The Devil´s Footprint, page 4
But nothing happened.
Then suddenly somebody yelled: “There! Look up there, just below the top of the cliff! There he is!”
Now they could all see him. The crouching creature was barely hidden in the grass and scrub. Like an evil spirit, he squatted, observing every single movement in the forest.
“For Gawd’s sake, shoot!” Colonel Plucky barked to the soldiers standing nearby.
“The distance is too great,” several of them replied.
The colonel wanted to order them to advance, but on the uneven terrain this would have caused big holes in the ranks, something they just had to avoid at all costs.
“Then I’ll kill him,” he said, raging. He hadn’t forgotten his defeat on the small square. Like an irritated bull, he charged across the forest. “He’s not armed, what is there to be afraid of?”
The colonel was heavily armed so he felt confident and sure of himself.
But before he managed to get within firing range, a loud shot rang out in the forest. One of the scouts must have moved sufficiently close to the Beast.
“Damn,” the colonel muttered to himself. “Now I’ve missed my chance.”
The creature up there started and sank out of sight.
“I got him,” the agitated scout yelled. “I shot that devil.”
Colonel Plucky met the two men. One was swinging his rifle triumphantly.
“I got him! He’s not immortal. I shot the biggest menace in the history of Norway. I’m a hero! I looked him straight in the eyes and they were ...”
His eyes began to flicker. The corners of his mouth slid downwards, and his chin dropped. “Help me,” he whispered, surprised. “I think I ...”
Then his knees gave way. He fell forward and rolled over, then lay motionless on his back, his eyes staring blindly towards the sky with an expression of surprise and anxiety.
“Dead?” the colonel said incredulously. “He wasn’t even close to the Beast!”
“He said it himself. He looked him right in the eye,” the other scout muttered.
The colonel tried to think but his thoughts fluttered like confused butterflies.
At that moment they saw a shadow from the corners of their eyes.
Up on the cliff, the Beast had got to his feet again. He seemed twice as large as before, but this was, of course, merely an optical illusion.
“Come on, let’s be off,” the surviving scout whispered.
“We’re pulling back for renewed consultations,” the colonel corrected him with dignity.
But he pulled back extremely fast, out of the range of vision of the evil creature on the cliff.
Chapter 3
There was hectic activity in the former hunting lodge at Mörby in Sweden. Dominic and Villemo were setting off for Norway at very short notice. The whole house was in a tizzy.
Dominic was in the bedroom upstairs, trying to find some suitable clothes to travel in. Villemo had a very untidy way of searching for things in drawers and cupboards: whatever lay in the way she would simply throw over her shoulder into the room, leaving the chambermaid to tidy up afterwards.
“Villemo,” Dominic said impatiently. “You’re throwing underwear at my feet the way others would scatter roses!”
“Maybe it was a delicate hint?” she said teasingly, lifting her head from the lid of the rococo chest.
“Maybe there’s something you want to complain about?”
“No, no, certainly not,” Villemo laughed in surprise. “Dominic, have you seen my fine gauntlets?”
“Weren’t they the ones you used when you weeded the kitchen garden?”
“Honestly, Dominic: I’m not that stupid! Come to think of it, I think I did use them in the garden after all. Oh, Dominic, how do you think everything will turn out?”
“With the vegetables?”
“No! With this Beast that Niklas writes about. This news has truly shocked me.”
“The Beast will probably do fine. What’s more uncertain is how things will turn out for us.”
“Must you be such a hair-splitter?”
Dominic walked over to Villemo and took her face between his hands. “All I can say is that an eerie sharpness has taken over my feelings and forebodings about what is happening elsewhere. Thank goodness for the letter from Niklas; without that I’d have gone crazy knowing and yet not knowing.”
“I know exactly how you feel.”
He gazed at her searchingly. “You seem so young, Villemo. You haven’t changed at all over these many years. So incredibly young ...”
Villemo turned serious. “I’ve even noticed it myself, and your dad agrees. It’s as if I’ve stopped developing.”
“No, that isn’t how I’d put it because your thoughts are certainly mature and you have such a strong personality, with such a strong character, that the silly ladies at Court become quite nervous at the mere thought. They’re afraid of you, Villemo. Afraid that you may be more highly esteemed by the King and Queen than the rest of them.”
“Yes, I know. It’ll be wonderful to breathe in some fresh rural air in Norway and not have to think about damned etiquette. No, I didn’t mean to complain, Dominic. I’ve very much enjoyed spending time among the people at Court, with their intrigues and glamour – the place is certainly magnificent.”
She smiled quickly and absentmindedly and continued in her own train of thought. Dominic said: “To me, it seems that you ... or to be more precise, your power, your capacity, has been saved for a particular objective.”
“So now is the right time, then?”
“Yes, it seems so.”“Dominic, there’s something in your bearing that frightens me. In your eyes ...”
He took a deep breath. “Yes, you’re right. I’m scared.”
“You feel ... the presence of death, don’t you?”
It was a little while before he answered. “Yes, I do, and it makes me sick with terror. If only I could make you stay at home ... in safety.”
“Oh, forget that!” she said with a hint of sharpness. “You know that I’m at least as much involved in this as you.”
“Yes, unfortunately.”
There was a discreet tap on the door and Dominic’s father asked politely: “May I come in?”
“Of course,” Villemo answered. “Do come in.”
They automatically looked around to see whether the room was presentable and were horrified at the mess. Villemo quickly gathered up her underwear and tossed it in a drawer.
Mikael entered. He was sixty years old, with silver threads in his hair and an absentminded expression in his gentle eyes. He was carrying some heavy books.
“Here are the accounts of the Ice People. Only it’s not just a single volume. Had they been printed, they’d have filled fewer pages but it’s merely a family chronicle and everything’s handwritten ...”
“We’ll take great care of them, Dad,” Dominic said in awe. “It would be terrible if everything was lost.”
Mikael nodded. “And now you’re ready to leave, right?”
“Yes, early tomorrow. Villemo insists that she’s become so lazy from life at Court that she’d like to travel in a carriage, but I’m heartless and said that we haven’t got time for that. Besides, riding will do her good.”
“Yes, young Tengel and I will take good care of one another until you get back,” Mikael assured them.
If we get back, Villemo thought grimly.
“Thank you. It’s nice to know that at least you’re in good hands with one another.”
“I can’t help being slightly uneasy,” Mikael sighed. “We all know that this is something you have to go through but I don’t think we’d imagined anything so frightening. It doesn’t make sense to me at all! How are you supposed to know that this Beast is one of the Ice People’s kin?”
“We can’t be sure of it either,” Dominic replied, discreetly kicking away some of Villemo’s scattered lace underwear. “We don’t know very much. We’ll probably find out more in Norway.”
“He doesn’t kill animals,” Villemo said pensively.
“No wonder,” Mikael replied. “A creature who’s so completely different feels solidarity with animals. Feels at home with them. It would seem that he just hates anything to do with human beings.”
“Yes,” Villemo said. “Or else it’s his nature to kill.”
The others didn’t comment on that. Instead Dominic said: “From what I understand from Niklas’s letter, the monster is searching for something. He’s fairly sure where he wants to go. But then he seems to drift about without any plan.”
“I don’t like it,” Mikael said.
Villemo looked at him and nodded in agreement. “You’re able to recognize a lot in his behaviour, aren’t you, Father-in-law?” she said, smiling sadly. “Who was it who sought consolation from a small puppy when in great loneliness in Livonia? Who was it who drifted about without a home, knowing that he belonged somewhere but didn’t know where?”
“Precisely,” Mikael said. “A kinsman of the Ice People who gets parted from his nearest and dearest is lost, doomed to search forever.”
“Which is why you think that this could be one of us?”
“I’m afraid so. The eyes. The shoulders. And his behaviour reminds me completely of those among the Ice People who are cursed.”
“But where does he come from?”
“Good question! Another branch of the kin – that we’ve never known about.”
Villemo was lost in her own thoughts. “But since we’re chosen ... that would mean that he’s a danger to our kin, right?”
“It seems so. But who on earth is he?”
They pricked their ears, hearing happy, chirping children’s voices from the courtyard.
“Look,” Dominic smiled. “Now Oxenstierna’s little girls are focused on Tengel. They worship him!”
“Yes, and even if he says they’re a bother, he’s so proud of being admired by them,” Mikael said, watching with the two others as a young man of 18 was chased by three girls aged six and eleven. They had managed to grab him, pulling and tugging at him, while he pretended that he wasn’t up to offering resistance and followed them dutifully.
“Our rascal of a son,” Villemo smiled. “How have you and I managed to produce something so outrageous?”
Villemo was bursting with pride.
“You can say that again,” Dominic laughed. “This charming indolence ... Where does it come from?”
“Don’t ask me,” Villemo said innocently.
They looked tenderly at Tengel, who allowed the girls to drag him across the garden to a table laden with juice and cakes.
“The problem is that he’s just as popular everywhere,” Villemo sighed. “Surely you didn’t break the Court ladies’ hearts like that, did you, Dominic? I certainly hope not!”
“No, because I was so very virtuous then. Kept very much in check by my little mother. Isn’t that right, Dad?”
“Yes,” Mikael laughed. “Your mum certainly knew what was best for you.”
Villemo shuddered slightly. In spite of a seeming kindness, Anette had never accepted her as her daughter-in-law. Without anything ever being spoken, Villemo knew that it was war between her and Anette. Never openly, certainly not! But small hints so subtle that Dominic had never noticed their hostility. Villemo had controlled herself for his sake. She knew that no daughter-in-law in the whole world would have found favour in Anette’s stern glance, and Villemo thought that she could hardly be the worst possible daughter-in-law. But when Anette succumbed to a longstanding disorder of the stomach, Villemo heaved a quiet sigh of relief. Peace had been restored in the house.
The struggle over Tengel had been the worst of it. Everything that Villemo did was wrong. Grandma Anette spoiled him rotten, and Villemo was afraid that he would grow up to be a terrible good-for-nothing.
However, this didn’t seem to be the case. After all, it was eleven years since Anette had passed away and stability in the home had been restored for the young man. He was carefree and lazy – but beneath his play was seriousness and he had a kind disposition. Yes, he would certainly turn into something.
Suddenly Dominic, with a frightened gasp, grabbed Mikael by the sleeve.
“What’s the matter?” the two others said at once.
“Dad ... you must keep an eye on the boy. I saw something.”
“Saw something?” the others echoed, looking out onto the courtyard, confused.
“No, no! Not here! I saw the Castle. Stockholm Castle. In flames!”
“What are you saying, boy?” Mikael exclaimed.
“Keep him here as much as possible,” Dominic asked, now looking pretty pale. “I know he’s begun his apprenticeship as a page at the Castle but please see if he can’t get a job somewhere else. At Riddarhuset or anywhere else ... just not at the Castle! Otherwise we can’t leave!”
“I can easily get Tengel a place somewhere else,” a surprised Mikael said. “But what do you mean by ‘seeing’?”
“Yes, you don’t normally have visions,” Villemo said, just as surprised. “You can have forebodings, sensations. But not visions!”
Dominic’s face was stony. “Quite recently ... Last week you asked me where Tengel was and I answered that he was on his way in and then he turned up at that very moment. Only I hadn’t known where he was because I hadn’t seen him all day! And when Dad mislaid his pen – for the umpteenth time – I was able to tell him straight away that it was lying on the windowsill in his room.”
“Yes, I well remember that I thought that was strange,” Mikael said thoughtfully. “Do you mean to say that your gifts have been heightened?”
“Very much so, which is why you must take what I said about Stockholm Castle very seriously! There’s no immediate danger. It won’t happen immediately, but we can’t know how long Villemo and I will be gone.”
“Oh, how I wish I could join you,” Mikael said.
“Tengel says that, too,” Dominic smiled. “He’s very, very keen to come along as well. But we’re so immensely grateful that you’re willing to remain here.”
“Because you see death?” Villemo whispered.
He hesitated. “Yes, I see death. For somebody, but I don’t know for who.”
“Let’s hope it’s for the monster,” Mikael said, agitated.
“Yes, it could be,” Dominic said quickly. “But there’s something else that confuses me.”
“What’s that?” Villemo wanted to know.
He shook his head as if to be rid of the sight. “I see us going to war against the monster. But all this time it has been you and me and Niklas, period! And yet we have one more with us. Someone we don’t know. Or only slightly know.”
“Strange,” Villemo said.
The following morning, even before the sun had appeared above the haze of the horizon, Villemo and Dominic rode out of Mörby. Mikael and his young grandson, Tengel, stood on the balcony and waved each time the riders turned around to salute them for the last time.
Mikael waved goodbye with a heavy heart. None of them knew whether they would ever see one another again.
Villemo had grumbled a lot about their mode of transport. She would have liked to go in a carriage with a big escort, but Dominic had implied that it was about time she left behind her cosy life at Court and at Mörby. He himself wanted to ride as he had always done as a courier, and if he wasn’t capable of defending his wife from robbers and similar dangers, there wouldn’t be much they could do about a monster.
Villemo scrutinized Dominic’s facial expression as they rode through the grey morning light. Dominic was still the King’s courier but he wasn’t away from home so much any more – she knew that he wanted to be near his family. He was just as handsome as ever, maybe even more masculine and mature, broader across the shoulders and with more marked features. He had aged normally, unlike her, who hadn’t changed at all for quite a long time. Of course, you could see that she wasn’t twenty any longer – but only if you were up close! She seemed so remarkably youthful, and it was something that frightened her. People tended to guess that she was 28 – but her real age was 39.
However, it wasn’t long before Villemo began to look forward to travelling with Dominic. It was almost like the old days, she thought. Only now they travelled more comfortably, she had to admit. They never spent the night out in the open but would seek lodgings in the best inns, treating themselves to good food and drink as well. Privileged people like them usually travelled with servants and a lot of baggage, but Dominic wanted everything to be as frugal as possible. This was the quickest way to reach their destination. Matters were urgent. He rode haunted by an unknown fear.
Villemo tried as best she could not to worry about what awaited them ...
Dominic knew better. “Of course, we need to get home and pick up Niklas,” he said. “And then ...”
“Do you have any idea where the monster might be?”
He looked uncertain. “It’s roaming about. I’ll probably know more as we get closer to Graastensholm and Linden Avenue.”
That evening they had planned to seek lodgings at an inn near Lake Vanern. But Dominic stopped suddenly.
“No,” he said. “No, we shan’t be spending the night there.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. But don’t you agree with me that we should rely on my intuition?”
“Oh, absolutely! But it’s a long way to the next inn, isn’t it?”
“Yes. But ... no, there’s something sinister here. I sense a strong opposition.”
“Then let’s continue, even if I’m curious to know what might lurk in that peaceful-looking house.”
He let out a brief laugh. “How typical of you. But honestly, it feels like danger, and that surely means we might be assaulted.”
“You’re probably right. But we’re not all that elegantly dressed, are we?”
“You may say that,” he laughed as he turned the horses. “But we’re very privileged people in the eyes of the villagers.”
“All this is very strange, Dominic. The Ice People themselves are not wealthy. But I must say that many of us have certainly married well above our station!”
