Chapter 19

I didn’t sleep well the night before the hearing. Ake had visited my place a day before and had asked me to come to his house the following morning. The hearing wouldn’t be a public event, but for sure some curious villagers would stay around, and they would like to know what the moderator would decide. After all, nothing like this had happened around here in ages - if ever. On my way to Ake’s home, I got my fair share of sympathy from the villagers - but some of them also hinted that I should be reasonable with those young boys. When I heard it for the second time from one older woman I snapped internally. However, I didn’t show it to her but just smiled back and said “Maybe I should have just overslept past burning my house. Then there would be no extra hassle.”

I guess that my smile had fooled her and it took some time before she understood what I had said, but her reaction surprised me a bit since instead of shocked she looked just sad.

“Stian, you are a good young man. We know very well that it was you who provided some extra meat to several families during the winter and therefore, what those boys did and tried to do was even more wrong. But please, don’t forget that you are a good young man.”

I really had no answer to that. Of course, it was nice to hear that the people in this village liked me but I had absolutely no intention to let them out of this with just a slap. Hell, those kids had wanted to kill me! I was no longer smiling when I nodded to her.

“Thank you for your praise. I promise that I’ll listen carefully to what the moderator suggests, but I admit that it’s hard to forget that I lost my home and just about everything with it. Besides that, there are no dry logs available as they were also burned to ashes.”

“I’m sure there are people who are willing to take you in.”

My jaw tightened since I had absolutely no intention in moving to live with some other people.

“Too bad that I have already lived on my own for a few years already and to be honest, I have absolutely no intention in living with somebody else. Besides, my livelihood depends on things I have there, so that’s not really an option.”

A slight smile that flashed on her face made me think how successful we had been in keeping our relationship in secret. Probably it was common knowledge among the village women.

“Of course, Stian,” she said. “But after one year, you can probably have a much better house than you used to have. Much better for a family. After all, you all are still young and one year is not a long time, even if it may feel like it now.”

So, she knew - and she let me know that she knew - and she wanted me to know that waiting for one more year might be a good idea. I guess it was not surprising that it just made me angry again.

“Yes, maybe one more year is not such a long time. However, there still remains the question about the expenses. After all, I already paid quite dearly for the logs and building the extensions. Maybe the people will be agreeable to do some work next year, but that hasn’t been discussed yet. However, someone needs to pay for preparing all those new logs that are needed and there just aren’t people to do it before next winter.”

The traces of the small smile the older woman had been wearing disappeared and she looked just sad again. Only then, I noticed that my voice hadn’t been so low as it had been in the beginning, and there were other people close by who had heard at least my last comment. Among them were the Arnesen’s, all the rest of them - twin boys’ mother, father and kid sister. I cursed myself. Of course they’d be here and I should have prepared myself for seeing them. I nodded to them, not really knowing what I should have said to them. I knew them by name and by sight, and both my father and I had sometimes given some of our extra game to them. The boys’ mother turned her head away, but not before I noticed that she had been crying. Their father returned my nod, but after that he also turned away quickly. The only one who kept on looking at me was their girl, Iona, and the sad look on her face was almost heart-breaking. She was just a bit younger than some of the girls the Trolls had abducted, and she could have been one of them - and for sure, she knew the other girls - which made it even more difficult for me to understand what had happened.

The man at Ake’s house, the moderator, was an older man, but every piece of him exuded authority. There was nothing magical in him but still I could sense his presence in the room. Elof had had some of it, Rafal had even more of it, which was most likely because of his experience. But this man was in the class of his own, which was almost surprising since he didn’t really look like it. He was quite old, clearly older than Ake, but he looked fit and I was quite sure that he still could walk a full day in the wilderness without problems. But still, his presence was not the thing that was the most prominent thing about him. No, the most prominent thing were his eyes. His gray eyes had the same color as my sword, and they felt as penetrating as my sword was. Those eyes also looked as hard as the steel of my sword - but I met his gaze and nodded, before looking the others in the room. Ake was there - and so were the twins. Ake nodded to me, but the twins avoided my gaze.

“Pleased to meet you, Stian. I think we should wait a moment more for our last guests. Hope that’s okay with you?”

It wasn’t only his appearance that exuded authority - his voice multiplied that, making it very clear that there was no other possibility available for me. I looked back at him and shrugged.

“Of course. After all, ten days have already passed, and more importantly, new logs probably cannot be done before next winter ... Sir.”

I didn’t falter or stammer when I responded to him and I met his gaze with my own. I reminded myself that I was the one who was asking for compensation, I was the wronged party and even after the negotiations, I still had the authority to send the twins away.

“Very well, please take a seat, Stian.”

Was it a hint of a smile that had flashed across the face of the moderator?

It turned out that the people we were waiting were Mrs. and Mr. Arnesen, the parents of the twins. They both looked stricken when they took their place next to the boys.

“Now that we all are here, could you, Stian, start and tell about your encounter with those Trolls, since in a way, it seems to be the factor that launched the following events.”

Those words from the moderator confirmed something what I had suspected myself. However, I still couldn’t understand how those things were connected, but I’d probably hear about it myself.

“Very well, Sir. I can do that.”

So, I told that story once more. I referred to Saga and her sister as former friends and neighbors, since that was what they were. Former friends and neighbors. Another thing that I did was that I underlined the amount of luck I had. Luck and experience that had come from hunting. I said nothing about my sensing ability and magic. Just experience and luck. I also made it clear that there was nothing very heroic in the way I ambushed those Trolls and killed three of them. When I told about the attack against me, I lifted my shirt and showed the fresh scar around the wound. When I told about wounding the last two remaining Trolls, the moderator stopped me.

“Why didn’t you kill them all? After all, you had the power to do that.”

I was sure that he knew or had heard the reason, but he wanted to be sure that I also told that part of the story. I smiled when I faced him, but the smile on my face was grim. Very grim.

“Because I wanted them to fear me. I wanted them to know what would happen if they tried something like that ever again. They needed to be alive so that they would be able to tell their story to all the others, since somehow they already knew that the village was not protected by the Guardians. Now, if they’re afraid enough, it might take some time before they’ll try again.”

Mrs. Arnesen gasped when I said that, but I didn’t turn to look at her or the twins. I continued my story, telling about the trip back to my home and later back to their home village. Then there were those busy weeks when all the expansion stuff was unloaded next to my home. Until came the night.

I lied that it had been my cat Tariel who woke me up just before the arrows hit my house. That wasn’t such a big lie, and I was sure that nobody noticed anything about it. Then I explained how I recognized the sound and believed that those Trolls had managed to find me and had come back for revenge. Again, it had been pure luck that there had been that hole at the end of the house, near the ground. Then I had sneaked out and looked for the people shooting arrows at my house - with full intention to seriously hurt them - not kill, since I’d want reimbursement for burning down my home, even if I needed to torture them in order to get it. I made sure that I was very blunt about that. There was some reaction coming from the Arnesens when I said that. I didn’t look at them, but at the moderator. I wanted them to know that I was very serious about my threats.

Only when I was finished did I turn to look at the Arnesens. The twins’ mother was weeping, their father looked ashen, and both the boys were crying. Neither of them looked like I would be getting any explanation from them. For a moment, I wondered if I had been too harsh but decided against it. I was just being honest, and that was the whole point of being here, right?

The moderator cleared his throat and I turned to face him.

He said, “Maybe we should have a short break now as it seems that it may take a moment before you can hear the other side of this, Stian.”

I just nodded, and decided that maybe I should take a trip outside. But not before Kjell spoke up.

“Mr. Horn said that you helped those monsters take the girls. That there was no way you could have found them later on and killed them. Besides, the girls said that you spoke with them. Everybody who can speak with them, must be one of them!”

The intensity in Kjell’s voice was desperate, almost pleading. It was clear that he wanted to believe what that damned Torvald had told him. To tell the truth, his outburst shocked me a bit, even though I didn’t let it show. I had never considered that my knowledge of the Old Language could be used against me. On the other hand, I hadn’t heard any other human speak the Old Language. I sighed loudly when I turned to look at Kjell, who looked back at me with defiance.

“You all know that I spent a full year helping the Guardians, right?”

After a moment of hesitation, Kjell nodded but didn’t waver.

“For more than three months we were jammed in a small village, because of the winter, with nothing much to do. One of those Guardians was a negotiator and translator. Anybody could have asked me about that. Anybody. Besides, Torvald knew her role in the party.”

What I said to him was probably a lie, pure and simple. However, I had heard from Cajsa that there were some - very few - Guardians who were able to understand and speak the Old Language. Very little of it, but still. However, there was a possibility that Cajsa might have known some of the language and she could have taught me some of it.

“What’s more, before the winter really tied us to that village we met another party of those monsters, Trolls. Thus, my interest in the language.”

Kjell looked like I had slapped him, and all the fight that had been in him suddenly disappeared. I shook my head and headed out of the room, trying to look miserable because of all this stupidity. It wasn’t really difficult since I really felt miserable, but I was also a bit worried because of my lies and the moderator being an ex-Guardian.

It wasn’t until I was outside when I really allowed myself to breathe more freely but it only lasted for a moment, since that ex-Guardian found his way next to me.

“I have to admit that I had wondered about that part a bit by myself. You know, I’ve already spoken to those boys a few times, since it wasn’t at all so easy to get a coherent story out of them.”

“You knew that my old home village terminated the agreement with the Guardians?”

“Yes, I was aware of that fact. A decision made by the leader mentioned here, I guess.”

I just nodded but I had a feeling that I had to say something, something that would justify my actions.

“When I helped the Guardians, we tracked down one group of Trolls who had abducted two sisters. We managed to save only the younger one. As I had some idea what would happen to those girls, I knew I just had to try to save them.”

Now it was his turn to nod at me and we just stood there silently for a moment before he turned to me.

“Would it be okay for you, if we’d take a short walk and discuss about some things. I wouldn’t count on those two boys being in shape to retell their version any time soon.”

“Suits me.”

We started walking the path towards my home and the man next to me stayed silent until we were well away from anybody who might hear us.

“You know Stian, when somebody comes to tell me that a young hunter has killed a few of those Trolls and rescued five girls, I would have been the last person to believe it. Absolutely the last. On the other hand, I had heard from Ake that there is someone who spent a whole year helping the Guardians and has a bunch of bonds as a result. Not a bond or two bonds but a bunch of them - and a trip that took a whole year. That changed things a bit - and made me curious.”

That put me a bit on the defensive, but I didn’t really want to show it.

“I had no idea about the amount of bonds I should have had. I just took what was given to me.”

“Mind telling me how many you actually got?”

I stiffened, since I really didn’t want to tell that. I knew that I was rich, but I didn’t want to boast about it. Nor was it any of his business. He must have sensed the change in my attitude.

“Oh, I see. I agree that it’s very wise to be careful with such things, but you have nothing to fear from me. In fact, maybe I should tell you a story first. before we continue this discussion, if you don’t mind?”

“Not at all, Sir.”

“You know, Stian, after spending one year with the Guardians and helping them, you certainly have earned the right to call me by my name and not, ‘Sir’ ... Damn, I haven’t been a ‘Sir’ in decades. Please call me Ragnvald.”

“Okay, Ragnvald.”

He took a deep breath.

“You certainly know all those stories about heroic Guardians, how they protect people and help people. Then there are stories that spread among the Guardians and most likely you are now part of those stories after that one year with them. Damn, some of those stories are even true, there is no doubt about that. But you can be sure that most of those stories are spread with purpose, and only those stories are allowed to be spread that support the purposes of certain people. Make no mistake, as much as there are good deeds made by the Guardians; there are politics, power and corruption, too. Most likely, there is much more of the latter than anything else. I should know about it, since I was a part of it for many years.”

I had listened to him and kept on following him when he told me about the darker side of the Guardians. He chuckled as I just nodded at him.

“Ake told me that you are a smart guy who is interested in several aspects. Therefore I should have known that you have probably already guessed some of this, or even more likely you have heard some of it directly from some Guardians. Did I get it right?”

“Both. Heard some, and guessed some.”

Now it was his turn to nod.

“Yes, if you spent one year with a suicide patrol, they had no need to hide things from you and for sure you heard some of the darker aspects about being a Guardian.”

I was about to say something and he noticed it.

“Please don’t get mad, but Ake revealed something about the size of the bonds you have. That, combined with the idea that you spent a whole year chasing for something, probably unearthly ... All the Guardians have heard about those patrols, but hardly anyone has seen a person who had survived such a mission.”

“Then you also understand that I won’t admit or deny any of that.”

The older man laughed a bit.

“I’m sure your Guardian friends considered you as one of them, especially as you helped them with their mission. Tell me, Stian, why didn’t you join them? You could have made a hell of a career as a Guardian.”

“Maybe because back then I thought that I had a nice home and a fiancée who loved me in my old home village. Besides that, I had enough money so that we could live and raise a family without any worries.”

I tried to prevent the bitterness coming out in my voice, but I probably failed.

“And now you lost another house. It’s very easy to understand why you are bitter.”

After that, we walked in silence for a while before Ragnvald spoke again.

“You probably have no idea why it was so easy for that Torvald to get the boys to believe that you should be punished.”

“No.”

“Since the boy’s father hurt his hand, they have been in debt to that Torvald guy. He promised to clear their debt if they torched ‘that Troll lover’.”

“How much were they in debt?”

“Close to forty Crowns and it was growing.”

That was like a punch to my stomach. If the Arnesen family hadn’t been able pay a debt of forty Crowns, how could they ever pay me back?

“Yeah, I know. You have spent more than one hundred Crowns in making that house bigger and better, right?”

“Something like that, yes.”

I felt betrayed and empty. Somehow, I had already accepted the loss of the money or the bonds, but yet I had hoped that I’d be able to get some of it back from the twins - or their family. But if they hadn’t been able to support themselves, how could they pay me back - anything, ever? Ragnvald stopped my circling thoughts when he continued.

“In a way, their plan was quite good. Had they managed to kill you and burn down your house, everybody would have been sure that those Trolls did it. Especially when they had planned to take those ponies from your stable. Too bad for them that your cat woke you up - and that there was a hidden exit out of your house. I have to give it you that you showed a great amount of restraint for not killing them immediately.”? “I already knew that I would want some payback.”

“Only to find out that you probably can’t get any. Now, you have only bad choices. Those boys left a note and their sister found it when the boys went missing. That Torvald guy, of course, denies everything and now he has probably already taken over their home. When they got here, the boy’s mother told their heartbreaking story to other women and if you now won’t show mercy for them the villagers will see you as the bad guy. Now, when their father isn’t able to work hard, it’s the boys who need to start earn their living. If you decide to send those boys to Guardians, they have no way to make their life better.”

“So, you are saying that I should just smile and suck it up, right?”

“I’m not saying anything, Stian. Just making sure that you know the facts.”

I was silent for a while.

“To tell the truth, I almost guessed what would happen, since I remember the Arnesen family from my past, and both my father and I had helped them during some harder times. So, I was quite sure that they could never pay me back.”

I let out a short bitter laugh before continuing. “Maybe I just hoped that you, as a moderator, would be able to point out some miraculous way out of this mess. Some way that would give me a nice house and a suitable punishment for the twins. Damn, I was even prepared to pay somewhat more for a new, nice house in which I could live and maybe start a family. To live a simple, happy life and raise my children. I had never wanted anything else.”

Even if I wasn’t looking at Ragnvald, I was able to sense that something changed in him after my outburst. I had no idea what it was, but it had something to do with my increased sensibility about all living creatures close to me. We walked in silence for a longer time until the ruins of my house came into sight. We continued walking towards my stable, and I decided to check the status of Luna and those ponies while I was there.

It didn’t take long for us two to get some fresh water for all the horses, and the animals also enjoyed some treats I kept nearby. When we were about to start our trip back to the village, I could sense that Ragnvald had probably made up his mind. I forced myself to be patient as I waited.

“You know, Stian, I’m an old man. The number of summers I can expect to see can be counted with my own fingers. I’ve kept myself in decent shape, and therefore I probably look younger than I really am. Besides, being in shape helps when I occasionally visit two widows who live nearby and who want to make sure that I eat properly. But that’s not the point, here. I just want you to know that in a way I’m still able to understand a young man with two hot fiancées who are both quite vocal.”

He chuckled before continuing.

“Yes, that is probably the best known secret in this little village: I became aware of it almost as soon as I got here - and I’m sure you haven’t said anything about it.”

Suddenly, he turned all serious.

“I was happily married for over twenty years, and I still visit my daughter, even if she lives one village away. What I’m now going to tell you is something that I have never told to anyone, not to my wife, not to my daughter, not to anyone. I was fully prepared to go to grave with my secret but...”

He sighed.

“You are a good guy, Stian. Too good for your own good, much too good I’d say, since in this world we live in, it doesn’t pay to be good. Never has and probably never will. People around here know me as Ragnvald, former Captain of the Guardians, a reliable and respected person. All that is an act, a play, since I wasn’t like that. Reliable perhaps, respected by my superiors, for certain - but feared much, much more. However, I never really was a Captain of the Guardians - nor was my name Ragnvald. Yes, I used to be a Guardian, but I was a totally different kind of Guardian than the ones in those heroic stories. No, I was a man who was sent to the different parts of the country to take care of all kinds of problems. Sometimes - or quite often - those problems breathed and had two arms and two legs. I took care of them because those problems knew something or had seen something they shouldn’t. Or, that was what I was told. Of course, it could have been something else as well. I was reliable and didn’t ask extra questions and the peace prevailed after me.”

I could sense the pain in his voice when he told me about that. In a way, I was shocked and in another way I wasn’t, since from my discussions with Elof, Cajsa and Rafal I knew that the Guardians had their ways of keeping things under control, but I had assumed that they only worked within the Guardians. Now when I thought about it, I understood that I had been somewhat naive and stupid. I was afraid of what would follow.

“I won’t go into details, but one day there was an accident in another corner of the country. An accident that needed both some normal Guardian work and some cleaning work. When we all got to the site, it turned out that things were far from being over. One of those Magicians had tried a bit too much, went nuts and he blew out a cache of gunpowder they use in those bronze cannons. The end result was that all but two people died immediately. Two people were alive and one of them was a seriously wounded Guardian Captain named Ragnvald. We were both buried under the ruins of the building. That poor Captain was on his final mission as his tour of duty would be ending within a month. He had it all planned, getting out of the service, finding a nice woman and starting a family. I listened to him and thought about myself and my own life. He died before the helpers managed to find us and dig us out. I walked out of those ruins as a Guardian Captain named Ragnvald - after I had adopted his dreams. All I had to do was to write the report in his name and ask for the severance pay to be transferred to somewhere where nobody knew the real Ragnvald.”

At that point, he turned to look at me and the look on his face was grim.

“That brings us back to you, Stian. Had you become a Guardian, you probably would have been safe. They would have kept an eye on you and made sure that you’d not say anything you shouldn’t. If you really are that good as you seem to be, they might have offered you a chance to become something like I used to be - had you been interested. But when you decided that you wouldn’t become a Guardian, you became a liability, a loose end - and there is a group inside the Guardians that doesn’t like loose ends. Look, all the Guardians know that Magicians do some really, really stupid things, and it falls to the Guardians to clean up the mess afterwards. They know it and they talk about it - among themselves. After being with some Guardians on a suicide mission, you know about it now. You are a smart guy and I’m sure that you don’t go around and speak about it but that’s not enough for some of them. It never will be - and then there are also the bonds!”

The look on his face remained grim.

“The Guardian institution is rich, very rich. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop them from being greedy, too. I assume that you have bonds worth several hundred Crowns, right?”

I nodded. I had still bonds worth some eight hundred and fifty Crowns, so I could have easily paid for another house - but doing that without complaining would send a message I didn’t want to send.

“It’s been very wise of you not to reveal your wealth. I’m quite sure that most of the people in this village wouldn’t think any different of you, but certain kinds of rumors spread faster than others; and, like I said, some of the Guardians are greedy.”

He shook his head, like he was thinking of something before he continued.

“I’m sure that you were paid according to the guidelines, since they are very strict with that. Unfortunately, that also tells those people who know about these things, that your role was an important one. A very important one. That thing alone will raise some flags and it will wake some interest with certain people. Mostly the wrong kind of people. They will not touch the Guardians who were on that mission; no, they will strictly advise them to keep their mouth shut and then they’ll be sent to most distant corners of this country where someone will check on them every now and then. They will be well paid and kept alive, because it will show the others that you may make it through a suicide mission - and if you do, you’ll be well compensated. Your friends knew the rules for certain, and they’ll act accordingly. But you are not a Guardian, you cannot be controlled, and you have those bonds.”

He looked at me, waiting for me to say something.

“Like I said, in a way you are a smart guy Stian. By now, you have surely realized by yourself that even if those bonds are in your name, it doesn’t really mean anything. Of course it works here, in these small villages and maybe even in small towns. But if you go to a town of decent size, the bond is like money if you go to a bank and you claim to be the person named in that bond. They don’t care, since they’ll get their small commission. As I said, the Guardians are greedy, and some people working with the Guardians are even more so. I’m sure that the only reason nobody has come after you yet, is that you live here, far away from everything and those people working with money don’t even know that this kind of place exists. But since there are people who want to cut away those loose ends and people who don’t want some bloody hunter to waste bonds they think are theirs, someone will come after you. Someone like I used to be. Probably sooner, rather than later.”

Suddenly, he chuckled.

“On the other hand, if you were able to single-handedly take down five Trolls he - or she - might face a surprise. But it’s also quite possible that they’ll send more than one person, depending on what they know about the mission you had with the Guardians. What is sure is that either they are very good in moving in the forest, or they appear as somebody else, maybe a new merchant or something. You should also know that those people have no problems in getting to you through the people you care about.”

I couldn’t really express all the feelings I had at the moment. I had thought that things were bad when my house was burned down, but suddenly this moderator, Ragnvald - or whatever his real name was - was telling me that it wasn’t the biggest of my problems. Not even close. Then, all of a sudden and without any warning, everything was clear inside my head. It was as though the voice of my mother had reminded me about what she had written on the empty pages of that one booklet.