C9 Chapter 9

At first she didn’t see him at all. She only sensed an indefinite, creeping sense of fear. A sense of fear that continued to grow...

But she didn’t get a chance to ponder over it for too long because all at once she found herself in a new place. Or ... did she?

She was outside, but the buildings, the incredibly beautiful garden whose every detail had been thoroughly planned and was so bewitching that it practically took your breath away, the flowers that grew in the shade of the big trees ... none of this belonged in a steppe landscape, nor in Manchuria or Altai or the tundra of Siberia.

It was Japan. There was no doubt about that. She wasn’t even on the Chinese mainland, even though China was probably also capable of creating beautiful gardens. No, it was so quintessentially Japanese that there was no mistaking it.

What in the world could have happened? she thought, standing under trees so tall that she couldn’t see their tops. Everything was so flowery and lush. The beautiful little bridge she was standing on, which crossed a trickling brook, was clouded in a shade of dark greens. She was in something that resembled a tunnel of vegetation, but far above her she could vaguely see steps leading up to a palace or temple.

How could that happen? I transported myself more than a hundred years into the future but I am still here.

My name is no longer Machiko but Setsuko. However, I’m still a lady-in-waiting, just serving another ruler in a different time. The fact that I’m a lady-in-waiting is solely due to my mother’s persistent efforts in getting me placed here. I am well-born. but my great-grandfather was born outside marriage. His father escaped to Manchuria after the scandalous act took place with ... what would she be? Oh, I don’t have the energy to calculate it. But they were both of the Heike clan so she was allowed to remain at court despite her shame. Not as a lady-in-waiting anymore, but her descendants worked their way up and became warriors. And the women weren’t thrown out. They became good servants. They had artistic talents. And now I’m here. The first one in the family to once again become a lady-in-waiting.

Which I’m proud of. To be a lady-in-waiting to the very emperor himself.

Setsuko started. First there was an indescribable stench that burned the nostrils. Then a heavy, rotten, stinking darkness settled across the garden.

Lying in her bed in Oslo, Tova felt deeply drawn towards something, as if she was being pulled downwards. At least something’s happening now. Help, what’s going on?

She was twisting round and round in a chaotic darkness. She was being pulled down; there was howling and shrieking around her and she felt a terrifying sense of fear spread through her.

Something’s happening, something’s changing, and it’s most definitely not for the better! What in the world is happening? What have I done?

She – the figure in the bed – screamed plaintively in her trance-like state. She had never experienced such an overwhelming sense of fear.

Setsuko, the little Japanese girl who was completely innocent in all this, screamed loudly, wanting to flee.

Someone was standing deep within the shadows under the blue rain. Someone who spread such a boundless sense of fear that the young girl could barely breathe properly.

The creature stood there, unmoving, like a warning from the abyss, and spoke with a hissing, abominable voice.

“I’ve got you this time! You were finally caught by your own stupidity!”

And the little Japanese girl Setsuko couldn’t move; she stood like one who is paralysed in front of a snake.

But Tengel the Evil wasn’t the least bit interested in Setsuko, it was Tova within her whom he was addressing. Every word he said sent shivers down her spine, grating against her nerves like a fingernail on a blackboard. The words could be heard like a slow, drawling whisper, as if they came from the depths of evil itself.

“What are you whimpering for, Tova of the Ice People, the lost and doomed one? I won’t destroy you. You are, of course, my slave, and I may need you when my time approaches. But your folly has apparently brought you into a bind and you have awakened my anger. No one – absolutely no one – but myself is allowed to approach the vessel of water. You fool, did you really think you could taste even a drop? Did you wish to attain hidden knowledge? Was it the simple-minded Hanna in the Valley of the Ice People who convinced you of that? You would die if you so much as attempted to drink from that water. But you have turned against me, and both you and your descendants are going to pay a very dear price for that.”

Tova answered in Setsuko’s voice: “I haven’t turned against you, Lord and Master, all I wished to do was attain evil and gain access to hidden knowledge the better to serve you.”

“Oh, you trembling and pathetic little creature, how could you be so stupid? You are already my subordinate slave. Your ambitions are of absolutely no interest to me. I’m the one who gives orders here! Your own thoughts you can keep to yourself. But I don’t want any more trouble from you now. You brought about this situation on your own so you can stay here until I need you someday.”

Tova knew what he was referring to. Just as he had put Erling Skogsrud into a state of hibernation in a cave under some rocks in Spain, only to bring him out again when he needed him to help fight for his cause, he now intended to hide Tova. And it was her own fault. She had dug her own grave. He was right about that.

She had followed the Ice People, or rather Tengel the Evil, in her transmigration. But she had gotten sidetracked. Machiko and Tengel’s grandmother had been sisters. Tengel’s father had impregnated a girl from his own Heike clan. And she had remained in Japan: Setsuko was descended from her and Tengel the Evil’s father, who had clearly been a bit of a devil. And a wizard on top of that. Had the Ice People derived their knowledge from him? The Japanese had always been known for living in close proximity to spirits and ghosts, so close in fact that they didn’t even consider them to be part of a different supernatural world. At least that’s how it was in the old days. Many wizards were mentioned in the ancient myths and legends.

He must undoubtedly be considered one of the Ice People, or at least part of their origin.

And Tova’s incarnation in the twelfth century had belonged to the Japanese branch.

But that was a blind alley when it came to the future fate of the Ice People.

Because somehow Tova had the feeling that the Japanese line of the family ended around there. The eerie feeling of having a preordained fate made her shudder to her core, as if she was in a cold wind.

A looming feeling which was confirmed immediately. The horrifying creature under the blue rain spoke once more. His voice alone left Setusko-Tova with a feeling of morbid fear.

If Tengel the Evil’s willpower had not paralysed Setsuko in the way that it did, making her freeze like a monolith, she would long ago have lost consciousness. Now she just interpreted it all as a part of an exceptionally bad dream.

It was Tova’s soul he was speaking to, not Setsuko’s.

“You still have another four years to live as Setsuko,” said Tengel the Evil to his enterprising descendant Tova. “Setsuko will die in four years, the great Tan-ghil knows that for a fact. But I plan to seize my worldly power very soon. And in secret I have managed to grow frightfully strong, as all of humankind in its utterly pathetic state shall soon see. And not least my confounded descendants, may the worms devour them all! Before those four years have passed I will place myself on the throne in my own worldwide empire. There is still time for you to serve me – that is, if I feel like returning you to your own century. But perhaps you’re not worthy of that?”

“But what about my own identity?” shouted Tova with Setsuko’s voice. “I’m in Oslo now. What will happen ...?”

He interrupted with a low, cold laughter that penetrated her to the bone.

“That pathetic body that’s left there? I’d like to see what they do with it. First your soul would have to leave Setsuko, which won’t happen until I want it to.”

“But when Setsuko dies ...”

“Then you’ll die, too,” he said callously. And then came the worst part: “You are my servant so I will most graciously protect you for the time being. But you must be punished in some way ...”

“I’ve already had my punishment!” Tova shouted. “I’m stuck here in a strange century!”

“Don’t scream, stupid girl, it hurts my ears!”

“Then shut your ugly trap!” Tova said, losing her inhibitions as a frighteningly toxic odour spread around.

“For the monstrous audacity of wanting to damage me through my parents’ possible weaknesses so that you yourself could gain access to the vessel ... for that you must be punished. The punishment will be for you to remember that the first thing I’ll do when I wake up from my long hibernation will be to find your relatives. Your mother, your father, your confounded relatives at Linden Avenue and the surrounding area. They are the ones who will pay for your blunder. And know this, you pathetic specimen of the human race, I know my business when it comes to refined, cunning ways of making people scream with fear and pain!”

Tova was totally speechless. Her mother, who was always so sweet and kind, even though she had no understanding of Tova’s life. Her father, whom she had always been able to trust and who loved her completely, unconditionally, demanding nothing from her but her mere existence.

And what about the three children of Jonathan Volden? The ones who had recently told her that she looked all right and was so cool and who had admired her. Her, Tova, who was so ostracized!

She moaned. Nataniel! Her dear friend. What in the world had she done? Nataniel, who was going to save the whole family, the whole world! He was going to get into difficulties now and he wasn’t at all prepared to face the ruler of the dark world. Nataniel, the wistful brooder who was much too sensitive for his calling in life, how was he going to manage this? And she had mocked him!

And Grandmother Mali and Grandfather André! Not to mention Great-grandmother Benedikte! And they had all trusted her – Tova!

“No, no!” she moaned.

“Oh, keep quiet,” said Tengel the Evil sternly, and then he was gone.

Tova was left behind in the shape of little Setsuko. Those two were melded. She had been Setsuko once in an earlier life, but those two girls had now become one. Setsuko was the dominant one, for it was her life that was unfolding, but Tova was present, hidden somewhere deep within her. Setsuko knew nothing about it, but Tova was a guest within her, living her own life.

She was trapped inside another person’s body and soul.

Well, at least I look good, she thought, with her usual gallows humour. That was something I didn’t get a chance to experience in my incarnation as Tova. But now I can. In the year 1181.

Oh goodness, what in the world have I submitted myself to?

Setsuko hurried up the staircase. She was shaken and upset. She had sensed something under the trees, a terrifying spirit. Perhaps it had been the tree’s spirit? Perhaps it was the spirit of the stone dragon that guarded the entrance to the garden?

Oh, she could never tell anyone about this. She didn’t want to frighten the others, they had enough problems of their own.

But as Setsuko walked away, the memory of what had happened slowly began to fade. By the time she had reached the very top step she had only a faint sense that something had transpired in the garden, and little by little that feeling disappeared as well.

She had so many other things to think of and be concerned about.

So many things had taken place in Japan in the century since Machiko had lived.

Since the emperor of Japan was considered the son of the sun, he was inviolable. But the country’s true leaders, the high nobility, had been pushed aside by the up-and-coming warrior class. In the 1150s the Abe clan fell in the north, conquered by the Genji clan, also known as Minamoto. In the meantime, the Heike or Taira clan had grown so strong that a full-blown war broke out between Heike and Genji in 1156. Heike’s leader at that point was Taira no Kiyomori, and Genji’s was known as Minamoto no Yoshitomo. They were constantly interfering in the politics of Japan, intriguing and scheming in order to seize power.

Taira no Kiyomori became the winner, whereupon he married his daughter to the emperor, which would make him grandfather to a future emperor.

Ten years later, Kiyomori was appointed prime minister, and all the posts were assigned to members of the Heike clan. They were now sovereign rulers of most of the empire. Kiyomori used his new position to resume trade with China. Japan was now importing medicine, silk, cotton and many other goods, while it exported gold and other metals, as well as pearls. It was important for the warriors of the Heike clan that they maintained just as luxuriant a lifestyle as that previously enjoyed by the high nobility.

Setsuko knew a lot about all this because she was the one who recorded the chronicles of the clan. Just like Machiko before her, she had literary talent.

Kiyomori did his best to make himself appear great, but he was never accepted by the nobility. It didn’t help that he travelled in carts pulled by oxen or in a sedan chair, or that as a military general he surrounded himself with knights on horseback, wielding bows and arrows, knights who in turn had their samurai. The aristocracy, even though it no longer had any power, considered his manners to be uncultivated and boorish.

Kiyomori had once made a devastating mistake. When in 1160 he managed to defeat his enemy, Minamoto no Yoshitomo, he fell for the latter’s beautiful widow and decided to protect Yoshitomo’s three little sons. Something he should never have done.

The Japanese epic The Tale of the Heike begins with the following words:

The flowers of the teakwood tree bear witness to the fact that everything that shines in glowing colours must wither and fade. For the proud ones are only present for a brief moment, like a dream on a spring night. The mighty are finally destroyed, they are like mere ashes on the wind.

Kiyomori’s dictatorial methods, his egocentric politics and his favoritism of his own kin meant he had enemies everywhere, not only among the nobility but also among the religious leaders and warriors out in the regions, which had great armed forces under their power. Nor was it popular that he moved the capital from Kyoto to Kobe. He was soon forced to move it back.

The Genji clan had entrenched itself in Kamakura. Its leader was one of the three young boys that Kiyomori had protected. They had now grown to adulthood and were scheming to take revenge.

And now, in 1181, the Heike clan was facing big problems.

Kiyomori had recently died. Setsuko had not been present at his deathbed, but everyone said it had been a terrible sight. As a punishment for his arrogant way of life he had suffered a painful death. He had been so feverish that there had been an attempt to cool his body by pouring water over it, but the water was thrown back in the form of hissing clouds of floating steam, as if it had touched glowing red iron or stone. And the water that did manage to reach his body burst into flames, filling the entire room with tongues of flame and thick black smoke. This meant that he had managed to accumulate bad karma for himself, it was said, and no prayers in the world could help him.

Setsuko knew that a dangerous member of the Genji clan was another of the three sons, namely Yoshitsune, and rumours about him were already beginning to spread.

Many things were said, and just as dreams and fantasies often reveal more about a person than a strict representation of their life, so all the mysticism and myths and legends surrounding Yoshitsune, Yoshitomo’s ninth son, were just as true as the bare facts.

He had been only one year old when his life had been spared by his father’s enemy, Taira no Kiyomori. When he was six, Kiyomori decided that he should be sent to a Buddhist temple in the wild mountains of the north. But young Yoshitsune managed to sneak out time and time again, and he learned to use a bow and arrow and other weapons that strange hermits were willing to teach him. It was said that the boy was wild and unruly, with an independent spirit. He refused to have his head shaved in the way monks had to, and he was much more absorbed by the deeds of warriors than by prayers.

One of the myths about him told of an enormous beast of a man who had boasted that he could station himself on the road and rob a thousand travellers of their swords, and in that way he would be able to help build a new temple. When he had stolen nine hundred and ninety-nine swords he positioned himself by the bridge in Kyoto, waiting for his last victim to emerge. He saw a young, slender figure approach him in the dark. The young man was walking along nonchalantly, playing his flute. He was dressed like a novice from one of the temples. At first, the great giant didn’t consider the little runt a worthy opponent, but when they started to fight it became apparent that the young man, who was Yoshitsune, had learned a thing or two about swordsmanship from the mountain hermits. He was simply undefeatable. The great beast was so impressed that he asked permission to serve Yoshitsune, and the youth consented. The giant’s name was Benkei.

As a child Yoshitsune had accidentally gained access to his family’s chronicles. From that time he understood who he was, and he was focused on one thing and one thing only: to defeat the Heike clan and in that way take revenge for his father’s defeat and get Genji back on its feet again.

Setsuko knew that Yoshitsune had fled from the temple and that after some solitary years he had joined forces with his brother. Like almost everyone else, she was afraid of him, and any man who dared to approach the palace was regarded with great suspicion. If he was small with a slender build and a somewhat feminine appearance, the alarm would be raised because it could be Yoshitsune trying to sneak his way in.

The Heike clan was particularly vulnerable now. Kiyomori was dead, as was the emperor. Kiyomori’s grandchild was now sitting on the throne, for the man had married his daughter into the emperor’s family. The little boy was only four years old, and far too many had turned their backs on the Heike clan ...

Tova didn’t at all care for what was so far her two-hour occupancy of Setsuko’s life. Everything seemed to be going wrong for the Heike clan, or Taira as it was also called.

It wasn’t good news, because she realized that Heike-Taira were the Ice People’s ancestors and the situation would be grim if they were defeated.

But that, of course, hadn’t happened yet.

At the same time, their leaders were not exactly sympathetic in their self-absorption and the way they neglected the people.

Ugh! She was so through with reincarnation! She didn’t have any more incarnations to seek out if she didn’t want to go farther back in time, which she certainly didn’t.

Now she wanted to return to the present, to her bed in Lisbeth’s apartment.

She waited until Setsuko had gone up to rest after dinner, like all the other ladies-in-waiting. They all belonged to the staff of Emperor Antoku, or rather, his grandmother, the distinguished Nii, widow of Kiyomori.

But Tova didn’t care about any of that, she just wanted to get back to Norway.

When Setsuko had settled down in the cool, quiet room, Tova began to concentrate.

I want to go back to Oslo, to the year 1959, she thought.

Nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. She didn’t even reach the atmosphere between the two incarnations. She simply remained in the body that she was inhabiting.

She made an even greater effort. She knew she could do it. It had been going well until now.

But nothing worked. She was and remained Setsuko.

After an hour had passed in this way the terrible truth struck her: Tengel the Evil wasn’t just something she had dreamed about, and his curse was real. Tova was doomed to remain where she was. Either until he needed her by his side in his fight against the Ice People or until Setsuko’s death in four years’ time. In which case Tova would die with her, forever.

She would never get the chance to see Norway again, or her friends, or the rest of the family. If she wasn’t used in the battle against them, that is.

The gravity of the situation struck her like an explosion. She screamed loudly but, of course, no sound could be heard, either from Setsuko nor from Tova’s body on the bed in Oslo.

What in the world was she to do? She had to get out of this somehow. There was no question about that!

But no one could help her. No one. Who would be able to find a soul who had gone astray in a century that had long since passed?

Tova was utterly paralysed with sorrow and desperation. She couldn’t think clearly; she just longed for her own people so badly, the ones at home in her own era. What was she to do here? Setsuko’s fate was sealed: the young woman had four more years left to live. And Tova? Either she would follow the Japanese woman to her grave or ...

“Nataniel!” Tova screamed mutely. “Nataniel, you are the only one who might be able to help me!”

She concentrated on him with all her might. “Nathaniel!” she shouted silently – and all at once a strange vision emerged before her mind’s eye.

Women’s faces, white like the petals of flowers, drifted past her, full of grief.

“Nataniel! Help me, Nataniel!” she thought with all her might.

She could hear voices. “Heike has disappeared,” they said, “Taira is gone forever. Gone at Dan-no-ura.”

The faces were those of the ladies-in-waiting. She recognized them all. She was filled with utter horror as she silently yelled one more time: “Nataniel, help me! I can’t get back!”

Then she collapsed in despair. How hopelessly stupid she had been! How could Nataniel help her? He didn’t possess half her supernatural capabilities. He couldn’t do anything, and probably wouldn’t try.

She was doomed. She had fallen because of her own stupidity, had cast her life away.

And now came the punishment. She was imprisoned. Imprisoned by time.