Margit Sandemo - The Ice People 19 - Dragon´s Teeth

Johan Gabriel took a big gulp of his beer and said, “I must say, you have fortune on your side when it comes to the ladies, Sölve! I have never seen our history teacher more furious than he was yesterday. But it serves him right because he has always treated me badly and I have never known why.”

Sölve just nodded. He had long been irritated by the history teacher’s unjust treatment of the meek Johan Gabriel and he had decided to give the teacher a lesson on behalf of his friend.

“But how did you manage to steal his fine little maiden?” Johan Gabriel asked admiringly. “I don’t understand it, because she has always looked up to that fool like a god.”

“Simple,” said Sölve, with a smile full of self-irony. “It’s just my irresistible charm ...” He has no idea just how true that is, he thought to himself. When I want something, my willpower is irresistible. He remembered how bold he had felt when he had wished for the teacher’s little sweetheart to come over to his, Sölve’s, table after telling the teacher a few home truths.

She had done it! She had announced to her idol that she thought he was boring and self-righteous and that she preferred the company of more exciting men, whereupon she had gone over to sit at the table where Sölve was eating in the big faculty dining hall. It had created an uproar, and the teacher had left the room in a rage. Sölve had some difficulty afterwards in getting rid of the lady, whom he had no intention of getting to know more intimately. Very confused and rather humiliated, the beauty had retreated and gone home to get away from Sölve’s cold behaviour.

He ought to have felt guilty about her and he did. For a moment. Then he forgot about her.

The sound of Johan Gabriel’s voice jolted Sölve out of his memories. “There is no question that you have charm. Those deep brown eyes ... But did you know that when the sun shines on them they don’t look nearly as brown, or dark, as you think they are? Have you noticed that they are filled with yellow spots? They’re speckled like the wings of a butterfly.”

At that Sölve winced and resolved to be more on his guard. It would probably be best if he were a little more careful!

That evening he examined his eyes closely for a long time in the mirror. But the night was not a good time because his pupils were dilated and the light was too weak. His eyes looked completely black.

But as he looked in the mirror he realized that Johan Gabriel had been right. He was good-looking now. His features had grown more masculine; in a world of endless wigs and white powdered hair, his dark brown curls gave him an exotic look that probably both attracted and repelled women. Indeed, wasn’t it this slightly repulsive, foreign-looking element that attracted them? His eyes had a suggestive power of attraction – even he could see that. He gave the impression of being a romantic sort of lover, quite different from the starry-eyed nobleman Johan Gabriel. More dangerous, more frightening, more direct and erotic. The slow smile of the mouth ...

Well now, was he really standing there, going into raptures about himself? Sölve had to laugh at such conceit. Because in themselves his features were not so special. The tip of his nose, for example, and his bony jaw ... but those weren’t things you’d notice.

He pondered. He was, of course, unable to judge for himself. But now he was in danger. His minor manipulations might be discovered. The escapade with the teacher’s little admirer had been a bit thoughtless.

And then his eyes ...!

Johan Gabriel had discovered something that no one else had seen, except perhaps Ulvhedin: that there was a dash of yellow in his eyes.

Had it always been there? Or had it come gradually? Would it ultimately fill the entire iris?

Sölve didn’t know. But the danger was certainly there. He had been playing with fire and would have to restrain himself for a while now.

In a way he felt a sense of responsibility for Johan Gabriel. If Sölve was caught for one of his small, semi-criminal actions it would rebound on his friend. And Johan Gabriel did not deserve that. He was an unusually fine and sensitive man, whom Sölve genuinely liked, despite his otherwise very egocentric character.

But gradually, as the term progressed, Sölve came to realize that his position in the university town was unsustainable. The history professor put all his efforts into intimidating Sölve in revenge for what he had done, and even though Sölve could easily have struck back at the unpleasant teacher, he neither wanted nor dared to.

So when Johan Gabriel completed his studies at Uppsala and moved to Stockholm to work at the chancellery, Sölve ended his studies as well and returned home. However, he was only halfway through his course and had to promise his father that he would return to finish it later on. But for now all he wanted was to come home and help out on the farm, he said. He had had enough of Uppsala for a while.

He received a letter from Johan Gabriel in which the latter told him that he wasn’t enjoying life in the big city or doing well in his job at the chancellery. He was poor so he couldn’t afford any amusements. He was homesick for Skenäs. He would fall in love from time to time, but only from a distance: he was partial to pining unhappily for beautiful women, the good Johan Gabriel. And he detested the city with all his heart.

The situation was unsatisfactory for both friends. Sölve was unhappy as well, because the restlessness in his mind continued to grow and he was not at all pleased at having to deal with Stina again. He had hoped that she would have been married in the meantime and have calmed down, but no! She insisted on having the young man again and she was beginning to be a danger to him. Sölve was dreadfully afraid that he might do something drastic about her. His fingers itched to silence her for good, and that was a feeling that utterly frightened him. Until then the curse of the Ice People had remained at a rather harmless level inside him. He was now aware of other, more staggering depths.

The worst thing was the shift he had felt within him when it came to his own sense of responsibility, his feeling that the laws other people abided by were not to be taken seriously. The desire to do whatever he wanted with other people’s lives was beginning to get out of hand. He was supreme! He was one of the witch-masters of the Ice People! He was above all human misery! Actually, he should have thought of himself as being way below humanity. But those of the Ice People who were cursed never thought that way.

Another thing worried him. His sister Ingela had tartly commented that his eyes were starting to look “watered down”. “Watered down?” he had answered resentfully. “Well, they are lighter,” she had said. “They shine more.”

They were always bickering with each other. She had said it so nonchalantly, she had probably not associated his eyes with the Ice People in any way. But it had scared Sölve.

The farm work wasn’t enough for him, he soon discovered. And Ingela was never at home. She had started daydreaming about the young men in the area, and took to rushing around the local roads with a friend on more or less necessary errands for their mother and father. As young girls have always done from the dawn of time. Sölve, who saw through her and thought what he was witnessing was truly disgusting, would tease her about it.

That was the situation when two things suddenly happened at once and the problem of living at home was solved.

Johan Gabriel returned home with a tempting proposition for Sölve. On top of that his father received a letter from grandmother Ingrid at Gråstensholm.

“Now listen, children,” Daniel said as he gathered his two expectant children in the fine drawing room. Their mother was also present but did not have the same strong personality as the others. She just tagged along. She was like a kitchen utensil that, although it was well liked and would be missed if it were to disappear, was otherwise taken for granted.