8 The Slavemark

8. THE SLAVEMARK Hiccup was right, the ship was carrying slaves. Hiccup asked Red Ronald about it the next morning, and Ronald said there were one hundred and nineteen slaves being kept in the hold, all of them Northern Wanderers. Wanderers were very fierce and wild, and they detested Vikings. It made Hiccup shiver to hear the noise of their Cursing, floating up out of a heavily barred Hatch in the centre of the back deck, all day and all night. Two days passed. Each morning Hiccup would read the ticking- thing for Norbert in his cabin, and then the three young Heroes spent the rest of the time dreaming of escape as the ship chugged steadily north and the weather grew colder and colder. There is no more exciting place for a lively young dragon than a ship in full sail. The two little dragons were now having a lovely time, flying through the rigging, getting tangled up in ropes, sliding down the sails, trying to nick things from the Cooking Cabin without getting caught by the Cook, dashing after mice in the hold, chewing the arms off Norbert's shirts and the bottoms out of

his shoes, and in the Stormfly's case, flirting with the hunting-dragons who were lined up, very dignified on the mast-head. But both dragons avoided the Slave Hatch. Every time Toothless passed it, his hackles rose, and he hissed with fear and alarm. The three young Heroes had had time to think, and so they were now quite optimistic about their chances of escaping. It was just a question of agreeing on a plan. 'OK,' said Camicazi breezily. 'I've thought of several ways to escape. I might dress up as a Hysteric and trick one of those idiot guards into launching one of those little landing-boats by saying we'd hit an iceberg.' 'That Hysteric guard isn't going to think you're another Hysteric!' scoffed Fishlegs. 'However stupid they are they're not actually blind! You're only four foot tall, Camicazi, you're blonde, you're female, you have no facial hair…' 'Aha,' said Camicazi, laying a finger against her nose and looking very cunning, 'but if I wear a very long coat, and stand on your shoulders, and I'll stick one of Norbert's bearskin knee-pads on to my chin as a beard–'

'There's no way in a million years that that is going to work,' argued Fishlegs. 'OK, so what's YOUR idea, then, Mr Clever Clogs?' said Camicazi crossly. 'I'm telling you, I've escaped from more Uglithug Dungeons and Murderous Cage-Mazes than you've had hot dinners…' Meanwhile, in the background, Norbert was watching the crew feeding the Wanderer Slaves by opening up the Slave Hatch and throwing food down below. 'Not TOO much of that bread,' Norbert roared greedily. 'They're refusing to row, and slaves that are on strike should not be fed.' Unbeknownst to Norbert, Toothless was showing off his excellent hunting skills to Stormfly. He had been chasing a fly through the rigging for the past five minutes. He was now hovering about a metre above Norbert's head, only his wings and his narrowed eyes moving as he watched the fly. 'Bzzz… bzzzzz… bzzzzzz…' buzzed the fly, zig-zagging drunkenly around Norbert's head. Toothless crept ever so softly down in the air as his muscles poised, ready to pounce. The fly made a few more aimless buzzes…

…and settled on the end of one of Norbert's sticking-up hairs. 'W-W-Wrrrewwwowwwwrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!' With the smothered yowl of a kung-fu kitten, Toothless launched himself, claws out, on to Norbert's head. Norbert was not a relaxed personality. In fact, you could describe him as 'tightly wound'. So his reaction when a dragon suddenly landed unexpectedly on his head was to shriek like a fire-engine and spring into the air, as if stung by a bee. One of his flailing arms pushed over one of the Hysteric crew- members… who then cannoned into Hiccup… and Hiccup slid over, plunging down into the Hatch, just managing to grab hold of the edge of the Hatch as he fell, so he was still hanging on by one hand… …until with a cry of 'Hiccup!' and Toothless still attached to his head, Norbert blundered forward to try and help, and in the process trod heavily on Hiccup's clinging fingers. So that Hiccup let go and fell down the Hatch… …the Hatch that Bearcub's Grandmother only the day before had been warning that no Viking should fall down OR ELSE… …down that very same Hatch Hiccup fell, the

door clanging shut behind him. There was a short silence. Then pandemonium broke out.

'Aaaarrgh!' screeched Norbert the Nutjob, seeing his guide to America lost, and his journey going up in smoke. 'Get him out! Get him out! They'll kill him!' But the crew could not open the Hatch. Somebody had lost the key and had to run off and find it. Frantically, Camicazi and Fishlegs and Norbert pulled and pulled at the bars, and tried to squint down to see what was happening. There was a horrible noise of shouting and screaming going on down there in the darkness. What was happening to Hiccup? Hiccup fell down, down, down, into the blackness of the hold, landing on the wood with the carrots, and the bread, and the cabbages the Wanderers were starting to eat. There was a shocked silence for a moment. Then came a roar of rage. 'It's a Viking!' yelled one big Wanderer, shaking his chains in fury. 'Kill him!' shrieked Bearcub's Grandmother, showing her sharp pointy teeth and seizing Hiccup by the leg. 'Crush him to death!' She made a growling noise like a wolf. 'It's quite a small Viking,' said the big Wanderer more uncertainly as he grabbed hold of Hiccup, and he