"Cold Shores" by Sergei Lukyanenko, summary Automatic translate

"Cold Shores" is the first novel in the "Seekers of the Sky" duology, written in 1997 and first published in 1998. The action takes place in an alternate world where, two thousand years ago, God’s Stepson — the Redeemer — took all iron from the world, hiding it in a special dimension called the Cold, and left humanity with the Word: a rare gift that allows one to place objects in the Cold and retrieve them. Those who possess the Word are invariably hunted by the authorities and the Church.

The Sky Seekers duology was awarded the Russian Science Fiction Prize in 2001.

Penal servitude and escape

Ilmar the Slippery, a seasoned thief, is on his way to penal servitude on the Sorrowful Islands. On the prison ship, he notices a strange boy: his right palm is noticeably colder than his left in the darkness — a sure sign of one who knows the Word. That night, Ilmar intercepts his attempt to pick his shackles and negotiates. The boy’s name is Mark; he claims he should have been executed, not sent to the mines. On the Word, he keeps a knife with a heraldic inscription on the blade, a silver lighter, and a certain book, which he categorically refuses to part with.

As the column passes through the town of the Sad Islands, Ilmar uses Mark’s knife to pick the lock holding the entire convict transport to a single rope. In the confusion, everyone scatters — some into the crowd, others into the guards. Mark twists his ankle and can’t go any further. Ilmar carries him to an abandoned merchant’s house and there, in a double hiding place under the second-story floor, discovers rusty iron bricks — two or three hundred kilograms of the rarest metal in the world. They hide in the shelter until nightfall, while the guards methodically probe the house — the hiding place holds.

The way to the mainland

At the airfield of the Sorrowful Isles, the fugitives discover the glider of pilot Helen, the Night Witch. Helen has arrived with an official order to detain Mark, but Ilmar and the boy force her to take them to the mainland. The landing is rough: the glider crashes. Taking advantage of his fellow passengers’ helplessness, Mark disappears.

Ilmar is picked up by clergy: Brother Ruud, a paladin of the Sister-Patron, is taking him to Rome. In the forest between Brussels and Lyon, the convoy is attacked by a paladin of the Church of the Redeemer and his henchmen. Several priests are killed in the fight, Ilmar kills one of the Redeemer’s servants, and barely makes it to Lyon.

The Secret of the Book

In Lyon, Helen is searching for Ilmar. During this time, she has discovered the boy’s true identity: Prince Marcus is the illegitimate son of the Sovereign himself. He personally ordered his son’s capture after speaking with the paladin. Marcus holds a book in his Word, the contents of which are known to the Sovereign, and it was this book that caused the uproar at court.

Helen believes that this could be the authentic, unexpurgated notes of the Redeemer’s disciples or his personal diary. The Church is divided: the Redeemer brothers demand the extermination of all those involved along with the manuscript, while the Sisterhood brothers insist on interrogations and a search. If a choice between these two positions becomes inevitable, a religious war will rage across the State, which the Russian Khanate will exploit. Helen herself is under suspicion — an order for her arrest is lying on the Sovereign’s desk.

Not long before, Ilmar had already encountered Captain Arnold of the Guard at the David and Goliath restaurant and escaped, climbing onto the roof of a stagecoach. Raids began in the cities.

Four Allies

Gradually, an unexpected group forms around Marcus: Ilmar, Helen, the nun Sister Louise, and Captain Arnold, initially an adversary and then a reluctant ally. They try to smuggle the prince out of the realm. But even fleeing to the Russian Khanate or China will yield no results: as soon as the fugitives cross the border, all embassies will announce a reward, and there are plenty of agents in foreign lands.

The summit of Megiddo

The fugitives are blocked on Mount Megiddo. The Grey Vests and the Semetsky Regiment stand face to face, each attempting to intercept the prince and the book. Ilmar remains to distract the pursuers and allows the others to escape — after which he is captured by the church authorities.

Marcus ascends to the summit of Megiddo and there, having attained the full power of the Word, performs a miracle reversing the one the Redeemer performed two thousand years ago: he extracts from the Cold everything that had been stored there since time immemorial. Iron returns to the world — all the metal that the Stepson of God took when he departed.