The Light of Kautokeino

PROLOGUE - Show me the light

*Warning: this chapter contains some strong language and swearing, as well as descriptions of violence and implied rape.

Somewhere on the Finnmarksvidda plateau, northern Norway – December

Ellie took in the night sky above her. She had never noticed the Milky Way this clearly before, apart from in pictures and, cliché or not, she had never seen so many stars studding the sky either. Cherry on the cake, even the northern lights were making an appearance, twinkling just above the snow-covered mountains in the distance.

How perfectly ironic that she should see them for the first time now, of all times. This was the most spectacular night she had ever witnessed, and it was going to be her last.

The colourful aurora was getting closer, and a distant memory floated through her mind. A fragment of music..."When northern lights are dancing / He lo e loi la", she tried to sing. What came out was a croak, and the effort brought on millions of needles, puncturing her lungs. She shook and moaned with painful coughs. She couldn't tell whether the pain was from the broken ribs or from her almost frozen lungs. She slid slowly down the side of the rocks she had rested against, and lay flat on the ground.

She wondered how she appeared to the pilot of the tiny plane passing above, on its way to Tromsø, or perhaps Alta. Probably she wouldn't even register. Not even a black dot on the snow, amongst the white nothingness of the Finnmarksvidda.

Yep, she would be dead by dawn. And the part of her that only hours ago had tried desperately to survive, was giving in. The other half had taken over. The one that was too tired to fight and knew that you didn't survive -25°C in wet clothes, bleeding and unable to move. The half who accepted that tonight, three weeks before her 36th birthday, Elena Alexandra Maddox was going to die alone in the middle of northern Norway's desolate tundra.

She now recalled the taste of bile in her throat, as fear had turned her stomach. She remembered darkness. Being dragged, pushed and shoved. Blindfolded. A huge, rough-skinned palm, pressing down on her mouth to keep her from screaming. After that, there was a huge black hole in her memory, and the next thing Ellie remembered was the smell of sweat, freshly cut wood, weed, alcohol and tobacco in what she assumed was a cabin of some sort. She  could still hear the men's voices, the taunts, and the vulgar language she understood even in her not-quite-fluent Norwegian. They'd eventually switched to English – to make sure she knew what was coming and why. Especially the 'why', they had said.  Then... pain. Pain she hadn't imagined possible or could describe. She had willed herself to die as realisation had dawned. The beating was just the beginning.

Eventually, she had passed out. When she briefly came round later, she was tied up, face down across the back of a snowmobile, racing across the barren tundra.  Her blindfold had slipped slightly and she could make out the white landscape rushing past. To make it worse, she could have sworn she'd seen a wolf watching them from the ridge of a stone outcrop, barely 100 metres away. 

Ellie's eyes now filled up.  She felt the nausea hitting again, as the memories came back. She had no idea how far they'd travelled when the men stopped in the middle of nowhere... They were arguing. As the fog in her head began to clear a little, she'd started to make out their words. To her shock, the first voice that had spoken had actually sounded British.

'Johan... man..., think about this. We can't just dump her here. She'll die. That ain't what we signed up for! Bit of fun, yeah, teachin' the Lapp-loving bitch some real filth, seein' how she likes them dirty savages, but nobody ain't said nought about doin' her in, man! Enough that you kicked the crap outta her...'

'Shut your trap – you went along with it, didn't you?' the man called Johan interrupted in heavily accented English. 'And didn't I say no names? Yes, I went a bit rough on her but serves her right, woman like her carrying on with those Lapps. Flying their stupid flag and always taking their side.'