Ravex'ton started to feel less steady on his feet, and she thought he wasn't moving in a straight line anymore. He veered erratically to the sides as if drunk.

  Suddenly his grip on her hips was gone and she slid down his back. She was able to brace for the impact with the snow, before she rolled once and was sitting still on the ground. Ravex'ton didn't seem to have noticed that she was gone. He kept staggering mechanically forwards and away from her, in a different direction than his old tracks were leading.

  “Ravex'ton! Look out!” Lily yelled, but he couldn't have heard her. He kept going right into the trunk of a tree. There was a meaty thud and then he slowly collapsed to the ground.

  Lily ran over to him. “Ravex'ton! Are you all right?”

  He was ice cold to the touch and he looked up at her with eyes that were white with frost. He didn't shiver anymore, and Lily realized that that was a very bad sign.

  “Go,” he whispered, and even in this state, his voice had such authority that Lily felt a strong urge to do as he said. “Follow ... my old tracks ... to the village. Heat there.”

  There was nothing to discuss. He was obviously about to freeze to death. Lily whipped his long fur coat off herself and placed it over him, then rolled it around him to make sure it covered all of him.

  “I'll be back,” she said. Then, realizing that she would probably never see him again alive, she bent down and kissed him on his icy lips. “Thank you.”

  She felt like a total traitor for leaving him there, but she also knew that they were down to the wire. Waiting would not make things better.

  The icy wind easily went through her space age winter clothing, and she cursed the planetologists who had known everything about ulges but not the absolutely vital fact that nights here would be a hundred and fifty below. If she came through this alive, she would give them a piece of her mind.

  She found Ravex'ton's old tracks and started walking, fast.

  11

  - Lily -

  The village was just over the next hill, a loose cluster of tent-like structures that looked very idyllic in the blue-white night. Lily ran in among them and started yelling before she reached the first one.

  “Help! Ravex'ton is in trouble! Help!” Her lips were so cold they wouldn't quite obey, but at least she was making noise.

  She knew no one there would understand what she was saying, but she should be able to raise the alarm. And it only took two seconds before two large warriors came out of their tents and walked towards her, their faces dark, one of them with his sword drawn.

  Shit. If they thought she was an enemy ... “Ravex'ton,” she repeated and pointed back towards where he was dying in the snow. “He needs help! Now!”

  The two warriors looked at each other, and the largest of them placed his sword back in his scabbard. “Ravex'ton?” the other said, plainly asking what she meant. Her translator device was part of her kit, but that kit was back at the shuttle. So she had to make her best Lassie impression.

  She pointed to her tracks and into the woods. “Ravex'ton is there! Freezing!” She put her arms around herself and said “brrrrrr” and shivered theatrically.

  The large one sprinted to one of the tents, shouted something outside it, opened the flap and went inside, shouting “Ravex'ton!” so loudly he could probably hear it from where he was lying out in the woods. Then he came out and ran towards the forest where Lily was pointing. Clearly Ravex'ton was not in his tent.

  That released a flurry of activity as two more warriors ran after him. Lily wanted to run, too, but was stopped by the first man who had come out. He placed a hand on her shoulder and said something very seriously. The meaning was clear: They don't need your help.

  A woman came towards her and exchanged some words with the man, then lightly took Lily's arm and led her towards another tent, talking calmly in her Acerex language.

  Lily saw the point and came willingly with her. Whatever had to be done to rescue Ravex'ton, the locals could do it better without her. The woman opened the flap to the tent and led Lily inside.

  It was not a tent where anyone lived, that was obvious. This was a sauna, with wooden benches around a huge fireplace in the middle. Glowing embers showed that it was not really in use right now, but still the heat hit Lily like a sledgehammer and she suddenly had trouble breathing.

  The heat zapped the rest of her willpower and almost knocked her out. Her knees gave way and the woman had to catch her before she'd hit the floor. She sat Lily down on a bench and carefully leaned her back against the backrest, then turned a knob on the wall, making a pillar of fire roar up in the middle of the room.

  Lily was vaguely aware that more women came inside and that someone was gently taking her clothes off, but she didn't have the energy to stop them. They seemed friendly to her exhausted mind, and they wrapped a large, soft towel around her. Soon she was sitting there, only half conscious, drifting in and out of a dream that had a lot of ulges and teeth and claws and snow in it. And a serious face with unruly black hair around it.

  After a little while she started shivering uncontrollably, and the women around her gently rubbed her skin with soft cloth and spoke caring, reassuring words to her. And it was helping. She was slowly getting the warmth back in her body. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  The door opened and let in an icy gust of wind, and then three warriors came inside carrying Ravex'ton between them. They laid him down on a bench close to the fire and took the fur coat off.

  Lily gasped. His upper body was a pale blue and his eyes were blindly staring at nothing at all. His limbs seemed stiff.

  Tears sprang unbidden to her eyes and the breath caught in her throat. He looked like he was dead. She wanted to stand up and go over to him, but the women held her gently back and said soothing things.

  As she watched, the warriors rubbed him with cloth and started chanting something with their deep voices, very softly. It had to be some kind of death ritual, like last rites. It all seemed very solemn.

  Lily looked away and wiped hopeless tears from her cheeks. She hadn't really known him, but what she had seen had made her want to know him better. Much better. He had sacrificed himself for her, no doubt about that. When he put the long coat on her and carried her running through the woods, that had been to save her, not himself. He had to know that even he, an Acerex warrior who had grown up with the Freeze, couldn't run around in it with a bare upper body.

  She balled her fists and the nails dug into her hands. Those fucking useless planetologists! She would never have come here in the evening if she had known that there was such a thing as the Freeze. Because of their neglect, this noble and kind warrior had now died unnecessarily.

  And because of her. She couldn't blame anyone else. She could have checked it herself. And who arrived at someone's village late in the evening? Sure, she had been excited by the prospect of seeing Ravex'ton again, but still ...

  A deep sob escaped her, and one of the alien women stroked her hair and calmly spoke alien words into her ear.

  Then Ravex'ton moved. One of his arms jerked, and he coughed weakly. One warrior gave an order, and the fire in the middle of the room suddenly shot up, three times as high as before. The heat increased fast, and Lily held her breath. Wasn't he dead after all? Or was that just reflexes and movements from a dead body?

  He moved again and straightened his legs. One warrior said something soothing and placed a cup of a steaming liquid at his lips. He drank and coughed again.

  There could be no doubt now: he was alive. Lily felt a huge weight suddenly vanish from her shoulders and she smiled through tears.

  Then he said something. The warriors leaned down over him to hear it, then they all straightened and stared right at Lily. Whatever he had said had definitely been about her.

  One warrior smiled mildly at her and waved at her to come over. She got onto the warm wooden floor with bare feet, supported by the other women. She kept the towel close around her chest, then tiptoed over to the bench where Ravex'ton was lying. The warriors drew considerately back and she looked down at his face. It still had a tinge of blue, and his eyes were closed.

  “Hi,” she said with a voice that trembled. “I'm glad you made it.”

  His eyes were closed and he fumbled for her hand. She gently put her hand in his, just able to not recoil as she touched his still icy skin.

  “Lily.” His voice was weak, but still had that calm in it.

  “Yes.”

  “Are you injured?”

  Again her eyes filled with tears when the only thing he cared about right now was her wellbeing. “No. You saved me.”

  He smiled and his grip on her hand went limp as he either fainted or fell asleep, but a woman came over, smiled and led her back to her own bench. They gave her a cup with a hot, spicy drink. She took a sip, lay down on the bench and enjoyed the heat from the fire. The drowsiness was about to overwhelm her again. Everything was okay.

  Right before she drifted off, the door opened and another woman came in. She was older than the other ones, and had snow white hair that was arranged in a strict bun. Lily had never seen any Acerex wear their hair like that. The woman ignored Ravex'ton, crossed her arms over her chest and stared across the large room towards Lily with an expressionless face.

  Fine, Lily thought to herself and closed her eyes. Everyone in the tribe wants to get a good look at the alien.

  Then she remembered no more.

  12

  - Lily -

  She woke up among furs and blankets, nice and warm and fully rested. Bright daylight poured in from large windows and a small fire crackled in a stony fireplace by the wall.

  At first she was confused. This wasn't her little cabin on the Friendship. Where was the view of space? Her media screens and VR gaming console?

  The she remembered. Ah. The Ytter tribe. The ulges. The Freeze.

  And Ravex'ton.

  She wanted to get up, but first she looked under the covers to see what she was wearing, if anything. She couldn't remember going to bed, which meant that someone else had put her here. But it was okay, she still had her underwear on.

  She got up, and one of the women she remembered from the night before got up from a chair where she had been sitting with her back to Lily. She smiled warmly and said something in the alien language with its hard consonants and soft vowels.

  Lily returned the smile, but didn't quite know what to say. She really needed a bathroom, but she wasn't sure how offended this woman would be if she started using sign language to illustrate that.

  But the woman took her hand gently and led her to a door, and on the other side there was indeed a recognizable bathroom. Lily had been to several other tribes before, and it didn't surprise her that this tent-like house that looked so primitive in some ways still had a fully modern bathroom with hot and cold water and a shower and a tub and anything she might like. The designs were alien, but they worked pretty much the way she was used to.

  On a stool there was even a little stack of her own clothes, which the tribe must have laundered and dried during the night. And there was another stack of Acerex clothes with coarse fabrics and furs.

  She showered and got her jumpsuit on, but left the thick and surprisingly useless winter coat and pants where they were after going through their pockets. She had planned to come to this village with a shuttle full of gifts and useful equipment, but at least she had some things in her pocket. Chewing gum, hairpins, her wallet that would be little use on this planet, a pen and other odds and ends. Yeah. That wasn't going to be too useful.

  Her stomach was rumbling when she exited the bathroom and came face to face with the same woman.

  “Thank you,” she said. “I needed that. I wonder, would it be possible to see Ravex'ton?”

  She guessed that the woman would at least understand the name. Stars, she really needed to get back to the shuttle and check if her translator was still there.

  The woman just smiled and motioned for Lily to sit down at a table where there was prepared a very tribal breakfast. Meats, dark bread, savory fruit gels and the same hot brew that she had been given the night before. It was good, but the selection seemed slightly sparse to her. Usually when she came to a tribe, they'd serve her the best stuff they had for as long as she was there, and the breakfast table would be brimming with all kinds of food.

  She found that she liked this better. Probably this tribe understood that there was no reason to try to impress her. This was probably the same kind of food they would eat themselves. Maybe this was a sign of acceptance? After the ordeal the night before? Like they considered her an equal and not just a weird-ass alien with a shuttle full of silly toys?

  She was about to finish when the tent flap opened and a large figure entered.

  “Good morning,” the man said in the deep, certain voice that Lily was starting to really like. Just hearing it made a bunch of butterflies take off in her stomach.

  She looked shyly up at him. He didn't look like someone who'd been seconds from death only hours earlier. Maybe he was a little more pale, but his strong features still made her heart skip a beat. “Good morning, Ravex'ton.”

  The warrior greeted the woman and sat down across from Lily. “You have a good appetite,” he said with a satisfied expression on his face. “It is good for a warrior.”

  “I don't think I qualify as a full warrior,” Lily said and washed down a mouthful with the brew. “I can't count how many times I would have died last night if it hadn't been for a real warrior helping me. I hope I remembered to thank you for it. If not, I'll say it again right now: thank you.”

  Ravex'ton looked at her, and she had trouble meeting his fiery eyes. “Any warrior would have done the same.”

  She dipped a piece of bread into a little jar of a spicy paste, like she'd seen Acerex do elsewhere on the planet. “I'm not so sure. Maybe others would have done some of those things you did last night. But not all of them.”

  His coolness was gone for a second. Their eyes met in mutual understanding, and she was looking into his bright green eyes. A rush of affection filled her. He knew what she meant. They had a common experience now, one that had left its mark on both of them. It was like they were old friends already.

  “Maybe,” Ravex'ton agreed airily. “At any rate, I'm glad you didn't take any lasting injury from the experience. They say you were blue all over and that the coma was only minutes away from you.”

  Lily frowned. “Really? Didn't feel that critical to me. But you actually were unconscious. Pretty lucky that sauna was already pretty hot.”

  He nodded. “It is in use every evening and we keep the temperature up day and night. It's tradition. Yes, I was very close to death. But Ytter warriors have adapted to the Freeze, more or less. We can be revived from extreme cooldown and be back to normal the next day. Earthlings probably can't.”

  “Definitely can't,” Lily said and drained the cup. “But I feel fine now.”

  She studied Ravex'ton's face closer. He looked okay. And distant, like most Acerex warriors did. “So you're back to normal? If not, that's totally cool. I just need someone to accompany me back to the shuttle. I have some things there I'd like to bring.”

  He leaned back in the chair, and his muscles flexed under his black shirt. “I don't think you can expect the ulges to have left much there.”

  “Maybe, but I really want to check it out. There's a lot of tech that might be useful for you. And I'd like to see if anyone has been there. No one came from the Friendship during the night?”

  He frowned. “Not here. Did you expect that?”

  “It's more about what they would expect. They would expect me to tell them that everything is fine as soon as I landed. And they'd expect some kind of message from me every day. So yeah, I would have thought they'd check on me.”

  Ravex'ton scratched his chin. “That flash of aurora borealis last night that broke your shuttle seems to have ruined ours, too. It is being repaired. We have a way to communicate with the War Council, but the chief has been unsuccessful in his attempts to reach them and have them inform your friends that you are here. There's only ... noise. Chaotic signals. What do you call that? The sssssshhhhhhh noise?”

  “Static?”

  “Static, very well. The atmospheric conditions are terrible. I suppose your friends realize that flying a shuttle down here could be dangerous. And you are now in no danger.”

  That made her feel better. The Friendship might not have any way to reach her at all right now, and they wouldn't send anyone until the atmosphere calmed down and made it less dangerous to fly. “Okay. So can we go? The Freeze won't come during daytime hours, right?”

  “Only at night,” Ravex'ton confirmed and got to his feet. “Certainly we can go there. The woods are always dangerous, but the predators around here respect warriors.” He gave her a wry little smile. “And now probably aliens.”

  13

  - Ravex'ton -

  “I know this is more than warm enough,” Lily said and stroked the fur, then looked up at him with a shy smile.

  Ravex'ton nodded. She was wearing one of his own long brek fur coats outside her own inadequate clothing, and he had his cloak on around his neck. When he first saw her with the Acerex coat around her shoulders, carefully pinned up along the bottom so it wouldn't reach the floor, he did a double take. She looked remarkably exotic with her brown hair and matching eyes, but at the same time she looked a lot like an Acerex woman. The brek fur just set it off more and made it ... bewitching. No alien should look that good in an Ytter fur. It was as if she was born to it. As if-

  He shook his head, unwilling to think the thought to its conclusion. What was it with all his fanciful ideas lately? Lily was an alien ambassador, used to travelling among the stars on large spaceships in the company of royals, in great luxury and undoubtedly admired by many males of her own species. This simple tribal life was no good for her. He had to turn his mind away from his childish fantasies, no matter how powerful they were.

 

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