24 The Wink of a Red Herring

24. THE WINK OF A RED HERRING You know how it is. You search high and low in the Archipelago for something, and it's only when you're looking for something else that you accidentally find it. Squinting very hard at the map, Hiccup thought the lines and scribbles might indicate a way through the maze. Limping and slithering on the wet glass, Hiccup went through the exit of the cavern, and made his way through a warren of tunnels, following until the lair of the Monster opened out into a great glass chamber, and Hiccup let out a cry of wonder. There it was, the Maze of Mirrors, the creature's secret chamber of treasures. How could such a primitive creature create something so very, very beautiful? Maybe the Wodensfang was right. There must be poetry, even in Monsters. For the glass in that chamber was woven with such artistry, and polished

so fine that it had turned into mirrors. The ceiling was woven with glass like a spider's web, and then in the centre of the chamber was column after column of mirrored glass, as beautiful as columns on a Roman temple. When you got closer still you could see, encased in the glass, the Monster's treasures that must have been stolen from generation after generation of poor Viking amber-collectors. The Monster must have attacked Romans too, for there were gorgeous Roman silver cups floating in the columns like flies in amber. And speaking of amber, there was quantities and quantities of the stuff studded in the glass columns, the colour of honey, the colour of gold, the colour of fire, some with little creatures stuck in the golden liquid. But Hiccup ran through that maze without even stopping, guided all the way by the squiggles on Grimbeard's map and his own gut. It was very confusing, just as confusing as looking into the eyes of a Triple-Header Deadly Shadow, for some of the columns were glass and some were mirror, and it was very difficult to tell what was see-through and what was a reflection. On he slipped and slid through that sliding

mirror maze, searching, searching, for he knew what he was looking for now. And heart lifting with hope… …he found it. Wonder of wonders. Water into stone. A single glass column, shining, pure as a drop of water. And right in the centre, suspended there as if it were floating, a little higher than Hiccup's eye level, was the dark red heart, the dark red Jewel… the Dragon's Jewel. The Jewel that spelt the destruction of the dragons, and the humans' only hope. The Jewel was hanging on a necklace, encased in the glass in such a way that it was as if the necklace was hanging on the neck of an invisible ghost. And as Hiccup circled round the column, nose pressed to the glass, his imagination filled in the torso of a gigantic bearded man: Grimbeard the Ghastly. As Hiccup circled the column, he could just make out, on the golden backing of the necklace, the scratched initials: G.G. Hiccup felt in his waistband for Camicazi's sword. He took it out and took a good aim at the

column of glass about a foot or so below where the Jewel was suspended, swinging at it with all his might, as if he were swinging at a tree in the Hooligan forest. The first swing took a big glass chunk out of the column. The second, a larger bite. And on the third swing of the sword Hiccup ducked as the entire column of glass came down with an almighty musical crash, tinkling little pieces raining down on him, and the echoes ringing out in that gigantic underground mirrored cavern like a pealing of bells. Before Hiccup reached out to take it, he hesitated. What if he were to take the Jewel, and it were then to fall into the wrong hands? But what if he did not take the Jewel, and there was nothing then to stop the anger of the Dragon Furious? He put his head in his hands. How I wish that I were not the one who finds the Lost Things! thought Hiccup passionately. Why does it have to be me who makes these choices? Most of us are lucky not to be Kings and Heroes, because we do not have to make the choices that

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Kings and Heroes have to make. Hiccup chose to take the Jewel. Hiccup tore a piece off his shirt and wrapped his hand in it so he could draw the Jewel out of the mound of shards of glass. He held it up, so that the light shone brilliantly off the golden amber depths, and carefully swept off the powdered glass with one finger before putting the amber Jewel around his neck and dropping it down his fire-suit so it wasn't visible. And then he said: 'Thank you, Grimbeard the Ghastly.' I don't know why he said it, for there was no one there of course. But there was a beat of about two seconds. And the hairs on the back of Hiccup's head stood up. 'Hic-cup…' said a faint, spooky, echoing voice. 'Hic-cup…' Oh for Thor's sake. What was that? It couldn't be the voice of the Dragon Furious, could it? Hiccup's mind went back to the Dragon chasing him through the cave warren of the Flashburn School of Swordfighting.