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Chapter Forty-Three: The Harbinger
They kept Astrid, Barb, and Stargazer in their cell for days. They gave them no food, no water, and everyday more and more people were dragged down the halls and thrown into other cells. Astrid had barely moved from her mother's lap, her body feeling no better than it had before. Barb stayed silent in the corner.
Astrid hadn't been able to sleep. Too uncomfortable, too sick, too restless as memories of Dagur's body changing in front of her plagued her tortured mind. Did Hiccup even know? She didn't think so… it was easier to give up hope than it was to pray for something impossible.
Finally, a soldier came and opened the cell. The sound the metal made across the floor made all the women cringe before the man stomped in and grabbed Astrid. Stargazer tried to hold onto her, but the guard was stronger, and hoisted Astrid to her feet. Astrid didn't struggle, and two more soldiers entered the cell and grabbed Barb and Stargazer, shoving them after Astrid. Stargazer didn't move, lost and confused and blind, unsure of where to go, and Astrid struggled against the soldier who held her.
"She can't see, let me lead her!" Astrid pleaded. The soldier shoved Astrid roughly and another grabbed Stargazer's arm, pulling her violently.
"Where are you taking us?" Barb asked raggedly, hobbling on one leg the best she could. No one answered, but Astrid already knew. Cheers echoed down the halls ahead, and the smell of blood made Astrid feel ill. She struggled against the soldier, but she was too weak. They passed the gouge marks in the floor made by dragons, and Barb gawked at them she stepped over them. They ascended a flight of stairs as the cheers and roars of hundreds and hundreds of people deafened the prisoners. They stumbled through an archway, which led to the Pit's spectator area. Hundreds of Berserker soldiers screamed and made crude gestures to Astrid and the others as they were pushed through the crowd.
At the edge of the audience, the soldier wrenched Astrid back, stopping her roughly. She looked through the chains of the arena and found Dagur atop of Thorvane. He no longer wore his armour, and remained bare-chested to his men, a sword in the air as Thorvane roared and rumbled. Astrid wriggled within her soldier's grasp, but he grabbed her braid and gave it a sharp pull. She gasped as her head was wrenched back, and she stopped moving.
She looked over, gritting her teeth, and saw the audience wasn't only full of Berserkers and Outcasts, but Berkians and other alliance members, who all looked around terrified. Everyone Astrid had ever seen in the Underground was around her, either excited for the show they were about to see, or wondering why the hell they were there.
"My brothers!" Dagur screamed, opening his arms to the crowd. It went wild and Astrid bared her teeth, tensing her entire body. He laughed loudly and Thorvane shrieked. He fanned out his massive wings and reared up on his hind legs, chortling and foaming through his iron muzzle. Astrid tried to connect with him, but it was as if he wasn't even in the room. He didn't notice her. He couldn't remember.
"Dagur!" Alvin screamed from across the arena. "What is the meaning of this?!"
"An impromptu show," Dagur replied loudly. "A chance to finally prove the strength of our men, of the possibilities that await them!"
He hushed the crowd with a hand and when the room silenced into a quiet hum, Dagur shuddered through a bout of ecstasy.
"Today marks a momentous occasion," he moaned. "Too long have we been exiled from Berk and her allies. Too long have they tried to maintain peace. We fought them, proved to them the power we possessed when we slaughtered and conquered their pathetic villages!"
Another roar washed through the crowd, and Astrid pulled against her soldier, who laughed in her ear.
"But word has it… they haven't taken a very good hint! Still, they try to rebuild their lives, spreading the word of the Saviour around our halls. But that Saviour is no match for us. They cannot best our steel, or my dragons. I have tamed Skrills, Whispering Deaths, dragons their hiccup of a man claimed could not be bested. Behold!"
Thorvane shrieked into the air again and dropped to the ground. Everyone marvelled at it with a horrified fascination, and Barb stared at it with trembling lips and a pale face.
"They think us children, incapable of greatness!" Dagur continued. "But I have found their secrets, and can lead you all on a higher path, a path where man and dragon fuse as one, and total control overcome all."
"Dagur, this is madness!" Alvin yelled.
"I'm not the one who's mad," Dagur growled. Berserkian men stopped Alvin as he tried to near the audience edge.
"I offer our people power," he continued. "I offer them what they'll need to conquer every surrounding island. I offer them protection from the scrutiny of peace-lovers who want nothing more than to see us fade from history! Let's see how peace saves them now, in the horror of the Pit."
The guard slammed a hand into Astrid's back, and she tumbled over the edge. She screamed before she hit the ground, rolling to protect herself, as she landed in the Pit. Stargazer fell next to her and Barb followed, crumpling as her injured knee shattered under her. She screamed and howled and Astrid gritted her teeth as a groan escaped her throat.
"Come on, bud!" Hiccup cried to Toothless over the wind. "We're almost there, almost there!"
Valka grunted and panted as they made their final stretch, over the ships, nearing the Underground every minute. Every person looked on, the hair on their skin standing on edge as their dragons slowly felt the darkness approach.
Astrid rolled to her hands and knees, crawling to her mother, who sat up, dazed.
"Stay by me," Astrid told her, wincing and holding her side. "Just stay by me."
"Look how they grovel to protect each other! Look how weak they are without their dragons!"
Barb sobbed and held her leg, cursing and spitting insults towards Dagur, trying to breathe through the pain.
"Where's your Saviour, now?!" Dagur yelled, laughing manically. Alvin struggled against the soldiers restraining him.
"We are supposed to protect these people!" he cried.
"I never agreed to that," Dagur retorted. He threw his hand up and a collection of weapons fell next to them. A shield with a broken handle, a spear, a short-sword, and an axe clattered next to Astrid's feet, and she looked at the axe with sweat beading on her forehead. A huge cell door on the other side of the arena opened slowly, and a violet Nadder ensnared in chains, hungry and rabid, scratched at the ground as it tried to get out, eyeing their flesh.
It wriggled under the gate and sprinted for them. Astrid grabbed Stargazer and leapt out of the way, running across the arena as the Nadder's jaws closed around Barb's screaming head. Astrid stumbled back into the wall as Barb screamed for her, flailing her arms as the Nadder lifted her up. Astird made no move to help before the Nadder chomped down. Barb's kicking legs went limp and the Nadder threw its head back, swallowing her body in two gulps. The crowd cheered and roared again, and Dagur laughed at her. The Nadder looked up, locking eyes with Astrid.
Run.
It charged after the two women, and Astrid shoved Stargazer out of the way. She fell and covered her head as Astrid jumped and rolled in the other direction. The Nadder careened with the wall, making the arena rumble. Astrid scrambled to her feet and she ran to the pile of weapons. She grabbed the spear and waved it around her head, screaming and bellowing as the Nadder lifted its head again. It loomed over Stargazer, but when it heard Astrid's cries, it looked over.
It ran after her and Astrid stood her ground, clutching the spear. The Nadder opened its jaws and for a moment, Astrid could see right down its throat. She held the spear up and, holding it sideways, she slammed it into the Nadder's jaw. The Nadder tried to chew down, but the metal stopped it. Astrid's back was crushed into the wall as the Nadder pushed against her harder and harder. The crowd cheered and waited to see if the dragon would close its jaws around her as it had done with Barb.
But Astrid returned to her training, and the sudden familiarity of battle took over her body. Adrenaline filled her veins with fire, and she screamed as she twisted the spear, dislocating the Nadder's jaw. The dragon screeched and flailed back as Astrid fell to her knees, holding her back. Dagur glared and his nose twitched as Astrid looked up. The Nadder cried and cowered, too afraid to fight.
I'm sorry! it cried. It shuddered in the corner and tried to move its wings to its mouth, but the chains held it still. Astrid leered over at Dagur.
"This is not what a man does!" she screamed at him. "Only a coward would do this!"
Dagur wrinkled his nose and he snapped his sneer towards his soldiers at the top of the arena. Astrid looked up and saw the men with the harpoons, the harpoons used for killing dragons if they turned on Dagur. Astrid's heart stopped as they fired it. She whirled her head as the harpoon shot over herself, planting itself through Stargazer's belly. It embedded itself into the wall behind her, and Stargazer's mouth gaped open as she tried to catch a breath. Dagur smirked as Stargazer choked for air, her hands around the harpoon as thick as her arm.
"MUM!" Astrid screamed. She sprinted to her as Dagur laughed again, and the crowd roared. Astrid grabbed her mother's head as it lolled forward. Stargazer's feet dangled over the ground as she gasped for air, trying to say words as blood trickled out of her mouth. Astrid frantically gave her head a shake. Panicking, she grabbed the harpoon and tried to pull it from her mother's body. It came free and Stargazer slumped into Astrid's arms. Sun Sap oozed from the wall behind her, coating the floor and smoking up as it hit the dry stone. Astrid dragged her mum away from the sap, cradling her in her lap desperately. "No, mum!"
But Stargazer reached up to her head as her life faded from herself, and she weakly pulled her bandages away from her eyes. Astrid faltered, tears soaking her face, as Stargazer gazed up at her gently. One eye was so scarred, it couldn't see, but the other looked upon her face. It was distorted, but a tear welled up over her eyelashes as her skin went pale. Astrid felt her mother's hand press itself over Astrid's belly, squeezing it with failing fingers. A smile flickered over Stargazer's lips, the sight of her daughter fixed in her final moments.
"Mum?" Astrid squeaked. "M-Mum? Can you hear me?"
"You… look like… your father," she coughed. Her last breath wheezed out of her lungs as blood pooled over Astrid's lap. Astrid tried to say her name over and over again, as if it would wake her up, as she sobbed heartbroken sobs over her mum's lifeless face. Stargazer's hand left Astrid's belly and Astrid screamed in agony as she realized she was gone.
Astrid's father sat looking at himself in the pond, his legs dangling over the edge of the shore. He hummed a tune to himself, sighing through his nose.
"I thought you hated that song," a voice whispered behind him. Astrid's father stopped humming. He slowly turned, looking up at the woman who had spoken to him. He blinked and stood up nervously, facing the woman."
"Sigourney?" he asked hoarsely. Stargazer, with her eyes returned to a healthy state, beamed at her husband. He grabbed her and held her against him, breathing in her smell as she sighed into his chest.
Sun Sap oozed its way out of the wall towards Astrid, who snarled and glared up at Dagur. He laughed and opened his arms towards the crowd. Astrid pushed her mother's body off her lap and she made it to her feet, her body shaking and her blood the hottest she had ever felt it. She wanted his head, she wanted to see his body crumple and bleed.
Assst…
Astrid blinked, a distant sound connecting with her jaggedly. A sound she recognized, a voice known to her.
Asssstriiid?
Toothless?
Astrid made a dash for the axe as Dagur continued to laugh. She slid to it on her backside, snatching it up in her itching fingers. She twirled it in her hands, gripping it in her red hands. She trembled is agonized fury fuelled her steps. Dagur, too enraptured by the adoration of his men, didn't notice her as she stormed to the Nadder. She felt no more pain, no more restraint, as she raised the axe over her head. The Nadder squealed and flinched as Astrid brought the axe down.
Metal connected with metal as Astrid broke the brittle lock securing the Nadder's chains around its body. The rusty lock snapped open and the chains rattled and clanged together. Astrid grabbed one of them and hauled herself onto the Nadder's back as it wriggled free, flapping its wings freely for the first time in years. They were weak, but Astrid felt the Nadder come to, gratitude seeping into Astrid's mind. Astrid held onto one of the Nadder's spikes as it roared and shrieked, popping it's jaw back into place with a wing.
Dagur and Thorvane both spun around and scowled at Astrid, who stood atop the dragon with expert balance. Berkians and alliance members threw their fists in the air.
"Saviour! The Saviour!" they screamed. Berserkians shut them up by grabbing them, and Astrid pointed her axe to Alvin.
"Dagur has been lying to you all!" she sneered, tears and blood still staining her face. "This coward has brought us all into a trap!"
The crowd murmured and hummed as the Nadder danced in place.
"You think he built this place on his own?!" she continued. Alvin and the soldiers holding him all furrowed their brows in thought. Astrid shook her head. "Look around you, brothers and sisters of Berk! Look at the walls, look at how they've been smoothed by dragon scales! Alvin, he's brought us into a dragon's nest!"
"Shut it!" Dagur replied. Thorvane took a step forward, but the Nadder hissed, twitching its head and fanning out its spikes. Thorvane hesitated and Dagur fumed.
"What are you saying, Astrid?!" Alvin asked.
"We need to leave, we need to get out now!"
"Where will we go?" a Berkian woman asked, throwing herself to the arena's edge, staring down at Astrid frantically. "They destroyed our home!"
"If we go now, there are people nearby who can take us to safety!" Astrid replied. Dagur howled and Thorvane screamed.
"You lie!" he screamed.
"Alvin, Hiccup and Birdsong are outside with ships, I saw them!" Astrid cried. "If we don't go, Dagur will kill us all! What Barb told you is all true, Hiccup and I possess magic I can't explain right now, but you have to believe me! Dagur is much more powerful than us, and he wants nothing more than to take your people from you and enslave them!"
"Birdsong turned against me?" Alvin asked hoarsely, baring his teeth.
"No, she's come to get us all out of here, she's the one who found out about this place!"
"ENOUGH!" Dagur screeched. Thorvane bellowed and charged towards Astrid and the Nadder, who both screamed and jumped to the side as Thorvane crashed into the wall behind them. Dagur slashed his sword towards Astrid's face and Astrid fell back, the blade soaring over her face by a hair. The Nadder rushed out of the way as Astrid sat up again, gripping the Nadder spikes as it ran. The Skrill shook his head and gnashed his teeth, running after them again. The Nadder flung its tail back and spikes flew for Thorvane's eyes. The Skrill yelled in pain, but kept running for them. The Nadder ducked under the Skrill's jaw, fanning up its spikes. Astrid swung her axe and Thorvane screamed as it cut his throat. He reared back and thrashed his head. The wound was shallow, not threatening, and Dagur screamed again.
"GET BACK HERE!" Dagur screamed.
"Everyone, run to the docks! Run for the Saviour, run for the Spirit Weaver! They will take you to your families, just get out!"
People began running, shoving past each other for the hallway leading to the main hall.
"No! I will not let him take this away from me again!" Alvin howled. Dagur sneered at Astrid.
"They'll never get out, not with the snow closing the port. How is the Saviour supposed to find you now?"
Thorvane charged once more, slapping the Nadder in the face with a razor sharp wing. The Nadder screamed and howled as blood burst from its eyes, blinded by Thorvane's strike. The Skrill opened its mouth and closed its jaws around the Nadder's throat. He lifted the Nadder up, crushing it against the wall. Astrid's leg, trapped between beast and stone, hacked at Thorvane's face with her axe. Dagur slashed out with his own sword, knocking Astrid's weapon from her hands.
Thorvane scraped the dying Nadder and Astrid up the wall. Astrid's leg throbbed in pain and Astrid gasped, trying to wriggle free, the bones in her leg bending unnaturally. She twisted her head, trying to bear the pain, as Thorvane shoved Astrid's face next to a torch embedded in the wall. She pursed her lips and looked to her mother's body on the floor.
"Berserkers, man the ships! Prepare for war! Bring me the Night Fury! Cut any deserters down! The Underground is ours, and ours alone!"
"No!" Astrid screamed. Berserkers and Outcasts loyal to Alvin and Dagur all drew their swords, crying out a proud war cry as they ran after the fleeing prisoners.
"Release the Pit dragons, I want them to feast on Berkian flesh!" Alvin cried. "We will not be exiled again! We will protect our home!"
"No, wait, you have to believe me, Alvin!" Astrid screamed. Thorvane shoved Astrid up the wall again, and Astrid cried out as her leg twisted painfully.
"Birdsong brought Hiccup right into my hands," Dagur laughed. "And when I destroy you, he's next, just like your pathetic excuse for a mother."
Astrid grabbed the torch from the wall and stabbed the butt-end of it into Thorvane's eye, screaming as she thrust it deeper and deeper into the dragon's head.
The dragon skittered back, pulling free of the torch. The Nadder hit the ground, and Astrid struggled to her feet. Her leg didn't break, thank the gods, and she flipped the torch over in her hand. The remainder of the crowd all charged for the docks as Astrid hovered the flame over the hole in the wall made by the harpoon that had killed her mother. The Sun Sap flowed from it like cut skin, and Astrid thrust the flame over the explosive liquid, as the Pit emptied like a jug of water. Berkians and Outcasts alike all rushed to save themselves as the Berserkers ran them down.
Dagur kicked Thorvane with his steel-clad boots and the two of them raced towards Astrid. She looked up him through her hair, a curse on her lips.
"I am the Harbinger," she told him under her breath.
She opened her hand, dropping the torch into the puddle of sap at her feet.
A bright light erupted in the distance. Hiccup covered his eyes with his forearm as Toothless hissed. Every dragon reared, flapping their wings about to stop themselves from advancing. The ships below all sailed on, but everyone stared forward at the huge blast of light.
I heard her! Toothless cried loudly. I just heard her, a few moments ago!
The sound hit them next, and everyone slapped their hands over their ears. The dragons all shrieked and grimaced, disoriented by the blast. They all remained in the sky, shaken and bewildered.
"Come on!" Valka cried.
Astrid's feet left the ground as the explosion ricocheted her body into the wall behind her. The air flew out of her as her back smashed into the stone, and heat seared the skin upon her face, and the explosion made her ears bleed. Cracks shattered across the ceiling and blew forth, showering the arena in rubble and letting the light of day in. Debris fell down as the light disappeared, fire licking up the walls as Sun Sap lapped it up from every new crevice created by the deafening blast.
A huge chunk of the roof caved in and smashed through the floor, breaking it apart like eggshells. Astrid fell to her knees as the ground gave way under her feet, and she fell down, down, down, failing her arms about to catch herself. Cold air whisked past her burned face as darkness consumed her.
She landed on a soft, uneven surface and rolled to the side limply, tumbling until her body hit the cold, wet stone. Her stomach and chest hit the ground first, followed by her head. She cracked it painfully, but something kept her awake. Broken, battered, and barely alive, Astrid's legs twitched. She was half-submerged in icy water, her legs and waist completely drenched. She couldn't breathe, but a terrible pain shot through her back like lightning bolts, coursing up her body. Her insides felt scrambled, and gut-wrenching pain sent her body into helpless spasms.
Stargazer and her husband pulled away from their embrace, a sudden bang shattering any solace within the dreamland. A crack spiderwebbed its way across the floor of the cove, splitting the lake in two. Everyone lurched to the side and tumbled as the lake drained into the open crack. The weaver looked up, her face tense, as she knotted a woven rope between her fingers.
Hiccup gritted his teeth, fear stopping his heart for a split second. "Come on!" he screamed to everyone as they picked up their pace. It would take them at least a few minutes to get to the island in the distance, and Hiccup couldn't help but think of that as everyone raced for the mountain on fire.