Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Last Rituals

"Looks delicious," he said politely when they were all seated. He reached for some canned peas.

Thora surveyed the table and groaned. "I forgot the main course," she said resignedly. "I knew there was something wrong." She began to stand up to look for something to make the best of a bad job: frozen lasagna, pasta, meat, or fish. But she knew she had nothingshe had planned to go shopping but had been swept along by events. Matthew grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back to her seat.

"It's fine. It's an unconventional dinner but so is the timing, so it's all right." He smiled at the children poking at the mixture on their plates.

Thora looked at the clock and saw it was only threeshe had certainly gone off the rails. She forced a smile. "I'm still in a state of shock. I'll invite you for dinner again next year if I've recovered by then."

"No, there's no need. I'd rather invite you out," Matthew said, taking a bite of plain Icelandic flatbread. "Exquisite." He grinned.

None of them cleared their plates, and the trash can was filled with leftovers at the end of the meal. Soley asked to go round to see her friend Kristin, and Thora agreed without a word. Gylfi disappeared into his room, said he was going on the Internet. Thora hoped he would not visit any sites about baby care. He would give up in despair if he saw in black-and-white what that entailed. When they were left by themselves, Thora and Matthew sat down in the living room. She had made coffee that they took with them.

"Well, well," he said awkwardly. "I won't stay long, given the circumstances. Don't grannies need to take a nap after every meal?"

Thora snorted. "This granny fancies a gin and tonic," she said as she sipped her coffee. "But we both know the consequences so I'll pass for now." She smiled at him and blushed a little. "Anyway, I'm ready to hear what the man from the sorcery museum said." She leaned back in the sofa and curled up her legs.

Matthew took out a piece of paper and unfolded it on the coffee table. "Thorgrimur phoned. He got in touch with that walking encyclopedia called Pall. He could reel straight off all that's known about that magic symboldo you know why?"

Thora shook her head. Matthew had clearly expected a more active response, so she ventured: "I don't knowbecause he's a walking encyclopedia?"

"No. Or yes, he may well be. But he knew all about the symbol because he remembered how incredibly excited Harald was to hear about it."

"So Harald talked to him about that particular symbol?" asked Thora.

"Yes and no. Harald originally contacted Pall in connection with magic symbols in general and asked him about some that weren't in the standard reference books. Then he asked about the Icelandic book of spells we saw at the exhibition. Pall described the main spells in it and said one in particular had aroused Harald's interesta fairly nasty spell, although it belongs to the cycle of love charms. Apparently Pall asked Thorgrimur if we'd noticed it. The leaf we saw at the exhibition is the opening passagethere's a lot more on the next page which is not on show. Guess what the spell involved."

"You take a dead man's eyes and do something with them?" Thora guessed.

"No, but that's still important. If I understood it right, this charm is supposed to make a woman fall in love with you. You have to dig a hole in the floor that the woman walks over, put snake's blood in the hole, and write her name with some magic symbols. Finally you recite a charmthe very charm that was sent to Harald's mother." Matthew gave a proud smile.

"You mean the poem?" asked Thora.

"You got it," Matthew replied. "That's not all. Pall said Harald was profoundly interested in the charm and they discussed it in depthwhether it only worked on a lover or could apply to a different form of love, whether the hole had to be in the floor, and so on. Then they discussed the symbol scrawled in the margin of the charm." Matthew paused.

"And?" Thora asked impatiently.

"It turns out that the symbol in the margin is unknown, but resembles a Nordic symbol for a revenge charm. The only difference is one branch missing from the arm at the top. The Nordic spell is found in one manuscript fragment without the poem. All that has been preserved is a description of how to perform the spell and the first line of the charm, which is 'I look at you'the same opening as the love charm. Pall infers that the owner of the book drew the symbol beside the spell because he either knew for sure or just assumed that the same poem applied to both. The book was apparently the work of four different people, three Icelanders and a Dane, and the last scribe could well have drawn the symbol beside the charm for the same reason. He said this Nordic spell was much darker than the others and of uncertain origin, although the text with it in the manuscript was in Danish. The manuscript is privately owned and has been dated to the late sixteenth century, while the Icelandic book of spells is thought to have been written around 1650."

"What do you mean, a darker spell?" Thora asked.

"'Blacker magic' may be a better term. Shadier. What he meant was that it was specifically designed to cause harm. A person who has it carved on his body after death can haunt someone who failed him in lifeas in watch from the grave and make them regret the way they treated him. And in the end that regret brings doom. And wait for thisto perform the spell you need a certain body part, and you can guess what that is."

"Eyes," Thora said with conviction.

Matthew nodded. "But hold your horses. When Pall described the spell to Harald he became incredibly excited and demanded to hear in detail how to perform it. Pall gave him a full account over the phone, then sent him scanned copies of the book and the manuscript."

"Yes. And?" muttered Thora eagerly.

"Well, the way it works is that the seeker of revenge makes an agreement with someone else to perform the spell after his death. Not unlike the corpse breeches. They draw the symbol together on a patch of animal skin using their own blood and raven's blood. It takes a lot more than a few drops, because under the symbol they are supposed to write that X promises to perform the spell for Y, then X and Y confirm this by signing their names." Matthew sipped his coffee before continuing. "Here comes the punch line. When Y is dead, X carves the symbol on the body, lets out enough blood to write with, andthank you very muchremoves the eyes from the body."

"Jesus." Thora shuddered. "Why on earthisn't it enough to write in blood and carve up the body?"

Matthew smiled. "Clearly not. Pall said the symbol should be carved into the body to remind the dead person that his eyes were removed at his own request. Otherwise he would rise from the grave and search for his eyesand presumably kill the friend who took them. But the blood is used to write the now forgotten curse that goes with the symbol. It has to be mixed with raven's blood too."

"Which explains the passerine DNA found when the blood was analyzed!" exclaimed Thora. "The raven is the largest passerine bird native to Iceland." Her school biology never failed her when she really needed it.

"Anyway, the survivor does not need to add his blood. The eyes are wrapped in the skin with the curse on it and both are then presented to the one who failed the dead person, the object of his revenge. After that the victim is never safe; the dead person will haunt him and constantly remind him of his misdeeds until he cracks and dies a terrible death."

"And the curse that was sent to Harald's mother" Thora said sadly. Her voice trailed off as her thoughts took over. How appalling . What could have caused Harald to feel such deep-rooted hatred toward his mother? What on earth had she done to him? Perhaps it was merely a figment of his imagination; he could just have been mad and blamed his mother for it .