Margit Sandemo - The Ice People 43 - A Glimpse of Tenderness

“Are you going to leave us?” the girls asked quickly.

“Oh, no. But I have been told by one of the black angels –”

“I know what it is,” said Rune in a low voice. “I just didn’t want to say it.”

“What is it?” asked Tova. “Come on. Out with it! Tell us what you know!”

As gently as possible, Marco said: “Tengel the Evil has struck at home, in all the houses.”

“What?” Tova howled. “But who? How has he done it?”

Marco let out a heavy sigh. “I have been very grieved ever since I was given the news. And I have been very uncertain about whether I should tell you. But the black angel believed that you ought to know what was going on.”

“Of course!” hissed Tova who was unconsciously holding his arm in a painfully hard grip. “If anything has happened to Mother or Father I’ll kill Tengel the Evil!”

Marco refrained from saying that that was precisely what they were all trying to do, but unfortunately their ancestor was immortal.

“No, Tova, your parents are still alive. He probably thought that breaking you was enough punishment for what we’re doing. Because it is clearly an act of revenge on his part, there is no question about it.”

“Yes, I know, he told me that time when I travelled through time. He wanted first and foremost to take revenge on his disloyal descendants. But what he has actually done?”

“One of our best fell at Linden Avenue: Benedikte.”

“Great-Grandma!” Tova’s voice cracked. “No, he didn’t!”

She started to cry.

Marco told her that Benedikte was now with her ancestors and had joined the flock of the spirits of the Ice People, which calmed Tova down a bit.

Then he told her about Hanne. And about Christel and Abel Gard.

“Nataniel’s father?” Tova gasped. “And little Christel ... she was just a child!”

“Oh, I don’t know. She was eighteen and it was really her own fault.”

“Yes, I understand, but still! I’m going to make him pay!”

She cried and sniffed and cursed Tengel the Evil in the most unimaginable ways.

She had sought out Morahan, who was sitting next to her, and he consolingly placed his arm around her shoulder as she made his jacket wet with her tears. The others let her cry; they weren’t as directly affected by the tragedy as she was.

“Tengel the Evil still doesn’t know who I am,” said Marco. “And I hope none of you have given me away?”

They all assured him that they hadn’t.

Tova had finally calmed down sufficiently to be able to speak. “Marco ... all of you ... this is getting us nowhere. Don’t you see that we keep running into a brick wall? No matter what we do, he always manages to get the upper hand.”

“Through his maliciousness, yes,” said Marco. “But he hasn’t defeated us yet. He must never get the chance to influence world history, he’ll always have his hands full dealing with us. And you all know that he can’t do any real harm until he has drunk from the water of evil.”

“What should we do?” asked Halkatla.

Marco gave the two ordinary humans a friendly glance. “First, Tova and Morahan should be allowed to get some rest. They must be dead tired by now. Tomorrow morning we’ll devise a strategy; I just need to think through the details first.”

“We’ll do as you say, Marco,” said Rune.

They had stopped south of Dombås, for they didn’t want to venture up the mountain at this late hour. Finding lodgings for the night was still a concern for them. If they stayed the night in a hotel or something similar, they risked their enemies setting fire to the place and innocent people dying. But they would be terribly vulnerable if they stayed outdoors.

They finally decided to stay in the car. The place where they had parked was as good, or as bad, as anywhere. And as things were now they felt that the car gave them the most protection.

They would have to take turns sleeping, they decided. Some of them may not have needed any sleep at all, but they didn’t worry about that. Everything was to be shared equally.

The space was cramped in the car. So Rune and Halkatla were the first to go outside and keep watch because those two weren’t in any danger. Human vulnerabilities to things like cold, hunger and fatigue didn’t bother them.

But none of the others fell asleep right away.

Ian Morahan lay awake for a long time. He was actually glad that he had something other than his own situation to think of. That was precisely why he had chosen to come on this dangerous journey, rather than sitting in a considerably calmer train.

He understood nothing. He couldn’t make sense of any of the things that had happened to him. Morahan was a matter-of-fact working man and didn’t have the typical Irish tendency to be superstitious. But now he would have to give it a second thought.

Unless he chose to brush it all off as dreams, he would have to make up his mind about what he thought it was.

What was it he had seen?

This much he understood. Everything he had experienced was connected with the initial shock he had received: the sight of the creature of the abyss in the tower.

Tengel the Evil, that was what they had called the figure.

And this family, the Ice People, were apparently the only ones who knew about the monster. They loathed him, that much Morahan was able to grasp.

But what about all the things he had seen on the road?

Rune? Who or what in the world was he? Was he human? What else could he be?

And Halkatla? She looked quite normal but there was something wrong with her. The way she spoke, the clothes she wore and the strange devilish glow in her eyes. He shuddered.

Not to mention Marco. Who was he? Had it not been so absurd to say so, Ian would have sworn he was some kind of angel. But angels were fair and gentle, he assumed. Marco was as black as night. It didn’t add up at all.

Ellen ... What a shame things had turned out that way for her. Ellen had been a wonderful acquaintance. She was not for Morahan, of course: she was already engaged and he himself was dying, but she was the kind of woman one could only dream of.

However, she was rather ordinary-looking. As opposed to Nataniel, who most certainly wasn’t. He couldn’t quite place his finger on what it was, it was just something intuitive, the sense of seeing something extraordinary in another living being.

And then there was Tova. Morahan sighed instinctively. Being born so hopelessly ugly shouldn’t be allowed. She looked prematurely old, like a wicked old witch but much too young: one of the worst, in other words. She was both aggressive and insolent, but Morahan understood her. It was self-defence, of course! Offence is the best form of defence.

And yet these creatures were his allies. What he had observed on the enemy’s side was considerably worse.

Or had he really seen them? The monster in the tower? The monster that erupted from the surface of the road?

He was inclined to believe that these had been hallucinations. Nightmarish figures in the last phase of his life.

Tova curled up in her corner in the back of the car and felt rather pathetic. Kind, old Benedikte dead? She couldn’t believe it. Benedikte had always been there. She had been created at the same time that the world began, Tova felt. As for the others who had become victims of Tengel the Evil’s anger, she hadn’t been particularly close to Hanne, Christel and Abel Gard, even though of course she also grieved for them.

But what had happened to Ellen was horrible! Her poor parents! And Nataniel!

She knew that Nataniel and Gabriel had ended up in hospital and that their condition wasn’t critical. That was what Halkatla and Rune had said.

Tova’s thoughts wandered a little. She thought of the three men accompanying her: Rune, Marco and Morahan.