Read Iron Winter (Northland 3) for Free Online Page B

Kirike-fish, this was the main produce of the Northland’s fishing fleets, cod
caught in masses and quickly salted and dried. It would keep for a year or more, and, easy to transport, was the staple of Northland’s provision of food to the rest of the Continent. But the
fish seemed small to Alxa, who had seen fishermen return immense specimens before, some as long as the fishers were tall; this was less than the length of her forearm.
    Crimm said, ‘The point is, we’re having to sail twice as far to return half the yield. Before you Annids decide how much to dole out to our continental neighbours, you need to
remember that.’
    Now the debate on the Giving Distribution started in earnest.
    ‘We must keep what we have for our own people,’ said one man. ‘If the trends Pyxeas describes continue, if our water courses freeze, if our trees fail to produce
fruit—’
    Rina shook her head. ‘That’s short-sighted. There are always more farmers than us – and some of them are already here. Nestspills from their failed farmlands in Gaira and the
Continent, even from the fringes of Albia. Our guard and the mercenaries might keep some of them out. Far better to buy them off with a little cod than have them come here and consume
everything.’
    There were many objections to that, and the discussion grew heated.
    Pyxeas was growing agitated. ‘You’re not thinking it through. Any of you. You’re not thinking it through .’ But for now, in a swirl of argument, nobody was
listening.
    The Coldlander boy was with him, silent and stolid. Pyxeas rested his hand on the boy’s arm. The stranger seemed to sympathise with the scholar, over dilemmas he could surely barely
understand, and the little scene surprised and touched Alxa. Alxa suddenly felt very sorry for this ancient great-uncle, tortured by the knowledge that was evidently eating away inside him,
knowledge he seemed so poor at sharing. She got up and went to him.
    Pyxeas looked at her warily, squinting. ‘The light is so poor in here. You’re not Rina, are you?’
    ‘No. I am Alxa. Rina’s daughter.’ She took his arm and made him sit down, and knelt beside him, holding his hand. ‘Just tell me, Uncle. What is it that we don’t
understand?’
    He looked at her with a kind of bleak gratitude. ‘That this isn’t some anomaly. Some variation from the norm. These recent seasons of cold and rain and drought. The astronomical
calculations prove it . . . This is the future. It will get colder and colder. This is inevitable. Maybe you can buy off some of the farmers this season. But next summer, when they come
again – what then?’
    Still nobody else was listening.
    Ywa clapped her hands to call for order. ‘Pyxeas, your contribution has been – umm, invaluable. Crimm, perhaps we can discuss the question of the fish stocks before we must face
our guests again, and decide on the bounty we can afford . . .’
    They began to file out of the room.
    Pyxeas, abandoned, collected together the scrolls and slates littering the floor with the Coldlander boy.
    But Alxa stayed beside him. ‘Uncle,’ she said cautiously. ‘Are you saying you understand ? You understand why, how, the world is cooling down?’
    ‘Yes. No! Not quite,’ Pyxeas admitted miserably. ‘There was a divergence.’
    ‘A divergence?’
    ‘According to the historical record there was a warming , when the world should have been cooling. Lasted up to about two millennia ago. An anomaly. I don’t know what caused it
– don’t know why it ended – I don’t have the numbers to match the anecdotal evidence. Still less do I understand what caused it. And until I know all that, I can’t see
the future with any definitiveness. And that’s why I needed to speak to the scholars of Cathay.’
    Much of this went over Alxa’s head. ‘But you quoted the lines about the ice giants. You’re not saying the ice giants were real? And that – what? That they’ll come
again?’
    He looked at