C12 Chapter 12

They managed to borrow Oppdal’s largest rental car. Because now that Gabriel had joined them their number had grown.

Before they left the hotel, Marco had a tête-à-tête with Ian.

Has this man really lived for a century? Ian thought in disbelief. He’s just a youth. But what a sense of authority he exudes!

Marco smiled crookedly. “What I’m saying now may sound completely topsy-turvy, but I want you to think about it carefully. We’re going to turn off the main thoroughfare and enter more remote territory. The best course would be to get you to hospital as quickly as possible, but I know that you are against doing that. And I understand you on that score. The next best thing would be for us to part and for you to take the train north to Sandnessøen. But I don’t want to let you loose on your own in your present condition. I want you to be with us when your end draws near.”

Morahan was clearly touched. “But I promised Tova that she wouldn’t have to care for a dying man.”

“I’ve spoken to Tova and she totally agrees with me. We don’t want to lose you now. The question is, what do you want to do? It might be a very hard trek up in the mountains, and possibly dangerous, but I suppose that wouldn’t worry you so much. I don’t think you’re going to hold out for very long, to be honest.”

“I’ve already made my decision,” said Morahan. “I’m going to join you. And I would like you to bury me in the beautiful Norwegian mountains, in an unmarked grave. I’m half Norwegian, as you know, and I’ve come to love this country. I feel more at home here than in Liverpool. And Marco ...”

“Yes?”

“Take good care of Tova. She may need your help later on.”

“I know,” said Marco. “Tova told me about your pact. I think you did the right thing. Tova is a very lonely girl. Meeting you has meant more to her than you can imagine.”

“She is a sweet little person,” said Ian, smiling dreamily. “Thank you for thinking we did the right thing. I myself was very unsure. But of course, it’s most likely that nothing will come of it.”

“Only the future can tell,” said Marco.

“The future,” Ian said dryly. “As far as I have understood, there might not be much of a future for you. And even less for me.”

“Let’s take one day at a time, shall we?”

“I tend to think more in terms of hours. But I am grateful that I had time enough to make such good friends.”

They went out to the others. Ian walked over to Tova and put his arm around her shoulders. She immediately lit up. All morning she had stayed close to him and held his hand so tightly that she had practically crushed it, as though she was afraid that he might disappear.

He knew that most probably he soon would.

Halkatla felt rather ashamed that morning. Marco had looked at her and never had his eyes had such a stern and probing look. He knows, she thought uneasily. He knows and I’m certain that Rune hasn’t said anything. Marco knows anyway.

But he didn’t say anything to her. Halkatla understood why. She couldn’t be reported to the police.

“What’s your name?”

“Halkatla of the Ice People.”

“Where do you live?”

“Nowhere. I’m not registered anywhere.”

“Your year of birth?”

“1370 ... and I died in 1390.”

They would most likely conclude that the man had been smoking in the car. He had been holding one of those white sticks they called cigarettes in his hand and he had a strong smell of alcohol on his breath. No one would look further into the “accident”.

Besides, he himself wouldn’t say anything – it was much too embarrassing.

And furthermore, they didn’t have time for more delays.

They finally began to depart.

Marco rode the motorbike this time, with an ecstatic Gabriel sitting on the pillion. The other four went in the car. Tova was driving.

They took the scenic road to Nerskogen, with its odd, soft meadows and twisted trees. After Nerskogen it wasn’t so picturesque, it just looked more like an ordinary forest, the kind that covers most of Norway.

Tova let Marco lead the way, as he probably knew where he was going. It wasn’t the usual road to the Valley of the Ice People, but he had said they would gain a lot of time by taking this road.

A few hours later they had gone as far as they could by car. The last part of the journey had been on small mountain roads that must have been bothersome for Gabriel’s back.

They looked up at the elevation. That was where they had to go. Tova looked at Ian with concern. They didn’t have time to take things too slowly, they had to get there as quickly as possible. Dragging him up here had actually been crazy. But no one had hesitated to do it, least of all himself.

But Tova noticed that he shuddered as if it was Doomsday when he looked up at those merciless slopes.

“I thought we had taken a detour,” she said to Marco.

“Yes, this isn’t the normal road to the Valley of the Ice People. But I assumed that the real one would be guarded by Tengel the Evil’s lackeys. So this way is safer. The entrance to the valley is on the other side of the mountain chain ahead of us.

They hid the motorbike among the mountain birches and began making their way on what would be the last lap of their journey to the Valley of the Ice People.

Everyone was silent. They all sensed the seriousness of the situation now.

They had barely arrived in the belt of birch forest when Ian started having difficulties. Tova took him by the hand and pulled him along in order to ease the trek a little for him, but it didn’t help much.

So he lay down on the soft floor of the birch forest, where the dead, grey-brown colours of winter still reigned and the ground was as cold as ice.

Tova sat next to him and wept openly, and the others stood or knelt next to them.

“Don’t, Ian!” Tova sobbed, “You mustn’t leave us!”

Ian struggled to breathe. He knew this was the end, and the only thing he could hope for was that it would all go as painlessly as possible. But that’s not how it looked. His dizziness was intense, his eyes were swimming and his ears were buzzing.

In a fog, he saw Marco standing at his feet. The background light created a halo about the strange man’s head. He heard Rune and Halkatla pleading, “Do it Marco! Try!”

Ian Morahan kept Tova’s hand in his. She carefully placed her other hand around his neck and he was grateful to have them all there. His friends ... had he ever had better friends than the ones he had got to know over the past few days? He didn’t want to leave them; he wanted to know what would happen to them in this strange battle of theirs. There was so much he wanted to do. And now he was never going to know whether or not he would be leaving a child.

“Tova,” he whispered in a strained voice. “Take good care of it for me. And send it ... my greetings.”

She nodded, drenched in tears. They both knew that it was highly unlikely that there was going to be a child. But you are always allowed to dream.

Tova was perfectly aware of the fact that crying didn’t suit her very well, it usually made her look horrible. But what did such non-essential things matter now? For once in her life she wasn’t preoccupied with her unfortunate appearance.

Ian’s entire body ached. He could feel his system objecting to the strain, sense how everything within him was preparing to fight. But nothing could help him anymore now.

Through his frenzied delirium he was able to make out Marco’s raised arms.

“Go to the side,” Marco ordered. “Get away, everyone! You, too, Tova. Stand beside the boulder over there.”

They obeyed Marco without taking their eyes off him.

But why, why, Ian protested inwardly. Why can’t I have them here, have Tova by my side, that way it wouldn’t feel so lonely. Oh God, I don’t want to die. I have so many things to live for. I’ve only just discovered that. Don’t let me die, not now, not now!

What was Marco doing? In a fog Ian saw that he had turned away, that he was extending his arms outwards and upwards, as though he were conjuring something! It was a magnificent sight, this impressive looking man against the background of the sky.

It was so difficult to breathe ... it was impossible for him. He was aching, aching everywhere. All his nerves were quivering; his hands, his arms trembled, his legs, his entire body.

He tried to get a better look. Marco had stepped to one side. But someone else seemed to be standing there, or rather, something else.

Gigantic black wings? Am I already dead? A tall creature, so beautiful that it hurts my eyes to look at him. But so dark! And wearing a black loincloth and a black cape across his shoulders.

The others are staring just as hard as I am. So they can see it, too?

But Marco is kneeling next to me. He is lifting my head, my upper body. He is talking to me. There’s a humming sound so loud that I can barely hear him.

“Lie still, Ian, I’m going to stay with you. This is going to be painful, very painful. But I and everyone with me want you to live. You have been so loyal and are such a fine person. Almost as though you were one of the Ice People. Don’t be afraid!”

That was when Ian realized that the story about the black angels and Marco’s ancestry was true. He was filled with a deep sense of reverence.

But nothing could possibly be more painful than what he was already enduring. And his shortness of breath. It was utterly inhuman!

The black angel came closer to him. He lifted his arm towards Ian. And suddenly Ian was blinded by a sharp light, there were sparks in the air that kept coming, over and over, like an all-encompassing flash of lightning, and the pain he had felt before was nothing compared to this – in fact, he wished he could return to his former state. Because what was happening to his body was so brutal that he almost lost consciousness.

It felt as though every bone in his body was being crushed, as though he were being broken into tiny pieces in all directions. He thought he was screaming but he wasn’t, because his lungs were also being attacked by the dreadful lightning.

Let me be, let me be, he prayed quietly. Let me die in peace and not be tormented right up to the very last. This is too horrendous, what have I done to deserve this?

He heard Tova crying for him and this made him care for her even more deeply.

Rune had gone round to the other side of him and had got down on his knees. “I’ve been through the same ordeal, Ian. So I know how you are feeling. There is no greater physical pain in the world.”

“And Rune suffered even more than you,” said Marco. “Because he had to be transformed from a small root into a whole person.”

Then Ian realized that they weren’t just intending to torment him to the uttermost degree. But his heart was so dazed from the pain and the death struggle that he couldn’t form his thoughts clearly: they just turned into diffuse fragments here and there.

The black angel was standing so close to Ian that he seemed to fill the entire firmament. The ebony black hand glided grazingly over his organs, one after the other. Unbearable stabs creaked within Ian and he may have been unconscious at times because some things happened that he didn’t register.

It took a long time. More than half an hour, according to Marco, who for some odd reason had timed the procedure.

But Ian had been unable to count the minutes. All he experienced was intolerable pain and nothing else.

For a very long time the black angel rested his hand on Ian’s chest, which was where there seemed to be most resistance. The Irishman bent his head back as though he wanted to get away. He himself couldn’t fathom how he had been able to survive so long, for he hadn’t been able to draw anything that could be defined as a breath. The last endless hour he had only been able to manage tiny, strained gasps that didn’t seem to go any farther than his throat.

That was why it was a shock for him when he was suddenly able to draw a breath that reached all the way down into his lungs. He couldn’t believe it ... He held his breath, didn’t dare try again, but then couldn’t resist. He hadn’t been able to breathe so freely for many months! The air stung and ached in his untrained windpipe.

The shock it caused him, his careful, disbelieving sense of joy, was so strong that he attempted to speak.

“I can breathe,” he said in English, for he had forgotten that he was in Norway and had been speaking Norwegian for the last few weeks. “I can breathe!”

“Of course you can,” said Marco with so much warmth in his voice that it almost sounded as if he was weeping. “I told you you were one of us. So we can’t lose you!”

Ian was unable to see clearly. He was overwhelmingly moved by the whole thing. He just laughed sobbingly and painfully, because the black angel wasn’t through with him yet. Now he was holding his hand over Ian’s left side. My spleen, Ian thought. It’s concerned me for a long time. Oh well, cure that too, miracle-worker! Let me live, live as a healthy human! It’s been years since I’ve felt truly healthy!

Now he was able to move a little, so he lifted his hand and tried to find his liver. The big swelling was gone; the tumours in his thin body were all gone!

Then he groaned because the black angel was now beginning to concentrate his last efforts on Ian’s spleen. Once again, the pain pierced Ian, and once again he begged for mercy even though he knew that that wasn’t really what he was asking for, it was just a natural human reaction. Oh, he could endure several days’ worth of pain if it meant that he would end up cured!

The sun ... he might still be able to see it rise several mornings more. He might be able to build a home, work with his hands, do everything himself.

Once again he lost consciousness – it was the body’s defence mechanism against the extreme pain.

When he woke again everything around him was quiet. The black angel was gone.

He felt beaten up, smashed to pieces. But oddly enough it was a pleasant experience. There was a great sense of satisfaction in that feeling.

Everything had changed. His body felt in some way cleansed, both inwardly and outwardly. He felt free and happy and sat up, dazed.

“I didn’t get a chance to thank him,” he murmured.

Marco stepped into his peripheral vision. “There was no need to. My friend with the black wings knows that you are grateful. He liked working with you. Black angels aren’t so popular on earth, as you know.”

“But they are such good creatures!”

“Yes, but no one’s aware of that. The church elders deemed that they represented Satan, an ancient, evil power. He has nothing to do with the fallen angels. But we can’t prove that.”

Ian remained sitting on the ground with his hands wrapped around his knees. He sat there in silence for a moment and then when everything began to dawn on him he started to weep quietly. Tova slid down beside him and began weeping as well.

But after a little while Morahan straightened up, caressed her cheek and got to his feet. “There’s no time to waste.”

He went over to Marco and gave him a warm hug. “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you for giving me life.”

Then he hugged all of them, one by one: Tova, Gabriel, Halkatla and Rune.

Now they could resume their journey.

No one spoke as they made their way up the high slopes. Everyone was much too moved by what had transpired so they were all lost in their own thoughts. Gabriel was probably thinking the hardest. His thoughts revolved around religion. About how many guesses had turned into dogmas in Christianity.

Any twelve-year-old would be confused by less intricate thoughts.

Ian was smiling to himself as he walked along: he hadn’t yet quite fathomed his joy. Tova carefully took his hand. Tentatively. A lot had changed between those two now. Her grip was merely probing, she was ready to pull back at the least sign of disinclination on his part. But Ian simply took firmer hold of her fist and his open smile made her go weak at the knees. She hadn’t realized how much it would affect her – after all, they were just friends, weren’t they?

Halkatla was still suffering from a guilty conscience after her fatal misstep the previous night. She who had promised herself to be worthy of the chosen ones! And then to immediately put one’s foot in it with a magic spell as soon as she was provoked! That was unforgivable! Marco hadn’t spoken much to her that whole day; it was clear as day that he was disappointed in her behaviour.

Rune was just as distressed about it, she knew. She had also behaved badly towards him, and his indignation was justified.

It wasn’t easy being a witch filled with remorse and shame, like painful wounds inside her. Witches weren’t normally understood to be tormented by shameful feelings.

They slowly worked their way up through the increasingly sparse birch trees. And none of them knew that Marco was about to face one of the worst and most shocking tasks of his life.

Tengel the Evil’s mental power had located them.

He himself was much too far away to intervene directly. But his spiritual power found them.

He was furious with them because they had avoided a trap he had set for them along the usual path up into the mountains. They had had the audacity to take another route! And he had had great difficulty finding them again now, without the excellent Lynx by his side.

But of course ... the great Tan-ghil would manage to find them!

There were many of them. Since he wasn’t in possession of his full power he couldn’t really get a grip on all of them, only sense their presence. He knew their whereabouts. And he knew that there were more of them than he could count on his own hand.

Tan-ghil had never had regular schooling. Advanced mathematics wasn’t really his cup of tea.

At any rate, they had to be stopped, and fast. He had a couple of really good helpers whom he could trust completely, two characters who had no scruples whatsoever and whom he intended to use as replacements for the vulnerable living ones he had been using up until now. A small, gloomy cloud spread across Tengel the Evil’s thoughts. They had taken the shell man from him. Ruined him. He no longer existed. They had lured Halkatla over to their side and he hated them for that.

Halkatla ... whom he had trusted completely. How in the world had they managed to win her over?

Oh, how he was going to make them suffer for that! First and foremost, she herself was going to be punished. Annihilating her would be too mild a punishment. For her kind, that is, the worst kind, nothing less than the Great Abyss would do.

He laughed out loud maliciously at the thought of that wonderful means of revenge.

And afterwards the others would get their punishment.

Anyway, so what? So what if they had taken the shell man and Halkatla from him, or dispersed many of his helpers to the four corners of the world (he had also sent the storm demons to the Great Abyss), or managed to destroy many of his foot soldiers. So what? He had much stronger weapons in his back pocket.

Like the two he intended to send out now. They didn’t possess a single gram of goodness beween them: the Ice People would never be able to win them over!

Even Tengel the Evil had no idea how fatal the encounter was going to be up in the mountains between South Tröndelag and Möre-og-Romsdal.

Even he didn’t know the whole truth about one of the individuals he was sending there.

It was Tova who was the first to discover that something was wrong.

She and Ian were walking at the back of the group, so it was natural that they should be the ones who noticed that something wasn’t as it should be.

“Marco!” she called in a low voice. “We’re being followed!”

The others stopped immediately. They were walking in a boundless landscape where the forest gave way to more mountainous regions. Both marshy and hilly terrain merged here, where the birch trees were still dense enough for the area to be described as forest. But it overlapped with a large area of willow scrub, every mountain hiker’s biggest nightmare, with branches that got stuck in virtually everything and a surface of mossy soil that concealed boulders, bog holes and deep cavities. The fact that the area was full of rocks that seemed to have been randomly strewn there didn’t help. Furthermore, there were a number of small hillocks that could conceal just about anything. “What makes you think that?” asked Marco.

“I’ve noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye several times now.”

“It could be an animal.”

“Then it would have to be an animal with arms.”

He nodded, looked around, but everything seemed quiet.

“Too bad it had to happen right here. We ought to walk closer together but we can’t.”

“Which is perhaps precisely the reason why it’s showed up now,” said Tova.

“Yes. Do you know whom I miss terribly at this moment?”

“Nataniel,” Tova and Gabriel answered at once.

“Yes. He has such a sense of authority about him.”

“So do you,” said Halkatla.

“Not now, I feel so limited in my present human form. Well, anyway, we’ll have to make the best of the situation. Rune, you go ahead, followed by Ian. Then Halkatla, Tova, Gabriel, and myself. That way we have the most vulnerable ones protected between us.”

Tova wondered whether she belonged to the vulnerable or the strong group, but she dared not ask. The fact that Ian and Gabriel had to be protected was clear enough.

She decided that she was strong.

Then they ventured on over the deadly difficult ground.

Marco stopped them fairly soon after that.

“You’re right, Tova. There is something here. And whatever it is, it’s a rather small being.”

“There are several,” said Rune.

“At least two,” Halkatla chimed in.

Marco nodded. “They’re so small that they can’t be spotted above the osier thickets. And they seem to be able to move regardless of the difficult conditions of the terrain. Should we assume that we’re not dealing with living beings?”

“I’m of the same mind as you,” said Rune.

He was still limping from his leg fracture, yet seemed to be able to move without too much discomfort.

“I’m walking behind Halkatla,” said Tova thoughtfully. “And I have the clear impression that she’s the one they’re principally after.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I’ve also seen the movements in the thickets. And they seem to be getting closer and closer to Halkatla.”

“Ugh!” Halkatla shuddered. “Do you think you-know-who has discovered my betrayal?”

“It’s highly likely,” said Marco.

“If it’s a small creature,” said Gabriel in a trembling voice, “could it be him himself?”

“No, no,” said Rune, “We would have had a clear warning from our ancestors.”

“A huge alarm signal,” said Marco. “No, I wonder what it could be. Anyway, we’ll go on. And Halkatla, switch places with Gabriel. I want you right in front of me.”

“Gabriel, you have no need to worry,” said Rune, “Ulvhedin is most certainly with you now.”

“I know,” said the boy, “I can feel his hand around mine every now and then.”

“And Tova, Sol is your guardian.”

“Perfect! Perfect!” said Tova, “Hi Sol, wherever you may be. But what about the rest of you? Don’t you have any protection?”

“Not Marco, Halkatla, or me,” said Rune, “but Tengel the Good himself is protecting Ian.”

“Oh,” said Tova to Ian enthusiastically. “That couldn’t be better. It means that our ancestors consider you to be one of us now.”

She grew silent as she took that thought to its completion. That could mean that their night together had been fruitful.

But Halkatla used almost the same words Tova was thinking, even though she had something completely different in mind: “That could mean that there’s something seriously dangerous lurking around here.”

“When Sol and Tengel the Good have chosen to accompany us, yes. It does seem so,” said Marco.

They continued. Poor Gabriel had great difficulty because he was hardly taller than the osier thickets, so he was moving at ground level, so to speak. And he didn’t in the least care for the dark slimy holes that glimmered deep between the stones and mounds. The snow must have come too early last autumn, because all the withered leaves still hung from the branches, making it virtually impossible for little Gabriel to gain a proper overview of where he was.

Tova wasn’t exactly tall or stately herself. She would sometimes disappear completely and her fiery curses were the only indications of where she was.

The snow, yes ... They were getting dangerously close to the heights that the snow hadn’t yet abandoned. Imagine if they weren’t able to find their way into the valley? Imagine if the moors were completely covered in snow and impassable?

But Marco was more preoccupied with the close and creeping danger surrounding them.

I don’t like this, he thought. I can feel deep in my soul that there is something terribly wrong!