Fridrik kept shaking his head. He flinched as a little stream of blood erupted anew from Natan’s head wound. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I can’t. I can’t.’
Natan looked up at me: his teeth were red from blood. His lips moved silently, and I understood what he was trying to say.
The knife went in easily. It pierced Natan’s shirt with neat rips, sounding like an ill-practised kiss — I couldn’t have stopped if I’d wanted to. My fist jerked, until I felt sudden, close warmth over my wrist and realised that his blood covered my hand. The warmth of it was noticeable against the chill of the night. I released the handle, and pushed Natan away from me, looking down at the knife. It stuck out from his belly, and his shirt was dark and wetly puckered around the blade. For a moment we stared at each other. The light from the candle caught the edge of his forehead, his eyelashes, and I was suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude — he regarded me clearly. It seemed like forgiveness.
‘Agnes.’ Fridrik was behind me, his hands on his head, the hammer on the floor. ‘Agnes, you’ve killed him.’
I wanted to cry. I wanted to kneel over his body and wail. But there was no time.
I hated Fridrik. He had crumbled, had shrunk to the floor and begun to sob, heaving huge lungfuls of air in a panic that never seemed to cease. Eventually he got up, his breath shuddering, and pulled the knife out of Natan’s belly.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked him. I did not have the energy to scream.
‘That’s my knife,’ Fridrik said. He wiped it on his trousers and began to walk outside.
‘Wait!’ I called.
Fridrik turned and shrugged.
‘You’ll be hanged for this,’ I croaked. Fridrik paused. I saw his fingers clench around the knife’s sticky handle.
‘If I am hanged,’ he said slowly, sniffing back a breath of snot, ‘you will be burnt alive.’
I looked down and saw the blood on my hands. On my neck, soaking my dress. I saw the candle flame flicker in an unseen draught, and wondered at what the room would look like in the grey light of day.
That’s when I remembered the whale fat that Natan had bought at Hindisvík.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
~ ~ ~
22nd of December 1829
Promemoria: To Björn Blöndal, District Commissioner of Húnavatn
Here I am presenting to Your Honour the following:
1. The original copy of the Supreme Court’s ruling from the 25th of June of this year in the case and prosecution against Fridrik Sigurdsson, Agnes Magnúsdóttir and Sigrídur Gudmundsdóttir from Húnavatn District for murder, arson and theft, among other crimes. The Supreme Court sentence arrived here on the 20th of this month with an extra mail delivery from Reykjavík.
2. Confirmed copy of His Majesty the King’s letter: To the District Governor on the 26th of August, in regard to Sigrídur Gudmundsdóttir, the aforementioned is by the King’s grace and mercy pardoned from the punishment of death as sentenced by the aforementioned Supreme Court in Copenhagen. She will instead, by His Majesty the King’s decree, be moved to Copenhagen to work in a prison for the term of her natural life under strict surveillance. It has also been decided that the Supreme Court’s sentencing in regards to the convicts Fridrik Sigurdsson and Agnes Magnúsdóttir will stand.
3. Confirmed copy of the document from the Royal Secretarial Office of Denmark to the District Governor from the 29th of August concerning this case, where the Secretary to the Royal Sovereign has published the opinion that it would be best for the penalty to be fulfilled where the crime was committed, or as close to it as possible, and only then if it will not cause riot or unpredictable events. The District Governor must be in absolute agreeance with this.
4. The sanction, which has been made ready today, for Gudmundur Ketilsson, the farmer at Illugastadir, to execute the convicts Fridrik Sigurdsson and Agnes Magnúsdóttir according to the Supreme Court ruling, which, according to the secretarial letters, I must now request you, Your Honour, to manage in a proper manner. Your Honour must ensure that the death sentences, in consideration of the changes that are outlined in the aforementioned Royal letter from His Majesty the King, are carried out in a legal manner and fulfilled without delay. Your Honour is requested to send confirmation when the death sentences have been fulfilled. My most Honourable Sir, as the local District Commissioner you are trusted to prepare and execute the convicts in a proper manner, and to arrange all things according to the intricacies of this situation. However, I must insist that you heed the following details:
a. If it has not already been done, Your Honour must immediately arrange for priests to visit the guilty persons, Fridrik Sigurdsson and Agnes Magnúsdóttir, every day. The priests must be supervised, and must address to the prisoners religious lectures of meaning, must comfort them and prepare them to walk towards their destiny. The priests should follow the prisoners to their execution place.
b. It has been agreed that Your Honour may decide if the execution will take place close to Illugastadir, or at a good site in the so-called Thingi, or upon a hill at some place (but not too high), where others may see it in all directions.
c. Instead of a wooden platform, Your Honour may give directions for a good turf platform with a handrail to be built. Your Honour must arrange for a block with a chin-groove to be placed on top of this platform, and to see that it is covered with a red cloth of cotton or plain-woven wool.
d. The selected executioner shall, at Your Honour’s home and with secrecy and encouragement, be trained for the mission that he has been entrusted with. This will be done to ensure, as much as possible, that he, at this important moment, will not lose faith or control. The beheading must be carried out in one blow without any pain for the convicted. Gudmundur Ketilsson must only drink a very little dose of spirits.
e. Your Honour is requested to summon as many men from the neighbouring farms as needed to build two or three rings around the platform. These farmers are all obligated to attend without accepting any payment thereof.
f. No unauthorised person is permitted to go inside the rings.
g. The one who will be executed later is not permitted to witness the execution of the first, and should be kept aside at a place where they do not have a direct view of the platform.
h. The dead bodies that remain behind following the execution must be buried on the spot without ceremony, in white untreated wood. It is absolutely vital that Your Honour and Most Respected Person be present at the execution site to read out the verdict of the Supreme Court and His Majesty the King, to organise and control the execution procedure, and to record the execution in the book of the office. Your Honour may register the executions in Danish or Icelandic, but it must be done well and a translation of the record must be sent to my office. Your Honour’s record must include a perfect and detailed description of the events and how it concluded. Also, you must record that Gudmundur Ketilsson was promised for the job, and specify how he has decided to use the money awarded to him for his services, for what purpose and so on. And at last I want to thank you for Your Honour’s letter on the 20th of August. In response, I tell you here that the axe must be returned to Copenhagen after the execution and that the payment for it must be paid as with the other costs of this case.