Through the Ice by Piers Anthony, Launius Anthony, Robert Kornwise Page A

ice! Beware the ice!" he called, but no one woke.
    He ran to his own house. "Get out of there," he cried. "The ice is coming!" But no one emerged, while the glacier ground closer. In minutes it would be too late.
    He yanked open the door and rushed in. The house was silent. He took the stairs two at a time and burst into his sister's room. There was Ferne, ten years old, asleep on her bed, her friend and confidante teddy bear beside her. "Ferne! Wake up! The ice is coming!"
    She did not stir. Her pretty face was perfectly composed, framed by her brown hair, with no flicker of animation. She remained so still that it alarmed him. He touched her shoulder. "Ferne!"
    Then he became aware of something. Her shoulder, under the pink frill of her nightie, was rigid. In fact, it was cold—freezing cold.
    He touched her hand. It was as stiff as an icicle. He clasped it in both his own, horrified, trying to warm it—and felt cold liquid. Aghast, he stared.
    Her hand was melting. It was nothing but ice.
    "Ferne!" He reached across to touch her face. It melted in the pattern of his fingers, becoming misshapen.
    She had turned to ice!
    He lurched up and ran to his mother's room. She lay similarly, and he knew without touching her that she too was frozen. The shadow of the glacier had fallen across her, and enchanted her into ice.
    It had turned the whole town to ice.
    Then he felt the shudder of the glacier, as it overran the town, crushing the buildings. The town was lost, but maybe he could still warn the world. For somehow he knew that the ice was destined to bury all of it, unless they rallied and stopped it immediately.
    There was a short-wave radio transmitter in his room, from his hobbying days. He rushed to it. If he could call out, alert the hams, so that some sort of resistance could be organized—
    The house shuddered. The ice was right up against it, pushing over the building! The power cut off, and the house began tumbling over, slowly.
    Seth scrambled out through a shattered window, dropped to the ground, and ran clear just as the house collapsed. But there was nowhere to go! Mountains of ice surrounded the town, and the remaining houses were being crushed. He couldn't get away! He couldn't warn anyone! His world was being destroyed, and he couldn't do anything about it!
    But at the same time he knew that this didn't make any sense. This wasn't the Ice Age! A whole world couldn't be destroyed like that! Even if there were enough ice, it would move so slowly that there would be plenty of time for action. This was a dream, and he knew it—but it still terrified him.
    He reached out to the others. Get me out of this! be thought.
    He felt a hand clasp his, and/
    /The sky was turning red, like sunset, but this was no normal closing of day. Something was coloring it. There was a tremendous amount of dust aloft, as if the worst sandstorm of history was in the making. The red was reflected in the roiling surface of the nearby lake, beyond the vague outlines of houses.
    Seth squinted, to keep out the blinding dust. He sighted along his own arm to see what was beyond, because he still held someone's hand.
    It was Tirsa. "Oh, no!" he exclaimed, the dust seeming to muffle his words as they emerged. "I got out of my dream—and into yours!"
    She became aware of him. "Oh, Seth, I'm so glad you're here!" she cried. "Pull me free!"
    "I can't! My dream is just as bad! Ice is destroying the world!"
    "But look at this!" She used her free hand to point.
    Seth looked up—and saw what was causing the dust. There was a planet in the sky, a monstrous ball of rock that loomed larger even as they watched. There was going to be a collision!
    Her nightmare of being suffocated and crushed, deep in the earth. This was similar, but enlarged to encompass the whole world! Just as his dream of the icy lake had became a dream of a glacier destroying the whole town, and the world. They had not escaped the awful sendings! In fact, their mental linkage only