The Ice People 44 - An Evil Day. Margit Sandemo

to him with a brusque smile. “I’ll bring one of them up here with me, together with a lot of equipment. But we’ll have to be fast, so I can’t choose any of the mortals.”

      “Rune, perhaps?” Gabriel suggested.

      Ulvhedin looked thoughtfully up in the air as though the answer was to be found there. “Yes ... perhaps. But I’d rather bring Halkatla.”

      “She’s crazy!” Gabriel exclaimed spontaneously.

      “Yes, but she has a great interest in new discoveries. I think I’ll fetch them both! There’ll be an awful lot to carry.”

      Before Gabriel had a chance to answer, Ulvhedin was gone.

      The boy was alone with the spirits of Taran-gai. Ulvhedin was also a spirit, but Gabriel never gave that much thought anymore. Now he felt how bizarre the situation was and he was on the verge of panicking.

      But after a few deep breaths he regained his composure.

      The Taran-gai clearly trusted Ulvhedin, for they stood completely still and waited for him.

      “Can we summon the four elements?” Star asked carefully.

      “We really shouldn’t do that,” said Tun-sij. “We’ve troubled them twice already. We can only turn to them in emergency situations.”

      Gabriel had his own views on the matter. Although it was true that the four spirits had seemed rather cold, even downright impolite, when they had been summoned to the Demon’s Mountain, they had nevertheless come! And they had spontaneously interfered when Shama blocked the road so the car couldn’t pass.

      He was almost certain that the four of them were really ecstatic to be summoned after so many uneventful years.

      Almost at once Ulvhedin was back. He had an enthusiastic Halkatla with him, and a more reserved Rune.

      Ulvhedin had some news to share, and he told the group as they stood waiting: Targenor had arrived with his entire army of spirits and demons. “But they can’t proceed until we have managed to kill Taran-gai’s evil shamans.”

      “Targenor?” asked Mar. “With all our forces? Why?”

      “Because they sense that his sister Tiili’s unfortunate spirit is somewhere up here on the moors of the Udgård Mountains. Presumably within the confines of the valley. That’s why they’ve summoned all the army commanders. But they’re waiting down below. They have no power over the spirits of Taran-gai.”’

      Sarmik had straightened up. “If Targenor goes into battle I would like to resume the position that he gave me: leader of the Taran-gai. Targenor lost his sister to Tengel the Evil. I have lost my sons. He can trust me.”

      “Excellent, Sarmik! We will start immediately. Now, listen ...”

      Kat-ghil had gathered Winter Sorrow, the Terror and the Evil Eye around him.

      “They took Kat,” he said with his shrill voice. “But we’ll get the better of them one by one.”

      “They won’t venture up here again,” said the Terror, his voice full of loathing.

      “They’d be stupid to try,” Kat-ghil responded. “There is very little distance between us, we’ll capture them like the stupid reindeer fawns that they are.”

      “Leave the boy to me,” said the Terror with a cruel smile.

      “I want the crippled, pale-skinned one,” hissed the Evil Eye.

      “I want the two women,” said Winter Sorrow. “I’m going to cut them into pieces, like you cut up a corpse.”

      “And afterwards,” said Kat-ghil with great satisfaction in his voice, “Afterwards we’ll take the other creatures.”

      They waited calmly. All four were squatting around the fire. The wind was creating turbulence in the frosty cold morning fog, but the smoke from Kat-ghil’s sacrificial fire continued to rise in an unwavering straight line.

      “I’m the oldest,” said Winter Sorrow. “I am entitled to sacrifice the most victims at my bonfire.”

      “No, no,” said the Evil Eye in his creaking voice. “The one who takes the most victims will be allowed to keep them.”

      “I have a special agreement with the gods,” said the Terror excitedly. “I’m the one who supplied them with the most victims in Taran-gai. That’s what the gods expect of me.”

      “The fire is mine!” Kat-ghil interjected. “I’m the one who makes the decisions around here!”

      They looked at one another angrily and suspiciously. Their solidarity wasn’t as strong as that of their enemies.

      Finally, they ceased comparing powers and sulking. They paused for breath and poked indifferently at the embers.

      “What did I say?” said the Terror. “They don’t dare come back here.”

      Kat-ghil got up quietly and the others followed his example. Deep in the fog they discerned a dark crowd. The shamans of Taran-gai. Who were actually venturing back to the mountainside!

      “There are more of them now,” muttered Winter Sorrow.

      “Two more,” hissed the Evil Eye. “Two white demons.”

      Halkatla and Rune would probably have been surprised to be called demons. But that was what the four creatures on the mountain called anything they didn’t understand.

      “The little boy is still there,” said the Terror, surprised at such rashness. “I’ll take him now!”

      He was lifting his arms and raising his voice as he sang a song of conjuration when he was suddenly hit by something that came from Gabriel’s hand. A ray of light so strong that it made him tumble backwards; the others covered their eyes with their hands.

      It was Marco’s great flashlight, the “thousand metre”. Halkatla adored it. If she had been allowed to handle it its batteries would have run out long ago.

      “Magic, magic,” whispered Kat-ghil. “But they’re going to pay a price for this!”

      “The women are mine,” said Winter Sorrow.

      Tun-sij and Star responded in their own way. The mad Halkatla had procured some signal flares from Nataniel and Marco, and under the guidance of the technically inclined witch, the women set them off right over the heads of the evil shamans. The rockets whizzed past them like angry wasps, looking as though they would manage to singe their hair off. All four of them ducked automatically, and while great confusion reigned up on the hill the attackers managed to get closer. Tun-sij laughed with delight.

      The Evil Eye had barely managed to remind himself that the “big pale one” was his prey when Ulvhedin appeared holding a flame in his hands. It was Tova’s lighter. She had really only smoked when she felt she was in opposition to the world and wanted to emphasize her independence. That had been a long time ago now. But the lighter just happened to be still in her bag.

      Courageously, Ulvhedin went straight for the Evil Eye, constantly flicking the lighter on and off as he did so. In the end Gabriel discreetly nudged him in the ribs and reminded him that it might go off for good in that way.

      But the sight of it had frightened the Evil Eye enough to make him retreat. At least for a moment.

      “We could have used the motorbike now,” Gabriel muttered to Rune.

      The mandrake boy had no immediate response. He looked as though he was considering it. “Yes, well, why not?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye. “If our flying friends can transport people, then why not a motorbike? Here, take these pistols that I had planned we should use. Hand them out to our little friends – I think it’s their turn now ...”

      He showed Gabriel how to aim and fire the guns. Then he turned and quickly left.

      Five