Читать книгу The Ice People 22 - The Demon and the Virgin - Margit Sandemo - Страница 8

Chapter 3

It was a magical moment that they would never forget. The night, the blue spring sky, the blazing fire, the rising smoke, and the solitude of the forest.

For the first time, Heike saw the daughter of Elisabet and Vemund close up. The glow of the fire fell on Vinga’s long, golden-blonde hair, making it look alive, her big dark-blue eyes that might have belonged to a forest animal, an extremely sensitive mouth in a face with beautifully shaped features ...

All this came as no surprise to Heike. He had been told that Elisabet and Vemund were handsome people. But her dress was dirty and far too small and tight.

He said: “My dear child: I’ve never been able to guess your age, and I certainly can’t now. Either you’re a mature child or a childish adult. How old are you really?”

“I no longer know my age,” Vinga replied miserably. “I was born in the autumn of 1777.”

“Then you’re sixteen and will soon turn seventeen.”

“I see,” Vinga replied meekly. “And who are you? Where do you come from?”

“I’m Sölve’s son,” Heike replied. “Ingrid of Gråstensholm was my grandfather’s mother.”

“I see,” Vinga replied again, not very thoughtfully. But she could speak! Like one human being to another. She was surprised at how easy it was and how little she had forgotten. But then again everyone found that confiding in Heike was very easy.

“Sit down,” he said. “We might just as well talk here as anywhere else.”

Vinga obeyed, almost solemnly. This was a great moment! A member of the Ice People had returned to her parish!

She said: “I’ve heard of the curse, and I gather that you’re one of the stricken. But I thought they were evil?”

Heike was just about to say something about the terrible powers that were dormant in his soul and which would never, ever be allowed to reach the surface. But he didn’t want to frighten her and destroy the confidence she had in him.

“Your ancestor Ulvhedin wasn’t evil,” he pointed out, “and nor was Ingrid.”

“No. Ingrid was so beautiful!”

He smiled wryly. “I don’t think one’s appearance has anything to do with one’s personality.”

“No, of course not,” Vinga replied, blushing at her stupidity. She mustn’t behave like that. She wanted to make a good impression on Heike and to show him that she possessed wit and decorum. This much she owed to her parents.

She could see that he was thinking about something. Then he said: “Are you really almost seventeen? I hadn’t expected that!”

“Don’t I look my age?” Vinga replied, embarrassed.

“No, far from it. I thought that you were thirteen at the most, but close up you look older.”

“What do you mean?”

Heike made a shy movement: “Your shape, your figure and the impression you give.”

“What do you mean?” she asked again.

“No ...” He was skating on thin ice. “I just have a sense that you’re not a child, which makes things more complicated,” he added with a sigh.

For the third time, Vinga asked: “What do you mean?”

“I had thought of being your protector. But that’s out of the question now.”

She was about to say something when he saw that she was about to ask, “What do you mean?” again but stopped herself.

He hurriedly explained: “You can’t stay on the mountain any longer and I don’t want you to do so. I’ve found a little house for the two of us on the outskirts of the parish. An old smallholder called Eirik has helped me get hold of it. But we can’t live in the same house because people will start to gossip. There’s a difference between taking care of a child and living with a half-grown woman.”

Vinga said: “I don’t understand.”

He peered at her to see whether she was making fun of him but she looked sincerely puzzled.

Heike sighed: “Now listen. You and I could live together without anything improper happening. Heavens: why would anything happen? But this is not the way people think. They would think that this monster, this demon, had lured an innocent young girl to commit outrageous acts and both of them must be sent to prison. Maybe they would let you go but not me!”

Vinga thought about what he had just said but it made no sense to her. “I think it sounds stupid,” she said childishly, but he didn’t protest any further.

“I must try to find a different solution,” he said. “We had better stay apart for a while until I know more about Gråstensholm.”

Vinga replied: “Somebody else lives there now. He moved in in the spring.”

Heike said: “I know. Mr Snivel. I intend to take back the farm. It belongs to me, you see.”

Her face brightened up in a big smile. “Yes, yes, do that! And Elistrand? Does anybody live there?”

“Yes, Mr Snivel’s nephew and his servants.”

Vinga asked: “What are they doing there? After all, it’s my home! Can’t we take that back too?”

Heike was sceptical. “Eirik says that will be more difficult. That farm was auctioned to settle the unpaid bills. But Eirik also said that it was a suspicious affair. The nephew of the auctioneer buying the property! They say that he got it for a song when reliable farmers had offered much more.”

Vinga asked: “Can you sort it out?”

“I can’t fix it all,” he replied. “People need to know me for a while before they have confidence in me, which they almost always tend to have, and I bless them for that. Eirik says that Mr Snivel is sly. If he gets wind of what I have up my sleeve, he will launch a counterattack, fortify his position ...”

Vinga said: “Would you please not use such difficult words?”

“No, of course. I’m sorry!”

Heike explained it all in simpler words and Vinga understood and nodded, adding: “Do we need to go into hiding?”

Heike replied: “Yes, to begin with. Why don’t we go back to your smallholding and pack your belongings? It’s already dawn and I think they’ll come early to catch you.”

“I think so, too.”

They got up and covered their tracks and the campfire. Then they began to walk with the goat trailing after them.

Heike said: “Vinga, I didn’t mean anything when I said ‘catch you’. I think they have good intentions. They just want to help you return to civilization. Maybe give you a home, and teach Vinga, the wild animal, good manners. It would make them feel magnanimous.”

Vinga replied: “That mustn’t happen!”

Heike said: “No, it mustn’t happen. Mr Snivel and his nephew would never allow a member of the Ice People to live in the parish. Their claims on their farms are much too tenuous.”

“Yes,” Vinga said with a serious nod. She took his hand in a firm grip and let herself be led through the forest. She, who had been so independent! She, who knew every blade of grass in her forest!

She didn’t understand it herself. Her hand virtually disappeared in his big, rough fist. But its warmth and Heike’s grip gave her a serenity she hadn’t felt for years.

“Vinga, I would like to hear about your life at home and then up here.”

“I don’t think I want to do that. I’m afraid I might burst into tears.”

Heike asked: “Is there anything wrong with that? After all, we all need to cry from time to time.”

She wondered whether he ever did. He must certainly have had many reasons to do so.

“There’s something I don’t understand,” she said, trying to keep up with him as they walked. “How did you know all the time where I was going or what I planned to do?”

“I don’t understand it either,” he replied, smiling.

“But you knew, didn’t you?”

“Yes, it wasn’t me. I had assistance.”

She stopped so that Heike was also forced to stop. Only the goat went on walking.

“Help?” she said with a nervous look on her face.

“Yes, from our ancestors. They were the ones who told me what to do.”

“Our ancestors? Do you mean Mother and Father?”

“No, no. They weren’t cursed. No, you see, those of us who are stricken by the curse have special talents. My biggest gift is probably that I can be used as an intermediary between our ancestors and the living. Our ancestors have never been able to help you, you see. Because they couldn’t reach you. That’s why they’ve waited patiently for me to return home so that they could do something for you. Using me as an intermediary. Beside that, of course, they want you and me to take back what belongs to the Ice People: the farms!”

Vinga sighed. “Aunt Ingrid would have been so happy to know that you are here now! She didn’t know that you existed. None of us did! She was so sad that there would be nobody to take over Gråstensholm after she died.”

Heike smiled gently: “Ingrid knows! And, believe me, she’s thrilled! She’s one of the ancestors who are in this forest helping us!”

“Oh,” Vinga said with big, dreamy eyes. “Is Aunt Ingrid here? Hello, Aunt Ingrid,” she shouted and Heike laughed. “Who else?”

“Your ancestor, Ulvhedin, of course!”

“Is old Grandfather here? I never met him, and I was so annoyed about that. But by the time I was born, he had been dead for several years. Are there others? “

“Yes, a couple more you wouldn’t know.”

“But please tell me!”

“Yes,” answered Heike. “One by the name of Trond.”

Vinga said: “He had yellow eyes and tried to kill his brother, Tarjei, during the Thirty Years War.”

“Yes,” said Heike quietly. “Just like Sölve. He also seemed normal. But then the curse developed in him.”

“Sölve? Your father? But ...”

“I’ll tell you another time, Vinga. It’s something that hurts a bit to talk about, you see.”

“Yes, of course. You said a couple more? Who is the fourth person helping us?”

Heike replied: “She’s a woman who lived many years ago, long before Tengel the Good, and she’s pretty strange. She’s often present when our ancestors need help.”

What’s her name?

“She’s called Dida and I believe she lived during Tengel the Evil’s time. She certainly knows a lot about him. I would love to hear the story of her life one day.”

“Do you talk to them?”

“Yes, they’re like living beings to me. I’ve met many of them before. Sol several times and Tengel the Good and one called Mar ...”

“Yes, he came from a faraway country in Asia.”

“Precisely. Then I – and nobody else – also met another man who lived ages ago. He’s known as the Wanderer of the Darkness, and he has saved my life many times. But he’s not here in the Nordic countries.”

Vinga said slowly: “I think you have a lot to tell.”

Heike couldn’t help trying to impress her now that he had found an ally. “Oh, I’ve many secrets. And the biggest one is always with me.”

They stopped again. They were close to Vinga’s smallholding now.

“Do you mean you are carrying it? May I have a look?”

“Of course. It’s the mandrake,” he said as he opened his shirt. “I suppose you’ve heard of it?”

Vinga whispered, “Yes,” in a trembling voice. “Do you have it? We all thought that it had disappeared forever.”

In the early light of the spring dawn, she stared dreamily at the talisman that she had heard so much about since her earliest childhood, and which she had taken to be a legend. It was so big and so ... alive! Well, not truly alive, of course, but it looked as if it might move at any moment. Vinga put out her hand and touched it hesitantly. Heike could feel that the mandrake accepted that, so he let her continue. She took it between her fingers, stroking it gently with her index finger. She didn’t say a word.

Suddenly she realized that her hand was also touching Heike’s chest: she could feel the warmth of his skin and the slight tickling of the hair on his chest. She pulled her hand away sharply.

Heike gave Vinga a puzzled look but she was unable to speak. She couldn’t tell him about the secret tingling sensation she had experienced as she touched him. Although she didn’t understand it, she suspected that it was something you didn’t talk about.

But it had been so vibrant and delightful – and awful! She must try to forget it straight away.

Heike had buttoned up his shirt again and they were on their way to her smallholding. The sky was fiery red in the east and it wouldn’t be long before the sun rose. They would need to be gone by then.

“Just like the trolls,” she said with a loud laugh.

Heike asked: “What do you mean?”

Vinga told him what she had been thinking about.

“Yes, you’re right,” he laughed.

She looked at him discreetly. A crazy thought rushed through her mind. What if he really was a mountain troll who had to hide from the sun and hurry back inside the mountain? The thought became even more crazy: she would follow him without hesitation! Memories of tales from her childhood flickered through her mind. She had always wondered at the idea that after a while those who fell under his spell would have a lot of children. Where did they come from?

She was no longer a child, and she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to speculate any further about that conundrum.

Heike helped her choose the things she wanted to take with her and pack them. She still had the little cart and the goat had to accept that it was to pull the load – though it was a pretty light burden. Then they were ready. Vinga looked around one last time. “I wouldn’t say that I’ll long to be back here again,” she muttered.

“I don’t understand how you’ve been able to live here all by yourself. You’ve even managed to make it habitable. I wouldn’t touch those supporting beams: everything could collapse on our heads. Come, we’ve no time to lose. They’ll soon turn up.”

Shortly afterwards, they were on their way around Gråstensholm Parish. They kept to the mountain trails so that nobody would see them.

Vinga asked Heike: “Have you thought how you will get Gråstensholm back?”

“I’m glad you only mentioned Gråstensholm,” he replied, “because that’s the first property we must focus on. Not because it’s mine – I’m not that selfish – but because it’s the one they have the flimsiest claim on. I intend to find a reliable lawyer – if such a person exists, of course.”

Vinga asked: “A judge?”

“Yes, that would be the best option. You know that one of our ancestors, Dag Meiden, was a judge, don’t you? It’s so many years ago that we can’t refer to our relationship with him. Nobody will take any notice of that now. Those in authority today have probably never heard of him. The trouble is that Mr Snivel is a very important official. Eirik says that he’s very influential. He may turn out to be a problem!”

Vinga admitted: “It doesn’t sound good.”

“We mustn’t give up hope before we’ve even got started,” he replied. Vinga was so pleased that Heike always said “we”. It made her feel that she was very much in the picture as well. That was a wonderful feeling for someone like her, who had lived outside human society for so long.

There was a road at the edge of the forest and two women were walking along it. When Vinga saw them, she immediately dropped to the ground, letting herself roll under the bushes. Heike pulled her up again.

“They can’t see us down here in the forest,” he smiled. “You must forget that you were an animal. You’re a human being now.”

Vinga replied: “Only because I feel safe with you.”

“Is that because I’m like an animal?” he asked.

“Perhaps it is, but that’s not an insult – on the contrary!”

“I wasn’t offended.”

They continued their walk.

He went on: “Our first task is a minor thing. Do you know how long Mr Snivel has been living at Gråstensholm?”

Vinga thought about the question. “I’m not absolutely sure. But it’s only a few weeks ago that I saw people down on the farm for the first time.”

Heike nodded. “Then we still have a chance.”

“What’s on your mind?” she asked.

“The treasure. We must get the treasure out before he finds it and destroys it or does something crazy with it.”

Vinga asked: “Do you know where it is?”

“Yes, Aunt Ingela told me about it,” he said with a smile, “and Ingrid knows. She’s eager for us to find it.”

“Is that what she’s told you?” Vinga asked solemnly.

“No, not in words, but I sense it.”

“Are you glad that you’re one of the stricken?” she asked.

He became serious. “It can be an advantage. But I would give anything to be an ordinary mortal.”

“In order to look nice?”

“You’re very direct,” Heike said wryly. “But you’re right, because that is what I meant.”

Vinga tried to make amends for her tactless remark. “It’s possible, isn’t it, to be happy anyway? Without going about looking nice all the time. Isn’t it?”

“Well, I suppose it is.”

The silence weighed rather heavily.

“How do you intend to get hold of the treasure?” Vinga asked, feeling lost. She really had no wish to hurt her new friend, but had managed to do so nevertheless.

Heike replied just as nicely as always: “I intend to go to the farm at night, and then ...”

“We intend!”

“No, you won’t be joining me.”

“Who is the more used to making herself invisible to others?”

“Vinga, I ... No, let’s not discuss this. I had thought of getting into the house through the basement.”

Vinga asked: “Is that where the treasure is?”

“No. But you know that many of our ancestors have been doctors. There’s an entire room furnished like a ... Well, should I call it a laboratory? There are lots of cupboards along the walls in there. Inside one of them is a secret door, and the treasure is behind it. Shira’s bottle and everything. If Mr Snivel decides to strip out all the cupboards, he may find the whole treasure, and that mustn’t happen!”

Vinga said: “Why didn’t the Ice People think of moving it all when Ingrid died?”

He replied: “My dear Vinga, the Ice People you’re referring to were your parents at Elistrand. They probably assumed that someone would arrive from Sweden to take over Gråstensholm. How were they to know that the epidemic would strike them both? And that you would be the only one left?”

“Yes,” Vinga whispered. “I was only a child then. In my soul anyway. I still played then. I was no more than thirteen. I had no idea about anything!”

“Nobody would expect anything more of you. You had plenty to think about at the time: your terrible grief and all the worries over Elistrand.”

Vinga nodded pensively as she trudged along the soft track.

“How do you plan to get into the basement?” she asked.

Heike’s reply was honest: “I’ve no idea.”

Vinga thought for a while. She didn’t know whether she dared to suggest it. “Heike ... Perhaps I can help you after all.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I was little,” she said, “I would often spend time with Aunt Ingrid at Gråstensholm. I once got a terrible ticking-off because I had done something pretty reckless.”

“What was that?”

Vinga stopped. Between the trees they could see Gråstensholm’s dark-brown walls on the hillside.

“You see the tower? I surprised Aunt Ingrid: I went out through the front door and came back down the stairs from the tower.”

Heike stopped and looked inquisitively at Vinga. The goat began absentmindedly to eat the clothes in the cart.

Vinga wriggled. “I climbed up the outside of the tower.”

Heike looked from Vinga to Gråstensholm and back again. “Is there a ladder?”

“No, I climbed up the stone wall. I found a way up the stones, and then I climbed along the beams that stick out at the corners.”

Gråstensholm’s walls and roof were built of timber but even so! Heike couldn’t work out how she had managed to do it. The house was so tall!

“Didn’t you get dizzy?”

“Yes, but I didn’t look down. It was easy once I had reached the roof.”

The mere thought made Heike feel exhausted. “Tell me the way!”

“I thought of doing it on my own!”

“Don’t be stupid!”

“I can’t explain the route from a distance.”

Heike thought about this for quite some time. Then he nodded. “You win. We’ll both go.” He had never seen a happier face.

However, when he described the little house that Eirik was renting for him, Vinga protested.

“Isn’t it close to their farm?”

“They aren’t dangerous people,” Heike replied. “They hate Mr Snivel and adored the Ice People. Well, perhaps not your grandmother Tora, but then she wasn’t one of the Ice People, was she? They often speak warmly of you and worry about you, whether you’re alive and safe. You have nothing to fear from them.”

“No,” she said and let go of Heike’s hand. “I can accept you because you’re like me. But nobody else! I can live in the forest.”

“No you can’t. But you can’t live with me either. I’ll have a word with Eirik. Perhaps you can stay with his niece.”

“No!” she wailed and dug her heels in so that he had to drag her along with him. “I can’t. I’m scared!”

“Don’t be childish,” Heike said impatiently.

Then he thought better of it. He began to think about what she had gone through and how her life of solitude had formed her ideas, twisting her sense of reality.

He let out a long sigh. “Well then, you’ll have to stay with me. But only for one night. We don’t want you to get a bad reputation in the village.”

He thought that when she gradually got to know Eirik and his family and felt comfortable with them, things would be fine. He just didn’t want her to stay in the house alone with him: she was too old for that. People had filthy minds and loved to imagine things.

As soon as he had given in, Vinga brightened up again and followed him, meek as a little lamb. Much meeker than the goat, which tossed its head when they tried to speed up or moved the tasty winter clothes in the cart out of its reach.

“This is where I’m living,” Heike said suddenly.

Vinga stopped abruptly. “This is old Mr Simen’s house. You can’t live there!”

“Why not? Did he die of some infectious disease?”

“No, but he haunts the place!”

Heike said: “Rubbish! I’ve been here for several days and I haven’t seen anything. Dear Vinga, I of all people should be aware of the occult. Oh, now the goat is eating your winter shoes!”

Vinga pushed it away.

Heike asked: “What do you call it, by the way?”

“Call it?” she asked, surprised.

“Yes, surely you’re not telling me that you’ve lived with that goat for more than two years without giving it a name?”

“No, I ... I don’t know. I just say: ‘Come here, little girl’, or something like that.”

“Fine. Then we’ll call it Little Girl. And now, Little Girl, perhaps you would stay away from the cart? There’s lots of food all around you.”

“But it’s not as exciting,” Vinga said, laughing.

Heike wondered if Vinga’s fear of darkness might put her off the house. “Well, if you don’t want to live here, then ...”

“Yes,” Vinga said like a shot. “Yes, this place is fine with me.”

So that trick didn’t work.

In the end, Vinga moved into Simen’s house with Heike and the goat, which couldn’t understand why it had to go into the outhouse. It wanted to live with Vinga, obviously! Their suggestion was just stupid. Of course, it got its way.

Vinga was a bit afraid. First, the house was far too close to Eirik’s farm, and second, she wasn’t entirely convinced of Heike’s talent for detecting ghosts. The whole parish knew that Simen, who had died twenty-five years ago, haunted the garden gate from time to time. So the first thing Vinga did was to make another entrance in the fence. She didn’t want to risk meeting him by the gate!

Heike shook his head at her.

He had enough trouble as it was, finding a decent place for Vinga to sleep – or, to be precise, a place for him to spend the night, because he gave her the only bed. Simen’s house was in a far better state than the smallholding up in the forest, but Vinga didn’t like it even so. She said that it had a strange atmosphere. Even the walls were alive: the grey beams radiated eerie old events.

Heike said sternly: “Now listen, Vinga. I’m the unfortunate one who possesses that kind of intuition, not you! The worst thing that has happened in this house is that an old man died here.”

Vinga shuddered at his answer.

“Just go and have a rest, Vinga,” he said gently. “Ever since we got here you’ve been following at my heels like a little child who’s afraid of the dark. I know it’s morning, but you’ve been up all night and you’ve experienced a lot in the past twenty-four hours. Tonight, we’ll be treasure-hunting!”

“Yes, we will!” Vinga whispered enthusiastically. “I suppose I’m a bit confused because I am tired, I must admit. What about you, Heike? Don’t you need some sleep?”

He didn’t tell her that he had hardly slept since he had begun thinking about her safety. “Yes, I thought of taking a nap in the sun.”

Vinga stood in front of him. She had moved so swiftly that it looked as if she had jumped to where he stood. “I think I’ll do the same.”

Heike looked down into her big, resolute eyes and found it difficult not to smile. “No,” he said, struggling to stay calm. “I’ll be right outside if there’s anything you want.”

Vinga was sure she would want something. All her instincts had become extremely keen while she lived up on her smallholding. She was convinced that it would be fatal for her to stay in this house.

The goat had a stupid expression on its face, as it left a line of dark pellets on Heike’s newly swept floor. He sighed resignedly and went to find something to sweep them up with.