Where We Came From

The following day they started west again. The forest was still visible in the hills to the north of them but the ground seemed drier, there were fewer streams and those they came across were smaller and, for the most part, covered with a thick layer of ice. They only saw open water once more and that was near a hot spring that Illumina had been told about. They camped near it for a whole day, taking advantage of the opportunity to get really warm for a change as there was a pool of hot water right at the mouth of the spring.

The men and women accepted the exposure of themselves necessary in the business of getting in and out of the pool as nothing out of the ordinary. Libby was oddly shy. He tried to make nothing of it as they did but Illumina could see that he was embarrassed and even frightened by the experience. She encouraged him to bathe and take advantage of the warmth and made a point of getting out before he did and turning her back on him when he was getting in.

The mystery round Nina only intensified. She was free enough in front of Taddeo and Cosimo, neither flaunting herself nor making any excessive attempt to cover herself. When the Prince came, she was visibly flustered both by the sight of him and him having sight of her. Libby was too flustered by his own preoccupations to see anything in Nina but Illumina realized he was beginning to see things in the other people round him and wondered what he would make of Nina's odd reactions to him when he was relaxed enough to see them.

Once he was settled in the pool, she asked him, "Are you afraid of the water?" She saw how far he had come when he closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands.

He took them away and smiled at her, a quiet almost sheepish expression on his face. "I didn't used to be. But you know I don't think I have ever been in water like this," he gestured at himself and added, "and like this; so it's hard to tell, perhaps I was always afraid of it and never knew it. I wonder, can you be afraid of something and not know it?"

Taddeo joined in the conversation asking if you could be aware of something and not know it. He talked about being in the woods and knowing there was an animal nearby but not being consciously aware of it. The trick was to let the knowledge come to you without forcing it. You often know all kinds of things without realizing it.

Libby added, "So you would say it is possible to be afraid of something and not be aware of it."

Taddeo looked at him and smiled, "It's also possible that you may have courage or love or decency in you and not know it. Ignorance isn't necessarily ignorance of something bad. How many of us truly know ourselves, know where we came from even what we've done, never mind what we will do."

Illumina suddenly realized that Nina was shaking as though the water were freezing cold; she reached over to her, shocked by how tense she was. She asked, "Nina are you all right."

Nina pulled away from her and said sharply, "Yes I'm fine, I think I'm just hungry. I'm getting out." She got out hastily, grabbing a cloth and running back to the fire, covering herself as she did so. Illumina and the others stayed a long time in the water and finally, reluctantly left. It was long after dark and they stumbled around in a convivial confusion getting dry and dressed before they got too cold.

All of them were deeply warmed by the spring and slept heavily that night. Illumina woke early, listening to the sounds of the predawn night. She heard something out of the rhythm of the other sounds around her. It took her some time to pin down what it was and where it was coming from. The sounds were quiet but persistent, a sort of gagging choking sound. Then she realized what it was. It was Libby obviously dreaming and, she was quite sure, reliving the time under the ice.

His tent was nearby she called out to him, "Libby, Libby, wake up, it's me Illumina. You're all right; you're not under the ice." She called to him quietly not wanting to make too much of it.

After the second or third time he settled down, the noises stopped and then she heard him responding quietly. "Thank you, I'm fine. It was just a dream."

She was not even sure if he was aware of the interaction between them. She lay quietly thinking about it for a while and it struck her what a powerful hold she had over him that he would respond that way and what a responsibility that hold put upon her. She sighed and turned over relishing the warmth, getting as warm as she could before having to get up, dress and face the cold outside.

They all felt better for the stay at the hot spring and the next day they made good progress, the dogs picking up the sense of well-being and making a good run for the day. Libby asked Illumina if she would let him ski behind the sled like Nina. She refused but tempered the refusal saying it would be too easy for him to get the skis tangled up and twist a leg and break it. "If we can find a good spot at the evening camp I'll show you how to put the skis on and how to manage them. Come you should run. Daisy wants a race." It seemed she did understand, for she became excited and barked at him as he ran up the trail after Cosimo, who was in the lead. The whole team started to bark and howl and Illumina had to run for the sled or they would have run off without her.

Libby ran for a large part of the day and laughingly claimed he was too tired to ski when they finally camped for the night. He quickly changed his story when Illumina gave the appearance of taking him seriously. She took him through the technicalities of tying the skis to his boots, showed him the basics of how to carry his weight and control the skis and then found a shallow, smooth slope and soon had him going up and down it, sidestepping up, skiing down. The lessons continued as they made their way west, climbing steadily all the time. By the third day, she judged him competent enough and allowed him to tow along behind her over a couple of smooth stretches of the trail.

At the end of the third day, they came to a ridge and found themselves looking down in the evening into the valley that Nina came from. It was one of a series of north facing valleys, each one a little higher than the one before. They lay across the countryside, slowly building up to the mountains, beyond which the marsh people lived. All of them drained north into the Great Green, which they could see as a dark presence at the end of the day up in the darkness of the north.

Libby pointed and asked, "What is that?"

Taddeo answered, "It is the forest, the Great Green; an endless sea of it, running north and west from here. All the rivers in these parts drain into the forest river. They say the forest river is the same as the river that runs through the King's City, though no one has ever followed it from here to find out."

Libby smiled wistfully, "I'd like to. I never liked the sea, but a sea of trees would be a different thing altogether."

Illumina saw Nina trembling again and she spoke, quietly, bitterly. "It is a sea nonetheless and just as likely to drown you. Stay away from it." She clearly spoke the words as a plea, not as a threat. She was dreadfully afraid of the forest or of something in the forest. Illumina added that to the odds and ends of the puzzle that she had gathered around Nina, knowing the puzzle still remained but feeling she might be a little closer to working it out.

Libby looked at them a note of sadness in his expression and his voice. "I suppose tomorrow will be different. I have enjoyed the journey and I am grateful to you all for your tolerance and your companionship." He smiled at Illumina, "I don't suppose I could stay just Libby while we're here?"

She smiled in return and shook her head, "No, we will have tell them who you are. If you have no objection, among us at least there is no reason to drop the 'Libby'."

She had the nagging suspicion that Nina was reacting strongly to everything she said. Especially saying they would have to tell the local people who Libby was. Still Illumina had little time or attention to spare. The descent into the valley was steep and dangerous for the sleds. They camped that night up on the ridge and started late, making a slow trek down the steep path leading into the valley.

Illumina was glad to see people coming up to meet them when they were only a part of the way down. As she had hoped, they had seen their campfire and hiked up the trail out of a combination of courtesy and prudence both seeing who they were and seeing if they could help them down the last difficult part of the path. In the end, they walked the sleds down the hill; two men behind each sled, helping to hold them back, Libby among them, pulling along with the rest of them.

Illumina, much to the amusement of the others, introduced Libby as "This is Libby, he is the Prince of the King's City," which was more or less his official title but so incongruous affixed to the name 'Libby' that none of the men took it seriously at first.

They all knew Illumina and one by one they took her aside and asked, "Is he really the Prince." She laughed and said, "Yes, but don't make anything of it, he's really had enough of being a Prince and would rather be just plain 'Libby' for the time being." They took her lead seeing how the other members of her party did the same and treated Libby just like anyone else though they quickly realized he was not too familiar with the common everyday things of the lives they led, such as dogs, sleds, snow and ice. He seemed willing and cheerful so they accepted him and helped him and compensated for what he could not do, without making too much of an issue of it. Illumina watched them, seeing what a good thing it was for him but also how much of him was still missing and she wondered where he would go to find it.

To follow this thread in the story go to: He's Gone

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