Dark Valkyrie

Fifteen: For the life of...

Fifteen: For the Life Of...

Rain lashed the Hunter Base as Viggo paced within his tent, peering intermittently at the map fixed to the wall.

"He should be back by now," he growled, his scarred face pulled strangely by the expression.

"He won't be," Johann said coldly. "She will have gotten to him. She was very determined-she even evaded me." Viggo raised his remaining eyebrow and turned to face the Trader. A knife whiffled past his face by a fraction and embedded deep into the wall. "You-as she-underestimated me. But she was quick and she got away."

"You failed to stop her," Viggo replied smoothly, the vague note of triumph in his voice at the irritation in Johann's face. The man was dangerous, ice-cold and ruthless and took immense pleasure in pointing out the failure of his subordinates: not a man without his own faults, Viggo still found himself enjoying the reversal of the situations.

"She was lucky," Johann snapped.

"She's a liability-a dangerous one," Viggo corrected him smoothly. "She has annihilated over seventy percent of the fleet. Our dragons are released, our men slain and even the village is gone. That Evil Valkyrie is after our hearts!"

"No," Johann snapped, leaning forward with his eyes narrowed with hatred. "She's just a girl. And all alone. She's after us because she believes that Hiccup Haddock is dead."

Viggo paused from his pacing and stared at Johann.

"Believes?" he repeated. Johann gave an irritated snort.

"He lives," he snapped. "When I went to Berk, I found that he had survived and was being cared for at home by his father. He was in a coma..."

"Was?" Viggo's tone was extremely cynical.

"No one pays any mind to 'Trader Johann'," the man said bitterly. "But I listened-and went to see the young man and quietly end him...but that lizard was there. He saved the boy-and I think he woke."

"Did he see you?" Viggo snapped. Johann shook his head.

"He had just woken from a long illness and I doubt he would register who I was," he said. "My cover remains intact, I think. But he is alive and he will recover."

"You forget-Astrid Hofferson knows who you are," Viggo reminded him.

"And yet word had never got back to Berk despite her having ample time," Johann snapped. "I advised the Fliers to attack any Terrible Terrors since I know the Riders use them to communicate."

"SIR! SIR!" A Hunter poked his head round the flap of the tent and Viggo rolled his eyes.

"What is it?" he asked coldly. The Hunter threw a sloppy salute.

"We've found him, sir," he reported.

"Really?" Viggo's voice was cold.

"Well, actually we found his dragon," the Hunter reported. Viggo remained silent. "It's dead, sir."

"How?"

"It appears to have crash-landed-but there were Nadder spines sticking out of the carcass," the Hunter reported.

"That dragon would have come to him if he was alive," Johann commented brutally. "Interesting-she brought it down. And Krogan underestimated her. He is dead then." He looked over at Viggo. "Promote Joren to the lead of the Fliers."

"Go," Viggo snapped, his eye sparkling with irritation. He was the leader of the Hunters and resented being treated like a subordinate by the Trader. Though Johann was clearly a powerful and dangerous man, a man who had plotted his stratagem a long time in advance, a man who had killed to set up his deception, who had cultivated his persona for years and who could walk almost anywhere as the laughable 'Trader Johann' but who would kill and destroy if he considered it in his best interest. Both men watched the Hunter leave and then glared at one another.