8 Out of the Frying Pan
The Horseman who had escorted Astrid and Victor into the General's presence, reached for his sword as the stranger in the corner stepped out into the light.
"Oh you can put that away" the man declared in an aloof manner "General Karoc can vouch for me."
"You've gone too far this time Borges" Karoc sneered "Emperor Scias will here of this."
"I am here on Imperial business General; the Emperor requests your presence at once."
"THAT IS NO REASON FOR YOU TO SNEAK INTO MY PRIVATE ROOMS AND..."
"Sneak in General Karoc? I simply entered through the door and awaited your arrival" Borges declared smugly "and you were so busy with your paperwork and then with these err... people that I thought that it would be... shall we say, impolite of me to interrupt."
"Who's this guy"? Astrid whispered to Victor. She was beginning to think that this truly was a nation of spies as she had first thought.
Victor had heard of this man but had never met him. What Victor's master was to espionage, Borges was to cruelty and torture.
"What does the Emperor want? Karoc asked sharply.
"I'm sure that do not know and it would be unwise of you question his motives, but I do think that he would be fascinated to hear about the invasion from these... Sky Riders is it?"
"I have the report for the Emperor right here" General Karoc picked up a set of leather bound papers from his desk.
"And just when were you going to give it to him?" Borges accused.
It was a very old trick of General Karoc's to keep a copy of his secrets close by so that if he was caught out, he could pretend that he was merely waiting until the report was completed before handing it over to the Emperor.
"I was going to talk with the Emperor as soon as I had all the facts, plus I'll need to make some kind of sense out of what these children have just said. You heard them Borges; I couldn't just bring all that nonsense to Scias without putting it all into some kind of perspective."
"Just remember General; no one is above suspicion."
"I'm glad you put it that way" General Karoc smiled back.
"Ruprecht!" Astrid whispered again with urgency but Victor just made it clear that she should be quiet and just listen.
"Then I suggest that we present ourselves to His Imperial Highness at once" Borges insisted.
"Of course" General Karoc agreed and ordered the horseman "Percy, bring the children."
Fotherington lurked in the shadows about twenty yards away from the arched entrance to the General's home and observed everything that was going on around him. Hiccup stood impatiently out in the street and pretended to beg from the people who ignored him as they passed by. He wished that he could know exactly how long it would be before Astrid would appear, and they could all return again to Elydonia for Sigrid's wedding; he just wanted to put all this behind them and move on. It felt like an eternity had passed when at last, five men walked out of the general's home with Astrid and Victor in the middle of the group.
"Oh no!" Fotherington gasped as he made his way to Hiccup, trying to look calm while his heart raced.
"What's going on?" Hiccup whispered as Fotherington strode passed without acknowledging him.
"Follow me, say nothing and don't look at them" Fotherington ordered.
Hiccup didn't know why he should be worried, but he was. He had no hope of keeping up with Fotherington while still using the crutches, but he did manage to keep an eye on the back of his head as they moved through the city crowd. The palace guards snapped to attention as Astrid and her companions passed through the portcullis while Hiccup watched her disappear inside.
"Psst" he heard as he walked by a dark alley on the opposite side of the courtyard.
"I haven't touched a drop in weeks" Hiccup whispered.
"Get in here!" Fotherington whispered back.
"What on earth is going on now?" Hiccup asked after he had moved into the darkness.
"That man who was with the General…"
"What about him?" Hiccup asked concerned.
"I've been warned about him" Fotherington looked worried "his name is Borges and he is… well… kind of in the same business as my master was and I am now."
"You mean he's a spy" Hiccup stated.
"I wouldn't say that; Victor's limited skills are far better than his, but he has a very high success rate at gathering information.'
"If he's such a bad spy, how does he…"
"Let me put it this way; if anyone around here asks you how you lost your leg, all you would have to say is 'Borges' and they would pretend like they'd never spoken to you."
"Ah… sounds like a nice guy."
"I'll stay here and keep watch" Fotherington insisted "you'd better get back to the old farm and wait for dark. If we haven't all come back by then, meet me on the road outside the city; with your friends."
Hiccup sighed to himself. He didn't want to leave Astrid behind but if Fotherington was right, then he would need Sigrid and the dragons. It was slow going for the Dragon Master as he hobbled through the city on the crutches he was forced to use, but as soon as he was well outside the gates, Hiccup sat down on the ground and refitted his leg enabling him to run once more.
The interior of the Emperors palace was just as ornate as Bolthorn Castle in Elydonia but in a very different style. The banners, landscape paintings and tapestries that adorned Sigrid's future home were almost non-existent in New Loren apart from a few paintings and drawings of strange beasts, some of which made the dragons look like cuddly pets. There was a large winged lion with a segmented tail that looked just right for stabbing, a fiery bird with seven flaming tails, a half woman/half spider, even a dragon, but the one that caught Astrid's eye was hooked beaked bird/lion with huge talons.
"What's that one?" she whispered to Victor as they were marched by.
"Shh… later" he whispered back.
Important looking people sauntered by while others hurried about doing the important things that important people didn't think were important. The party climbed a wide marble staircase at the end of a long hall only to find another long hall when they reached the top. This led straight into a massive reception room lined with seven guards on each side and a raised throne near the end.
"You will wait here" Borges demanded.
He strode off the other end of the room and disappeared behind the right side curtain. Fifteen minutes dragged slowly by before two young men carrying long brass horns marched in from behind Astrid and took up positions in the centre of the room and stood to attention. An elderly man emerged from behind the same curtain into which Borges had gone and made his way to the bottom step in front of the throne.
"ALL HERE PRESENT, DEFER TO HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY SCIAS: RULER OF NEW LOREN, EMPEROR OF PANTORO AND THE CROACUS ISLANDS."
The horns blew a loud and elaborate fanfare as an extremely regal looking man in gold braded white robes glided down from a stairway behind the throne. The guards all snapped to attention and Astrid felt Victor lightly slap the back of her hand. He did this to draw her attention to the fact that she was the only one there not bowing.
"Oh… whoops" she gasped and bowed along with the others.
Scias took his place on the throne just as the fanfare came to its impressive conclusion. The Emperor then gave a nod to the elderly man who had announced his arrival.
"GENERAL KAROC WILL APPROACH THE THRONE" the man ordered.
Out of the corner of her eye, Astrid noticed everybody ceased their bowing at that point and the General began to make his way up to the foot of the throne while the clacking sound of his shiny, hard soled boots echoed loudly around the room. He dropped to one knee in front of the throne and waited for the Emperor to speak.
"I am informed that you have been keeping news of an invasion from me General Karoc" the Emperor's voice dripped with even more venom than Borges.
"With all respect Your Imperial Highness" the General bow his head again "you have been misinformed. I have commenced a report about a group of strange flying creatures that had been in the vicinity of the village of Krundon, but the report is incomplete and I only became aware of the possible invasion in the last hour. What's more Your Majesty, much of what I have is still unsubstantiated rumour and hearsay."
Without a word, the Emperor ordered Borges to fetch the report by simply twitching his right hand. Hurrying down the steps almost to the point of falling, Borges snatched the report that the General held and hurried back to the top again. He offered the pages to the Emperor, who just waved them off with a shrug. Scias was aware of the competition that people around him would engage in to gain his favours, and so he could not be sure if the General truly was acting treasonous by withholding information, or if Borges was merely trying to discredit Karoc.
"Well" the Emperor sighed impatiently "what does it say?"
"Oh… err… let me see" Borges could sense that he was losing his advantage "the first page is a letter telling of the sighting of flying creatures south of Krundon and it's signed by…"
Even the Emperor was surprised by Borges gasp and rapid intake of breath.
"WELL?" Scias fumed.
"I-it's just signed… 'D' Your Highness."
"D? But surely he must be dead by now."
"If I may Your Highness" General Karoc offered "it is true that after the many years of service given to the Imperial House, the spy known as D had retired but he always kept his eyes and ears open in loyal service to His Majesty."
"This is only more evidence of your unfaithfulness Karoc" Borges almost exploded "keeping even more information from the Throne."
"Not true Your Majesty; I have always handed over everything to you in the past." the General bowed his head to the Emperor not only to show respect, but also to hide the grin on his face.
Many years ago, General Karoc realised that if it were ever discovered that he had been running his own private spy network, as well as gathering all kinds of information about the movements and affairs of the powerful people of New Loren, he would probably not live to see the sunset and so he had taken many precautions. One of these precautions was to destroy all evidence of the most damaging information and only keep it in his head. The second and more important precaution was to always give a copy of his remaining information to the Emperor, so he could not be accused of the treason that he truly was guilty of.
"What else is in the report Borges?" the Emperor demanded to know.
Astrid and Victor listened with interest as Borges read out the letter that Fotherington had sent to the General, but only they knew that he was the mysterious 'F' who had signed it. The last page was also of interest to them; it was some short handwritten notes from the General himself to the Emperor outlining his opinion that what had been seen in the skies over New Loren, may just be peasant's stories but that he had sent men to investigate just to be sure.
"There is the evidence against General Karoc; there is no mention of the testimony of these two children" Borges accused as he pointed to Astrid and Victor at the other end of the room.
"Yes that is right, Your most Imperial Majesty" General Karoc played his trump card "because I have only received their evidence within the last hour and as Borges was hiding in my study when they arrived, he will be able to attest to that fact."
Borges scowled at the smiling General. He had been so eager to expose his enemy as a treasonous traitor but it was all falling apart before him; he had to turn things back into his favour and fast.
"The General was about to release these two without proper interrogation Your Highness; let me have them and I will guarantee you results."
The Emperor considered Borges request for a short time before he turned back to the General.
"Well Karoc, do have any objections?"
"Oh no Highness; it will give me an opportunity to inform His Majesty of what I discovered when I questioned them in my study."
Astrid did not know what to think about the direction in which their circumstances were now headed, but if she had looked down at Victors face, she would have seen that he had turned very pale. She did notice however, that Borges was looking extremely annoyed.
"We're dead" Victor whispered "nothing can save us now."
"What?" Astrid quietly asked "Why?"
"Karoc will tell the Emperor everything we told him."
"But isn't that what we wanted?"
Without even looking at Astrid and Victor, Borges ordered two of the guards who were lined up on the left side of the room to remove the children from the custody of the Generals men and take them downstairs.
"Where are we going now?" Astrid asked.
"To the dungeon" Victor replied.
"Oh... my friends Hiccup and Snotlout spent some time in a dungeon once; they didn't like it."
"Nobody does" Victor sighed.
Hi everyone. As usual this story is going longer than I first thought but I think act 1 will be done in another week or so. Work has picked up (as I mentioned before) cutting into my writing time so I have decided to give act 1 a nice ending so it won't leave everyone hanging for several weeks while I work on act 2.
A big thank you to the twenty or so readers who always check out a new chapter in the 1st day of posting - it's nice to see that it is being read considering there are over 10 000 HTTYD stories on this site and so you have so much to choose from.
Bye for now, next chapter will be up near the end of the week.
Marty and Moon.