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has happened. She will order the captain to follow you."
    Lonn watched a shadow of fear cross Glyssa's face. "The witch doesn't know where we're bound," he insisted.
    "Your boat contains her possessions. She'll have no trouble following their emanations."
    Glyssa winced, and now Eben too was frowning.
    Lonn stretched, forcing a yawn. "Don't let this bostull worry you. His stories contradict. He says the witch's things are objects of great power, but that their worth in money is nothing. Then he warns that the witch will find us, but first he tells us to turn around and find her. Enough of his prattle. I'm going back to bed."
    Glyssa rose and walked beside him. "I don't know, Lonn. This whole venture makes me uneasy."
    Lonn put an arm protectively around her waist and kissed her on the forehead. "Don't worry, mate. We've got a lookout set. Hey, Karrol! You're awake up there, aren't you?"
    Her bulky form shifted on the masthead. "Yes, I'm awake," she grunted, and sneezed.

Three
    The dojuk raced before the fair wind over glassy wind-smoothed ice. A day and night's running brought them near the Iruk Isles.
    But next morning the weather changed. The wind blew strong and raw from the south, pushing wadded blue clouds across the sky. Lonn sailed close-hauled all morning, passing reefs and islands off to larboard—pieces of the Iruk Archipelago's outer crescent. In the middle of the afternoon they raised Ilga.
    A shimmering gray wall loomed over the island to windward, a snow squall blown across the frozen sea from the South Pole. They would need to land quickly to beat the storm.
    Ilga was low and rugged. The white of snow and rime dominated the landscape, except where short conifers grew in clusters or dark lichens clung to wind-blasted rock. As they neared the island, domed lodge houses came into view, widely spaced along the beaches, clustered together in the village farther inland. The houses were made of yulugg hide stretched over the giant ribs of that sea beast, each with two or more domes linked by low tunnels.
    Lonn sailed along the north shore of the island until spotting his klarn's own house, built on a low rise overlooking the sea. Then he angled in toward the beach, pointing the dojuk as close to the wind as it would sail. Normally with the shore to windward he would have approached in a series of short tacks, gradually slowing the boat. But with the squall compelling haste, Lonn held his course and let the dojuk gain momentum. Speed would be needed in the last thirty yards, to clear the three- and four-foot breakers solidified by the freezewind.
    When the tack brought the boat in line with the lodge house, Lonn yelled for his mates to hold on, then swung the bow straight upwind. The sail luffed, flapping noisily overhead, and at once the dojuk slowed. It leapt the first breaker and crashed down, climbed over the second and slid into the trough, then smashed into the crystal-thin ice of the final frozen wave and shuddered to a halt just a few yards from shore.
    "Good landing, Lonn," Glyssa cried as she and Eben moved to lower the sail.
    "I'm surprised we're still in one piece," Karrol grunted. Her sneezing had finally subsided that morning, but with her nose and throat raw, her mood remained sour.
    Lonn raised the rudder off the ice and locked it in position, then climbed over the side to help his mates. Heaving all together they pushed and dragged the dojuk onto the beach.
    While the others tied the sail and lashed down the yard, Draven and Brinda climbed the snow-covered slope to the lodge house. They unlaced the entry flap on the larger dome and entered, emerging a few moments later dragging a broad sledge—the shell of a fire turtle fixed with bone runners. By the time they had pulled the sledge to the dojuk, the sailing gear had all been stowed and mooring spikes driven into the frozen ground. The wind was blowing harder.
    Lonn glanced over his shoulder at the coming storm. "We might have time for only one trip.