Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Last Rituals

"If I may ask, what did you decide to do?" Thora said, out of curiosity.

"To keep playing," Elisa said with a bitter smile. "But I've enrolled in business studies now and the course starts soon. You decide one thing and do something else, that's the way it goes."

"Isn't your father pleased?" Matthew asked.

"Yes, but mostly he's relieved. It's hard to be happy in this family. Especially now."

"Elisa, I know it's difficult to discuss your own family affairs, but we saw some of the e-mails between Harald and your father. They didn't seem to be particularly close, as father and son." Thora paused, then added: "Just as we have reason to believe he didn't exactly have a model relationship with your mother."

Elisa took a sip of wine before answering. She looked Thora straight in the eye. "Harald was the best brother you could imagine. He may well have been unconventional, especially recently." She stuck out the tip of her tongue and pinched it, alluding to Harald's cleft tongue. "But I would still have stood by his side anywhere. He had a noble character, and not just toward mehe championed our sister; I never saw anyone treat a disabled person so kindly." She contemplated her wineglass on the table. "Mother and Father, they justI really don't know what to sayThey never gave Harald his due. My first memories of them are endless hugs, love, and care, but I never saw Harald get much attention. They justwell, they just didn't seem to like him." In a flurry of words she interrupted her own train of thought. "They were never exactly bad to him. They just didn't love him. I don't know why, if there is any particular reason."

Thora tried to conceal her low opinion of the Guntliebs. She itched to find the person who killed that poor boy. She could not conceive of a more wretched fate than a loveless upbringing. Children have a tangible need for affection and it was downright criminal to deprive them of it. No wonder Harald was strange. Suddenly she looked forward to meeting his mother the next day. "Yes," she said to break the silence. "This doesn't sound good, I must say. It might not have anything to do with our speculations, but I do feel it explains a lot about his character. I'm sure you'd prefer not to discuss it with a stranger, though, so maybe we should turn to what happened between you."

Elisa smiled, relieved. "As I said, we mostly talked about me and my problems. Harald was great and we didn't do anything in particular really. He took me to the Blue Lagoon and to see a geyser. Otherwise we just strolled around town or stayed at home watching DVDs, cooking, and chilling out."

Thora tried to visualize Harald swimming at the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, but could not conjure up a sufficiently convincing image. "What did you watch?" she asked curiously.

Elisa grinned. " The Lion King, strange as it may sound."

Matthew winked at Thora. So he hadn't been lying about the disk in the player. "Did he tell you anything about what he was up to?"

Elisa thought. "Not much. Actually he was in incredibly good spirits and was clearly doing well here. I'd rarely seen him so cheerful. Maybe it was getting away from Mother and Father. Maybe because of a book he found."

"A book?" asked Thora and Matthew in unison. "What book?" said Matthew.

Their reaction clearly startled Elisa. "That old book. Malleus Maleficarum . Isn't it at his apartment?"

"I don't know, I don't even know what book you're talking about exactly," said Matthew. "Did he show it to you?"

Elisa shook her head. "No, he hadn't got it yet." She paused. "Maybe he didn't manage to get it before he was murdered. It was just before then."

"Do you know if he was going to pick it up from someone?" asked Matthew. "Did he mention that?"

"No," replied Elisa. "Actually I didn't ask about itmaybe I should have."

"That doesn't make any difference," Matthew said. "But did he tell you anything about this book?"

Elisa's face lit up. "Yes. It was quite an awesome story. Let's see, how did it go again?" She thought for a moment before going on. "You remember his grandfather's old letters, don't you?" She addressed Matthew, who nodded in agreement. Thora did not want to interrupt by asking what letters they were talking about, but assumed she meant the letters from Innsbruck in the leather wallet. "Harald was like Grandfather," Elisa went on. "Fascinated by them, reading them over and over. He was convinced that the author had done something awful to Kramer in revenge for the way he treated his wife." She looked at Thora. "You know who Kramer was, don't you?"

It was Thora's turn to nod. "Yes, I've even had the misfortune to read his masterpiece, if that's the right word for The Witches' Hammer. "

"I've never bothered, but I know all about ityou can't avoid it in my family. Harald became obsessed with finding out what had happened. I tried to point out to him that it happened five hundred years ago and there was no chance of unearthing it now. But he always maintained that you could never rule anything out. The Church was involved and most of its documents have been preserved. He didn't give up, anywayhe enrolled in history to gain access to archives. Then he chose witch hunts to give the theme of his dissertation more credibility. Of course that was plain sailing, with his grandfather's collection in front of him and the old man's passion in his blood."

"So your grandfather was kind to him?" Thora asked, knowing the answer would be positive but nonetheless wanting it confirmed.

"Oh, yes," Elisa said. "They spent a lot of time together. Harald always sought his company, even when Grandfather was in the hospital on his deathbed. Understandably, Grandfather was much fonder of him than he was of the rest of us. Maybe because he felt Harald was the odd one out with our parents. Harald inherited his interest in history. They seemed able to pore over it endlessly."

"And did his research lead anywhere?" asked Thora. "Did he find anything out from all this?"

"Yes," replied Elisa. "So Harald claimed, at least. Through the university in Berlin he gained access to the Vatican archives and went to Rome after his second year. He spent a long time there, probably most of the summer. He said he'd found a document from Kramer demanding permission for a second witch hunthe claimed they'd stolen a copy of a book he had written. Kramer apparently said the book was invaluable to him, a manual on how to uproot sorcery and prosecute witches. He was worried they could use the book to curse him and wanted to reclaim it whatever the cost. Harald couldn't find the Vatican's answer to his request, but because Kramer apparently didn't go back to Innsbruck, it was probably rejected.

"Anyway, Harald became incredibly excited and thought he had discovered what was stolen from Kramer and sent all the way to hell: Kramer's draft of The Witches' Hammer, the oldest known version of that famous book. It wasn't identical to the edition published a year later, Harald said; presumably it was illustrated and handwritten. Kramer's coauthor, Springer, still had to make his contribution, and this was one of the main reasons for Harald's interest. Kramer's original manuscript would dispel all doubt as to who wrote what. Some people claim Springer had no hand in it at all."

"But didn't the thief send the manuscript straight to hell? Wasn't that the phrase?" asked Thora. "The obvious conclusion is that it was burned."

Elisa smiled. "The last letter to the Bishop of Brixen mentioned an emissary who was bound on a journey to hell and asked the Church to assist him on his way. So the book wasn't burned, at least not immediately."

Thora raised her eyebrows. "An emissary on a journey to hell, yes. Sounds like the most natural thing in the world."

Matthew smiled. "Quite." He took a sip of his wine.