Margit Sandemo - The Ice People 46 - The Black Water

“I know what you mean. But apart from the buzzards, there surely aren’t any animals here. If they knew they would be following everything we do with trembling hearts.”

“Exactly!”

Gabriel tried to stick as close as possible to them on the stony slopes. “Those others,” he whispered. “They’ve gone.”

Tova peered down at the moor with its thin covering of snow. It was true what Gabriel had said. The eerie, black-dressed, deathly pale creatures that nobody could identify had disappeared. Just as inconspicuously and quietly as they had turned up.

They all breathed a sigh of relief.

“It occurs to me that we haven’t eaten today,” said Ian. “Yet I’m not hungry.”

“How can that be possible?” muttered Marco. “I haven’t thought of food for a second.”

“Nor me,” they all said at the same time.

They had experienced many shocking days, but this one was the worst of their lives.

And yet they didn’t know what awaited them, and perhaps that was just as well.

Nataniel was concerned because dusk was falling. He wanted so desperately to carry out his task in a bright, hopeful dawn. Evening meant that everyone felt tired and dejected.

But they couldn’t wait till the next morning. They only had this brief evening hour in which to walk.

Nataniel wasn’t afraid of his task. After all, now that he had lost Ellen, he had nothing to live for. He might just as well risk his life – which was precisely what he was doing. But he worried about Gabriel. Nataniel knew his sister-in-law well enough to know that Karine wouldn’t be able to bear the loss of her only child. He also didn’t want anything to happen to Ian. Marco would be able to manage. But how Tova would fare Nataniel didn’t know.

She was happy now that she had met Ian. Nataniel didn’t want her to experience new sorrow and adversity. Or even to die. If it was true that she was to have a child, then she ought to be allowed to see that child in the future. She and Ian.

Oh, dear, the future? Where was it?

Suddenly, Nataniel felt his burden like a bag of concrete on his shoulders. Everything rested on him. He had to see to it that Tova and Ian, and everyone else in the world, had a future.

He stopped and felt the icy wind penetrate to his marrow. The Valley of the Ice People lay there in the dusk: cold, watchful and secretive. The snow on the other side now looked blue. The frozen lake was criss-crossed by dark cracks that heralded spring. The mountaintops cast long shadows; the valley and the mountains were calm. From far below, they could hear the monotonous roar of the river, otherwise everything was as silent as the grave.

That was exactly what the Valley of the Ice People was: a grave. This was where so many of those who had once lived here were buried. Most of them had been outsiders, but there were also descendants of the Ice People. Near where Nataniel stood now was Kolgrim’s lonely grave. It had to be under that slope over there.

Behind them was the vessel containing the evil water. Now they were walking away from it. They wanted to see what Tengel the Evil had hidden in the 'other place'.

None of them had any idea what that could be.

It was difficult to make progress close to the mountain wall, so they had to walk some way away from it. When Tova spoke, an unexpectedly loud echo came from the slopes.

She shouted to Nataniel: “If only we could have had some of our helpers with us here. Benedikte, for instance, with her ability to see behind things. See their story.”

“Tula also possesses that gift,” Nataniel answered, and his voice was also thrown back at them. “She’s able to see straight through walls.”

“We could certainly use her assistance right now,” muttered Gabriel.

“And Heike, with his ability to sense vibrations of death and much else.”

“I would have liked Targenor to be here,” said Marco. “He possesses incredible powers.”

Suddenly, all four of them stopped.

Nataniel felt it and turned around. His eyes expressed horror.

They were all silent for a while.

Then Marco said slowly: “I don’t think we need them. Not Benedikte, or Tula, or Heike, or Targenor, or anybody else.”

Nataniel was confused. “What do you mean?”

“You’re shining,” said Tova, matter-of-factly. “You’re shining with a blue flame.”

Nataniel lifted his arm and looked at it. He twisted and turned his hand. Stretched out his foot a bit.

Everything was surrounded by a strong, metallic glow, as if he was dressed in electrified armour. He felt so strong, so ... full of enormous strength. His brain was as clear as glass, his knowledge unlimited, his willpower invincible.

Suddenly he smiled. They had not seen Nathaniel smile for a long time. Since the loss of Ellen, only seriousness had marked his noble face.

He laughed nervously. “I seem to be ready for my task.”

“Oh, absolutely!” gasped Tova.

He straightened his back. “Yes. I’m ready for the struggle. My time of being irresolute is over!”

They breathed out. All of them.

“Well, what do we do now?” Marco asked, allowing Nataniel to decide matters.

He stretched out his arms sideways. He tested them, lifting them with his palms turned upwards. It seemed that he was receiving information. Nobody was sending it and yet he knew. He grabbed it out of the air.

“Good God, my abilities are strong,” he whispered in surprise.

None of them reacted to the fact that Nataniel had invoked God. They knew that he meant it literally. His legacy from his father had given him a strong anchoring in religion, even if he had often quarrelled with his father, Abel Gard, about precisely that.

“What are you discovering?” Ian asked discreetly.

“There’s a lot here,” murmured Nataniel.

Marco interrupted him: “I’m also picking it up. But I don’t understand what it is.”

Nataniel stood completely still as if he was trying to fathom his emotions. He said: “I believe that we ... I think it will be a tough struggle. Tengel the Evil hasn’t made things easy for us.”

“Has anybody tried to give you that impression?” asked Tova mockingly.

“No, but there are many more obstacles ahead of us than we thought,” said Nataniel. “There’s a strong chance that he may arrive before we do.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” asked Marco.

“You’re right. Our first objective is the ‘other place’.”

“Can you sense that?”

“Yes, it’s a very intense sensation, and it’s much more important when solving the riddle than we realized before.”

“What do you feel?”

Nataniel concentrated. “I don’t know. It’s so very strange.”

“Dangerous?”

“Definitely! But most of all ... strange! Come, let’s go on. It’s ahead of us somewhere.”

Gabriel still stood there. Then he turned around. “We haven’t heard him for a long time now.”

“Tan-ghil?” said Marco. “No, not since he plunged down to the moor with his heavy burden on top of him.”

“Do you think he died?”

“No, he didn’t. But I hope he was inconvenienced for a while.”

Then they all dared to smile cautiously. But it was a stiff smile. They weren’t yet so hardened against possible future dangers that they had become foolhardy. So far, they felt a great deal of anxiety in their hearts.

They crept slowly along between the cliffs that rose from the dead, ancient landscape.

Suddenly, they all stopped, as Nataniel held up his hand towards them. They had reached an open space between the cliffs. It was full of boulders that had tumbled down from the mountains above, but with some optimism it might be called a plateau, or even a glade.