Chapter 2
Even with all the generosity he could muster, he found himself unable to read Helena's actions as anything other than trying to get him eaten by a troll. He realized that if he was thinking this, he was probably still alive. He was lying in a bed that, while warm, wasn't the most comfortable he had known. People were talking. He opened his eyes turned in the direction the voices were coming from. It took him a while to realize that his field of vision as being blocked by someone sitting right next to his bed:
-Hey, you've stopped shivering. Mikkel, he seems be getting better!
He recognized the voice. Torbjörn's nephew Emil, who had tried to befriend him on the basis that they were "from the same world, unlike all these other guys". Having been rich up until just a few years ago had apparently made him assume that he and Reynir had more in common than they turned out to actually have. Emil had fortunately been the first to realize this, and had redirected his attempts at making friends towards Lalli of all people. Reynir had felt bad for Lalli, as he very obviously preferred being left alone, but lacked the possibility of actually telling so to Emil. Tuuri didn't help much, as she seemed to have decided that the expedition was going to be Lalli's opportunity to "learn about being around other people". After Sigrun's scary troll hunting story and Mikkel's really strange joke, he had happily accepted Helena's offer to let him tag along for day scouting, which was supposed to be much safer than the night variant, especially with the cat accompanying them.
Emil stood up as heavy footsteps came closer and much larger body came to sit by his side:
-How are you feeling? Can you get up?
Reynir managed to sit on his bed without much trouble, in such a way that he was now facing Mikkel:
-What happened? Why did Helena...
-I need to tell you a few things that will be very hard to hear. Are you ready for them now or would you like a little more time to recollect yourself beforehand? Maybe something hot to drink or something to eat?
He accepted the drink, and listened. They'd found multiple pieces of evidence suggesting that his father wanted him dead, and Reynir's dream to see the Silent World had been very convenient to him in that regard. Helena had been hired as a more active part of the plan, everyone else had been hired to create a smokescreen over the expedition's real purpose and be killed if necessary. The entire first week of his pill box contained something that Lalli had simply called "poison" in Finnish before dropping it all on the floor and crushing it with his foot. A disturbing thought suddenly crossed Reynir's mind:
-What if there is someone else here trying to kill me? Helena was being quite nice until right before the troll. It could be even be you.
-You have a good point. Okay, let's imagine every single one of us actually does plan to kill you when you least expect it. What do you do? Grab a mask, a few warm clothes and some food, and leave? You'll just get yourself killed by what's outside instead. Helena may have deserved her fate, but her death and that of the cat mean that we are down to one scout, which is not good. Helena wouldn't have been able to survive very long on her own either. Everything indicates that she would have waited until the expedition was almost over to take care of most of us if we were still alive by then. I'm afraid you have no choice but to trust us all to not secretly be killers. Still, considering this possibility at all shows that you are smart. That means it will be easy to keep you safe.
Mikkel let him process the information before talking again:
-If it can reassure you, everyone here is clean as far as I'm concerned. Lalli pretty much saved your life, and I have a few reasons to think that duplicity such as Helena's is just plain impossible for him. This gets Tuuri of the hook as well, as it's hard to see how he could have been able to keep him out of the way if she was preparing such a thing. She was on the verge of tears when she found out what Helena had done. Emil is... "far too easy to read" is the nicest way I can put his case. Sigrun comes from a place where far too many able bodies are culled out by trolls every year. While I don't put it past them to have a few hunting "accidents" with truly troublesome members of the community, I had to explain her your situation three times before she got even a vague idea of why you would be considered troublesome. As for myself, all I can promise is that while not a doctor, I have enough ethics in common to not want to harm people.
Reynir's mind only vaguely registered the last sentence, as he thought over his situation. Árni Ragnarsson, one of the major funders of the Dagrenning genetics program, had opinions that stopped just short of stating that non-immune people should just plain stop reproducing naturally. Not being immune himself, he had used the program to have four immune children with his wife. Then Reynir happened, to his greatest embarrassment. Another strong belief that he had held was that nobody should ever try going into the Silent world for any other purpose than expanding already existing safe areas. Despite this, he had spent lavishly on Reynir, always getting him whatever he wanted, including good tutors in the subjects he wanted to study. He was being taught Norwegian by a retired general of the country's army. He'd gotten a skald all the way from Sweden to teach him the job's skills and a former military strategist to prepare him for the expedition. But now, he realized that he had just narrowly escaped being used to prove his father's point.