Margit Sandemo - The Ice People 23 - Rituals

Impulsive as Vinga was, she also opened the door to her own bedroom, revealing various indiscretions such as a scattering of underwear and a certain negligent attitude on the part of the hostess. But she had, after all, been preoccupied with making herself smart for the feast.

“Oh my,” she laughed, shutting the baroque door behind her. “Well, a very muddled sort of person lives in there – let’s not mention any names!”

But Nils merely laughed. He was already utterly captivated by Vinga. “Sometimes you just need to be yourself.”

“How I love you for saying so!” Vinga cheered, giving him a quick hug.

“You shouldn’t take her at her word,” Heike said sharply. “She is very liberal with her compliments.”

The other two laughed with effortless ease, and for the first time Heike felt real jealousy burning within him.

On their way downstairs Heike asked Nils to go out and wait in the carriage, because he had some business to discuss with his ward.

“You’re not turning my guest out, are you?” Vinga objected. “He can wait in front of the fire and you and I can go into my office. Well, it’s the library really, but I call it my office when I want to sound important and impress my creditors. Come on, Heike. He wants to play the guardian, you see, Nils.”

It was dark in the library. Heike wanted to light some candles but Vinga didn’t think it was necessary. It would be more intimate in the dark!

And that was exactly what Heike was afraid of!

They spoke in low voices so that they couldn’t be heard outside the room. He was finally able to ask her about her wounded hand.

“I was attacked,” Vinga murmured as she stood painfully close to him. “I had been to the cemetery and was on the way home when one of you-know-who’s men sprang out from behind the bushes. He had a knife. But I had a knee. He was writhing on the ground by the time I ran away.”

Heike gave her good hand a squeeze. “It’s high time that something was done about all this.”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“You are not to go out any more! I’ll come back on Thursday.”

“Heike, there was something about the blood of a goat in one of the recipes. And some from a cockerel. And it’s to be blended with the blood of a virgin. Heike, I refuse to kill an animal!”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ve taken care of that. I didn’t slaughter the goat, I just made a small cut. Its wound has already healed.”

“That sounds good! And the cockerel?”

“That was even easier. That’s been seen to as well.”

“But there was more! In one of the other potions there’s the head of a black cat. Heike, I can’t bear it. I love animals!”

“That head of a black cat is already a part of the Ice People’s collection. It’s completely dried up and probably several centuries old, but there’s nothing we can do about that. It was probably consecrated by some old witch, which only makes it even more powerful. But Vinga, you mentioned something about creditors. Are you in trouble?”

She slumped a little. “Yes, but you weren’t supposed to know about it.”

“Are you mad? That’s what I’m here for! Well?”

“I had to buy fodder as we had run out. And now I can’t pay the bill.”

“How much do you owe?”

Vinga told him and he promised that he would try to help her.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “What would I do without you? Have you managed to collect everything you need for Thursday night?”

“Yes, with Nils’s help.”

“Does he know about it?”

“No, are you mad? If this were to ever get out we would both end up in jail. Or worse: people might take matters into their own hands and burn us at the stake. Do you like Nils?” he concluded in an insecure tone of voice.

“Yes, of course!”

My heart just died, Heike thought. But it didn’t.

“I have a potion,” he accidentally thought aloud.

“What potion?”

“Oh, no, nothing.”

She grabbed hold of his arm. “Do you mean the potion you got from Sol? You mentioned it once. The one that kills your desire?” she hissed. “That will extinguish your feelings for me? Why would you do that?”

“So that you can be free.”

“I never asked to be free! Don’t you dare take it! You mustn’t!”

She was crying, the tears running down her cheeks. “You’re mine,” she whimpered, in a half-smothered voice.

Was it possible to stand one’s ground when confronted with this?

“I won’t take it,” he promised her. “Even if it should cost me all joy in life, I won’t take it.”

Then she dried her tears and was once again the carefree Vinga.

The conversation was over and they returned to Nils.

“Please come back again soon,” she cooed, throwing her arms around Nils as she said farewell, making Heike boiling mad. “Both of you!”

Heike himself got a hasty kiss on the cheek, as though he were an old uncle, and then they started on the journey back to the city. Vinga waved to them with her bandaged hand.

Night was falling and the snow seemed greyer than before. The sky was an intense blue-grey and the air was sharp: there wasn’t the slightest sign of spring.

Heike was worried about the Thursday to come. They were to undress, both he and Vinga. Outside in the cold, moonlit night.

The thought that both Ingrid and Ulvhedin had been through the same ritual comforted him a little. But perhaps they had been fortunate enough to have summer weather.

He doubted whether Sol had had to go through with such a morbid ceremony. Sol had been a witch, born with the ability to consort with spirits and demons and the dead.

Heike was like Tengel the Good. Tengel had intentionally avoided the treasure of the Ice People except when he could use it to help cure the sick. But he must have felt the same fascination with it as Heike did now.

Heike had left the treasure at Elistrand. He didn’t want to have it in his own home. He sensed that it might gain power over him and lure out his evil self, which he always tried to keep in check. For the evil was present within him just as it had been in all the cursed members of the Ice People. The good Tengel had often had to fight bitter battles with himself. Heike didn’t struggle so much in that way, but he knew that terrible thoughts could emerge from his subconscious every so often. Then he would get frightened and take long, lonely walks until he had settled down again. It had been like that all his life. And it would continue to be like that.

He looked at Nils secretly but could no longer feel jealous in the same way of the fact that Vinga was soon to belong to someone else. Nils was much too likable for that. But Heike’s sorrow was enormous. It gnawed through his entire soul, forcing tears out of his eyes.

Had he been created more like a normal man, without the heavy burden of the cursed, he would have fought for her love. He wouldn’t have introduced her to Nils. But the way things were, he had to give her the chance of a different life.

Nils talked enthusiastically about what a wonderful girl she was and Heike nodded.

“Promise to take me with you next time you go there.”

Well, maybe not next time because that will be Thursday, Heike thought. But he promised that he would, another time.

“You see, I have a girl back in my village,” Nils confided to him. “A girl I write to. But she’s nothing compared to Vinga!”

Heike grew cold inside. Just what had he managed to initiate? Why hadn’t he checked first? Was he now about to ruin a perfectly good relationship between Nils and another girl? And hurt that girl badly? How clumsy he was! Now it seemed he had managed to complicate life for everyone!