Читать книгу The Ice People 33 - Demon of the Night - Margit Sandemo - Страница 6

Chapter 1

From 1901, when the previous account of the Ice People ended, we must now return to 1894 in order to learn Vanja’s strange story.

It was an enchanting midnight, cold and clear, in Graastensholm parish. Everybody was asleep except for one couple, who were on their way home from an evening party. They were in lively conversation with each other and paid no attention to their surroundings. If they had turned and looked towards the church they would have had a shock, but their topic – their hosts that evening – was much too absorbing, and they only had eyes for each other.

The church tower stood out against the moonlit sky. Precisely where the lower square tower supported the slender round spire, there was a ledge with four small pinnacles, one in each corner.

But right now, there was also something else on that ledge.

A tall, slim figure was silhouetted in the moonlight. It sat erect as a bird of prey. But it was no bird, nor was it an animal or a human being. It resembled most of all a small chimera, like one of the devilish figures that sit on the cornices of Notre Dame Cathedral to remind unbelievers of what awaits them after this earthly life.

It sat with its knees pulled up and its hands or forepaws clinging to the edge of the tower. Its head rested between raised shoulders, and a pair of vigilant eyes gazed down on the human trash passing beneath it. Its hard eyes followed the two figures but found them of no interest, instead allowing its gaze to glide over the landscape.

The moon wandered slowly and majestically across the firmament.

The two people down there parted and went their separate ways. The parish formerly known as Graastensholm lay deserted in the chilly night.

All of a sudden, the creature took flight, unfolding two black leathery wings, and was on the lookout as it glided over the earth. It was searching for a particular house: Linden Avenue.

The creature was one of the demons of the night. Her name was Lilith. Long ago, she had been the first wife of Adam, created by God long before Eve came into being. She was a creature of the night and independent. Although they had a great many children, she was most definitely not prepared to submit to Adam. Unlike her successor, Eve, Lilith did only what she herself wanted. She knew a secret magical incantation, “Shem Hamephorash,” and when she said it she would disappear into thin air. Adam, who wanted his lovely partner back, asked God for help. God sent two angels to fetch Lilith, but she had grown weary of Adam, who only wanted to rule over her, and she refused to return. Adam got the beautiful and complacent Eve instead. Their sons were then given Lilith’s daughters to choose from. Lilith had a relationship with Adam after he was banished from heaven, but that’s a different story. Since then, she has succeeded in causing much mayhem because she is the ancestress of everything in the underworld. No wonder wood nymphs, mountain kings and elves are so sexually disposed!

The demon of the night found what she was seeking: an old but well-kept farm, approached by an avenue of decaying linden trees. They ought to have been replaced long ago, but the owners didn’t dare to cut them down. They feared that the municipal authority might prohibit them from planting new ones. There was hardly any room left for avenues of trees among all the new houses.

Lilith directed her gaze to the houses ...

She dwelt in the hidden grottos of nightmares. Horrible, twisted edifices inhabited by the grotesque creatures of humankind’s sick fantasies.

Once, many centuries ago, the wickedest creature of all had wandered on earth. A shrivelled little man, who had lived so long that there was nothing human left in him. His name was Tengel the Evil. His evil power was so great that all other shadowy creatures had been subordinated to his will before they had time to grasp what was happening to them. Lilith, with her great need for independence, had loathed this and raged at it, but it was too late. Nothing could be done.

Actually, the demons had nothing against performing evil deeds and were content to obey Tengel the Evil. But they didn’t want to be slaves, which was what they had become.

Then, to their relief, he was gone. He disappeared for hundreds of years, and the nightmare spirits, the many demons of the night, thought that they could breathe freely again.

Then, one day, his dreadful thoughts penetrated their lairs once more. His mind searched until it found Lilith, the arrogant one, whom he had had the greatest pleasure in conquering long ago. His thoughts were admonitory and immensely powerful, and now her will was under his control. She felt proud and honoured to do as he told her.

Her task was to plant one of her offspring, a night demon, in Linden Avenue, where it was to live and report to him about all that the inhabitants did. This would relieve him of the effort of following their thoughts all the time himself. He was preparing to wake up from his slumber, and when that happened he needed to be strong, not worn out from keeping an eye on all his insubordinate descendants. It was only in the Valley of the Ice People that he had to maintain his shadowy presence. It was too much for him to keep an eye on each of his descendants all the time, in case they did anything that didn’t suit him – which, of course, was the case all the time. It might be that one of them was up to something that was extremely dangerous for Tengel the Evil.

That was why he needed a spy. Whom Lilith chose to breed this night demon with was of no importance, so long as it was a truly evil creature. One after his own heart.

So the first part of Lilith’s task was merely pleasant. She found a tempestuous demon who was immediately willing to have sex with the still beautiful female demon. Following this moment of ecstasy, she was ready to visit Linden Avenue.

She landed on the roof. Her talons clutched the ridge while her searching senses sought the best place to leave the offspring she had now given birth to. She held it with one claw: it was nothing but a small, soft egg, no bigger than a cherry and easy to hide.

Her thoughts detected the way she needed to get inside. She searched again, then flew to an upstairs window and made herself thin as a thread. She slipped effortlessly in through a crack above the window-sill, then she was standing in the chosen room.

A young girl, about ten years old, was sleeping there. That didn’t matter. The child would never discover what was in the room, because demons of the night are invisible. They only appear in people’s bad dreams.

High up in one corner of the room was a cupboard that nobody used. It contained a lot of old ornaments from the Ice People’s heyday, when they had inherited priceless treasures from the Meidens and the Paladins. The cupboard was small and open at the front. Lilith moved some of the knick-knacks aside to make a cosy nest for the little egg. She placed it on a blue velvet cushion, putting the beautifully carved ivory bowl that had rested on the pillow next to it.

The job was done. With her thoughts she impressed her offspring with the instruction that it was to report to Tengel the Evil, then she slipped out of the crack under the window.

But Lilith had forgotten something. Or, rather, she wasn’t completely aware of what she was doing.

She didn’t know the identity of the child in the bed.

Of course, she must be a descendant of the Ice People, but she was not one of the stricken nor one of the chosen. So Vanja Lind of the Ice People could be considered harmless.

But in fact she was quite the opposite. She was the daughter of Ulvar, a cursed member of the Ice People, and, more importantly, she was the granddaughter of Lucifer, the Angel of Light, who had fallen from heaven and had become a black angel. Lilith should have known that, but someone else, who didn’t want her to know it, had blurred her insight. The Ice People had many allies now, more than they themselves realized.

In other words: Vanja wasn’t just anybody.

If someone else had been lying in that bed, they wouldn’t have noticed anything. They would have seen only a pillow with a bowl beside it. But Vanja saw more than that.

It was a while before she discovered it, because the cupboard was so tall. She was supposed to dust her room and keep it tidy, but she wasn’t very conscientious about housework. Nobody would ever bother to look at the top of the cupboard. Besides, you could hardly make out the objects that stood up there. She certainly didn’t need to dust the top of the cupboard – that was probably what Lilith had thought too.

One evening, after Vanja had gone to bed, she noticed something greyish up on the high shelf. She frowned. Didn’t that little bowl usually rest on the pillow? Now it was standing next to it and something else, unfamiliar and grey, lay there instead.

Oh, well. Agnete had probably moved things a bit. Except that Agnete, Vanja’s mother, didn’t normally bother about what Vanja’s room looked like. All that mattered to her was that the room was clean and tidy. Her mother would strip the bed and clean the room every Friday and would bring in clean, freshly ironed bed linen. Otherwise, Agnete insisted that the room was Vanja’s private quarters. Being a single mother of an only child wasn’t easy. She wanted to show respect and not seem too domineering. Nor did she treat her own child any differently from her foster-child, Benedikte. Benedikte was Henning’s daughter, and Vanja was Agnete’s. It could have been a delicate situation, but neither girl felt neglected. The family was doing fine.

What on earth was that thing up there? She would have to check during the day when it was lighter.

Vanja fell asleep, and for a while she forgot all about it.

Of course, the cherry-sized egg had grown. On the evening when she first saw it, it was the size of a chicken’s egg, because demon offspring grow fast. When she next became aware of the alien element on the high shelf, she had turned eleven – and by then she couldn’t avoid seeing it!

It was a summer evening and she was awake. In fact, the cupboard hung at such an angle that she couldn’t see the shelf from where she lay – if she wanted to see it, she had to stretch her neck or bend her head back.

This was what she was doing now, and she jerked violently. Were there rats in her room?

It wasn’t a rat. It was something that had climbed up the wall with the speed of lightning and disappeared into the cupboard. Now it was gazing at her with an intense, bright look.

An ugly little doll.

The creature was clearly just as surprised as she was. Vanja lay with her arms stretched over her head and her neck bent back. Yet the creature was just as frozen in its position. Vanja could clearly sense what it was thinking: “Can you see me?” Not “Who are you?” or “Help, is she coming to grab me?” but “Can you see me?” As if it, the creature, didn’t expect Vanja to see it. It was as if the creature thought it was invisible.

Yes, that really seemed to be the case.

The seconds passed, but neither of them moved.

What kind of a creature is it? Vanja thought. Her heart was pounding. Of course, she was frightened. Not just scared out of her wits at meeting something so incredibly strange, but also baffled.

It seemed more like a human child than an animal. It was about the size of a squirrel, with claws instead of nails, and it was naked, with bony limbs and all its ribs visible in its chest. Its face was grotesque, and a normal person would have found it horrible, but Vanja did not. It had narrow yellow eyes with vertical pupils like a cat’s. When Vanja finally moved, the creature opened its mouth, baring a row of pointed white teeth. Between them a tongue appeared, forked like a snake’s. Its skin was a strange green colour and it had prominent, sharp cheekbones. The creature was completely hairless, with two very large ears pointing straight up in the air. The cutest little tail you could imagine, long and pointed, hung over the edge of the shelf on which it sat.

Having gazed intently at this creature for a while and got used to the sight of it, Vanja began to relax. She whispered: “You’re such a charming little fellow!”

Then she smiled warmly. Vanja was a remarkably handsome child.

The creature bared its teeth again. Was that supposed to be a smile? If so, it was the most evil smile in the world.

Vanja sat up in bed facing the cupboard. “Why don’t you come down here? Look, you can lie in my doll’s bed if you like. You must be what I saw once before, and I must say you’ve certainly grown since then. That pillow is much too small for you. Come on, let me make your bed!”

The doll’s bed was just there as decoration in Vanja’s room. She had stopped playing with dolls ages ago.

“If you promise you won’t be nasty to me, I’ll get up and get everything ready for you. If you hop down and jump on my head, then I’ll chuck you out! Understand?”

The snake tongue appeared once more, and the creature let out a hissing sound. It did seem as if the little beast understood what she said, or certainly grasped her meaning.

Keeping one eye in the direction of the cupboard, Vanja put on her slippers and slipped over to the corner where the doll’s bed stood. As she stood on the floor, the little creature stood up, and Vanja could see that her visitor was a little boy.

“Good heavens,” she muttered. “It reaches right down to his knees! It must be an awful nuisance, having it dangling!”

Now the little creature smiled.

Vanja said: “Are you a devil?”

He made a face as if he didn’t like the thought.

Vanja had lifted the doll out of the bed and straightened out the bed linen. “A demon then? Yes, that’s probably what you are. We’re used to demons in our family, you know. There was someone by the name of Tula who disappeared with four of your kind. I wouldn’t dream of doing that. It’s just stupid. But you’re awfully small! What’s your name?”

Now the demon seemed irritated. Perhaps he didn’t understand the question.

“Are you hungry? I see, you don’t understand that either? You look a bit skinny to me. Here’s an apple: do you want it?”

She held it out, but he kicked it so that Vanja dropped it.

“Now you’re just being bad,” she said. “You don’t seem to eat. Anyway, not like the rest of us do. Well, are you coming down to try out your bed?”

She stepped forward, patting the bed encouragingly. She folded back the sheet with the lace border, which her mother had sewn. The little devil looked doubtful.

“I can see that you can’t talk,” she burbled. “Why should you? Even so, I think you can understand me. You seem sweet and helpless, so you shouldn’t be completely alone ...”

Sweet? Helpless? Well, Vanja was only eleven years old and a strange girl. Very naive, open and childish, but surprisingly wise from time to time.

She burbled on. “What should I call you? Sorrow-child? Like the boy in Viktor Rydberg’s Singoalla? No, that doesn’t suit you. I’ll come up with a name for you, if you stay here. Because it’s all right with me.”

Vanja had always loved birds and other animals and defenceless creatures. She herself was surrounded by the love of her whole family: her father, Henning’s parents Viljar and Belinda, Malin and Per Volden, her big sister Benedikte, and her “big brother” Christoffer Volden, who wasn’t her real brother. Vanja had always been the littlest one in the family. But now Benedikte had a son of her own, André, so he was the youngest and the most spoilt. Vanja was too old to be jealous; she liked to nurse the three-year-old André. But now her heart was suddenly filled with a kind of happy feeling. Here she was with a small child to take care of! It didn’t really matter that he was ugly as sin and wasn’t even human. She had heard so much about demons and had read quite a lot about the history of the Ice People; she had often thought that it would be exciting to have the chance to meet such a demon. But as she was neither stricken nor chosen, this was something she hadn’t reckoned with.

Suddenly, she felt possessive. Nobody was to take this little creep away from her! He was hers and only hers. Nobody was to know anything about him!

She whispered this to the little one, who didn’t seem the least bit impressed. He just smiled, showing his sharp tusks and forked tongue.

“Now and then, you look really wicked,” she told him reproachfully. “You’re certainly not particularly sweet.”

The youngster had clearly been considering her offer of a bed, because suddenly he swung over the edge of the shelf he had been sitting on and scuttled like lightning down the wall. The very next moment, he jumped into the doll’s bed, and Vanja lifted the blanket hurriedly so that he could creep down under it.

“You can’t run about with that thing dangling! You’ll get cold, and it might get hurt. Surely you can understand that? Here! Here’s a clean handkerchief. We can use that as a nappy. Oh dear!”

The little devil watched her with a smile as she tried to put the nappy under him. As she struggled, his member rose to an incredible length and hardness. Vanja gave up immediately, hurriedly spreading the blanket over him.

“Good heavens,” she whispered, and sat down on her own bed. She was familiar with the sight of little André and the farm animals ... but this beat everything. That little mite, the size of a squirrel – and yet so well endowed. She was shocked and didn’t know what to do. Anyway, he was certainly not human.

But he was clearly a child. A demon child. Would she be able to keep him? Might it be dangerous? After all, you never knew with a demon. Even those demons that had sided with the Ice People weren’t nice. You probably couldn’t count on them, and they were unlikely to do anything for others if they weren’t to get anything out of it as well. And for ordinary people they could spell disaster.

Vanja looked at him again. Now he was lying innocently with his head on the pillow, his yellow eyes were closed and he was smiling childishly, as gentle as a shadow.

“No,” she said resolutely. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, little one. You’re my responsibility. You can stay with me and I’ll take care of you as best I can ...”

She tucked the blanket around him and went back to her own bed. The demon of the night opened his yellow eyes slightly, twisting his mouth into a small but unbelievably devilish smile.