Free The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas, Elizabeth Rokkan Page B

They recognize it so well that they tremble. It is unsafe, but they wish to do it, they have to take part in it. If there is an opening it is only because there appears to be one.
    The men are forced to leave, but they do so reluctantly.
    The men are lost in the game at the ice palace. They seem possessed, searching feverishly for something precious that has come to grief, yet involved themselves. They are tired, grave men, giving themselves over as sacrifices to an enchantment, saying: It is
here.
They stand at the foot of the ice walls with tense faces, ready to break into a song of mourning before the closed, compelling palace. If one of them had been impetuous enough to begin, all of them would have joined in.
    Siss, the young girl, stands watching them open-mouthed and realizes that there
is
something. She sees that they are ready to join in. She sees her father standing ready; he would have joined in. Siss would have stood shivering and listened, waiting for the walls to fall asunder. She stands appalled at grown men.
    But there is no one impetuous enough, so the song does not begin. They are loyal searchers; they manage to keep their secret thoughts under lock and key.
    The leader says, ‘Go over it once more.’ He is caught up in it himself and could do unexpected things. They know time is precious. Laboriously they climb on the slippery ice and the snow-covered roof, finding nothing. The water, with its hidden depths, slides away from under the palace and onward. They, too, must go on. The leader says, ‘We must go.’ He, too, could have joined in the heart-rending song.

4
Fever
    Unn was standing in the doorway, looking in.
    But wasn’t Unn lost?
    No. Unn was standing in the doorway, looking in.
    ‘Siss?’
    ‘Yes? Why don’t you come in?’
    She nodded and entered the room.
    ‘What is it, Siss?’ she asked, but in a different voice. She changed and was not Unn but Mother.
    Siss was lying in bed in her little room, but everything else was vague. She saw Unn, and then it was Mother. She was tossing about in a mist.
    ‘You’re not well, Siss. You have high fever.’
    Mother spoke in her patient tone of voice.
    ‘It was too much for you out in the woods last night,’ she explained. ‘You came home ill, you see.’
    ‘But Unn?’
    ‘Unn hasn’t been found, as far as I know. They’re out searching. And you came home ill early this morning.’
    ‘Then I was with them all night!’
    ‘Yes, you were, but you weren’t up to it.’
    ‘We were at the big pile of ice and down by the river, too – but then I don’t remember any more.’
    ‘No, you weren’t up to much when your father brought you home. At least you managed to walk somehow. Then the doctor came and –’
    Siss interrupted. ‘What’s the time now? Is it evening?’
    ‘Yes, it’s evening again.’
    ‘And Father? Where is he?’
    ‘Out with the search party.’
    He must be stronger than I am after all, thought Siss, pleased with the idea.
    ‘The rest of the class have been out today, too,’ continued Mother. ‘The school’s been closed.’
    That sounded strange. Closed. It had been closed. She lay playing with it.
    ‘It was so like Unn standing in the doorway. I don’t think she can be far away.’
    ‘None of us can tell. But she wasn’t in the doorway. You’ve been seeing a lot of things today. You’ve been talking about them, at any rate.’
    What did that mean? At once she felt naked and pulled the bedclothes up higher.
    ‘What have I been doing?’
    She had to cover it up somehow, had to start talking about something. ‘Unn isn’t dead!’
    Her mother answered patiently, ‘No, I’m sure she isn’t. They’ll find her soon. They may have found her already.’ She looked tentatively at Siss, ‘And if there’s anything you …’
    Siss fell asleep as fast as she could.
    But after a while she really did sleep. When she awoke the fever must have improved. She saw nothing in the bedroom except what ought to have been