Level: Novice

Omah led Sabrina down a short tunnel and out, into a blizzard of sleeting snow. They slid to a stop on hard-packed ice, and Omah turned to go back, but a sheer wall of rock and ice stretched away above him until it vanished into the sleet. He could see no opening.
“No! This can’t be!” he cried, above the roar of the wind.
Omah pressed his hands against the rock and felt for any crack.
“Where are we?” Sabrina cried, scrambling to search further along the wall for an opening.
“This can’t be the place! I’ve been here many times, and now I remember clearly. But it’s a paradise! Not this!”
A wind whipped flakes around the bodies of the two refugees, cutting them off from all the world except the rock in front of their faces, but then Omah heard a voice, distant but clear.
“Omacron!”
He spun round and peered into the blizzard. The figures of two fur-clad men staggered out of the whiteness on snowshoes but headed past Omah and Sabrina.
“Over here!” Omah cried, waving his hands.
While the men approached, one laboured step at a time, Omah threw himself around Sabrina to protect her from the biting wind, still hanging on to the wrapped key. He didn’t care if the men were enemies or not, for surely, they would die if left in the blizzard much longer.
A gloved hand tapped Omah on the shoulder. He swung around to see the closest man pull down a fur flap to reveal a mouth. The mouth spoke through bursts of steam, and though Omah couldn’t understand each word, he understood the meaning. The man clasped Omah by both shoulders and hugged him.
“Omacron!”
The other man, whose features were less angular, yet fairer, than the first, gripped Omah’s shoulder more deferentially and smiled. The first man pointed to the huddled shape of Sabrina and yelled:
“Subrisa. Pay all kan?”
Omah nodded and raised Sabrina by her shoulders. The two men took a pair of snowshoes each from their backs, fastened them to Sabrina and Omah’s feet and wrapped fur coats around their shoulders. Happy with the result, the first man smiled and pointed to himself.
“Inyan!” he said.
“I … I know!” Omah replied. “Don’t ask me how.”
“Chaka,” the other man said without smiling.
“Ah, I have wondered about your name, but I have seen your face,” Omah replied.
Inyan indicated Omah and Sabrina should stand and try their shoes. Satisfied, he turned and led them away from the wall of rock.

---

Omah and Sabrina clung to each other, not caring where the men were taking them, as long as there seemed some chance it would be warmer. Sometimes Inyan fell back and spoke to Omah like an old friend. Indeed, Omah felt he had known Inyan’s doleful eyes and hangdog expression his whole life, so he trusted their guide completely.
Inyan tapped the parcel of cloth in Omah’s hand and said:
“Llabi? Pay all kan?”
Omah guessed now that, ‘Pay all kan?’ meant something like ‘It is okay?’ He nodded, but Inyan seemed uncertain.
“Llabi?” the voice asked again, from behind the fur flap. Those doleful eyes opened wider, imploring Omah.
Omah guessed what ‘Llabi’ meant.
“The Key? It’s safe. Don’t worry!” he replied, clasping Inyan’s shoulder.
Inyan, slightly shorter than Omah, put his head back and roared with such laughter that Omah felt sure he was weeping with joy, though he could tell in the falling snow.
As they trudged on, Omah realised he was beginning to understand Inyan’s strange, clicking language. The thought, at first, made him tense, as he often did when encountering something that he couldn’t explain. But he let his fear go and revelled in a feeling that his mind was somehow expanding.
The wind eased, and the snowflakes suddenly stopped falling. They emerged into still, cold air on a flat expanse of pristine ice.
A blue haze emerged above them, making Sabrina look up. Far above, between fluffy clouds, she discerned something faintly that confused her; a vault of grey rock, far, far above. She pointed to it and called out to Inyan:
“What’s that?”
“We’re here!” Inyan cried, interrupting her.
Both Sabrina and Omah understood his words, knowing, even so, that he spoke the local tongue. The astonishment in their eyes as they glanced at each other stemmed from the words’ meaning; how could this isolated, desolate place on a field of ice be anywhere?
Inyan pulled aside his fur flap, revealing his long face, and smiled. He stepped forward and Chaka followed, both seeming to sink into the snow until only their heads were visible. Inyan turned to them again and called out:
“Come on!”
Omah took Sabrina’s hand and led her forward. They saw a snow ramp that led down to large opening, lined with grinning faces, eager to see the new arrivals. Omah and Sabrina, touched by reverent hands at every step, passed through the crowd of people and stared in wonder at a citadel beneath the snow.

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