“No!” Hannah screamed and immediately put up an inward shield against the temptations and fictions. And as if the Evil had accepted her refusal, the voice in her head immediately died away.
Silence prevailed. Even the troll’s thundering footsteps were no longer to be heard, though he wasn’t so far away. Hannah looked back to see him still stomping behind them, but she couldn’t hear him at all. Nor could she hear the cawing ravens circling overhead.
“Irmgard, why does the Evil...” Hannah broke off mid-sentence. She couldn’t hear her own voice. Startled, she looked at Irmgard, who seemed to be neighing loudly, but her voice was also inaudible. Was Hannah the only one experiencing this? Or was the unicorn, too?
“I can’t hear you!” Hannah screamed, though not a sound came out of her mouth. She pointed to her ears and shook her head.
Irmgard’s mouth was moving. What was the unicorn saying? Hannah pointed back to the troll, who was coming dangerously close. Then she motioned toward Irmgard’s hoof, which the unicorn was keeping slightly bent to avoid putting weight on it. Hannah then pointed up the mountain. It wasn’t far now. They couldn’t give up. But could Irmgard still walk at all? The hoof that the troll had struck wasn’t bleeding, but it was getting more and more swollen. Hannah pointed at the injured hoof and raised her shoulders as if to ask a question.
Irmgard moved her lips once more. Just what was she trying to say? At last, the unicorn started to limp on. Relieved, Hannah hurried beside her, and together they climbed up Rupertsberg.
The oppressive silence still prevailed. Hannah couldn’t hear a thing. Without looking back, she had no idea how close the troll had come or if other creatures were following them as well. She glanced over her shoulder. The troll was slowing down, but he wasn’t stopping. He kept doggedly pursuing them, his heavy club propped easily on his broad shoulder. Up in the dark evening sky, the ravens circled overhead relentlessly. But no cawing sounds reached Hannah’s and Irmgard’s ears.
With every step that took them higher, the wind picked up even more.
“Hannah, we have no choice!” she heard Irmgard say. “We have to turn back.”
Hannah wanted to speak as well, but still no sound escaped her lips.
Irmgard stopped. “Hannah, please, I can’t go on. My hoof hurts too much.”
Hannah wanted to object, but all that came out was silence. She moved her lips, but no sound escaped her mouth. Why didthe unicorn have her voice back when she didn’t? Could Irmgard transmit her thoughts to her?
Hannah bent down to examine the injured hoof, but Irmgard was gesturing something. “Please, Hannah. I know you want to get back to your kids. I’m sure we can find another way. If we go down the mountain, the Evil won’t hurt us. Look, the troll is gone!”
Incredulous, Hannah peered back down the mountain path. Sure enough, the monster had vanished.
Irmgard persisted in her attempts to get her to turn around. “I’m sure we can get you back to Leon, Emi, and Marco some other way.”
Hannah shook her head in bewilderment. Why was the unicorn suddenly giving up? But then it dawned on her that, for the first time ever, Irmgard had used her children’s real names. Something was not right here.
Her heart beat faster as she looked around. There! A dark mist was lurking in back of Irmgard. A boggart! It had imitated Irmgard’s voice and tried to get Hannah to quit. She was sure it was doing the same to Irmgard!
“A boggart!” she screamed, but her words were still inaudible. She gestured wildly to get Irmgard to look the other way. But when she finally turned her head, all she could make out was the gray mist whooshing down the mountain path. The voices in their heads died away. They followed the boggart with their eyes, but soon there was nothing more to see.
“Quick, we have to keep going!” Hannah’s voice was audible again. Relieved, she stroked Irmgard’s neck, and they struggled onward up the path.
There were just a few steps more to the mountain peak, which apparently wasn’t a peak at all but another plateau. Hannah could already see it. It was barren like the mountainlandscape—no plants in sight, no trees, no shrubs. Could anything even grow up there?
Irmgard was puffing and panting. She was limping on her three good legs, and her knees kept giving way. Hannah put her arms around the unicorn’s body and did her best to support her. At last, they reached the plateau. A few steps later, Irmgard came to a stop, exhausted, and Hannah’s arms were shaking from trying to hold her up and keep her on her feet.
A sharp wind arose and grew stronger and stronger. It was gray and strangely dark. It was blowing around their ears, and it whipped Hannah’s hair every which way so that she could hardly see.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Again, they heard the troll’s thundering steps, but now they were coming from every direction. The ground beneath them trembled. The first of the trolls emerged from the east; then two more came from the west. From the north, four trolls appeared all at once and climbed up onto the mountain plateau. Then, a short while later, the troll they had already seen came stomping up. He raised his club in the air with his right hand and let out a menacing roar.
“Quick, we need to hide!” Hannah frantically searched for a hiding place. The plateau was bleak and barren—no caves, boulders, or trees where they could hide from the giant trolls. The dark mist that whistled above was casting a shadow upon the scene and making it hard to see. But they had to go on—they simply could not stop!
Slowly, they put one foot in front of the other, their eyes firmly fixed on the misty ground so as not to stumble. With every step, they checked the earth to make sure it was firm. Again and again, they would step on a loose stone, and Hannah twisted her ankles more than once, but so far, they were holding up. But with her injured hoof, Irmgard kept staggering along on her three good legs. She was slowing down, and her knees keptbuckling. Hannah kept trying to prop her up, but she just wasn’t strong enough.
“Must grab ‘em!” The squealing voices were right beside them, and Hannah could already sense the strong ropes wrapping around her legs. She felt around for the thick, invisible ropes and quickly brushed them away. She jumped to the side to escape the gnomes, but Irmgard could no longer flee the tiny, invisible creatures. They held her down on the ground and lashed her legs together with lightning speed.
“Irmgard!” Hannah wanted to rush back, but Irmgard neighed, “No, Hannah, run! You have to make it on your own!”
Hannah was getting a lump in her throat. There was no way she could leave the unicorn all alone. “Irmgard!”
“Run, Hannah, run!”
Boom! Boom! Boom! The trolls were stomping closer from every side. The wind was growing stronger and stronger. It tore at Hannah’s hair and dress. She narrowed her eyes as she looked around. Where could they go? What should she do? She couldn’t leave Irmgard lying there all by herself! But how could she defend the injured unicorn? There weren’t any trees to provide a branch or twig that could serve as a club—and a thin stick would be useless against the trolls’ enormous clubs.
