Kerrick felt a sudden excitement as she talked, could almost smell the chill mist blowing in from the ocean, the cold pelting of driving snow. He had forgotten what it was like to be cold. Not that he wanted to freeze to death again, but to eat a mouthful of snow, to walk in the dark pine woods—that was something worth doing. Under eager questioning Armun talked more about the Paramutan and the way they lived on the ice, the many things they made, the rotten fish they liked to eat. The two hunters listened closely to her words, gasping in fascination at their strange ways. When she had finished Hanath slapped Morgil so enthusiastically on the shoulder that he knocked him over on his side.

“We will do it,” he cried. “We will go, now is the time to leave. We will go north and trade with the furry ones.”

“Perhaps I will go with you,” Kerrick said. “To show you the way.”

Armun’s eyes widened with shock. Before she could speak her anger he seized her hands in his. “We will both go, why not, take a mastodon to carry the things we wish to trade.”

“That will be too slow,” she said. “And we will not go, nor do I even wish to talk of it. The children are here . . .”

“And the children are safe here. Ysel eats soft-chewed food now, Arnwheet has his friends, while the sammads and many hunters are on all sides.”

“I want to go too!” Arnwheet called out and Armun shushed him.

“This is a thing that hunters wish to do. You are not quite the grown hunter yet. Some day, but not now.”

She took the boy back to the tent with her, leaving the three hunters with their heads bent close, making plans. She was concerned, but not worried. But what should she do if Kerrick said that he wished to go with them? She must decide before he returned. He wanted very much to go, that was clear. Perhaps life on this island was too easy. Certainly it was too hot. She laughed out loud. She would very much like to do this thing as well. By the time Kerrick had returned her mind was made up.

“I think those two have had a good idea,” he said. His fingers twisted at the skymetal knife as he talked. “Of course there is no real need for furs here, not in the summer at least. But the Paramutan have many other things.”

“Like what, whistles?”

“Not only whistles,” he said angrily, then saw that she was smiling.

“You want to make this trek, don’t you?”

“Yes, of course.”