When they rode out of Gorken Pass, the landscape did not alter appreciably. Flat plains spread to the west and north, great expanses still covered in light snow, other swathes where thick grasses had managed to push through the soil.
“The grass can sprout and reach its full height in only ten days,” Ho’Demi said. “The growing season is short here, and neither grass nor beast wastes time in reaching for whatever sun there is.”
The country seemed as barren and desolate as myth described it, and Axis prepared himself for a long and boring ride north. But, just as he was about to ask Ho’Demi where they should stop for the noon break, he noticed a green line perhaps half a league ahead. It did not reach above the brown grass they currently rode through, so Axis thought that it must be a different variety of grass — perhaps reeds about a marsh.
Ho’Demi had seen Axis squint ahead and he winked at Sa’Kuya. “The hole,” he said enigmatically. “We’ll stop there for the noon meal, then push hard for the next hole for our night campsite.”
“The hole?” Axis said, then probed Ho’Demi’s mind, seeking clues. The next hole? But the Ravensbund Chief had locked his thoughts about with shadows – or was that drifting steam? – and Axis could not discern the reason behind the man’s slight smile.
Within an hour he had his answer. Once they rode closer, Axis could see that the line of green was the tops of trees that grew to the level of the surrounding grasses. The air above them shimmered slightly.
“What?” he began, then Ho’Demi laughed and waved Axis and Azhure to his side. “Mind you stop your great horses when
I tell you, StarMan, or else I shall have to waste the rest of this afternoon rescuing you.”
Ho’Demi led them forward, then abruptly held up his hand. Axis and Azhure reined their horses back instantly, and Azhure sent a silent command to the hounds. Then she looked down.
They had stopped at the rim of a gigantic hole in the ground. Azhure held her breath and stared. It was, she calculated quickly, easily some two thousand paces across and well over a thousand deep. Worn paths wound their way down the steep sides until they disappeared into the trees that grew up the rocky walls from the hole’s floor.
“A small and insignificant hole,” Ho’Demi said with studied indifference, but his eyes twinkled as he watched Axis’ and Azhure’s reactions. “You and your command are the first southerners to see Ravensbund’s secret for many thousands of years, StarMan.”
Axis, like Azhure, just stared. The hole – if such a mediocre word could describe this remarkable geological feature -contained steaming springs and luxuriant vegetation. Whatever winds and storms swept the flat plains would not reach down into this haven.
“What is it?” he asked eventually.
“A hole, StarMan.”
Axis finally wrenched his eyes away from the sight before him. “How?”
“How is not an established fact, StarMan, but we have stories. It is said that tens of thousands of years ago, the Icescarp Alps swept even further westwards than they do now. But one day, when the gods were in a playful mood,” at this Azhure exchanged a glance with Axis, “they caused a great earthquake, and the final thirty leagues of the Alps sank.”
“Sank?”
“Sank, Enchantress, leaving these great holes before us now. Of course,” he blew out his cheeks as if he did not believe
a word he was saying, “some say it is a fanciful story, but then others say that the hot springs found at the bases of these holes mirror the hot springs that sit in the depths of Talon Spike. Of course, I would not know about that.”
Again Axis and Azhure looked at each other, but they did not comment.
“How many of these are there?” Axis asked.
“Perhaps three hundred. They stretch across the centre of Ravensbund to the western shores of the Andeis Sea, but they do not extend very far north.”
“They must be very beautiful,” Azhure said, and Ho’Demi nodded.
“Individually we call them holes, but as a group we always refer to them as The Necklet, because from above they must seem like a jewelled chain about a snowy throat.”
“Can we ride down?” Azhure asked.
“Certainly, Enchantress, but not now. It would take this lot an hour at least to descend, and over that to rise. But we will camp in another tonight, and there you will see the true wonders of the individual stones of The Necklet.”
Axis looked up. About the hole the Acharite soldiers sat their horses, some dismounting to stand as close to the edge as they could get.
“I think this lot will have some trouble remembering to eat their lunch,” Axis said, “although their mouths hang open so wide you might get your Ravensbund men to wander along and push some bread and cheese in.”
Ho’Demi laughed, and Axis gave the order to dismount for their noon meal.
That night, all the southerners had the opportunity to indulge their curiosity. Ho’Demi led them to a hole twice the size of the first they had seen, and they spent the last hour of light filing down the steep paths into the haven below.
The hot springs were vast, and supported a wide variety of bird and small animal life.
“The Skraelings didn’t bother to come down here then,” Axis said.
“No reason for them to,” Ho’Demi replied. “If my people had hidden in the holes, then no doubt the Skraelings would have surged down. But the birds are small, and the animals likewise, and all generally live high in the trees. It would not have been good hunting for the Skraelings.”
“Your people don’t use these holes very much?” Ho’Demi smiled at him. “We are a strange people, StarMan, and, odd as it may seem, we genuinely do prefer the ice in the extreme north. Although we spend the worst of the winter camped about the holes, for eight to nine months of the year we live among the ice packs.”
“And that is where you hope to find your people now.” “Yes, StarMan. That is where I hope to find my people.”
Urbeth’s Joke But even the ice packs seemed deserted. From The Necklet, Ho’Demi led the force north until, after fifteen days of riding from when they left Belial and Magariz, they stood at the very northern edge of the continent.
Snow lay frosted and compacted on the ground, the fierce winds contained tiny ice drops that stung cheeks and exposed flesh. All save Azhure were wrapped in thick cloaks; ice sparkled among the dark moons as they swept over her blue suit, but she seemed untroubled by the cold. Azhure moved close to Axis’ side, and he put his arm about her. Caelum lay snug in a pannier hanging from Venator’s back, and all that could be seen of him was a dark, tousled curl.
“It’s awesome,” Azhure whispered, and Axis had to agree with her.
A thin line of grey-green sea water, perhaps fifty paces wide, stretched between the shore and the edge of the ice pack. There great jagged sheets of ice jostled and ground together, sometimes rearing a hundred paces into the air, sometimes plunging to the depths of the sea-bed in the space of a heartbeat. The ice was yellowish in places,, green in others, grey in yet still more, and Axis could not comprehend how anyone could even contemplate risking half an hour on the ice pack, let alone a day or a month.
Yet when he looked over to the ranks of Ravensbundmen standing along the shore he saw nothing but longing on each
face. They did not seem to notice the cruelty of the wind’s bite, nor the danger of the shifting ice; all they saw was a home long denied them, a place of challenge and companionship, of courage and camaraderie.
He hugged Azhure tighter. There was no way Ho’Demi could persuade him to cross to that treacherous ice.
“No need,” Ho’Demi said softly by his side, and he accepted a large conical shell from one of his men. It was ivory on the outside and patterned orange and blue within, and when Ho’Demi put it to his lips it emitted a low but piercing howl. Azhure put her hands to her ears to block out its call, and Axis had no doubts that it could penetrate into the very depths of the ice pack.
“And now?” he asked as Ho’Demi lowered the shell.
“Now? Now we wait.”
And while they waited, Ho’Demi told them of the pack ice. “It extends along the western shores of the Iskruel Ocean, and it is a league wide in places, five leagues in others. We hunt seal and sometimes whale from its back, and we have learned to know its sighs and tremblings so that we may avoid being eaten by its jaws. But even we …” he paused and contemplated the ice for several minutes. “Even we lose the occasional unwary child.”