The End of Ice

Part One

Caden tugged her mitten from her hand with her teeth, freeing slender, dark fingers to resettle the fur-lined hood of her coat further forward, then stuffed her hand quickly back into its thick, fur-lined sheath. The wind let up some near Ebon, but she was far enough from the city that the wind blew free and fierce, sending swarms of tiny ice crystals to bite at her face. She pressed onward, ignoring the stinging sprays.

She was close.

Raising a still-gloved hand to her brow, and making a snowshoe-hindered attempt to stand on tiptoe, she scanned the horizon.

There...just peeking up from the flat whiteness...

Swinging her feet sideways and forward, Caden continued to the small hut.

When she reached the Kofi, Caden bent to unfasten her snowshoes and hung them on a pair of small hooks sewn into the hides that covered the small building. Another pair of snowshoes and a large, furry coat hung on the other side of the doorway. She unlaced the front of her own parka and hung it next to the larger one. The two coats nestled together like lovers too long apart. Caden smiled as she piled her mittens and boots below the coats then turned to face the entrance.

"Kennari?" she called softly.

A soft, rich voice answered from within. "You may enter Nemandi."

Kneeling, Caden pulled aside the heavy furs and crawled inside. The air inside the Kofi was warm and heady with incense. Caden breathed it deeply, willing the smoky smells to fill every part of her. She exhaled slowly, watching the smoke swirl lazily in front of her. She squeezed her eyes shut to help them adjust to the dark. On the back of her eyelids rode a vision; her Kennari sitting on the far side of the glowing brazier as he always did, legs crossed, hands resting delicately on buttery soft caribou-skin pants, wide linen sleeves rolled back, feet bare.

Opening her eyes, Caden thrust forward her lower lip. "Nemandi?" she pouted prettily.
Her Kennari leaned forward, his long, golden braid slithering over his shoulder to curl on the piled rugs that made up the floor. He reached out a gentle hand to brush her cheek lightly with his fingertips.

"Nemi" he whispered.

Caden sighed, pout dissolving into a small smile. She knew that her Kennari would only use her nickname if he knew for certain that it was her. He can't see through walls she chided herself. They had never exchanged their actual names. Her Kennari said there was no need to. He knew he knew who she was, and she would learn his name when the time was right.

The Kennari settled himself back onto the rugs, and Caden sat across from him, legs folded and hand resting on her own leather-covered knees. They sat in silence for a long while, as they did at every lesson. Caden concentrated, as her Kennari had taught her, focusing on clearing her mind to make room for the day's training.

After a long time, the Kennari stirred, then whispered, "Til læra, við verða vera sjón."
The Kofi melted away and blinding sunlight assaulted Caden's eyes. She threw a hand up to shade her eyes, blinking away stinging tears. When her eyes had become accustomed to the light, Caden realized that her Kennari was now sitting just behind her.

He gestured with one hand, and the landscape seemed to fly toward and past them until Ebon appeared on the horizon, and seemed to grow before them. The city's name suited it. It looked like an enormous, awkwardly cut chunk of onyx lying in the snow. Ancient, hulking, dark stone buildings were tunneled within and hewn from the giant boulder of a city.

The swift flight of the land stopped, leaving Caden and her Kennari sitting just before the main gate, The Twins. Giant men were carved into the gleaming black stone on either side of the gate, each hefting an axe taller than any man. The statues were supposed to be in the likeness of the brothers of the first king. Twins, who, when their brother discovered the pile of black rock, spent their lives tunneling and carving - creating with their own hands a stronghold for the people their brother led. Time had worn away any discernable features, however, leaving the men of Ebon to imagine that some heroic deed might lead to his own face carved in place of one of the Twins, to inspire fear in the hearts of the men of The Buried City.

The Twins faced west, directly aligned with The East Arch, the main entrance to The Buried City. The East Arch stood within easy sight of a man standing at the feet of The Twins, but the flat landscape was deceptive. The Arch was not as near as it seemed. Nor was it really an arch anymore. As the elements had worn away the identity of the Twins of Ebon, so had it affected the Arch of The Buried City. The abutments and voussoirs of the north half of the arch had mostly crumbled, leaving the arch only two-thirds complete. The south side rose, gleaming and white, from the snow and arced gracefully northward. Just past the gold keystone, the arch headed earthward, only to end abruptly in midair. Ebons whispered that the Arch was held up by the magic of a sorcerer who was being held deep within the Buried City.

The Kennari leaned forward slightly and rested his left hand gently on Caden's left shoulder, letting his arm drape casually across her back. She sighed with contentment and leaned back against him as he spoke softly in her ear.

"The two great cities of our generation," he gestured toward Ebon then swept his hand toward The Arch that marked the entrance to the Buried City, "so close to one another, and so full of hatred for each other." His hand left her shoulder and his fingertips traced winding paths up and down her arm.

"The Cities have always been great enemies." Caden murmured. She'd heard this before.

"Not always." Her Kennari replied. "The Buried were once Ebons."

Caden came more aware at this. This, she had not heard before.

"In the reign of your grandfather's grandfather, there was an uprising. The thing almost came to civil war before your grandfather's father ended it." He glanced down at her face. "You have not been told this?"

Caden shook her head.

"Your grandfather's father had traveled beyond the ice in his youth, to the Far Sea, where there is magic in the very air. There, he learned to use the magic. This is what caused the uprising. People who know little of a thing fear it. So, the Ebons feared the magic that your grandfather's father had brought from the Far Sea. Fear can make monsters of good men. One evening, your grandfather's father called together all who did not fear the magic, who wanted to learn and explore the things that the magic could offer, and led them out of Ebon through The Twins. They walked on the ice all night, and when the first rays of the sun illuminated the ice, they stopped. There, your grandfather's father taught his followers the magic. When they were all powerful enough, they joined their magic to one another and used it to create an exact replica of Ebon. Exact, that is, but for the color. Their city shone white, for they had called forth the ice from below to form it."

The Kennari sighed deeply, and pulled Caden a little tighter to him before continuing.

"After a time, however, the men who had created the city began, one by one, to die. The magic began to fail. Many of them tried to pass the knowledge on to apprentices, but only one found a student who could harness the magic, bend it to his will. As the magic faded, the city weakened. Finally there was not enough of the magic left to sustain it, and the entire city sank into the ice, still in the same form, but now below ground."

"The sinking of The Buried City caused instability in the glacier on which we live. This instability has been increasing below the ice without giving any hint of the danger it poses to the cities which rest atop it. Early on, the instability could have been counteracted, but it is now beyond repair. Ebon and The Buried City are in imminent danger. The cities could collapse any day. I have warned others of this. I have spoken of it to Dared."

At her Kennari's mention of her father, Caden trembled. The thought of her Kennari speaking to her father terrified her. If he were to have the tiniest inkling that his only daughter went to her teacher for more than history lessons, Caden's small freedoms would disappear, and so would her beloved Kennari.

The Kennari felt her trembling and drew his arms tightly around her, and mistaking her fear of her father for fear of the cities' destruction, whispered in her ear. "There is a way to survive, Nemi, but I fear that most people, your father especially, will not accept it. Remember what I said of fear...they will fear the means with which they may save themselves, and because I will be the one to present it to them, they will fear me and most likely devise to kill me."

Caden could not imagine anyone fearing her Kennari. True, he was an imposing man, taller than average and with that odd, fair coloring, but he was the most gentle person she'd encountered. What solution could possibly be so horrible that the Cities would rather kill their savior than embrace it? Caden's breath caught.

Her Kennari guessed her thought.

"Magic is the only thing that can save them. Magic brought from the Far Sea by your grandfather's grandfather, passed to many, then passed to only one apprentice."
"Passed to you - the last man able to access and wield the magic."

"Yes."

The City and the Arch faded, leaving them once again in the sweetly scented darkness of the Kofi. They held each other in silence for a long time.