The Falcons of Fire and Ice - By Karen Maitland Page 0,162

vengeance and destruction as he grows ever stronger. The draugr devours men. Birds that fly over him fall dead from the sky. Wherever he passes, humans and animals are driven mad, so that men attack their own wives, swearing they are hideous demons, and mothers drink the blood of their own babes. As the strength of the draugr grows, so he will have the power to turn summer into eternal winter, to turn day into night, a night of terror and destruction that will not end even for those he kills, for they in turn will rise again as draugr themselves. That is why Fannar and Ari must not release us.’

‘But you will die, Eydis … scalded to death,’ I tell her. ‘You can’t mean to do it … it is … a terrible death. And if you do die, what will happen to the spirit of the d … that thing then? What will happen to you?’

The branches of the trees in the dark forest bend lower. The wind rises higher, as if a great storm is running towards us.

‘If we die still bound in iron, neither his spirit nor ours can ever leave the cave. We will be trapped with him for ever.’ Her voice has a terrible icy resolve as if she is a judge pronouncing her own death sentence. ‘He will tear us to pieces. He will devour us. He will pour all his vengeance into our destruction, and each time he does we will become whole again, so that he can torment us anew. But even that I will accept rather than become that monster of hell and hatred.’

My fists clench against the rough bark of the tree. My own terror is forgotten in the horror of what she faces.

‘No, no! You can’t. There must be some other way. There has to be.’

‘You are the only way. You call the dead and you must summon a door-doom of the dead to the cave before it is too late. Only they have the power now to order him to return to his own flesh.’

Hinrik had said the same words. You call the dead.

‘But I don’t understand … I can’t call up the dead. Do you mean Hinrik? Did I call Hinrik? But I didn’t call him … I don’t know how.’

‘You brought Hinrik with the stone. But there are others, those you see here in this forest. They follow you. What do you use to call them?’

‘I don’t call them,’ I protest. ‘I just dream about them, but I don’t know why. I don’t even know who they are.’

‘And you have nothing that belongs to them?’ she presses relentlessly, as if she knows she can force a truth out of me that I don’t even know myself.

I desperately try to think. ‘It was dark in the forest, but I saw something pale and glinting amongst the leaf mould on a grave. I picked it up only to see what it was. I didn’t mean to take it but just as I touched it there was a shriek. It was terrifying. I thought there was some wild beast behind me, so I just ran, without thinking what I was doing. I fell into a gulley and it was only later that I realized I was still clutching it.’

‘Tell me what you took from that grave.’

‘It was a bone, a human finger bone with a ring still on it.’

I feel her sigh like a breath of wind on my cheek. ‘That is the cord that binds them to you. And that is what you must use to summon them to the door-doom. If I can be released from the iron without the draugr knowing, then together you and I can use that bone to summon the dead. But it must be done only when the moment is right. Too late and the pool will erupt before we can be freed from the iron. But if we act too soon and send the spirit back into the corpse, then the draugr will rise up and all of you will be trapped in a cave with a man who possesses the strength of ten and a thirst for vengeance that can never be slaked. He will crush you all as easily as a child smashes an egg shell before you can escape the cave.’

‘But how can we free you without –’

Something catches my eye in the darkness. I turn. A little way off among the trees a pale light is