11 The Testing of a Hero

11. THE TESTING OF A HERO Rough hands wound chains around Hiccup until he was trussed up like a chicken. 'Mother, what are you doing?' said Alvin, uneasily through his mask. 'What did I tell you last time? I have been dealing with this kid for quite a while and the only thing to do with him is to kill him the second we have him in our hook! We have all the Things now. We should just kill him, and then we should kill all his Dragonmarker followers.'

'We can't go around killing everybody, Alvin sweetest,' said the witch piously, 'for if we did, we'd have no subjects left. We need to change the minds of his followers, turn them into Alvinsmen, and then we won't have to kill them. It's politics, Alvin darling. Leave the politics to me. OPEN UP THE TRAPDOOR!' CREEEAKKKKKK! A huge trapdoor opened in the middle of the room, directly on to the sea below. 'Hiccup is going to break the loyalty of these irritating followers of his by telling us where Stoick and Valhallarama and the rest of the Dragonmarkers are hiding,' said the witch.

Stoick and Valhallarama's secret underground hideout was at Coral Beach, the other side of Wrecker's Bay. But neither the witch nor the Dragon Furious had discovered this yet. 'I most certainly am not,' said Hiccup, as strongly and as defiantly as he could, given that he was almost paralysed with fear. 'I can assure you, you most certainly are,' said the witch. 'You are going to tell me where your mother and the rest of the Dragonmarkers are hiding, or else I am going to lower you down into this freezing

water, wrapped in chains, and leave you down there until you see sense, or you drown, whichever is the sooner.' 'I will never betray my friends,' said Hiccup, really, really hoping that this was true. 'You heard him, he said NEVER!' said Alvin. 'Never is a long word,' replied the witch. 'The Winterfleshers have gathered, so Hiccup will not only have freezing water to contend with, but the bite of Winterfleshers. Winterfleshers are small but they are deadly in packs, and they will certainly attack a chained child.' Winterfleshers were small but unpleasant dragons, a little like piranhas. When they attacked in shoals they could strip a deer down to its skeleton in precisely three minutes. 'SHAME ON YOU!' cried Gobber. The Dragonmarkers howled their disapproval and horror. 'But he might get away!' warned the strangled voice of Alvin through the mask.

'Pish posh,' purred the witch. 'You worry too much, Alvin, my little lobster-pot. He's completely wrapped in chains! How can he possibly get away? The boy is not superhuman! He's not even a Hero! He's just a perfectly ordinary small boy. You will realise this when he betrays his own people, and you Dragonmarkers will see that your so-called Leader is not worthy of your loyalty… 'LOWER HIM THROUGH THE TRAP DOOR!' screamed the witch. 'AND EVERYBODY, FEEL ABSOLUTELY FREE TO CHANGE SIDES AT ANY MOMENT!' The witch's plan was very simple. To lower Hiccup down into the icy freezing water of the Bay, water so mind-numbingly cold that it entered the very soul and rendered it dead as an iceberg. She would dip Hiccup in that water, like a sword smith quenches a sword. Would it make Hiccup, or

break Hiccup? Hiccup did not know. He looked down into the grim, soulless water, and he was shaking already. He had fallen into the sea in winter before, and he knew how it almost burned you at first, and how quickly you turned numb, as if you had ceased to exist. He also knew what a surprisingly short time it took to die in the winter sea– two, three minutes, perhaps? Please don't let me give in… thought Hiccup to himself. Please let me be braver than I think I am… Down. Down. Down. Hiccup was lowered, by two Alvinsmen Warriors, down, down into the cold, cold sea.