Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest (18 page)

While Martha stared at the dead Snow Witch, the other prisoners were noticing something else.

“Look,” said Troll-the-Left, nodding toward the open cage door. “There's our escape.”

“Are you out of your ugly head?” asked Troll-the-Right. “The door's only open because they're standing right by it. We'd get caught straightaway. And have you seen their weapons?”

The huldres' weapons were indeed pretty terrifying. Each huldre guard carried on his belt one small throwing ax, one sword, one tongue stretcher and two daggers.

“We're going to be killed if we stay here. At least if we escape, we've got a chance,” said Troll-the-Left. “Look, their torches were put out by the snow. It will be harder for them to find us in the dark.”

The Tomtegubb jumped to his feet. “Come on, human! Let's go!”

Vjpp turned around and saw the prisoners heading toward the open door.
“Fregg vemper,”
he hissed as he struggled through the snow.

All the huldres were now aware of the possible escape.

“Now!” Troll-the-Left said, overruling his right side. “Let's go now!”

But his command came too late.

Vjpp and a really tall huldre were now completely blocking the doorway—Vjpp holding a dagger, the other a sword.

“Ober jann oggipdiff,”
Vjpp said. His blue tongue was licking his lips at the idea of using his weapon, ready to taste violence.

No one knew what to do. They didn't understand the huldre's words, but they understood his dagger.

Troll-the-Left placed a protective arm in front of Martha.

“See,” said Troll-the-Right. “I told you it was a bad idea.”

“Just shut your ugly face, will you?” said Troll-the-Left.

“Come on,” said the Tomtegubb. “Let's look on the bright side.”

While everyone was trying to find the bright side of a situation that was made only of very dark sides, something happened.

Vjpp moved closer. Close enough for Troll-the-Left to strike out and knock the dagger out of his hand and pick the huldre up by his throat.

“Watch out!” Troll-the-Right shouted, gesturing toward the really tall huldre crunching over the snowy cage floor with his sword.

But this time it was the Tomtegubb who lent a hand—or rather, foot—as he tripped the massive huldre up, sending him flying into the snow.

“Let's go!”

Everyone followed Troll-the-Left's orders and charged out of the cage door, where the other huldres—including the old wagon driver—were waiting.

Swords and daggers came toward them.

Grentul sent an ax flying through the air, spinning its way between the two troll heads.

“Psst, under here.”

Martha turned around and saw that while the two-headed troll was being attacked, the Tomtegubb was pointing under the wagon.

“Come on,” he said. “Hide!”

But Martha kept perfectly still, standing in the snow, until the Tomtegubb grabbed her hand and pulled her under. They stayed there for a while and watched Troll-the-Left reach into the cage and grab the ax that had just been thrown at him.

He then began to swing it around, slicing through the crisp night air.

“Not so flenking tough now, are you?” he shouted.

“This is a bad idea,” said Troll-the-Right. “Why can't we just—”

Troll-the-Right never got to finish his question. His head was sliced neatly off by Vjpp's sword and landed right in front of Martha.

“NO!” Troll-the-Left was in despair, and swung the ax in wild revenge, killing the wagon driver, then grabbing his sword. Within moments, he had sliced the life out of four more huldres, so only Grentul and Vjpp remained.

“The horses,” whispered the Tomtegubb to Martha as the bloody spectacle continued. “Let's go to the horses.”

The Tomtegubb then started crawling on his elbows under the wagon. Martha followed, keeping her head as low as possible in the narrow distance between the freezing snow and the wooden panels she could feel touching the back of her head.

Once he was out in the open, the Tomtegubb unfastened two stallions.

“Get on,” he said, making a stirrup out of his hands.

She climbed on one of the horses' backs, and the Tomtegubb clambered onto the seat of the wagon, to jump onto the other horse he had unfastened. The horse winced as the fat creature landed on his back and kicked him into motion.

“Come on,” the Tomtegubb said, turning back to Martha. “What are you waiting for? Let's go.”

Martha was a good horse rider, but she had never ridden a horse that didn't have a saddle. The other reason she didn't kick the horse into gear was that she was worried about Troll-the-Left.

“Come on!” The Tomtegubb's cry caused Grentul to turn and look at the two escaping convicts.

“Pijook ediss,”
said Grentul.
“Enna bikk.”

“Enna bikk!”
agreed Vjpp.

The two huldres turned away from Troll-the-Left and ran toward the front of the carriage. Realizing that they were more interested in a human than a troll, Martha kicked the large white stallion toward a gallop.

She followed the Tomtegubb's horse, holding on to the mane and using it as reins. Turning around, she saw two huldres on two horses chasing after her in the dark, galloping through the snowy landscape.

“Faster!” the Tomtegubb shouted, realizing the huldres were rapidly approaching. “As fast as you can!”

Martha leaned forward, so her arms were holding on to the horse's neck. She did not kick her legs into the creature's sides again or threaten it with any more whipping, but simply patted the horse and blew warm breath onto its skin.

The horse responded to softness much better than to hardness, and instantly galloped faster. Soon Martha was neck and neck with the Tomtegubb.

“To the trees,” said the Tomtegubb, with a massive smile on his face. “Stick with me, human girl.”

He turned to look behind him and his smile fell like a stone at the sight of a fast-approaching ax. “Watch out!”

Martha directed the horse so that the ax flew past and landed in the snow.

“Whoo-hoo!” the Tomtegubb said, enjoying himself once again. “This feels amazing, doesn't it?”

Martha said nothing.

“Now,” said the Tomtegubb, over the sound of hooves pounding snow. “Stay close…I'll lead.”

His horse went off the road, and through the trees that stood like vertical shadows in the night. Martha sat herself up a bit, to look behind. The huldres were showing no sign of giving up, their cruel faces fixed firmly on hers.

“Isn't this the best game?” the Tomtegubb asked her.

But if this was a game, it was a very strange and dangerous one. And it was still impossible to say who was going to win, as the huldres remained exactly the same distance behind.

No closer.

No farther away.

Two more axes whizzed past, but they thudded into tree trunks, and even though the huldres held their swords in the air, there wasn't much they could do with them until they got nearer.

As the chase went on, Martha started to feel a oneness with the horse she was riding. The rhythm of the hooves matching the rhythm of her heart.

“Keep going!” the Tomtegubb shouted. “Run them into the sun!”

At first Martha didn't know what the Tomtegubb was going on about. After all, the sky was still dark.

But then they reached an open plain stretching before them like a large sheet of white paper. She could now see a faint line of purple on the horizon. As the snow melted into the earth, night was slowly melting into day.

She didn't understand why this was important, but she did notice that the two huldres were gaining ground. She noticed also that there seemed to be a new desperate urgency in their voices.

“Felooka felooka!”
Grentul shouted, and turned his horse back toward the cover of the trees.

“Bastipool!”
Vjpp kept going, thinking of nothing but the delicious cruelty he was going to inflict on the human.

The purple was joined by orange now, pushing the night sky up toward the stars.

“Any time now,” said the Tomtegubb, with a singful voice.

Vjpp galloped alongside Martha's horse. He swiped his sword and Martha ducked just before it sliced her in two.

The Tomtegubb looked up at the brightening sky. “Any…time…
now
…”

Right then, just as the Tomtegubb was muttering the word
now,
something happened to Vjpp.

He evaporated.

The first light of day had caused his flesh to vaporize, leaving his skeleton to clatter off the horse. Martha turned to see the huldre's skull, with its wide-apart eye sockets, staring up at her from the snow.

“Whoa there,” said the Tomtegubb to his horse, who was more than happy to slow down. The horse that carried Martha did the same.

“That was a close one, wasn't it?”

Martha nodded.

“Where do you want to go now?”

Martha said nothing, but the Tomtegubb knew the answer. “You want to go home,” he said. “Back to the Outer World.”

Martha nodded. If Samuel was still alive, he would have surely headed back.

“I will lead the way,” said the Tomtegubb, turning his horse. “I will take you as far as I can, and then tell you how to get back.”

Martha felt a great relief, and wanted to thank the creature.

“I might write a song about our adventure,” said the Tomtegubb, fiddling with his golden whiskers. “Yes…It will be a long song. Even longer than ‘The Purple Trouser Song.' Now, what shall I call it? ‘The Lucky Escape'? Or maybe ‘Galloping to Glory'? What about ‘The Triumphant Tomtegubb and the Heroic Human'? No, that's too long. Maybe I could just call it ‘The Triumphant Tomtegubb' and then mention the ‘Heroic Human' in the verse…Oh, all right, I'll mention it in the chorus. But it's hard to find things that rhyme with
human
…Now, before we decide the words, we really ought to get working on a tune…”

Martha felt something happen to her face. Her cheeks lifted, and her mouth widened. She was
smiling,
and it felt good.

The Tomtegubb saw the smile but decided not to comment on it. Instead, he started humming different melodies, and the horses slowly carried him and Martha back toward the trees.

As Samuel and Ibsen had just begun to follow Troll-Father's shortcut, it had started to snow. Broad, white snowflakes fell around them like feathers. Within moments, it had become a blizzard. Ibsen kept his mouth open, to catch the flakes on his tongue, while Samuel found shelter under a tree.

The snow was so heavy that there was no use trying to walk any farther until it stopped. So Samuel sat himself down on the patch of sheltered ground and, as there were no pine needles, found it a lot comfier than before. Ibsen curled up beside him, and within no time they had drifted asleep.

They were still asleep when the snow stopped, and when a two-headed troll walked past on the nearby path. One of the heads had been chopped off and was being carried under an arm, but was still alive. And still very cross. The two heads were so busy arguing they didn't even notice the dog and the human boy under the tree.

“I told you we shouldn't have tried to escape,” said Troll-the-Right as the purple blood dripped from his neck. “I told you, but you didn't listen.”

“Would you just stop moaning? Just for a second? If you'd had it your way, we'd be lumps of stone by now.”

“If I'd have had my way, we'd have never been locked up in the first place. Why was it me? Why did they slice
my
head off? That's what I don't understand. Where's the justice in that? It wasn't my idea to escape. It wasn't my idea to pick up the ax.”

“It could have been worse, that's all I'm saying,” said Troll-the-Left.

“Oh, right. Worse. Sure. Could you tell me something worse than having to be carried around by a great, ugly, stupid flenking idiot like you until the end of time?”

Samuel's half-asleep eyes opened to see Troll-the-Left squat down and place the head of Troll-the-Right on the snowy ground, and then walk off toward Trollhelm.

“Hey!
Hey!
” Troll-the-Right's head shouted. “What are you doing? You can't leave me here! Come back!…Hey! Get back here!…I'm…I'm…I'm sorry…I didn't mean to call you ugly…or stupid…or a flenking idiot…hey, come back!”