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and the entire line lurched forward, the dogs throwing all their strength into the run. My head jerked back. As icy snow flew in my face, I glanced over the back of the sled to see our pursuers.
    The light gleamed again.
    We charged on. But my dogs were traveling across the frozen tundra at a slower pace than yesterday. The snow turned thicker, so that the light behind us was shrouded now and then from view. But the storm slowed us down too, painting the entire landscape an eerie white. My breaths came in ragged gasps. I hoped Ataneq could sense where he was leading us.
    Behind us, the light suddenly grew brighter. Our pursuers were gaining on us. Now I could hear more faint shouts floating from somewhere behind us. I caught a few clear words.
    The
gusak
tongue. “We must go faster!” I shouted to Ataneq, but the wind drowned out my words. There was little we could do. Ataneq could not push the other dogs any faster.
    The ground beneath us suddenly changed from soft snow to hard ice.
We shouldn’t be on the ice,
I thought frantically, remembering the Seal King’s warning. At the same time, Ataneq seemed to realize the sudden shift beneath his paws, and he tried immediately to turn us.
    When I looked back again, I could see our pursuers’ dogs, dark specks against the fury of falling snow, their sledder wearing a thick fur hat. A strange sense of calm washed over me at the sight. Perhaps this would be where they caught me and killed me as they had killed Mother. Or perhaps this would be where I stood my ground. If I died here, I would die fighting.
    The
gusak
sledder shouted something at me, but I couldn’t understand what he said. Instead, I gritted my teeth and braced myself.
    Abruptly, Ataneq slid to a halt. The other dogs stumbled in their haste to stop, and the team slid across the icy surface. The sled’s runners cracked the ice. I only had time to shout before the ice gave way with a thunderous series of cracks. Then the world swallowed me whole. The icy water knocked all the breath from my lungs. Panic clogged my mind. I floundered blindly. The world flashed in and out — the water stabbed at me. I reached out, hoping for something to hang on to. I called for my dogs.
    Ataneq! Ataneq!
    Through the cold and darkness, I saw a shape curve through the water, its black eyes gleaming bright, tail carving a trail behind it.
The Seal King
.
    I broke to the surface with a terrible gasp into the middle of a blizzard. Ataneq and the other dogs barked furiously. Someone had cut their sled leads to keep them from going into the water. Where were the
gusaks
? I tried to grab at the edge of the ice, but my limbs were too numb to pull myself out.
    I will die here,
I thought.
    As I clung desperately to the ice, I saw a hulking figure lumbering toward me. It was enormous, oblivious to the wind and snow that blew against its hide, and its white fur blended in with the storm until I could not tell where one ended and the other began. The creature stopped before me. I lifted my frozen lashes higher until I met the beast’s brown eyes.
    They were my mother’s eyes. Human.
    Nanuk.
I reached out a hand. The Great White Bear lowered its head so that I could touch its muzzle. I opened my cracked lips, wanting to say something, not knowing what.
    “I’m sorry,” I finally whispered. Tears rolled down my cheeks. The grief that I had kept bottled since the destruction of my village now came spilling out. “I don’t even — even have a token I can keep.”
    The Great White Bear said nothing in return. Instead, she closed her eyes and leaned against my hand. And I, dying, tried to understand what she wanted to tell me.
    I felt something pushing me from underneath.
Father,
I called, but my word came out silent. The Seal King lifted me out of the icy waters into the cold blast of the storm’s winds. I crawled forward. I heard shouting, but I couldn’t tell where it came from. Ahead, Nanuk turned away from me and walked away across the