Chapter 43: Seeds, Cattle and Iron VI

They both grew tired of standing and found a place on the deck, backs against the mast.

The night was clear. The moon was out and full, the stars had come out thick and hard, all the way down to the edge of the ocean. She told him of the few constellations she remembered.

Hiccup squinted his eyes and tried to make out what she was pointing at.

It turned out he could not see them.

That was the trade, he explained. He could see too well at night, the pitch black sky had become a silver white expanse, and so the contrast between the stars had become none.

He had grown used to it.

So he just sat with his head down and listened to her describe them, and decided it was, all told, a fair enough way to spend a night.

The conversation picked itself up again after a while.

"What was that about, earlier. Where did you learn to cut a gear?" she chuckled, gaze still fixed on those distant stars.

"...I learned it on the forge."

"Well, obviously. Whose forge, oh dragon tamer?"

That got a chuckle out of him. So he told her about the forge.

About Gobber, and how a man with one leg and one arm ran the best smithy in the archipelago, and how he had let a useless boy make things in the corner when there was nothing to work on.

About Berk. How it was cold and loud and had a single paved road. About a great many other things. He talked for a long time.

Longer than he meant to.

Every time the story got near the end he would turn it, smoothly, without thinking about it, and tell her something else instead.

She let him do it. She enjoyed listening.

That night he did not talk about the cove. He went round it both times. Both times she handed him something else to talk about.

The watch changed at some point.

One fishing brother went below and the other came up.

Both of them simply sat together, and enjoyed the silence of each other's company.

Nothing happened, it went on being nothing happening for the better part of another hour, until the cold beat her and they exchanged goodnights and she disappeared down the ladder.

Never quite remembering to give the robe back.

The town was far bigger than any of them, save the dragon hybrid, had expected.

She had been picturing a fishing village with a jetty. She had been hoping for a small fishing village with a jetty.

What came up over the swell in the last of the light was a harbour with half a hundred ships in it, and behind the harbour a town that climbed the whole face of a hill and spilled over the top of it.

There were a couple of stone docks and another one going up. Warehouses along the whole waterfront, doors open, men running barrows by lantern light.

Ships from everywhere.

Broad northern hulls like their own.

Low sharp things out of the south with painted eyes on the bow. One great fat merchantman lying at the deep-water docks with a crew unloading barrels of something she couldn't quite make out.

The land itself was nothing much.

It was thin and rocky, the sheep on the slopes looked as though they had harsh things to say about the state of the grass.

How do sheep have things to say?

Silly thoughts.

The town was big because of where it sat. Everything moving through the nearby archipelagos had to come past these islands. Places like that get rich whether they have earned it or not.

The smell was enormous, that was for sure.

Tar, fish, rope, sheep, wet wool, smoke, and several decades of nobody clearing up after themselves. It hit them all at once. After so many moons of clean ocean breeze the all too familiar stench of human settlements had her pinching her nose just to bear with it.

Emerald stood at the rail with both hands on it, she did not move until the ship was tied up and secure to the docks.

The moment it did, there was that cold knot sitting under her ribs.

It is not the same port. It isn't.

She repeated in her mind, set her jaw and clenched her teeth.

It is not the same port, it is not the same sea.

It did not help. She realized her breathing had turned fast and difficult.

His firm, warm hand settled on her shoulder. She had failed to notice, he was standing by her side, his upper face hidden beneath the hood of his robe.

"Nobody is going to lay a hand on you," he muttered quiet enough that only she would hear. "Not as long as you stay close."

His words somehow loosened that knot under her ribs.

Enough to let her lift her head and look at the port properly.

Her gaze went along the row of hulls tied up down the waterfront. Past the northern boats. Past the fat merchantman ship anchored not far off.

They had tied up at the outer end of the docks, which was Oddr's doing. The old man had a way with words, truly.

"Nobody looks twice at any boat tied up at the far end, plus it is a shorter run back out to open water if things turn sour."

The old man had been insisting on it for most of the voyage, so it was done the way he wanted.

Oddr went down the plank first, quick, almost skidding along. Eivind followed with the small bag of gold under his shirt and his hands not quite steady. Emerald went third, hair covered and eyes down, she blended with the crowd well. She was good at it.

Hiccup nearly lost her in the come and go of the crowd.

Which was bad. He filed that away.

Then he stopped at the head of the plank and turned round.

They were leaning along the rail, looking at the lights of the town with the particular hunger of men who have not seen the inside of an inn in half their lives.

He let out a long sigh.

"I think I've already made my point clear." His gaze went round their eyes. "However, I'll say it again just to make sure."

Hiccup's expression turned somber. "Nobody leaves this ship. Not for an hour. Not for a drink. Nobody. If somebody asks, you bribe him with gold, shoo him away, I don't care. Just, don't open your mouth."

The green of his eyes came up brighter under the hood as he said it.

"I am not threatening you. I have never threatened one of you and I am not going to start tonight. I am just telling you what is down there."

He let them look at the lights.

"There are slavers in that town. Some of them are tied up at this dock. If one of them works out where we came from, they will not come for me. You can work the rest out, can't you?"

A pause. Some of them nodded.

"Listen, just..." He pinched the bridge of his nose, "Just do this properly and I will buy a barrel of wine for the lot of you to drink on the way home. Okay?"

He had already repeated the rules many times at sea, so he simply turned to go.

"But only if you do not fuck it up."

He let that sit.

"One careless mouth and everything we have built up there is... Every one of you has slept on the bottom of a hold. You know exactly where the cargo came from."

Nobody said a word.

"Good."

He pulled the hood down far enough to cover his eyes.

Only then did he go down onto the dock, following the three of them at about fifteen paces. Close enough to reach them should anything happen. Far enough back that they would not notice him.

Ahead of him the three of them walked into it.

Oddr complaining about his knees. Eivind with both arms folded over the purse. Emerald in the middle, small and hooded, entirely ordinary.

Hiccup stood at the end of the dock and watched them enter the biggest baddest warehouse.

Twice, he took in a long breath, twice I have walked into a place like this with my face covered. Both times somebody had ended up screaming, both times he had had to flee with his metaphorical tail between his legs.

Well. Third time lucky.

Then he leaned his head down and followed.