Polynya

FeeTwix steps aside and looks at her questioningly. “How? You’re just as cuffed as we are.”

“If not more,” Ryuk adds.

The Thulean assassin approaches the bars and looks down the hall. “Guard. I demand your audience, now.”

“Ha! Demand!”

“Yhai blahte charotakh lavaka.”

Hiccup’s ears twitch. “What the fick did you just say?”

A guard approaches moments later, his clubbing stick at the ready. “Say that again and see what happens!” he growls.

A tear-shaped light forms under the skin of Zaena’s forehead. As soon as the guard sees it he drops to one knee. “What is it you’d like, milady?”

“I demand to be removed from this prison and I demand an audience with Empress Thun.”

Ryuk glances at Hiccup, whose jaw has dropped open, and back to FeeTwix, who’s still trying to figure out what’s going on.

“Yes, milady!” the guard says as he goes for his keys.

(0)__(0)

The Thulean restraints are quickly taken off Zaena and she’s ushered out of the cell. “Not without my companions,” she tells the guards and they begrudgingly comply.

“But they must stay cuffed,” the head guard says, the one with the overbite. “At least for now.”

“That’s fine, as long as they’re with me at all times.”

“Seriously,” Hiccup grumbles as the guard guides him away from the bench. “You could have told us, Liz! No wonder you’d always bristle when I called you princess.”

Ryuk stops dead in his tracks. “You’re … a Thulean princess?”

“That’s right, Marbles, Liz has royal blood.”

“How come none of you knew?” the Swede asks his audience as he’s led out of the cell. “And why didn’t you tell me?” he asks Zaena, suddenly a little hurt.

“We will discuss this later.”

A thought comes to FeeTwix. “Wait, if you’re a princess does that mean you’re related to the Thulean queen that Quantum Hughes took out in the giant tournament?”

“No, she’s related to another queen, Twixy. Of course she is! Fick me, you’re daft.”

“Queen Renata is my older sister, so yes, I am related to her.”

“I’m just pissed that her royal highness over here hasn’t used any of her power to a) get us better hotels; b) better guildmates, sorry Marbles; c) rupees galore and the working gals that follow; or d) fund the Mitherfickers’ extreme vetting program. Hey! Watch the fickin’ hair!” he barks at the guard steering him.

“A goblin with pink hair?” an inmate calls out. “I got dibs on that little pink-haired fuckboy!”

“Fick!” Hiccup shoulders past Ryuk. “Get me the hell away from that pedo! Talk about some bad hombres! Whew! Glad we’re getting the fick out of here!”

“Enough, goblin,” Zaena calls over her shoulder. “You are a noisy pest.”

“Well, she is royalty,” the goblin starts to tell Ryuk, “so that would explain some of the racism. I agree,” Hiccup says even though Ryuk isn’t responding, “she should call me by my proper name, but hey, like I said, she’s royalty. Can’t live with them, and we aren’t allowed to kill them.”

“Where are they going?” one of the inmates cries out as they reach the stairs. “Not fuckin’ fair, mate!”

“Quiet, Luke!” the lead guard shouts. “Or it’s another flogging for ye!”

“Oooo! Flog me!” screams another inmate.

“Keep your mouth shut, Bobby!” growls the guard.

They’re led up a flight of stairs to a long corridor, and from there, they head back down another flight of stairs to an underground passage.

Ryuk’s mind reels as he tries to piece together all the times Zaena hinted that there was more to her story. But to find out that “more” is the fact that she’s royalty is something that he is pretty shocked to hear, especially Thulean royalty.

As they walk, Ryuk recalls the couple of times he visited the city of Athos, the capital of the third floating continent, Ultima Thule. The mostly Thulean city filled with yurt-like buildings is unlike any place he has visited in Tritania.

“Shit, Marbles, you look like you’re lost in thought.”

“I sort of was, until you interrupted it.”

“Yeah? Well how ‘bout less daydreaming and more fickin’ team leading.”

“Zaena is at the front of the group,” he reminds the goblin. The guard behind him laughs.

“You two always this friendly to each other?”

“We have a special relationship, if that’s what you mean,” Hiccup grits. “And I’m not saying I’m his fickin’ lapdog here either. He comes when I tell him, not the other way around.”

FeeTwix starts laughing so hard that the procession has to stop. “Really think about that last line, Hiccup. Just … really think about it.”

“Fick you, Twixy!” Hiccup’s face turns red as he scowls. “You know what I meant.”

“Quiet back there,” the lead guard shouts as they enter into a comfortable room with white marble flooring. Folding screens divide the room.

At the far end of the room, near the other entrance, are four chairs suitable for both washing a person’s hair and giving them manicures and pedicures.

“The four of you will now get ready to meet Empress Thun.”

Four clothed mannequins magically appear in the center of the room, three male and one female.