City Under Ice

by T E Olivant

  The journey took three days. I could have done it in two, but Lisanne slowed the pace. Still, she never once complained, even though her muscles must be aching. On the third day I suggested she rest on the sledge and she agreed. As I pulled her along behind me I enjoyed the strain on my muscles. At least I didn’t have to look at her this way.

  If Swift had thought that sending Lisanne with me would cool my anger then he was wrong. I could feel it like a blaze inside me, and all the time it took us to walk the White I barely spoke to the girl. With each passing moment I could feel the rift between us growing bigger, but I had no desire to mend it. Part of me knew it wasn’t logical, but I felt that she was somehow responsible for my parents’ murders. And I had let myself start to like her, to be her friend, even… I had betrayed my parents and I knew it. The only thing stronger than my anger at Lisanne was the rage I felt for their faceless killer.

  That anger felt like a solid lump inside me when we reached the ridge of grey stone that hid the cave.

  “Is this it?” I said to Lisanne as she pulled herself up from the sledge and joined me.

  “Yes, that’s it. What are you going to do?”

  Without even thinking I walked towards the cave. Lisanne followed me, half crippled from the walk, but she never made the slightest complaint. I should have felt sympathy for her, slowed down and rested, but part of me enjoyed her pain.

  “Stay behind me.” I grunted at her when we reached the small opening in the cliff face. Like most caves it was a short tunnel that ended in a rough stone door, engineered so that it could be pushed aside at an angle just large enough to slip through.

  “What are you going to do?” She said again, but I still didn’t reply. I didn’t know myself.

  I pushed aside the door and stepped noiselessly into the cave. I had crouched low but soon straightened up. The smoke from the fire had filled the room so that I would be completely hidden from anyone inside.

  My first instinct was to reach for my knife, but somehow I could feel Lisanne’s eyes on me even in the darkness. Instead I formed my hands into hard fists. As my eyes watered from the smoke, I felt irritation vie with anger in my mind. Not only had this man, this creature killed my parents, but he couldn’t even light a decent fire. He didn’t belong here. I thought of Angel Sam and Lisanne: maybe none of them belonged here.

  I could hear Lisanne’s breathing beside me, trying to be quiet. I should never have allowed her to come, but I couldn’t do anything about it now. She would be a witness to whatever happened. A few more paces and I saw him hunched over the fire, a tiny, withered shape that smelt like death.

  I crept closer, my knife still sheathed, but I knew now that I wouldn’t need it. The man was thin, emaciated even, and I could crack his spine with one arm.

  I moved towards him until I was near enough to hear his mumbling. He truly smelt dreadful, like decay and I found that I wasn’t angry anymore. I was simply repulsed. Lisanne stepped beside me and placed her hand on my arm and I let her leave it there.

  “I knew you would come back.” When the creature spoke we both gave a start backwards and I grabbed my knife. His voice sounded old and hoarse from the smoke.

  “How, how long have you been sitting there?” Lisanne said, her voice trembling. I felt a pang of shame pierce through my anger - I had never stopped to think how hard it must be for her to come back here, to return to somewhere she had escaped from.

  The man made a movement that might have been a shrug, but he didn’t answer. I felt my anger well up again as he sat there ignoring us, but I was just about able to contain it.

  “How did you do it?” I asked quietly. The man turned and almost fell into the fire in fright.

  “Lisanne, it’s one of them! How could you bring it here!”

  Lisanne tried to hold me back, but in a second I was standing in front of the man.

  “How did you do it? You can barely hold yourself up. How could a weakling like you kill my parents?”

  I saw realisation dawn on his face, then a smug smile that almost made me end his life there and then.

  “I see. Those two that lived in the cave with their nasty little savage spears and their horrid furry bodies. They found me on the ice. They said that they would take me to their clan. No doubt they wanted to eat me or sacrifice me to some hairy god.”

  As he spoke I felt almost unreal, all I could see was his dirty mouth full of yellow teeth spewing out the words, and Lisanne in the background eyes wide and dark with horror.

  “I waited until they slept and I used my little souvenir from the city. Would you like to see it?”

  When he pulled the gun from underneath his furs he must have thought I wouldn’t know what it was. Instead I was too quick from him and swiped him across the wrist with my claw. The gun went tumbling into the fire.

  “No!” He cried and lunged for my face with his gloved hands. I bared my teeth, snarled and leapt on him. He fought with everything he had, and there was a desperate strength under his illness. Still, it took only moments for me to pin him underneath me and beat him with both hands. I felt his cheekbone crack under my fist and he gave a high-pitched scream. He cradled his face in hands as his throat gurgled with pleas for mercy.

  I barely felt the girl grab my shoulders to try to pull me from him, and I shrugged her off as I bent lower, my fists swiping at his face. He rose to his feet to fight back and I grabbed his hands. As I tried to pull away one of the thick shiny gloves came off in my hand. I heard Lisanne gasp and I stepped back, appalled.

  HIs hands were grey and twisted with frost burns all over. His left was missing two fingers and the thumb on his right was down to the knuckle. They looked terrible and smelt worse. I gagged a little, and the doctor turned away with an angry snarl, cradling his broken hands to his chest.

  “This is what happens when we leave the city, Lisanne.” The man still could not look at me, addressing everything he said to the girl. She stared at him open mouthed, in shock or just too horrified to speak. “We were not made for this place. The cold will kill us all, or these animals will.”

  Lisanne gripped me so tightly I could feel her nails in my skin, but she needn’t have worried, the urge for blood was fading now.

  “You killed my parents.”

  “I did what I needed to survive. Like my people have been doing for hundreds of years. Like we are still doing now.”

  “Come on Kyrk, let’s go.” I wanted to get out of there too. I didn’t need to kill this creature. He was already dead, he just didn’t realise it yet.

  As we left the cave the Physician called out Lisanne’s name, but she didn’t look back.

  We walked for a few hours in silence until finally we had to stop for the night. When we were in the tent protected from the White Lisanne placed her hand on my arm, and I let it lie there, small and warm.

  “I wish I could do something...” She broke off, but I didn’t look at her. I listened to the wind with my eyes half shut.

  “It’s not what you think.” I said and then paused. She waited quietly for me to continue. “It’s just that I thought when I found him…”

  “That you would kill him,” she said, her voice tight.

  “No!” I cried, and she took her arm away, surprised. I hugged my arms across my chest. “Or at least, I never really thought about it one way or the other. It’s not that. I guess I planned on revenge, but that part never really seemed real. It’s more just that I thought that once I knew what had happened to my parents it would all make sense. Their deaths, Mya and Jony getting taken away... I thought once I had solved the mystery it would make it all better somehow. But now I know, and it just all seemed such a waste. He killed them because he was scared. He thought they were just animals. Their deaths had nothing to do with anything: it was something that could have happened to anyone.”

  “Would it have been better if they had been killed by a wild beast or someone from another clan?”

  “Maybe not, but at least they woul
d have died for a reason.”

  I turned my back on Lisanne and she settled down to sleep. I knew that for me sleep was impossible. I kept going over what had happened in the cave, what had happened to my parents. What would I have done to the Physician if the girl hadn’t been there – I would never know. But part of me would always regret leaving him alive, and that was scarier than anything I had seen in the last few weeks. I knew now what I was capable of, and I didn’t like it.

  Chapter 17: Lisanne

  The walk back to the Peak was long and slow. Kyrk barely spoke, and I could hardly think of any words to comfort him. At least the anger that he had barely controlled when I told him about his parents were gone. Instead he just seemed cold and hurt.

  I walked as much as I could, only letting Kyrk pull me in the sledge in the late afternoons when I couldn’t even stumble forward any more. At night I tried to sleep although every muscle in my body groaned in pain. But I knew that I had to get stronger. Otherwise how could I ever hope to survive?

  “We’ll reach the Peak this afternoon,” Kyrk said finally on the third day since we had left the Physician and that dreadful cave.

  “What will happen then?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Kyrk said, his eyes only flicking to mine for an instant, then they were gone. I had thought that after we left the Physician there had been a moment between us. Where maybe he could forget how much he hated my people. But now I knew that he just wanted rid of me. It hurt to see it written so plainly on his face.

  It was hours before he spoke again.

  “Something’s wrong.”

  His eyes must be really incredible, I thought as he dropped the sledge and ran towards the horizon. I pushed my aching legs forwards and ran after him. Slowly a dark smudge began to appear on the horizon. The Seeker’s Peak, I guessed, but as I got closer I realised that it looked different.

  “Kyrk!” I called, but he was still far ahead of me. I stopped to rest, squinting at the vague shape in the distance. Was that a dark cloud over the Peak? Or was it…

  “Smoke!” I surged forward again and finally saw a familiar figure ahead of me. By the time I caught up with him he still hadn’t moved, his eyes fixed on the Peak.

  “It’s gone Lisanne. How can it just be gone?” I looked up and felt my stomach flip as I saw what he meant. The outline of the Peak had changed. Underneath the grey-black smoke the Seeker town had disappeared. It was as if it had been ripped from the rock by a giant. Where the Seeker’s settlement had been there was just barren rock punctuated by smouldering ruins.

  We were upwind, so we hadn’t notice the smell of smoke. When the wind changed it hit me it was like a slap in the face. It smelt like death.

  Kyrk reached out for my hand and we walked together to the base of the Peak. He stood there as if uncertain whether to go any further. What would we find up there? Where had everyone gone?

  Reluctantly Kyrk led the way up the Peak. It was hard to believe that only a few days ago this had been a town full of people. All the tents had disappeared and broken rocks had replaced the more solid buildings. Wisps of smoke hung in the air and it was eerily quiet.

  “Look!” I shouted, and my voice rang out in the silence. “Over there!” Kyrk followed my pointing finger. On the other side of the Peak, not more than a mile away was a huddled collection of tents.

  “Survivors,” Kyrk said, his voice elated, and we ran towards them.

  The stillness of the Peak could not have been more different from the mayhem of the makeshift camp. Children ran about laughing and playing, which seemed totally surreal after the destruction we had seen. Piles of belongings lay on the snow, and there were people everywhere, arguing and crying and filling tents so that they overflowed. A few Seekers called a greeting to Kyrk, but most just scurried away: there was clearly plenty for them to do. We asked a woman with a furry child clinging to her hip where the Chief was and she called out quick directions before hurrying off.

  When we came to the Chief’s tent it was a flurry of activity. I could tell Kyrk was relieved to see Swift, and the old man embraced him with a large hug.

  “What happened?” Kyrk asked and the tent quietened as the Chief spoke.

  “Something came out of the sky, like a huge burning fat ball. It hit the deer. Seven of the swiftest beasts on the White, bred from Herder stock, wiped out.” The Chief said, her body stiff with anger.

  “Did everyone…”

  “We got them all out in time. We had a warning.”

  Relief flooded over me. I felt the terrible fear that we had returned to a scene of death leave me, and with that my adrenalin fled and I suddenly felt exhausted. But I had to know more before I gave in to sleep.

  “What do you mean you had a warning?” I asked.

  “He told us.”

  “Who?”

  The Chief pointed to a small figure laid on a bed of furs in the corner of the tent.

  “Sam!”

  “Thank God you’re alive.”

  I hurried over to him, but stopped short when he didn’t get up to greet me.

  Swift placed a hand on my arm.

  “He’s hurt. One of the blasts caught him on the way out and some pieces of rock hit his leg.”

  “You don’t look too bad,” I lied as I sat down beside Angel Sam and took his hand. The furs covered his body so that I couldn’t see his injuries, but his face was drawn and tired. I was too afraid to look anyway.

  “It’s the suit, Lisanne.” He whispered, his voice painfully fragile. “The blast didn’t hurt my leg too bad, but it ripped the suit. And the cold got in.” He shivered and the movement seemed to make his whole body vibrate. I looked at the Chief and her grim face turned my stomach.

  “What happened, Sam?” I asked gently and I felt Kyrk sit down next to me.

  “I was coming back from the city. I had things I had to tell you...” Sam frowned but I urged him to keep going. “On my way back I was captured by a group of Diggers.”

  There were gasps, and Swift held up his hand.

  “Are you sure they were Diggers? You haven’t met many clans...” But Sam seemed to have anticipated the question.

  “They told me they were Diggers. And they were shorter than you, with dark fur and large hands.” Everyone in the tent nodded. Diggers all right.

  “Felkyo had gone on ahead to the Peak, and I was only an hour behind.”

  I looked up angrily at Felkyo but she met my glare evenly.

  “He had twisted his ankle. It was leave him or let him die.”

  I nodded, even though I hated her for leaving him. There was time enough to have it out with the Seeker girl: at the moment I needed to hear Sam’s story.

  “When they captured me at first it was strange.” Sam continued. “Some of them were seemed to think that I would make a valuable trade, but their leader looked more irritated then pleased. He kept muttering about their schedule. Of course, I didn’t realise at first what they planned to do. They seemed to circle around the Peak for a while, and eventually made camp in a narrow ridge to the West.”

  “They knew our blind spot.” The Chief said darkly, “we never thought to keep it secret.”

  “I was so tired from the trip to the city that I fell asleep immediately. When I awoke there were three people in the tent with me, and although they spoke in low voices I could hear most of what they said. They were talking about the Peak, and about how they were going to set some kind of explosion.”

  “Diggers make powerful explosives to get down into the ice.” Kyrk said, his voice bitter. “That must have been what they did to destroy the Peak.”

  “But surely nothing they have could be powerful enough to destroy the entire Peak,” I began to say, but no one was listening.

  “What else did they say Sam?” Swift asked.

  Sam took a long drink of water. The speech was tiring him, but we had to hear what had happened. I let my hand rest on his shoulder. He turned to me and smiled, and in that instant we were bac
k in a tiny room in an underground city. My poor friend, I thought, I should never have let you go back.

  “They said they had business to take care of. Then I guess I fell asleep again for a few minutes. When I woke up they were gone. Anyway, they hadn’t bothered to tie me up, so I slipped out into the dark. I didn’t stop to pick up any furs or anything: I knew I had to get back to the Seekers. It took me four hours solid walking in the dark.”

  “Well done for finding the Peak,” I said.

  “I was just lucky. I remembered when we walked with Kyrk the first time there was a bright star on our left, so I found the same star and walked as quickly as I could. I was only half a mile away when I met Felkyo coming the other way.”

  “We rode back to the Peak,” Felkyo said, taking up the story. “And told the Chief what the Diggers said. She got us to evacuate everyone, we thought it was hasty at the time.” She gave her mother a wry smile.

  “I only wish I’d had more time to save the animals,” the Chief said, and I was surprised to see the tears sparkle in her eyes. “Those deer deserved better. At least the eagles could escape on their own.”

  “How did you get hurt, Sam?” I asked gently.

  “It was my fault.” Felkyo looked down at her clawed hands. It was the first time I’d seen her look upset. “I ran back to get the deer. I had nearly reached them when the explosion happened. It must have knocked me out because the next thing I knew Angel Sam was dragging me across the snow away from the Peak.”

  “He saved her life,” the Chief said, and she looked at Sam with new found respect. I wanted to be happy that he had saved the girl, but I just felt angry that he had been hurt.

  “What happened in the city Sam?” I asked, trying to keep focussed on his eyes and not to look at his injuries. Felkyo handed us both cups of a hot, bitter liquid and I drank it gratefully. Sam sat back, enjoying the sips of hot tea through the small window in his suit. He looked up at the ceiling of the tent, as if wondering where to begin.