4 Battle Plans
Toothless snored peacefully while curled up on the soft rug in front of the fireplace. The Kings private library was adjacent to his rooms and was a wonderful place to relax at the end of a long day.
"You spoil that dragon" Astrid noted.
"You're just jealous because Stormfly is back in Staggshund" Hiccup replied as Astrid playfully poked her tongue out at him.
"Stormfly, that's the tall blue one with the tail spikes; right?" Boron pondered as he contemplated his almost empty brandy glass.
"You mean the 'Beautiful' tall blue one with the tail spikes" Astrid corrected the former king just as the library door creaked open.
"Sorry to leave you all for so long" King Joric apologised as he strode in flanked by Sigfus and Kylan "I just received a report about strange goings on in New Loren and I'm afraid it's about you two and your dragon friends."
"Darius" Hiccup and Astrid said simultaneously as they looked guiltily at each other.
"Who?" Sigrid was the first to ask.
"Darius Gershwin" Hiccup informed them all "he's a spy we met in New Loren."
"Semi-retired" Astrid added.
"You met a spy in New Loren, wait a minute... you WENT TO NEW LOREN?" Joric fumed.
"It wasn't on purpose" Astrid pleaded.
"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO JUST FLY OVER IT! YOU TOLD ME THAT YOU COULD FLY SO HIGH UP THAT NOBODY WOULD KNOW THAT YOU WERE THERE AND NOW YOU TELL ME THAT YOU LANDED THERE AND MET A SPY?"
"Joric can roar almost as loud as Stoick" Astrid noted.
"Now calm down Joric" Sigrid smiled "and let's just get the full story before we jump to conclusions."
King Joric was beside himself but fortunately so was Sigrid and as he looked into her eyes, his blood pressure started to slowly go back down.
"Alright then... tell us what happened down there."
"It happened like this" Hiccup began "we followed your directions south over Port Yoric and much later over the castle that you told us about, but about half an hour later Stormfly started having some trouble keeping up with the other dragons and so we had to find a place to set down even though we were still in New Loren."
"Hiccup found a spot on a high, steeply sloped hill far away from any town" Astrid continued "and so we set down there for a break and we were sure that no one had seen us... but... someone did."
"We had to lighten Stormfly's pack and so I hid a satchel with some of our heavier gear in it and when Astrid and I went back a few days later to pick it up again... we err... also found this semi-retired spy hiding in the bushes."
"Oh this is just wonderful" Joric sank into a chair with his head in his hands "the rulers of New Loren are so paranoid, that this could start a war with Elydonia."
"We didn't tell him where we were from" Astrid informed them "and we departed to the east so he wouldn't know that we were coming here."
"You see Joric" Sigrid interjected "even when things go wrong, these two keep cool heads and do their best."
"I'm sorry for losing my temper everyone" Joric sighed "I just don't want to see Elydonia plunged into war with New Loren anytime soon... or ever for that matter."
"And that's just one of the reasons why I'm marrying you" Sigrid kissed his forehead.
"I suppose we'd better tell you the rest too" Hiccup admitted.
"There's more?" Joric looked up worried.
"Yup... and some of it's not good."
The radiating heat of the camp fire felt wonderful to young Victor. The evening air was crisp and so he made the most of the warmth while he could because he would not be sitting there very long. As an assistant to the apprentice of the master spy, he had already been taught many things in the last five years and one of the most important of these, was how to know when you were being followed. Since the men were rather sloppy in their task, Victor had noticed their presence very early in his journey and so rather than go south and straight home, Victor had taken an easterly side track and set up camp for the night to lead his trackers on the wrong path. He had built the fire and made it appear that he had settled down for the night to lull the men on his trail into dropping their guard.
Six years ago, when he had first arrived in the town of Krundon, still gripping the back step of the master's carriage, Victor had just begun what turned out to be a lifelong journey.
"What is your name?" was the first thing that his master had asked him upon discovering that the boy had succeeded in following the two men home.
"Victor sir."
"Congratulations Victor" the older man smiled "you have just made your first error; never tell anyone your real name... in fact you should avoid giving any name if it can be avoided."
The first year in the master's house was a wonderful time for Victor for even though he spent most of his time doing very mundane things like cleaning and helping in the kitchen, he was also learning much about the basics of the masters craft but it was the following five years as the apprentices assistant and message delivery boy where he learned many of the skills that enabled him to make his escape from the men who were attempting to follow him home. He knew it was only a matter of time before they discovered that they had been fooled but he was very sure that it would not be until the next morning before they discovered that they had just spent the night watching a wooden stump with a rock on top, covered with a dark brown coat. Sometimes it was just too easy thought Victor as he continued on his way south.
"I suppose you only did what you had to do" King Joric sighed.
The tale that Hiccup and Astrid had just told, left everyone a little stunned. Joric had assumed that there could be nothing worse than to hear that an espionage agent from across the southern border had discovered allies of the Elydonian Kings in New Loren, because that would constitute an invasion, but then to find out that the Dragon Riders had engaged in a little spying themselves before fighting a pitched battle against a group of animal trappers had almost left him speechless.
"Nobody knows that we are your allies" Hiccup pointed out "so we shouldn't have any trouble."
"We can never be sure about that" Sigfus informed him "the way we found out about all this was from one of the New Loren border guards who is not above selling us some information in order to supplement his meagre income. You may have departed to the east but you were first seen coming in from the north; straight from Elydonia. I understand that this Darius told you that he was not going to send any more information about you to his employer; is that right?"
"Yes; he was fascinated by the dragons and I think he plans to try and find out more about them... out of his own curiosity" Astrid informed them.
"Can you believe him though?" Joric asked suspiciously.
"The weird thing is" Hiccup noted "although I don't fully trust him, I do believe him... mostly."
"That raises another point" Kylan chimed in "if Darius sent his message the first time he saw you, it would note that you came from the north. But if he told you the truth about not sending another, then nobody but Darius himself would be aware that you departed to the east and so the eyes of New Loren's Emperor would still be pointed here."
"...oh crap" Joric exclaimed.
They all sat in silence for a few minutes just pondering the problem.
"I suppose the worst thing about all this is not knowing who knows what and what they might do or when they may do it" Hiccup spoke at last.
"Can you run that by me again?" Sigrid asked confused.
"Err... no I don't think I can; it was hard enough the first time."
"Well then" Astrid stood up with a determined look on her face "we'll just have to go back and find out."
"WHAT!" Joric exclaimed "YOU CAN'T GO BACK."
"Why not?"
Joric was so surprised to hear this last comment, that it took him a few seconds to realise that it had not come from one of the Dragon Riders, but from Kylan - one of his own people.
"Are you serious?" King Joric fumed "if they go back..."
"Then they may be able to find out what we need to know... as well as mislead the people there into thinking that they did NOT come from here" Kylan dared to interrupt.
"I was surprised at the idea too Your Majesty" Sigfus admitted "but she makes a very valid point and I do believe it would be a bad idea to just stay here with our heads in the sand hoping for the best."
"This is just too much" Joric sighed "let me sleep on it and we'll discuss it some more over breakfast."
Fotherington sat in the front room with the window ajar and the house in almost total darkness. The only light present was the soft glow that emitted from the fireplace in the parlour. He was very concerned that Victor had not yet returned from the capital with a reply from the General and he suspected that young boy may have been seized because of the master's disappearance. Fotherington had done his best to word his report in such a way as to placate the General so he would accept that the master had simply gone off to retire, just as he had often said that he would. It was becoming clear though, that the paranoia that New Loren was famous for had reared its ugly head once more. The question that was now foremost in Fotherington's mind was, should he try and find the boy, or was it too late and should he flee for his life? Fortunately for him, the sound of the back door from the kitchen heralded the boys return; Fotherington knew it was Victor because the door was locked and only the houses three residences knew how release the secret bolts.
"I assume you ran into trouble?" he asked the boy.
"Yes sir" he replied "I was followed but I shook them off with the false camp manoeuvre."
"Successfully?"
"I believe so sir."
"Hmmmm... we'd better not risk it so pack the cart whilst I arm the traps; we may not be able to return."
"Understood sir" Victor ran off to complete his task.
King Joric made sure that he left orders with the kitchen staff for an early breakfast to be prepared for him, his advisors and his friends from Berk before he retired for the night, so he was pleased with the aroma of a wonderful repast as he approached the royal dining room early the next day but he was surprised to find that the Vikings had started without him.
"Good morning dear" Sigrid greeted him with a smile "your cooks are truly amazing."
"I'll say" Hiccup agreed as he dispatched the contents of his plate that contained not a single egg dish.
"I didn't expect to see this" Joric noted.
"Well we wanted to get an early start" Sigrid informed him.
"That's right" Astrid added "Hiccup and Sigrid have to go and pick up the dragons and drop Dianta home before they can come and pick me up so we thought that we'd better not take our time."
"When you say 'Pick you up', what then?"
"Then we leave for New Loren dear."
"But I can't go to New Loren" Joric declared.
"Not you dear, us" Sigrid indicated the Dragon Riders.
"But I said last night that we would discuss this over breakfast."
"Certainly; we can discuss it for the next half hour at least" Hiccup agreed.
"But you all appear to have decided to go no matter what I say" Joric sighed.
"Yes we have" Astrid smiled.
"I am king you know."
"And you're a wonderful king dear" Sigrid looked at him proudly.
"So you shouldn't really be doing anything without my permission."
"Ah... but we're not married yet" Sigrid pointed out.
"And we're not Elydonian" Astrid added.
"Where are you going Joric?" Sigrid asked.
"Back to bed; say hi to Sigfus and Kylan for me when they get here."
"Do you think we've upset him?" Hiccup was worried.
"Oh he'll get over it" Sigrid was adamant "he loves me too much to let it bother him for long."
"We'd better not put that love to the test though" Astrid noted.
"Agreed" Sigrid nodded "not till after the ceremony."
I think I may have worked out what it was that I didn't like about my last story; I'm not good with short stuff so I might just turn this into another multi act adventure and see how it goes. It is currently taking me about 5 days to do a chapter so sorry that they are not getting posted very often. Thanks, Marty and Moon =^..^=