“Information,” Esspelei said, answering without thinking, amazed at the presence of the Yilanè ustuzou. “This a place of science where we study the winds, the ocean, the weather. All of this is beyond you of course; I don’t know why I bother to explain.”

“Generosity of spirit, from highest to lowest. Do you measure the coldness of the winters, the cold winds that blow ever stronger from the north?”

Esspelei signed surprise and a shade of respect. “You are no fargi, ustuzou, but can speak with the smallest amount of intelligence. We do study the winters for knowledge is science and science is life. This is what we study.”

She gestured toward the grouped instruments, the charts upon the wall, movements of unhappiness behind her speech. Talking more to herself now than to him. “Each year the winters are colder, each winter the ice is further south. Here is dead Soromset and dead Inegban*. Dead cities. And still the cold comes. Here Ikhalmenets which will be the next to die when the cold comes its way.”

Ikhalmenets! Kerrick trembled with the force of his emotions, took time to speak so his trembling voice did not betray his eagerness. Ikhalmenets, the city that Erafnais had told him about on that beach, before she died, the city that aided Vaintè, the city that had launched the attack that had retaken Deifoben. Ikhalmenets, the enemy.

“Ikhalmenets? In my stupidity I have never heard of the city of Ikhalmenets.”

“Your stupidity is indeed monumental. Sea-girt Ikhalmenets, a shining island in the ocean. You are not Yilanè if you do not know of the existence of Ikhalmenets.”

As she said this she reached out to make her point, tapping one thumb lightly on the hanging chart.

“So stupid I wonder that I can live,” Kerrick agreed. He leaned forward and noted exactly where the thumb had touched. “What generosity of highest to lowest that you even bother to speak with me, much less waste your incredibly valuable time in increasing my knowledge.”

“You speak the truth, Yilanè-ustuzou.” The door opened and a fargi entered with a bladder of meat. “We will eat. Then you will respond to my queries.”

Kerrick ate in silence, filled with a fierce and sudden happiness. He had no other questions, there was nothing more that he needed to know.

He knew where the enemy Ikhalmenets was located in the vastness of the oceans, in all the width of the world.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX