Armun had no answer to that, no words to help him. She could only hold him as tightly as she could and let her body speak what her lips could not.

The snows began that same day. First a light fall, then harder and harder until a long drift stretched out behind every paukarut and they knew that the blizzards of winter had begun.

There was plenty to eat and the Paramutan were well used to dozing through the long nights of winter. In the short days between storms they went hunting and fishing, but never strayed far. Kerrick would not join them, stayed inside and stayed within himself as well. Armun feared for the future because, try hard as she could, she could not shake him from the darkness of his thoughts.

In the end it was the strength of his obsession that won.

“I cannot bear seeing you like this,” Armun cried.

“I have no choice. It can be no other way. I must find that island. And stop Vaintè. I will have no peace until that has been done.”

“I believe you now. So I will go with you.”

He nodded solemn acceptance, as though her cry of pain was a rational decision. “That is good. So now I am halfway there. The two of us cannot do it alone but will need one other. A Paramutan who knows how to sail. That will be enough. The three of us will be able to do it—I have worked out completely how it can be done.”

“How?”

He looked about suspiciously as though afraid of being overheard, then shook his head. “I cannot tell you yet. I must get it perfectly right before I can tell anyone. Now you must ask Kalaleq to come with us. He is strong and not afraid, he is the one that we need.”

“He refused last time when you asked him.”

“That was last time. Ask him again.”

Kalaleq lay under his robes chewing desultorily at a piece of ancient fish—but he sat up and smiled when Armun approached.

“Many days of storm, many more days of winter.” He lifted the fur and reached for her and she pushed his hand away.

“Why don’t you leave winter, sail south to summer?”

“It is not done. The Paramutan are of the north and die when the days are hot all of the time.”

“Do not go that far, not to the summer that never ends. Just part of the way. Sail to Kerrick’s island then return. Help me.”

“The island? He still thinks about it?”

“You must help me, Kalaleq, help him. There are strange things happening in his head and I am afraid.”