12-第十四章：威力蓄须王确实是个非常狡猾的人(7)

’ ‘And T-t-toothless told you it was a red one!’ exclaimed Toothless, adding confidentially to the rest of the company: ‘T-t-toothless knows ALL the colours…’ And if you, dear reader, look back to the tenth of Hiccup’s memoirs, How to Seize a Dragon’s Jewel, you will discover that Hiccup is completely right. Painted on the top of the map of the Amber Slavelands is a very large red fish, and that fish is indeed a member of the herring family. Fishlegs got out the map now. And there it was. It wasn’t a teeny weeny little herring either, drawn discreetly in one of the corners.

It was a whopping great monster of a herring that stretched all the way from one side of the map right to the other, and to make it even more obvious, the herring in the picture was winking. Not a little, secretive wink. A great, big THIS IS ME, GRIMBEARD THE GHASTLY, MAKING ONE OF MY NASTY LITTLE JOKES kind of a wink. How could I not have noticed that? breathed Hiccup. It’s completely OBVIOUS now you know it’s there…
and I’m supposed to be GOOD at riddles. ‘Wodensfang,’ said Hiccup in Norse, patiently but between gritted teeth, ‘if you knew that this wasn’t the real Jewel all along, why on earth didn’t you tell us this earlier?’ ‘I couldn’t tell you before,’ explained the Wodensfang, ‘because I promised Grimbeard the Ghastly that I wouldn’t interfere with Destiny and the finding of the Things because otherwise it wouldn’t be a proper Test. The King must find the Things. I should not intervene. I am only speaking now because for some inexplicable reason you seem to have been crowned King anyway…