For Milady

TWENTY FIVE: The Chief's Guest

Granite Isle was accurately named. The settlement was located in a deep cleft in the dark grey granite cliffs, a small valley with a vigorous icy stream running through its centre and square stone buildings running down the sides of the main space, leaning against the cliffs for support. Each had roofs made of tiles of stone and smoke coiled from each home through small columns of stone that sat over the stone holes. There was a stone bakery, a stone forge with a wooden shutter over the hatch and stone barns for livestock and provisions. And up above, there was a wooden door carved into the cliffs that Anja told her led to the Council Chamber that was cut into the rock itself, like the Great Hall of Berk. Below the Council Chamber was a much larger cave that served as the Village Hall and there was a winding stair that was visible, snaking up the cliffs that rose dizzyingly to the sky, leading to the alter to Thor, the God of Thunder.

But there were no trees or grass, no signs of traditional viking longhouses or the familiar dragon's head ornaments protruding from the front of Berkian homes and the entire place looked lifeless and alien-more akin to Outcast island than the homes she loved on Berk and Dragon's Edge. The sky was restricted by the cliffs, a smaller vista that was grey and she could guess that the very depths of the little canyon that cradled the settlement never experienced the caress of the sun. It seemed a bleak and miserable place to Astrid and she wondered who Stormfly was doing, locked up here instead of being free to come and go, as she was used to.

She sighed, feeling her skin prickle with goosebumps and she pulled the furs tighter around her. The window was open onto the main plaza and there was a cold breeze but she didn't want to go back to staring at four walls. The people seemed grim and focussed on what they were doing, heads down and walking back and forth with scarcely a nod or greeting for anyone else. In Berk, the women would be chatting, the men laughing and joking and the whole atmosphere would be happier, more carefree. This place seemed grim, cold and soulless and she wondered how long it would be until she was fit enough to leave.

And then a man looked up-a tall, muscular man with grey eyes, a full beard and dark brown hair pulled back into a thick braid. His rugged face tilted into a smile which Astrid found herself responding to-because he was the only person, apart from Anja, who seemed friendly. He granted her a nod of greeting and then continued on his way, stopping to intercept two armoured men and directing them the head back the way they had come. Sighing, Astrid sat back and continued her observation.

She saw the man a couple more times as she sat there and he always looked up, smiled and nodded a greeting to her before returning to her tasks. It was a gesture she appreciated since, though she was wary of being pointed out and stared at for the outsider she was, being ignored was worse. And as she observed, she realised he was a man of authority, for everyone he spoke to snapped to obey him without question. It was something she could appreciate, having been leader among the teens and Hiccup's second-in-command. So she observed for the rest of the day.

The following day, she demanded clothes and was relieved to have her packs delivered to her intact. It was a huge relief to get back into her own things-and have the clothes she had been wearing when she had arrived delivered to her as well-cleaned and dried. Carefully, she dressed and felt more herself as she pulled her boots on, laced the sides of her new fur-lined over tunic to fit her expanded middle and stood, stretching. She knew she needed to get back on her feet and exercise because she just felt weak, even though she was also feeling much better. But her axe was missing and when she checked her packs further, her weapons were gone, her knives...anything that could be used as a weapon.

For the first time, a frisson of anxiety flickered through her chest and she glared-and then left her sick room, storming out of the building and onto the street, before grabbing the first person she ran into.