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dares, can I dare less?"
She withdrew her hand, turned to face Ta-hoding. "Royalty does not command the
ice. This is your dominion, your ship. The final decision rests with you. You
know what the icerigger is capable of better than anyone else. What are our
chances of surviving such a mad enterprise?"
Ta-hoding sighed deeply, executed an intricate gesture with the fingers of his
right hand. Fifty-fifty. Ethan had hoped for better odds.
"One is ready to risk all, the other tells me nothing," Hunnar grumbled. Cat's
eyes turned on Ethan. "What think you, my friend?"
"Why ask me? I'm just a passenger on this boat. I have no authority here. Why
don't you ask Milliken?"
"Because you are no adventurer, by your admission. Because you and not friend
Milliken are a counterweight to tall Skua's opinion. You are cautious where he
is rash. You consider where he dares."
"Well, in the absence of a better alternative I'd have to say that you don't
get anywhere in life without taking a chance now and then. I admit we've taken
our share, this past year, but that doesn't alter the situation we're facing
now. That's all easy for me to say. It's not my ship."
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"No, but it is your life," Elfa pointed out.
"Let us do this." Ta-hoding spoke without looking at them, already making
preparations in his mind. "Everyone who is not a member of the sailing crew
will disembark and cross the Bent Ocean on foot, to wait for us on the other
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side. That way if catastrophe strikes not all will be at risk."
"Then you have decided," Hunnar murmured.
"Boldness is not in me. I play only the dice that are given to me. Here we
must roll as best we are able and hope for a twelve to show itself. If I
cannot have confidence in my ship and my crew, what is left to me?"
"So it is to be tried." Hunnar could not bring himself to show false
confidence. "I
wish there was another way. Were there, we would not be proceeding with this
insanity." He turned to Hwang. "My soldiers will work side by side with you to
shape the ice. You will choose the angle of the ramp and instruct us
accordingly."
He stood. "Now that we have determined our course of action let us move
quickly.
The sooner we begin, the sooner we will be finished."
"And the harder we work," Elfa added, "the less time we will have to think
about what we are really going to attempt."
Blue sky had given way to roiling blackness on the eastern horizon by the time
the ramp was ready. Like questing scouts, the first gusts of wind from the
advancing storm front slammed into the steady west wind, sending confused air
swirling in all directions. Ice devils, miniature whirlwinds composed of ice
particles, danced crazily across the flat surface of the frozen ocean.
Occasionally one would stumble into the workers, forcing them to drop their
tools and hug the ground. One caught
Ethan with his visor up and brought tears to his eyes. It was like being
battered by cold sand.
Jacalan and Blanchard shut down the two overworked drills and joined the rest
of the refugees in slipping and sliding down the south flank of the pressure
ridge.
Ethan and September hung back, settling themselves in the shelter of a huge
upturned ice block. Someone had to watch, Ethan told himself.
Like the approach to a giant's castle a long, relatively smooth ramp had been
hacked and melted out of the ridge's north slope. The scientists and Hunnar's
soldiers had done their work well. How well there was no way of telling until
the icerigger actually attempted its run.
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Everyone knew that if the ramp collapsed while the
Slanderscree was making its climb, the great ship would be imprisoned on the
ridge. Then they would be well and truly trapped in this isolated region, far
from human or Tran civilization. They'd built as solidly as possible, given
the limited amount of time and equipment at their disposal. Semkin had
supervised the work with the drills, making sure that all the gaps between the
massive ice blocks had been filled and sealed.
At last there was nothing left to do but to do it.
A glance to his right showed figures standing and waiting on the southern ice
sheet: the icerigger's fighters and the members of the research team. Only
Hunnar and Elf a had joined Ethan and September atop the ridge. With the wind
whipping his fur Hunnar stood tall and straight as one of the icy spires
surrounding them. He shaded his eyes with his right hand.
"I can barely see the ship." Ethan squinted and looked northward but saw no
sign of the
Slanderscree
. That would change shortly, he knew. "They are putting on sail.
Ta-hoding has the spars turned into the wind. Ah, now they are being adjusted.
The sails fill. She comes."
They waited. A few minutes later both men could make out the sleek arrowhead
shape of the icerigger racing toward the ridge at high speed. Ethan was
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startled to realize that this was the first time he'd actually seen the ship
under full sail and from a distance. For a hybrid cobbled together from a
schoolteacher's memory it was quite beautiful. There was none of the
ungainliness one might have expected, though the absence of a curving hull was
disconcerting. The underside of the icerigger was perfectly flat, since there
was no water for it to cut through.
"Wish Ta-hoding had given better than an even chance," he muttered.
September had his visor up so it wouldn't interfere with his view. "Hell,
young feller-
me-lad, that's better odds than life gives most of us."
Ethan turned his attention eastward. Lightning split clouds black as coal
dust.
"When will the rifs get here?"
Hunnar Redbeard looked down at him, then turned to face the oncoming storm.
"Soon, but not so soon as it might. A bad storm, very bad, but I think it may
be moving slightly to the northwest instead of due west. We have been gifted
with a few precious additional hours of manageable weather. If it continues to
turn, it is possible it might miss us entirely. A
havlak full of irony there would be in that!"
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"It might also not miss us," Elfa put in. "And if we do not do this thing we
will be no better than where we were before the storm was sighted. We must
still cross the
Bent Ocean. Now is not the time for hesitation."
"I was not hesitating, my love. Ethan asked my thoughts."
"Here she comes!" September roared, bending slightly and pointing. "I swear
Ta-
hoding's got his clothes on the line trying to coax another tenth of a kph out
of the west wind."
Ethan found he had to lift his own visor in order to see properly. Cold stung
his exposed skin, pins on his cheeks. The icerigger seemed to be accelerating
with every extra meter of ice it crossed. Five rooster tails of ice particles
flew from the base of each duralloy runner as it cut across the flat surface.
When it was half a kilometer from the pressure ridge, Ethan guessed its
velocity at between a hundred and fifty and a hundred seventy kilometers an
hour. Sails billowed taut from the masts and rigging. The whole vessel
appeared to be leaning forward, straining, struggling to gain every last
possible ounce of speed. It was near enough now for
Ethan to pick out Ta-hoding and his helmsman. They were leaning on the large
wooden wheel, fighting to keep the flying
Slanderscree on course.
The captain must have shouted a command because as they looked on the
adjustable spars suddenly pivoted. Heeling over on both port runners like a
skater fighting to maintain his balance, the great ship swung sharply
southward. The maneuver might have cost her a little speed.
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