“The music?”

“Screaming of the ptarmigan. Music to us, wasn’t it?” In a changed voice, rational, but weak: “I can’t see you, Ky.”

“She’s here, with me, at the door.”

“Then she’s dim as she used to be when she plodded on in front, wrapped in her cloud of frost-smoke.”

“Please try to listen. I—see the sailors bringing the little boat through the surf.”

“That’s easy. Let ’em try the ice!”

“They’re coming for me.”

“You—you?”

“You don’t remember.”