A Fistful of Dragons

Part 24: Whose Dragon?

Twenty-Four: Whose Dragon?

The steady sounds of hammering were interspersed with bickering and the sounds of things being thrown. Ryder peered through the tiny barred window and watched the twins 'supervising' the troop of soldiers build a pretty sturdy looking gallows stack bang in the centre of the Plaza. It was something that Berk had never previously needed-before the Berserkers and Outcasts, the people of Berk had been ornery and taciturn but never really criminal and since...well, any execution tended to involve gunning someone down in the Plaza. He supposed he should be honoured they were going to the trouble to build it just to hang him but really, it didn't feel like much of privilege.

"Not sure...my sister...would approve..." Leo muttered from his bed in the adjacent cell.

He had been curled up, unresponsive, when Ryder was brought in and the gunslinger had been infuriated by the sight of fresh blood on his battered face. He was certain that the Marshals had questioned Leo and that had gotten a bit...physical. Crouching by the bars and calling worriedly to his Uncle, Ryder had promised he would make them pay: after all, the men were clearly bastards-they'd held Astrid at gunpoint if he needed any other proof. When Leo had finally stirred, the man had cracked open his eyes and groaned. "What is it that you always end up found?" he groaned. Ryder grinned.

"Couldn't let Astrid get shot by those Marshals," he admitted. Leo stiffened.

"They threatened her?" he rasped, lifting his head. Ryder sighed.

"Yeah...after Toothless tried to eat the Major," he admitted and Leo gave a small smile.

"They only eat fish," he murmured.

"He didn't seem to know that," he revealed and sighed, sitting on the floor by the bars, leaning against them. "Mind you, the Colonel with the last troop was crooked and tried to sell Toothless to Eret for a huge chest of gold. Dagur gunned them down...Gobber and I followed them when they sneaked out and we watched the whole thing. Dagur and his men got away with the dragon and we came back and borrowed two of the men to fleece the gangs...and I got the twins to bury them."

"You paid?" Leo asked softly. There was a small pause. Ryder nodded.

"Um...yeah..." he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Slightly defeated the object of trying to get as much money as possible out of the gangs..." Leo painfully sat up and stared at his nephew.

"Hmm...your mother would have been proud of you," he admitted. "Val was a decent woman who would never have abandoned men to rot or be eaten by coyotes or Whispering Deaths..." Then Ryder pressed his head back against the bars, turning away from the older man.

"You know, I don't remember anything about Mom?" he asked softly. "I was taken from her when I was so young and when Dad...Espen...deigned to answer my questions, he said she had died and that was it. He never told me anything...I guess because he didn't know anything..." Leo sighed.

"I'm sorry," he apologised. "I should've found you...but I was out of it for some months...and I couldn't find the trail when I was finally together enough to leave Gothi's..." Ryder turned to stare at the man and shook his head. The inflection reminded him how badly hurt the man had been. It would have been many long months before Leo's mind and body would have been strong enough to seek for the fugitive kidnapper...he really hadn't stood a chance.

"What's done is done," he murmured and he heard the man slump back on the bed.

"But that doesn't make it right..." he groaned.

And it wasn't right now as the soldiers-hindered by the twins-rapidly assembled the gallows in the Plaza. Ryder had done some-rather a lot-of pretty damning things in his life, though only since his wife was raped and murdered and all in his quest to find the men who had killed her. And against all odds, they were all dead, bothering Helheim not Berk. And even more improbably, he had found himself some family, a friend or so...a unique bonded dragon...and Astrid. He closed his eyes. He had finally come out of the hellish nightmare following Heather's murder...and now...he was going to die just as he had found happiness...and love.