Margit Sandemo - The Ice People 25 - The Angel

The Angel

The Legend of the Ice People 25 - The Angel

© Margit Sandemo 1984

© eBook in English: Jentas A/S, 2018

Series: The Legend of The Ice People

Title: The Angel

Title number: 25

Original title: Ängel med dolda horn

Translator: Anna Halager

© Translation: Jentas A/S

ISBN: 978-87-7107-588-5

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchase.

All contracts and agreements regarding the work, translation, editing, and layout are owned by Jentas A/S.

Acknowledgement

The legend of the Ice People is dedicated with love and gratitude to the memory of my dear late husband Asbjorn Sandemo, who made my life a fairy tale.

Margit Sandemo

The Ice People - Reviews

‘Margit Sandemo is, simply, quite wonderful.’

- The Guardian

‘Full of convincing characters, well estabished in time and place, and enlightening ... will get your eyes popping, and quite possibly groins twitching ... these are graphic novels without pictures ... I want to know what happens next.’

- The Times

‘A mixure of myth and legend interwoven with historical events, this is imaginative creation that involves the reader from the first page to the last.’

- Historical Novels Review

‘Loved by the masses, the prolific Margit Sandemo has written over 172 novels to date and is Scandinavia s most widely read author...’

- Scanorama magazine

The Legend of the Ice People

The legend of the Ice People begins many centuries ago with Tengel the Evil. He was ruthless and greedy, and there was only one way to get everything that he wanted: he had to make a pact with the devil. He travelled far into the wilderness and summoned the devil with a magic potion that he had brewed in a pot. Tengel the Evil gained unlimited wealth and power but in exchange, he cursed his own family. One of his descendants in every generation would serve the Devil with evil deeds. When it was done, Tengel buried the pot. If anyone found it, the curse would be broken.

So the curse was passed down through Tengel’s descendants, the Ice People. One person in every generation was born with yellow cat’s eyes, a sign of the curse, and magical powers which they used to serve the Devil. One day the most powerful of all the cursed Ice People would be born.

This is what the legend says. Nobody knows whether it is true, but in the 16th century, a cursed child of the Ice People was born. He tried to turn evil into good, which is why they called him Tengel the Good. This legend is about his family. Actually, it is mostly about the women in his family – the women who held the fate of the Ice People in their hands.

Chapter 1

Tula Backe was perfect in every way, the kind of child any parents would want: robust, kind-hearted, chubby and cheerful. There were no problems with her whatsoever when she was small. Golden curls, always wearing an inquisitive look on her face, and a broad, ready smile in a thoroughly healthy face. She was also sweet. A gorgeous little dumpling you wanted to give a big hug to.

Visitors to the house would say: “What a charming little girl you have, Gunilla and Erland! A little gem, a little angel!”

But Tula was a devil! It was just that she didn’t tell anyone.

All the Ice People were sure that the child Gunilla had lost (their first, born prematurely) must have been the stricken one of that generation, because the three others – Anna Maria, Tula and Eskil – were all so sweet!

Tula was the only one who knew that things weren’t quite right with her. That is to say, she was really thrilled to be one of the stricken. But she was a sly and very intelligent child, and used to joke that she was “the angel with hidden horns”.

She also had a good sense of humour. This was where she differed from Sölve, with whom she otherwise had a lot in common. Sölve had never been able to laugh at himself. Otherwise the two of them were similar in the sense that he had also succeeded in hiding his special quirks. But Sölve was late to grasp that he was cursed, whereas Tula knew right from the beginning that there was something wrong with her. She couldn’t remember precisely when it dawned on her because it was as if she had known it all along. For just as long, she had understood that she must cherish and conceal what she knew.

At a very early age, Tula realized that people tend to like a cheerful and compliant child, so this was what she became – on the surface, that is. And she had the time of her life. If, from time to time, this pious behaviour became too sickening for her, she would quietly swear to herself. Curses that she had picked up from the farm boys. She had a unique talent for knowing which expressions had the most shocking effect; she would save them up in her mind and feast on them when she was alone.

Like many of her predecessors, including Sol, she absolutely adored her parents. She also adored her grandfather, Arv. They were the best friends in the world, and heaven help anyone who hurt Grandfather or Grandmother Siri, or her parents, Gunilla and Erland! Tula could be fearsome – in secret, of course.

There were plenty of people she didn’t care for. Nevertheless, she had discovered that Arvid Posse, who was the local member of parliament and the estate owner at Bergqvara, was a nice old man. He basked in Tula’s favour, though of course he knew nothing about it. There was a lot that the people of Bergqvara didn’t know about Tula. Take, for instance, the time when a farmhand with narrow, cunning eyes had been hired to work on the estate farm. Tula was about five years old at the time and so chubby and lovely that the local women would fool about and tell her she was delicious and as sweet as honey.

Nobody knew that the new farmhand belonged to a gang of robbers, or that years ago Count Posse, when a magistrate, had sentenced him to prison. It was ages ago when he was a young man, and Count Posse would not have recognized him now because he was middle-aged with poor teeth and persistent stubble. In any case, the estate owner rarely saw his farmhands because they were the responsibility of the farm bailiff.

The farmhand was known as Olle Creep, and that name alone ought to have made them cautious. He had come to Bergqvara for one reason only: to take revenge on the bastard who had had the nerve to sentence him and his cronies to the jailhouse. Most of the other gang members were dead now. But he was alive – and he wanted revenge!

It was a dreadful shame that Count Posse wasn’t very often at Bergqvara. He spent most of his time in Stockholm where he was a greatly respected politician. One couldn’t help fretting about it! But right now, he was at home.

It was late spring and the estate owner was inspecting his property.

It’s now or never, thought Olle Creep.

He had a rifle that he had stolen from a soldier he had been forced to silence forever. That couldn’t be helped – he had also needed to get hold of the ammunition and the soldier had been unwilling to hand it over. The rifle was hidden up in the hayloft. Olle Creep peered about with a sinister look in his eyes. There was nobody around. Nobody except the little girl who lived on the judge’s farm. The one they called an angel. Olle Creep sneered at the name, but in his heart of hearts he had to agree that it was fitting. He had never seen a more adorable child. She was by no means a small, dainty elf but a chubby, cheerful ray of sunshine. You might never meet such a gorgeous child again in a lifetime.