LITMIR.BIZ

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to watch the road behind them.

      “A tiny car is approaching us ...”

      Tova looked in the rear-view mirror. “A motorbike! God, it’s Marco! Oh, how wonderful!”

      “I know!” said Rune with a big smile.

      “Oh, joy!” sighed Hatkatla, “My hero!”

      “Who’s Marco?” Morahan asked, as Tova pulled the car to a stop.

      “He’s incredible,” Tova explained, her eyes sparkling “I wonder if it was he who ...”

      “Perhaps not him,” said Rune pensively. “But his protectors.”

      The motorbike pulled up next to them. Morahan sat and stared. “He can’t be real.” Yes, that was probably the best explanation for how a man could be so divinely handsome.

      Everyone had stepped out of the car. In the presence of Marco they dared to do anything!

      Tova gave a rambling, fumbling description of what had just occurred. Marco nodded seriously.

      “Yes, my friends were the ones who dealt with Number One. He is much more dangerous than we thought ...”

      “But now he’s been eliminated?”

      “No, not at all! It’s not possible. You yourselves saw how the storm demons were unable to move him.”

      “So where did he go?”

      “He fled from the superior force. My friends did not appear before him in their true images, they didn’t dare. But all twenty of them became too much for him. It was better to flee than fight badly. But how tragic it was for the storm demons! They who have helped us so much!”

      “Yes. By the way, what were you exposed to?” Halkatla asked.

      “Bats. As big as owls. I needed help to shield myself from them. Our friends have had a busy day,” he concluded dryly.

      They agreed that Marco should ride in front of them on his motorbike, which he had fetched from the airport that day along with Ellen’s bottle.

      Now that Marco had joined them they felt that the journey would go much more smoothly.

      It seemed the black angels’ attack had overwhelmed Number One, because they were left in peace for quite some time. But they could not forget their losses – Ellen and the storm demons.

      “Imagine if they were also to take the black angels?” Tova said shakily as they finished eating their sandwiches in the car. It was evening and they needed to find accommodation for the night. But where could they stay that was safe? For the moment they had parked the car in a layby right by the road but not visible to passing traffic.

      “They can’t take the black angels,” said Marco. “At least not in the same way that they took the storm demons. But ... and I’m afraid this is going to upset you all ...”

      “Are you going to leave us?” the girls asked quickly.

      “Oh, no. But I have been told by one of the black angels –”

      “I know what it is,” said Rune in a low voice. “I just didn’t want to say it.”

      “What is it?” asked Tova. “Come on. Out with it! Tell us what you know!”

      As gently as possible, Marco said: “Tengel the Evil has struck at home, in all the houses.”

      “What?” Tova howled. “But who? How has he done it?”

      Marco let out a heavy sigh. “I have been very grieved ever since I was given the news. And I have been very uncertain about whether I should tell you. But the black angel believed that you ought to know what was going on.”

      “Of course!” hissed Tova who was unconsciously holding his arm in a painfully hard grip. “If anything has happened to Mother or Father I’ll kill Tengel the Evil!”

      Marco refrained from saying that that was precisely what they were all trying to do, but unfortunately their ancestor was immortal.

      “No, Tova, your parents are still alive. He probably thought that breaking you was enough punishment for what we’re doing. Because it is clearly an act of revenge on his part, there is no question about it.”

      “Yes, I know, he told me that time when I travelled through time. He wanted first and foremost to take revenge on his disloyal descendants. But what he has actually done?”

      “One of our best fell at Linden Avenue: Benedikte.”

      “Great-Grandma!” Tova’s voice cracked. “No, he didn’t!”

      She started to cry.

      Marco told her that Benedikte was now with her ancestors and had joined the flock of the spirits of the Ice People, which calmed Tova down a bit.

      Then he told her about Hanne. And about Christel and Abel Gard.

      “Nataniel’s father?” Tova gasped. “And little Christel ... she was just a child!”

      “Oh, I don’t know. She was eighteen and it was really her own fault.”

      “Yes, I understand, but still! I’m going to make him pay!”

      She cried and sniffed and cursed Tengel the Evil in the most unimaginable ways.

      She had sought out Morahan, who was sitting next to her, and he consolingly placed his arm around her shoulder as she made his jacket wet with her tears. The others let her cry; they weren’t as directly affected by the tragedy as she was.

      “Tengel the Evil still doesn’t know who I am,” said Marco. “And I hope none of you have given me away?”

      They all assured him that they hadn’t.

      Tova had finally calmed down sufficiently to be able to speak. “Marco ... all of you ... this is getting us nowhere. Don’t you see that we keep running into a brick wall? No matter what we do, he always manages to get the upper hand.”

      “Through his maliciousness, yes,” said Marco. “But he hasn’t defeated us yet. He must never get the chance to influence world history, he’ll always have his hands full dealing with us. And you all know that he can’t do any real harm until he has drunk from the water of evil.”

      “What should we do?” asked Halkatla.

      Marco gave the two ordinary humans a friendly glance. “First, Tova and Morahan should be allowed to get some rest. They must be dead tired by now. Tomorrow morning we’ll devise a strategy; I just need to think through the details first.”

      “We’ll do as you say, Marco,” said Rune.

      They had stopped south of Dombås, for they didn’t want to venture up the mountain at this late hour. Finding lodgings for the night was still a concern for them. If they stayed the night in a hotel or something similar, they risked their enemies setting fire to the place and innocent people dying. But they would be terribly vulnerable if they stayed outdoors.

      They finally decided to stay in the car. The place where they had parked was as good, or as bad, as anywhere. And as things were now they felt that the car gave them the most protection.

      They would have to take turns sleeping, they decided. Some of them may not have needed any sleep at all, but they didn’t worry about that. Everything was to be shared equally.

      The space was cramped in the car. So Rune and Halkatla were the first to go outside and keep watch because those two weren’t in any danger. Human vulnerabilities to things like cold, hunger and fatigue didn’t bother them.

      But none of the others fell asleep right away.

      Ian Morahan lay awake for a long time. He was actually glad that he had something other than his own situation to think of. That was precisely why he had chosen to come on this dangerous journey, rather than sitting in a considerably calmer

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