How to Twist a Dragon's Tale (Hiccup) (17 page)

252

Did I dream it or, as she swung unsteadily upward, did something really come loose from around her neck, and drop for a moment into the sunlight? Did it catch a sun-ray, and wink at me, one small red wink?

I
think
I saw the ruby heart's stone, hanging around her neck on a fine golden chain.

It was only for a second, that wink of her heart that she normally kept so guarded, because as soon as she got herself settled on the dragon, she picked up whatever-it-was and stuffed it back inside her armor again.

Then she pulled down her visor so that her lined, old-woman face disappeared, and all you could see peering out was her eyes. Time had not aged those eyes; they were the same bright blue that once gazed out at Humungous all those many years ago.

""Yoicks!" my mother cried out in youthful excitement, anticipating the fun of the Quest ahead, and she kicked her dragon's flanks with her heels and flew off into the heavens.

I watched her go, a tall armored figure sitting upright on her dragon, her white hair flowing out from under her helmet, her sword still steady in her hand, getting smaller and smaller until she disappeared into the clouds entirely, and all I could hear carried to

253

me on the wind was the last echoes of her voice crying out: "Into the Battle!"

I never saw her again.

She was killed on the battlefield that very afternoon, seventy-six years old, and still fighting.

She was a Great Hero, my mother.

[Image: Horns.]

254

THE BRACELET

I set my mother's half of the ruby heart's stone in the other eye of the dragon on the bracelet. So now both halves of the stone are together again.

I did wonder whether I should wear something that had been worn so long by Alvin himself.

But then I thought,
my
fate and
Alvin's
fate have been so entwined around each other, in an endless tangled knot, that it is impossible to pick them apart.

If Alvin had not stolen Humungous's heart's stone, the hearts of Valhallarama and Humungous would never have been broken.

My mother would never have married my father.

And I, the hiccup, the accident, WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BORN.

And, by a curious, unexpected turn of Fate, I, Hiccup, also just happen to be Alvin's nemesis. So that all that Alvin's busy evildoing achieved was the accidental creation of his own downfall.

You see how good and evil are twisted together?

Like a golden dragon bracelet snaking brightly about a person's arm.

The dragon bracelet that Humungous created, out

255

of misplaced love and gratitude, in the hellish nightmare of the Lava-Lout Jail-Forges is exquisitely made, for he was a far better goldsmith than he was a singer.

It curls around my arm, its shining wings folded back, as if about to unfurl and take off, and now that its ruby eyes are set into the gold, you cannot see their tear shape, so they seem to be laughing rather than crying.

It is a constant reminder to me of the human ability to create something beautiful even when things are at their darkest.

I have worn that bracelet every day of my life.

[Image: A dragon.]

245

256

Surely, SURELY, that was the last that we shall see of
Alvin the Treacherous?

For surely even ALVIN couldn't swim back to life through the burning waters of the earth's core?

Or could he???

I
have this funny feeling that we may yet be seeing more of this undefeatable villain...

Watch out for the next volume of Hiccup's memoirs...

246