Winter in Eden

seems to have happened," she said when she returned. "It is about the ularuaq.
    They talked about how bad it was all winter, how there were less and less. Now they seem to have found them again. It is very important."
    "What are ularuaq?" Ortnar asked.
    "They hunt them, in the sea. I have never seen one but they must be very large, larger even than a mastodon." She pointed at the arched ribs above. "Those are from the ularuaq. And the skin cover as well—all in one piece. Most of the meat we eat, the blubber too, comes from the ularuaq. The Paramutan will eat any kind of meat, anything at all." She indicated the seabird hanging by its legs from the ribs above, rotting nicely. "But almost all of their food, the boats, everything comes from the ularuaq. They say that it is the weather, the long winters, that have been driving them away. The ice comes further south every year and something in the water, I don't understand all of it, has changed. So the ularuaq have been harder and harder to kill and this is the worst thing that could happen to the Paramutan. We'll have to wait to find out what has happened now."
    It was some time before anyone else returned to the paukarut. Kalaleq was first, crawling in through the entrance and pushing a lattice of thin bones before him, while the others followed. He waved it happily, an intricate array, tied by gut and secured in angles and curves. Armun made him talk slowly as he pointed out the importance of it, translating into Marbak as he spoke.
    Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    It was Kerrick who finally understood what Kalaleq was talking about.
    "The bones are a chart of some kind—they use them to find their way about the ocean just as the Yilanè do with their charts. Ask him to point out where we are now."
    After much reference to the skein of bones, questions and confused answers, what had happened finally became clear. Kerrick, who had crossed the ocean understood the significance.
    "It is the winters. They have changed the ocean just as they have the land, changed the things that live in it. The ice sheet we are on stretches across the northern ocean to the land on the other side. I have been on the land there, though not in the north. For some reason the ularuaq are no longer on this side of the ocean but seem to be all over there now. The ikkergak that just arrived has actually crossed to the other side of the ocean and has seen them. What are the Paramutan going to do?"
    Kalaleq was graphic in his demonstration when he understood the question. He pulled on invisible lines, rode over imaginary waves as he talked. They could almost follow without Armun's translation.
    "They are getting the ikkergaks into the water and preparing them for a long voyage. They want to cross over as soon as the ice begins to break and hunt the ularuaq—and return before winter sets in again."
    "Then it is time for us to leave as well," Kerrick said. "We take their food and give nothing in return." But as he said this he looked out of the corner of his eyes at Ortnar who smiled grimly.
    "Yes, time to go south," he said. "But it is a walk I do not look forward to."
    "You won't have to walk," Armun said impulsively, reaching out to touch his arm. "I know the Paramutan. They will help us. They brought me and the boys here without hesitating at all. They like us, they think we are so different. They will want us to stay but when we insist they will take us south in the spring. I know they will."
    "But won't they need all the ikkergaks for the hunting trip?" Kerrick asked.
    "I have no idea. I will just have to ask and find out."
    "We must leave as soon as we can," Ortnar said. "We must go back to the sammads."
    Kerrick's face hardened at these words and his mouth set grimly for the thought of their return brought memories flooding back. Bringing with them fears long forgotten, pushed aside.
    And his first thought was of Vaintè, she of eternal hatred. She was out there, planning the destruction of Tanu and Sasku, of all the ustuzou in the world. He had turned his back on the city and the Yilanè that Winter in Eden - Harry Harrison
    threatened it because he had to find Armun. Well he had done that. They were together again, all safe. Or would they ever be safe? Not while Vaintè was alive, not while she lived on hatred. They would have to return to the city. Back to Yilanè and hèsotsan, the world of ustuzou and murgu, of a battle that had no ending. Or no ending that did not allow the