paused.
'And?' Thora asked impatiently.
'It turns out that the symbol in the margin is unknown, but resembles a Nordic symbol for a revenge charm. The only difference is one branch missing from the arm at the top. The Nordic spell is found in one manuscript fragment without the poem. All that has been preserved is a description of how to perform the spell and the first line of the charm, which is 'I look at you'the same opening as the love charm. Pall infers that the owner of the book drew the symbol beside the spell because he either knew for sure or just assumed that the same poem applied to both. The book was apparently the work of four different people, three Icelanders and a Dane, and the last scribe could well have drawn the symbol beside the charm for the same reason. He said this Nordic spell was much darker than the others and of uncertain origin, although the text with it in the manuscript was in Danish. The manuscript is privately owned and has been dated to the late sixteenth century, while the Icelandic book of spells is thought to have been written around 1650.'
'What do you mean, a darker spell?' Thora asked.
''Blacker magic' may be a better term. Shadier. What he meant was that it was specifically designed to cause harm. A person who has it carved on his body after death can haunt someone who failed him in lifeas in watch from the grave and make them regret the way they treated him. And in the end that regret brings doom. And wait for thisto perform the spell you need a certain body part, and you can guess what that is.'
'Eyes,' Thora said with conviction.
Matthew nodded. 'But hold your horses. When Pall described the spell to Harald he became incredibly excited and demanded to hear in detail how to perform it. Pall gave him a full account over the phone, then sent him scanned copies of the book and the manuscript.'
'Yes. And?' muttered Thora eagerly.
'Well, the way it works is that the seeker of revenge makes an agreement with someone else to perform the spell after his death. Not unlike the corpse breeches. They draw the symbol together on a patch of animal skin using their own blood and raven's blood. It takes a lot more than a few drops, because under the symbol they are supposed to write that X promises to perform the spell for Y, then X and Y confirm this by signing their names.' Matthew sipped his coffee before continuing. 'Here comes the punch line. When Y is dead, X carves the symbol on the body, lets out enough blood to write with, andthank you very muchremoves the eyes from the body.'
'Jesus.' Thora shuddered. 'Why on earthisn't it enough to write in blood and carve up the body?'
Matthew smiled. 'Clearly not. Pall said the symbol should be carved into the body to remind the dead person that his eyes were removed at his own request. Otherwise he would rise from the grave and search for his eyesand presumably kill the friend who took them. But the blood is used to write the now forgotten curse that goes with the symbol. It has to be mixed with raven's blood too.'
'Which explains the passerine DNA found when the blood was analyzed!' exclaimed Thora. 'The raven is the largest passerine bird native to Iceland.' Her school biology never failed her when she really needed it.
'Anyway, the survivor does not need to add his blood. The eyes are wrapped in the skin with the curse on it and both are then presented to the one who failed the dead person, the object of his revenge. After that the victim is never safe; the dead person will haunt him and constantly remind him of his misdeeds until he cracks and dies a terrible death.'
'And the curse that was sent to Harald's mother' Thora said sadly. Her voice trailed off as her thoughts took over.
A sudden idea pulled her out of her reverie. 'Wait a minutewere the eyes sent to her?'
'No,' Matthew said. 'They weren't included. I have no idea why. Maybe they got lost or damaged; I simply don't know.'
Thora sat in thought for a while. 'Halldor, the medical student. It must have been him who took care of the body,' Thora said. 'So he killed Harald.'
'It looks that way,' Matthew replied. 'Unless Harald caused his own death and Halldor took over.'
'How?' Thora asked. 'He was strangled.'
'Maybe doing his erotic asphyxiation? We have to consider that possibility at least. Or that one of the others killed Harald or made the contract with him. They all looked equally sheepish when we showed them the magic symbol. So Hugi could just as easily have been involved.'
'We have to talk to Halldor againthat's for sure. All of them if we can. Good luck arranging that.'
Matthew smiled. 'So we're not total idiots. We've made a lot of progress. All that's missing from the picture is the money. What happened to that?'
Thora shrugged. 'Maybe Harald managed to buy that repulsive sorcery manuscript. It would be in character.'
Matthew mulled the idea. 'Maybe. But I doubt it because Pall said it was in the national library of Norway. That's also why the police couldn't identify the symbolit's very unfamiliar, there's really no one in Iceland who knows it apart from Pall, who's studying abroad. He was never consulted about its origin.'
'Maybe Harald transferred the money here to pay Pall for the information and then buy the manuscript from the library, but then he was killed for it by one of his so-called friends. They could have taken the money, couldn't they? People have killed for less.'
Matthew agreed. He looked at the clock and then at Thora, thoughtfully. 'The plane from Frankfurt landed at half past three.'
'Damn it!' Thora swore. 'I can't talk to his mother nowI simply can't. What if she asks me about my children? What am I supposed to say? 'Yes, Frau, my son is a precocious boydidn't I tell you, he's going to be a father?''
'Believe me, she won't have much interest in your children,' Matthew said calmly.
'It won't be any better discussing her own son. How can I look her in the face and tell her that Harald struck a bargain with the devil, or as good as, to make her life sheer hell and eventually kill her?' Thora looked at Matthew, hoping for a constructive answer.
'I'll tell her the news, don't you worry. But you can't get out of talking to her. If you don't do it today, it will have to be tomorrow. She's come all this way for the express purpose of talking to you, remember. When she told me she wanted to meet you in person and alone, she sounded more relaxed than I've ever heard her. You have nothing to fear.'
Matthew did not sound quite convincing enough for Thora. 'Will they phone, or what are the arrangements?'
'They'll phone when they get to the hotel.' He looked at the clock. 'Very soon, I expect. I could call them, if you want.'
Ow. Catch22. Thora could not decide. 'Yes, call them,' she said suddenly, then immediately shouted: 'No, don't!'
Before she could change her mind again, Matthew's phone rang. Thora groaned when he took it out, checked the display, and said: 'It's them.' He pressed the talk button and said: 'Hello, Matthew here.'
Thora heard only one side of the conversation but could vaguely discern the voice on the other end while Matthew listened. The conversation seemed very superficial: 'Did you have a good trip?' 'What a pity.' 'You know the name of the hotel, don't you?' and so on. The conversation ended when he said: 'Auf Wiedersehen. Good- bye.' He looked at Thora and smiled. 'You're in luck, Granny.'
'What?' Thora asked excitedly. 'Didn't she come?'
'Oh, yes, she came. But she has a migraine and wants to postpone meeting you until tomorrow. It was Elisa who calledthey're in a taxi on their way down to Hotel Borg. She wants to meet us there in half an hour.'
CHAPTER 29
The young woman bore no resemblance to her mother, but was good-looking nonetheless. She was dark like her father and seemed to take after him, judging from the family photographs Thora had seen. Her whole air was
