Wist rotated his body in the water and then thrust himself towards her with a powerful kick of his legs. When he reached her, he avoided being batted away by a few inches and he was forced to pull her long brown hair to get her attention.
His lungs started to burn as he pointed upwards toward the light. Then he kicked towards it. He couldn’t wait for Haumea. She would have to make her own way.
As Wist reached the top, the surface exploded. Two great hands seized his clothes and hauled him out onto the ice. He gasped lungful after lungful of air as he lay flat on his back. Clouds of water vapour gathered above him obscuring the sky. He heard nothing from the Giants, only the splashing of the water.
Then one of the Giant’s shouted, ‘Haumea,’ and there was another great crack. Then there was a thump.
Wist sat up to see Oinoir smashing his way through the ice. Then he reached down into the water and lifted Haumea clear of it. Crimson spots blossomed in Wist’s vision as he tried to reassert control of his breathing.
‘Get her to the ship,’ Wist ordered them, through gasps.
Oinoir hoisted Haumea’s limp form over his shoulder, then he and Decheal ran. The Intoli moved off in a statelier fashion and Enceladus’ inner radiance faded, plunging Wist back into darkness. He stood and attempted to rid himself of the water before it froze on him. Then, as he took his first step towards the ship, he stepped on something.
He stooped and lifted a slender piece of what he thought was wood. It was mottled grey and as tall as he was. As he ran his numb fingers over the shaft, he noticed that there was no grain, just a smooth warped surface, like moulded marble.
Wist used Haumea’s staff to support his weight as he plodded towards the ship. He could see that Tyla had climbed the side of the privateer and now lowered a length of rope to the others. When he reached it, everyone was aboard, although Tyla was the only one who remained to watch his ascent.
As he stood on the deck, he glanced up at the nearest of the three masts and then asked Tyla where they had taken her. The Lyrat nodded to a door beside the Intoli. Wist strode over with Tyla at his side, pushing the door open to reveal a large cabin with a few tables and one window, which faced back out onto the deck. The Intoli joined them inside and then the room was flooded with cold, white light. Haumea lay stretched out on a table, the two other Giants at her head. The curvature of her spine meant that, even when unconscious, she could not lie flat. Tyla moved to the foot of the table and stared at her.
‘Can you help her?’ Wist asked, breaking the silence of the room. Tyla did not reply. So, he asked again, ’God damn, Tyla, can you help her?’
This time Tyla shook his head. ‘Some ills I can heal, but what she requires first is heat.’
‘Heat?’ repeated Wist, speaking to himself. Aviti lit a fire in the small hearth at the back of the room, but that would take an age to heat the area, never mind getting some warmth into Haumea’s frozen bones. The Giantess’ lips had a blue tinge and her closed eyes did not flutter.
‘No!’ screamed Oinoir, ‘I will not lose another one, I cannot bear it. Save her Dionach. Save her.’
Wist’s heart lurched at the insistent demand from the Giant. He wanted to say that he didn’t know how. He wanted to pass the responsibility onto someone else, but he could not. Not this time.
He rested the Giantess’ staff against the table on which she lay. Then he rested his hands on her. He knew how to trigger the latent power in this world through his own internal vortex of pain and hatred, but what he needed here was a subtler release of energy. He searched and searched within himself, but it would not come.
‘Do not withhold your aid Dionach,’ urged Oinoir again, using the title that he had bestowed upon Wist.
He redoubled his efforts, trying in vain to achieve what he knew he must, but his futile attempts were doomed to failure.
‘I… cannot,’ he managed to stammer out.
‘Do not tell me you cannot,’ screamed Oinoir. Decheal placed a hand on the Giant’s shoulder, but Oinoir shoved her back against the wall. Wist should have trembled when he saw the passion in Oinoir’s eyes, for it was the same terrible venom that had triggered the detonation within Wist. It threatened to rise within him again; urgent, dark and potent.
‘No,’ Wist bellowed back at the Giant in a voice that he did not recognise. The ship tilted as he spoke and Haumea’s staff slipped. Instinctively, Wist reached out to catch it and as he did, his rage fled.
He lifted the staff, amazed at it, and it started to glow, adding to the Intoli’s light. Acting on an impulse, Wist lowered the far end of the staff onto Haumea. As it touched the Giantess, the cold flowed from her into the staff. It passed up the conduit and tried to enter him, but he forced it away with a flick of his will. Then he pushed out with his consciousness until he became aware of Haumea’s weak pulse. Wist poured his strength into this temporary connection, turning the fire of his temper into energy that could warm her motionless body. At first, the cold fought him. It retaliated with sharp stabs of pain that flickered like darkness in his mind, but they were weak, desperate attempts to distract him. He focussed on his task and filled the Giantess with warmth. When Haumea took a huge shuddering breath, he dropped the staff and collapsed into Tyla’s arms.
When Wist came around, he was naked and in a hammock. There was a dull ache in his head, but no other pain. A brief glance confirmed to him that he was still in the cabin on the ship. It was dim now. The light from the still burning fire flickered on the dark wooden beams above him.
He rocked the hammock and slipped out of it and onto his bare feet. The room was bigger than Wist remembered. The corners of the room were lost in darkness. Little else had changed, apart from the absence of the Intoli and the Giants. Haumea still lay on the table, but she was covered in furs now. Tyla leaned against the wall at her head, his eyes shut. The only other person in the room was Aviti who was also asleep, curled up in front of the fire.
Haumea’s chest rose and fell beneath her coverings in a smooth, easy rhythm. Wist was glad to see that her face was flushed with colour.
Wist found a stool and lifted it over beside the fire. He tried to be quiet when he moved it, but he misjudged the distance and bashed it off the wooden floor. Aviti muttered and turned her face from the flames, but she did not wake. Wist sat and breathed in the warm air. His clothes lay on the floor beside his hammock, so he lifted them and started to put them back on. He stopped when he came to his boots. When he placed his bare feet back upon the wooden floor it felt right to him.
He had spent time on boats; lots of time. In his own world, it had been the only place where he had found peace. He had even taken her out on his boat. Out on the open water, with Autumn. Thoughts of her no longer filled him with anger. He loved her and missed her, but he accepted his past and his failures.
Despite the familiarity of this scenario - the wood and the boat - something was wrong. At first, he thought it was just the numbness of his extremities, but it was more than that.
As he was pondering this, he began to rub his feet to see if he could restore the circulation. Then he noticed his hands. They were white. He looked at the backs of them and then turned them over to examine the palms. The dragon’s blood stains had been expunged from them.
Tyla straightened and walked around the fire, coming to stand beside Wist. As he watched the Lyrat walk, it came to him. ‘We aren’t moving, are we?’ Tyla shook his head. The ship should be moving. Even when moored, it should be bobbing up and down; rising and falling with the pulse of the sea.
‘Wist,’ came a voice, shaking him from his thoughts. He knew the voice, but how could he be hearing it here?
‘Wist,’ the voice said again. ‘Trust yourself, trust my daughter, and tell her to trust you.’
My daughter?
Aviti woke with a start and stared at Wist and Tyla. ‘What?’ she said, bristling at their attention.
‘Your father,’ said Wist, before he thought better of it.
‘Again?’ she said.
Tyla shrugged.
‘What did... what did he say?’
‘He asked me to trust you,’ said Wist.
‘To trust me?’ she laughed.
He nodded and added, ‘and that I should trust myself. And you should trust me.’
‘I wish he would leave me alone,’ she said, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. Then she cast off the blankets and rose.
‘Is Haumea OK’ asked Wist. Aviti frowned at him, so he rephrased his question. ‘’Will she recover?’
Aviti nodded. ‘When you passed out, Tyla aided Haumea.’
Tyla shrugged again and said, ‘She may still sleep for some time yet.’
‘Where are the others,’ Wist asked.
‘The Giants went to explore the ship,’ the girl replied. ‘They never returned, so I assume they found somewhere to rest.’
‘What about the Intoli?’
‘Sevika went with…Enceladus. They left after the Giants, once Tyla had finished with Haumea.’
Wist nodded. ‘We need to get everyone together.
‘Where are the others?’ asked a voice from the other side of the room.
‘Haumea,’ said Wist through a huge grin. He walked over to her as she rose from the table. She used her staff for support, and then she lifted it to the light and examined something on it. There was a mark on the base of the white rod. Unlike the other discolorations that adorned the Giantess’ staff which were grey or black, this patch was crimson. She ran a gnarled digit over the mark, but it would not move.
Wist held his hands up in apology. ‘I think that might have been me.’
Haumea’s face crumpled for a second, but then she beamed. ‘Ah, I think it adds a little… character.’ Then she cracked the staff on the floor, as if to test that its structural integrity remained unchanged. Satisfied with the healthy snap that the contact made, the Giantess hobbled to the fireplace. ‘Thank you, my friend, thank you.’ Wist shrugged at the Giantess.
As Wist joined his friends, he caught a faint whiff of food. It smelled of boiled meat. Wist hadn’t felt hungry for a long time, but the scent awoke long forgotten needs in him.
‘The Giants have found the kitchen then,’ said Wist.
‘Let us join them before they devour our supplies.’ Haumea suggested. Wist was out the door before anyone could agree.
Wist caught a glimpse of the Intoli as they passed beneath the deck. Enceladus stood at the prow of the ship, shining his light out into the night.
They followed the smell down a flight of stairs, which Wist found difficult to negotiate as only Tyla had the good sense to lift a torch. On the first floor below deck, there was only two rooms, one at either end of the ship. Both of these were large and open to the central area. There were two hatches in that area that opened onto the bottom deck. Wist glanced into the square holes as he passed, but all he could see was blackness.
A fire that heated a massive pot illuminated the entire deck. The Giants had pulled benches together near to the cook-fire and Decheal sat at the end of one. Oinoir stood beside the pot stirring its contents.
‘I thought you would want something to fill your belly,’ said Decheal as Wist and the others approached. The Giant slid four over-sized bowls to Wist, Aviti, Haumea and Tyla. They accepted them gratefully, and Wist devoured his and received a second portion without requesting it.
‘Is this Dragon I’m eating?’ said Wist as he polished off the last bowl.
Decheal shook her head. ‘Buralo,’ she answered, letting some of the brown stew fall from her mouth onto the table. She wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve. Aviti informed Wist that Buralo was another name for the massive wolves that had attacked them outside the fallen city of Medicaut.
How it could have had survived falling down the mountain was beyond him. He wished he had seen it, but there was no-one to blame for that but himself.
The stew was simple, but filling. When Oinoir came to refill Wist’s bowl, Wist put a hand over it. ‘No, thank you,’ he said.
Oinoir didn’t retreat at once. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and then he picked up Wist’s bowl. Before turning away, he said, ‘Thank you, Dionach,’ and nodded to Wist and then Haumea. There was hurt buried deep in the blue eyes of the Giant.
Unable to think of an appropriate response, Wist returned the nod.
‘Decheal,’ said Wist as Oinoir moved away. ‘What happened to your armour?’ The Giantess was sitting garbed in plain robes now rather than her shining armour.
He saw a glimmer of regret flit across the Giantess’ mien as she said, ‘I had to leave it behind when we climbed down to the ship. I could not move freely with it on and it was too cumbersome to carry.’ She grimaced as she spoke, but then she turned from Wist perhaps to hide the hurt at leaving it behind. Wist had been so obsessed with the descent he hadn’t noticed.
Wist wiped sweat from his brow. The heat from the cook-fire filled the kitchen, even with the open structure of the ship letting most of the heat escape out to the mid-deck. As much as he wanted to sit and enjoy the company of those around the table, he knew they couldn’t afford the time.
‘We need to move the ship,’ he announced to them.
Aviti exhaled and ran a hand over her head. ‘That creature,’ she said, pointing at Enceladus, ‘summons this ship from the deep and it does not worry you?’
‘Aviti,’ Wist began, but she cut him off.
‘I do not trust him.’
‘You didn’t trust me either,’ he said
‘I still do not, but that is not the point. What does he want? What does he hope to gain from this?’
‘Why would he have to gain something?’ asked Wist.
‘He is Intoli,’ shouted Aviti. ‘He is Intoli.’
Decheal and Oinoir muttered their agreement.
‘So, what is your alternative?’ asked Wist. ‘Shall we grow wings and fly? Or we could walk across the frozen sea and hope that Haumea does not fall in again and we do not all starve or freeze to death. Therefore, we must make the bloody boat move.’
‘He is right,’ said a small voice. ‘The Intoli’s motives are secondary. Without another option, we must do this.’
‘Do not dictate to me what I must do Haumea,’ said Oinoir. ‘You may be Prime Glaine, but you do not outrank me.’
‘I state only facts, brave Oinoir. We have come this far. The choice we have is between continuing or lying down and giving up. So, what do you choose Oinoir?’
‘You think I am a coward?’ Oinoir shouted.
‘Damnation, put your bloody pride away,’ said Wist. ‘You’d think my fate taught you nothing,’ he muttered to himself. Then he said more clearly, ‘How do we make the boat move? And where do we go?’
‘Blood and bone. I could paddle if you like,’ said Decheal.
Wist erupted in laughter, but his mirth was not shared by everyone.
‘You think this is a laughing matter,’ shouted Oinoir, his temper barely under control. He slammed his palm against the wooden wall.
‘Please be calm,’ said Wist. The Giant glowered at them, but he held his tongue. ‘We need the Intoli.’
He waited for the storm that never came. Part of him was disappointed, but the greater part of him was glad.
‘Come on then,’ Wist said to them and he stood. Tyla lifted his torch and followed Wist as he left.
Wist had no idea if the others followed, but what else could they do?’ He strode out onto the upper deck and breathed the frozen air into his lungs. At least that way he could feel it, though it made his chest tighten. He had no need of Tyla’s light or the moon. Enceladus shone bright and true on the fore-deck, right at the prow of the ship. It reflected off the hard, blackened wood of the deck. The masts sparkled and the beams and ropes glowed.
As Wist climbed the steps, he was struck by the full force of th
e Intoli’s brilliance. The light dimmed as he grew closer, as if it sensed his approach. When he passed the foremast, Wist was relieved to hear footsteps behind him.
They gathered around the Intoli: the Giants and the humans. The moon bathed them all in dappled light, as insubstantial clouds flitted by.
Wist listened to the ice creak and groan, but there were no cracks. It had settled in around them. If they let it, it would entomb them here.
‘Can you take us?’ Wist asked Enceladus. ‘Can you take us to the Dhuma, to Prasad. The Intoli turned from the frozen sea and looked at him. Then Enceladus shook his head.
‘No?’ said Wist with a laugh. ‘What do you mean no?’
If he didn’t know better, he could have sworn that the bastard smiled at him, and then Enceladus extended his hands out towards Wist and to Aviti.
Wist stared back until the realisation hit him. He wanted them to move the bloody ship. He turned to Aviti. She looked thin, beaten, haggard and frozen, but there was an iron core in her. It burned bright enough that even his dulled senses could see it. She grabbed the Intoli’s hand and said to Wist, ‘Let us begin.’
So, he took the Intoli’s other hand, and the power flowed through him. It was different than it had been when they had raised this wreck. That had been more urgent, more desperate. This was work; grinding, thankless work.
Then the ship came alive beneath him, and as if it caught the tide, the ship slid forwards. With a grinding split, the vessel broke from its prison, and without sails to catch the wind, nor tide to push it, she slipped away from the land. Minute by minute, they left reality behind and sailed into the frozen horizon.
9 - Punishment Through Time
Moving the ship tired Aviti quicker than it did Wist. He had been surprised when she released Enceladus’ hands. She limped away from them, leaning on Haumea to keep her upright.
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