by Pedro Urvi
“No. They’ll think that because they don’t want an incident on their watch. It would put them in a bad situation with Gondabar. I don’t suppose they’ll even investigate it.”
“You’re always thinking crookedly,” Ingrid said accusingly.
“The Elders wouldn’t do that,” Molak said confidently. “If there’s a motive to look into, they’ll do it, I’m sure of that.”
“You’re always sure about a lot of things that aren’t true.”
“If you believe she was poisoned,” Luca asked, “who did it? Why?”
“Those are better questions.”
“No, they’re not,” Ingrid protested.
“If the attack was on Astrid,” Viggo mused, “then we need to find a motive. Any attack, any murder, has a motive – many possible ones, but at least one. If we find the motive, we’ll find the murderer.”
Molak put his hands to his face. “Let’s not go there...”
“I want to hear what Viggo has to say,” Lasgol interrupted.
“But Lasgol,” Ingrid said, “it won’t do you any good.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” he told her curtly. He did not want to be rude to her, but he knew her well and was aware that she would not back off unless he was firm with her.
“I agree, I don’t think it’ll be good for you either,” Erika said.
“I appreciate your concern, but I want to hear what Viggo has to say. Give him a chance to speak.”
“Motive, opportunity: those are the keys for a murder. That’s something I learned in my youth... we need to find them out to establish what happened. That way we’ll find the culprit.”
“But who’d want to kill Astrid?” Luca asked. “I can’t see it...”
“Me, for instance,” said Viggo.
They all stared at him, shocked.
“Don’t talk nonsense,” Ingrid snapped.
“It’s not nonsense. Think about it. In fact, I’ve already asked for her head twice. Let me remind you that you wouldn’t let me kill her...”
“What’s he talking about?” Molak asked Ingrid.
“Things of the past.”
Molak sounded shocked. “Did he seriously want to kill her? Tell me it’s not true.”
“It wasn’t serious,” Ingrid said, trying to make light of it. She glared at Viggo to warn him to be careful with what he was saying.
“She’s my rival for the best in the School of Expertise,” Viggo went on. “I might be jealous of her. She’s my best friend’s girlfriend... she drives him away from me, she turns him against me, and I don’t have many friends... or a very forgiving character... She’s getting in my way. My existence would be improved if she weren’t around...”
“Okay, we understand...” Ingrid said with a twisted smile.
“Well, there’s someone here who has a motive for killing her, and we need to find that person.”
“Who do you suggest?” Lasgol asked.
“I have several theories and several possible culprits, but that’s a conversation for the intimate circle... for the Snow Panthers.”
“No way,” said Molak. “If you’re going to do something, I want to know what it is.”
“What for? To go and sneak to the Elders? You’d better not.”
Molak jabbed his finger at him. “You and I are going to have a bad falling-out.”
“I’ve always known that. I can hardly wait for the day.”
Ingrid got in between the two of them. “No fighting. Don’t forget what Sigrid told us. One fight and we’re out.”
“We’re asking you to leave us by ourselves,” Lasgol said to the non-Panthers. “It’s nothing personal, it’s a matter of years of trust.”
“I understand,” Erika said. “You barely know me.”
Luca looked down. “I hope you’ll tell me later.”
“We will, don’t worry”
“Off you go,” Ingrid said to Molak.
He was very serious and rather shocked. “I don’t like this at all.”
“I know. But now you’d better leave us.”
“I shouldn’t do that. You and I are together.” He was looking into her eyes, troubled and offended.
“Please... don’t make it more difficult for me...”
He looked at her for a moment, shook his head and left. She turned on Viggo furiously.
“You must be very pleased.”
He smiled from ear to ear. “Very.”
“You’re going to get my fist between your teeth.”
“It’ll be worth it, just to have seen you two love-birds quarrelling.”
Ingrid was furious, her face red as a tomato. She was about to raise her fist when Lasgol stopped her.
“We’ve got more important things to discuss.”
Ingrid glared at Viggo, who was smiling, and let her fist fall. “Explain yourself and stop smiling at me.”
“I think this matter might have a second aspect.”
“What d’you mean?” Lasgol asked in puzzlement.
“That maybe she wasn’t the target.”
Ingrid was nodding; now she understood. “The target might have been Lasgol.”
“That’s right.”
Lasgol looked puzzled, “If it’s me, then why haven’t I been attacked?”
“There are two possibilities. Either they tried and failed, meaning that the poison was for you and Astrid took it by mistake, or else she was targeted to hurt you.”
“That makes sense,” said Ingrid.
Lasgol shook his head. “I’m getting to understand it less and less.”
Viggo sighed. “I’ll explain. Maybe Astrid wasn’t the target, you were. That much is clear?”
“Yeah...”
“In that case they tried to poison you, but Astrid took the poison in your stead by accident.”
“That makes more sense,” said Ingrid, who seemed to be beginning to change her mind.
“I can see that,” said Lasgol. “But I’ve no idea when it might have been...”
“Don’t you always have breakfast and lunch together?”
“Yeah...”
“Did you have breakfast and lunch with her today?” Ingrid asked him.
“Yeah... I helped her make breakfast and she helped me cook lunch.”
“Well, it could have happened at either of those times.”
“But in that case, I’d be poisoned too.”
“Not if they only poisoned your food and she ate it by mistake,” said Viggo.
“We prepared the food in the kitchen...”
“Then anybody here might have done it,” Viggo said, and swept his gaze across the cave.
“If that’s the case, and I’m not saying it is, we ought to take into account what Nilsa warned us about.”
“Yes, that’s what I was wanting to get to,” said Viggo.
“D’you think it was the plotters at the Royal Library who tried to kill me?”
“I’d say it looks very much that way. There’s motive and opportunity. In fact, several motives, and the chance – well, if you spend a lot of time with a murderer, it makes sense for him to want to kill you.” He shrugged.
Ingrid was nodding. “It could be, yes...”
“It has to be one of the veterans,” Lasgol said. “The more I think about it, the more sense it makes.”
Viggo nodded. “Yeah, I think so too. I had my eye on Jensen, who was already carrying out that kind of mission for the King.”
“It can’t be Jensen,” Ingrid objected. “We’ve already talked about that. He was expelled, he didn’t pass the Harmony Test.”
“True,” said Viggo, “but we don’t know whether he’s left the Shelter for good.”
“D’you think he’s still around?” Lasgol asked.
“If that’s his mission, I’d say he’ll try to complete it. He won’t go back to Norghania without trying to.”
“The conspirators wouldn’t accept that,” said Ingrid.
“I get that.”
&
nbsp; “Another possibility which is very likely is that it wasn’t Jensen but one of that lot.” Viggo nodded towards the group made up of Isgord, Aren and Jorgen.
“Yes,” Ingrid said, “Aren and Jorgen have experience, they came chosen by the King and they belong to Expertise. It could perfectly well be them, in fact my bet’s on those two. I’ve been watching them since we got Nilsa’s warning.” She was staring at them with half-closed eyes, as though measuring them.
“And of course, the third one could also be –” Viggo added.
“That cretin Isgord?” Ingrid asked.
“Nobody hates Lasgol more than he does. And in his case both hypotheses fit. He might have done it by mistake, or on purpose to kill Astrid and hurt Lasgol. That fits in with his character.”
The three followed Isgord with their eyes as he went to the center of the cave for water.
“You’re right,” Lasgol agreed. “Nobody has more reasons than Isgord.”
“We have no evidence that points to any of them,” said Ingrid.
But Lasgol was not listening to her, he was making his way straight to the center of the cave.
For Isgord.
With his fists clenched.
Chapter 26
“Lasgol, don’t!” Ingrid shouted at him.
Lasgol turned a deaf ear to his friend’s cries. There was only one thing in his mind: that Isgord should pay for what he had done.
Ingrid and Viggo ran after him.
His gaze fixed on Isgord, Lasgol rushed past Erika, Luca and Molak, who were talking about what had happened. He passed Sugesen, who greeted him, but he did not even notice. He went past Frida and Elina, who were chatting with Gonars, and nearly ran into them.
Isgord saw him coming, and his eyes gleamed with hatred. He raised his chin in the air and waited for Lasgol, arrogance in his stance.
“What do you want, Traitor?”
Lasgol went to stand directly in front of him, with only a finger’s breadth of separation between their noses. “Was it you?” he asked icily.
“Was what me?”
“You know perfectly well,” Lasgol said, still glaring into his eyes. He could feel a cold fury: calm, yet on the brink of exploding.
Isgord gave him a mocking grin. “Whatever you may think I’ve done, it wasn’t me.”
“Astrid.”
Isgord’s expression changed. His eyes lit up. “Astrid... I see now... you think I had something to do… with her poisoning...”
“Was it you?” Lasgol repeated, his gaze and tone icy. He felt like cutting his enemy’s throat there and then.
Isgord grinned maliciously. “So that’s what it is. No, it wasn’t me. But I’m sorry I didn’t think of it myself.”
Lasgol lost the calm he had been trying to keep and clenched his fist ready to lash out.
“If you hit me, you’ll be expelled. You know that. Sigrid will throw you out.”
“Lasgol, don’t!” Ingrid shouted behind him.
Lasgol was trying to restrain himself. He knew that if he were expelled, he would no longer be able to see Astrid. He tried hard to control himself, but the hatred he felt at that moment, his anxiety over Astrid’s fate, his need to find the culprit, were stronger.
His arm shot forward.
A finger’s distance from Isgord’s nose, Viggo brought Lasgol down with a prodigious leap.
“What’s going on here?” Sigrid bellowed from the stairs.
Isgord pointed to Lasgol where he was lying on the ground. “He tried to hit me.”
“Nonsense,” Viggo said. “I tripped and fell on top of him. Scaredy-cat Isgord thought we were attacking him.”
“That’s a lie!” Isgord yelled furiously.
“Were you hit?” Sigrid asked.
“No... but Lasgol...”
“If you haven’t been hit, then nothing’s happened,” said Sigrid, closing the subject. “Go back to your tasks at once.”
Isgord gave Lasgol a glare of hatred. “You’ll pay for this with your life,” he muttered, and walked away.
Viggo helped Lasgol to get up.
“This is the first time I’ve seen you lose your temper,” Ingrid told Lasgol. She sounded very surprised.
Lasgol did not know what to say. He felt very bad. He should not have lost it; he could have ended up expelled.
“There’s a first time for everything,” said Viggo with an apologetic smile. He patted Lasgol on the shoulder a couple of times.
“It won’t happen again...” Lasgol said with his head bowed.
“It had better not, unless you want to be expelled,” Ingrid said.
Molak came over, looking very serious. “Everything all right?”
“Yes, fine,” Ingrid said. “Take Lasgol to the forest and help him practice with the bow.”
“I don’t want to practice now,” Lasgol protested.
“There’s nothing you can do here now except lose your temper again, and I don’t want that to happen. Being outside, thinking about other things, will do you good. If there’s any news I’ll run to tell you. You have my word on that.”
Lasgol was not at all convinced. He wanted to stay and wait for news of Astrid’s progress. He saw that everybody was looking at him. The ‘weirdos’ group, which was his own, together with the group made up of the weak ones and the one made up of the best – and from this last one, Isgord was glaring at him with death in his eyes. He was going to provoke him. He would look for the right moment to do this, and then it was possible that Lasgol would lose his composure and hit him. And he would be out. No, that simply must not happen.
He gave way. “Fine, I’ll go with Molak.”
Molak nodded. “Okay then, let’s go. I’ll teach you a couple of tricks I think will help you with those shots of yours that go too high.” And they both went to collect their weapons.
“Good idea,” Viggo said to Ingrid.
“Well played,” she replied, jabbing her thumb back to where he had tackled Lasgol.
Viggo smiled. “You know me, I like to be noticed.”
She smiled back. “You can say that again.”
A couple of days went by, and Astrid’s state did not improve. Lasgol spent most of his time sitting outside the Cave of Autumn, waiting for news. Each time Sigrid sent him away to Instruction. That afternoon Annika came out to speak to him.
“Is there any improvement?” he asked at once.
She shook her head. “She’s resting. I’m looking after her day and night, don’t you worry.”
“Why doesn’t she wake up?”
“She’s in a healing sleep. I don’t want her to wake up.”
Lasgol looked at her, taken aback. “But... if she’s going to get better, she has to wake up... right?”
“Not in this case. It’s best if she goes on sleeping.”
“Why? I don’t understand.”
Annika nodded. “Let’s go outside. A little light will do us good.” She beckoned to him. They left the Lair and turned toward the stream. The day was not very cold, and the murmuring of the water over the stones and the song of the birds reached them on a gentle breeze.
Annika took a deep breath and let it out at length. She did this three times, as if she were making herself relax.
“Mother Nature is so beautiful and wise...” she said as she looked up at the sun between the clouds.
“Ma’am, why doesn’t Astrid wake up?” Lasgol insisted.
“Because it’s not convenient for her to do that right now. I’m going to keep her in a healing sleep until the worst is past and we can risk waking her up.”
“Risk? Why is it a risk to wake her up?”
“Because of the type of poison in her blood. It affects the mind. It might cause her to lose her sanity, and we can’t risk that happening. That’s why in this case the best thing is for her not to wake up until her body has gotten rid of all trace of the poison.”
“Oh... I see... if she wakes up now she could be... maimed...”
“
Yes, her mind might be affected, and it would be permanent.”
“Then let’s not wake her.”
“That’s what we’re doing. We must give her system time to fight and eliminate the toxins. Once it’s done that, there’ll be less risk when we finally wake her.”
“And when will that be?”
“I calculate about three weeks...”
“That long?”
“I don’t want to take any risks. The healing potions I’m giving her should help her fight the poisoning. In a week she should have recovered, but I’m going to give her two more weeks so that I can be sure we’re not waking her up before time. I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
“And isn’t it dangerous for her to sleep for so long?
“There is a risk, yes... that she won’t wake up when we want her to.”
Lasgol felt as if his heart were being squeezed tightly as he visualized them trying to wake her and Astrid never waking again. He could not lose her.
He breathed out helplessly. “She’s got to wake up.”
Annika smiled sweetly. “She will. Have faith.”
The gesture did not calm his nerves. “Will she... be well? Her mind, I mean?”
“You can never tell in a case as difficult as this. Let’s hope so. I’d like to promise you, but I can’t. There have been cases where the patient has fully recovered. Others where they’ve died. And others, the majority, where they’ve lost their minds. Dementia won. I don’t want to lie to you. You must be prepared for all the possibilities. Any of those three scenarios might happen...”
The Elder’s words were like a freezing knife in his heart. He felt he could not breathe. Astrid would have to recover, completely. It simply could not be otherwise.
“She has to get better...”
“I’ll do everything I can for her. You know that, so don’t worry.”
“Thank you, I know.”
With overwhelming anxiety in his soul, Lasgol went back to instruction. All he could do was wait. The process of training would distract him from thinking all the time about what might happen.
A week later another event distracted his attention. It was Milton, who had returned with a message. Lasgol called Ingrid and Viggo, and they all went to the pond. Milton was waiting for them, as garrulous as usual. Viggo tried to get the message, although he knew the owl would not let him. And so it happened. Viggo swore at Milton, who did not seem to take any notice at all.