of his words.
Jumping up and coming over to his side, Iliana knelt down beside him.
“It’s not that I don’t want to marry you,” she said. “This just isn’t how I thought our wedding would be. I don’t know how we can marry out here.”
“I think we have to do it the way my People get married,” Ulriq said looking at her with hope in his eyes. “We can make our own marriage anyway you want. We just need to say the words of joining to each other in front of a witness. We can stand in front of the horse!”
Iliana began to giggle at the thought of being married by a horse. Maybe Ulriq was right and they could make their own wedding. There was no one to judge them out here anyway. She jumped up and looked around their campsite. Seeing some tiny flowers, she ran to gather a small bunch of them.
Ulriq was more interested in the preparations she’d started for breakfast and turned his attention to finding something to eat.
“What are you doing,” she asked. “I thought we were going to get married.”
“I think I’d like to have something to eat first. I don’t have the strength to make a wedding on an empty stomach,” he said as he grinned at her.
“You’re right! Let’s eat and then we’ll get married,” she said plopping down next to him. “It’s not like we need to be in a big hurry.”
With the matter settled, the two of them nibbled at the last of the cheese and some stale bread. They both knew the food they’d brought along wasn’t going to last much longer. Soon Ulriq would have to try to hunt. The problem for him was that there was nothing in this land he was familiar with hunting. It would take working together to overcome this challenge. The isle seemed very far away to both of them.
Chapter Eleven
That evening, the three of them gathered in the sitting room with Iliana’s journal and a plate of Lana’s cookies. Picking up where she’d left off, Kat began to read quietly as the wind blew outside. As before, the simple words drew them into the past and their present time slipped away.
She’d been reading for a couple of hours when a sound at the front door caused them all to look up. Alexei went to see to the matter as the two women waited for his return.
“I’m sorry, Mother,” Alexei said, “something’s come up and I have to go. Please excuse me, Kat, and thanks for the reading.” With those words he was gone, leaving the two of them staring at an empty doorway.
“I think we should call it an evening,” Lana said as she stood up. “It’s been wonderful hearing you read, but I’m feeling a bit tired. You’re free to stay up and explore the house if you’d like. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Before Kat could say anything, Lana was gone and she was left in the sitting room alone. Feeling a bit strange at the suddenness of her hosts’ departures, Kat decided to go to her room and turn in early. She hated leaving Iliana and Ulriq in the middle of their perilous journey, but reading the journal alone almost seemed like spying somehow. The warmth of her room and the comfort of the soft bed quickly lulled her to sleep and soon she was dreaming of two people alone in the vast wilderness with no one to care if they lived or died.
***
As the winter snows grew deeper, the little cart became more of a hindrance than a help to them. Iliana wanted to leave the cart behind and take the horse, but Ulriq knew the horse would be of little use to them crossing the ice. He spent some days studying the cart before taking a large rock and tearing it apart.
Iliana sat on a log and watched him quietly as he worked. She was delighted to see his handiwork in the end. He’d turned their little cart into a small sled that was easier for the horse to pull through the snow. When the horse was no longer able to do so, they would be able to pull the small conveyance with their few belongings easily across the ice.
They’d tried to stay within sight of the ocean for as much of their journey as possible, but some of the larger rivers had forced them inland a few times to find places to cross. As the land settled in under a blanket of ice and snow, it was easier to avoid these detours and soon they found themselves nearing the last barrier to their destination.
The Bering Sea ice was treacherous to cross in the coldest of winters. This winter seemed milder than usual and Ulriq feared the ice may not have fully closed the gap between this land and the islands. They really had no choice but to go forward on faith. There was nothing left behind them and the only home they knew was Domiq where they would be safe. Wisely, he kept his fears to himself. There was no point in putting more on Iliana than she could bear, he thought.
Reaching the end of the land, they stood together looking out over the ice. Their destination lay beyond their sight at this point. Ulriq didn’t know how long it would take them to cross, nor was he even sure this was possible. The People talked of others who’d made this journey long ago, but all anyone really knew was that it was a long and hazardous trek.
Using their last campsite as a place to gather a cache of firewood and snare a few rabbits, Ulriq watched the ice every day for some sign it was safe to cross. Iliana sorted through their packs and used her time to find a place for everything on the sled. They both knew it was time to say good-bye to the horse as it had a better chance of surviving back on land.
Removing the straps and ropes from the horse, Ulriq quietly whispered their thanks and some final words of advice into the horse’s ear before turning him loose. With a last look back, the horse gave out a whinny and a snort before heading back at a trot the way they’d come. The two of them stood there holding hands as they watched their friend depart. He was the last witness to their existence in the land.
> That night, they lay together under the stars and watched the Great Lights dance their fire across the sky. Ulriq believed this was the sign he’d been waiting for and determined they would begin crossing the ice in the morning. There was no point in waiting any longer. They would make it across and home or die in the attempt. With Iliana snuggled up in his arms, he vowed to do everything in his power to get her back to Domiq. Someday our children will grow up in that place, he promised himself.
Chapter Twelve
As Kat and Lana enjoyed their breakfast, the sound of stomping feet outside the front door startled them. They were both surprised to see J.T. had arrived. He wasn’t expected to come until lunchtime so Lana hurried to fix him something to eat.
“Don’t worry about me,” he laughed, “I had breakfast hours ago back at the station. There was nothing going on back at the village so I thought I’d come early to avoid anything that might arise needing my attention. Now they’ll just have to wait until we get back.”
Helping himself to a biscuit and some coffee, he brought them up to date on the local news involving a lost puppy and an angry moose mama. Seems someone had gotten a bit too close to her baby and she’d gone on a rampage kicking over log piles. He managed to make the story sound funny to them and soon they were all laughing.
“Sounds like I missed a good joke,” Alexei said from the doorway. “Care to fill me in?”
Hearing the sound of his brother’s voice, J.T. choked on his coffee and turned red in the face.
“What…when did you…,” J.T. gasped as he stared at Alexei.
“I came in a couple of nights ago, and I see you’re still trying to woo your women using our mother’s cooking,” Alexei smirked at his brother.
“That’s enough,” came Lana’s sharp response. “We have a guest.”
Turning to Kat, she patted her hand as she made an effort to apologize for her sons’ lack of manners, “or should I say ‘son’” she said pointedly looking at Alexei.
Kat decided silence was the best answer to her embarrassment at being categorized by Alexei as one of “J.T.’s women”. There was obviously something going on here that went beyond sibling rivalry. The air was thick with hostility between the two of them. She was also confused to J.T.’s change in status from old friend of the family to ‘son’. He certainly hadn’t acted like a man with his mother on their first visit to Domiq.
“If you two intend to argue,” Lana fumed, “You need to take it outside. I don’t want to hear anymore.”
She got up and began to clear the table. Taking the hint, Kat started to help her as the room filled with silence beyond the clattering of dishes. Without another word, Alexei headed out the back door as J.T. sat there staring at the table. He knew any disagreement between the two of them would leave him on the losing end. His status in this family was based on charity and blood always seemed to win.
Finally, he stood up and headed outside. If he couldn’t handle his brother as family, he could certainly confront him in his role as peace officer on the isle. The rumors were flying in the village and J.T. was tired of trying to cover for his brother. He wanted to make sure everything going on at Domiq was on the up and up. He carefully avoided looking at Kat as he left. Leave it to Alexei to ruin his chances with another woman, he thought bitterly.
As the back door slammed behind him, Lana stood there looking sadly after her sons. She sighed and turned to Kat, thinking some kind of explanation was needed. The young woman looked just as sad as she tried to make sense of all this. She didn’t want to end her visit on such a negative note.
“Don’t worry, my dear. You’re not the first woman to find yourself crosswise between those two. Let’s go in the sitting room and I’ll try to explain,” Lana said taking her arm.
Kat studied the pictures on the walls as they walked looking for J.T.’s face. She didn’t see a single photograph to confirm his status.
“You’re looking for J.T.,” Lana said watching her.
“Yes, I was wondering why I don’t see any photos of him on these walls if he’s your son,” Kat confessed. “There are plenty of pictures of Alexei.”
“J.T.’s not really my son. His mother was from the village and she fell for an American soldier on a trip to Anchorage. Just after J.T. was born, his father was killed in an accident and she came back here to live with family. She wasn’t taking care of J.T. and one day I went down to the village and saw him picking through the trash. I brought him home with me. He was five or six by then and thin as a rail.”
“That must have been awful,” Kat said.
“It was hard, but in some ways it was worse for Alexei. He wasn’t ready to share his home with another child and the two of them clashed almost daily for a long while. When they started going to school in the village, they competed in everything, sports, grades, girls, you name it, and they fought over it. I was struggling with my own grief after the death of my husband, Alexei’s father, and I just wanted peace.
“Finally, I broke down and sent Alexei away to a boarding school. I kept J.T. here with me as I had no legal rights over him. That actually worked to resolve the conflicts between them and they eventually developed a kind of truce. I was lulled into thinking they’d become brothers.”
“Unfortunately, their truce ended their nineteenth summer when Alexei came home for the school break. J.T. was dating a girl from the village and brought her out here almost every day. They were talking marriage and I was looking forward to grandchildren. The girl took one look at Alexei and fell head over heels for him. She was like a little puppy following him around the house. It all ended badly and the fight they had nearly cost Alexei his life, as he fell over a cliff in the midst of it. J.T.’s guilt kept him away for a long time and Alexei ran away soon after with a scar to remind him of his brother.
“The past couple of years, I was working on reconciliation with both of them and felt I was making progress. J.T. started coming out here with Marissa, who he was dating at that time. When Alexei came to visit, history repeated itself and the only thing that prevented them from killing each other this time was the clear understanding that Marissa was simply a gold-digger looking for the best deal. I managed to convince J.T. that Alexei had done him a favor.”
“Ah, that explains a few things,” Kat said leaning back in her chair. “I’ve heard Marissa arguing with J.T. at school. I never heard what they were arguing about.”
“Yes, Alexei wouldn’t give her the time of day and she’s done everything she can to get her claws into him,” Lana mused. “At least J.T. wised up to her pretty quickly and broke it off. She’s not his type anyway.”
“I’m confused about one thing,” Kat hesitated, “does J.T. think that we’re dating or something?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Lana replied, “unless he’s seeing you beyond bringing you here. I thought he was bringing you out here for my sake. He’s worried that I’m out here all alone too much of the time. I’m not sure he’s ready to risk his heart on love again.”
Kat gave a sigh of relief as there was nothing in J.T.’s actions to suggest otherwise. She would chalk up Alexei’s remarks as a jab at this brother and nothing more. She certainly didn’t see herself in the role of a gold-digger. She’d come to this isle hoping to escape the matchmaking efforts of other people. It would be ironic to step into the role of trying to force a relationship here of all places.
“Kat, we need to head back to the village,” J.T. spoke from the doorway startling them both. “I have some things I need to do and I’m sure you need to get ready for school tomorrow.”
Kat nodded and stood up to gather her things. She was relieved to see that J.T. didn’t appear to be overly upset. A repeat of the ride out here wasn’t something she’d been looking forward to. The ragged old UTV probably wasn’t up to many such rides and they’d find themselves walking.
Lana walked with them to the door, holding onto J.T.’s arm. He reassured her several times that everything was okay before
they left. She pressed Kat to come back the next weekend so they could finish reading the journal. J.T. looked interested at her words, but didn’t ask about the matter. It probably didn’t have anything to do with me anyway, he thought to himself.
As they headed back to the village, Kat turned and waved good-bye to Lana. A quick scan of the house didn’t reveal anyone watching from the window. She wondered where Alexei managed to disappear to at such times. She’d thought she’d seen the whole lodge by this time and there weren’t that many rooms for a person to hide. Perhaps he had a secret cave, she thought to herself. That would explain the rumors of a pirate she’d heard.
***
Ulriq used the sun, the moon and the stars to set their course across the ice. There were no other ways he could keep them headed in the right direction. He had no distant mountains or other land masses and the ice was never the same from one year to the next. With little experience to go on, he kept checking his direction by looking backwards until the land behind was no longer visible.
On the third day, an ice fog started building up around them and it became harder to see where they were going. This forced them to slow their pace as he searched carefully for cracks and crevices that might cause them to fall or break through the ice. The creaking and popping sounds kept their nerves on edge and Iliana needed more time to rest each time they stopped. He feared she was falling ill as their food was running out.
The fifth night was the worst as an icy wind blew straight at them, pulling and tugging at their clothes. Finding a hollowed out place big enough for them to crawl inside, Ulriq placed some furs inside and then with Iliana snuggled down, he wrapped himself around her trying to keep her warm. He feared the cold was going to defeat them on this night and closed his eyes in frustration, hoping death would come quickly.