“It looks like beach, not rock, and the waves are small. Shall we go straight in?”

“Wake Kalaleq. Let him decide.”

The Paramutan came awake at once — thankfully possessed by none of his earlier fears. He clambered part way up the mast to look ahead, sniffed the air then let his hand dangle over the side in the sea.

“We land,” was his firm decision. “Row straight and I steer.”

When they were closer in he saw a break in the shore and turned toward it, then guided the boat in between sandbanks to the outlet of a stream or a small river.

“No one knows boats, knows the ocean like Kalaleq!”

“No one,” Armun agreed quickly before Kerrick could say anything to dampen the Paramutan’s new-found self-esteem. Kerrick started to speak, then had the good sense to keep quiet. He rowed until they touched bottom, then jumped overside with a line to pull the boat further in.

The water was salt here, but when he walked a short distance upstream it suddenly became fresh and sweet. He cupped his hands and drank, then called to the others. Kalaleq rolled and splashed in the delightful coolness, his earlier fears forgotten. They pulled the boat up as far as they could and secured it there, all of them exhausted. They would refill the waterskins in the morning.

It was first light when Kerrick took Armun’s arm to awaken her. “Up here,” he said. “Come quickly.”

Kalaleq was lying behind the mounded dune, shaking his spear and calling out loud insults. But he was careful to stay behind the cover. They ran to join him, dropping and crawling the last bit to look over the top.

Out to sea, just off the coast, a large creature with a high fin was swimming slowly by. Two smaller sea-beasts surged ahead of it.

“An uruketo,” Kerrick said. “It carries the murgu.”

“How I wish they were closer so I could spear it, kill them all!” Kalaleq’s eyes were red with hatred in the first light, his temper restored and all traces of yesterday’s fear vanished.

“Look at the direction they are going,” Kerrick said, glancing toward the sun on the horizon, then back to sea. “North, they are going north.”

He watched until the uruketo had vanished from sight, then hurried to the boat, rooted out the Yilanè charts.

“We have come too far south, see, we must be here on the chart. The uruketo is going north to the islands here.”

Kalaleq understood the maps, Armun did not. They would decide. “It could be going to the ocean here, through the mouth,” Kalaleq said. Kerrick shook his head.

“Not this time of the year, it is too cold, there may even be no cities left on the shores of Isegnet. It has to be going here, to Ikhalmenets.”

While they argued she filled the waterskins.

By late morning they had all of the water they could carry and their course had been decided. They would follow the murgu swimming creature. It had been agreed that the island they searched for was in that direction. The breeze was coming from the land now and filled their sail, carrying them swiftly toward the horizon and what lay concealed beyond it.

They sailed all of that day through the empty ocean, the land out of sight behind them and nothing visible ahead. When Kalaleq’s fears returned Armun asked him how he killed ularuaq and he showed her his skill, carried away, shouting with pleasure. Kerrick sat silently in the bow, staring ahead. He was the one who saw the snow capped mountain first.

“It is there, Ikhalmenets, it can be nothing else.”

They gazed in silence as they sailed forward and the island slowly emerged from the sea. Kalaleq called out worriedly when other specks of land appeared.

“There — and there. Other islands, there are more than one. Which is the one we seek?”

Kerrick pointed to the white peak, now glowing warmly in the evening sun. “That one, it can be no other, that is the way it was described. An island with a single, high mountain at its center. There are others nearby, but this is the largest, the mountain the tallest. Sail toward it.”

“The other islands we pass, we will be seen.”

“No, they are uninhabited. The murgu live in only one place, in their city on that island. That is where we are going…”

“To our deaths!” Kalaleq cried aloud, his teeth chattering with fear. “Murgu beyond counting. We are three, what can we do?”

“We can defeat them,” Kerrick said, strength and surety in his voice. “I did not come all this distance just to die. I have thought about this over and over, planned everything carefully. We will win — because I know these creatures. They are not like Tanu — or Paramutan. They do not do as we do, each of them going his own way, but are ordered in everything. They are very different from us.”

“My head is thick. I fear — and do not understand.”

“Then listen and you will see clearly what I mean. Tell me of the Paramutan. Tell me why you, Kalaleq, kill the ularuaq, not any other?”

“Because I am the best! Am strongest, aim straightest.”

“But others kill as well?”

“Of course, different times, sail on other ikkergaks.”

“Then understand, the Tanu have sammadars who lead. But if we do not like what they say we find a new sammadar, just as you may have a new spearer of ularuaq.”

“Me — I am best.”

“I know you are, but that is not what I mean. I am talking about the way things happen with Paramutan and Tanu. But that is not the way of the murgu. There is one who orders all of the others, a single one. Her orders are always obeyed, never questioned.”

“That is stupid,” Kalaleq said, pushing over the oar as the wind gusted about and flapped the sail. Kerrick nodded agreement.

“You think so — I think so. But the murgu never think about this at all. The one on top rules and all of the others obey.”

“Stupid.”

“It is, but that is a very good thing for us. Because I can speak to the one who rules, order her to do what must be done…”

“No, you cannot,” Armun cried out. “You cannot go there. It is certain death.”

“Not if you both help me, do as I ask. None of the other murgu matter, just the leader, the one they call the eistaa. I know how she thinks and I know how to make her obey me. With this,” he held out the carved Sasku firebox, “and the bladder of ularuaq poison Kalaleq has stowed away.”

Armun looked from his face to the box, then back again. “I understand none of this. You make fun of me.” Without realizing it, she drew a fold of her clothing over her mouth as she spoke.

“No, never.” He put the box down and held her to him, pulled the skin aside, touched her lips, calmed her fears. “It will be all right, we will be safe.”

They came as close to the island as they dared in the fading daylight, then dropped the sail and waited. There were no clouds and the snow on the high mountain shone clearly in the moonlight. Kerrick went to raise the sail and Kalaleq called out to stop him.

“If we go close we will be seen!”

“They sleep, all of them. None are awake; I told you I know them.

“Guards posted?”

“That is impossible. None move after darkness, it is a thing about them.

Kalaleq steered reluctantly, still not sure. The island grew ever closer until they were moving slowly north along its rocky shore.

“Where is the place of the murgu?” Kalaleq whispered as though he could be heard from the shore.

“On this coast, to the north, keep on.”

The rocky coastline gave way to sandy beaches with groves of trees beyond them. Then the coast curved away into a harbor and the row of dark forms was clear against the lighter wood of the docks beyond.

“There,” Kerrick said. “The uruketo, their ikkergak-creatures, like the one we saw. This is the place, this is the city. I know what it will be like for they are all grown in the same manner. The birth-beaches beyond, the barrier surrounding it, the ambesed which will open to the east so the eistaa, sitting in her place of honor, will get the first warmth of the sun. This is Ikhalmenets.”