C14 Chapter 14

“I’m caught in the branches!” Tova shouted. “Those confounded osiers, you’d think they were alive!”

Gabriel, who was walking in front of her, had more or less the same problem, but he was so short that he was forced to fight the clingy osiers on a lower level. The only part of him that was visible was the top of his black head of hair, which they could see every now and then.

All at once he disappeared entirely as Tova tore and pulled to get free of the thicket.

Yes, Gabriel had landed in a hollow in the terrain. But he was used to that, he just said a few words his parents wouldn’t have approved of and attempted to work his way back up again.

But then something terrible happened! So fast that he hardly had time to shout. A small creature rushed up behind him and put its ice-cold hand across his mouth. He was knocked off his feet and suddenly there was another one. One that was almost as small. They did something to Gabriel, making a single gesture with their hands so that everything went black for him. I’m blind, he thought in panic. He tried to scream, but as fast as squirrels, the little creatures managed to pull him off the path and he didn’t know where he was anymore.

Then he lost consciousness.

“Help get me free, Halkatla,” Tova moaned, furious at the thick belt of osiers. Halkatla helped her and the others started to go back for the girls.

“Where is Gabriel?” asked Ian, who had been walking in front of him.

Everyone stopped. A deadly silence fell.

“Gabriel!” Marco shouted so loud that it echoed between the boulders.

After the echo died the silence grew enormous.

“No one is to blame,” said Marco. He hurled himself forward past the girls while Ian and Rune moved back into the position where Gabriel should have been.

They disappeared into the undergrowth, searching every crack and bog hole.

Halkatla went to join them. “Tova has finally freed herself. Any luck?”

“No.”

Marco straightened up, rising up above the osiers. “I don’t understand this,” he said, his lips pale.

Everyone had come back together.

Everyone, that is, except one.

“Tova?” asked Marco.

Yet again, there was no answer.

“Tova!” Ian repeated. “Tova! Answer!”

The only answer they received was the terrible silence. Far away in the distance a cloud of snow began to conceal the top of a mountain and a grey-white curtain coming from the cloud indicated that the snowfall would soon reach them.

The landscape was so deserted.

“Tova! Gabriel!” Marco shouted and they could hear the fear in his voice.

They went on searching, of course. They searched for Tova in the spot where she had last been seen; they searched to the sides and behind, but now they wouldn’t leave anyone alone. It had been the two smallest members of the group who had disappeared, and now the others kept a close watch on Halkatla who could also sometimes disappear below the “surface”. She had lived in a time when people were, on average, fairly small, and as a woman she was shorter anyway.

Then they stopped and looked around. Their strenuous breathing was the only thing that could be heard. All they saw was fear and despair when they looked at each other’s faces.

“Ulvhedin!” Marco shouted. “Where is Gabriel? Sol! Where is Tova?”

But there was only silence.

Rune said calmly: “Wherever Tova and Gabriel are, their guardians will probably be with them. They must be far away now, since they can’t hear us.”

The others had to admit that that was most likely true. They were all on the verge of tears.

“Cowards, vermin!” A hoarse and impudent-sounding voice shouted from the hills before them at the same time that the snow began to fall all around them, making everything very hazy.

They looked at one another.

“Who could that be?” Ian asked.

Marco was as white as a ghost, but before he could manage to answer they heard another shout.

“Do you want them back? Then come and get them!”

“That was a different voice,” said Halkatla. “It was younger and more childish sounding.”

“Come,” Rune said softly.

They continued their trek where they had left off. Worn out and dejected, they made their way through the obstructive wilderness until they finally reached solid ground.

Sol was standing there. She stood with her back to them, speaking excitedly with two strange creatures. When the four of them approached she turned around. She addressed Marco, and she had an uncharacteristically grave and stern look on her face. The roguish glow in her eyes was gone for once.

“Marco, you and I have entered the deadliest trap of our lives. We won’t be able to manage this alone, my friend. That’s why Nataniel has been called, he should be here at any moment.”

Ian Morahan looked at them in puzzlement. He thought that Marco was the stronger of the two men: Nataniel looked more like a feeble dreamer to him, nothing more.

But now he could see that Marco had his weaknesses. The beautiful man stared at the two small creatures and gasped violently. Ian heard him whisper a terrified, “No, no, not that, I won’t be able to manage that!”

“I didn’t think so,” Sol muttered.

Ian had been having a hard time of it for the last half hour. Tova had disappeared, which made him consider his feelings for her. A while back he had been convinced that they were nothing but friends. Very good friends who, for a very good reason, had gone to bed with each other. But they had done it deliberately, for practical reasons, without harbouring any passion for one another.

And now, to his surprise, he had been as tense as a wire from fear of what might happen to her. And he missed her bitterly. He cared for her! How much was hard to say, but that she meant more to him than he had expected was very clear.

And now? She and Gabriel lay unconscious on the ground before the two little beasts. The smaller of them was holding a narrow, sharp sword pointed at Tova’s unprotected throat. And there was no doubt that he intended to use it if necessary.

Ian felt an invisible hand squeezing his heart. He wanted her back. He felt that life would be unbearable without Tova.

He finally took a moment to examine the two beasts. They were two little boys, laughing derisively at them. One of them was Gabriel’s age, a compellingly striking child with a terribly devilish look glinting in his yellow eyes. They were remarkably similar, the two of them, but the other one was much older, in his twenties, and he didn’t have the younger boy’s fascinating appearance: he was just grotesquely ugly, with a body that seemed gnarled and knotty. But they were both small enough to have concealed themselves below the tops of the osiers.

“What have you done with Tova?” Ian shouted angrily. “And little Gabriel?”

One of them carelessly poked at Tova with his foot.

“You’ve got the crap right there. You can have her, if we get Halkatla.”

“Of course,” Halkatla said immediately, taking a step forward.

Rune grabbed hold of her arm and held her back. “Don’t go! Tengel the Evil will send you down into the Great Abyss!”

“But ...”

Rune brushed away her words with a wave of his hand.

Marco seemed completely paralysed. Ian had never seen a person look so grey with despair.

But he also saw something else. On the elevation behind the two abominable creatures stood Ulvhedin, Gabriel’s guardian. It seemed as though the great giant didn’t dare take any action for fear of putting Gabriel’s life at risk.

And then came Nataniel. He appeared from out of the snowstorm between the mountain boulders.

His arrival didn’t seem to impress their two enemies. But Marco sighed with relief.

“I won’t ask where you’ve been,” he said dryly. “But your presence is highly appreciated here.”

“I understand,” said Nataniel after having eyed the two boys and their victims.

He addressed the enemy directly.

“Ulvar! Listen to me!”

“Why?” asked the bigger of the two in a hoarse, contemptible voice. “Why should I listen to you? Let Marco come and fetch them, if he dares!”

Marco covered his face with his hands.

“You know he can’t do that,” said Nataniel calmly. “You know it has been the great sorrow of his life that he had to kill you, his twin brother. He has never got over that tragedy and he wouldn’t be able to go up against you a second time.”

“I know!” laughed Ulvar. “Tengel the Evil had no idea what great luck it was that he managed to trigger this thing!”

“And you, Kolgrim,” said Nataniel, addressing the younger one. “Do you know that you are Sol’s only grandchild?”

“I sure do!” said the little boy with his mischievous voice, just on the point of breaking.

“And that’s why she can’t hurt you.”

“So, give us Halkatla,” said Ulvar dryly.

Marco removed his hands from his face. “Ulvar,” he implored. “Can’t you forgive me for what I did to you back then?”

Ulva didn’t answer him. Just gave his brother a cold look. The snowstorm was whipping around them now, and a thin layer of snow now covered the bodies of Tova and Gabriel.

Nataniel took a few steps towards them.

“Kolgrim, who do you most admire in the world?”

“Tengel the Evil, of course!”

“No, there was someone you worshipped but never had a chance to meet. Your grandmother, the witch, Sol.”

“Oh,” Kolgrim said childishly, yet was there a hint of insecurity in his voice?

“And who was it who helped you find the treasure of the Ice People? Yes, it was Sol. Do you remember that?”

“What rubbish,” Kolgrim snorted, but he didn’t want to look Nataniel in the eye, nor Sol.

She, on the other hand, exploded like a powder keg. “Now listen to me, you little brat! Weren’t you the one whom I was constantly shielding while you were alive? Wasn’t I the one who remained proud of you and was willing to help you no matter how badly you behaved? And so we meet here and all I see is a cowardly little wretch who is a servant of Tengel the Evil! Have you ever met him? Have you seen his ugly tongue, have you smelt his stinking breath? Had you stayed with us you would have encountered a fantastic array of beings and events. But you had to obey him and he put you to sleep for over three hundred years. While I and the others have lived in a world of free spirits for centuries and have led an exciting life together.”

“And you, Ulvar,” said Nataniel, striking while the iron was still hot. “Who did you look up to most as a child?”

“Shut up!” Ulvar shouted abruptly.

“Yes, it was your brother Marco. He could do magic. Faster than lightning. And you couldn’t. He had friends. Big wolves. Do you remember them? One of them brought me here. Many miles in no time. While you were just put to sleep for all those years and know nothing of the world now.”

“Give us Halkatla! And shut your trap, you creep!” Ulvar shouted uninhibitedly.

“Do you remember who always protected you when you were little? It was Marco. Do you know who wept over your dead body? Who held it in his arms until they tore it away from him? “

“Why did he shoot me, then? He could just as well not have.”

“No, he had to do it. You threatened to kill little Benedikte, and then you wanted the treasure. Marco had no choice. But no one could have been more destroyed by it than him.”

“Spare me all your sentimentality! It won’t work on me!”

“For your mother’s sake, Ulvar.”

“I didn’t know her.”

All at once Nataniel realized the simple truth: Ulvar didn’t know who his father was! Because then Tengel the Evil would also have known it. But Tengel the Evil knew nothing about Marco. Not that he was a black angel, the son of Lucifer, nor that he was Ulvar’s twin brother. Henning had never told Ulvar the truth. Had never dared to.

It was a matter of treading very carefully now! It wasn’t worth talking about black angels and wolves. Ulvar had most likely just thought that Marco had been given especially strong powers that had made it possible for him to perform those miracles in his childhood. Ulvar had never known where the wolves came from!

The snowstorm had subsided and the gloomy landscape became increasingly visible now, with the dark cliffs in the background and the densely hilly terrain closest to them.

How could Tengel the Evil not have known about Ulvar? About the wolves, for example, or the fact that he had a twin brother – precisely the man that Tengel the Evil was using all his mental powers to try and locate?

“Rest in evil” was exactly what Ulvar had done. Tengel had swept him out of the way without asking him, not until he needed him again, which he did now.

Once again Nataniel appealed to the extremely stricken boy. “Ulvar ... you know, you weren’t exactly popular when you were alive.”

Ulvar guffawed. “Wonderful! That’s exactly what I was trying to do, to make everyone furious! It was great!”

Goodness, this won’t do at all, Nataniel thought, but he continued undaunted. “But there was one person in the world who loved you no matter what you did. And that was Marco, and you know it.”

“Nonsense!” said Ulvar, though now he had a slightly insecure look about his mouth. “That holier-than-thou mama’s boy!”

“How could he have been a mama’s boy when he never even saw his mother?”

“I didn’t, either, but I managed just fine!”

“You did? I would say that your life was more or less a failure.”

“Nonsense!” said Ulvar, whose vocabulary was becoming extremely limited.

Nataniel interpreted it as a moment of weakness on Ulvar’s part and he took full advantage of it. Taking Sol and Marco with him, he quickly approached the two boys. Surprised, they both retreated so instinctively that they forgot all about their victims. Sol was the fastest: she put her arms around Kolgrim, who was furious and resisted as hard as he could, but she squeezed him tightly.

“You are my only relative,” she said quietly. “And I’m yours.”

“I’m the devil, I am!” Kolgrim whimpered as he struggled to get free. “I don’t need any relatives, I’m strong, I’m ...”

And right then, at that very moment, Nataniel’s power came forth. The power that they had all been searching for and wondered about. Nataniel, the fickle one, the dreamer ...

Now he struck!

As Sol held her grandchild in her arms, Marco went over to Ulvar who had pulled back more and more into the background, furious and as defensive as a hissing, spitting cat. Rune, Ian and Halkatla had immediately seen to their unconscious friends and pulled them aside to safety.

But Nataniel ...

In awe, everyone stopped what they were doing to look at him.

He was glowing. All around him there was an aura, an iridescent light streaming from his eyes, a sense of warmth and goodness that they hadn’t dreamed was possible. The ones behind him weren’t able to see his eyes, of course, but they sensed tremendous strength emanating from him: the power of human love! Sol and Marco stared at him, speechless, and Ulvar and Kolgrim stood completely paralysed.

And the slim, black crown indicating that he was a prince of the black halls became visible.

All the strength he had within from his noble ancestors of the Ice People, from night demons and storm demons, from black angels and his father’s God-fearing family, in which he was the seventh son of a seventh son, all of it was concentrated in the aura he now emitted.

He went over to Kolgrim. Sol had let her hands fall and was standing next to her grandchild who was unable to move. Nataniel lifted his arms and took the boy’s face in his hands.

And that’s when the others understood that Nataniel’s special form of power consisted of love.

They had never been able to grasp it. They had been busy searching for strong, magical powers or an internal strength that could knock any enemy down. It had never occurred to them that his gentle and friendly aspects were strengths in themselves.

“Kolgrim,” he said gently. “What has Tengel the Evil ever given you except loneliness? No one ever looked up to you, you were never admired for your wickedness. And then he sacrificed you. Left you in a lonely grave, ‘resting in evil’, for many centuries. But there is one person who loves you, Kolgrim, your grandmother Sol, who is a fantastic being and truly worth looking up to. Think about it! I’m not saying that you have to change sides all at once, but don’t work against us. That’s all I ask of you!”

He left the bewildered Kolgrim to Sol while he himself saw to Ulvar.

Marco’s twin brother was staring at Nataniel as though he had been bewitched.

“The crown?” he whispered. “The crown. Where does it come from?”

“Marco has one, too, Ulvar. Yes, see, it’s becoming visible now.”

“It’s even finer,” Ulvar said. “Like the crown of a prince.”

“Yes,” Marco answered. “And you also had a right to one, but you chose the wrong side.”

Nataniel shook his head without letting his gaze leave Ulvar. “You didn’t choose. You had no choice, Ulvar, and no one has blamed you for being born with evil within you. But you are now standing at a new crossroads. Think about what you have been given by Tengel the Evil. What kind of a future has he offered you?”

“To be allowed to serve him.”

“Wonderful. That’s an exceptional reward. I’m going to give you the same conditions that I gave Kolgrim. We aren’t demanding that you join us, which may be too complicated for you, and furthermore, we don’t know whether we can trust you. All we ask is that you don’t fight against us.”

“I can’t change my mind. I’ll just be hurled down into the Great Abyss.”

“Halkatla has taken that chance. There are many who are protecting her.”

Ulvar shook his head. He was in a frenzy, frightened out of his wits by what Tengel the Evil might do to him were he to defy him. At the same time, the sense of community with the others that he was being offered tempted him greatly, because he had never known such a thing in his life, and he was completely spellbound by the black crowns and his brother’s kindness. Forgotten memories from his childhood emerged, about Marco’s comforting arms; he had always looked up to Marco as to an older brother. Nataniel’s eyes ... they bewitched him to an even greater extent. It was as though goodness itself shone towards him and embraced him with warmth, love and understanding and ...

Something snapped inside Ulvar. He groaned. He was filled with a painful loneliness, his knees began to give way under him and to his great embarrassment he burst into uncontrollable tears. It had been those eyes that had broken him, those confounded eyes of compassion. He sensed Marco’s closeness, sensed how his beloved brother lifted him back up to his feet, holding him tightly to him, and never had he felt so agonizingly wonderful and safe and ... and beautiful!

He had returned home!

Kolgrim, who had died when he was only fourteen years old, and had never aged more than that, automatically joined the chorus. He didn’t cry as exhaustingly, heart-wrenchingly and frightfully as Ulvar had, he cried like the child he was as he stammered, “Grandma, Grandma!” and Sol was slightly thrown by her role as a grandmother – even though she felt like a rather young kind of grandmother. She herself had never got past the age of twenty-two.

This won’t end well, Ian thought, but, in fact, it seemed that it would. Both boys were completely grief-stricken, and when Marco finally had a chance to ask what they had done to Tova and Gabriel, Ulvar tried to pull himself together enough to answer.

There were some words he couldn’t get out, but by waving and gesticulating with his arms he made it clear that they had both been numbed, by him.

“Then rectify it,” said Nataniel, in a not unfriendly voice.

Ulvar took a few deep breaths and brushed his hand first across Tova’s face, then across Gabriel’s. Ian knelt down next to Tova and held her as she woke up. Nataniel saw to Gabriel.

Halkatla had, during the whole ordeal, been standing somewhat in the background, ready to flee. But Ulvar, tired, shook his head at her – she had nothing to fear from them.

Finally the truth dawned on Ulvar.

“We’re doomed,” he said, “Once my lord and master finds out about this ...”

“He won’t,” said Nataniel, “Or, at least he’ll find out too late ...”

Nataniel conferred with Rune quickly and quietly. They walked a little to one side, away from the others.

“They can’t come with us, they’re too dangerous,” said Nataniel. “We have to protect them against Tengel the Evil. But how?”

“Tula?” Rune suggested.

“Not the place where we were that night. It cannot be revealed,” said Nataniel. He didn’t dare say the name of the Demon’s Mountain out loud.

“No, I meant we could seek advice from her.”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

He quickly summoned Tula. They heard a boom in the air. She hadn’t come alone.

Ulvar and Kolgrim looked in awe at the four demons she always had with her. Ian also retreated at the sight of them. True, he had seen quite a bit in the last few days, but this took the prize. He felt his heart pounding with unease inside his chest.

“What in the world?” asked Kolgrim, who hadn’t experienced anything since falling to his death in the Valley of the Ice People until he had been summoned to the great osier belt to catch Halkatla.

Ulvar hadn’t seen all that much when it came to demons, either. He had seen Marco’s wolves and he had once got Tengel the Evil into a boat. Demons were a completely unfamiliar phenomenon to him.

And the four of them were absolutely magnificent to look at. Imposing, ice-cold, awe-inspiring. The green-haired Asteroth, Rebo with his bull’s horns, Lupus with his pulled-back ears and Apollyon with his elegant, sweeping antlers.

Nataniel was back to his old self again.

“How did you do that?” Rune asked as they approached Tula.

“I didn’t do anything consciously,” answered Nataniel, who was surprised himself. “It just came over me. A tremendous sense of compassion for those two poor children who had been born into evil through no fault of their own. Yes, I saw them both as children, both motherless, of course, since their mothers died during childbirth. And I could have cried on their behalf. But then I was filled with this wonderful sense of love. I’ve never experienced it before but I became this burning flame full of compassion and tenderness for them. That’s all that happened.”

“Well, it seemed to be sufficient,” Rune said dryly.

They greeted Tula and told her what had taken place.

“We know,” said Tula. “We’ve been following it and all five of us had hoped to be given the chance to jump into the scene ourselves. So you would like to place them somewhere safe from Tengel the Evil’s revenge. That’s very sensible! Because they shouldn’t take part in the battle.”

“No, but on the other hand, we can’t hide them in the same place as the children of the Ice People.”

“Certainly not. But we have other places that are just as safe from you-know-who.”

She spoke in a low voice to her four winged friends. They nodded and all of them went over to Ulvar and Kolgrim, who looked scared out of their senses.

“You will now be escorted to a place where Tengel the Evil can’t find you,” said Nataniel. “No, don’t be afraid, the four demons won’t hurt you. You can safely follow them. And when the time comes, you’ll be set free again!”

No one said what they were thinking: if the hour of freedom ever came.

“Yes,” said Rune with hesitation. “For they shouldn’t be – eliminated entirely?”

“No,” said Nataniel, quickly looking at Marco and Sol. “No, not now, we couldn’t do that.”

They saw the tears in Sol’s and Marco’s eyes. They saw their pleading hope that their loved ones would be spared from Tengel the Evil’s claws.

Ulvar and Kolgrim were still standing there observing the four demons with fluttering, frightened glances.

“You can safely go with them,” Tula said lightly. “Or shall we say fly, rather?”

Before Ulvar and Kolgrim knew what was happening, they were up in the air among flapping leather wings taking them away from the mountain moors.

“Well, that’s that,” said Tula who remained standing there calmly. “What do we do now, what are our possibilities?”

“I didn’t think you went anywhere without your friends,” said Nataniel.

“I don’t, they’ll be back soon, and then we’ll all be hungry after having taken part in the battle against Tengel the Evil.”

“But aren’t you supposed to be looking after the children of the Ice People?”

“They’re having a wonderful time! Horse-creatures are caring for them as if they were their own. I’m free to do whatever I want. So how do things look?”

“I’m tempted to say that our possibilities are starting to look promising,” said Nataniel “We’ve managed to eliminate a number of his assistants. Erling Skogsrud. Ulvar and Kolgrim. Halkatla we’ve managed to win over to our side. A troop of Spanish mercenaries have literally scattered to all four corners of the world, including small demons and giant bats. And presumably most of his living henchmen, his so-called foot soldiers. And we even managed to conquer Shama!”

“That sounds good,” said Tula, pleased. “Then the road is pretty much clear. We’re approaching the finish line, friends!”

A new sense of hope shone in their eyes. They were over the worst of it.

Rune was the only one who voiced a complaint. He looked up at the sky. “But the day is almost over.”

“So what?” said Halkatla. “The nights are still light.”

“But Gabriel has had a long journey today,” Ian objected.

“I slept in the car,” Gabriel said quickly.

Whereupon it was decided. What did they have to lose by continuing? The place where they stood now was very dreary.

There were many of them now. For Sol and Ulvhedin would stay with them openly and visibly, for which they were very grateful.

Almost the whole group was now gathered together, including the chosen ones: Marco, Nataniel, Tova and Gabriel. The only one missing was Ellen, and Nataniel’s longing for her caused an eternal, piercing sense of pain within him. It was painful for the others, too, but for Nataniel, it gave him a numbing sense of indifference towards the task before them. And that was dangerous.

If he were to be honest with himself there were only two motives that kept him going: the attempt to find Ellen and the urge to take revenge on Tengel the Evil because he had taken her away from him.

The well-being of the world didn’t matter so much to him anymore.

With those four were Rune, Ian Morahan, Halkatla, Tula and now Sol and Ulvhedin. And since the latter two were guardians for Tova and Gabriel, Nataniel’s and Ian’s guardians thought that they, too, could be visible as well. So two more members were added to the group: Linde-Lou and Tengel the Good. They were given a warm welcome. Those two were also able to tell them that Targenor was busy mobilizing the great hordes of demons and various other creatures, should they be needed.

“That won’t be necessary,” said Nataniel. “But I still haven’t had the chance to tell you about the vision that I saw in Benedikt’s window.”

As they were walking he explained why he had visited Linden Avenue. He told them everything, and at first they listened in silence, then they asked questions and later came up with suggestions and theories.

The large group of twelve slowly and strenuously made their way up among the mountain boulders to the next plateau, where the entrance to the Valley of the Ice People had to be. The day was ending but there was still enough light for them. They wanted to get the hardest climbing over with before setting up camp for the night, so that they could get some rest and collect some energy for the following day.

All at once Ian stopped. “What’s that?”

The whole group stopped and followed his gaze.

There were the boulders that indicated the edge of the upper plateau right before them. And from one of these boulders smoke was billowing and rising upwards into the dark sky.

“There’s another,” said Gabriel, pointing a little farther off.

“Someone’s sitting there,” Nataniel murmured.

They stood for a moment looking at the phenomenon in perplexity. Bonfires up here in the wilderness?

There was something oddly frightening about these bonfires. Something strange and unfamiliar ... and yet familiar.

Tengel the Good’s face had become stern. “I think we should call on Inu.”

He murmured some words out into what was beginning to turn into night. At once, a small, fur-clad Taran-gai approached them from the moor. He bowed courteously to them all, one by one, and they returned his greeting.

“Inu,” said Tengel the Good, who, completely naturally and without difficulty, had taken over the leadership of the group. “Inu, do you know what those bonfires are?”

The little man looked at them for a moment.

“Yes,” he said and shuddered. “Do you hear anything?”

They listened. All they could hear was the incredible silence of the moor, where they could clearly hear the faint whispering of the wind through the grass. But then something else became audible.

Peculiar-sounding, strange troll songs rose up towards the sky. And some of the words struck them: “When the song was over something always went badly for someone in Taran-gai ...”

“Kat. And Kat-ghil,” Sol whispered. “Tengel the Evil’s grandson and great-grandson in Taran-gai. The evil sorcerers who sacrificed humans and surrounded themselves with spirits from unknown, frightening spheres.

They looked at one another quizzically as they slowly began to lose heart. Then they turned their gaze once again towards the frightening creatures by the bonfires.

And they were merely the first ominous outposts of what was really awaiting them up on the moors of the Udgård Mountains.