Читать книгу The Ice People 19 - Dragon´s Teeth - Margit Sandemo - Страница 7

Chapter 2

Johan Gabriel Oxenstierna’s worldly love for “Themir” had a miserable ending. Her father, Kinvall, ruthlessly married her off to the estate bookkeeper, whom she did not like in the least. It seemed that she really had reciprocated Johan Gabriel’s love for her, even though he was so much younger than she was.

Although Johan Gabriel suffered for a long time after the heartless marriage took place, it was a beautiful sort of suffering! His poetic love for her persisted: in fact, it grew increasingly sublime, and for the rest of his life he kept his dream of Themir alive. He transmuted both her and the love they shared into something that was endlessly beautiful and divinely chaste, and the many beautiful poems he wrote were chiefly inspired by her. In this way a minor servant girl came to have a place in Swedish literary history as the source of inspiration for a great bard.

In the meantime Johan Gabriel soon had other things to think about. He was sent to Uppsala to study at the university there.

Sölve Lind of the Ice People, who had always regarded Johan Gabriel as a little brother (though a brother of nobler lineage, of course) asked his father’s permission to follow in his friend’s footsteps and to study.

This was something Daniel had to think about. The boy was certainly bright, but could they really afford it?

Finally he gave in. Both Daniel himself and his father had studied at Uppsala. He felt that he could not deny his son the opportunity, even though the family was by no means wealthy.

But in fact the Oxenstierna family wasn’t wealthy either. So both boys had to tighten their belts while in Uppsala. They travelled back home as often as they could in order to get decent food for a few days and to recuperate before continuing their studies.

They did not live together in the university town because it would not do for a count to live with someone who was not of noble descent. They saw each other often, however, as they were studying the same subjects in the humanities and they needed one another. Johan Gabriel needed the pragmatic sense of Sölve, who was older than him and could protect him against rougher groups of boys who found the young poet much too soft and ridiculous. And Sölve needed Johan Gabriel’s friendship. For no matter how outgoing Sölve was, there were few people who could actually follow his flights of ideas and his split existence – partially in the real world and partially in a fairy-tale world of imagination.

But Johan Gabriel was able to keep up with Sölve. This young, sensitive, gallant man, who was well received in the literary world because of his pleasant nature, his romantic melancholy and his poetic art, had the ability to see the as yet undiscovered possibilities of Sölve’s intellect.

But he would never have been able to imagine what actually lay hidden in the depths of Sölve’s mind!

Sölve had another reason for wanting to go to Uppsala. He had grown tired of Stina, who embarrassed him with her intimate glances, her whispering and giggling in the presence of the other servants, at home or in the larger house at Skenäs.

The years passed in Uppsala. They were exciting times for Sölve in more than one sense, because no one knew of his incredible double life. Though it was true that mysterious occurrences took place at the university – such as, for example, important books disappearing from the professors’ rooms, only to reappear again later, and the fact that Sölve received surprisingly good marks from time to time – no one would ever have dreamed of accusing him of cheating, because it could always be proven that he had either been in his own room or in the company of friends the whole time.

There had also been some more serious occurrences. Unpleasant students had been struck by misfortunes of various kinds, and the girls of the town would tearfully ask themselves what on earth had made them go along with the things the young dark-haired student demanded of them.

Only once did Sölve get a small shock, which made him realize that he would have to be more careful in future.

It had happened when he and Johan Gabriel were sitting at an outdoor tavern in the beautiful park by the Fyris River. It was a lovely day and the sun, which was strong, was shining in Sölve’s eyes.

Johan Gabriel took a big gulp of his beer and said, “I must say, you have fortune on your side when it comes to the ladies, Sölve! I have never seen our history teacher more furious than he was yesterday. But it serves him right because he has always treated me badly and I have never known why.”

Sölve just nodded. He had long been irritated by the history teacher’s unjust treatment of the meek Johan Gabriel and he had decided to give the teacher a lesson on behalf of his friend.

“But how did you manage to steal his fine little maiden?” Johan Gabriel asked admiringly. “I don’t understand it, because she has always looked up to that fool like a god.”

“Simple,” said Sölve, with a smile full of self-irony. “It’s just my irresistible charm ...” He has no idea just how true that is, he thought to himself. When I want something, my willpower is irresistible. He remembered how bold he had felt when he had wished for the teacher’s little sweetheart to come over to his, Sölve’s, table after telling the teacher a few home truths.

She had done it! She had announced to her idol that she thought he was boring and self-righteous and that she preferred the company of more exciting men, whereupon she had gone over to sit at the table where Sölve was eating in the big faculty dining hall. It had created an uproar, and the teacher had left the room in a rage. Sölve had some difficulty afterwards in getting rid of the lady, whom he had no intention of getting to know more intimately. Very confused and rather humiliated, the beauty had retreated and gone home to get away from Sölve’s cold behaviour.

He ought to have felt guilty about her and he did. For a moment. Then he forgot about her.

The sound of Johan Gabriel’s voice jolted Sölve out of his memories. “There is no question that you have charm. Those deep brown eyes ... But did you know that when the sun shines on them they don’t look nearly as brown, or dark, as you think they are? Have you noticed that they are filled with yellow spots? They’re speckled like the wings of a butterfly.”

At that Sölve winced and resolved to be more on his guard. It would probably be best if he were a little more careful!

That evening he examined his eyes closely for a long time in the mirror. But the night was not a good time because his pupils were dilated and the light was too weak. His eyes looked completely black.

But as he looked in the mirror he realized that Johan Gabriel had been right. He was good-looking now. His features had grown more masculine; in a world of endless wigs and white powdered hair, his dark brown curls gave him an exotic look that probably both attracted and repelled women. Indeed, wasn’t it this slightly repulsive, foreign-looking element that attracted them? His eyes had a suggestive power of attraction – even he could see that. He gave the impression of being a romantic sort of lover, quite different from the starry-eyed nobleman Johan Gabriel. More dangerous, more frightening, more direct and erotic. The slow smile of the mouth ...

Well now, was he really standing there, going into raptures about himself? Sölve had to laugh at such conceit. Because in themselves his features were not so special. The tip of his nose, for example, and his bony jaw ... but those weren’t things you’d notice.

He pondered. He was, of course, unable to judge for himself. But now he was in danger. His minor manipulations might be discovered. The escapade with the teacher’s little admirer had been a bit thoughtless.

And then his eyes ...!

Johan Gabriel had discovered something that no one else had seen, except perhaps Ulvhedin: that there was a dash of yellow in his eyes.

Had it always been there? Or had it come gradually? Would it ultimately fill the entire iris?

Sölve didn’t know. But the danger was certainly there. He had been playing with fire and would have to restrain himself for a while now.

In a way he felt a sense of responsibility for Johan Gabriel. If Sölve was caught for one of his small, semi-criminal actions it would rebound on his friend. And Johan Gabriel did not deserve that. He was an unusually fine and sensitive man, whom Sölve genuinely liked, despite his otherwise very egocentric character.

But gradually, as the term progressed, Sölve came to realize that his position in the university town was unsustainable. The history professor put all his efforts into intimidating Sölve in revenge for what he had done, and even though Sölve could easily have struck back at the unpleasant teacher, he neither wanted nor dared to.

So when Johan Gabriel completed his studies at Uppsala and moved to Stockholm to work at the chancellery, Sölve ended his studies as well and returned home. However, he was only halfway through his course and had to promise his father that he would return to finish it later on. But for now all he wanted was to come home and help out on the farm, he said. He had had enough of Uppsala for a while.

He received a letter from Johan Gabriel in which the latter told him that he wasn’t enjoying life in the big city or doing well in his job at the chancellery. He was poor so he couldn’t afford any amusements. He was homesick for Skenäs. He would fall in love from time to time, but only from a distance: he was partial to pining unhappily for beautiful women, the good Johan Gabriel. And he detested the city with all his heart.

The situation was unsatisfactory for both friends. Sölve was unhappy as well, because the restlessness in his mind continued to grow and he was not at all pleased at having to deal with Stina again. He had hoped that she would have been married in the meantime and have calmed down, but no! She insisted on having the young man again and she was beginning to be a danger to him. Sölve was dreadfully afraid that he might do something drastic about her. His fingers itched to silence her for good, and that was a feeling that utterly frightened him. Until then the curse of the Ice People had remained at a rather harmless level inside him. He was now aware of other, more staggering depths.

The worst thing was the shift he had felt within him when it came to his own sense of responsibility, his feeling that the laws other people abided by were not to be taken seriously. The desire to do whatever he wanted with other people’s lives was beginning to get out of hand. He was supreme! He was one of the witch-masters of the Ice People! He was above all human misery! Actually, he should have thought of himself as being way below humanity. But those of the Ice People who were cursed never thought that way.

Another thing worried him. His sister Ingela had tartly commented that his eyes were starting to look “watered down”. “Watered down?” he had answered resentfully. “Well, they are lighter,” she had said. “They shine more.”

They were always bickering with each other. She had said it so nonchalantly, she had probably not associated his eyes with the Ice People in any way. But it had scared Sölve.

The farm work wasn’t enough for him, he soon discovered. And Ingela was never at home. She had started daydreaming about the young men in the area, and took to rushing around the local roads with a friend on more or less necessary errands for their mother and father. As young girls have always done from the dawn of time. Sölve, who saw through her and thought what he was witnessing was truly disgusting, would tease her about it.

That was the situation when two things suddenly happened at once and the problem of living at home was solved.

Johan Gabriel returned home with a tempting proposition for Sölve. On top of that his father received a letter from grandmother Ingrid at Gråstensholm.

“Now listen, children,” Daniel said as he gathered his two expectant children in the fine drawing room. Their mother was also present but did not have the same strong personality as the others. She just tagged along. She was like a kitchen utensil that, although it was well liked and would be missed if it were to disappear, was otherwise taken for granted.

“Now listen here,” Daniel said. “My mother Ingrid writes that she would like us to go to Gråstensholm for the summer ...”

Oh no, Sölve thought. Not to Ulvhedin! He’ll notice right away! And so will grandmother Ingrid! They are both cursed!

He didn’t want those two to know. Because they had become “good”.

Also, Sölve did not yet understand the dangers of the path he was about to take. He didn’t want them to recognize what he was precisely because they had become humane and well adjusted.

Dangerous thoughts, Sölve!

Daniel continued, “grandmother also had good news to tell. Elisabet Paladin of the Ice People – I’m sure you remember her?”

Both children nodded. They liked Elisabet.

“She has been married. To a very sympathetic man by the name of Vemund Tark. They will be moving into Elistrand because he has lost his home. Everyone is pleased with this solution because, as you may recall, Ulf was very concerned over the fate of Elistrand. But now it is grandmother Ingrid who is worried about Gråstensholm. She would like one of you to take it over eventually.”

Ingela said nothing, because she was thinking of a young man on one of the farms in the parish. Right now he was the only thing that meant anything to her and she couldn’t imagine ever leaving Vingåker.

The previous week it had been another boy whom she was certain she would love until the end of her days.

But Sölve became more agitated. “But Father! Johan Gabriel has just returned home and he is going to travel to Vienna. He is going to be secretary to the Swedish minister there. And he has asked me to join him: he said there would also be work for me. I want to go so badly, Father!”

“To Vienna,” his mother said, shocked. “But that is much too far away!”

Daniel interjected, “No, Vienna is the capital of culture, so there is no danger in going there. But we cannot disappoint grandmother. She is counting on you two, that one of you will take over in Norway.”

“Yes, yes, Father,” Sölve said. “I will gladly take over Gråstensholm when she and Ulvhedin have passed away because I love it there, but not now! Give her my promise, Father, but let me see the world first.”

It was true that Sölve wanted to go to Gråstensholm, but it was for different reasons. Recently he had begun to think more and more about the sacred treasure of the Ice People. It ought to be his! But not until Ulvhedin had died. He feared Ulvhedin’s sharp gaze, and for good reason.

Besides, the most important element of the coveted collection could be found here! In his father’s house!

“But Sölve,” Daniel objected. “I had hoped that you would some day take over here. As Oxenstierna’s ever-loyal henchmen, we have served them ever since Countess Marca Christiana entered the family. I’m sure you recall that it was Tarjei Lind of the Ice People who married Cornelia von Erbach, the cousin of Marca Christiana. Since then we have unfailingly stood by them through everything. I had planned that you would continue to do so, Sölve.”

“Yes, and I will! By following Johan Gabriel through thick and thin!”

“Yes,” Daniel pondered, “That’s true, of course ...”

“But am I then to take over Gråstensholm?” Ingela lamented. “I like it here and want to stay here!”

Daniel sighed. “I am not sure, child. I am uncertain how we should go about this. I only know that one of you is to take over here and the other in Norway. It will probably all straighten out eventually.”

The discussion continued for the rest of the evening. And Daniel, who had travelled widely himself in his youth, at one point going all the way to the Kara Sea to bring Shira home to Vendel Grip, wavered between his desires to take Sölve with him to Gråstensholm and to give him permission to go to Vienna. The latter would be a unique adventure for such a bright young man.

Finally Sölve solved it himself.

“We are not going to visit grandmother until the summer. Who’s to say that I’ll remain in Vienna forever? I could return before the trip to Norway!”

Everyone gave a sigh of relief. The issue was now resolved. Despite the family’s rather weak financial state, it was decided that Sölve could go to Vienna. His mother cried a little, of course, and thought that she would never see her son again, but Daniel reassured her that Vienna was not a barbaric place. On the contrary, the Viennese most likely considered Norway and Sweden to be wild, uncivilized, primitive places at the end of the earth. His wife was unable to fathom that. Surely everyone knew perfectly well that Sweden was the centre of the world ...

On the day he was to set off, Sölve went to his father. His heart was pounding all the way up into his throat, so that he was worried that it was visible.

“Father?” he began, and had to clear his throat because his voice was so shaky, not because of having to say farewell, but because of what he was about to say.

“Father, I have a great favour to ask of you ...”

“Yes, what is it?” Daniel asked in a friendly way.

“I would so terribly like some form of protection now that I am to travel to a foreign country.”

“Protection? What do you have in mind?”

Sölve had to clear his throat again. “The mandrake, Father. I will feel safe if I have it.”

He kept his hands behind his back so that his father wouldn’t be able to see how much he was shaking. The excitement he was feeling vibrated through his whole body. The mandrake, the most coveted of all the Ice People’s treasures!

Daniel grew worried. It was a hard wish to fulfill.

“Well, Sölve, as you know, that mandrake is mine. It has followed me from the moment I was born, even before anyone ever gave me a thought. It is thanks to it that I was conceived. It is alive when it is close to me and it has always been my protection. It’s true that in recent years I have not had any need for it, because everything has gone well for us. But as to whether I have the right to give it away ...”

“But you’ll have to eventually, Father,” Sölve said as calmly as he could. “And who is closer to you than your son?”

Daniel nodded. “You’re right, I won’t live forever. But it is a peculiar ... object. I was just about to say ‘creature’. If it does not thrive it shows it right away.”

“Well, let’s try then,” Sölve said, hiding his enthusiasm.

Daniel looked thoughtfully at his son, who had to lower his eyes. “You are just an ordinary person, Sölve,” he said, because he didn’t know any better. “But on the other hand, so am I. The mandrake followed me so that I would be led to Shira and help her on her way. It is a good mandrake, Sölve. It is fighting against Tengel the Evil, who was unable to carry it. So let’s try! If you aren’t the right one you’ll feel it immediately! It will writhe and rip your skin as if it had claws.”

“And if I am the right one?” Sölve could barely speak from sheer excitement.

Daniel smiled. “Then the mandrake will settle down on your chest as though it belonged there.”

“Let me try then.”

Finally Daniel succumbed. “Very well. Come along!”

They went into the dressing room, beyond which there was a small room that Sölve had never seen. His father went inside and came out carrying a large, grotesque-looking thing in his hand.

The mandrake! Sölve started to tremble uncontrollably and had to use all his willpower not to grab it for himself. His father caressed it gently as if it were a small animal.

And that was how it looked, too. Or rather, like a doll or a human creature. The gallows flower.

Sölve had such difficulty breathing that he thought he might faint. He waited impatiently as his father slowly lifted the chain over his head.

Good power! Sölve wasn’t so sure about that. But it was certainly a powerful force. A great conspirator. The wonders he could achieve with it!

Slowly the mandrake settled down about his neck. Sölve had opened his shirt, revealing his bare chest. The mandrake was bigger, much bigger than he had imagined. It would definitely get in the way!

It just lay there then. Right against his skin.

“How does it feel, Sölve?” his father asked hopefully.

The boy was disappointed, “It feels ... dead, Father. Heavy and dead. As though there is no life in it.”

“Then we’ll remove it.”

“No!” Sölve nearly shouted, stopping his father’s hands, which had already started to lift it off. “No, I’m sure it’s not dead. But it is not writhing in discomfort, Father. It has nothing against me.”

“Let’s face it, Sölve, you mean nothing to it. But on the other hand, it is not resisting you. Perhaps you ... no, let me try it for a moment. Then we’ll see the difference.”

As much as it felt as if life itself was being taken away from him, Sölve allowed his father to remove the mandrake and place it about his own neck.

“Well?” asked Sölve when the silence had gone on too long.

“It’s strange, but it feels dead to me, too.”

“Well, then ...”

“Perhaps its calling is over since Shira managed to find the source of life? Perhaps it is now just an ordinary mandrake root.”

“Well, then, perhaps I can have it, Father? As a keepsake?”

“I don’t know, my boy. It feels so heavy and dead. More dead than an ordinary root would have seemed. I think that it still has some magical capabilities. I just don’t know how or what it represents now. Sölve, do we really dare ...?”

“Maybe it is just resting here at home, at Skenäs, because it is so calm and safe here,” Sölve said with such eagerness that he managed to stumble over his own words. He couldn’t lose the mandrake now when he almost had it; he should never had said that it felt dead. “Maybe it will come back to life again if I am suddenly in danger.”

“I don’t know, Sölve. I don’t know.”

Daniel was amused by Sölve’s eagerness. Naturally the mandrake was exciting to him at his age, but it was no toy.

“Please, Father!”

The two children had always managed to wrap Daniel around their little fingers. Daniel had married so late, and mostly because he had been pressured by the family to do so. He had chosen a lady from a good family and she had not been quite young either. The marriage had started purely as a formal arrangement. But their respect for one another grew over the years; they never became tired of one another, showed each other consideration and behaved properly towards one another. It was certainly not a bad marriage, although the only signs of tenderness they displayed were limited to friendly smiles or absentminded little pats on the shoulder or arm.

His two children had awakened a tenderness in Daniel that he had never thought he was capable of. He would do anything for them, beautiful and intelligent as they were, to his great surprise. Never had he thought that he would have such exceptional children! Not that he didn’t think he would have loved them just as much had they been imperfect in some way, and perhaps then his love would have been even greater. But it never ceased to surprise him how well they turned out, and he was so exceedingly happy to have them.

A sensible father would have put his foot down during the discussion they had had earlier that day. He would have said, “That’s enough. Sölve is to have the farm here and Ingela is to have Gråstensholm.” Or the other way around. At any rate, the children would not have been allowed to object or protest in any way. But Daniel didn’t see them like that. Perhaps he was humbled in the face of these two fantastic creatures who were of his own creation?

For that reason he sighed deeply, gazing at Sölve with a loving smile. “Yes, my boy, then that’s how it will be. You can borrow it. I mean, it serves only benevolent purposes, so it cannot harm you.”

Sölve let out a sigh, long and trembling. The mandrake was his!

In 1770, the same year that Elisabet Paladin of the Ice People found her Vemund Tark and married him, Sölve Lind of the Ice People travelled to Vienna. Johan Gabriel Oxenstierna had journeyed ahead of him and wrote to inform him that he had managed to secure Sölve an excellent job with a Swedish business in the city. He had also found lodgings for his friend.

So they met in the Habsburg capital, two young men with not enough money in their pockets to be able to get by. Johan Gabriel was twenty years old and Sölve was twenty-one.

But they were in good spirits. Johan Gabriel had already succeeded in finding a new and inaccessible love and Sölve ...

Well, Sölve had the mandrake, which no one would get to see.

Only one thing cast a shadow on his happiness.

The mandrake didn’t seem the least bit interested in him.

But it did not object to him. Sölve, who was becoming increasingly sensitive to things outside of everyday life, had the very clear impression that the mandrake was biding its time.

It was waiting for something. But what? Sölve couldn’t figure out what that could be.

He would sit for a long time holding it in his hands, looking at its “face”, which was nothing more than some vague, sketchy lines in its “head end”. The “arms” and “legs” were much longer than his hands – the ends of the root that were supposed to be its toes tickled his underarm. But there was no movement to be registered in the mandrake. He tried to talk to it, make himself its master, wishing that it would perform a miracle for him.

But the mandrake remained mute.