Where the Shadows Lie (Fire and Ice)

amazing. There was this ring, covered in a small film of dust. It’s not that it was shining or anything, you had to rub it to tell it was gold. But there was the proof that Gaukur’s Saga , this story that had been passed down by all of our ancestors for all those years, was actually true.’
    ‘But you and Dad always thought it was true, didn’t you?’
    ‘We believed,’ said Pétur. ‘We had faith. But anyone who has to believe or have faith rather than simply knowing, always has doubts. And to have those doubts dispelled … Amazing.
    ‘So I was caught up in the whole thing. But after a few minutes I told Dad we had to put it back. I talked about all the evil it would bring the world, how Grandpa had told me to make sure that Dad never took it. We had a major row. Dad looked to Reverend Hákon for support and he got it. I even tried to grab the ring off him, but he pushed me to one side.
    ‘I had kind of ruined everything,’ Pétur said. ‘They walked on together and I followed twenty metres behind, sulking, you could say. Then the weather got bad. It was sunny one moment, the next it was snowing.
    ‘I saw my chance. Dad was in front, the pastor next and then me. I slipped past the pastor and tried to grab the ring from Dad: I knew which of his coat pockets it was in. My plan was to run off into the snow and replace it in the cave. I was pretty sure I could outrun them in the snowstorm and they would soon give up.
    ‘So Dad and I rolled around in the snow, then I pushed him and he fell, hitting his head on a rock.’ Pétur gulped. The tears came into his eyes. ‘I thought I had knocked him out, but he was dead. Just like that.’
    ‘Oh, don’t give me that! You pushed him over a cliff! He was found at the bottom of the cliff.’
    ‘I didn’t, I swear it. It was only a fall of a couple of metres. It was just the way he hit his head. On his temple – right here.’ Pétur tapped his own shaved skull.
    ‘So how do you explain the cliff?’
    ‘Reverend Hákon saw what had happened. He took charge. I was a wreck after I saw what I had done. My mind was a blank. I couldn’t say anything, I couldn’t think anything. Hákon knew it was an accident. He told me to go, run away, pretend I was never there. So I ran.
    ‘He pushed Dad over the cliff. Oh, he was dead then, that’s for sure, the autopsy people got that wrong when they said he was alive for a few minutes. But Hákon covered for me.’
    Ingileif put a hand to her mouth, her brow knitted in anguish. ‘I can’t believe it,’ she said. ‘So you were the elf the old sheep farmer saw?’
    ‘Elf?’ Pétur frowned.
    ‘Never mind.’
    Pétur smiled at his sister. ‘It’s true. I killed Dad. But it was a mistake. A dreadful, horrible mistake. If Hákon were alive he could tell you that.’ He took a step forward. Took his sister’s hands in his. Looked in her eyes – horrified, shocked, confused. ‘Can you forgive me, Inga?’
    Ingileif stood stunned for a moment. Then she backed off.
    ‘It wasn’t murder, Inga. Surely you understand that?’
    ‘But what about Aggi? And the pastor? Did you kill them as well?’
    ‘Don’t you see, I had to?’
    ‘What do you mean, you had to?’
    ‘As you know by now, Hákon took the ring. When Agnar went to see him, he guessed he had it. He accused Hákon of killing Dad and taking the ring. Hákon threw him out, of course, but then Agnar approached Tómas, tried to get him to act as an intermediary. He tried to blackmail Hákon through him.’
    ‘But what did all this have to do with you?’
    ‘Hákon had been good to me. He had kept me out of the police investigation completely. Until then, I had no idea what had happened to the ring, I had tried so hard not to think about it, or to ask questions about it, but it didn’t exactly surprise me that Hákon had taken it from Dad. So, in the end, Hákon called me. He explained what was going on, that it looked like he would have to tell the truth about what had happened to Dad, unless I did something.’
    ‘Did what?’
    ‘He didn’t say. But we both knew.’
    ‘Oh, my God! You did kill Aggi!’
    ‘I had to. Don’t you see, I had to?’
    Ingileif shook her head. ‘Of course you didn’t have to. And then you killed Hákon?’
    Pétur nodded. ‘Once his son was in jail and the police were after him, I knew the truth would come out.’
    ‘How could you?’
    ‘What do you mean, how could I?’ Pétur protested, with a flash of anger. ‘You