Where necessary or possibly helpful to some, there are notes at the end on word usage.

28th of Towin Day 1

Chaunter cast her mind back to when the five women and three men had boarded the Ocean Shoals at the Keep. The eight of them had arrived at the hunters’ cabin, yclept Glacier View, a lune and a half over with their four teams of twenty sled dogs. The dogs were the only thing that had gone aright, they still had all of them in full health, and Salsh had mated back to a wolf. Chaunter was an early middle-aegt, small, compact, intelligent woman with a lot of experience hunting mammoth this far north. She was the leader of the group of hunters and though a tracker and dog handler she was nay the less almost as good with a crossbow as her hunter Waxwing, who was also early middle-aegt.

The group had comprised six experienced mammoth hunters, who over the years had provided the Folk with millions of weights(1) of meat, and two youngsters for whom it was their first trip north. João was a young hunter paired with Clansaver, who at fifty-six was more than thrice seventeen year old João’s age. Clansaver considered João to be a steady and careful young man who would learn quickly, and he’d been pleased to take him to apprentice. Flame was nineteen, and she’d been courted by forty-two year old Irune for a couple of lunes before they set sail. They had shared a cabin on the voyage north and announced their agreement three days before they docked at the cabin jetty.

Ceël, who was thirty-two, was paired with Barroo a thirty-eight year old tracker who was good with a crossbow and had been coming north for mammoth since the age of twelve. Both were married, but not to each other. They’d had a successful and satisfying craft relationship for many years. Their children and agreäns were kith so close they considered themselfs to be family.

They’d experienced a severe storm the eve of Flame and Irune’s agreement, and the ship had suffered some damage to the sails and rigging which ship Mistress Honey had planned to repair at the cabin jetty before the Shoals’ crew offloaded fuel wood and loaded ice from the glacier. Glacier View’s jetty, on the river’s southern bank, was built out into the wide but slow moving river that flowed at the base of the Far North Glacier and was near the large and substantial cabin, which had accommodation for dogs as well as folk. The cabin was tightly(2) built of double log walls with a stride of dried sphagnum insulation between them, the roof was of a similar construction, and in the middle of the lee-side long wall was a six strides wide, three strides thick section built of stone and hardset.(3)

The chimney and fire place for the stove and oven was in this section of wall which provided hot water as well as heating the cabin. The kennels were built gainst the chimney for warmth and the integral fuel wood stores, on both sides of the kennels, were built gainst the rest of the wall. The kennels and wood could be accessed from within the cabin in case the weather maekt it necessary. Such a massive stone fireplace was necessary. In this place, whilst vital to sustain life, fire uncontrolled was equally capable of destroying it.

When they had arrived, even before they docked, they could see the storm damage to the roof of the cabin, and Chaunter had started to have a bad feelings regards the trip. The hunters stayed aboard the Ocean Shoals whilst the crew affected the repairs to the ship before helping to repair the cabin and offloading some fifty thousand weights of fuel wood.

Six days later in the early forenoon, the ship sailed upriver to dock at Ice Wharf, the glacier jetty, and the crew started loading ice blocks which had braeken off the glacier to lie on the ground melting in the weak shine.(4) It was dangerous because the blocks could fall at any time, and though the crew were nowhere near the base of the glacier, huge blocks falling a thousand or more strides sometimes exploded when they hit the ground sending spear like shards considerable distances at high speed. Most braekt on impact, and the pieces rolled down to where the crew worked, but oft they travelled sufficiently quickly to kill or maim. There were always as many of the crew watching as loading. Shy touched Honey’s arm to attract her attention, pointed out into the river and said, “Even the great white bears(5) have more sense than to get this close to the glacier.”

Honey laught and said, “And they’ve more sense than to approach within crossbow range of folk too. With that fur and carrying so much meat and fat they’re a prize indeed, and nigh on everything on them can either be eaten or uest for something, but I’ll never kill one. They’re far too beautiful and I love watching them. They’re good mothers too. I seeën(6) a mother with three cubs once at may hap six hundred strides farth.(6a) As soon as she realiest I was there she put herself twixt(7) me and the cubs till we were out of sight of each other.”

Shy nodded her head in agreement and added, “I agree they have a great beauty and dignity too. I’ve never eaten of one, though I know some who have. I read in the archives that a newfolk of the last incursion considert their liver to be deadly poison(8) which I thought strange, for it has long been eaten by the hunters and their dogs.”

The hunters were still organising their supplies and equipment when the crew of the Ocean Shoals docked to eat the eve meal with them two days later before resuming their voyage back to the Keep via Graill Shores, the coastal holding of Fritillary and Bistort.

All of Chaunter’s dogs had a significant proportion of wolf in their make up, and Salsh, a young half dog half wolf bitch, was at her breeding time. Chaunter knew mature wolfs were monogamous, but she had hopes a juvenile dog wolf, whose behaviour was not yet adult, would serve her if given the opportunity. Since Salsh had been receptive Chaunter had kept her with the bitches where the dogs couldn’t serve her, but she had heard the caoine(9) of wolfs the eve before and fastened Salsh with a long leash in one of the outermost kennels along with a dozen bitches for warmth. She was awakened by the commotion maekt by the dogs and arose to look out of the casement to see what she had wished to see, a juvenile wolf serving Salsh.

Everything ready, they left the cabin in the early forenoon, and Chaunter noted the young wolf following them at a distance. The wolf stayed with them for several days serving Salsh at every opportunity when they returned to the cabin till, her breeding time over, they lost interest in each other. Chaunter considered it to be unbelike she was not in pup and wondered how many she would have in her first litter.

Having tried due south with no sight of mammoth, they decided to go south and east berount the Boglands which lay to the south of the river and extended an unknown whilth(9a) east. From a distance the Boglands looked almost like a sheep grazed grassy plain. Closer scrutiny revealed a bewildering landscape with randomly scattered small pools of dirty reddish-stained water, which looked like bandages soaked with dried old blood had been washed in them. They couldn’t help but keep looking, it exerted a compelling fascination, some claimed to be able to cross it, but they all knew it was a dangerous, frighting place to be. It looked solid, but even the most solid of bogland was spongy, waterlogged and treacherous. The Boglands comprised vegetation in all stages of decomposition: an acidic, brown, soggy, fibrous almost-peat.

In most places sphagnum and sedges predominated with odd stands of scrubby stunted trees oft dead or dieing(10) and invariably covered with saprophytic fungi which had started to decompose them even as they germinated and grew. The trees grew on the slightly raised islets of less saturated bog, but the water was never far below the surface if not pooling on it. The ground was littered with dead branches. Many were just bits poking up out of the peat, but below the surface they were possibly attached to an entire tree that had painstakingly over the aeons failed to become one with the bog under the acidic anaerobic conditions.

Elsewhere sphagnum was collected by the foragers. It was mostly uest as babe swaddling because it could hold up to thirty times its own weighth in water. This also meant the Boglands could exist on underlying terrain which had a moderate slope as it held the water preventing it draining off. Despite their dangers, the Boglands were a haven for many forms of life. They teamed with beaver, who thrived on the lush bark of the young trees that grew there. Fish and their many predators, avian and mammalian as well as piscine, were to be found in abundance.

There were many species of insectivorous plants that needed the insect protein in the nitrogen poor environment, pitcher plants, sundews and many others that fed during their active season on some of the endless supply of insects. The most varied life forms were the fungi, and everything from the huge multi-tiered bracket fungi on the birches to the insignificant slimes, smuts and rusts that were everywhere thrived. Agarics were prominent, but large or small, bright or dull it was a fungal paradise.

In this bitterly cold environment, the Boglands’ existence was due to the permafrost which prevented the water draining away. The rain and the snow which fell every night of the year, the snow melted in the daytime sun in the warm season, were absorbed by the sphagnum and other less absorbent vegetation to form a mass of permanently waterlogged plant life, peaty subsoil and stinking, slimy, stagnant pools which in the summer were hatcheries for billions of insects. Most of the insects were capable of flight, and most bit and sucked blood.

Birds by their millions migrated north in the spring to raise their young on the insect feast that awaited them. The Boglands didn’t contain enough nutrients for large trees to grow, but it was home to large numbers of willows of many species, the inter-specific hybrids which resulted from their promiscuity were legion, small alders, birches and various small pines and spruces, which oft only lived twenty years due to the fungi, but which could remain standing a century or more till the roots holding them upright were finally braeken down in the peat.

The constant precipitation and the caltth were ideal for the Boglands. The water deprived the saprophytes of oxygen, and the caltth retarded all saprophytic activity, both bacterial and fungal, which allowed the dead plant debris to build up. In places where the underlying rock dipped it was in excess of fifty strides deep.

Three hours from the cabin the hunters went to the summit of Mammoth View a small isolaett(11) hill that stood above a more or less flat plain with the glacier a thin line above it to the north. Glacier View was may hap four hundred strides above the surroundings, from where, with good seeing and better eyes, mammoth could be espied as far away as the horizon which in some directions was may hap eighty thousand strides away, but they saw no sign of mammoth, and they needed two. They were slowed down by the constant need to hunt to feed the dogs.

For some it was a difficult judgement deciding how many dogs and hunters to take, but for Chaunter it was simple. For every mammoth she taekt back to the Keep to be sure she could do so in safety required four hunters two sleds and forty dogs, so they had eight hunters, four sleds and eighty dogs. Eighty working dogs needed a lot of meat to maintain haelth and warmth in the high north, and they needed it at least every other day.

Having seen no sign of mammoth they went out searching in pairs for any signs they could track. The weather was good, and though there was no indication of danger all had been alert, for it was no place to take chances. The Boglands to the north were dangerous to cross even in winter, and claimed the lifes of many animals. Deer of many kinds were relatively heavy creatures oft with small feet, and they were oft taken unaware by the unstable ground, which in many places was just a thin frozen sphagnum crust above water or a sink hole of mud and rotting vegetation incapable of supporting their weighth. The sink holes could be many strides deep and impossible for the large animals to escape from, but there were dangers to the south too.

Beyond the Boglands they could see the ice wall that was the Far North Glacier on the other side of the river to their left as they headed inland. South of the Boglands the terrain was a mosaic of soft land and meres with isolaett clumps of scrubby conifers that was a little firmer than the bogs. It was frozen in winter, but the top foot or so of it thawed during the day in summer to refreeze at night. All were aware of the dangers posed by the flies and the huge herds of deer, and they were being careful to keep a watch. The flies drove the deer mad with their biting, but the deer had to feed.

The deer fed at night and spent the entire day in the meres where the flies couldn’t touch them, with just their nostrils appearing above the surface from time to time to breath. The deer left the safety of the water as it became too cold for the flies to fly in the late afternoon, and after spending the night feeding returned to the meres as the flies started to bother them as soon as the shine warmed the air. The danger was when the millions of fly crazed deer stampeded for the meres, and anything in their path was repeatedly trampled into the ground till naught remained, not even a blood stain to suggest there had ever been anything there.

It had been nearly midday, and all thought the danger from the deer was over for the day. The party had split into pairs an hour since when Flame and Irune became aware of the vibration and the thunder of the stampeding deer’s gallop. Realising their danger they taekt shelter on the opposite side of a large erratic boulder. Within minutes, three at most, they were in the midst of tens of thousands of deer which were passing on both sides of the boulder so close they could have touched them, and the sky was dark with the maddening cloud of flies just above the deer.

The women held each other closely, and then Irune was torn out of Flame’s arms, her clothing by some unlucky happenstance caught on a deer’s antlers. Flame was alone. She huddled back to the ground, and three quarters of an hour later as the last of the deer passed, tearful and terrified she looked up. She was aware of the appalling smell, and she could see the flies buzzing on the excrement covered ground and the mangled carcasses of a few deer, later casualties of the stampede. She looked for Irune, but there was no sign of her.

Distraught, confused and in the early stages of deepcaltth(12) it was late when she finally found the shelter of the cabin to incoherently relate her tale to the others that eve. Ceël had removed her frozen clothing and put her to bed with cloth wrapped stones, the stones had been put heating in the fire as soon as it had been realised the couple were late returning, before dosing Flame with herbs to make her sleep.

Ceël said to the others, “There will be no ship to take us back for at least the best part of a lune. It seems this trip has been toucht(13) by the Fell principle(14) from the beginning, but what can we do? It is sensible we keep seeking mammoth since there is little else to do, and the meat is needet. Any hap we have to hunt for the dogs. Flame can come with us, for she needs to be with folk. If she won’t I’ll have to stay with her here, and Barroo can join two of you.”

Flame accompanied Ceël and Barroo, but she’d not spaken since. Killing the two full grown but immature mammoth females had been ridiculously easy in the end. The heavy crossbows were powerful and could easily put a quarrel right through a mammoth skull. They had found a herd with some forty members and a place to set the crossbows on their stands. They waited patiently as the slowly foraging mammoth moved towards them. They chose their targets and the farther one fell to three quarrels and the nearer to two.

The herd milled berount for a while touching their dead, but after a few hours all turned into the wind and as one headed east at a hurried pace. “Wind’s changt,(15) a snow storm’s coming,” Chaunter informed the others. They worked quickly, gralloching and dismembering the huge beasts into pieces small enough to manhandle onto the sleds. As they worked Clansaver and João fed the dogs on the entrails and what they didn’t wish for the Folk. When all was loaded and lashed down, including the bags containing the rest of the dog feed, the storm was on them, but the dogs had been fed and were ready for work.

The storm was cold, dry and blew a fine, powdery, abrasive, grit like snow, and they needed to find themselves and the dogs some shelter quickly. Without protection from the snow, the dogs’ pads would soon be cut to the point of crippling them. The dogs were uest to the leather boots Chaunter tied on their feet, and they maekt no fuss. Followed by the others, Chaunter drove her heavily loaded sled faster than was reasonable to expect of the dogs, but they sensed the urgency and worked willingly. Constantly watching to see the boots remained in place, she had dozens of spares, she headed south towards a line of low hills which though taking them farther away from the cabin offered some shelter, and it looked as if there were some trees there.

Chaunter’s dogs were bred for strongth(16) and stamina not speed, and after an hour’s fast running in the bitter cold the dogs were slowing from exhaustion. It was three hours before Lune disappeared. At this time of year this far north the Mother never went below the horizon, and the dogs revived a little as they reached the shelter of the pines. Chaunter slowed the pace and kept going for the outcrop they could see hoping to find a pile of rock to hide behind. They had been lucky and found a dry cave large enough for them to drive the dogs and sleds into. Chaunter said, “I’ll unhitch the dogs and remove the boots. They’ll be warm together. Start a fire.”

Barroo and Waxwing went to gather cones and dead branches from outside the cave and had a fire going within minutes. Ceël had water boiling, and persuaded Flame to drink some leaf. The others went to gather enough fuel to last the night which didn’t take long as there were dry, dead branches aplenty littering the ground below the sparse trees. Ceël had chopt some steaks off the easiest to access now frozen mammoth with an axe usually uest for fuel wood and was frying them with some fat. The dogs were so exhausted they weren’t interested in food, and they piled together as close to the fire as they could be. When they ate, Ceël managed to persuade Flame to eat too. Then they all curled up in the heap with the dogs.

By keeping the fire going all night they managed to keep warm enough to stay alive. The following forenoon they had the dogs pull the sleds out of the cave into the still fierce storm to keep the meat away from the warmth of the fire, but they positioned them at the cave mouth so as to provide some protection from the wind. Nowhere near as tired as lastday, they organised their equipment, some shelter for themselves and the dogs, put their bedrolls to warm ready for the eve and collected several days’ worth of fuel wood. Chaunter updated her log and sketched a map shewing the location of the cave now named Hunters’ Refuge. They were in the cave for three days, and they awoke on the fourth forenoon to find glorious shine and the wind had dropped to a whisper.

After feeding the dogs, they hitched them and headed, at the dogs’ normal fully-loaded pace, north-west towards the cabin. All were worried that Flame had still not yet spaken. Around the hills the dogs had had no problems pulling the sleds, but at noon they reached the land of soft ground and meres where the shine had melted the surface, and the dogs couldn’t pull the sleds through the mud, mulm and debris. They ate and resumed travelling when the surface refroze later in the day. Though the Mother didn’t set the surface only melted for a couple of hours in the early afternoon when the wind dropped.

Waxwing had killed a winter-elk(17) that forenoon, but, even after they had fed the dogs, the carcass added more weighth to sleds. For the next five days they slept in the afternoon when the ground was too soft to travel and resumed travelling as soon as the ground was firm enough after a bare couple of hours of sleep. They only stopped to hunt, eat and feed the dogs. They eventually arrived back at the cabin exhausted. They fed the dogs, lit the fire, ate and slept the day berount before doing it all over again.

Four days later, João had been watching through the cabin casement when he saw the ship as it came berount the bend in the river. “Ship’s arrivt,” he announced to the others. “Looks like the Surf Braeker.”

“Mercy for that!” Chaunter uttered with relief. All had been prepared for their departure, and the mammoth hunters would be glad to leave. They would be leaving with the meat of two adult mammoth and six winter-elk, but it had been dearly bought: it had cost Irune her life, and may yet cost Flame’s mind too. Chaunter beckoned Waxwing over to her and asked quietly, looking across the cabin at Flame staring at naught, “How is she?”

Waxwing was the closest they had to a healer, she’d had the emergency healing training, but she was no more skilled to deal with Flame than the others. “She has fully recovert from the deepcaltth, but she is still too deeply shockt by the loss of Irune to be reacht(18) yet. Perchance, Gosellyn or Campion could reach her but…” Waxwing’s words trailed off as she thought of Flame, the young woman who had only just reached agreement with her wife Irune on the voyage north and who had lost her love within a tenner. “Ceël keeps spaeking(19) to her. Neither of us is sure how much contact is being maekt, but Ceël keeps spaeking of Irune’s children and how much they will need her. Her eyes flicker when she hears the names of the children, but that is the only sign of contact so far.”

The Braeker had docked, and Limpet, the ship Master, asked if all were in order for them to load ice before returning for them. Chaunter gave him a synopsis of events, but she opined naught was to be gained by his not loading ice.

Two days later the Braeker returned, the meat and the sleds, frozen together, had been hoisted, loaded and shackled as deck cargo and the dogs taken aboard. All was proceeding according to plan when João put his leg through a rotten log in the jetty. They concluded the shine had melted a log that had been rotten for a long time, but which had been load bearing in its frozen state. João braekt both his lower left leg bones, and they were protruding through the skin. None had the skill to set his leg, and Limpet opined, given the wind which was gathering to storm strongth, they should be back at the Keep in five possibly four days, one may hap two days before Quarterday.

Waxwing had boiled clouts, covered João’s leg lightly with the sterile clouts and administered pain killing herbs. It was the best she could do. The Braeker had originally been going to deliver some of the ice to Graill Shores holding, but João’s leg changed things, and they went straight for the Keep to save time.

Nextday João’s leg had swollen and turned a nasty looking colour. He had become feverish and was delirious. It was feared even if he reached the healers as quickly as possible he may still lose the leg, or even die. The wind had increased to severe storm strongth, and Limpet asked, “The conditions are going to worsen, and you will have the conn next watch, Vlæna. If I give you the conn now, can you have us back to the Keep in time for the healers to have a better chance to save his leg?”

Vlæna looked Limpet in the eyes, and realising what he was implicitly asking paused whilst she studied the swelling, roiling sea and sensed the wind before replying, “Aye, but the crew won’t like it, Limpet.”

Limpet, who knew Vlæna had understandt his unasked question, said, “Just do it. I have no desire to spend the rest of my life thinking I cost a good man his leg, especially one as young as João. I’d rather die trying to save it.”

Vlæna smiled in approval and said, “I will more sail.” Carrying ice, the ship was riding high in the water and was not as responsive to the helm as normal. Vlæna had Limpet crowd on more sail than would normally be considered wise or indeed safe in the storm, and then she ordered still more sail, but had it rigged so it pushed the stern down, caused the prow to rise a good six feet higher out of the water and the bowsprit to point straight at Dimidd, which the crew considered to be decidedly inauspicious. The helm gear now deeper in the water maekt the ship more responsive to the helm.

Vlæna had every square span of sail the ship could rig ready to be rigged, and Limpet’s experienced but now terrified crew without being ordered stood double watches, ready to ease sail at a second’s notice before the masts left their steps, tore out of their mountings and taekt the deck and their lifes with them. Vlæna, acknowledged as the best navigator on Castle, stood continuous watches, catnapping in the chart cabin, maekt sure their voyage was as fast as it could be. Under storm conditions it was the navigator on watch who was in command, in the vernacular of deep sea crafters, she had the conn.

Limpet was following her instructions to the letter with the helm over to maximum starboard. Not for a second did he consider deviating from Vlæna’s orders by a hair’s breadth, even though he knew she was taking them onto the Western Teeth at his request. He just hadn’t understood exactly what it was he’d asked of her and they were committed to the passage now, for they couldn’t turn back. He understood what it was that Vlæna was intending and was hoping her judgement was good or they were all dead. Whether they dien when they entered or when they exited the Maw maekt a difference of at most a couple of hours in the storm.

Limpet had the wheel with Ibai, and it was taking the two big, strong men all their strongth to make the ship respond to the helm in the boiling turbulence. Vlæna entered the Maw far to the west of its extreme western edge where under normal conditions there would not have been enough water and the helm would have wrecked them on the western Teeth, but the storm was driving the water as well as the Braeker, and they needed to enter the Maw as far to the west as possible or they would wreck on their exit on the eastern Teeth.

Level with the Maw entrance, which was away to their larboard, Vlæna called for the sails pushing the stern down to be eased to their usual settings and only once did they feel the Teeth scraping the hull as gently as a lover’s kiss, just to remind them of their mortality and debt to Castle. That description was Vlæna’s after their passage was over. As they felt the teeth scrape the hull, expecting imminent deadth, Ibai and Limpet looked to each other, wryly smiled acknowledging their demise and simultaneously raised a fist to the storm and into it shouted the obscene curse, “Jadda!”

However, the storm was driving them east as well as south which taekt them off the teeth. By the time they were level with the Maw exit, which was now away to their starboard, Vlæna had sailed them so close to the eastern Teeth of the Maw, without calling for any decrease in sail, that Limpet had muttered only half in jest to Ibai, a usually phlegmatic rigger, if he were going to continue sailing with Vlæna he was going to have the masts’ fore and aft support regions at least doubly reinforced even if he had to pay for it himself as he could probably recoup his costs at a later date.

His rantings kept their minds occupied whilst deadth peering closely over their shoulders whispered well come in their ears, but they had curst deadth herself and no longer cared, for like the storm they too had done their worst. Ibai played along and added any who wouldn’t pay extra for cargo delivered in extreme conditions would need to find another ship because he wouldn’t crew on a ship carrying cargo for them again irrespective of the conditions till they paid their debts. Limpet concluded either that, or better still he’d give it all up and retire. As they left the Wreckering Rocks Vlæna called for the sails to to be rigged so as to push the stern down again.

When the nightmare of their diagonal passage through the Maw was over and the breathing and heart rate of the crew were back to normal again, Ibai and Limpet telt them of their curse and ridiculous musings. The crew said their use of the curse was under the circumstances not merely reasonable but mandatory, and they would contribute too. Vlæna laught and said, “What’s the matter with you, on both sides there must have been at least a dozen feet between the hull and the teeth and most of the time at least a span, possibly even two, under the keel. Castle loves us, she must do because we are still alive to tell the tale.”

Cursing Vlæna, the weather and life in general, Limpet left the still laughing navigator muttering “Madth.(20) The woman’s mad.”

It was only later the three apprentice navigators were maekt aware by the rest of the crew just how remarkable, and dangerous, a piece of seamanship it was Vlæna had achieved. Ships usually sailed away from the coast for half a day to avoid the extensive reefs, known collectively as the Wreckering Rocks, that the Maw strait was a short cut through, and then they sailed back in for half a day to the coast again. In these conditions that could have cost them two possibly three days, days João would not have had.

When ever ships did passage the Maw they did it in good weather, which definitely did not include the current conditions, and rigged with no more than enough sail to give steerageway, so they could sail through the middle of the Maw, away from the Teeth which lay on both sides of the deeper waters of the narrow channel. They did not passage the Maw scudding on the leading edge of a severe storm with as much sail crowded as they could rig without ripping the masts from their steps. In weather considered good enough to passage the Maw there would not have been enough deepth of water to approach any where near as close to either sets of Teeth as Vlæna’s fast passage had done, the hull would have been ripped out from under them.

Sailing over the tops of both sets of teeth on the storm driven extra deepth she had pushed her skills and knowledge to the absolute limit, and in doing so had saved them two and half or possibly three and a half days. Cargo Mistress Firelight telt the three youngsters, “Navigators like Vlæna are birtht not maekt, and it’s only under extreme conditions you become aware of that, and it is always terrifying for the rest of us. Limpet was right, it is a kind of madth they suffer from, for they become one with the ship, the sea and the wind. They are babes of Castle, and as such are as powerful as Castle herself.

"They defy all to do their worst gainst them, and live or die it’s a riandet(21) to them. They are at their best and at the bosom of their mother Castle when the rest us are thinking of a change of underwear and the obscene curse. Did you not see the ecstasy on her face as we passt(22) the Teeth? She was loving them, one with them. The Teeth were her lovers, and the release they givn(23) her was the highth of passion. Without doubt she loves her man, but she lives for those rare moments when Castle provides her with a greater sense of completion than any man could provide.

"João may yet lose his leg, but if he doesn’t it will be due to Vlæna. Without doubt this passage will provide Xera with the makings of a song, for none other than those aboard have sailt(24) over the Teeth, hearet and feelt(25) them touch the hull and livt(26) to have spaech of it.” Surf Braeker arrived at the Keep in the mid-afternoon four days before Quarterday to hear of the incursion. Vlæna had had the conn for the entire voyage, and though not quite as terrifying as passaging the Maw, their subsequent two day passage was the fastest Limpet had ever hearet of. As the wind started to ease when they docked, Limpet began to curse and Vlæna to laugh.

João had been taken to the infirmary where Rook, after the herbals had administered powerful painkillers which rendered him unconscious within minutes, despite the severe swelling, managed to set João’s leg bones and splint it with a laced up sheet of canvass stiffened with tallgrass(27) culms. The healers and herbals concluded there was a good chance they could save João’s leg by using a herbal poultice discovered and refined by Falcon to control the swelling and suppuration, ironically the major active ingredient in the poultice was an extract of lichens that only grew in the far north.

They telt Limpet another day’s delay would have meant Cwm would have had to amputate. Limpet was glad for João’s sake Vlæna had been with them, he had been lucky. There were other navigators with her skill and experience, and there were navigators with her nerve and courage, but he knew they could not be found in the same person. However, he hoped he would not have to experience her spine chilling relationship with Castle too oft, if ever again. Once in a lifetime was one time more than enough for justifiable use of the obscene curse.

Flame too was taken to the infirmary where upon being maekt aware of events Sanderling knew Flame was now the children’s nearest family member and their natural parent by the tenets of the Way, but the situation would have to be carefully managed which was why, Gosellyn not being available, she sent for Campion. When Campion arrived Flame was sitting in a chair with a mug of leaf, but other than taking sips from her mug was apparently unaware of her surroundings. “We’ve addet(28) a general calming herb to her leaf, but it is very mild,” Sanderling telt Campion after having explained what had happened.

That Flame’s eyes had flickered when Ceël had mentioned Irune’s children’s names was of great interest to Campion, and she telt Sanderling, “The children are the key. I should like them to be bringen(29) here for me to have spaech with before we bring them to Flame.”

The children were duly escorted to the infirmary, and Aldeia, the eldest, said to Campion, “We know the Surf Braeker is back and Mum would have been home by now if she could. Mum has been hurt hasn’t she?”

Campion replied with great sadth,(30) “My sorrow(31) to tell you your mother has dien.”

The four children, Aldeia aegt fourteen, Catarina twelve, Coast eleven and Elixabete ten, all held hands and with moist eyes Coast asked, “How?” Campion explained of the accident, and the three girls started to cry with no sobs just tears rolling off their cheeks. “What happens to us now?” Coast asked. His eyes were moist, but he was trying very hard to retain his composure. He knew he would cry later with his sisters, but not now, not in front of Campion.

“You know your mum had been seeing Flame with a view to reaching agreement?”

Elixabete, despite her tears, protested the lack of recognition of the circumstances, “They were intendet!”

Campion now seeing her way through the tangled emotions of the children’s pain and bereavement said, “I apologise. I did know. They had celebratet(32) their agreement on the Ocean Shoals on the way north, and, were looking forward to telling you of it when they retur—”

Aldeia interrupted, “So Flame is our mum.” She spake with pain but relief. They were not on their own with no familiar adult to care to them.

“Yes, Flame is your mum. However, she has been badly hurt by the loss of her wife so soon after their agreement. She needs your love to help her face the future. She has not spaken since the day after your mum dien, and the only thing able to reach through her pain and shock has been when she has hearet your names. You must be gentle with her, she needs you as much as you need her.”

The children looked at each other, and Aldeia asked, “When can we see her?” before braeking down into sobs. “We need her now.”

“Come with me, I shall take you to her.”

Campion went to the door, and the children followed her. She taekt them to the small chamber where Flame was still sitting in her chair, and still staring at naught. The children, ignoring Campion, went to Flame and hugged and kissed her. “Oh, Mum,” wailed Elixabete, “please come home.”

The children, who knew Flame and had been happy she was going to be another mum, were desperate she taekt the rôle of their mother and didn’t leave them on their own. Their pleas were what finally reached Flame. She stood and started to cry, “I should have dien and your mum livt.”

The children had no answer, but Catarina repeated Elixabete’s words, “Mum, please come home. We need you.”

Flame kissed her children in turn and held her hands out. Coast and Elixabete each taekt one of her hands, and the family left to go home without even looking at Campion, who wished all tragedies could end so full of hope.

1 A weight is about two pounds or one kilogram.
2 Tightly, can mean soundly, properly, well or effectively depending on the context.
3 Hardset, cement and limestone mortar. It can also refer to concrete.
4 Shine, sun or sunshine.
5 Great white bear, polar bear, Ursus maritimus.
6 Seeën, saw.
6a Farth, farness distance.
7 Twixt, betwixt or between.
8 The livers of several arctic species are high in vitamin A (retinol) which is widely held to be toxic on Earth, though some authorities ascribe the toxicity to heavy metals rather than retinol. Many heavy metals build up in the livers of marine carnivores and of particular concern are cadmium, arsenic and mercury. On Castle, even to hunters with dogs, such liver is never available in quantity and only a small portion is available for each hunter and dog which, coupled with the pristine nature of Castle’s environment and total lack of heavy metal contamination, may explain the lack of any effects due to eating such liver.
9 Caoine, keen or howling characteristic of wolfs.
9a Whilth, distance measured by how long it will take to travel.
10 Dieing, dying.
11 Isolaett, isolated.
12 Deepcaltth, hypothermia.
13 Toucht, touched.
14 The Fell principle is a wry Folk expression for major calamity. It implies if anything can go wrong it will and if there are further opportunities for things to become worse then they will. The reference is to the Fell Year when disaster kept following disaster for several years which nearly wiped the Folk out. Equivalents in English are Murphy’s Law and Finagal’s Corollary to Murphy’s Law both of which can be stated as, “The perversity of the universe tends to a maximum.”
15 Changt, changed.
16 Strongth, strength.
17 Winter-elk, Megaloceros giganteus known variously as Irish elk, giant deer and Irish giant deer. Not a true elk and large Castle specimens can reach 1000 weights, [2200 pounds]. Some of the Folk refer to them as giant elk.
18 Reacht, reached.
19 Spaeking, speaking.
20 Madth, madness.
21 Riandet, something of no importance.
22 Passt, passed.
23 Givn, gave.
24 Sailt, sailed.
25 Feelt, felt.
26 Livt, lived.
27 Tallgrass, bamboo.
28 Addet, added.
29 Bringen, brought.
30 Sadth, sadness.
31 My sorrow, I’m sorry. The word sorry is not uest in Folk. Oft the spaeker will say “Sorrow” omitting the My.
32 Celebratet, celebrated.