‘From another sea, a long way away,’ Kallik replied. ‘The ice melted there, so I crossed the land to Great Bear Lake, and then to here. I was looking for the Place of Everlasting Ice.’

‘You have come so far!’ The mother bear breathed out the words in amazement, while her two cubs stared at Kallik as if she were Silaluk herself, come down from the sky. ‘I’ve only ever met one other bear who made that journey from the other Frozen Sea. Her name was Siqiniq; she was very wise.’

‘I know Siqiniq!’ Kallik exclaimed joyfully. ‘I met her at Great Bear Lake. She was my friend.’

The mother bear dipped her head. ‘I’m glad to hear Siqiniq still lives. I was only a cub when I met her, but I’ve never forgotten her. How did you manage the journey?’ she went on. ‘So many skylengths, and alone!’

‘I wasn’t alone,’ Kallik replied. ‘Not all the way. I had friends with me.’ She pointed with her snout toward Ujurak and Lusa, who were peering out anxiously from behind the thornbush.

The she-bear flinched, instinctively stepping between them and her cubs, who huddled behind their mother. ‘A brown bear and a black bear?’ she growled. ‘What are they doing so close to the sea? Those kinds don’t often come down to the shore.’

‘They won’t try to hurt you, or your cubs,’ Kallik assured her. ‘They’re just waiting for me and they’ve helped me come all this way. But now I think my journey’s at an end.’ She turned again to gaze out to sea. ‘I’ve found what I was searching for. The Place of Everlasting Ice.’

Was the ice closer than when she had first seen it? Kallik wasn’t sure, but her longing to swim out to it, to be part of that cold, white world again, was so strong that she could taste it. ‘Are you going to the ice?’ she asked the she-bear.

‘Not yet,’ the she-bear answered. ‘I’ll wait until my cubs are stronger first.’

Kallik eyed the two cubs. They looked strong to her already, plump and healthy, so different from the wretchedly thin bears she had seen on the shore of the Melting Sea and at Great Bear Lake. With their mother to take care of them, they were sure to reach the ice soon.

Longingly Kallik gazed out at the ice again. Its pull was overwhelming; her ears filled with the murmurings of the ice-spirits, the sound of ice crystals forming in the water. The ice seemed to have drawn closer already. Kallik felt as if she could stretch out her snout and touch it. Her paws carried her into the sea; she could feel the cold touch of the waves as they lapped around her legs. Her excitement rising, she waded deeper into the icy water.