Between

Chapter Two

South of the Kinnarr Ice Barrier, Great Northern Ocean

J'taka Den Keerta shouted at his crew over the roar of the raging wind, clutching the rope that held the Tonmeirton's anchor and straining to pull it aboard. Chunks of sea ice were launched through the air from the crests of tempestuous waves, striking sails, rigging, masts, and his fellow sailors. Crates broke free from their clamps and careened across the decks, knocking Kinnarr sailors off their feet and spilling throngs of fish and other sea life, some dead and others desperate and thrashing, down hatches and over the sides. Snow and ice collected on the journeyman's feathers, weighing him down and making it much harder to move.

"Release the last sail!" J'taka cried, hoping someone, anyone, still left on board would hear him. Unless the last sail was lowered or released, the Tonmeirton would almost certainly sink.

To his left, a Kinnarr sprinted across the deck, slipping on ice and fish, and pitched himself at the rear mast.

J'taka finally managed to get the anchor aboard, falling back onto his tail and cracking his crested head against another empty metal crate. Dazed by the blow, with the fluorescent blue of Kinnarr blood beginning to stain the silver of his feathers, J'taka was only dimly aware of the terrible snap and groan of the Tonmeirton's hull striking something beneath the waves. The ketch wrenched horribly to port and pitched so far sideways J'taka thought for sure she was about to roll completely. Instead, its forward motion halted by whatever it had struck, Tonmeirton sprang backwards and the stern immediately began to dip lower in the painfully cold water. Sliding aft on the icy deck, J'taka saw two of the fishing ketch's three masts topple and come to land on the Kinnarr trying to release the last sail.

The Tonmeirton's back had broken.

Icy saltwater splashed his beak and stung J'taka's side-set eyes. Snapping out of his stupor and gasping, the Kinnarr forced himself to roll onto his stomach and claw his way toward the ketch's solitary life raft. He passed his fellow journeyman beneath the crumpled masts, and gave pause just long enough to snatch a rather sentimental-looking bracelet from the dead Kinnarr's wrist, along with a single feather. Somehow he reached the raft, mustered the strength to climb into it and release the clamps, and at the next barrage of waves, the raft broke free. Along for the ride now, he clutched desperately to the bracelet and the feather, praying to the Maker that he could return the items to the journeyman's family. It was an odd sort of thing to be thinking at such a time, but anything was better than thinking he might, at any moment, join his brother in new life in the Elsewhere.

As he attempted to secure the sentiments in a pocket, J'taka could only watch in stunned, confused horror while his ketch, his livelihood, and the bodies of his crew, slipped into the vast nothingness of snow and sea.