Teri McLaren
of debris tilted and bunched, frozen in an icy, haphazard hedge.
Wiggulf stopped to take in the sight of his home. Then he began to cry. "What has happened to it?"
"The ice queen has frozen the mother waters, Father. Barely a trickle of the mighty stream that once flowed under our feet in the lodge remains liquid. Our people are starving for fish and have taken to hunting the forest, instead-I tried to tell you how little food we have. But you are home now. All that will change," said Frijan.
"It looks to me like the river is still pretty high," said OgWiggulf shook his head slowly. "Not a tenth of it remains passable. None of the rock used to show. Where the stream passes under the lodge, there-that is the way all of it once was." He halted them at the icy shoreline and waited for the guard to appear.
Cheyne found himself fighting to focus on the misty island in the middle of the river, but after awhile, if he persisted in looking at just the same place, it took more definite form. He could make out what looked like a log jam, huge trees cut down and hauled into place to form a sort of floating barrier. A very effective one, he thought. If people tried to walk out on that, falling would be inevitable, and if the cold water didn't kill them, the disturbed logs banging together could easily crush swimmers before they ever got to the lodge. Then from the mist itself, Cheyne thought, six more selkies appeared before them and saluted Frijan.
"Your king is home. Clear the way for him and his guests," she commanded, and they immediately dove under the icy logjam, disappearing in the dark waters. In a few moments, the timbers parted, and several huge otters bobbed and swam in the wake.
"Go, ore. They will see that you don't drown, fust lie back and relax," said Wiggulf.
Yob obeyed, having little strength to do otherwise. The otters caught him from underneath and ferried