Cecilie didn’t scream again but he could hear her choking and moaning and knew that something was happening. Then a second, wailing cry joined the first. Both children were alive!
“Once again, dear God. Thank you!” Unable to wait in the anteroom another minute, he knocked on the door to their bedroom.
“Please wait just a minute!” ordered the midwife. Then after a while she called again: “You may come in now!”
Alexander opened the door and entered the room. Cecilie’s eyes sparkled as she saw him. The midwife and the surgeon were both smiling at him, too. The birth of twins was always a special event. It was true that there were still some people who believed twins were bewitched and would therefore kill the second-born at birth or leave it to die, but this belief was only prevalent among the most superstitious and unenlightened of people.
“Twins?” exclaimed Alexander in amazement. “Are they twins? They aren’t at all alike! I thought twins always looked like two peas in a pod?”
“When they come from the same caul, then this is indeed true,” said the surgeon. But that hasn’t happened here.”
The second little infant had shimmering, dark, reddish hair that lay in curls instead of sticking straight up like the firstborn’s. The two babies didn’t share the same facial features either. But they were both fit and well, and Alexander laughed helplessly and joyously.
“We had planned to call a daughter Gabriella after my unfortunate mum,” said Alexander. “But what are we to call the other one, my dearest? Lisa, after your mum, Liv? Or Leonora?”
“I imagine he’d be most insulted if we did,” said Cecilie with a smile. “Leonard might be more appropriate.”
Alexander’s chin dropped in astonishment; then a wide grin lit up his face. “You mean – we have a boy?”
“What else?” retorted Cecilie as the new father of twins slumped happily into her bed. “You always have to do everything with such thoroughness, Alexander! But thank you anyway for the sweetest of gifts!”
“You’re the one who deserves the greatest thanks, dearest,” he replied, and turning to the others he asked: “We’ve done a fine thing, haven’t we?”
“Nothing could have been better, Marquis!” answered the surgeon.
Without speaking, Cecilie and Alexander were sharing one silent thought: had Sol, the multifarious witch with her elusive laugh, been there at that enchanted woodland glade where his seed was sown? Had she played a delightful prank on them?
Was it really possible that somehow she’d brought her influence to bear? It was no more than a passing thought but as they confirmed to each other later, it did occur to them simultaneously.
Now, apart from Trond, who’d never had the opportunity to start a family, Tarjei was the only one of Tengel’s grandchildren without an heir. And he seemed not to be in any hurry to marry.
***
A few days later at Graastensholm, Liv called out excitedly to Kolgrim as he was playing in the front courtyard. “Come quickly. Have you heard the news? Your dear Aunt Cecilie has had twins – two small babies, a boy and a girl.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” Kolgrim replied, panting from running into the house. “What are their names?”
“The girl’s called Lisa Gabriella after Alexander’s mother and me. They found no suitable name with “D” after granddad, Dag Christian, so they’ve decided to call the boy Tancred Christoffer because there are so many of the Ice People whose names begin with “T” after Tengel the Good.”
“Or Tengel the Evil,” said Kolgrim.
“Oh, Kolgrim, that’s not nice! Don’t say that!”
“Who was I named after?”
Liv’s momentary hesitation wasn’t lost on him.
“After your granddad Christian. You can hear that, cant you? Christian – Kolgrim. Won’t it be fun when they come to visit and you can all play together?”
“Yes, grandma. Are they coming soon?”
“No, they’re far too small.”
“Did Aunt Cecilie send greetings to me?”
“Yes, of course she did! Look, here in my letter it says: “Say hello to my dear Kolgrim from Alexander and me!” You can see your letter “K” there, can’t you?”
“Nothing to Mattias?”
Liv didn’t answer straightaway. “Uh, yes, but not in the same place.”
Kolgrim gave a curt nod. “I’m going outside again, grandma.”
“Yes, don’t stay out too long and get cold. It isn’t spring yet.”
How wonderful that those two half-brothers get on so well, she reflected as she gave Kolgrim a quick hug. After he’d gone outside again, she hurried in to see Yrja. Her eyes brightened when she saw little Mattias, now a happy three-year-old, playing with his carved wooden horse. When he heard his grandma, he looked up with a smile so tender it would have warmed the heart of anyone alive.
‘Mattias is a strange little boy,’ she thought. ‘Everyone always says that no matter how difficult things are for them, they feel so much happier and brighter whenever they see the boy. Maybe it’s his personality itself that gives them back their belief in all the good that life can offer.’
***
Meanwhile Kolgrim had already climbed to the top of the hill behind Graastensholm. He enjoyed going up there to a place where he could look down on both farms from high up and feel he ruled the whole world. This was normally how it made him feel, but today his spirits were low. Other children might have said: “Everything’s gone wrong! It’s all ruined!” But this wasn’t Kolgrim’s way. Instead he stood gazing out over the landscape with a faraway look in his eyes, uttering a few words in a ritual whisper.
“The final bond’s broken. There’s nothing that links me to them any more. I’m free at last! Free!”
Then he turned and walked off, heading deeper into the forest. Finally he found a place where he stopped and made a fire with a flint and steel he’d stolen from the kitchen maid. His eyes shimmered gold as he stared into the flames.
“So stupid,” he murmured aloud. “They’re all so stupid and easy to fool! Just look at them sweetly and they love you – and stop being vigilant.”
As he spoke, Kolgrim broke a small twig into three pieces. Only he could see that they represented dolls, three child dolls – three infants. One by one, he threw them into the flames of the fire. Nobody had taught him to do this – it was instinct.
He squatted down, watching as each separate twig – child – caught fire and burned. The little boy who everybody saw as kind, mild and sensible, laughed. It was a cold and hideous laugh that, in an instant, changed Kolgrim’s features back to the way they’d been on the day he was born. Reflecting the flames, his eyes shone like the eyes of a ruthless predator, half-seen, stalking ominously at the edge of the forest on a black winter’s night.
Next Book
The Ice People 6 - Evil Legacy
The future of the Ice People hangs in the balance. Their most powerful and guarded inheritance – Tengel's magic herbs and the cursed mandrake root – must be passed to a new generation.
But with the evil curse of the Ice People surfacing once a generation, who can be trusted with the unrivalled power their magical inheritance? Kolgrim is the rightful heir, but he has the blood of Tengel the Evil in him, so he could lose everything to his angelic younger brother.
The battle of good and evil rages on, and drags the Ice People into torment once more.
The Legend of the Ice People
The Ice People 1 – Spellbound
The Ice People 2 – Witch Hunt
The Ice People 3 – The Step Daughter
The Ice People 4 – The Successor
The Ice People 5 – Mortal Sin
The Ice People 6 – Friendship
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 million copies worldwide. Margit Sandemo is thus the author in the Nordic countries with the greatest number of sold books.
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