A Vague Shadow

Go back the other way: Another Time

Follow this back to: Gentle Climb

Illumina and the rest of the party were forced to live dangerously for the next few days. They came to a river that must have been fed by an underground spring for, although the surface of the river was frozen, there was still a lot of water under the ice and the ice was buckled and unstable from the pressure of the water below. In several places, the water came up through the ice and there was open water flowing over the surface of the ice.

Illumina realized they must have come too far north, too close to the forest, as none of the accounts of the journey had mentioned anything like this and she was sure anything as dangerous as the river would have figured prominently in any account of the local landscape. They traveled parallel to the river for some distance always being forced too far to the north.

The five of them were standing on the bank of the river looking at a solid sheet of ice stretching for twenty or thirty paces across to the other side. Illumina was considering the decision to turn back and turn west at a more southerly point, further from the forest. Everyone, including Illumina, was put out by the prospect of having to retrace their steps.

The Prince was usually silent in matters concerning the arrangements for the journey, he asked, apparently genuinely interested, "I don't see what the problem is. The ice is perfectly solid. Why don't we just cross?" They ignored him and carried on debating the chances of finding a spot further north and into the forest where they might cross. The consensus was that it really was not worth the effort.

They were deep in the various questions round the trip so no one noticed the Prince shake his head and suddenly make off down the bank and out onto the ice. Illumina was the first to realize what he was doing and looked up shouting, "No, you fool, come back!" It was too late, even as she shouted his feet shot from under him, slipping on the ice and he fell; the impact of the weight of his body taking him right through the surface of the ice.

Illumina watched in horror as he disappeared and then resurfaced his fingers grasping for the edge of the ice his face and then his head appearing above the surface of the water. She shouted to him "Get to the edge and keep your nose close to the surface, there is air under the ice." He looked at her with an expression of momentary comprehension and then absolute despair as he lost his grip and disappeared for good.

Illumina pushed at Cosimo and Taddeo, "The axes, get the axes, Nina come with me." She had to stop and shake Nina who was standing on the bank muttering incoherently to herself. Illumina caught some words in the heat of the moment but had no time to pay them any attention. Nina was saying "Oh my boy, my boy, after all this."

Illumina did not wait but pulled the other woman after her as she ran off down stream following the river bank, looking for a place where the Prince might be caught under the ice, realizing as she ran that she could actually see through the ice in some places. She saw a small clump of trees and bushes frozen in the ice some of them moving, reflecting the movement of the water below. She pointed, saying, "There, come quick!" this to the two men who were now returning from the sleds carrying the axes.

Illumina stopped herself a moment considering what should be done. If they got him out, he would need warmth and dry clothes, warmth above everything else. She turned to Nina and almost shouted at her, "Get back to the sleds, get the other axe and make as big a fire as you can manage." She shoved Nina and beckoned to the men and pointed to the clump of trees and bushes.

Cosimo asked, "How do you know he's there?"

Illumina replied that she did not know but it was their only chance, if they could not find him in the next couple of minutes he would be dead anyway. Then she saw under the ice a vague shadow moving about caught in the branches, a body stretched out like a corpse in a coffin, she could even see the head tilted back a little, the hands grappling with something in the water.

She shouted, "He's there, see he's there," and she led the way out onto the ice, feeling it hard and solid under her feet. While she was relieved that there was obviously no chance of them falling through the ice, she was dismayed at the prospect of how long it might take them to break their way through.

The men knew what they were about and started to hack at the ice, standing either side of the point of impact of the axes, alternating strokes like two men hacking at the same point on a tree. They got through. Water started pooling in the bottom of the cut and they started expanding the hole making it big enough to get a man's body through it.

Illumina thought briefly of telling them to focus on making a hole big enough for him to breath but left it. She knew if they could not get him out soon the cold would kill him anyway and it would do them no good getting air to him if they had to just stand and watch him die from the cold that he could not escape from.

They cut one side, cut the other and then stamped on the piece of ice breaking off the remaining side. Illumina shouted at them, "Pull it up don't push it under it will block his access to the hole." They pulled it up and then Taddeo lay down on the ice, reaching his hand into the water, grabbed the Prince by the hair and pulled him towards the hole. The three of them got hold of him pulling him out and up, onto the ice. He was blue and quite still, apparently dead.

Illumina was not finished with him yet. "Give me the axes, bring him." The Prince was small and light; Cosimo just picked him up and threw him over his shoulder. Illumina was following and reflected later that it was probably the action of being thrown over Cosimo's shoulder that saved the Prince, for she saw a stream of water come out of his mouth and nose and he coughed; a feeble movement but obviously his, obviously there was life left in him yet or perhaps life had returned.

In the short time they had been cutting through the ice, Nina had managed to get a remarkably large fire going. Illumina discovered later that she had used half of their oil lamp supply, pouring it over a pile of dry branches and then striking a light. The dogs were shying away from the heat of the massive fire that had already melted away a large patch of snow revealing rocky ground below it. They dumped the Prince in front of the fire and stripped him, rubbed him down and dressed him again and then saw about drying and warming the other members of the party; all of them except Nina were wet in some way.

Cosimo, who had carried the Prince, was soaked from the water in the Prince's clothing. Taddeo, who pulled him out from under the ice, was wet all down one side and Illumina's boots and the knees of her pants were wet from contact with the water that came up through the hole in the ice. It took most of the rest of the day to get them all dry and warm.

They warmed the Prince slowly. Once the immediate risk of frostbite was out of the way, they kept him away from the fire and he shivered uncontrollably and cried as the warmth slowly came back into his body. At one point, he begged to be allowed closer to the fire so Illumina told him to try it, he hobbled stiffly over towards the flames but found it burned his face and hands. His feet and legs were agonizing and he had to retreat away from the fire again. Illumina made him walk about; move his arms and legs although he was plainly exhausted. They made some warm food and drink and all of them took some, the Prince was only allowed it in moderation. This time he did not argue when Illumina told him if he ate too much after what he had been through chances were that he would just throw it all up again.

To follow this thread in the story go to: The Only Way Out

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