Justine’s article, thick white hair covering its body, and while the Icemen might be mistaken for such a creature from a distance, up close they were far more human than anything that might resemble a beast. They were all as beautiful as Aki.
It surprised me to find them so different from Leopold’s descriptions. While Vita had told me of the community’s progress, I had imagined a struggling and ragged community on the brink of extinction. I had imagined the Icemen to be primitive, without resources, suffering the elements like animals in a cave. But that was not at all how I found them. Theirs was a human civilization, one with all the elements we would recognize as such: cultivated plants, shelters, clothes, and tools. Their technologies were simple, but simple in the way materials of the medieval period would seem simple to the modern eye. They raised goats and stored the milk. They wove very simple rough fabrics on a loom. Although they needed Vita’s assistance, they had developed all the basic skills that could lead, one day, to survival.
Jabi, the man I had met with Aki on the east lawn with Vita, stepped from the crowd and turned to the others. From the way he pointed at me, and the sharpness of his voice, I knew he was angry that Aki had brought me there.
One of the children started to cry. She hid her face in her hands to block me from view.
“Jabi is telling them to be afraid of you,” Aki whispered.
“They have no reason to be afraid,” I said.
“He is telling them that you are dirty. He says you will bring disease. That you will kill with metal weapons.”
“I’m healthy,” I said. “And I have no weapons.” I remembered the knife in the leather sack. No weapons that I intended to use.
Aki listened to Jabi, his expression dark.
“I thought Vita has helped the village,” I said.
“She has not been here for two generations,” he said. “The oldest remember her. But most do not.”
As Jabi spoke, the others turned their eyes to me, watching, assessing. I could feel them turning against me. I glanced back, to the opening in the mountain, aware of my precarious position. I wouldn’t be able to protect myself if they attacked me. The narrow passage was the only way in or out of the village. If they blocked the passage, I would be trapped.
Just as I was assessing my chances of escaping, Aki came to my side, his arm brushing against mine.
He lifted an arm into the air, to announce that he would speak. The others quieted and listened. He opened the leather sack, showing them that I had brought gifts. The energy of the crowd shifted, and they came to me, touching me, greeting me in their strange, guttural language. They said the word “Simi,” the word Joseph had written on his drawings of the blue men, a word I would come to learn meant “fellowship.” It would be months before I would understand even the rudiments of their speech, but I saw from Aki’s gestures—and the way his voice softened when he looked at me—that he had convinced them of my intentions.
“Now,” Aki said, “give them the gifts.”
I distributed jars of preserved fruit, a few rings of dried sausages, a container of goat cheese from the mews. I pulled out medicine and bandages, a sharp kitchen knife. Jars of aspirin and tubes of antibacterial disinfectant. Small things to us that could prove invaluable to them.
I removed a box of plastic freezer bags I’d found in the pantry, opened one up, and demonstrated how it worked. The bags interested them the most. They pulled the bags out of the box and passed them around, dropping in sausage and goat cheese, opening and closing them.
Aki gestured to a woman, who stepped close to meet me. It was Uma, the woman Vita had taught at the castle. She took the leather sack with its jars of painkillers and tubes of antibacterial ointment. The rolls of bandages and packs of antibiotics. A big bottle of rubbing alcohol and cotton. She threw the sack over her shoulder and smiled at me. “Welcome,” she said.
I may have mollified the others with my gifts, but Jabi watched me, his expression filled with animosity and accusation. I didn’t understand why he hated me so intensely, but it was clear that he wanted me to leave. He said something to me, and when I didn’t respond, he moved closer, then