Fog hung low over the sea, obscuring the other boats from Cami's view. Even from her vantage point on top of the main mast, the other boats were mostly vague forms in the distance. She hummed quietly to herself and kicked her feet against the wood while watching the fleet sail forth.
A dark shadow loomed out of the mist ahead of her mother's ship. Cami's eyes widened as the mass took shape into dozens of craggy spires that jutted out at an angle from the sea. They were far enough above her head that there was no danger they would hit Cami, but she shrank back slightly when they passed near her. The closest one, when it passed out of the fog, was an almost translucent blue, unlike any sort of rock or stone. It seemed almost to be made of….
"Mother!" Cami said, landing on the deck of the ship after sliding down the mast. "Those things are made of ice!"
Bertha didn't hear Cami. She was busy looking at a cluster of papers with one of her warriors. Cami stalked over to her mother and pulled on her shirt sleeve. "Mother! Did you hear what I said?"
"Hmm? What's that?" Bertha looked up, but didn't focus on her daughter. She stared into the distance at the boats ahead of hers.
"I said, those things are made completely of ice!"
The ship lurched beneath their feet before Bertha had the chance to answer. It had beached on a small shoreline of black sand. Bertha walked to the gunwale and paused with her hand on the wood. Without turning, she spoke.
"We're here."
The air had cleared enough for Cami to see some of the activity on the island, or maybe it was just crowded enough that it seemed like she could see more. Either way, there was plenty going on as she followed her mother and the other Chieftains. In the distance behind and in front of her were more of those ice spires sticking out in a defense against incoming attackers, except for one area to her left where there was a single, narrow peak whose tip disappeared into the sky.
The path the warriors took wound its way through a construction zone of large metal domes. Cami watched a group of three men with animal pelts and that same harsh dragon-head brand lift a metal plate to a hole on the side while a fourth standing on a scaffold helped guide it into place. Nearby but out of sight, a blacksmith's hammer echoed loudly among the piles of metal and wood. Somewhere, a dragon roared. People shouted. On the other side of a nearby dome, an explosion sent sparks into the air. Cami stared. The shadows of large wings beat against smoke and the dragon roared again. The shouting got louder and louder and the blacksmith's hammer crashed and more people ran towards the escaping dragon and still Cami stared-
"Watch it, kid!" Someone ran past Cami, shoving her to the ground. She rolled out of the way of more feet and stood up. Cami stuck her tongue in the general direction of whoever caused her to fall, but the bravado didn't stay on her face long. Bertha called out her name, and, with one last glance in the direction of the still-screaming dragon, Cami ran to catch up with her mother just as the Chieftains arrived at an open space of rocky ground.
Without turning her back on the open space, Bertha leant down towards Cami. "I told you to stay with me. Don't go running off again. Do you understand?" Cami nodded mutely.
Bertha straightened herself and Cami stood slightly behind her, trying to look intimidating as the smallest person present. Just in time, for a caped figure emerged from the shadows with a lurching gait. It was clear at once that this was the fearsome Drago Bludvist they had come to see. It wasn't just the way the man carried himself with authority, or the cloak of dragon skin he wore. No, it was the way that the other Chieftains quieted when he arrived, the way they all shifted their bodies so that they had slightly better reach for their weapons.
Haakon swallowed once, then stepped forward. "Well, Drago, they're all here, like you asked." His bravado from the meeting was gone.
Drago grunted. He walked slowly past the assembled Chieftains, staring at each in turn. Some of them, like Ivar, shifted nervously under his gaze. Others, Bertha and Harald included, met his eyes without flinching. He ignored Haakon, who remained standing there awkwardly.
The warlord's eyes fell on Cami and his already glowering scowl deepened. Cami stood up straighter and tried to keep herself steady, despite her nerves, but it didn't matter. Drago had already turned and was stalking towards Bertha.
"A child?" Drago's voice sent Cami's breath racing. "You brought an ignorant child to a war order?"
Bertha stood at the same height as Drago Bludvist and she said her words quietly, but without hesitation. "Do not insult my daughter, warlord. You need my ships. I want this war over, but I can wait. Do not give me reason to leave."
Drago's nostrils flared with anger, but he spun around and walked back into the opening.
"You and your people have been at war with the dragons for too long!" he yelled, slowly pacing back and forth. "And now you know that Berk, with its Chieftain, Hiccup," he sneered, "have joined their side. It's time that this ends, for good."
"What do you suppose we do?" Haakon asked. "Mr. Bludvist, uh, sir," he added when Drago turned to glare at him.
"We attack! And they will come here. And we will crush them."
"What makes you think we can do that? If the Berkians have allied with the dragons, then what chance do we have, even with our strength combined?" Bertha said.
Drago smiled then, a lopsided grin that didn't affect the scars on his face. "Because I have something they don't."
Without pause, he spun around to face the ice wall in the near distance. Drago began to yell, his voice ragged and piercing. He swung his staff high over his head with each beat of his yell. Every noise in the distance seemed to quiet as the warlord's voice echoed around the fort.
There were gasps among the assembled Chieftains. Cami's eyes widened as she realized that what she thought was a clump of ice spires began to move.
Two eyes opened out from the fog.