第二十三章：有些龙是真的怪物

如果你或我在这种情况下感到有一只爪子在我们的脚踝上爬，我们都会尖叫的。
但在小嗝嗝短暂的一生中，他已经经历了那么多可怕和危险的冒险，所以他没有尖叫，因为他知道他没有时间了。相反，他深深地吸了一口气，捏着鼻子，那个不知名的生物把他往沙子里拖。
往下，往下，往下！
正当小嗝嗝以为他要晕过去的时候，下面的生物似乎拖着他突破某种墙，小嗝嗝牙齿震得咯吱响，落到了坚硬的东西上，他的手猛地松开鼻子，不受控制地吸了一大口…
…不是沙子，而是空气——腐臭，闷潮的空气，像卡在喉咙的鼻涕虫一样呼吸着。他边咳嗽边喘气，沙子从耳朵和头发里倾泻而出。
当他试着睁开眼睛的时候，他眼里满是砂子，他模糊地透过流淌着的眼泪看到，沙粒还在从一个洞里往下倾泻。
但是，这个爪子长眼的怪物正不断地向上喷出灼热的火焰，然后是凝固的火焰。这样把流淌的沙子变成看起来像玻璃一样的东西，封住了洞。
他们好像是在一个山洞里，那个怪物左右移动它的头，加固隧道的玻璃墙。
火焰停止了。
小嗝嗝能听见脑中Wodensfang那颤抖的小声音，“好了，好了，小嗝嗝，龙不是怪物，你知道……”

但问题是，就像有些人可能是恶棍，有些龙真的是怪物。
你永远不应该以貌取人，但这一次，小嗝嗝觉得自己在一个相对安全的地面。这只怪物原始和可怕的外表告诉他，跟他讲道理是没有意义的了（无论Wodensfang对于龙进化出良心或者类似复杂东西的可能性有多乐观）。
这怪物肯定不能在接下来的30秒内进化出一个良心来，他也不像是一个具有同情心的听众。
你看，这里龙的种类是如此之多。
有些龙，比如像Wodensfang那样的海龙，他们能够很大程度地模仿人类，以至于他们能够流利地使用语言。他们会讲道理，能够思考。
其他小嗝嗝遇到过的像黑暗屏息龙（Darkbreathers）和凶猛勒杀龙，他们不能进行复杂的思考。这些龙大部分时间生活在地下或海洋深处。在黑暗中独处无助于培养对生活中美好事物的欣赏能力。
六个月的斗智生活，使小嗝嗝瞬间提高了权衡这种致命情况的能力。
他无法和这条龙讲道理。所以他必须与之对决。当他扫视他的敌人时，他想得很快——非常快。
身长十五英尺，肌肉发达全副武装的龙。十只眼睛。巨型爪子。一个有趣的蛇形特征表明，它可能与一种同样生活在沙子下面的滑齿龙有关。

他迅速向另一边瞥了一眼，估计了一下逃跑的可能性。
这个洞穴是空的，只有一条紧急逃生通道。
从它鼓鼓的腿部肌肉判断，这怪物一定会先到达那个通道。
这是一个棘手的情况。
他唯一的机会是希望这种生物真的是滑齿龙的始祖，并利用他对滑齿龙的认识与它搏斗。
小嗝嗝绞尽脑汁，试图想起所有关于滑齿龙的事情。他知道什么？
穴居滑齿龙
滑齿龙生活在沙子下，会用他们的触手将沙子扒开 （我恨鼻涕粗）（触手→）
1. 滑齿龙不会咬他们的猎物，而是直接吞下去。
5. 滑齿龙的前额上有一个小小的脆弱点
6. 滑齿龙喜欢整个吞下还没死透的猎物。但别他们被吞了！！
他在笔记本上写过关于他们的什么东西？
那怪物的前额正中央有一个小弱点。他只有一种方法可以够到个脆弱的小地方，因为这只怪物装备着大量的利爪和尖牙。
如果他能让那个怪物相信他已经死了，它就会立刻把他吞下去。
然后他就得让这个生物把他整个吞下去，之后再寻找机会攻击这个生物唯一的弱点。
他得有耐心。他必须让那怪物把自己吞下去，至少吞到膝盖，这样当小嗝嗝弯下身子把剑刺进他的弱点时，怪物就很难做出反应。

感谢雷神，他身上有一把剑，或者更确切地说，感谢卡米卡琪。如果她没有藏在沙艇里，并将这把备用剑给他，他甚至不能实施这个完全绝望且荒谬的计划。
小嗝嗝计划的成功取决于一个关键因素。那怪物必须从正确的一边吞下去，也就是说，从脚开始。如果它一开始从脑袋那边吞下去，他就无能为力了。
这是一个对半的机会，当你的命取决于它时，这通常不是一个好提议，但有时你不得不把自己交给变化无常的命运之手，像抛硬币那样。
说实在的，对小嗝嗝来说，装死并不难，因为他刚才差点儿就死了。
他把自己弄得瘫软无力，尽管他身上的每一根神经都在向他尖叫着，要他跑开。他强迫自己的身体变得更加瘫软，头向后耷拉着。
他让自己的眼睛眯着，只是眯到最细小的眼缝，这样他就能看到发生了什么。
他强迫自己静静地躺着，他感到有什么恶心东西滑过他的身体。他集中了全部精力，才不让自己动一动，不让自己跳起来，不让自己抖掉铺在身上沙粒，尽管他从眼皮缝里看到那只讨厌的龙手。
看到那两只巨大的爪子，他不得不阻止自己吓得叫出声来——五根手指，每根手指的末端都有一只邪恶的龙眼。龙的脸是瞎的，在它的眼睛应该出现的地方有两个幽灵般的空洞。但那龙的十只眼睛却从它的爪子尖向他眨来眨去。

眨呀眨，眨呀眨。
那是鲨鱼的眼睛，代表死亡的眼睛。
那只怪物摸索着小嗝嗝的身体。它的长尾巴缠绕着小嗝嗝的躯干，把他勒得紧紧的。
“也许我最终还是要死了，”他半醒地想，似乎有那么一会儿，他的灵魂离开了身体，灵魂往下看了看自己那失去知觉的身体，他的身体被玻璃迷宫中的可怕怪物紧勒着，紧勒着，紧勒着。
所有的20只眼睛都把目光聚集在小嗝嗝的胸部。
你们记得，刚才小嗝嗝倒在沙滩上的时候，他把自己泡在老威力那破瓶子装着的哮喘药水里，那药水是深红色的，正是人血的颜色。
因此，他看上去确实非常虚弱，从头到脚血淋淋的，尤其是在他的胸前，有大量鲜红色的血。那怪物轻轻地擦去小嗝嗝身上的沙子，就连怪物也知道，人不可能流这么多血还能活下去。
“他死了……”怪物非常失望地对自己说。“不管我怎么勒他，他都不会对我尖叫的。死人就会开始变臭...”
和许多地下生物一样，滑齿龙喜欢保持一个整洁的洞穴，而死了的东西确实有臭味，如果一个人以某种令人窒息的方式被埋在地下，这种臭味会被放大。
“我现在就要在这把他吃了。”那怪物决定。

所以，小嗝嗝计划的第一部分至少是成功了。
尽管这似乎是一种奇怪的成功。
那怪物以为他死了，决定要吃掉他。
这只挑食的怪物用海水冲了冲小嗝嗝，把全部沙子从他身上冲下来（“太恶心了”），把他滚来滚去。然后那怪物开始在他身上涂上一层令人作呕的油腻物质，好让他更容易被吞下去。
“啊哈，”小嗝嗝想，他感到无限的欣慰。“我是对的，它就像滑齿龙。它想把我整个吞下去。”这就减轻了他的负担，因为这意味着在它吞咽时牙齿不会咀嚼他。
然后那怪物抓起小嗝嗝的一条腿，向他下面的地上喷了喷火，然后再喷了喷海水，把玻璃表面冲洗干净准备开吃，因为像滑齿龙这样的生物，似乎对这样的事情很是吹毛求疵，那怪物仔细地把小嗝嗝放下，把他的双臂放在他的两侧。
然后停顿了一下，在这段时间里，小嗝嗝非常想睁开眼睛，然后是一个可怕的、可怕的一刻，他感觉到怪物在嗅，在嗅他的耳朵……
“它要从错误的那边吃了！”小嗝嗝想，他绝望地试着想出一个临时计划来杀死那个正要吞食脑袋的龙。
可是，正当他要做些傻事，像试着跳起来的时候，他感到右脚的大脚趾上有抽鼻子的声音。

那怪物改变了主意，当然，它会有什么主意。
但为什么那怪物会改变主意？
我来告诉你为什么。
因为小嗝嗝戴着头盔。
它不想从那个末端有着长长的、令龙发痒的破东西开始吃。
“好吧，Wodensfang和无牙肯定会高兴的，”小嗝嗝想，他有点歇斯底里了。“他们总是告诉我不要忘记那个头盔…”
一阵咔哒咔哒的声音。
小嗝嗝忍不住把左眼皮微微睁开。
他一生中见过许多奇怪而可怕的景象，但这次是最奇怪、最可怕的一次。
他眯起眼睛向下看了看自己的身体，身体被一种像裹尸布一样奇怪发光的物质润滑着，他可以看到自己的脚，脚下面是那怪物的头，它张开嘴，把下颚张得像脱臼一样，以便把小嗝嗝整个吞下去。
它开始吞食。
很难去形容被龙吞下去的感觉。真的没有什么能跟这样子相提并论的了。
除此之外，它还发出最恶心的声音，像一种非常粗鲁的液体吸吮的声音，当它靠近你的脚时，你还会有那种吮吸皮肤的感觉，让你的小腿感到一阵恶心的潮湿，还有轻微的疼痛。
对小嗝嗝来说，真的很难让自己不颤抖，还要保持胳膊在身体两侧。

龙的嘴向上蠕动着，龙的消化液开始在他身上起作用，小嗝嗝的脚像在火上一样被灼烧着。慢慢地，慢慢地，它的嘴绕着小腿移动，在四肢上移动，一点一点痛苦地移动。
哦，小嗝嗝等不了多久了，但他知道他必须这么做。那条龙至少要吞到他的膝盖。
他偷偷往下看了一眼。那只怪物张开双臂稳住自己，所以就算他突然坐起来，那怪物眼睛也看不见他，但他必须等到刚~刚~好合适的时机……
当它的嘴到达膝盖时，他感到非常痛苦。
小嗝嗝有一种可怕的感觉，他的脚趾可能被溶解掉了。他的右脚失去了知觉。但他必须在恰当的时机出手……
当那怪物恶心的嘴到达小嗝嗝的膝盖上时，小嗝嗝左手慢慢地、小心翼翼地在卡米卡琪那把备用剑的剑柄上扭动着。
那怪物神经紧绷起来，也许是感觉到了他那猎物无限小的移动……
它举起手臂。所有的10只眼睛都盯着小嗝嗝。这是小嗝嗝的想象吗，还是它们看到了什么？它们是不是看到了什么东西，使得怪物突然一惊，眼睛还惊讶地瞪着？当它们的魔爪准备攻击时，魔爪上的眼睛愤怒地大大睁开，然后变成绿色，然后变成黑色，就像充满了血……

小嗝嗝只有一秒钟，只有一次机会。
他像猫一样迅速地坐起来，伸出手，把剑正正刺进了那怪物的前额。
在那可怕的一刻，小嗝嗝以为他可能没有击中正确的位置。那家伙的两只手臂都弹了起来。小嗝嗝拼命地拽着剑，想把剑再拽出来，这样他就可以再次发起攻击，但是……
SQUERCH!!!
当那弱点爆开的时候，发出一声轻微的爆裂声，然后…
WHHHOOOOOOOSHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!（飞快移动的呼呼声）
那个怪物死后，从嘴里喷出一口沙子和海水，小嗝嗝被喷了出去，他的背部滑过光滑的玻璃地面，身体倒立地停在洞穴的尽头，淹没在哗啦啦的盐水中。
即使是倒立着，小嗝嗝也能看到那家伙已经死了，尽管它还在浑身颤抖和抽搐，但小嗝嗝甚至没有停下来检查它，他是如此急切地想把那家伙的消化液从自己身上弄下来。他在海水里滚啊滚，特别是把自己的脚蹭啊蹭，脚还像是在火上一样灼烧着……
最后灼烧感渐渐消退了点，几乎可以忍受了。那怪物现在一动不动地躺着。不过，小嗝嗝那只可怜的脚很糟糕，即使是在昏暗的萤火龙微光中，他也能看见左脚的小脚趾再也不会和以前一样了。原本是脚趾的地方已经萎缩得快要不存在了，就像一条脏兮兮的粉红色小虫子，里面的内脏都被掏出来了一样，他不能动弹也感觉不到他的那根脚趾。

但至少那不是小嗝嗝的头，而是一条散乱的粉红色小虫子。如果是头的话，那将是一场灾难。
然而，当他环视地下洞穴时，小嗝嗝注意到自己仍然处于困境之中。
他在一个玻璃洞穴里，在沙子下面，大概此处的地表已经被潮水淹没了，所以他也在大海下面。他要怎么离开这里？
但当他环顾着这个奇特的玻璃洞穴和延伸出的隧道时，他感到后脑勺一阵麻利感，一个想法出现了。
他把手伸进防火服，掏出那张残破的地图残骸。那张地图看起来有点破烂了，因为它和小嗝嗝本人一样，也经历了一段艰难的时刻。它被烧焦过，被有毒的指甲撕裂过，被海水和龙的消化液浸没过。
镜子迷宫。
噢，看在雷神的份上。
蓄须王的地图上方那条红鲱鱼似乎在对他眨眼睛，同时还在嘲笑他。
宝石就在这里。
当然在这里了…
23. SOME DRAGONS REALLY ARE MONSTERS If you or I had felt a claw creep around our ankles in such a situation, we would have screamed. But Hiccup had been in so many terrifying and dangerous adventures in his short life that he did not scream, for he knew he did not have time. He took a great breath of air instead, and held his nose, as the unknown creature dragged him downwards through the sand. DOWN, DOWN, DOWN! Just as Hiccup thought he was going to pass out, the creature pulling him below seemed to break through some sort of wall, and Hiccup landed with a bone-crunching jolt on something hard and his hand flew off his nose and he took a great involuntary breath…

… not of sand, but of air – rancid, stuffy dank air that caught in the throat like slug breath. And he coughed and gasped, sand pouring out of his ears and from his hair. As he tried to open his eyes, gritty with grains of sand, he could see blurrily through streaming tears, sand still pouring down from a hole.
But the Monster with the eye-claws was shooting flames upward in continuous bursts of hot, then freezing, flame. This turned the sand pouring through into something that looked like glass, sealing the hole. They seemed to be in some sort of cavern, and the Monster moved its head this way and that, reinforcing the glass walls of the tunnel. The flames stopped. Hiccup could hear the Wodensfang’s little quavery voice in his head, ‘Now, now, Hiccup, dragons are not Monsters you know…

’ But the thing is, just as some humans can be evil, some dragons really are Monsters. You should never judge a book by its cover, but on this occasion, Hiccup felt he was on fairly safe ground. This Monster’s primitive and ghastly appearance told him there would be no point reasoning with it (however optimistic the Wodensfang might be about the possibility of dragons evolving consciences and complicated things like that). This Monster couldn’t evolve a conscience in the next thirty seconds, and it was unlikely to be a sympathetic audience. There is such a huge variety of dragon species, you see.

Some dragons, Sea Dragons like the Wodensfang, have copied humans to such a large extent that they can use language fluently. They are able to reason, to think. Others that Hiccup had come across like Darkbreathers, and Monstrous Strangulators, are not capable of complicated thinking processes. These are dragons that have spent most of their lives underground or in the depths of the ocean. All that time alone in the dark does not help the development of an appreciation for the finer things in life. Six months of living on his wits had sharpened Hiccup’s ability to weigh up deadly situations like this in an instant. He couldn’t reason with this dragon. So he would have to fight it. He thought fast – very fast – as he scanned his enemy. Fifteen feet of well-armed muscled dragon.

Ten eyes. Huge claws. An interesting snakey aspect that suggested it might be related to a Slitherfang, which also lived under the sand. Quickly glancing the other way, he assessed his chances of escape. The cavern was bare with only one immediate escape route. And judging from the bulging leg muscles, the Monster would reach it first. This was a tricky situation. His only chance was to hope that this creature really was a primitive relation of a Slitherfang, and to use his knowledge of Slitherfangs to fight it. Racking his brain, Hiccup tried to remember everything he could about Slitherfangs. What did he know?

What had he written about them in his notebooks? The Monster had a small weak spot right in the middle of its forehead. There was only one way he could reach that small vulnerable spot, given that the Monster was so heavily armed with talons and teeth. If he could get the creature to believe that he was dead, it would want to swallow him immediately. He would then have to allow the creature to swallow him whole and look for the opportunity to attack the creature’s only vulnerable spot. He’d have to be patient. He’d have to let the Monster swallow him at least up to the knees, so that it would be harder for it to react when Hiccup reached down and plunged his sword into the weak spot. Thank Thor he had a sword on him, or rather, thank Camicazi. If she hadn’t stowed away in his sand- yacht and given him her spare sword, he wouldn’t even be able to carry out this totally desperate and ridiculous plan. The success of Hiccup’s plan depended on one crucial point. The creature would have to swallow him from the right end, that is, starting with his feet. There wasn’t a lot he could do if it started swallowing his head.

This was a fifty-fifty chance, which isn’t normally a good proposition when your life depends on it, but sometimes you just have to give yourself up to the fickle hand of Fate, the toss of a coin. It wasn’t very hard for Hiccup to pretend to be dead, frankly, for he very nearly WAS dead. He made himself go limp, even though every nerve in his body was screaming at him to run away. He forced his body to go limper and limper, and his head to loll backwards. He kept his eyes open, just the tiniest, smidgiest of cracks so that he could see what was going on. He forced himself to lie still as he felt something yucky slide up over his body. It took all of his powers of concentration to stop himself from moving, from jumping up, from shaking off the sand that was gritting all over his body and that disgusting dragon hand that he could see through the cracks of his eyelids. He had to stop himself from crying out in horror at the sight of the two monstrous claws – five fingers, each with an evil dragon eye perched on the end just above the talons. The dragon’s face was blind, with two ghostly hollows where its eyes should have been. But the ten dragon eyes were blinking down at him from the end of the creature’s claws.

BLINK BLINK. They were shark’s eyes, dead. The creature felt its way along Hiccup’s body. Its long tail had wrapped its way round Hiccup’s torso and was squeezing the life out of him. Maybe I AM dead, after all, he thought semi- dreamily, and it was almost as if his spirit left his body for a moment to look down on his own unconscious body as it lay strangled by the horrible Monster in the glass maze, squeezing, squeezing. All twenty eyes stopped at Hiccup’s chest area. You have to remember, that when Hiccup had prostrated himself on the sand earlier on, he had soaked himself in the broken bottle of Old Wrinkly’s Asthma Potion, and that potion was a deep

crimson red colour, exactly the colour of human blood. So he really looked a very limp and gory sight indeed, covered from top to toe, but particularly on his front, in lashings and lashings of bright red blood. The Monster gently wiped the sand off him, and even the Monster knew that humans could not lose this much blood and live. ‘He’s dead…’ mused the Monster to itself, very disappointed. ‘He won’t squeak for me,
however hard I squeeze. And dead men start to smell…’ Like many underground creatures, Slitherfangs like to keep a tidy burrow, and dead things do indeed smell, a smell that is magnified if one is buried suffocatingly some way underground. ‘I’ll have to EAT it right now and here,’ the Monster decided. So the first part of Hiccup’s plan was a success, at least. Although it might seem to be a strange sort of success. The Monster thought he was dead, and had decided to eat him. The Monster, who was a picky eater, blasted Hiccup with sea-water to get off all the sand (‘ Too gritty’), rolling him over and over. And then the Monster began to coat him with some revolting greasy substance to make him go down the easier. Aha, thought Hiccup, with infinite relief. I was right, it is like a Slitherfang. It wants to swallow me whole. That was a weight off his mind, because it would mean there would be no teeth involved in the process, no chewing. And then the Monster picked up Hiccup by one

leg, and blasted the ground underneath him with fire and sea-water to make a nice clean glass surface to eat off, because like Slitherfangs, it seemed to be very pernickety about such things, and laid him down carefully, arranging his arms by his sides. Then there was a pause, during which Hiccup was absolutely dying to open his eyes, and a horrible, horrible moment when he could feel the Monster sniffing, sniffing at his ears…
It’s going to start at the wrong end! thought Hiccup, desperately trying to think of a plan on the spur of the moment that would work on killing a dragon that was swallowing your head. But just as he was about to do something stupid like try and jump to his feet, he felt a sort of snuffling on his right big toe. The Monster had changed its mind, what there was of a mind of course. Now why did the Monster change its mind? I’ll tell you why. Because Hiccup was wearing his helmet. It didn’t want to start at the end with the long broken tickly thing on it. Well, the Wodensfang and Toothless will be pleased about that, thought Hiccup, slightly hysterically. They’re

always telling me not to forget the helmet… There was a click, click clicking noise. Hiccup could not resist opening his left eyelid the smidgiest of a smidgeon. He had seen many a strange and terrifying sight in his life, but this was one of the strangest and most terrifying. Squinting down his own body, lubricated in a strange luminous material like a liquid shroud, he could see his own feet, and beyond them the Monster’s head, opening its mouth and dislocating its jaws so it could take in Hiccup whole. It began to swallow. It is difficult to describe the

sensation of being swallowed by a dragon. There really is nothing quite like it. Apart from anything else,
it makes the most disgusting sound, like a very rude liquidy slurping noise, and the feel of the suction pulling on your skin, as the mouth closes round your feet, and makes its way up your calves is both revoltingly wet, and also slightly painful. It was really very difficult for Hiccup to stop himself from trembling, and keep his arms rammed to his sides. UP the mouth moved, and Hiccup’s feet began to burn like he was on fire, as the dragon’s digestive juices began to work on him. Very, very slowly, the creature’s mouth moved around his calves, inching its mouth over his limbs painfully, bit by bit. Oh, Hiccup couldn’t wait much longer, but he knew he would have to; the dragon had to reach his knees at least. He sneaked a peek downwards. The animal had its arms stretched wide to steady itself, so its eyes couldn’t see him if he suddenly sat up, but he had to wait until j-u-u-u-s-t the right moment…

It was agony by the time the mouth reached his knees. Hiccup had the horrible feeling that his toes might be dissolving. He had lost the feeling in his right foot. But he had to strike at exactly the right
moment… As the disgusting monster’s mouth crept over Hiccup’s knees, Hiccup slow-ly, care-fully wriggled his left hand around the handle of Camicazi’s spare sword. The monster tensed, perhaps sensing the infinitesimally small movement of his prey… It lifted up its arms. All ten eyes were focused on Hiccup. Was it Hiccup’s imagination, or did they see something there? Did they see something that made the Monster start, and the eyes open wide with amazement? And then as their talons poised to strike, the eyes on the talons opened wide with fury, and turned green and then black, as they suffused with blood…

Hiccup only had one second, one chance. He sat up in one quick cat-like movement, reached out, and plunged his sword right in the middle of the creature’s forehead. For one awful moment Hiccup thought he might not have hit the right spot. Both the creature’s arms sprang up and out. Hiccup hauled desperately on the sword to try and get it out again so he could strike once more but…
SQUERCH!!! There was a small popping noise as the weak spot
burst and… WHHHOOOOOOOSHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Out of the mouth Hiccup shot, because as the Monster died it let out a great shooting burst of sand and seawater and Hiccup raced on his back across the slippery glass floor, landing upside down at the end of the cavern in a swooshing tide of brine. Even upside down, Hiccup could see that the creature was dead, although it was still quivering and jerking all over, but Hiccup didn’t even stop to check, he was so desperate to get the creature’s digestive juices off him. He rolled and rolled in the seawater, rubbing and rubbing at his feet in particular, which were still burning like they were on fire…

Eventually the burning died down until it became almost bearable. The creature was lying quite still now. Hiccup’s poor feet were in a very bad state though, he could see even in the dim Glow-worm light, and the little toe on his left foot would never be the same again. It had shrivelled into nothingness like a scraggly little pink worm with the stuffing taken out of it, and he couldn’t move or feel it. But at least it wasn’t Hiccup’s head that was a scraggly little pink worm. That would have been a disaster.

However, as he looked round the underground cavern, Hiccup realised he was still in a serious fix. He was in a glass cavern, underneath the sand, and presumably up there on the surface the tide had come in and so he was underneath the sea as well. How was he going to get out of here? But even as he was looking around at the extraordinary glass cavern, and the tunnels that ran off it, he had a tingling at the back of his head as a thought fell into place. He reached into his fire-suit, and took out the raggedy remains of the map. It was looking a little worse for wear, that map, because like Hiccup himself, it had had rather a hard time of it. It was burnt, torn by poisoned fingernails, and covered in seawater and dragon digestive juices. MAZE OF MIRRORS. Oh for Thor’s sake. The red herring at the top of Grimbeard’s map now seemed to be winking as well as laughing at him. The Jewel was here. Of course it was.