Excerpt from Forty Days Without Shadow by Olivier Truc, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Where have you hidden it?"

The wind rose, blowing across the tundra. It did him good to feel it.

"Where, vile demon?" shouted the man in black, his voice full of menace.

Even his companions took a step back. The man in black began a silent prayer. The wind dropped and the first mosquitoes appeared. The sun secured its foothold on the flank of the mountain. Aslak's head lolled painfully. He hardly felt the fresh blow of the cudgel as it half-shattered his temple.





The pain woke him. Near-unbearable pain. As if his head would burst. The sun was high, now. The stench was all around him. Men, women, and children were bending over him. Their teeth were rotten. They were in rags. They looked murderous, reeking of fear and ignorance. He lay stretched out on the ground. Flies had replaced the mosquitoes, clustering at his gaping wounds.

The small crowd parted and the man in black stepped forward. Pastor Noraeus.

"Where is it?"

Aslak felt feverish. His filthy tunic was soaked in blood. The smell of it dulled his senses. A woman spat at him. Children laughed. The pastor slapped the child nearest him. Aslak thought of his own son, how he had tried to cure his sickness by invoking the gods. The gods of his own people, the Sami. The children hid behind their mother.

"Where have you left it?"?A man in a sky-blue shirt stepped forward and whispered in the pastor's ear. The pastor gave no reaction, then jerked his head. The man in blue held out his hand to Aslak. Two others caught him under the arms, heaving him to his feet. The Laplander gave a sharp cry, his face a mask of pain. The men dragged him to the low wooden house used for village business.

"See these vile icons?" The Lutheran pastor began his interrogation. "Do you recognize them?"

Aslak was barely able to breathe. The pain beat against his skull. The heat rose. His wounds itched appallingly, seething with flies. His torn cheek swarmed with life. Villagers piled into the room. The heat became suffocating.

"The swine is riddled with maggots, already," said one of the men, grimacing in disgust. His spittle stung Aslak's skin like a dagger point.

"Enough!" shouted the pastor. "You will be judged, Sami devil!" He thumped the thick pine-log table, calling for silence.

These country people sickened Noraeus. All he wanted was to get back to Uppsala as quickly as possible.

"Silence, all of you! Show some respect to your God and king!" His dark gaze fell on the icons of the Sami gods, and the image of Tor. "Lapp, have these icons ever brought you the slightest good?"

Aslak's eyes were half closed. He pictured the lakes of his childhood, the mountains he had roamed so often, the dense tundra he loved to explore, the dwarf birch trees whose wood he had learned to carve.

"Sami!"?Aslak's eyes remained closed. He swayed slightly.?"They brought healing," he whispered, his breath rattling. "Better

than your God."?A murmur ran around the room.?"Silence!" The pastor's voice thundered. "Where is the hiding

place? Where is it? Say it, or you burn, cursed demon. Speak, damn you. Speak!"

"To the fire! Burn him!" yelled a woman holding a baby to her wan, flaccid breast.

Other women took up the refrain.?"Burn him! Burn him!"?"Silence! Take him to the pyre. And damn his soul."





The pastor was sweating. He wanted this over with. The stink, the proximity of the swarthy devil with his blood-soaked face, the vile, brutalized peasants—all had become intolerable to him. A trial sent by the Lord God himself. He would be sure to remind the bishop in Uppsala of his zealous service to the Lord here in the virgin territories of Lapland, when no other pastor was prepared to set foot. But for now, enough was enough.

"Sami," he pronounced, raising his voice and his finger for silence. "You have lived a life of sin, clinging obstinately to your pagan superstitions."

From the book Forty Days Without Shadow: An Arctic Thriller. Copyright (c) 2012 by Olivier Truc. Reprinted by permission of Twelve/Hachette Book Group, New York, NY. All rights reserved.