There was no way they could put up their shelters in the blizzard. The three of them, Avatak, Nelo and Himil, had to crowd into the little tent on the back of the carriage with Pyxeas, who had barely been awake for days, lying under a heap of wool and fur blankets. They soon got the fire started on its metal hearth. The tent, securely strapped to the back of the carriage, was stable enough, though the carriage itself, resting on its runners, creaked in the wind. The tent was too small for the four of them, though; Avatak could feel the wet mass of its fabric wall on his back as he tried to pull off his fur boots.

Something disturbed the dogs, and they howled.

Pyxeas stirred. ‘Avatak?’

‘I am here, scholar.’ Avatak took the chance to sit him up gently, and let him sip at hot nettle tea.

‘Umm . . . I have been asleep.’

‘Yes. You aren’t well. We think you have had a fever.’

‘Ah. From those mother-forsaken marshes south of Parisa. I remember.’ He frowned, his bony fingers wrapped around his cup. ‘Can I hear dogs?’

‘Yes, scholar. You remember, I bought them in Parisa.’

Himil said, ‘And I said they were mangy curs that must have been weaned on liquid gold, they cost so much.’

‘We are on the ice,’ Pyxeas whispered.

‘For some days now. You have been sleeping.’

‘I slip in and out of the world, it seems. But tell me, the carriage: did the mechanism work well, as the wheels were replaced by runners?’

‘Perfectly,’ said Himil.

‘I would have liked to have seen that. So here we are on the ice, in a sled, with dogs! This is why I brought you, you know, Avatak. Brought you all those years ago from your home across the sea. Because I knew the ice was coming. I wanted a man beside me who could handle a team of dogs, on the ice, for I knew that one day I would need it. And to teach you, boy, to shape your mind, of course, don’t forget that . . . Do you think we are in Northland yet?’

‘It is impossible to say. It is some days since I have been able to sight the stars, or the sun,’ said Avatak.

‘You have been keeping the journal, I trust.’

‘Of course. The weather holds us up.’

‘“The weather holds us up.” I could not have summed up the longwinter better myself.’ He laughed, and burst into a fit of coughing.

Nelo crawled around the little tent and held his great-uncle, cradling his head on his own lap, and the old man settled. ‘Ah, thank you, boy, that is warming, that is kind.’

Nelo blurted, ‘You never got your strength back after your trip to Cathay, and now this. I’m concerned.’

‘Concerned about what? Where’s my trunk, Avatak?’

‘In the carriage, master. It is safe.’