Margit Sandemo - The Ice People 29 - Lucifer´s Love

Paul was a man with two sides: archangel – and devil? That might be taking things to extremes, she thought with a certain irony.

She never began the narrative of the Ice People, because at that moment the driver and his assistant walked in.

“Oh, here’s the young Miss,” the driver said. “You gentlemen were also going to Norway, is that right?”

“Yes.”

“Have the other passengers retired for the night?”

“Yes.”

“I’m afraid I have bad news for you. There won’t be any journey to Norway.”

“What? Why not?” Saga exclaimed. “But I must get to Norway.”

“I can’t help that. They’ve closed the border. It would seem that there is an outbreak of cholera in this area, and the Norwegians won’t allow it to spread to Norway.”

“Cholera?” Saga said weakly. “Here? Well, so there might be cholera in this inn?”

“The landlord says no, you can rest assured. There’s nothing wrong with the food here. But we won’t be going any farther, I’m afraid. The mail must wait here until the border is opened again. And I’ll be on my way back. Sorry, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

They had all got to their feet and were now staring at one another. Saga noticed that she was the shortest of them, which wasn’t surprising. Marcel was almost a head taller than her, and Count Paul seemed over-dimensioned, even if the two men were really equally tall.

The thunderstorm had drifted away and could be heard roaring in the distance; occasional, distant flashes lit up the crooked panes. It was late, and the three of them were now the only ones in the taproom.

“I simply have to get to Norway,” Saga repeated.

“So do I,” said Marcel.

“Me, too,” said Paul resolutely. “We’ll take my coach.”

Marcel objected: “We’ll never be able to cross the border.”

“We will, if we follow the roads over the wolves’ fields.”

“What roads do they have there?”

Saga shuddered. She had heard about the wolves’ fields. They were wild forest regions that straddled the border between Finland and Norway. Remote moors and bogs, dotted with small groves and the occasional pine tree. And deep spruce forests where only silence, bears and wolves ruled – hence the name. This was a realm of wild animals, where mysticism lived in the shriek of the horned owl and the wail of the loon, and where legends of witchcraft bred and grew, like all the other nameless creatures of the scrub and the water.

Count Paul went on in a low voice. “We’ll take the coach as far as possible along the forest road. We’ll leave tomorrow morning, before dawn, before the others are awake. Right now, it’s raining too hard and the horses are tired – and so are we,” he said with a smile. “Then my driver will have to wait with the coach and try to cross as soon as the border opens again. We’ll cross on foot.”

Marcel looked questioningly at Saga: “That’s fine with me. I’m used to walking, so I’ll say yes, please. But what about you, my girl? Can you manage it?”

It was really nice to be called “girl” when you were twenty-four and divorced.

“Yes, certainly, I’m strong. I’ll also say yes, please, Paul.”

They arranged with the innkeeper to be called in the morning and paid their bills. Then they went up to their rooms – except Marcel, who was going to sleep in the stable.

Saga was confused. Everything was happening much too quickly. So many new impressions and new friends ...

And the men she had met! They triggered fantasies in her that she had never been troubled with before! Urgently, anxiously: “You don’t have time, Saga! You simply haven’t the time for this. You must be on your way to Graastensholm. This is unexpected, it’s a trap: don’t rise to the bait, break loose!”

Her dream was very unclear, and in the morning Saga found it difficult to decide whether it was fact or fiction. Besides, how much could you rely on a dream? Wasn’t it her instinct telling her to back out because she was embarking on something dangerous? That she shouldn’t venture into the fatal wolves’ fields with two strangers? She shuddered as she got dressed in the grey, cold morning. Everything was quiet outside. The rain had stopped, but steam rose like floating fog banks above the ground, moving in the direction of the forest.

At that moment, the wolves’ fields seemed far away and the thought of them was extremely frightening.

Why? When she was never scared?

She had to admit that her attitude to life was certainly changing! She was faced with something entirely new!

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