The Ice People 1 - Spellbound (The Legend of the Ice People) (21 page)

Silje nodded. At that very moment her body was pierced by a new contraction.

Hanna shook her horrible face. “This just doesn’t look good. First of all, we must give you something that’ll make you stronger because this will take your energy, little Silje. To think, Tengel cost his mother’s life. He’s certainly tough on his women.”

She searched in the pockets of her rags. Silje breathed out deeply while she tried not to think of the stench from the old woman and her gnarled hands, the black pores, and the wrinkles.

“Here … Got any water?”

Silje pointed. Hanna fetched the wooden ladle and gave her whitish powder.

“This is just for the heart.”

Silje held the ladle with trembling hands and swallowed the powder. Then she looked up at Hanna with eyes that looked like those of a wounded animal. “Help me,” she whispered.

The awful woman nodded. “Nobody calls in vain for Hanna. We’ll manage.”

Silje wasn’t quite so sure. Anyway, she was grateful.

After she’d waited a bit, Hanna retrieved a new powder. This time it was grey-green and with a smell that made Silje’s nostrils vibrate. Her head moved backwards unconsciously.

“Wash it down, it’ll loosen hard bones.”

Silje didn’t dare anything else than to obey. Her instinct told her that she shouldn’t ask what the powder consisted of because this wasn’t just herbs!

“There,” said Hanna. “Now we’ll just have to wait. You ought to have sat in the chair but I don’t think you’re able to.”

There was calm in the room.

“Oh …no.”

Silje doubled up because of a burning pain in her abdomen. It felt as if she’d swallowed broken glass or burning acid. Hanna’s lips moved, and her hands drew circles in the air above Silje’s head.

Then the next contraction followed, which was so strong that it blackened before Silje’s eyes and she screamed.

“Now I’ll die,” she thought. “Oh, God, now I’ll die! The child will be born – dead or alive – but I’ll die. This horrible woman, this chosen tool of Satan. Me she’ll sacrifice … “

Then she could feel Hanna’s horrible hands on her body and heard her chant terrible incantations:

“Belial, Athys, Cybele, Apollo, Lupus, Astarot, Nema …”

“It sounds exactly as if she’s invoking demons,” Silje thought weakly. “No, not demons. We’re in the valley of the Iced People, and I’ve seen demons rise up over the mountains, and I’m, I’m to blame for all this, and now I’ll be punished. I’ve made love with a demon,” rushed through Silje’s thoughts.

But then she let go of all her thoughts.

***

Slowly, slowly she rose from a pitch-black well.

She heard sounds, First weak, then clearly.

They were voices. The voice of one of the peasants’ wives.

“She’s ever so small and weak.”

“Give her a rap in the bottom, you stupid hen.” This was Hanna’s voice. “Put your finger in the baby’s mouth.”

“Who’re they talking about?” Silje thought.

A warm hand patted her forehead. Tengel’s voice, low and husky, said: “Silje. Silje, please come back to me.”

She struggled to tell him that she was alive but she couldn’t move a finger.

A weak scream. Dag? No, he would let out a much louder scream. The ghost in the forest? It had screamed like that. A newborn baby.

“So tiny,” said the peasant’s wife. “The poor mite won’t survive.”

Finally Silje had the strength to open her eyes. Everything was in a haze.

“Tengel,” she whispered.

“Thank you, dear God,” she heard him say. His hand stroked her gently over the temple.

She wanted to see the baby and then again, she didn’t. She was afraid to do so. She needed to get a bit more strength.

“Hanna gave me something,” she said. “It worked immediately.”

“Well, not all that immediately. You’ve fought for your life for some time.”

She thought about what had just been said. “It hurts. This has worn me out inside.”

“I bet.”

Hanna squatted by the fireplace. She was like a predator about to pounce and turned her head. “Your wife isn’t built to bear a child, Tengel.”

“Do you believe then … that this is our last child?”

“It
ought
to be,” said Hanna with a mocking smile. “But I don’t suppose you can stay away.”

Silje and Tengel exchanged a glance and tried to hide a smile. She could see that he’d tears in his eyes, which she’d never seen before.

“While I’m sitting here I see strange things in the fire,” Hanna said suddenly. “Of your family comes …”

“What?” asked Tengel as she fell silent. “The evil legacy … will it follow us?”

“Yes, that will also follow you. But there’re other things that are more peculiar. You once asked me whether I could look into the future, Silje. I see it now.
You
are the Ice People.
You
and nobody else.”

Tengel objected: “This isn’t true. All in the valley are known as the Ice People.”

Hanna laughed. “It is as I’ve just said. The children you bring up will give you great, great joy – and one great sorrow. And then … No, never mind. But here’s something I don’t understand. I see a double row of trees.”

“An avenue?” Silje asked in astonishment. “No, that’s impossible.

Hanna forgot them and concentrated on the embers in the fireplace.

Tengel got up and took the wrapped baby from the peasant’s wife.

“Do you want to see her?” he asked with paternal pride in his voice.

“Is it …?”

“You needn’t be worried about the child,” she heard Hanna say. “It has no power.”

Silje heaved a sigh of relief. She looked up and was surprised to see how miserable and blue with cold the little girl looked. “She’s … sweet,” she said without sounding convinced and swallowed something. “Will she be red-haired?”

“I shouldn’t think she’ll be more red-haired than you and me,” Tengel said with a smile.

He already loved the child, she thought and was surprised. He didn’t want it to begin with and I was the one who fought so passionately for it. I still haven’t got the energy to feel anything at all.

“What will you call her?” another peasant’s wife at quite a distance asked. It was quite obvious that she didn’t dare to come close to Hanna. Silje saw that old Hanna, who poked at the embers, stopped.

“She’s so small and miserable,” said Tengel, “which makes me think of Dag when you found him in the forest. Then you wanted to call the child Liv if it was a girl, remember?”

“Yes, I remember that.”

Hanna’s shoulders fell a bit longer down.

“Liv is fine. But I would give her two names just like the two others. And she’s to be called Liv Hanna,” Silje said firmly.

Tengel looked hesitant and almost scared at her. Then he said in a clear voice: “Liv Hanna is her name.”

The fearful figure by the fire began to poke energetically in the embers. Something that might sound like humming came over her lips. Silje couldn’t hear what song it was. But she thought she could detect the pride and happiness of an old, lonely and ostracized woman in it. The incantations were probably about the child – but there wasn’t anything evil in the strange, pagan song.

The Ice People - Overview

The Ice People 1 – Spellbound

The Ice People 2 – Witch-Hunt

The Ice People 3 – The Stepdaughter

The Ice People 4 – The Successor

The Ice People 5 – Mortal Sin

The Ice People 6 – Evil Legacy

The Ice People 7 – Nemesis

The Ice People 8 – The Executioner’s Daughter

The Ice People 9 – The Lonely One

The Ice People 10 – Winter Storm

The Ice People 11 – Blood Feud

The Ice People 12 – Fever in the Blood

The Ice People 13 – Footprints of Satan

The Ice People 14 – The Last Knight

The Ice People 15 - The Wind from the East

The Ice People 16 – The Mandrake

The Ice People 17 – The Garden of Death

The Ice People 18 – Behind the Facade

The Ice People 19 – Dragon’s Teeth

The Ice People 20 – Wings of the Raven

The Ice People 21 – Devils Canyon

The Ice People 22 – The Demon and the Maiden

The Ice People 23 – Rituals

The Ice People 24 – Deep in the ground

The Ice People 25 – The Angel

The Ice People 26 – The Secret

The Ice People 27 – The Scandal

The Ice People 28 – Ice and Fire

The Ice People 29 – Lucifer’s Love

The Ice People 30 – Brothers

The Ice People 31 – The Ferryman

The Ice People 32 – Hunger

The Ice People 33 – The Demon of the Nights

The Ice People 34 – The Woman on the Beach

The Ice People 35 – The Flute

The Ice People 36 – Magic Moon

The Ice People 37 - A Town in Fear

The Ice People 38 – Hidden Trails

The Ice People 39 – Silent Voices

The Ice People 40 – Imprisoned by time

The Ice People 41 – Demon Mountain

The Ice People 42 – The Calm Before the Storm

The Ice People 43 – A Glimpse of Tenderness

The Ice People 44 – An Evil Day

The Ice People 45 – The Legend

The Ice People 46 – The Black Water

The Ice People 47 – Is There Anybody Out There?

Margit Sandemo

Margit Sandemo was born on April 23 1924 in Norway. She was raised in Sweden but later moved to Norway. She made her début as an author in 1964. The legend about the Ice People, 47 volumes in all, appeared 1982-1989. Love and supernatural powers are the hallmark of her authorship.

Margit Sandemo’s books have sold more than 39 copies worldwide. Margit Sandemo is thus the author in the Nordic countries with the greatest number of sold books.