On the Edge of Mystery: Chapter 29 Part 1 and Part 2 - Thorn in the Side

On the Edge of Mystery

Chapter 29, Part 1

Torn in the Side

         Once we all welcome Cazi back, Meen then said, “Okay, so I will ask about the yak in the room right now… Why are your clothes soaked through?”

         “Well,” Cazi replied as she set her helmet down and started to brush out the water in her hair.  She started out briefly explaining what happened, which supplemented what I had said, “Once I was led by Hari’s second in command to my cell… dragon cage…, I was then tied up: Hands behind my back and ankles tied.  After locking me in the cell, I was left alone.  The next several minutes I worked on the rope.  All I really had to do was to move my wrists back and forth until a couple fingers were free.  Then little by little, I was able to free my hands.  As soon as I untied my ankles, I stood up in the cage.  The cage was made of the exact same material that we saw on the ships from the one ship graveyard.  No one was down below on my deck.  Everyone seemed to be topside getting ready to shove off.”

         “Since I was already on the ship, I wanted to stay for as long as I could to gain information,” Cazi continued.  “Anything at this stage would be valuable to our cause.”

         Ali interjected, “But if you’re locked in a cage, how were you able to escape?”

         Responding, Cazi went on, “That seemed more of the easier part.  There is a window in that cage.  I guess they thought I would try to untie myself or the bonds would hold, but the window only had a shutter on it.  Still you might be wondering how I got the shutter open…”

         Cazi held up her brush.

         “Because Hari took my daggers, I had no weapon to pry the shutter open…,” she paused.  “Except my brush.  Using the edge of the handle much like a knife, I was able to wedge the handle between the shutter and the windowsill.  Putting some pressure on the shutter, as the hinges were on the outside, the shutter opened out.  Good thing us girls look after our figure for the window was a tight squeeze.”

         Everybody stifled a chuckled as Cazi kept going, “The moment I was on the outside, they started rowing out to sea.  With the movement of the ship, keeping a grasp of the side of the ship was a challenge.  I put my hands and feet inside the cracks in for place holds to work my way towards the back of the ship; usually the captain’s office is at the back there.  I did not hear Hari’s voice up top, so I figured he had to be there in the back.”

         Elsa eagerly asked, “What’d you find out?”

         “I’m getting to that,” replied Cazi, and then looked at me.  “I know where Annabeth is.”

         This woke up everybody as if they were asleep and had to get up for something urgent.

         Cazi continued, “I have a heading, an area, and another clue: ‘Once we get Mystery, we’ll have all that I need to levy a trade.  I do have some insurance if we don’t make it out of the island without our prize, but I might not need it anyway.  I might throw both in with the deal.’  Hari said that.  I bet that insurance is Annabeth because the other guy was talking like they just got that it.”

         With new found energy I declared, “Cazi Olson For-The-Win!”

         Cazi etched in some nearby dirt where she heard they, Hari’s men, were heading.

         I added as she finished, “Where’d the brush come from?”

         “What?”  Cazi answered, “Oh.  I am always prepared… for anything.  A girl never knows when she might need a brush.”

         “It’s true,” Asvord agreed.

         “You have a brush?” I responded, surprisingly.

         “Yeah,” Asvord looked like I was asking something obvious.  “I have always had a brush with me.”

         “Me too,” Elsa pipped in.  “We’ve had our brushes with us ever since we started exploring, since we were little.”

         Shaking my head, I responded, “After all this time, I never knew you guys had a hairbrush with you.”

         Asvord retorted back, “What?  Did you need it?”

         “No,” I rolled my eyes.

         “Well good,” she said.  “I would not have let you used it, anyway.”

         I suggested, “Now that we know where to go, why don’t we just go right now?  The day is young, in fact we might catch up to Hari and tail him.”

         “Sounds fine,” Hiccup replied.  “With what is at stake, I think Astrid will agree; we are sticking this through with you guys.  It wouldn’t be right for us to turn back now.”

         Astrid smiled and nodded.

         Thanking Hiccup and Astrid, I also said, “I know we have our own things we do now, more so than we did before, but it is great to know I still have others who have my back.”

         “Anytime,” Hiccup said.

         Hyrith then recommended, “Now that we are not staying here anymore, could we go now; because this smog is starting to get to me.”

         Garth approved, “Yes.  Any prolonged exposure to this smog, has unknown consequences.  We should leave now.”

         Hiccup looked at Throst, “Do you want to join us?”

         “I don’t know if I have a choice,” he said.  “I was runn… escaping someone else, which is why I stowed away on this Hari Oldeson guy’s ship.  I’m definitely not for the guy, so I want to get back at him for forcing me to come with him to this forsaken island.”

         With that, we did leave.  Mounting our dragons, we flew off to the north.  As I mounted Fredrick, I pocketed Annabeth’s locket.  Cazi switched to Fredrick and I, and we took point.  Cazi has a better understanding of where we are going.  Everyone else just fell in behind us.  We are not in a real “rush”, for we are in uncharted waters; figuratively and literally.  We do not know what lies ahead, so throwing some caution to the wind would be the best way to move forward.  However, we do feel the urgency of the matter, but if we are not careful, we could make things worse.

Throst seems genuine enough, though I have felt that about others before and they have turned on me; prime example Ohmarr and Adam.  However, in the case of the Thorvalds, they did change, Vemund especially.  I cannot help but still think of his strange behavior when I was attacked in their house.

         The other vikings that had been “frozen” by the Flightmare had run off.  Assuming they had other ships to use, we let them go as we are more concentrated on Annabeth and finding her.

         “How are you holding up there Throst?” Explod asked.

         Looking back, I saw Throst was struggling to keep his balance on a dragon.  Throst is doubling with Hyrith, yet Moonstone does not appreciate the extra weight.  Moonstone is sometimes temperamental for if something is not the same as what is normal, it takes her a while to adjust.

         “Seeing how this is my first time on a dragon,” said Throst as if he were doing the flying; Throst sounded out of breath.  “I think I’m doing okay.”

         He was doing a pretty good job, but for anybody and their first time on a dragon compared to any experienced dragon rider, he is not doing well.  Hey, everybody has their first experience on a dragon; most times it does not go so very well.

         Figuring Hari left not too long before we all flew off Smogy Island, we should catch up to them.  It did take us a half hour to get out of the smog, even with the light of day.  Once out though, we guided our dragons up to a higher altitude as to be out of range of any lookouts.  This also gives us a better vantage point to see what we are flying into.

         The seriousness of the task at hand brought with it silence during the trip; a silence not of awkwardness, but of pointed concentration.  By what Cazi said, something big is about to happen:  We must be decisive with every move we make.

         Half hour later, we caught up to Hari and his ships, and then riding on his “tail” we followed him into a port.  The best comparison to this island I could use to describe its look is Outcast Island with a lot more fortification and built on and probably into the mountain.  First time I have ever seen what resembles a castle.  I have heard stories from my mother and father about castles and knights, from their adventures, but I have never seen one.

         “Looks like we are going to go in one for the first time,” I thought.

         Thankfully, it is partly cloudy so we can stay high.  Still, we do not want to get too close and be spotted.  Surely, with all those towers they should have lookouts in them.  Giving the island a wide berth, we circled the island.

         Hiccup announced, to be heard, “That is probably one of the most fortified islands I have ever seen.”

         Ali observed, “Though it does look like it is very old.  Doesn’t look any of it is built recently.”

         Angie said, “Looks like the whole island itself is a fortress; not much for forests.”

         “Guys,” Cazi spoke.  “If we go in at all with our dragons, from any direction, we will be picked off one by one.”

         “I noticed that too,” Hiccup agreed.

         Sapphire asked, “So how are we going to infiltrate the place?”

         “What’s your idea, Jarl?” wondered Hiccup.

         “I was thinking we should go in without our dragons,” I replied.  “Because if we do go in, as Cazi pointed out, we will get picked off one by one.  The only way we could possibly go in would be dragons-blazing, constantly moving to avoid any on coming fire.”

         Everyone agreed.

         “So who will stay with the dragons?” Elsa questioned.

         Hiccup then asked, “Can all of your dragons stay put on command?”

         We all acknowledged, “Yes.”

         Hiccup continued, “For an island this big we need everyone to cover as much ground as we can to find Annabeth.  The only thing we have on our side, because we would be out in the open from any side, is surprise.”

         I agreed and added, “I would almost want to wait for nightfall, but my gut feeling is saying we cannot wait.  Something is going to happen.”

Chapter 29, Part 2

Torn in the Side

         We had circled the island a couple of times before noticing the back of the island had a forest section.  Deciding as a group we were going to set down there, fly in low and land.

         Swiftly coming if for the landing, we saw there is a cave nearby.  One by one, we took our dragons into the cave and told them to wait.  Toothless as well as the other dragons did not want to stay at first.  Hiccup reasoned Toothless, leaving him in charge for the dragons to stay.

         “At the first sound of danger,” Asvord said.  “You know they’ll come after us.”

         “Yes,” I replied.  “I do not know about you, but I don’t plan on getting into any trouble.”

         “Yeah, but our dragons might,” Astrid said.  “Someone could have seen us coming in.”

         Throst spoke up, “I could stay with the dragons?”

         Cazi answered back, “You don’t know anything about dragons.”

         Hiccup added, “I don’t know if we have much choice in the matter.”

         Cazi folded her arms, “Well, whatever we’re going to do, we need to do it fast.”

         I suggested, “Let’s try to make a quick search of the island, gather some info, and then meet back here at the dragons to plan our next move.  Split up, take different paths, and don’t get caught.”

         Asvord retorted, “Well I don’t have any plans on getting caught.”

         All my friends parted ways and took different paths.  My gut is now telling me this is a bad idea, splitting up, but if Annabeth is on this island, we have just got to find her… before…

         Not wanting to dwell on the “before”, I started off, leaving Throst behind with the dragons.  For the first five to ten minutes, I ran down a path.  The path came to a rise as I came close to the edge of the fortress.  Knowing if I took the paths, those would be the ones to be watched and guarded.  So I would have to find other ways to get around.  I swiftly ran over to the right side of the path, edged closer to the nearby stone tower, and now slowly inched my way to the open path to peek around the corner.

         A guard!  He was coming up the from the other direction, making his way towards me.  Jerking my head back, I had to get into cover quick.  There is behind the stone tower a wall.  If I could get over it, I could take cover.  But how do you get over a seven-foot-tall wall in under a couple minutes?

         I do not know, but I am a fast learner; I will find out if this works.  I started sprinting, made nearly a complete circle, and ran towards the stone wall.  Spacing my strides out, I took off from my left foot, jumping up to the wall, and swinging my right leg over as if mounting a dragon.  At the same time, I grabbed the top edge of the wall to pull myself over.  Basically doing a cartwheel over the wall, I slid down to the ground on the other side.  Pausing for a moment, I waited to let the guard go further down the path.

         This part behind the wall is a few yards wide, yet there is nothing else here.  In front of me lies part of the mountain.  There is no other way to progress, except for going around on this side of the wall.  I kept to the left side near the mountain.  Going past another tower, yet this time the tower is all crumbled up; almost as if a large boulder hit it from a catapult, I went thirty yards.  The wall path opened up on the other side.  I took a look to see no one is coming down the path on this side.  No one was.  Slightly crouching I scooted along the side of the wall nearest me.  Another thirty yards forward I came to another path to the left.  This time I saw stairs turning to the right and going down.  I have a feeling I am in the thick of things here.

         The wall in front of me is considerably shorter.  Sounds of viking murmuring came to my ear.  With caution, I now crawled up to the wall, peeking my head over the side.  There are a couple flights of stairs down to a court.  This court seemed to be where they all took their treasures and goods to be stored.  I saw vikings walking about, crates being moved hither and yonder, soldiers marching about.

         “Where can Annabeth be?” I said softly.

         Not knowing where to go next, I sat there.

         “Maybe I can pick up something by keeping an ear to the wind,” I added.

         Five minutes… ten minutes… fifteen minutes…

         I did not feel like I am accomplishing much, but I had no clue of where to go.  When I would peek over the wall, I saw basically what I saw before.  All of a sudden, from one of the paths coming from the other side, I saw Hari.

         “Here we go,” I said.  “Now were making some progress.”

         A viking came up to greet Hari and said, “Hari, finally, you made it.”

         “Yes, but not with some difficulty,” Hari replied.

         “What happened?” the viking asked.

         “Well I had to deal with some annoying kids that have been a thorn in my side for a while now,” Hari responded.  “A thorn which has stayed in my side for too long.  When does our guest arrive?”

         The viking answered, “He should be arriving soon.”

         “What about our special guest?” Hari asked again.

         “Oh her?” the viking answered again.  “She’s up in the loft.”

         Hari added, “That Jarl kid is a pest.  I nearly was captured by him and one of his friends.  But I was able to get the best of the one girl and kidnap her.  She did get away, though, I almost wanted her to get away.  I have enough to deal with kidnapping one girl; I don’t need two.  Also, not to mention, I believe they are friends.  I have the other girl convinced she needs to stay here, I don’t want anything to mess that up, especially with my guest coming for the trade.”

         Oh…. My blood started boiling from there.  Hari is all the liar he is living up to being.  Flinching to jump over the side and rush down the stairs, it took every ounce of control to keep myself from going down there right now; doing so would be a stupid move, feeling good in the moment, nonetheless a stupid move.

         The two vikings walked off while I thought of “The Loft”.  What does that mean?  Looking around, I see I am on one the higher places in the fortress.  However, I see there is a centralized tower.  So I need to make my way over to it.  Problem is, there is a bagillion vikings from here to there.

         Okay, there is not that many.  However, there is very little cover from here to there.  Although, the quickest way over there is high, the path is practically wide open.  I have to try.

         Planning out a route to the other side involved a lot of creativeness and timing.  There are soldiers going in and out either just walking or on patrol.

         The first thing I need to do is get to a level higher.  There is a bridge above me.  Walking backwards a little way from the smaller wall, I looked at a way to get up there.  Figured out a path and then executed it.  What I did was go back on the right side of the path and started running towards the tower on this side.  Spaced my steps out again, leapt onto the wall, was able to take two big steps up the wall, pushing off, swung my body around from right to left doing a two hundred and seventy degree turn, I reached out with my right hand to grab the stone edge of the bridge’s railing.

         Now with all my weight on my right arm, I used my left arm to pull myself up and over the edge.  Laying on the bridge for a moment I gathered myself.  I stood up, shook out my arms to get the circulation flowing again, and then ran to the edge of this watchtower.

         Looking around the edge of the wall, I saw a couple vikings coming my way.  I have nowhere to hide.  So I just slid up against the wall of the tower and stood as skinny as I could make myself.  I heard them coming, talking to themselves.  Praying they would not see me as they turned the corner, I held my breath.  The two vikings turned the corner.  As they did, waiting for two steps I quickly got around the other side of the wall.

         “What was that?” one of the vikings said.

         Holding my breath again, the other viking said, “Aw you’re just hearing things.  With who’s coming, everybody’s on edge.”

         What the guy said was intriguing, but I had something else on my mind.  Now I have a clear shot to the other side.  I sprinted as fast as I could while crouching.  Once I got to the other side, there is a door.  Peaking in the window, I sighed with relief.

         I exclaimed as I opened the door, “Annabeth!”

“Jarl?!” replied Annabeth, kind of surprised.  “What are you doing here?”

         “What do you think?” I answered.  “Is there another way out of here than the one I just took to get in here?”

         “Uhh,” she slowly began, then shook her head finally realizing I am here.  “Yes, over here.  There are stairs.”

         Rushing over to her, I hugged her, and then said, “Here, take my hand.”

         Grabbing her left hand with my right, we both went over to her door.  I looked out the window again to see if there was anybody there.  There was not.  So I opened the door and Annabeth and I rushed down the steps.  We ran, still holding hands, down this pathway about ten yards, before stopping again to see if we were being followed and if anybody is in our way.  Nobody was behind or in front of us.

         “Where are we going?” she asked.

         “Away from here,” I replied as I started running again with Annabeth by my side.

         We now came up into another court, this time smaller.  There was no one around, so I ran through the court to the other side, but was stopped short.

         “Jarl,” a voice I unfortunately recognize.  “I would not do that if I were you.”

         Stopping cold in my tracks I turned around; as I did I muttered, “I knew this was too easy.”

         “Well, well, well,” Hari stepped out from the far corner from a room.  “Isn’t this a pleasant surprise.  We knew you were going to come eventually for her.  It was just a matter of time before the hints I dropped for that girl… uh… Cazi… figured out where we were headed.”

         “So you wanted us to come,” I responded as more men came out with weapons drawn, I am not letting go of Annabeth’s hand.

         “Yes I did,” Hari replied as he walked forward to me.  “Oh and your friends are being captured as we speak.  By what I have seen from you, Jarl, you are not one to go into a battle alone.”

         The angry inside me is a hundred fold than it was before.  I believe Hari is a bigger thorn in my side than I am in his; Hari is the biggest double crosser I have ever met.

         “You liar!” I called him out.

         “Liar?” Hari chuckled and smiled.  “Why I never said I kidnapped your girl.  But I did not say I was keeping her.”

         “Why kidnap, Annabeth?!” I demanded as Hari came closer to me; I shielded Annabeth behind me.  “What would you have to gain from kidnapping her?”

         “Oh, you must not know,” Hari responded.  He forced me to let go of Annabeth’s hand.  I tried to fight back, but two vikings came in to restrain me.  Hari continued, “I thought you already knew.  But I digress.  Anyway, to answer your question, I could not help keep a family apart.”

         “Talk about family,” I said, struggling in the grasp of the two vikings.  “You’re breaking apart a family by taking Annabeth.”

         “Oh, contrary,” Hari raised a finger.  “I’m all for bringing a family together.”

         Hari took Annabeth by the shoulders.  Oddly enough she was not resisting him.  I could not figure out why… then I did.

         As another figure appeared from the room Hari came, Hari said and then introduced, “I could not bear to see Annabeth’s -real- family be apart; her blood family.”

         Hari stepped out of the way and….

         “Dagur!” I yelled.

         Dagur stepped forward and swung his right arm around Annabeth; Annabeth just looked deeply distraught and kept looking at the ground.

         “Oh, I want to thank you Jar-bol for bringing me Annabeth,” Dagur said smiling, but in his evil looking way.

         “That’s Jarl,” I corrected.  “The ‘J’ is said ‘Y’.”

         Dagur rolled his eyes and quickly waved me off, “Oh whatever.  Like I was saying, I want to thank you for bringing her to me.  I would do anything for family… anything for my sister.”

         My eyes widened in amazement, Hari smiled, Dagur started laughing, and Annabeth could barely look at me.