Read Online Where Monsters Dwell by Jørgen Brekke - Free Book Online Page A

got along well with the headmaster, buying beer and food for the boys from the Latin school, and going on fishing trips up the river. He lived with his guild brother, and as time went on, he became better and better friends with the boy’s mother. Gradually more food appeared on the table, and the first autumn he was in the town, the beard-cutter managed to get the boy admitted to the Latin school. His mother no longer had to entertain the little group of craftsmen who had kept them alive until then. After a while they were able to move in with Ingierd Mattsdatter, the widow of Odmund the carpenter, a hot-tempered fellow who people had simply called Odmund the Hammer. Few missed him, least of all Ingierd.
    After two years had passed, there were no more books for the beard-cutter to read, either at the school or at Archbishop Erik’s estate, and he began to feel restless. The boy was the first to notice, but his mother mentioned it one evening when the beard-cutter came to supper. The boy was sitting on the bed he shared with his mother, now that she was no longer sharing it with other men. His mother spoke softly, afraid that he might hear, but he heard it anyway.
    “Are you leaving soon?” she said.
    “I’m afraid so. There’s not much for me to do in this town. There never was.”
    “Then why did you stay so long?”
    “I don’t know. There were things I had to put behind me. But now I’m ready to move on.”
    “I want you to take the boy with you,” she said.
    “You can’t mean that,” said the beard-cutter, but the boy could hear from where he was sitting that he was not surprised.
    “You can give him what I cannot. The boy has a good head on his shoulders. I’ve always known that, but I’ve never understood him. I can never seem to reach him. It’s as if a little demon lives inside, locking him away from me.” His mother sighed. “Maybe it’s just because he’s a boy.”
    “I’m traveling far this time. I’m seeking happiness. But no matter whether I find happiness or misfortune, you will never see the boy again.”
    “Then it will have to be happiness,” said his mother.

 
    9
    Trondheim, September 2010
    Per Ottar Hornemann was an impulsive boss. Siri Holm had known that the moment he hired her. She had seen the applicant list for the position, and there was no good reason why she should have gotten the job other than that she was young and knew how to charm head librarians pushing seventy.
    Still, she stared in astonishment at the pudgy little man with the curly and surprisingly thick gray hair. He sat in his office, glasses perched on the tip of his nose, giving her a sharp glance in an attempt to fool her into believing that he wasn’t as amenable as he actually was. Still, she had never imagined that he would be quite this impulsive.
    “But there are plenty of other people who’ve been here much longer than I have, people you know better.”
    “That may be, but I’m giving it to you, starting today. You’re right out of school. Statistically that means you will stay here longer than all the rest of us. It’s important not to change the code for the vault too often. That’s why you’ll be in charge of it from now on.”
    “How can you tell that I’ll stay here for a long time?” she asked with a sly smile.
    “Of course, we can never know anything for certain, but people tend to stay here. For a librarian there’s no better place than the Gunnerus Library. It’s that simple. So now you have an office, and you’ve been given the code to the book vault. It’s time to get to work. I won’t keep you any longer.”
    Siri Holm gave Hornemann a flirtatious smile, without knowing whether such things had any effect on him, and she took a look around. The library, particularly the special collections, contained many treasures: first editions of all the great Norwegian authors; antique maps; a heraldic globe; telescopes from the 1700s. A boss who was a bit more pompous than