For Milady

TWENTY: New Purpose

TWENTY: New Purpose

The houses of the village were silent and though it was the middle of the day, there was no one on the streets and no signs of life. A few houses had thin curls of smoke stuttering from the smoke-holes: otherwise, the place was a ghost town.

Astrid stared across the place, her hand tight on the haft of her axe. There was no smell of bread from the Bakery, the blacksmith's shop was shut up with no fire in the forge and the boats were all drawn up with no evidence anyone putting out for days. She frowned and her sense of foreboding grew worse in the eerie quiet. There were the sounds of animals in distress, locked away for the night-but no people.

Quietly, she made her way to the barns and opened them, finding cows, sheep and goats locked up with no water or food so she carefully drew water from the village well and sloshed it into the troughs them let the animals wander to graze, for there was no obvious feed anywhere that she could see. Checking the water-which seemed clean-she took a sip and slaked her thirst as well, before she explored further. There were no signs of dragon attack, nothing burnt and no signs of battle or attack at all. It was just as if the people had vanished.

Methodically, she went from house to house and as she went round, she found more clues: fires burnt out on the grate, clothes and treasured possessions left behind-along with food. But the blankets were taken from the beds and children's toys were also missing, along with what were clearly barrels of water and mead-so the people had gone prepared for something. She glanced around: the air in the house was fusty, as if it had been locked up for a few days and as she expected, the fireplace was stone cold. She felt Thumper kick and she patted her stomach absently.

"I agree-it's very strange," she murmured, her soft words loud in the eerie silence. She rose carefully and made her way outside. There was only one place she hadn't checked-the village hall, a solid building with heavy doors. And if the people had barred themselves inside, what were they hiding from? She whistled and gave a swift Nadder call. Her senses were all on edge now and she felt that she needed Stormfly close by because something felt very wrong. Automatically, she pulled up her hood and dragged a scarf tight across her face before she approached the solid building, hearing the caw and thump as the Deadly Nadder landed behind her. Swiftly, she grabbed the door handle and pushed it open, flinging the door wide and peering into he dark space, then inviting Stormfly to advance with her mouth filled with fire to illuminate the place...

...and then Astrid stumbled back in utter shock and horror as she saw what was within. Everyone was dead, eyes wide, mouths hanging open with bloody drool over their chins. Some were fresh while others...had clearly died earlier. But the hall contained every single member of the Tribe that had lived here, every man, woman and child. She glanced over the space and confirmed everyone was dead and then she backed away, jumping up onto Stormfly and launching to hover in front of the hall.

"Disease!" Astrid exclaimed breathlessly, tugging the scarf from over her face. "They're all dead, girl..." She stared down and murmured a simple prayer to Odin. "We have to burn it all, Stormfly. If we leave it, someone else could come here and catch whatever disease they had." She took a deep breath. "Okay girl-fire!"

Minutes later, they were soaring away from the little island where they had just stopped for a rest with every house and the hall burning fiercely, destroying the tainted homes and hall and the luckless inhabitants. The column of smoke was still climbing into the grey sky as Astrid and Stormfly crossed the coastline and headed out to sea once more.

oOo

"He's a traitor?" Dagur shouted, his eyes momentarily flattening and causing Hiccup to back up in sudden alarm. Toothless was with him and he was pretty confident that the Berserker wouldn't attack him...but he wasn't completely confident because he was still stiff and had to regain his strength.