Winter in Eden

above. Before Kerrick tired Armun replaced him at the oars so that they moved steadily toward land. A ghost of a moon slipped in and out of the Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    clouds enabling them to stay on course. While Kalaleq slept, they spelled each other, turn and turn again, until they heard the rumble of surf distantly ahead. Kerrick stood in the bow and could just make out the line of foam where the waves ran up onto the shore.
    "It looks like beach, not rock, and the waves are small. Shall we go straight in?"
    "Wake Kalaleq. Let him decide."
    The Paramutan came awake at once—thankfully possessed by none of his earlier fears. He clambered part way up the mast to look ahead, sniffed the air then let his hand dangle over the side in the sea.
    "We land," was his firm decision. "Row straight and I steer."
    When they were closer in he saw a break in the shore and turned toward it, then guided the boat in between sandbanks to the outlet of a stream or a small river.
    "No one knows boats, knows the ocean like Kalaleq!"
    "No one," Armun agreed quickly before Kerrick could say anything to dampen the Paramutan's newfound self-esteem. Kerrick started to speak, then had the good sense to keep quiet. He rowed until they touched bottom, then jumped overside with a line to pull the boat further in.
    The water was salt here, but when he walked a short distance upstream it suddenly became fresh and sweet. He cupped his hands and drank, then called to the others. Kalaleq rolled and splashed in the delightful coolness, his earlier fears forgotten. They pulled the boat up as far as they could and secured it there, all of them exhausted. They would refill the waterskins in the morning.
    It was first light when Kerrick took Armun's arm to awaken her. "Up here," he said. "Come quickly."
    Kalaleq was lying behind the mounded dune, shaking his spear and calling out loud insults. But he was careful to stay behind the cover. They ran to join him, dropping and crawling the last bit to look over the top.
    Out to sea, just off the coast, a large creature with a high fin was swimming slowly by. Two smaller sea-beasts surged ahead of it.
    "An uruketo," Kerrick said. "It carries the murgu."
    "How I wish they were closer so I could spear it, kill them all!" Kalaleq's eyes were red with hatred in the first light, his temper restored and all traces of yesterday's fear vanished.
    Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    "Look at the direction they are going," Kerrick said, glancing toward the sun on the horizon, then back to sea. "North, they are going north."
    He watched until the uruketo had vanished from sight, then hurried to the boat, rooted out the Yilanè charts.
    "We have come too far south, see, we must be here on the chart. The uruketo is going north to the islands here."
    Kalaleq understood the maps, Armun did not. They would decide. "It could be going to the ocean here, through the mouth," Kalaleq said. Kerrick shook his head.
    "Not this time of the year, it is too cold, there may even be no cities left on the shores of Isegnet. It has to be going here, to Ikhalmenets."
    While they argued she filled the waterskins.
    By late morning they had all of the water they could carry and their course had been decided. They would follow the murgu swimming creature. It had been agreed that the island they searched for was in that direction. The breeze was coming from the land now and filled their sail, carrying them swiftly toward the horizon and what lay concealed beyond it.
    They sailed all of that day through the empty ocean, the land out of sight behind them and nothing visible ahead. When Kalaleq's fears returned Armun asked him how he killed ularuaq and he showed her his skill, carried away, shouting with pleasure. Kerrick sat silently in the bow, staring ahead. He was the one who saw the snow capped mountain first.
    "It is there, Ikhalmenets, it can be nothing else."
    They gazed in silence as they sailed forward and the island slowly emerged from the sea. Kalaleq called out worriedly when other specks of land appeared.
    "There—and there. Other islands, there are more than one. Which is the one we seek?"
    Kerrick pointed to the white peak, now glowing warmly in the evening sun. "That one, it can be no other, that is the way it was described. An island with a single, high mountain at its center. There are others nearby, but this is the largest, the mountain the tallest. Sail toward it."
    "The other islands we pass, we will be seen."
    "No,