C4 Chapter 4

“Yes, I want to ask a question about Hanna,” said Silje in her gentle voice. “Was she nothing but evil?”

Rune’s expression was impossible to interpret, but his words were lucid: “Hanna was the meanest witch that ever walked on this planet. I know because I spent many years in her house. But before that, there was a terrific quarrel about me between her and Vega.

“When Tobba died in 1540, she left the devilish command that the worthiest witch was to have the treasure. The other one was to have the mandrake. This was bound to lead to a dispute, because both Vega and Hanna were capable of much more than reading palms! The solution was that Tore, Hanna’s brother, took care of the lot until they could reach an agreement. But Tore wasn’t exactly the nicest person on earth. You met him here. He’s the only one who was turned away this evening. At first, the witches behaved quite well. Both wanted to show Tore that they were worthy of the treasure. In the meantime, Tengel the Good was growing up and in their early youth they were very good friends. The witches and the evil Grimar tried to get Tengel to kill a young boy for them during the famine. As you all know, Tengel refused to do so. Shortly afterwards, the seeming friendship between the two women ended. This was because Tore died, and now the treasure had to be divided. Of course, I don’t know everything that happened because I was stored in Hanna’s and Grimar’s little house, which they had built on precisely the same spot where Tengel the Evil’s house had once stood. They hoped it would have more magical power there. It was a terrible place!

“Vega turned up a few times. She was a nasty piece of work. Once the two witches bumped into one another. Grimar just looked on without doing or saying anything, even though he was pretty good at black magic himself. At first, the two witches were sarcastic: ‘You can’t even make a chap piss on command! Only the cat pisses.’ ‘Oh, I can’t, eh? Who was it who tidied up after you when you were all wrapped up in your black magic?’ ‘That’s a lie! Nothing but lies all of it! Anyway, I was only five years old at the time!’ and so on and so forth. Then they would attack one another. Hanna with her wizardry, which you know about, and Vega defending herself with the poker. Then Vega would rush out, but they continued to practise evil witchcraft against each other until they were completely exhausted.

“Vega managed to help herself to the whole treasure – apart from that part that Tore had hidden for the fourth stricken member of the Ice People, who lived at the same time: Tengel the Good. Tengel had already received his share – which wasn’t much – at his grandfather’s death, and Tore had only given it to irritate the witches. As you know, Tore didn’t care much for anyone but himself, and he didn’t give a damn about his grandchildren. If he could hurt somebody, he would do so. Strangely though, the witches never showed any interest in Tengel’s share of the treasure. I think that somehow they respected him.”

Silje nodded. “That’s true. Although Hanna would damn Tengel right, left and centre and call him a coward, I think she was a bit afraid of him.”

“Yes, they didn’t know where they stood with him. They suspected that he had enormous power, but didn’t want to use it. That Vega had succeeded in getting hold of the treasure with the mandrake and everything put Hanna on the warpath. She took Grimar as her ally, and it was two against one. Vega had to retreat, and the treasure landed with Hanna and Grimar and me. A grumpy Vega retired to a little house down by the lake and hardly ever went outdoors after that.

“My years with Hanna and Grimar weren’t fun. Hanna seemed obsessed with getting a drop of water from Tengel the Evil’s buried vessel, but she didn’t know where it was and whenever she tried to find it, Tengel the Evil’s mindset would hit back at her. She used me several times, trying to chop big slices off me, which I opposed. After all, I was the enemy of evil and didn’t want the world to suffer more. If Hanna had been able to get hold of a drop of the water ... Well, later on we heard that it was impossible. Nobody who hasn’t walked through the grottos can touch the water without dying.

“In the end, Hanna gave the treasure to Sol ... I can’t say I was happy with that. Yet another witch was a bit too much for me. First, there was Estrid – together with Jahas – then Tobba, then Vega for a short while, and then Hanna. It’s true that I spent some time with Tengel the Good while Sol was growing up, but he never touched me, never, so I can hardly count that time. Sol, you undoubtedly remember when you hung the mandrake around your neck and it scratched you? That was my way of expressing my disapproval of your wanting to pass me on to Henning the Bailiff Killer, but it only lasted for a few minutes. After that, we got on very well. Then ... disaster struck me!”

“I know,” said Sol quickly. “You went to Kolgrim, which was my fault. He insisted that I should help him find the treasure. And I ... well, I had been dead for a very long time. I thought that my only grandchild, Kolgrim, had been treated badly and I helped him find the treasure.

“There’s nothing I regret more! The history of the Ice People might have been very different, human and peaceful, if I hadn’t helped that accident-prone boy then. He killed Tarjei, the chosen one.”

“The treasure rightly belonged to Kolgrim,” said Tengel the Good in a conciliatory voice. “We’ve never blamed you for trying to help your grandchild. But it was a bad thing that he took the mandrake!”

“Yes,” said Rune, “and I was very scared the first time I saw him fetch the treasure from its hiding place at Linden Avenue. Kolgrim was a true copy of Olaves Krestiernsson, the man who decapitated a woman. Kolgrim turned out to have the same cruel personality trait ...

“Well, he didn’t live to grow old, but he brought about my life’s tragedy. What I had always feared the most happened.”

“We know,” said Ingrid. “Kolgrim took you with him when he died – and you were buried with him. In the deserted wilderness where nobody came.”

“Yes, that is what happened. Then something occurred that you haven’t heard about before.”

“Please tell us.”

“Kolgrim wanted to see the spot where Tengel the Evil had met Satan. Well, at the time it was still believed that was what Tengel had done. Given his soul to Satan. Now we know that instead he had sought the source of evil, the origin of evil, and that he had hidden the vessel with the black water up there in the mountain. But mad Kolgrim went to the place he had found on Silje’s map.

“I was with him because he carried me around his neck.”

“So you’ve been there!” exclaimed André. “Well, of course you have. Tell us!”

“That’s what I’m doing,” smiled Rune. “We didn’t quite reach the top but went almost as far as Sol had that time. Tengel the Evil blocked our way. You can be absolutely sure that the evil one’s spiritual force intended to destroy Kolgrim. That was how much the lad was worth, even if Tengel the Evil considered him to be one of his most likely disciples. Because nobody, absolutely nobody, was allowed to get close to Tengel’s vessel of water. I saw the evil one standing there before us, stretching out his claw-like hand towards Kolgrim in a murderous movement, when he suddenly sensed my presence. He was absolutely livid and took a step back. Anyway, it was enough for Kolgrim to wake up from his horrified inertia and fall towards the plateau on the cliff edge.”

“You saved his life,” said Nathaniel. “And he thanked you by pulling you with him to death and the hidden grave.”

“He was powerless to do anything about that. So there I lay for about a hundred years. As you know, I tried desperately to get away from that place. I wanted to be back among human beings, among the Ice People, where I felt at home. But you know how far down it is to the deserted Valley of the Ice People, and then to get out of the valley and then through the enormous mountain regions to the villages. Not to mention the distance from there to Linden Avenue and Gråstensholm to the south. During those hundred years, I managed to get out of the grave and creep a couple of yards. That was all.

“I wept when Ingrid and Dan and Ulvhedin came – and found me. You didn’t see it but it was the first time I had been able to cry. I was a lonely creature – I, who had once been banished from Paradise.”

The hall was completely silent. Everyone understood Rune’s emotion.

“So I had better forgive you because the first thing you did was cut little bits off me with which to make some horrible brews. Ulvhedin used some of my roots to go up and search for the evil water. That wasn’t a success, was it? What do you think, Ulvhedin?”

“It was the stupidest idea I’ve ever had in my life,” said the giant with a wry smile.

“Ingrid and Dan brewed a love potion using pieces of me as the principle ingredient. I let them do it and decided that I would take special care of the child that would be the fruit of it. In a way, I had a share in him, didn’t I?”

Daniel laughed loudly and happily. “Yes, Rune, and you kept your word. Nobody has helped me as you have.”

“We experienced many exciting things,” said Rune with a smile. “Such as the journey to Taran-gai. The polar bear. And much else. But later, things didn’t go so well for me.”

“I don’t understand why,” said Daniel.

“You gave me to your stricken son, Sölve. As a matter of fact, I had nothing against that. That was why I lay like a dead creature when you and he tried to put the mandrake around his neck. I knew even then that a great personality would be born, a member of the Ice People, and I wanted to serve him.”

“Yes,” said Vinga. “Sölve’s son, Heike.”

“You certainly served me,” shouted Heike. “Although I was never quite sure which of us was the master and which the servant.”

“I was never in any doubt, Heike,” said Vinga. “You weren’t even worthy to tie his shoelaces.”

“Mandrakes don’t have shoelaces,” remarked Sol. “Still, I’m sure we all agree that very few in this hall are more exalted than Rune.”

Rune bowed his head to hide a moved smile. “Nevertheless, I was put into the world to serve.”

A serious Tengel the Good said: “It’s possible to be master and servant at the same time.”

“I was never sure whether you were a male or a female mandrake,” said Heike. “I hope you’ll forgive me, Rune. But I tended to believe that you were masculine.”

Rune didn’t have an answer to that, and he turned his face away. He’s shy, thought Tova. Shy when it’s about himself. The Creator might have forgotten to endow him with emotions, such as love ... But no, that didn’t make sense. Rune yearned to be back in the Garden of Eden. And love and longing and yearning are very closely linked.

Poor boy, she thought, and added Rune to her list of possible male acquaintances. Marco and Targenor were on it already, so if she had a black angel and a long-dead king, why not a mandrake as well?

I’m slightly crazy, she told herself, correctly.

Rune continued his account.

“After the exciting years with Heike, the treasure was passed on to Saga. And then ... that was when I met my master, Lucifer, again.”

“Yes, of course,” said André, surprised. “Deep in the forests of Finland!”

“Exactly. Saga isn’t here tonight, but she didn’t know that Marcel – that is to say Lucifer – spoke to me one night when we were out on a spit in a mountain lake. The great Lucifer told me that he was happy to see me again; he had thought a lot about my fate and had feared that I was lying in the hot desert sand outside the Garden of Eden. He told me that he had taken pleasure in the girl, Saga, and asked me to take care of her when he was unable to do so anymore. Because he would soon have to return to the black halls. If I fulfilled my assignment, I would be richly rewarded later.

“Meeting the angel of light was a great moment for me, because I had always held him in great esteem. I promised him, and myself, that I would take good care of young Saga. Not for the sake of the reward but for your sake. She was an exceptional representative of my dear Ice People.”

Gabriel saw that Anna Maria wiped away some tears. He could well understand her. She probably wanted to hear more about the fate of her only daughter, but Saga was one of the very few who were not present that night.

As Lucifer’s chosen queen of the black halls, she was probably unable to come.

Rune went on: “Then Saga was alone. I followed her to Gråstensholm and helped her liberate the old estate from the grey people and improve matters at Linden Avenue. I set the family on its feet again. Then Viljar and Belinda left on their fatal journey, leaving Saga and her young son on their own. We had to work very hard to make ends meet. Do you remember that, Henning? I did what I could to help you but it wasn’t easy for a small root to do anything.”

“You did a lot,” said Henning, touched. “You were our consolation through those incredibly difficult months. Saga often said so.”

“Thank you, Henning. I was given a very important assignment on the night when young Saga’s twins, Marco and Ulvar, were born. I met the black angels again. Those angels who were once white in the Garden of Eden but who had chosen to follow the angel of light into his banishment. They gave me to you, Henning, so that you could take the place of Saga, the chosen one, when she had to leave life on earth. Then they repeated their master’s promise that I was to be rewarded in the best possible way when the time was right. I never really thought about what that reward was to be because I didn’t expect to be paid to help the family I had become so strongly attached to. My only joy was to be of use to you."

“And we managed very well, didn’t we, Henning? You acted like a true gentleman. Then Malin helped us as well and what she did for those young boys can’t be overstated.”

“Oh, don’t mention it,” said Malin, blushing. She looked very happy.

“Nothing could have saved Ulvar,” said Rune. “He was already lost at birth. I stayed with Henning until he left me to his daughter, Benedikte, who’s still alive. And now we’re moving on into the realms of the living ...”

He and Benedikte smiled at one another. Gabriel thought that the elderly woman looked charming, sitting there in her best dress. Shallow people might have said that she looked like a scarecrow; Gabriel wondered at anyone who couldn’t see what an amazing, fine person she was.

“You certainly tested me by the ferry, Benedikte. When you held me up against the ghost that came rushing towards you. That was one of my toughest tests, which I suppose can only be compared with my meeting with the ghost in the lake at Vargaby. Repelling such ghosts is one of the most difficult things I do. I needed assistance in both cases: once from Marco and the other time from Shira.”

“I think we often asked a lot of a little root,” admitted Heike. He was one of the Ice People who had most sought the help from the mandrake.

“I liked to help,” explained Rune. “But going back to the ferry ... Against Nerthus-Tyr’s immense mass of evil energy, well, there was nothing I could do. If Marco hadn’t turned up and destroyed it, Tengel the Evil would have had a great ally today; he intended to use Nerthus-Tyr. Tengel was absolutely furious with you for that, Marco.”

“Do you think he knows who I am, Rune?” asked the Prince of the Black Halls.

“Not who you are. But after that fatal meeting in the ether above Dan-no-ura in Japan he probably just about knows what you look like. Only hazily, but that could be dangerous for you.”

“I must be vigilant.”

“As I was saying, I was with André in Vargaby. Later, when Nataniel turned three, the boy was given a great part of the Ice People’s treasure, including me. Oh, Nataniel, I had a wonderful time with you; you were so young then. You made a soft little bed for me; you gave me food and drink and never minded that the bowls were just as full the following morning. You just set out new food for me as if nothing had happened. Which was true: nothing happened.” Rune smiled. “Many, many of you have been happy to have me and have taken care of me in the best possible way. Heike is a good example of that. Nevertheless, I don’t think anybody has loved me so much as young Nataniel. During my time with him, I had to leave you all ...”

“But you didn’t leave us,” said Jonathan softly.

“No I didn’t leave you, but the time for my reward had come. When Nataniel was four, the black angels came to his room when I was alone there. Nataniel heard them, the roars and the hissing lightning that had always been a part of the angels, and he came rushing into the room. He despaired when he saw the angels seizing me.”

“We remember his screams,” said Christa. “I was nearly out of my mind, I was so scared. The big wolves prevented us from entering his room.”

“Nataniel saw what was happening, but the black angels erased the memory from his mind, so he has forgotten it all. They took me out of the box and spoke kindly to me.”

“How many of them were there?” asked Rikard, who had also been outside the door at the time, powerless.

“There were only two. And two more in the shape of the wolves. The black angels explained to me that the time had come when I was to be rewarded for my long and loyal service with the Ice People. Their ruler, Lucifer, had ordered them to come to Nataniel’s room and take care of me. Of course, I was scared and nervous, because I didn’t know what was about to happen. I was left alone in the middle of the floor while they took a few steps back. When Nataniel walked in, he was placed in a corner. He had slipped in before they had had time to station the wolves outside.

“I was engulfed in white heat. I felt pain that cut through me. Is this the reward? I thought. Then I felt through the excruciating pain that something was happening to me. I became bigger; everything in the room changed and seemed to come closer. I couldn’t see very much because the flaming lightning dazzled my vision, which was already limited. Now and then, I caught glimpses of the black angels in the intense sea of light, and I was almost as big as them. I began to be able to see! The way humans can. I heard the roaring bangs and the sparkling explosions and my body hurt so much that I would have cried out loud – if I had had a voice.

“My body was aching and creaking, and I could feel that I was sprouting limbs and I could lift my arm, and I was able to think much more clearly than before. My hearing was sharper and I could identify smells, something I had never been able to do before. I hadn’t been able to feel pain before either, certainly not in this shocking manner. I was dazed; I understood nothing and tears were trickling from my eyes. Yes, I had eyes. I could feel my face and hair, felt it with my miserable finger stumps ...

“Then the lightning subsided, the room was calm.

“The black angels smiled and said: ‘Welcome to the world of human beings, mandrake!’ I heard young Nataniel weeping bitterly in his corner, heard the angels tell him that now they were taking the mandrake with him, and heard him protest wildly. Then one of the black angels went over to him and stroked his face to erase the memory of the incident. Then they took me with them out through the window and I saw the big wolves enter the room and follow us. Nataniel was alone again. I was allowed to ride through the air on one of the wolves. ‘Why did you do that?’ I shouted.

“They laughed. ‘Aren’t you pleased with your reward?’

“‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But I don’t understand.’

“So they explained: ‘It was necessary. One of the members of the Ice People, not one of the stricken, will soon block the way of Tengel the Evil. He will be completely unprotected, so to speak. You must be with him and protect him from attack by the evil one. Because this time it’s not about his spirit but himself.’”

“Jonathan,” André nodded. “The one you protected was Jonathan, Rune. During the war.”

“Yes. Tengel the Evil had concealed himself in the shape of Reichsprotektor Heydrich, and his and Jonathan’s paths crossed. The black angels had been able to predict that.”

“Without you I would never have survived the war,” said Jonathan. “Now I understand why Heydrich recoiled in horror when he saw you. Tengel the Evil, hidden in him, understood perfectly well who you were. And he yelled quite hysterically: ‘Shoot him!’ But Rune, the Germans did shoot you, didn’t they? You died, right before my eyes!”

Rune smiled wryly. “You see, Jonathan: I was allowed to keep one property from the Garden of Eden. I can’t die. So if the Germans thought that they had eliminated me, they were very much mistaken. When I was left alone, my friends the black angels came to fetch me. After all, I was a messenger for them and occasionally for the Ice People’s ancestors.”

Karine got up from her seat. “Rune, now I know what was so strange about you that time when you held me tightly in the train, remember?”

“Yes, what was it?” said Rune with a cautious smile.

“I couldn’t feel your heartbeat!”

Rune turned away quickly as if he didn’t want to answer. Instead, a black angel came down onto the dais. “You’re right, Karine, when you say that you couldn’t detect a heartbeat. If he had had a heart he would have been mortal, and we couldn’t risk that.”

Tova, who was very close to tears, exclaimed: “Not having a heart doesn’t have to mean you don’t have emotions?”

Rune smiled at her and shook his head. But the black angel said lovingly: “Have any of you ever doubted the ability of the mandrake or Rune to feel for others?”

Nobody had.

“Where were you all that time?” asked Nataniel. “Before you appeared as Rune, and after you ‘died’?”

“That, my dear friend, is one of the questions you just don’t ask.”

“Ah, am I allowed to guess that you quite often met Marco there?”

“Of course, you can always guess.”

That was all Rune wanted to say.

Tula stepped onto the dais.

“I believe that we can now say the entire history of the Ice People has been told. It’s as complete as we can possibly make it. But we haven’t finished here yet ...”

She glanced up at the dark rows of benches, and everybody’s eyes followed hers. Gabriel breathed a long, trembling sigh. He shuffled a bit further back in his seat and was thus prepared for whatever might come.