I think it's Saturday now, which means I've been a guest in Alvin's dungeon for a week. The girl with the dandelion scent hasn't been back since she slipped me a paper-wrapped package of medicinal powder on Tuesday. Instead, a plump stoop-shouldered woman old enough to be my grandmother has cared for the prisoners in silence.
I decide it's a good thing I haven't seen the girl again. Thinking about revolution might distract me from pressing issues already on my plate. The most important of those is escape, but I'm not sure I'm well enough to outrun any pursuing guards as I sprint toward the gates. I estimate another two to three days before my broken rib will allow me to run without doubling over in pain.
Less if I can find a cloth to bind my chest.
I suppose I could use the shirt off my back, until I realize I'm wearing my Dragon Conqueror uniform. That's out of the question. Especially when Rachel in the cell across the aisle watches me every second of the day like a desperate baby bird hoping for a worm.
Alvin hasn't visited again, and the anticipation stretches my nerves until I want something to happen just to get it over with. I'd think he'd relish the opportunity to taunt me. Hurt me. Make sure I know he's won. I decide to take his absence as a sign that he plans on putting me in the arena soon to train his dragons.
So I focus on readying my body for escape. Still, waiting for the inevitable festers in the back of my mind like an infection. I could use the arena to my advantage. But I assume Alvin will be suspecting that. I've spent the last few days sitting or lying on the dungeon floor, doing my best to look hopelessly injured while I tighten and hold my muscles until they shake from exertion.
I've also done my best to honor the grief I feel for Mulch with a solid plan of action I think would make him proud.
But mostly, I've spent my time thinking of Skullette. The way her laugh makes me want to join her before I even know why she's laughing. The light in her eyes when she stares me down and challenges my opinions. The curve of her hip as she walks out of my house and into the Plaza.
I used to feel awkward and uncomfortable with the single-minded intensity she aims at anything in front her, and distancing myself from her gave me peace. Now, the distance between us opens a hollow space inside that can only be filled by her. I don't know how to explain it, and I don't even bother trying.
It's enough to know I need her like I've never needed anyone else.
I promise myself it won't be much longer before I'm ready to break out of this hellhole and get back to her.
My food ran out this morning, but I'm not worried. I won't be locked in this cell much longer. Still, when the dungeon door creaks open, I hope it's the girl because more food means more strength.
But instead of the girl's light footsteps, or the dogged shuffling of the older woman, I hear crisp, purposeful boot steps striding toward my cell.
Alvin.
The next confrontation is upon me, and I need two things from it – information and a reprieve from further injury. I flip around to put my injured rib against the wall, out of reach of Alvin's boot, and begin planning as he orders a guard to open my cell door.
He enters my cell, his beard catching and releasing the flickering torchlight like some macabre game of cat and mouse. I pretend I can barely lift my head to see him. I've been pretending this sort of weakness since I woke up cured of my fever. So if he's had me watched, this won't raise alarms.
He laughs, a vulgar, ugly sound full of arrogance. "Look at you." In three long steps, he's at my side. "What a pathetic excuse for a man."
I let my head roll to the side a bit and peer up at him.
"I leave you alone in this dungeon for a week. The great Dragon Conqueror Hiccup. The man who always has a plan." His boot lashes out, connects with my shoulder, and sends me sprawling onto the cell floor.
It hurts, but not as much as I pretend it does. He needs to feel I'm already beaten, or he'll never give me what I need.
"And here you sit. Still locked up. Still unable to make good on your promises." His smile is vicious as he plants his boot on the throbbing burned skin of my neck and leans down.
I don't have to fake the pain this time. Waves of agony roll along my jaw and send dazzling lights exploding through my brain.
"You haven't beaten them," I say, pushing the words teeth clenched tight against the raw, unending anguish eating at me.
He leans closer, grinding his boot into my neck. "What did you say you worthless cur?"
"My father. You haven't beaten them." I draw in a shaky breath, tasting the leather and steel of his boot on the dungeon's fetid air. "He's stronger than you think."
"He's a man who's lost his beloved wife, and soon his precious son."
His voce oozes his special brand of pride – two parts power, one part blind ego.
Perfect.
"He can take your guards. Savage. You. He's smarter than you give him credit for."
He snorts, but I can almost hear the doubt slipping in.
"You won't know if you're right until it's too late to make adjustments." I say.
"You'd like me to think that. But when he comes to rescue you, boy, you can bet your life he'll be alone." He laughs again. "And you are betting you life, aren't you? Because the second I have what I want from you, you're dead."
He isn't going to tell me what I need to know. Unfortunately, he's too smart for that. I either need to find another source of information, or wing it once I get out of here.
He stands, his boot sliding across my burned skin like a dozen razors. I breathe heavily, trying to control the waves of pain racking me, and see Rachel staring at me with horror on her face.
Which is interesting.
She doesn't want to hurt me. Because she can't stand to see another suffer?
If I can't get Alvin to give me what I want, maybe I can force him to convince Rachel to do so instead.
I curl up on the floor in case he decides to kick any of my vital organs. "I'll happily bet my life that Skullette will kill Savage when he attacks her."
"She's a girl." Alvin's voice dismissive as he walks toward my cell door.
Time to play the big card. The one I hope will scare Rachel into spilling her guts.
"Every other girl in her village was raised with dolls and tea sets and proper etiquette. Skullette was sword sighting, clubbing out practice dummy, and learning how to eviscerate a man at close range with her knife."
Rachel worries her blanket with nervous fingers.
"Savage won't even know what hit him. You've sent the man to his death."
Alvin shakes his head and walks out of my cell. "Do you really think I care which one of them comes back alive as long as I get what I want?"
The cell door slams shut. "Next time I see you, boy, my guards will escort you to the arena and we can get started on training my dragons. After that, your execution." He leaves, taking his guards with him, and the silence in his wake is punctured by sharp, gut-wrenching sobs from Rachel.
I wait, willing her to look at me, and finally get my wish. My voice is a thin whisper of sound as I say, "I can stop her. I can get to them in time."
She frowns but inches closer to the bars on her door. "How? I thought you could get out somehow. The girl said you could. But you haven't. You just lie there." Her voice is a faint breath of sound nearly lost beneath the sizzle of the torches lining the corridor.
I have to hope the snapping flames and heavy stone walls are enough to keep the other prisoners from overhearing us.
I sit up and face her, careful not to look like I can move with ease. "Of course I haven't made it look like I'm anything but badly injured. You think they need that information?"
She chews on her lower lip.
"I'm telling the truth about Skullette. She's a fierce warrior. And she left here already angry and hoping for blood. Savage and his other soldiers will never make it."
"She's something." She says. "But you need to leave to aid your father."
"I will. But I need one more piece of information first. A piece I hope you have for me."
"What is it?"
There's no resistance in her tone. She believes me. Believing I can save my own girlfriend from becoming a killer, or worse getting killed herself. I dislike the sudden weight of responsibility I feel in the face of her trust.
"I just need to know if there have been any discussions of my father surrendering to Alvin."
"None that I've heard. But I did over hear the guards discussing about a possible invasion that might happen for them to rescue you."
I'm flooded with relief. Knowing my father won't surrender eases me, but the thought of them continuing with the original plan – to blow up the Outcast capital city and drive Alvin out - only encourages me to escape soon so they can have my help.
"The battle's not going to be pretty. But I promise you, I'll come back."
"Why would you ever come back here?" she asks.
"Because I'm not leaving you here. Any of you." The words roll easily off my tongue, and I wander how long they've been breeding in the back of my mind.
Probably from the moment I saw the life leave Mulch's eyes at the whim of Alvin. I can't stomach the thought of one more innocent victim crushed beneath the bloody boot of the Outcasts.
"It's time for change, and I'm going t deliver it."
She's silent for a moment, her hands tearing at the blanket, and then says, "Please, take him down."
"I will. I promise."
With that, she shifts on her blanket, reading herself for bed. Before she closes her eyes, after she drapes the blanket over her womb, I ask her the question I never thought I'd ask an Outcast prisoner.
"What is it?" I ask.
She looks to me in confusion. Then I wait until the snores tell me the other prisoners are all asleep before rephrasing my question.
"The gender of the baby?"
"We don't know. But we're hoping for a girl." She says so innocently that whatever defenses I had toward her before, melt away like the torches.
As she settles down as best as she can, I pull my cloak over my body. And out of the corner of my eye, I see her womb flinch a little. I turn my head to see, and it happens again. Rachel rubs her womb as if to calm the child within. As if it can feel her touch from within.
"Everything okay?" I ask.
"It's fine. Just has the hiccups." She says with a smile. Then she rests her head against the stone wall.
The next morning, I wake up to find the torches completely burned out. Leaving the dungeon a dark gaping hole. I take the opportunity and struggle to my feet for the first time in a week. I pace my cell, willing the blood to flow into my legs fast enough for me to leave before a guard decides to investigate my conversation with Rachel last night. The dungeon is full of heavy sounds of dripping water and heavy sleep.
My legs still tingle, but they'll hold me if I need to run. Approaching the far right corner of my cell, the one with the draft seeping in through the cracks, I run my fingers along the damp, craggy stone, judging distances and looking for a weakness I'm not convinced is there.
Today's the day I'll get to be out in the open. Out of this stuffy place and into an arena full of fresh air. While I'm still trapped, it'll be a better improvement. When I hear the latch of the door unlock. I slide down the wall, my back against it and in walks the seventeen year old guard who licked his lips at me before.
I shudder at the memory.
He walks down the aisle, annoyingly knocking the hilt of his sword against the iron bars, having it echo around the room. My eyes squint at the noise, while other prisoners jump and yelp at the rude awakening. He stops two cells down from mine. He lowers his sword and just looks at me.
"You're coming with me today, boy." He says in a raspy tone. I pray to Thor he means he's taking me to Alvin.
He opens my cell door and I pretend to struggle to my feet. I grip the wall for support, but when I feel him grab my arm and yank me out, I stumble into Rachel's cell door. She flinches back with a start. Luckily I was able to grab my cloak.
I push myself off the bars and hold my middle to dull the pain from my ribs. I wrap my cloak around my body securing the buttons. I hold myself as I walk past the guard and when I do, he shoves me through the arched doorway. He follows and slams the main cell door behind him.
We walk through the stone corridor and suddenly I want to be back in my cell. I can see the daylight leaking through the crack in the walls, desperately trying to give the dull place life. Two guards are posted at the door eyeball me up and down. When they see the guard behind me, the one on the left reaches and opens the door.
I lift my chin as I stand as straight as I can. The door slowly creaks open with an irritating squeal. For fifteen seconds, my eyes are dazzled by the bright sunlight and I'm conscious of only a strong wind with the hopeful smell of pine trees.
It takes my eyes to adjust to realize my hood is up. I push it back, revealing my pale skin to the sunlight. I drop my head back and let it scorch my skin. Feeling so good to remember the pain of sunburn. The wind casting my hair. Reminds me of flying with Toothless.
But my embracement was short lived when the guard pushes me forward and orders me to go right. We walk across a causeway that leads to a small turret looking out at the ocean. Behind it, small area that closely resembles the Plaza back on Berk. Small shops and houses intermixed on either side, leaving a wide open aisle with a big cobblestone circle at the epicenter.
We head down the stone steps toward the plaza. Several Outcast citizens eye me, suspiciously and I have to resist the impulse to pull my hood over my head. The only thing keeping me is the bright light and soothing breeze.
As we keep walking, I remain silent as I peer back and forth at the village. I can see we're nearing the arena when the chain covering is in sight. I have no idea what Alvin plans on doing with me. Either he really thinks I can train his dragons, or he's not even going to try and just wants to see me die.
I already know that they have the same dragons as we do, but god knows what they're capable of. I mean, they were practically raised on Outcast Island.
We're nearing the towering chain dome when I see Alvin standing adjacent to where I'm standing. He looks in my direction and smiles that eerie smile. The smile that makes you think he has something planned.
I'm escorted down below a ramp like at the Dragon Academy. The rusted gates are turned open. We take three steps into the arena before he brutally pushes me hard enough that I'm propelled forward.
I stumble over the edge of my cloak and crumple to the floor, into the middle of the arena. Twisting my body in midair so I land with my back to him.
I lift my head and I'm facing a dark hole that looks like the entrance to a cage. I push myself up, rubbing my middle to ease the pain of my rib from when I fell. When I drop my arm, my cloak conceals my entire body.
I look up and see Alvin still smiling. I squeeze my eyes shut and shake my head to get the image out of my head. Then I turn to face the hole again. The creaking of gates strains my ears. It slowly rises.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, as the gate slowly comes to a rusted stop.