FOURTEEN: Through the fires
Hiccup collapsed to the floor as the door of the cage clanged, leaving him breathing hard and trembling with pain. The guards laughed as they walked away, leaving the young Viking to curl up, trying to calm down. Unbidden, his mind swung back to when they had been captured.
A boot slammed into his side and he cried out, blinking as his tried to recall what had happened. He was lying prone on a grubby deck, surrounded by armed and brutal-looking men who were eyeing him with hostility. He lifted his head and looked around frantically, searching for the familiar black shape.
"Where's my dragon?" he asked suddenly, pushing himself up to his knees and yelping as he was kicked again.
"It's our dragon now," one of the men said, a thickset man with small pale eyes. "A Night Fury! Who would have thought!"
"So how did you come by the creature?" another, taller man asked, his eyes narrowing. There was a double scar down his left cheek, the edges puckered as if it had been made by heat. Blinking to clear his head, Hiccup gave a smile.
"I met him in a forest," he said, not completely untruthfully.
"Were you...riding...him?" a third man with a mean moustache asked suspiciously. Hiccup sat back on his heels, inspecting the men. But they had captured him and his emerald gaze flicked over the deck, seeing the cages, the winches and dragon-proof chains.
"Whatever made you think that? I was flying alongside him when you shot me down!" he replied, unable to help the sarcasm. A small man behind him looked puzzled.
"But I thought we captured him clipped into a saddle..." he asked in a confused voice. Hiccup cast him a mildly amused glance. There's always one...
"Idiot!" the scarred man snapped. "He's a Dragon Rider-one of those interfering fools who have been attacking our northern comrades!" The man with the moustache drew his sword and advanced towards the imprisoned rider.
"Then we should kill him and be done with him!" he growled and Hiccup tried to scramble backwards but the scarred man raised a hand.
"The Captain will want to speak with him," he snapped. "This Dragon Rider must have some skills and knowledge that may be valuable to us."
"Captain?" Hiccup asked, keeping his voice light. "Sure, I'll be happy to talk to him. You see, I need my dragon and..."
A hand snatched his hair and as they dragged his head up, a fist hit it. He slammed to the deck, head spinning as two of the men grabbed his arms and dragged him back up to his knees.
"Wow, you only had to ask," Hiccup said in a hurt voice. "I mean, I can shut up if you ask..."
The man with the mean moustache punched him again and he groaned. There was an answering warble and Hiccup began to struggle.
"Toothless!" he shouted and the dragon gave a small roar. "Let me go! Toothless!" The scarred man grabbed his face.
"You know that dragon is ours now...but if you co-operate, we won't hurt him," he growled but Hiccup glared defiantly into the man's cold eyes.
"Viggo and Ryker wouldn't kill or harm Toothless because he is priceless," he said calmly. "So I don't believe you're going to permanently destroy such a valuable resource."
He had steeled himself for the blow but he still saw stars as the man punched him again then grabbed his hair and pulled his head forward so the man could glare into his bleary eyes.
"We break dragons without hesitation-how much resistance do you think that you can put up?" he hissed, as Hiccup gave a weary smile.
"You'd be surprised," he murmured. "I'm known for being particularly stubborn and the Grimborns never actually got round to making me tell them anything useful..." The scarred man gave a cruel smile.
"Ah-you've not met the Captain," he told Hiccup and slapped his cheek a couple of times patronisingly. "I think you'll find he makes those northern pussies look like the weaklings they are! No one resists the Captain!" Hiccup gave a small smile.
"I'm a Viking," he explained. "I have stubbornness issues..."
"Resolve them soon-or you're gonna be in a world of pain-you and that flying newt..." the scarred man sneered.
"Hey! That's just plain ignorance...dragons are reptiles while newts are definitely amphibians..." Hiccup protested, earning himself another blow. "And ow!" The man straightened up.
"Take him to the Captain," he snapped. "And maybe then this skinny one-legged clown can tell us where to find the dragons..."
"Never," Hiccup growled as the man laughed.
"Never is an incredibly long time-when a single day in the Captain's hands can last an aeon..." the scarred man sneered. "Take him belowdecks!"
Hiccup managed to drag himself to the furthest corner of the cage and curled up, trying to cuddle his battered shape in the most comforting way possible-because the Captain-a man of medium height and utterly sadistic disposition-had been as fearsome as the Hunters had promised. He had been quietly spoken but every time Hiccup had resorted to his usual sass, he had been hurt-a blow here, a punch there, the delicate slice of a knife across a shoulder or arm... And as the man had started to demand his knowledge of dragons so the men could fill their cages, he had found them much more direct. Beating and whipping him had been almost a relief because they had burnt him, starved him, deprived him of water, half-drowned him, made him stand until his leg collapsed, deprived him of sleep and then started all over again. He had long since lost exact track of time, though the fact that his earliest bruises had already faded and gone and their successors were almost already faded gave him some timeline.
As he expected, they had not done anything irrevocable to Toothless because they were saving him for a big Dragon Auction in a couple of months-but the dragon had been cut and whipped to punish Hiccup and the sounds of his dragon's pain had been far more painful to the young Viking than any amount of punishment to him. And the final agony was that every hour he was trapped in the Hunters' clutches meant that Astrid got further away and the trail got colder. And, of course, he was exiled and alone: none of the Riders would be coming for him or even looking for him. There was no one he could rely on but himself to get him and Toothless away.
But as he lay bleeding and with every movement hurting as he curled up in the cage, he just closed his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Astrid," he whispered quietly. "I shouldn't have waited so long."
oOo
Since that fateful night where Astrid had fought her demons and won, her fortunes seemed to have picked up, as if the Gods approved of her courage and her decision. So the next village she had visited-Sniffling-had welcomed her and she had stayed there, helping look after the animals, helping wash clothes and bake the bread-though she pre-warned them that she was a poor cook. Laughing, the older woman she worked with reassured her that she would check the loaves herself, to Astrid's relief.
A couple more weeks had passed and she was very aware that there was a definite thickening in her waist, so that she had needed to let out her skirt and adjust her belt-but she was still as active as ever and had felt a surge of new energy since she arrived. She was visiting Stormfly every morning and evening and flew the dragon daily while she earned her place in the village. She gathered that the weather wasn't quite as harsh in the southern part of the Archipelago but the weather was still going to be cold and bad, with little food available and shelter definitely required so she carefully cultivated her place in the new Tribe.
But there were more than a few moments when she pulled herself up for daydreaming, for staring at the small children playing in the village Plaza and wondering what her child would look like, would be like. Would he or she be bold? Timid? Athletic? Clumsy? A leader? A loner? How would she cope? Would she be a good mother? A harsh one? Too demanding? Too indulgent? She sighed and shook her head: she had to remain focussed on the here and now because she needed to be accepted. She needed security.
She needed Hiccup.
She blinked and shook her head: she was 'fearless' Astrid Hofferson, a warrior and Dragon Rider of Berk and she could look after herself.
"They're tireless, aren't they?" the woman said, standing next to her. Hjordis was a widow whose husband had been killed in a raid by pirates and had just remained in the village every since. Not rich and comfortably middle aged, no one had courted her since her widowhood and she had welcomed in the outsider, enjoying the company from the self-possessed and capable young woman. "I doubt my old legs would have kept up with them...though yours shouldn't have much trouble..." Astrid's azure gaze flicked up.
"One day," she said as the woman smiled, lined clustering around her grey eyes.
"Sooner than you think, since yours is coming along well," she said quietly, her eyes drifting over Astrid's waist. "How far?"
For an instant, the blonde warrior considered denying the possibility but she knew it would be counter-productive: she wanted to be trusted and lying wouldn't encourage people to invite her to stay. She had carefully not announced her pregnancy but as this woman had uncovered her secret-as others would inevitably do-she shrugged and nodded.
"Four months or so," she admitted. "But the father is lost. So I have to do what I can for us both." Hjordis stared into her face for a long moment.
"We were never blessed," she admitted with the faintest hint of longing. "You are fortunate to have a child to recall your lost love by. You are welcome here-and if you need anything, ask me. I have no living kin left and I would be more than grateful if you would let me help you in their place."
Astrid blinked and then gave a melancholy smile.
"Thank you," she sighed. "He...he was someone I knew from when we were children and I wasn't always as kind to him as I should have been...but he grew up to become this amazing man, kind and brave and brilliant. And I fell in love with him though I was terrible at showing it...but he asked me if we could be together. And now...he's gone." Unconsciously, her dropped her hand to protect the slight swell of her stomach. Hjordis draped a sympathetic arm around her shoulders.
"Winter is approaching so I will have a word with the Chief," she offered warmly. "He needs to know. And I should have our Healer check you over. You must have been travelling for a long time..." For the first time, Astrid gave a small smile. Though it wasn't her home or family, it was reassuring to have someone suddenly concerned for her.
As Hiccup would have been if he had been allowed...
"It's been a while," she admitted as the older woman grinned.
"And we will need to get you more rations," Hjordis continued eagerly. "We need to feed you and the little one up!" At that, Astrid began to laugh, a genuine laugh at last, of mixed relief and amusement.
"Slow down!" she urged the other woman, catching her arm gently. "At this rate, I'll end up enormous! Just...see what the Chief says...and if he'll allow me to stay!" The older woman looked back at her and smiled, blushing at her eagerness, her eyes sparkling with energy.
"He'll want your Tribe," she reminded the younger woman and Astrid smiled serenely, having long anticipated that query.
"I come from Dragon's Edge," she said.
oOo
He was getting much thinner-he could tell. He could feel his ribs, his collar bones were more prominent and he was getting weaker by the day. The torture continued as the Captain grew more exasperated by his intransigence and he derived some small solace that he hadn't helped the man. The Captain's questions had become very much more focussed and specific, sometimes worrying Hiccup with their demands because he knew what they could mean for dragonkind and sometimes confusing him because he had not clue what the Captain wanted. And of course the man took his genuine confusion as defiance and that led to more pain.
But there was one subject that had Hiccup more concerned and confused than any other: a subject the Captain returned to over and over.
"Where is the King?"
Still bemused, Hiccup sighed. He was hanging from the roof of the Captain's cabin by his wrists, a chain and manacles hammered to the roof just for this purpose. His scored shoulders were already burning with the uncomfortable position.
"Plenty of Kings around," he commented sassily. "Maybe you could be more specific? I mean, there are half a dozen Kings in the Saxon Kingdoms of Old Britannia, the King of the Danes, the King of the Franks, smoking, faking, looking...any of them any good?" The Captain snarled and lunged forward, slicing a heated knife down his ribs, hardly cutting the skin but burning the prisoner painfully. Hiccup gritted his teeth, grunted and waited for the worst of the pain to recede before he was able to calm his breathing.
"I would have thought you had learned I have no sense of humour," the man growled. Hiccup chewed his lip, almost unable to help himself.
"Ah...he said, "something you are lacking..."
The Captain punched him in the middle, crushing the air from him.
"Hilarious," the man hissed. "The King of Dragons!"
"The what?" he grunted once he could manage to form words again. "You've got to be joking!" The Captain lunged forward and he tensed but the man stopped inches from his face, his foul breath caressing Hiccup's clammy face and his dead, vicious eyes boring deep into Hiccup's bleary emerald gaze.
"The King of all Dragons," he hissed. "There is only one...and my best buyer needs to find him. You know things no one else knows, boy. You commune with dragons. Hel-you probably can talk to them..." Hiccup shook his head.
"Nope. No talking," he replied determinedly. "And nothing that will help you."
"Where is Vanaheim?" the Captain demanded. "It is rumoured the clues are there."
Hiccup took a quick breath, thinking furiously. It was yet another secret he had to conceal so he resorted to his now-trademark mix of confusion and sass once more "The Vanaheim legend?" he said. "The mythical last resting place of dragons? That doesn't exist. Have you been drinking?" The Captain had burned him again and this time, he did scream as the heated metal traced over his pale skin. But gasping, he looked the Captain in the eye, his tone firm.
"I'll tell you nothing."
But Toothless had been hurt again and every wound made Hiccup feel worse. And he knew the Captain had guessed that harming dragons upset him, though he didn't want to damage his own stock...and Toothless had a high intrinsic value. So other dragons paid the price and he grew to loathe himself, knowing he was curing dragons to be killed just to protect other, more fortunate free dragons. And he was unsure how much more he could endure...
He guessed he had been a prisoner for more than four weeks when he was hauled in front of the Captain yet again. Of course, the man tried the usual means first-not because he knew they would work but because Hiccup guessed he enjoyed them. So punched and beaten, his back bleeding from the whip, the young Rider was thrown to the deck in front of the Captain. The man folded his arms, his heavy armoured binders creaking as he clenched his fists. His remote blue eyes swept over the skinny shape, moving painfully as he got to his knees.
"This is getting old," Hiccup mumbled thickly, his lips split from another blow. The swift kick it earned nearly wasn't worth the effort.
"And yet you know the remedy," the Captain told him mildly. "We want your dragon knowledge, boy. Our cages are empty and you Riders owe the Hunters dragons." Hiccup's head snapped up and he glared at the Hunter.
"Really?" he scoffed. "Because Viggo definitely owes me one base, several catapults, Astrid's ballista, several houses and, of course, a lot of gold!" The Captain grabbed his hair and leaned forward to glare into the stubborn face.
"I think it's time to teach you an object lesson-and see how good a Dragon Tamer you are!" he sneered and nodded. "Unless you realise I will get what I want. Your dragon knowledge-especially what you know of the King!" Hiccup shook his head once more as Toothless cooed in dismay, sensing what would happen. Instantly, hands snatched at Hiccup's arms and wrenched him to his feet, hauling him to a large cage containing a Deadly Nadder. For a moment, his breath froze in his throat and he had a horrible fear that the blue dragon was Stormfly...but as he looked closer, the dragon was blue and green with amber highlights, different to Astrid's dragon. But he couldn't relax as they thrust him forward, the door slamming behind him, trapping him in with a terrified and wild Nadder. Giving a death's head grin, the Captain prowled around the cage, slamming the bars with his knife.
"You have a choice, Hiccup," he growled and the prisoner shook his head. He couldn't recall when he had given his name, though he knew the man loved to sneer it at him, usually while he was trying not to cry out.
"Well, if it's the choice between the spa or the Mead Hall, I am feeling a little peckish so..." Hiccup sassed determinedly, knowing the cost but too stubborn to shut up. The knife clanged much more loudly against the dragon-proof bars and the Nadder's acid yellow eyes widened as the pupils slitted in agitation.
"You can tame the dragon, Dragon Rider-or you can die on the spines of an angry Nadder!" the Captain taunted him, backing away with a smug smile. Limping badly, Hiccup backed up as the furious Nadder advanced on the skinny, battered shape, seeing a human and an enemy. He hissed and the snikt as he flicked up his spines had Hiccup tense, his body hurting and mind reeling from the wounds. He staggered quickly into the blind spot and swayed as the dragon tried to work our where he was, then ducked as it spun and the spines slashed at him. He dropped to his knee and as it spun round, he quietly scratched under the chin, hitting the sweet spot and calming the dragon. He leaned close and gentled the dragon's face, scratching it reassuringly.
"It's okay," he murmured. "I'm not like them. It will be okay..."
There was a screech as the thunk of an axe slamming into the calm dragon's neck carved through the few seconds of peace the had clawed in the cage and suddenly, he was sprayed in blood as the dragon died. He scrambled back, his hand still in contact as the eyes sapped open and the dragon stared at him in utter and final betrayal, before he slumped lifeless. Angry beyond words, Hiccup flung himself on the Captain, his fists catching the man unprepared and bearing him to the ground. He got in a few more really good hits before he was dragged off, clawing and kicking, screaming every insult he could imagine. And then, held still and helpless, he saw the man rise, blood on his face and streaming from the crooked nose that gave Hiccup some measure of pride before he read the murder in the Captain's eyes.
The fists that slammed into his wasted body felt like iron, crushing the breath from him and snapping ribs. He pulled himself free and flung himself once more at the man, briefly wrapping the man in a bear-hug before he was hauled back and punched yet more, until he was hanging, semi-conscious from the Hunters' grasp. Breathing was agonising and his vision was blurring as his head was jerked up and he was dragged to the mast.
"I have a special treat for you in thanks for your help," the Captain snarled, his cold anger as menacing as Viggo's ever was. He gestured with his bloody hands to the corpse of the Nadder. "You mentioned you were hungry. So I will allow you to feast! Get him some prime cuts, men-and the blood will slake his thirst." The Hunter leaned closer. "Because you're getting nothing else."
Eyelids fluttering, Hiccup swallowed and his emerald eyes raked over the Captain's sadistic face.
"Starve...first..." he mumbled as the man grabbed his face in his hand.
"Then you are going to die in a couple of days," he promised. "Because you are getting nothing else. You eat that dragon or you starve." Swallowing, the young Viking lifted his chin enough to see the black shape curled in the cage, the wounds on his sides and shoulders surging more guilt through him.
I let you down, bud. I let is get captured. I let them hurt you. I couldn't get us out. And now they're going to sell you. But I won't eat a dragon. I'm sorry, Toothless-I just can't do it.
"We'll see who breaks first," he mumbled defiantly as the Captain punched him one last time, leaving him sagging.
"Shame," he said. "I thought you were smarter than that. My contact was coming to see me soon and I had hoped I would have some news for him, some intelligence that may spare your reptile from his fate. Maybe...the location of the King of dragons...?" Hiccup coughed, his vision greying.
"We all got our little dis'ppointments," he mumbled faintly. "Never got that spa trip either..." The Captain growled as he turned back to his cabin, his parting shot echoing across the misty deck.
"Still, at least I have a Night Fury to sell when you're gone and that will make the trip worthwhile."
The last thing Hiccup heard before he lost his senses was the sad croon of Toothless...
oOo
"Okay-this is stupider than even I would think of and I'm Deranged!"
Dagur was pacing in his throne room on Berserk, his scarred face twisted in concern.
"I'm sure he'll call if he needs you, Dag," Heather suggested, resting against a wall in her armour. She was spending much of the time flying because she was just as concerned as he was-but was better at concealing it.
"Unless he can't," the Berserker said, his green eyes concerned. "Look-don't tell me how I know but I'm sure our brother is in trouble. I can't believe he would go off and not send us any word...unless he couldn't." Heather sighed: Dagur had been worrying for days and he was working himself up into a frenzy. Of course, it was a change that he wasn't trying to kill Hiccup, as he had for years and the fact the man was her brother and she trusted him were still things she tried not to think about too closely, because they made her head ache. And she was worried as well because Hiccup had vanished.
"But which way would we even search?" she asked him. "I mean north is very inhospitable and there's nothing west. East..."
"South," Dagur realised. "Lots of islands to visit and lots of small villages to hide in." The raven-haired woman arched an eyebrow. "I studied the maps closely on my berserking days looking for places to expand our lands and strike terror into the hearts of weaker Tribes...hey, is that even a word?" She managed a small smile.
"I think it may be," she admitted. "Okay, so if we head south..."
"We need to find them," he decided firmly. "Can you write to Fishboy or whatever your friend is and let him know where we're going...so if they may want to fly in that direction to maybe help us?"
"You have been thinking about this, haven't you?" Heather admitted, straightening up.
"Too much?" Dagur asked but this time she smiled.
"No-this time, it's just right," she complimented him. "I'll get Windshear ready and you can prepare Sleuther." Dagur grinned and hugged her fiercely.
"Thanks, sis," he said happily. "Hold on brother-we're coming!"