Twenty Four: The Trader's Trap

The weather had deteriorated and there was a fog of torrential rain surrounding the miserable jagged shape of Nameless Isle, a well-known navigational hazard not that far from the Edge. It was also a frequent stopping-off point for Hunters and an infrequent base of operations. A familiar ship across the Archipelago was moored in a sea-cave that led directly up into a complex and extensive cave system that permeated the granite mountain forming the bulk of the island.

Johann strode through the main corridor, nodding to the couple of men who had headed here as ordered once he had been aware if the possibility that his organisation would be completely destroyed by the renegade Dragon Rider. And while he had been recruiting a few more men, he had been more invested in locating the remaining DragonEye lenses to enable him to locate the King of Dragons and achieve his goal in dominating the entire Archipelago-and beyond.

In fact, Astrid had done him a favour, for Krogan, the servant of a man that Johann knew as Drago Bludvist, a vicious warlord and madman, would have tried to take the King of Dragons for his master. Johann wouldn't have tolerated this but the resulting conflict could have been difficult and while the Fliers were under his control. Krogan had posed a danger. The actions of Astrid Hofferson had removed that problem, defeating a man that Johann hadn't yet formulated a plan to dispose of and removing the threat.

Lengthening his stride, Johann clasped his hands behind his back, dark eyes flicking at the guards but not bothering to acknowledge their stiff attention. He would have responded if they had been sloppy but his men had learned that getting no reaction from their leader was a good thing. Killing the odd straggler or incompetent always improved the quality of the men and their concentration, Johann had found. Shaking his head, he rounded the corner and swiftly made his way up the winding passage into the large cavern that he had adopted as his main atrium-and the cages within.

He paused, his lips lifting in a cruel smile as he inspected the unconscious shapes within. Three humans and three dragons, all subdued by a combination of subterfuge, Johann's brilliance and a generous pinch of stupidity on the part of the Riders. Looking down on the shape of the female, Johann nodded and the guard opened the cage, lifting the limp, raven-haired shape and removing her from the cage.

"Take her to my quarters," Johann ordered, casting a scornful glance at the other prisoners. "I'll wake her up there. We do need to be ready when Master Hiccup arrives." His cold voice mangled the name, sarcastically mimicking the servile tone he had used for so long when dealing with the Hooligan Heir. "After all, that boy must have run out of lives now-and he will trade himself for these imbeciles. His cousin, his best friend-and the girl he thinks of almost as a sister. And if he needed more encouragement...well, Heather is expendable. They all are." His voice hardened as the door of the cage clanged shut.

"I will have those lenses and 'Master Hiccup's' head-and then there will be nothing left to stop me!"

oOo

Snotlout Jorgensen hadn't really had that many bad awakenings because somehow, it was never him that tended to get himself captured or imprisoned. That was really his cousin's thing! Sure, he had been struck by lightning more times than he could count (really-he actually had lost track...though it was five or six last time he could recall) and Hookfang was definitely the naughtiest dragon in the Archipelago so he had been set on fire plenty of times but generally he had came through the Dragon Riders' adventures pretty intact.

But he had awoken with a stiff neck, the imprint of a bar on his beautiful face and a headache and when he sat up, he had been surprised to find himself alone in a cage, with a line of cages stretching away to his left and right containing what looked like the rest of the Party. If he craned his neck, he could see the orange and brown bulk of Hookfang three cages down and a tightness of worry that he had realised was there eased in his chest a little. Though he wouldn't admit it to anyone-least of all his father-he loved Hookfang and would do anything to ensure that his dragon was safe. And though he hated that Hookie was captured as well, at least he knew where his dragon was and that meant he had one person he could totally rely on when they bust out of the cages and paid back that Johann.

In truth, Snotlout hadn't really believed Hiccup when he told them not to trust Johann. It was Johann, right? Bumbling, garrulous, rather cowardly and stupid Johann, who had been coming round for ever with his ship of interesting and useful goods. And no one really trusted him-he was a blabbermouth of the highest order and couldn't keep a secret or confidence to save his life-but he had helped the Riders on numerous occasions and had really been a useful ally against the Hunters. Heather had trusted him as her only contact when she was waging her lone battle against Dagur and his men before she found out that Dagur was in fact her long-lost brother. Fishlegs had tried to warn them that if Hiccup said to be wary, they should...but Snotlout had overruled him because he was cold and tired and very hungry. Johann was just someone to watch your mouth around. And he had food.

Heather had backed him up because she was confident that she knew how to handle Johann and because, when all was said and done, there were three of them with their dragons and just Johann, alone on his boat. So they had left the dragons on the deck while they had gone down to the hold, where Johann had made them welcome. And the ale, mead and fish stew had been very generous and flavoursome. Admittedly, Snotlout had probably eaten more than his share but after the endless search for Astrid, he had been grateful for someone else's cooking. And though Heather was an excellent cook, he knew she was grateful for the respite as well.

And then Johann had gone up to the cold store he kept on the deck for the dessert and replete and relaxed, Snotlout had lowered his guard. And that was when the flasks had been thrown down into the hold, the purple gas billowing around the three Dragon Riders who had totally lowered their guard. A nagging memory had hit Snotlout straight between the eyes, of Hiccup and Toothless, trapped behind a wall of bars in a Hunter trap, his little cousin dropping to his knees as the same purple gas billowed around him, rending the indomitable Hiccup unconscious. And even as he realised what was happening, Snotlout felt his eyes weighed down with exhaustion. He saw Fishlegs slump back and fall of his stool and Heather rise, cursing and reaching for her double-headed axe...only to realise that Johann had spirited it away as he had bustled up to close his trap...

Scrubbing his face, Snotlout had mentally slapped himself. Muttonhead! Damnation but he had really earned the label today! Hiccup had warned him and because he had been cold and hungry and...well, lazy...they were now all captives of Johann who clearly was far more dangerous than even Hiccup had guessed. So Snotlout got to his feet and stretched, muttering a curse as he banged his head on the top of the cage. He was the shortest Rider and even he could only stand at a stoop-hardly encouraging. Then he looked down the line.

"Fishlegs? Heather? Guys? Wake up!"

"Mmm?"

"Fishface-get your butt up and talk to me!" Snotlout snapped.

"Whu...?"

"We're prisoners. Of Johann! Oh Thor, the twins will NEVER let me forget this. We have to get out of here!"

"Snotlout?"

"Yeah, it's me, Fishy! Now open your eyes and tell me what you can see?"

"The floor."

"Why?"

"Because I'm lying on my face..."

"Oh my Thor! I'm supposed to be the muttonhead. Get UP, Fishlegs Justin Ingerman! We need you! I need you! The dragons need you! Thor-Hiccup needs you!"

"You need me, Snotlout? I thought 'I didn't know what I was talking about?' I mean 'how exactly could Johann be a threat to anyone?' Maybe you should listen to me now!"

"This is no time to be saying 'I told you so!', Fishface! Tell me what you see!"

There was a pause and Snotlout could hear the creak of a heavy body getting up, the groan and crack as his friend stretched and then there was a deep inhalation of breath.

"Okay-I can see Windshear and Hookfang," Fishlegs reported in a more normal tone. Snotlout sighed.

"Hookie is a couple of cages down from me so you must be beyond him," Snotlout replied, feeling a little more relaxed. "Meatlug is two cages down from me." He paused. "And she still sleeping...and farting, by the way..."

"Well, I try to keep her off the dolomites but she just loves them as a treat and they do have an unfortunate effect on her..."

"And you know I don't care," Snotlout snarked back automatically. "Can you see Heather?"

"N-no...isn't she by you?"

"Nope," Snotlout said, trying to keep the concern from his voice. "Look, I have Meatlug and then a bunch of empty cages. You?"

"I can just see Windshear and Hookfang...and then a row of empty cages as well..." Fishlegs said, his voice now definitely edged with panic. Sighing, Snotlout knew he had to calm his friend-something that really wasn't his strong suit. Somehow, Fishlegs, a fat guy who insisted on being called husky and who was geeky, timid and rather ordinary looking, had a relationship going with Heather who was total total total babe. And who had made her feelings-or lack thereof-very plain to Snotlout.

"Look, she'll be around here somewhere," Snotlout reassured him. "We both know she's smart and tough: maybe she's already gotten away..."

"Or maybe Johann has her?" Fishlegs definitely sounded panicked.

"Fish-no one goes to the trouble to capture us and our dragons just to kill us," Snotlout told him with sudden insight. "We're bait in a trap...for Hiccup. Johann got you to tell him where we were and you sent Iggy off before you sat down for dinner...so Hiccup will already have guessed that we're prisoners and will be on the way..."

"Oh Thor..."

"I'm not really sure what you're 'oh Thor'ing about but I agree with all of them," Snotlout sighed and managed to find a tiny pebble. Idly he tossed it at Hookfang, who swatted it away with his tail. "Hookie! I know you're awake!" The Monstrous Nightmare gave a grumble and cracked an eye open but it was obvious to Snotlout than his dragon was still drugged. "Fish...what can drug all the dragons including Meatlug? It can't be dragon root because she's immune..."

"Um...I'll have a think about that," Fishlegs said. "Is Meatlug okay?"

"Still snoring," Snotlout confirmed and sat down. "And think quicker. We need to get out of here and fast-before we accidentally help Johann kill Hiccup."

oOo

Heather regained her senses and realised instantly that she was tied up. Mentally cursing at her own stupidly-why had she listened to Snotlout, of all people?-she carefully remained motionless, imperceptibly tensing her limbs one by one to test her bonds. And then she listened, hearing the vague echo of steps from beyond the room she was in and the distant roar of a dragon. But the air was cool and slightly clammy, like air in a cave. There was no fresh air and she could smell the scents of torches, of damp and unwashed men and the expensive perfume that must have hailed from a far distant land...

"I know you're awake, my dear," Johann said in a voice that was not Johann. Firm, cold and rather snide, it was like the evil mirror twin of the servile, rather cartoonish man they all knew and sort of trusted. Blinking, she lifted her head and focussed her green gaze on the man who had comprehensively fooled them. Johann looked the same, with his puffy sleeves and floppy cap and curled, trimmed beard but the expression on his face and his cold, merciless eyes told her she was speaking to the real Johann, not the Trader persona.

"Johann," she murmured. The man sipped a clear golden-brown liquid from an ornate gold goblet, inlaid with gems and gave a satisfied smile.

"Brandy is an expensive spirit brewed in a land south of Britain that really rewards the educated palate," he told her, rolling the goblet in his hand. "Of course you and your heathen kind would just neck the lot and demand more, rather than appreciating the complexity of the aroma and the warmth of the flavour."

"I presume that was a rhetorical statement," Heather said, licking her lips and scanning the room for anything that could be of use. Johann nodded.

"You and Hiccup are probably the only Riders who would use that word," Johann said disparagingly. "The rest of them would even comprehend it-even Fishlegs, who seems to possess an impressive knowledge base, was rather easily fooled by my 'Trader Johann' act."

"They would surprise you," Heather commented dryly. Johann drained his goblet.

"I doubt it," he said shortly.

"So why are we here?" Heather asked him directly, her tone angry, causing the Traitor to smile.

"It is obvious that I brought you here to ensure your 'Master Hiccup' comes exactly where I want him," he told the young woman. "You are the bait in the trap." Green eyes narrowing in anger, she inspected him angrily.

"Hiccup knows it's a trap," she told him sharply.

"And yet-he'll still come," Johann sneered. "For a young man of undoubted intelligence, innovation and tactical astuteness, he is extraordinarily predictable. He really should learn to accept losses as part of war."

"Hiccup fights for what he believes in and will never accept abandoning his friends!" she replied. Johann folded his arms.

"I'm not about to reveal my stratagem to you, my dear," he told her sternly "After all, what fool tells the enemy his plans, only for him to then escape and thwart them?"

"Pretty much everyone else we fight against," Heather told him.

"Proof, if any were needed, that such a policy is not a wise one," Johann sneered. Heather raised an eyebrow.

"You know you're going to lose?" she taunted him but he shook his head.

"You labour under the delusion that I am still the 'umble Trader Johann..." he scoffed, resuming his usual servile tone for the last three words. "But I am in, in fact, a man with no morals or boundaries. A man who will do anything that I feel is required to advance my own purpose. I will not hesitate to kill while Hiccup is a man who seems to fear his Viking heritage and is astonishingly unwilling to shed blood."

"It takes more courage to spare a life than to take one," Heather retorted.

"Well, I have to say young Master Hiccup doesn't lack courage-or stubbornness-merely sense," Johann conceded. "I have seen grown men, seasoned warriors, crumble and beg to spill their guts and secrets after a fraction of the torture Hiccup endured." Heather's lips pressed together and her fists clenched in fury.

"You were there?" she hissed as Johann idly picked up a dagger.

"Certainly," he confirmed, his eyes focussed on the edge of the blade. The torchlight gleamed on the wickedly-sharp metal. "I participated, in fact. And I almost gave myself away when Krogan branded him. Oh, that was such a sweet moment. Seeing that self-righteous young paladin reduced to less than nothing!" And then his cold eyes locked on Heather. "Did you know he's a slave?"

She gave a small smile.

"He's a free man," she told him smugly. "The Tribe who he was marked by no longer exists. And he no longer has a brand..." Johann scratched his beard thoughtfully.

"I must make sure that word gets out of young Master Hiccup's shame," he mused cruelly, gauging her reactions. "That self-righteous young fool will no longer be able to run out and try to impede business if he can be taken by anyone the moment he leaves Berk..."

"He has no brand," Heather insisted. Johann twirled the blade in his hands.

"That is something I can remedy," he said coldly. "And this time, it will be on his face! I'll see him whipped in chains before I'm done!"

"You forget," Heather told him loyally. "He's not alone."

"I can deal with dragons," he scoffed.

"He has friends. Allies. They will come for him. They will always come for him!" Heather spat back. And then the blade flashed and slammed down into her left thigh. Her scream echoed through the room and down the corridor, drawing an answering roar from Windshear.

"Is that what happened when he was poisoned with a venom that has no antidote?" Johann growled, grabbing Heather's hair and dragging her head up, staring into the white, pain-filled face. "His friends performed the impossible?" But Heather gave a grim smile.

"No-his friends performed what he would expect them to-because it was what he would have done for them," she managed. "Astrid performed the impossible and destroyed his enemies." Johann wheeled away.

"WRONG!" he roared. "She missed me!"

"And you missed her," she gasped. "And she will know you are after Hiccup. She'll be coming."

"You are wrong, my dear," he told her scornfully. "My mercenaries have missed her numerous times. You haven't been able to find her. She is now so far away that even my intelligence can't locate her. She may hear...but it will be far too late. Because one thing is for certain: if Hiccup comes here, he will die!"

oOo

Glancing over at the Nadder flying to his right, Hiccup felt a deep sense of relief that he hadn't realised he was missing. Astrid was seated low over Stormfly's neck, changed into her black-stained leather skirt with the black top and hood on, looking like the Dark version of a Valkyrie that she had become. The twins were flying along behind then on Barf'n'Belch, who had been napping under a tarpaulin in the hold of the ship. His eyes lingered on the knives hanging from her slender waist, the familiar axe slung across her back and the quivers of arrows and bow hanging from her saddle.

"Are you okay?" he called over as she frowned, her eyes focussed on the horizon.

"Johann will be expecting you," she said thoughtfully. "He will know that you know he is the enemy-and that he has your friends. You are pretty predictable, Babe."

"Maybe not any more," Hiccup said quietly. "I mean, if I give myself up, he'll kill me and won't release them anyway. Or their dragons..." Astrid sighed.

"You say that now but given the choice...you're Hiccup..." she commented as she drifted closer. "And I know you. You've risked yourself to find me when you should be safer on Berk. You walked for miles from the Port just to stop me being warned of your presence. And I bet you've brought the DragonEye with you!"

His eyes widened at her tone and he looked surprised.

"Well, you're wrong about the Dragon Eye!" he told her and then his face fell. "I brought the DragonEye 2."

"Hiccup, you muttonhead!" she growled. "He's after the DragonEye and the lenses to enable him to control all dragons!" He sighed.

"Astrid-I needed the DragonEye to make sure there wasn't something dangerous where I was asking my friends to go," he explained quietly. "And yes, I know that isn't quite how the old Hiccup would have done it-but the old Hiccup hadn't almost died and hadn't lost his sight and voice and still has to concentrate to grip things properly..."

Her expression softened and she drifted Stormfly closer and angled her flight, extending her hand to brush her fingers against his.

"Oh, Babe," she murmured. But he managed a brave smile, his emerald gaze filled with self-deprecation.

"No, you're right," he conceded, his tone soft. "And I know I'm not the man you agreed to be Betrothed to..." But her fingers brushed his again and her eyes fixed on his face.

"Actually-you're exactly the man I Betrothed-the same stubborn knucklehead who refuses to listen to advice and do as he's told when there is someone he cares for needing him," she told him. "Hiccup-I ran because you would be in danger with me around...but you have managed to track me down, Thor only knows how. And our friends need us."

"Don't they always?" he asked, a small smile lifting his lips.

"Maybe-but Johann has no idea that I am with you-and I can be your secret weapon," she suggested her brow furrowed. "Where were they when they ran into him?"

"By the Four Splats...Thor, why did I ever allow Tuff to name anything on my map?" Hiccup muttered. Frowning, Astrid mentally reviewed her map of the Archipelago and beyond.

"Well, the nearest Hunter Base to there is Nameless Isle," she mused. "The others are all a good day's sail from there and most are unusable anyway..." Hiccup stared at her and she shrugged. "I have spoken to a lot of Hunters and I know where all the bases are, all the supply depots and every friendly port and contact. Nameless Isle is supposed to be a secret. But Johann will know."

Hiccup stared ahead, resting his hand on Toothless's head.

"You want to kill him," he said quietly.

"It's the only way," she told him softly. "He was there, you know. He helped them torture you. He watched you suffer. He gave the orders. And he has sent a host of Bounty Hunters after me."

"Dad was going to be called Stoick the Vindictive...well, that was before his waistline expanded to the Hooligan norm and he ended with the less scary moniker Stoick the Vast," he said. "He knows about vengeance...and he told me once that while a pinch of vengeance really hits the spot, it never ends there. Those you take your vengeance on want vengeance back on you and round it goes in an unending cycle..."

"It will end when I kill Johann," Astrid told him simply.

"But it won't," Hiccup told her softly. "Because a Dragon Rider used dragons to exterminate a Tribe and kill Gods only know how many people. And that will have repercussions for all of us."

"Then you should distance yourself from me," she told him automatically, though her voice wavered-the first crack he had seen in her facade. "You should let me go. I told you I wasn't worthy, Hiccup..." Toothless drifted alongside and just below and he reached up and grasped her hand, pulling her to sit astride Toothless, facing him. She automatically reached back to grasp the saddle edge as he wrapped one arm around her waist to pull her close to him.

"My love-I am never letting you go," he told her with absolute certainty. "And whatever fallout happens, we face it together. You did what you did for me because I could well have died. You were convinced that I had died. And you were determined that the men who used me so badly wouldn't live to profit from their actions."

"And instead, I caused far worse harm..." she sighed, leaning against him and resting her head on his shoulder. He inclined his head and brushed his lips against her cheek.

"You were a Viking warrior, taking the fight to our honourless enemies," he reminded her, feeling her breath against his neck. "You were my Betrothed...are my Betrothed...and the right was yours. And while I don't like your methods...Johann is the only one left. And he is the worst of them all."

"Hiccup-you are our leader and I am not trying to take your place," she assured him. "But as your second, I could always offer suggestions..."

"Then suggest away, second-in-command," he murmured as she lifted her head and stared deep into his eyes, an arm wrapping around his waist. He exhaled but she was smiling.

"I have a plan," she said.