C4 Chapter 4

Ingvar Strand was back at the helm when Nataniel reached the bridge. He shouted angrily at Winsnes, “Didn’t you hear what I said? We’ve got something foul in the cargo! The entire ship is full of vermin!”

Winsnes’ face was stern and tired, he didn’t understand a word of it.

The ship’s boy, Egil Strand, was also lounging about there. When Nataniel arrived, he disappeared down the stairs but not before giving his brother a sly, scornful look that sent shivers down Nataniel’s spine.

It’s a good thing Ellen is safe, he thought.

Outside the window the night was pitch dark, with smoky foam crests above the surface of the sea. Every so often the Stella would plunge down into the waves at breakneck speed or tilt to one side, the effect of which was more pronounced when you were standing on an elevated spot on the ship. Before them over the high sea flashed the little lighthouse.

“Where is Tova?” Nataniel asked suddenly.

“She had to obey the call of nature,” Winsnes said. “That girl knows how to take care of herself, that’s for sure.”

“You can say that again,” Nataniel muttered under his breath. Then in a louder voice he said, “The wind is pretty strong, huh?”

“Yes, but Stella has been out in much harsher weather than this,” Winsnes explained. “And we are steering way clear of the spit.”

Nataniel stood looking towards the old ship graveyard, which they were approaching with every thump of the engine. His gaze grew distant and the darkness gave way to his inner vision. Suddenly he had a sequence of spontaneous visions.

Nataniel’s eyes became blind to the present as they penetrated time and the evening darkness.

A full-rigged ship was dashed by the waves. He could hear the cries for help through the powerful roar of the sea. The masts broke, the boat listed and began to sink. Small fishing boats put up a hopeless fight against the underwater reefs as they were drawn under, one after the other. An old vessel, so old that Nataniel couldn’t identify it, lay knocking up against the cliff; it had clearly been there for a long time. There were no survivors anywhere to be seen. He heard cries coming from other boats, cries from those who were drowning and whose cries had fallen silent long ago. He saw shipwrecks that were stripped of everything so that they resembled black skeletons, and he saw shipwreck robbers sailing out on the calm waters to reap whatever they could get their hands on after the storm.

Dazed, he returned to himself on the little Stella.

All at once he knew the source of that terrible sense of fear that he had felt when he first went on board the ship. It derived from the time he had met that man on the street in Oslo. “You won’t be the first, nor the last,” he had said on that occasion. No, he hadn’t been the first, but after him no one had perished on board the Stella. And tonight was her last voyage ...

Who – and how many – would be her final victims?

An iron bar had come loose and was knocking against something metallic. It sounded like a cracked bell ringing a death knell. Clumsy and persistent.

“We’re there,” muttered Winsnes.

Nataniel suddenly saw that they were right in front of the tall cliff. The Stella sea-sawed back and forth like a plastered drunk, rocking almost hysterically in order to pass by. They had to keep a firm grip in order not to fall, and Nataniel clenched his teeth and thought about what he would do if the boat sprang a leak. First and foremost, Ellen. And Tova and some rescue equipment ...

The faint echo of a scream reached them from the afterdeck. They all started, including Ingvar Strand.

At that very same moment the engine stopped.

“Turn her into the wind!” Winsnes shouted to Strand. “We’re going to go down and check things out.”

Nataniel followed him as he almost skidded down the stairs. Nataniel stopped at Ellen’s door for a second, hammered on the door and shouted: “Unlock the door and find a life preserver! And find Tova! I don’t know where she is. I’ll be right there!”

He didn’t get an answer, so he hammered once more before running to the iron door of the engine room.

He and Winsnes rushed down the steep steps. It seemed as though no one had control of the Stella. Nataniel hoped with all his heart that they had passed the danger zone, but down there he could see nothing.

The engineer, Bent Strand, looked up with a grumpy expression on his face. He looked like the other two but was considerably older and bald.

“I’ll handle this myself,” he said angrily to Winsnes. “It’s just a trivial matter. But you’d better check the foremost bulkhead. Water is coming in!”

He opened an iron trapdoor in the stem. Winsnes bent and crawled inside, then signalled to Nataniel to follow him. Somewhat hesitantly Nataniel obeyed. Winsnes clearly needed assistance. The inside of the hull had a pervasive smell of tar.

“But there’s no water here!” Winsnes shouted.

The light from the engine room grew more and more faint and was finally gone. The hatch door closed behind them with a resounding thud and they were in darkness.

“What in the...? Strand! Let us out!” Winsnes shouted.

They groped for the latch but the door wouldn’t budge. “Why, I’ve never ...” said Winsnes with a slight tremor in his voice. “Why, they’ve gone completely mad. What is the meaning of this?”

The engine restarted.

“It was planned,” said Nataniel doggedly. “That was what they were up to up on the bridge.”

He interrupted himself. It hadn’t been Bent Strand but Egil who had been up there.

“But why?” Winsnes asked in a shrill voice. “And how long are we to wait?”

“What about the trip back to Blåsvika?” Nataniel asked. “Will there be many passengers on board then?”

“I doubt it. It will most likely just be those three Strand boys who’ll be on board, especially now that no one wants to sail on the Stella.”

“But someone’s bound to notice it if we don’t reach the islands.”

“Who? No, I’m afraid we’re trapped. What are we to do? And what sort of nonsense is this?”

Nataniel’s thoughts revolved around only one thing. No matter what train of thought he started it always ended with thoughts of Ellen.

But perhaps that was the solution after all?

“Sorry, but could I ask you to be quiet for a moment?” he asked. “I’m going to try to get in contact with Ellen. I just hope she isn’t sleeping.”

“What?” Winsnes asked stupidly, but he kept quiet anyway.

Nataniel sat with his back against the slightly inclined hull. He focused all his thoughts on Ellen’s cabin. Winsnes moaned audibly – he had a lot of questions he wanted to ask. The tarry smell was corrosively potent.

Nataniel straightened up. “She’s not there,” he said, horrified. “What an idiot I am! I asked her to unlock the door and find a life preserver. What if she ...”

He grew quiet again. The Stella wasn’t rocking as much as before: they were no longer in the stormy area.

“I can’t seem to make any contact with her,” Nataniel muttered. “I don’t understand where she could be.” His voice was hoarse with apprehension.

“She couldn’t have been ...” Winsnes began.

“No, she must be on board because I haven’t heard any cries for help. And she certainly isn’t dead because I would have sensed that immediately. No, it’s oddly quiet. She must be sleeping,” he said with great astonishment.

Winsnes was a little confused. “But didn’t she answer you when you knocked on her door just now?”

“No, she didn’t,” said Nataniel. “I was in such a rush, I thought you needed my assistance.”

“Did you try the door?”

“No. What if she had already left at that point?”

That was a frightening thought. The scream coming from the deck. The Strand brothers. Where was the third one ... Egil? If only they had never sailed off on the Stella!

“But ... what about the other girl you had with you? The ... strange one?”

Tova! Good God, in all his anxiety for Ellen’s well-being he had completely forgotten about Tova! Probably because he somehow knew that the unfortunate little girl always managed to land on her feet no matter the situation. He was never anxious for Tova. He was ashamed of himself now.

“Of course! I’ll try to contact her instead! But you’ll have to be completely still. You are not to touch me or make any sound whatsoever. The only thing you can do is breathe. It demands great concentration and I don’t know whether I’ll be able to go through with it.”

“I’ll keep my trap shut, but first I need to take my snuff.”

“You do that,” Nataniel said, laughing, but his face was rigid with tension and fear. Where was Ellen? And why hadn’t she answered when he had called for her?

Tova’s answer came surprisingly fast.

“I’ve got it,” Nataniel whispered to Winsnes. “Tova has answered. But we can only transfer moods and overall impressions, you see. Her answer sounds good. I sense something like, ‘Don’t worry. Everything’s under control. I’ll be sure to find you.’”

Winsnes gave a sigh of relief. “I hope she knows what she’s talking about.”

When the engine stopped, Ellen had remained standing waveringly next to the sofa in the saloon, until the Stella banked and she lost her balance. She tried to grab hold of something but she was clasping a thick envelope in her hand. Where had she got that from? She looked at it quizzically as she got up from the floor where she seemed to have landed. She must have found it somewhere ...

Hadn’t she been busy searching under all the torn plush? She couldn’t remember anymore, she was so indescribably tired and wanted to sleep so badly that she was barely able to collect her thoughts.

There were clearly a lot of sheets of paper in the envelope. There was no name on the envelope, but there was something else inside it. Something long. It felt like a key.

A key? Who was it who had talked about a key?

She’d have to figure that out later. Now she just wanted to go to bed. She put the envelope in the pocket of her anorak and with great effort made her way across the floor and up the staircase. It was a long staircase. It probably went all the way up to heaven. Or the top floor. But no, she wasn’t in a house. Everything was rocking back and forth ... her thoughts grew increasingly hazy.

How strange, this door was locked. She had better find another one. She tottered clumsily back down again and sat down on the bottom step. The floor seemed very inviting. She lay down with a satisfied sigh and fell asleep.

Stella’s engine began to vibrate again but Ellen didn’t register that.

In the dark space at the very front of the boat Nataniel lay back between the timbers and closed his eyes.

“I have two things I need to concentrate on,” he explained to Winsnes. “I have to find out where Ellen is, but that will have to wait. The most important thing right now is to get Tova here so that she can find us and help us.”

Winsnes agreed with him. He sat quiet as a mouse as he listened to Nataniel’s breathing in the dark. Heard it gradually grow slower and fainter until it sounded as if it was disappearing: Winsnes had to summon up all his self-restraint so as not to shake Nataniel and tell him to remember to breathe.

But since the old man had been sober for a while now he managed to remain quiet during the time it took Nataniel to make contact.

Tova had gone her own way. Only she knew where to. Her claim that she was going to the bathroom had merely been an excuse.

She had been pleased to be able to retreat and think things through properly. She was in the other crew cabin, next to Ellen’s. It was no longer a cabin but instead was used as a storage room for various things. Like a housewife’s small utility room in an ordinary house. Tova was left in peace there.

But something kept disturbing her thoughts. She moved restlessly. It had to do with the darkness and coldness and a lot of skeleton-like planks. It smelled of something she could recognize.

Tar? Old, rotten planks?

Nataniel again! He needed her help. Tova smiled. How amusing that the aloof know-all Nataniel needed her help. Yes, yes, little friend, I’ll be sure to find you. Tova, the despicable one, will find you. So I am of use to you now.

Locked in! How very amusing!

The ferry had come to a halt. The engine was no longer running and the ship was no longer tilting. Stella had reached the islands.

What was it Nataniel wanted to do? Show her the way to him? His persistent attacks on her consciousness were disturbing her. She had other things to think about. Well, she’d have to help him.

The ferry now left the wharf without any passengers. Now there were only the Strand brothers on board plus the other four, of which three were captives. Tova sensed that the brothers had forgotten about the fourth one.

Which amused her greatly.

Ingvar Strand wasn’t so accurate when it came to steering this old wreck of a ship. He collided with the edge of the wharf, making the whole boat shake.

Nataniel woke up from his trance. Ellen woke up in her spot on the floor. And Tova, who had just risen to her feet, fell back down again. “I just lost contact with the girl,” said Nataniel. “I don’t know whether she registered where we are. We’ll just have to hope she did.”

“Yes,” Winsnes sighed, “because now we are on our way back and it isn’t possible for me to call the coastguard and ask for help. Now we’re alone with the Strand brothers.”

Nataniel was tired of having to concentrate. “I think I at least know why they have locked us up. It seems they’re looking for something. That’s why they wanted us out of the way. While the other two are seeing to the engine and the helm, Egil is creeping about.

“Is that a guess? “

“No, it’s something I registered while I was concentrating intensely. Let’s call it something between guessing and knowing.”

“Yes, yes” the old man sighed. “I just hope that girl knows what she’s doing. So that things don’t end up bad for her as well,” he concluded consolingly.

But had Winsnes known Tova he wouldn’t have talked about her like that.

After cursing the officer’s poor navigation, which had left a bruise on her elbow, Tova made her way up onto the deck of the ship.

She had forgotten how cold and windy it was outside. The ice-cold wind took her breath away for a moment. She shuddered slightly and felt like going back inside. But she quickly collected herself. Her fingers froze almost immediately as she grabbed hold of the ship’s rail and she followed it to the stairs leading down to the engine room. She opened the heavy door.

The smell of oil, the intense noise and the rocking vessel would probably have intimidated Ellen, but not Tova. She stood at the top of the stairs and tried to get her bearings. A man covered in soot was moving around down there, staggering aimlessly. Three empty beer bottles rolling across the floor spoke for themselves. Tova smiled bitterly and started to make her way down.

The man scrutinized her suspiciously. “What in hell are you doing here, you little brat?” he drawled.

Tova considered conjuring up some beautiful women and at the same time stripping him of all his clothes but didn’t think it was worth it in the end. He was too dumb and simple, he’d fall for any trick in the book.

“Your brother asked me to tell you to go up to the bridge immediately. It’s urgent,” she said in an indifferent tone.

Bent Strand gave her a dumbfounded look, as though he didn’t quite comprehend what she had said, and then he made his way up the stairs while mumbling to himself what ought to be done with monstrosities like her.

He shouldn’t have done that. Tova immediately created the illusion of a lobster whose claw had a firm grip on his private parts – inside his pants. Bent let out a bawl as he jumped out on the deck, searching hysterically for the lobster, which, of course, wasn’t there.

As soon as he was gone, Tova made her way to the hatch and opened it. The bolt was more firmly stuck than she had expected, but shortly afterwards Nataniel and Winsnes were standing in the engine room again. There was just time for a short “Well done, Tova” from Nataniel and then they rushed up the stairs again.

“We have to find Ellen,” said Nataniel.

“She’s locked in,” Tova said laconically.

Nataniel stopped. “Where?”

“In the stern lounge.”

“But that’s ... Come, we’ve got to hurry there.”

Tova shot him an angry glance because he always had Ellen on his mind, but finally she followed him.

As they made their way holding on to the ship’s rail, Nataniel shouted across the roaring sea: “Ingvar Strand has to remain at the helm and Bent is probably there with him now, but where is Egil?”

The others couldn’t give him an answer. They knew it was only a matter of time before the brothers discovered that Tova had tricked them and released the captives, but now it was a matter of finding Ellen.

The key was in the door leading to the saloon so they rushed in and down the stairs.

“Ellen!” Nataniel shouted, trying to shake her back to life. She whimpered in protest.

Tova was less delicate. She fetched a pitcher of water from the stand by the wall and threw all its contents in Ellen’s face.

“Tova!” Nataniel cried, but her method worked. Gasping, taken by surprise and angry, Ellen revived.

Nataniel grew suspicious. “Tova, how could you have known that Ellen was locked in here? Were you the one who did it?”

“Of course not. It was that sly-as-a-fox Egil, the ship’s boy.”

But Tova avoided Nataniel’s gaze. He was still suspicious.

“Did you see it?”

“Yes, but I thought it was safest for Ellen to stay where she was so I didn’t open the door. I also had other things to see to!”

Ellen sat up. “Oh, God, I’m in such a daze. Where are we? But ... haven’t we got any farther? There’s the lighthouse again! But it’s on the wrong side!”

“We’re on our way back,” Nataniel explained. “Girls, would you mind just waiting here a moment while ...”

“No, thank you!” Ellen cried out intensely. “I refuse to have to experience this again!”

“What do you mean by this?”

She gave them a surprised look. “The drowned man, of course! We heard him last time we passed the lighthouse. Didn’t you also think it sounded frightening?”

“I think you’d better tell us more,” said Nataniel, in an ominously calm voice.

“But you must have heard him!” Ellen persisted. “They must have been able to hear it all the way to land.”

And then she told them the whole story. All the way up to the point when she reached the stern lounge. The rest of it was a little hazy in her memory.

“That was probably just Egil,” said Winsnes, even though he didn’t sound entirely convinced of it himself.

“We heard the scream,” said Nataniel. “But nothing more than that. No one else heard those thundering footsteps.”

The Stella began to behave in the way they knew all too well. The boat listed so violently that it almost felt as though it was about to get sucked into the depths and thrown back up again.

“The ship graveyard,” said Nataniel. “Come, let’s go up to the wheelhouse. I don’t trust those guys’ navigational talents. And we probably ought to confront them now. Yes, Ellen, I’ll let you come along this time. And Tova, too, of course.”

Tova grew irritated. “Must you always refer to me as an annoying hanger-on?”

“But I don’t,” Nataniel exclaimed in surprise, though reflecting on it afterwards he was filled with remorse. He placed his hand tenderly on Tova’s shoulder, whereupon she immediately tore herself away and asked him to stop putting on airs, he could save those for the others.

She wasn’t exactly easy, that Tova.

Nataniel was worried. A feeble old man, the young woman who meant everything in the world to him, and a completely unpredictable girl who was capable of knocking them all off their feet or possibly even worse. How were they going to fare against the Strand brothers? He didn’t know them, didn’t know what they might do, and violence had never been Nataniel’s strong point. He shunned it like the plague.

His fears grew when they found both Ingvar and Bent Strand on the bridge. Winsnes’ brusque orders to Bent to go down to the engine room were not obeyed. An anticipatory, hostile silence arose. It seemed as though the brothers were just as confused as they were themselves. And it was clearly Tova whom the brothers were most insecure about.

“Where is Egil?” Nataniel asked. He wondered what else Tova had been up to.

Bent gave him a glowering look but said nothing. The sharp light from the lighthouse shone through the window panes, and once again Ellen was gripped by that indescribable feeling she knew so well from her childhood. Yes, this was a spot filled with dramatic memories but they didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the Stella. There had been numerous shipwrecks here through the ages.

Some irregular coughs could be heard from the bottom of the ship.

“The engine!” they all shouted at once. Bent didn’t need any further orders. He automatically rushed down the stairs and Nataniel followed him.

Ellen clutched her throat. What was going to happen now? At that very moment she felt the envelope in the pocket of her anorak.

“Nataniel!” she shouted without thinking. “I found the key! The one you said would be in the stern lounge!”

It was as though time stood still. She saw five white faces glowering in front of her, Bent’s and Nataniel’s from the stairs, Winsnes’ and Ingvar Strand’s next to her, and Tova’s inscrutable face behind them. The engine sputtered and shut down completely. Somewhere on board the Stella a gigantic figure was roaming about, his footsteps so heavy that they vibrated and thundered in their ears.