Chapter 7

The sun is barely over the horizon when sleep fades, and Miriam is left staring up at the dark ceiling. She’s failed them. The town trusted her to protect them, and she failed them. She never felt the spells break, and Olof was almost killed. She’s expecting the familiar chill to come upon her, but it’s nowhere to be felt, and instead, a void has taken its place. The wolves will attack again, and she won’t be able to stop it until it’s too late. Their life will change forever, and she can only watch.

Greta is breathing calmly next to her, curled up under the duvet. It was she who took command yesterday, she who woke her from her daze once she realised what happened. She did nothing. She sighs, pulls the duvet to the side, and gets up. The town no longer belongs to her, and she is no longer their Protector. She dresses in the faint light and quietly leaves the room.

The familiar staircase looks foreign as she descends it, as if the house is no longer hers either, and she’s walked into another person’s home. The railing against her hand, the worn wood she’s felt against her palm so many times before, doesn’t seem to fit any longer. The steps grind against the bare sole of her feet, as if they don’t recognise her presence any longer. The townspeople are unprotected now, and life will change forever. She takes a deep breath, almost longing for the chill to come upon her. She knows how to handle it, its sensation in her body as unsettling as it’s familiar. But it won’t come upon her, and she walks the last of the steps and arrives in the hallway.

She looks around, then walks to the kitchen and puts another log on the dying fire, her movements mechanical, running on habit rather than any true will. She opens the shutters for the windows and then slumps down by the table and watches the sun rise outside the window. Will she have to leave? Is her time in this town gone, and she will be forced to find another place? She has no place here if she can no longer protect them.

She’s still staring out the window when she hears footsteps coming down the stairs, and Greta walks into the kitchen. She glances around before carefully sitting down by the table without a word. Miriam knows she should say something, ask her how she feels, but no words come. She failed her duty as a Protector, and her words mean nothing any longer. It’s Greta who takes the command, just like yesterday, and gets up and makes tea. She places the steaming cup before her and then sits down again.

“There you go,” she whispers quietly.

She sits silently for a moment before continuing,

“We need to talk to the mayor. And see what we can find about the spells.”

Miriam nods but remains on the chair nevertheless. In the end, Greta gets up, takes her hand and pulls her up. Miriam is not acting on her own any longer, simply does as she’s been told, and she stands up and walks with her out of the kitchen and into the hallway. She follows Greta out onto the quiet street. It should be bustling by now, with people walking to and fro, preparing for the day, but the street is empty. Is this how the town will be now? Nothing more than a shadow of what it once was?

They walk quietly towards the meadow, Greta’s hand still in hers, and they halt as the forest begins. The autumn is almost over, and the winter will soon take its grip on the land. Miriam drops Greta’s hand, then kneels down and reaches out for the spells. She stops. The spells… She reaches out again, believing she must have mistaken, but no. The spells are still there. They are not broken. How could the wolves have entered without them breaking? She looks up at Greta, who is looking at her expectantly.

“The spells are still there,” Miriam says, bewildered.

Greta looks at her, confused.

“I never felt them break, because they never did, Miriam murmurs. How…?”

She gets up.

“We need to talk to the mayor.”

She turns around and hurries over the meadow, suddenly longing to talk to him. The streets are slowly filling up, and Miriam smiles at the villagers as they pass. They don’t seem to think she’s failed them, and they wave at her, and someone stops her to take her hand and thank her. She offers greetings in return, then keeps walking as fast as she can to the mayor.

They knock on the door as they arrive, and Ingrid opens, giving them both a hug, and then ushers them inside. The walk through the hallway seems to take forever, but she finally leads them to the mayor’s office. He’s sitting by his table, and Miriam quickly hurries over and takes the usual place by the desk. Greta stands next to her, and he reaches out, puts a hand on theirs and says,

“How are you feeling, my loves? I talked to Olof this morning, he’s okay. You saved him,” he adds to Miriam.

She nods and says,

“The spells were never broken.”

He looks at her, confused.

“What do you mean?”

“They are still intact. I don’t know how the wolves could have gone through them if they didn't break them. “

Greta takes a step forward,

“Who would know about this?”

“No one, the mayor says. Nothing has been passed down, we only know about the legend.”

Greta goes silent for a moment, then says,

“What about the records?”

“They don’t contain anything,” Miriam says.

“How do you know?”

“We know they only contain records of population and the harvest, that’s what they are for.”

“She’s right, the mayor says. If there were anything in them, we would know about it.”

Greta shakes her head.

“At least it’s worth a try.”

The mayor goes silent for a moment.

“I guess you’re right,” he says in the end.

He sighs and stands up.

“We’ll need the whole day to look through them if my memory of their arrangements is right.”

He rounds the table, gestures for them to follow him, and Miriam hurries after him.

They are silent as they walk to the outskirts of the town, but Miriam’s head is reeling with the newfound information. She’s never heard of anyone crossing the spells without breaking them. They halt in front of the old stone tower, where the fields take over from the town, and the mayor takes a large key from his pocket. The door creaks as it swings open, and they follow him inside. The place is dark, with only small windows that let the sunlight in. It’s not used for anything other than records, and Miriam hasn’t entered it since she was a small girl. They follow the stairs and come out into a small stone room. Papers are spread over the floor, and rat-eaten books lie on the shelves. The mayor sighs.

“It’s in worse condition than I thought.”

Greta takes up a book and starts to read it.

“When was the last time the wolves were seen?”, she asks.

The mayor tells her the year, several centuries back, and she puts the book down and takes up another one. He follows suit, and soon they are both engrossed in looking through book after book. Miriam takes up another and starts to read. She learns about how the past generations rotated the fields to increase harvest, and a detailed record of an effort to modify the oat to make it more resistant to insects. But there is no mention of the wolves. She puts it down and takes up another one.

They work until the late afternoon, when the mayor suddenly says,

“I think I found something.”

Miriam hurries over to him as he reads out aloud.

“This was the time in the third reign of King Karl X, when the wolves entered our town. We want to share this knowledge so that you might solve it if you ever find yourself in the same situation. “

He looks up at them, and then continues reading. It talks about how it first started when the townspeople found a dead sheep in the forest. No one had ever been attacked before, and when they heard the other towns reporting similar events, they became worried. Someone reported seeing something in the forest, but no one was sure what it was. Then, one night, a wolf attacked one of the villagers in the town, but the Protector managed to save him.

Greta looks at Miriam,

“That’s how it happened now, too.”

The book continues, saying that they were all very surprised, because they didn't think the wolves could ever come that close. At first, everyone was in shock and lived in fear. The Protector examined the spells, and they all seemed to be intact.

“That’s also how it happened now, “ the mayor comments.

Not long after, the book continues, another wolf attacked and this time, killed a child in town. That’s when they heard similar reports from the other towns. In all instances, no Protector knew about it until it was too late. None of them got a warning, because the spells were never broken. Still, they couldn’t understand it. The Protectors from the different towns talked and tried different spells, but every time they thought they had found it, another attack happened.

The mayor continues,

“People began to live in fear, and the harvests almost went to waste because we didn't dare to go out. Soon, we received reports from other parts of the country where it had happened. Almost everywhere they were affected, and those who were not, began to live in fear that it would come to them too. It continued for over a year, and the attacks could never be predicted. At some times, it took a month between them, and at other times it was every week”.

The mayor turns the last page and closes the book.

“They must have continued in another volume.”

Greta picks up another book, but the mayor says,

“We need to go back, it’s not safe when the sun has set.”

Miriam casts one last glance at the room as they descend. So it has happened before, similarly to this time. Now they just need to find the other book, hoping it hasn’t been eaten by rats.