The Power of Gold Chapter 7
Camicazi had greatly enjoyed her quick ride on Night-fury-six-shooter's back. It wasn't quite as much fun as her ride on Hiccup's back, all those months ago, but that was because she knew Hiccup wouldn't buck her off, so she could relax and fully enjoy that flight. She didn't quite have that assurance with Six. But it was still a great ride, and now her head was overflowing with ideas about what to do next.
"Okay, here's the deal," she said to the Night Fury, as though she'd been chatting casually with dragons all her life. "I've nicked stuff from almost every tribe in the Archipelago, except for a couple of them. The really hard ones are the Meatheads, because they have so few valuables and because their chief keeps hiding them in different places all the time. I've never burgled anything good from the Meathead tribe, no matter how many times I've tried. Tonight, we're going to change that!"
WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WE?
"You and me, of course," Cami went on. "You can get me in there and out again in a matter of hours, instead of taking days to sail there and back in a ship. You can drop me on the roof of the chief's house, I can go down the smoke-hole on a rope, grab me some Meathead goodies, climb up again, and we'll be home before sunrise! No one will ever know we were there. It could be the perfect crime!"
PERFECT EXCEPT FOR ONE LITTLE
DETAIL. I DON'T WANT TO BE
A BURGLAR'S ACCOMPLICE.
"You don't... want to...?" Cami was having trouble believing what she was reading. "Of course you do! You're on Bog-Burglar Island now. We're burglars here. Burgling is what we all do."
IT'S NOT WHAT DRAGONS DO.
"Then it's time you got started," the young woman said matter-of-factly. "I'm the best burglar in the tribe, if I do say so myself, so being my helper will give you huge amounts of prestige in the village. I can also teach you the tricks of the trade, like how to tell which houses probably have the best stuff in them. Once you've been on a few expeditions with me, everyone will know that you've been trained by the best! After that, you'll be able to pick and choose who you go burgling with, although you'll stick with me if you're smart."
I DON'T WANT TO GO BURGLING
WITH ANYBODY.
Cami was starting to get annoyed. "Are you holding out for a better deal? I don't make offers like this to just anybody, you know! Maybe you think I'm not good enough for you, and you're holding out so you can pair off with my mother? She's semi-retired, and she's not so happy about riding on dragons, either. I am the best deal you are going to get! I could make your name famous across the whole tribe! Across the whole Archipelago! What are you waiting for?"
I'M WAITING FOR MUSPELHEIM
TO FREEZE OVER. I WILL NOT
GO BURGLING WITH YOU!
For a few seconds, Camicazi just stood there, arms folded, tapping one foot, glaring at the dragon. Six glared back, and her glare was much more intimidating. At last, the girl spoke. "You're new here, so you don't know how we do things. Once you've been here for a while, you'll see that everybody, and that means everybody, goes burgling. If you don't burgle, then you're nothing on this island! When you decide that you don't want to be nothing, I'll give you one more chance to change your mind."
I CAN PROMISE YOU NOW,
I WON'T CHANGE MY MIND.
"Fine," Cami snapped. "Then maybe one of your dragon daughters will see reason!" She turned to leave. Six leaped up and over her with a twist, and landed facing her, wings out, legs braced, and teeth bared. Camicazi backed away, surprised and stunned at this sudden display of raw dragon anger.
HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THE PHRASE,
"THE UNHOLY OFFSPRING OF
LIGHTNING AND DEATH ITSELF?"
"Yeah," Cami said hesitantly. "I'm not sure what it means, though."
IF YOU CORRUPT MY DAUGHTERS,
YOU WILL PERSONALLY FIND OUT
EXACTLY WHAT IT MEANS.
YOU WON'T LIKE IT.
"I'm the chief's daughter," Cami warned her. "Don't mess with me!"
I AM A MOMMY DRAGON.
DON'T MESS WITH MY FAMILY!
"Do you want me to get my mother involved in this little discussion? She'll take my side, you know."
IF YOU GET ANYONE'S MOTHER
INVOLVED, SHE'LL TAKE MY SIDE.
MOTHERS PROTECT THEIR CHILDREN.
Cami glared at her. "I can't believe you're threatening me! Who do you think you are?!"
I AM NIGHT-FURY-SIX-SHOOTER.
I'M A NIGHT FURY, A COMBAT
VETERAN, THE OLDEST DAUGHTER
OF THE BEST NIGHT FURY ALIVE,
AND A MOTHER OF TWO.
IF YOU WANT IT THAT WAY, I CAN
ALSO BE YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE.
YOUR MOTHER WANTS US TO FLY
TOGETHER TO PROTECT THE ISLAND.
SHE DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT
BURGLING. I AM NOT A BURGLAR
AND NEITHER ARE MY DAUGHTERS.
KEEP IT THAT WAY!
She turned and bounded into the sky without looking back, and spent the next hour doing wild aerobatics to relieve the stress she'd built up during that confrontation. Her mate and their children joined her after a few minutes. Faithful-brother sensed that Six was upset, and didn't try to engage her in conversation. He knew she'd talk about it when she was good and ready. Daughter-of-Six and Six's-girl didn't notice that their mother was stressed; they just saw her flying and wanted to join in.
Cami stormed off to find her mother, and then had to cool her heels for fifteen minutes because her mother was in the middle of supervising a small crowd of Bog-Burglars who wanted to see their tribe's new stash of gold. The daughter was quite irritated by the time her mother took her aside and asked, "What's on your mind?"
"That dragon!" Camicazi burst out. "She won't go burgling with me! She thinks she's too good for me or something."
"Let me guess," Bertha said patiently. "You went for a ride, and as soon as you landed, you tried to dragoon her into a burgling expedition, and she said 'no.' Is that pretty much the way it went?"
"Well, yes," Cami admitted. "Was there something wrong with that?"
Her mother sighed. "I don't know where you got this idea that our new dragons would be all gung-ho to join us in our little hobby. Six was raised by Hiccup! Did you forget that? Do you think Hiccup raised her to be a burglar? He was the most honest Viking we'll ever meet, and I'm sure he turned into an honest dragon. Six must have been raised on being lawful-good. So was Thing Two, and Six's mate strikes me as the ethical type, too. If you think you can wave your magic lockpick and turn them into burglars' helpers, just like that, then you've been burglarized, because somebody made off with your brains!"
"But... but the dragons used to steal stuff all the time!" Cami protested. "They stole our fish and our livestock! What's so different about stealing jewelry or fancy weapons?"
"They stole the fish and the livestock because their nest-queen forced them to do it," Bertha said. "Hiccup explained it to me while we were early in the process of setting up their nest here. They hated doing it, but they had no choice."
"Then you offer them no choice!" Cami burst out. "You're the chief of this island! Tell them that this island is for burglars. Tell them that, if they don't become burglars like us, then they can't stay here."
"If I told them that, do you know what would probably happen?" Bertha folded her arms. "They'd leave."
"Just like that?" Cami asked. "Can they do that? I thought we all had a deal."
Bertha shook her head. "If I started making demands like that, then I'd be the one who was changing the deal, and they'd be legally justified in leaving us. The dragons are here as guardians, ambassadors, fish-finders, and – possibly – friends. Those are the terms that Hiccup and I agreed on. I never mentioned burgling, for one simple reason: I knew he'd never agree to it. Neither will his daughters, if we try to jam the idea down their throats.
"The trouble with you, Cami, is that you have no patience. You want instant results, no matter what you do. Sometimes that's reasonable, like when you're making off with other people's stuff, but when you're dealing with dragons, I think you're going to have to take things a lot slower. They just moved in less than a week ago! Let them get comfortable here. Let them make friends with a few of us. Let them put down roots and get used to being here, so they won't want to leave. Let them see us come back from our burgling trips, and see how happy we are when we've nicked somebody else's goodies. Let them see that we don't steal food, or cause injuries, or do anything else that actually hurts anybody. Let them see that they're missing out on a big part of our tribal life, and pretty soon, they'll want to be part of it. They'll come around on their own, and then you'll have your flying, fire-breathing accomplice. In addition, she'll be a lot more accommodating if she isn't being pressured into it."
"Are you sure about all this, Mother?"
Bertha smiled. "I'm sure that doing it your way won't work. I can't give you an ironclad guarantee that being patient will work, but even Trader Johann doesn't give ironclad guarantees. Take it slow! I know you want to be the most famous Bog-Burglar ever, but do you really think it will happen before your eighteenth birthday? When I was eighteen, I was still learning how to subjugate my husband! Slow down a little. Learn to enjoy the pleasures of a perfect burglary, even if it is someone you've burgled before. Make friends with that dragon, with no pressure to change her convictions; just enjoy flying with her. Give the good things time to happen."
"I'm sure that's good advice," Camicazi muttered, unconvinced.
o
Naginatta finished her language lesson with Night-fury-faithful-brother and made her way to the village forge. She found Alfrún there; the former thrall had finished sharpening the twelve spearheads and was now working on the axes that the Bog-Burglars had taken from the Uglithug encampment. The smith, Musclebound Mæva, still hadn't returned.
"Are you the new smith's apprentice?" Naginatta asked.
"I think so," Alfrún replied. "Do you need something sharpened? That's all I'm good for."
"I'm sure you're good for other things," Nagi replied. "You just don't know what those other things are yet. Where's Mæva?"
"She left for some kind of errand and she hasn't come back yet. She does that a lot. She left me in charge of the sharpening stone, so I'm sharpening everything in sight. If she doesn't come back soon, I may wind up sharpening her hammer, just so I don't run out of things to do."
Nagi smiled. "I don't know much about you yet, Alfrún, but now I know two important things. You aren't afraid of work, and you aren't deathly serious about everything. Can we be friends?"
Alfrún wasn't expecting that. "I... I suppose so. You're the chief's daughter, right? I'm not used to rubbing elbows with important people, except for the ones who wanted to buy me."
Naginatta blew a raspberry. "Important people? Me? I'm the chief's youngest daughter! I'm not important and I never will be. My oldest sister, Camicazi, will be the chief someday. My middle sister, Sukiaqui, married a chief's nephew on the island of Berk, and I heard that she's having a hard time getting him to submit to her. Me? I'm a happy nobody. I don't tell anyone what to do, no one asks me to solve their problems for them, and I like it that way. As for you, you're not for sale anymore. I was looking for Mæva because I need a saddle made for a dragon, and a smith has to do the riveting on it."
"A saddle for a dragon?" Alfrún was expecting that even less. "You mean you're going to ride a dragon?"
"Uh-huh," Nagi nodded. "My mother says that the adult Night Furies all need riders who can talk to dragons, and I'm learning how to talk to them, so one of those Night Furies chose me. He just took me for the scariest, most amazing ride I've ever been on, but I couldn't really enjoy it because I was afraid I was going to fall off. So I'll need a dragon saddle. Our leather-worker, Thordis the Thong-Thlinger, will do most of the work, Mæva will rivet it together, and then I can ride that dragon without fear. I confess, part of me is still scared to death at the idea of being that high off the ground... and the other part of me can't wait!"
"Hmm." Alfrún thought for a moment. "Speaking of dragons, can you do something for me? A while ago, one of those black dragons came to the forge and wrote on the ground. I can't read, so I couldn't understand what he wrote. His runes are over there." She pointed; Naginatta walked over and read them out loud.
" 'Would you like to go flying with me?' Alfrún, that's amazing! I think the third dragon wants to pick you as her rider."
Alfrún went pale. "Me? Ride a dragon? Up in the air, where I could fall off?" She shook her head. "That sounds like the kind of thing a chief's daughter would do. I'm just a... just a total nobody. I'm not even a happy nobody like you."
Nagi smiled. "If you became a dragon rider, you'd be somebody. And if our tradeswomen can make a saddle for me, then they can make one for you, too." When Alfrún didn't respond, Nagi continued, "Besides, if the dragon picked you, then the dragon thinks you've got potential."
"The dragon is wrong," Alfrún muttered as she looked for something else that needed sharpening.
"Good luck convincing the dragon of that!" Nagi laughed. "They can be very stubborn, as stubborn as any Viking, maybe worse. You're going to be a dragon rider, Alfrún. Start getting used to the idea. There's no escape for you."
"No escape for me,"Alfrún sighed. "That's what my former owner said on the day he bought me."
"Oh! I'm so, so sorry! I didn't know! I didn't mean to remind you!" Naginatta suddenly looked like she might cry.
"It's okay," Alfrún tried to reassure her. "It's okay!" She put down her sharpening stone, stood up, and hugged the chief's daughter. It turned out that they both needed a hug.
"Besides," she said after a minute, "my former owner was wrong. I did escape him. Maybe I can escape from this dragon, too."
"Give her a chance before you reject her," Nagi encouraged her. "I was terrified of flying at first, but I'm about halfway to getting over it. Maybe you'll like it, too, once you've tried it."
Alfrún shrugged. "If Mæva doesn't come back soon, I haven't got much else to do. Do you have any idea where I can find this dragon?"
"The Night Furies hang out on the roof of the Mead Hall," Nagi said as she dried her eyes. "Are you going to give flying a try?"
"I'm going to think it over," Alfrún said firmly. "One of the biggest perks of being free is that I can make my own decisions about my life. With a decision like this, I want to make a good one."