VI.
War raged beyond Hiccup as he crawled aboveground. Dragon screeches exploded through the skies, fireballs rained down across the landscape, and the aggressive howl of warring Viking men sang a duet alongside the Vigilante's beasts. Hiccup flinched upon seeing her dragons so close to Fort Sinister's towers. I thought the plan was to lure the dragons away. Has something gone wrong already?
However, he had no time to problem solve the other facets of this battle. He and his team had one mission, and it was essential to complete regardless of how everyone else's contributions to the battle fared. Thankfully the violence, even though it roared terribly loudly, was far enough away they had a bit of time to act.
Time to fulfill their mission.
Hiccup climbed out right next to the steep walls of Fort Sinister, staring up at the tall towers and slick brick walls. He ushered for the other Vikings to stand alongside him, fervently instructing them, "Get out the ropes!"
"You really think we can climb this thing?" Snotlout groaned. "Even cave dragons couldn't get a grip on walls this smooth!"
Hiccup did not feel like arguing, instead snapping irritably, "Snotlout," before refocusing his attention on the walls above him. He pointed up to a sliver-like window above his head. "That arrow hole. If we get a hook through it, we can climb up with a rope no problem." And indeed already an ally archer filed up behind him, pointing up a bow. The arrow notched on the bow had a hook for an end and a rope attached to it.
"What? I wouldn't be able to aim and…"
Before Snotlout could complete his sentence, the arrow was fired, and the hook successfully secured to the window above, connecting to the brick ledge with a satisfying clang and scrape.
Hiccup, above the noise of not-so-distant battle, sassed back to his cousin, "Just because you have such a bad aim doesn't mean everyone does. Now come on, let's go!"
"Not everyone can go up!" the archer reminded him urgently. "Once you reach the arrow slit, you have to shoot the hook again to reach the top of the tower and climb up the rest of the way."
"I can do that!" He gestured to the bow behind his back. He placed it now in his left hand, hooked along with a few of his weaker fingers. "But I'm going first!"
"Chief, that's dangerous!"
He ignored her.
After so many failed attacks on the Vigilante – even though she was just one woman, she was far too challenging to engage – Hiccup did not wish to stall scaling Fort Sinister. Determinedly he stepped up, grabbed at the rope from the other Viking, yanked once to ascertain it was secured, and put his foot on the fort's wall. He planted it firmly before trying to yank upward, fingers already protesting at the strain of trying to hold on the rope. Prosthetic foot slipped, yet he tried again to gain traction. There. Another step upward. And he began to move upward, creeping up the walls of the fortress while the Vigilante and her dragons focused on another battlefront. As shouts and dragon roars rocked the canyons, Hiccup's quiet shuffles up the wall went unnoticed, unheard.
Feet skidded frequently. Hands burned on rope. In one gut-dropping moment he slipped, sliding down the rope, crashing into stone before he regained footing and caught himself from falling completely to the ground. Breathing determinedly, he sought to move upward again. Right foot. Prosthetic. Right foot. Prosthetic. And upward and upward, scaling the wall, eyes focused on the arrow slit above that.
His fingers strained, hooking themselves on the narrow arrow slit with the same hand that still held onto his bow. Hand slipped. Mouth gasped. Fingers slid, fumbling for a firm grasp. There. Hiccup at last managed to grab the ledge of the narrow window, and pulled his weight to be hanging there. For a brief instant he glanced downward, and his stomach dropped more in nausea at the height; he might have been accustomed to flying with dragons in the skies, but here he had no wings.
Now, clutching the side of the wall and the bow, he slid the arrow into position on his bowstring, arms shaking. I really didn't think this through. Is this even doable? Biceps shuddered beneath him, fingers strained from their grip.
Oh Thor I'm going to fall.
He shot the arrow.
Flew upward. Shot above the fortress.
He didn't see where it landed. If it landed. If it hooked onto anything. If it were plunging back down on him.
For his vision swung, and his fingers slipped, and he realized he was falling, and all he could do was yelp and drop the bow and grab desperately onto the rope and hope he was not plummeting to his death.
The rope yanked. He jerked to a halt.
Hiccup glanced upward and realized that his shot had been true, and that he had successful hooked the rope to the top of the tower. He would be able to climb to the top wall of Fort Sinister and enter the Vigilante's fortress.
His heart rate pounded wildly, but at least it was starting to settle. This time he glanced downward with intentionality to see if the rope were long enough to reach the foot of the tower, allowing the Vikings with him to climb right behind him.
No.
He would have to continue this by himself.
Time to finish climbing.
This is probably the dumbest idea I've had yet. We could have thought of so many better things to do and ways to get in.
Fingers reached the top of the ramparts. Hiccup gratefully pulled himself onto a ledge, a walkway, that circled around the tower. He had made it. He had climbed to the top wall of Fort Sinister.
"Don't come up behind me!" he shouted to the Vikings below him. "It's not worth the risk!"
And it would allow him to confront his mother alone… exactly as he wanted… assuming he could locate her.
Thankfully he noticed, not too far from where he now stood, a door along the upper wall leading to a downward-spiraling staircase, burrowing into the dark depths of the ancient, barren stone stronghold. Time to start looking. He carefully unsheathed his sword Endeavor and held it in hand. Foot and prosthetic clopped hurriedly as he rushed toward the staircase, yet even as he did so, he heard a familiar shout, almost like an angry yodel, shrieking out behind him.
He dropped to the ground immediately, preparing for dragon fire or a whirling staff. She was on the wall with him!
The Vigilante did not attack him. It took Hiccup some moments to realize this. The shout he had heard from his own mother took place a distance away from where he was on the wall, and he realized now she was shouting to her dragons, whirling her staff, and had not at all noticed Hiccup the intruder.
She orchestrated clouds of dragons to descend in swarms on Vikings about her. Staff conducted mobs of firebreathing creatures. Not lightning but balls of flame flashed through skies, painting colors far brighter and angrier than any sunset that befell upon the earth.
So concentrated was she on this complex exercise of strategy, she did not hear her son creeping up behind him.
He placed his sword right at her neck. He hated doing it – it felt so counterintuitive, so completely and utterly wrong – yet it was the only way to make her stop. After four years of war, he knew that. After four years of war, he was willing to at least do this to make it all stop.
"Don't move," he said, hoping he sounded convincingly threatening, hoping even moreso she would not still somehow violently retaliate against him, or set all her dragons upon him, and have him dead in an instant. Just because he had a sword pointed against her did not mean he felt safe alongside this notorious antagonist. Not after what she had done to Stoick. To so many other Vikings over the years. And because he was nervous, he stuttered a second time, just a moment after his first statement, again, "D – don't move."
Counter to what Hiccup commanded, the Vigilante did move. Her eyes widened.
"Order the dragons down." He gasped out the words. Fort Sinister could be entered after all, the place disarmed… for only one person lived inside it, one human, and he had her right where he needed her.
"This war's over. Let this end now."
In a low, dark voice, she began, "My dragons…"
"Won't listen to you if you're dead." The words felt horrible in Hiccup's mouth. The things this war is making me do…
Green eyes stared calculatingly at her son from the corner of her vision. But the Vigilante pursed her lips and let her fingers loosen. Staff clattered to the ground.
Hiccup remembered what had been said during the war meeting with the other chieftains; if he got to the Vigilante first, then he could capture her alive – otherwise, she would be dead at the hands of the other tribes.
"I'm personally taking you prisoner," he said. "Uh… Mom."
Happy family reunion to me, internal sarcastic commentary sighed.
Valka nodded. She told him, "Very well then. Though you don't know what you're doing. Every one of you and your warriors are making a grave mistake."
Hiccup frowned, trying to process her meaning, but did not ask about her. His eyes were focused now beyond him, hoping to see the violence of war end – at least on this front.
"No. It's not a mistake to end this," he said at last. "It's four years overdue."