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The spell that Hiccup had cast on the audience was instantly broken.

It was as if they had been sleeping, and had suddenly woken up to the reality that they were about to be swept away by the flood.

Furthermore, everyone had forgotten about the Sharkworms. The metal netting that should have protected the audience had been broken by Hiccup. The Sharkworms were back in the water again, and they were already nearly able to reach the wooden seating.

The audience screamed in terror as one of the Sharkworms leaped upward and was almost among them ... It lost its grip on the slippery edge and fell back into the water -- but the water was rising so quickly it was clearly only a matter of time before it succeeded in getting up to their level.

Suddenly the afternoon's entertainment of "SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST" had taken an 205 interesting twist. The audience who had laughed so heartily at the tables being turned on the greedy Sidewinders didn't seem so amused to find they themselves had become the prey...

They stormed toward the entrance, shoving each other out of the way and screaming for the doors to be opened.

The pressure of the water on the doors caused them to open anyway. They burst apart, and the water poured out and down the hillside.

Fishlegs and Camicazi turned their attention to steering the boat.

The flying Hiccup descended and landed beside them on the deck.

Toothless appeared from nowhere and perched on his shoulder.

"I am lost for words," said Camicazi. "How did you do it?"

Hiccup pointed to his shirt. "Look a little closer," he said.

The Vikings craned forward. Hiccup's shirt seemed to have changed color.

Indeed, when they looked closer still, it seemed not to be a shirt at all. It was made up of millions and millions of tiny winged 206 creatures, all practically invisible to the naked eye and all clinging to Hiccup's clothing underneath. This was what had caused Hiccup to fly.

The numberless armies of Ziggerastica. The little nanodragon himself flew out from his position of command on Hiccup's chest to bow to the Vikings.

"This terrible, terrible plan," announced Ziggerastica joyfully, "has worked beautifully. I, Ziggcrastica the Mighty, have made it do this! How wonderful I am! How Glorious is my Empire! How numerous and powerful are my peoples!"

"We were lucky too," grinned Hiccup.

"I am almost sorry to leave you, O-Boy-With-No-Muscles-At-All," said Ziggerastica sorrowfully. "But we are quits now. I have saved your life in exchange for you saving mine and you are still a stinking HUMAN after all..."

"Thanks," said Hiccup.

"But this has been a great day for the little creatures of the world...' Ziggerastica gave a single command and the nanodragons instantly rose in a gray mass, like a small thundercloud, and disappeared into the sky.

[Image: Hiccup.] 207 As they rose, they sang a song that the Romans would have been wise to listen to ... but they were too busy panicking.

[Image: Birds.] A WARNING TO EMPERORS Watch out O Romans with your Empires and your Stinking Breath Watch out for the smaller things of this world For we are going to get you...one day You live your lives up in the skies Building your aqueducts and your coliseums And you never think of US Ticking away in the grassed But we see you And if you bend your car you just might hear The steady beat of countless feet that come to cat The wall that curls a hundred miles across a continent.

That temple built with the tears of millions of slaves And turn to dust in our months So watch out O Caesars with Fat Bottoms and Hard Hearts Watch out 208 "Goodbye, O-Boy-with-Arms-Like-Pieces-of-String..."sang Ziggerastica, "and may the winds that blow you be strong..."

And with that, he was gone.

"Why did you let him go?" shrieked Fishlegs. "I hate to mention this but we're not free yet, we're still stuck in an arena surrounded by Sharkworms!"

"The Sharkworms seem more interested in the audience," said Hiccup. "That's why I got Ziggerastica's armies to eat through the metal netting and to spend all night chomping through the dam. It was all part of my plan, you see -- now the dam has cracked, we can simply sail out..."

Hiccup gestured to the open doors of the auditorium. The water was pouring out of them in a great river.

"Brilliant," said Camicazi. "I've got to admit, that's brilliant... for a boy, of course."

Hiccup was already at the tiller and he pointed the ship toward the open doors of the stadium.

The Valhalla Express nosed its way toward the entrance.

"We're going to make it!" yelled Fishlegs. "We're nearly there!"

209 The Valhalla Express was halfway through the door...

... but Alvin had spotted them trying to escape and given the order to send the portcullis rattling down. It cut The Valhalla Express in two. Fishlegs and Camicazi and Hiccup were thrown into the water on the wrong side of the bars.

The sea was breath-quenchingly cold.

"AAAARGH!" shrieked Fishlegs, almost rearing out of the water, he was so terrified of the Sharkworms.

"Climb the portcullis," ordered Hiccup.

The three young Vikings swam to the portcullis and climbed it, Hiccup towing Fishlegs, and with Toothless flapping behind them. Two meters or so up, they clung, dripping and terrified, like four little spiders.

Through the slippery bars they had a tantalizing view of the freedom of the open ocean, hopelessly out of reach. All around them were the shrieks of the crowd, and clouds and clouds of escaping dragons. (The nano-dragons had eaten the locks of those giant cages too.) The Romans were running to their ships and setting sail back to Rome as fast as they could.

The Sharkworms were taking over the island, 210 climbing over the battlements and destroying the soldiers' tents. One or two of them had already made their way to the Fat Consul's swimming pool and were wallowing in the water.

"So what do we do now, then?" shouted Camicazi, her teeth chattering.

"I give up!" Hiccup shouted back, a sudden gust of wind nearly blowing him off the portcullis. His fingers were so frozen he wasn't sure how much longer he could hold on.

"This isn't part of my plan. What more do you want of me? It's all up to you now. You're the Master Escaper, aren't you? You're Ze Great Camicazi, no prison can hold you ..."

"Ze Great Camicazi will get us out of here," shouted Camicazi, "if you admit that girls are way, way better than boys and always have been ..."

"Dream on, sunshine," grinned Hiccup.

"OK!" shouted Camicazi. "Ze Great CAMICAZI will get us out of here anyway .. . You can't keep a Bog-Burglar under lock and key. Are you sure you want to follow me?"

"Lead on!" said Hiccup, with a slightly mad laugh. "We can't hang around here forever."

211 Camicazi craned her neck upward. Some way above them, tethered to the top of the amphitheater entrance, was one of those enormous Roman observation balloons.

"If we can't sail our way out of here," she yelled, "I vote we fly!" and she pointed to the balloon.

"Ohhhh brother ..." moaned Fishlegs miserably as he climbed slowly after the others, "if Woden had meant us to fly he'd have given us wings ... Don't look down, Fishlegs -- don't look down."

Camicazi climbed expertly upward, and she got to the balloon first, closely followed by Hiccup. They scrambled into the basket.

It was empty except for a rather depressed-looking Gronckle, trapped in a cage right underneath the open mouth of the balloon. Every now and then he shot out a burst of flame that heated the air, and this would send the balloon bouncing upward for a moment before it was stopped by the rope that moored it.

"Hello, Brother-of-the-Snak," panted Hiccup. He looked carefully around the basket for any hidden soldiers. "Are you on your own here?"

"The soldiers are all watching the Saturn's day 212 Saturday, celebrations," said the Gronckle. "Actually, it's nice to have some peace and quiet for a change."

"Well, I'm so sorry, to disturb you," said Hiccup, "but we're taking over this balloon. -- it's a military emergency ..."

"No problem," said the sad Gronckle. "It would be my pleasure. Nobody's bothered to ask me nicely before -- they. Usually just hit me."

"Oh dear," said Hiccup sympathetically. He hated to see his fellow creatures trapped or ill-treated. "Of course we'll let you go as soonas we get home, but at tie moment we're in a bit of a hurry" "It's not that I don't like tie job," the Gronckle assured him. "It's nice up here --peaceful, you know. When would you like to leave?"

"Very soon," said Hiccup. "We're just waiting for a friend." He peered back over the edge of the basket. He could see the top of Fishlegs's head, making painfully slow progress up the portcullis. Below him, the excitable Sharkworms leaped, and the crowds stampeded. "FISHLEGS! Will you get a move on!"

"I'm climbing as fast as I can!" Fishlegs shouted back up indignantly. "I'm not stopping to admire the view or anything!"

213 "H-h-he'd better make it quick," advised Toothless into Hiccup's ear.

"Toothless s-s-sees nasty Alvin coming our way."

Sure enough, Alvin was running toward them along the top of the battlements.

"You try and DELAY him, Toothless," Hiccup ordered. "FISHLEEEGS! YOU REALLY, REALLY NEED TO HRRRY UP!!"

Toothless held Alvin up by attacking his toga. "I should have killed you while I had the chance, you wretched reptile," cursed Alvin, lashing out with his hook and trying to catch him, while Fishlegs climbed the last couple of meters.

Hiccup helped haul Fishlegs into the basket and Camicazi cut the rope. "GO, GO, GO!" yelled Camicazi, and the Gronckle sent a bright breath of flame up into the balloon and it rose off the battlements into the air.

But just as it rose, a golden hook clunked into the bottom of the basket and held fast.

The Gronckle gave another big puff and the great balloon shot gracefully upward, and the grim hook, together with Alvin the Treacherous, shot up too.

"S-s-sorry," said Toothless, crash-landing on 214 Hiccup's helmet. "I couldn't keep him back any longer."

Fishlegs glanced over the basket's side and then looked at Hiccup with popping eyes. "Oohh, dear, is that who I think it is?" he moaned. "It's like a nightmare -- we can't get rid of him!"

Hiccup dared himself to take a look over the rim.

There was Fort Sinister, rapidly getting smaller as they rose away from it.

And there swinging from the bottom of the basket by his hook alone, was Alvin the Treacherous.

[Image: Alvin is swinging from the bottom of the basket by his hook alone.] 215 He made a savage swipe at Hiccup with his free arm, and Hiccup ducked quickly back into the safety of the basket.

"Right," said Hiccup. "I wouldn't put it past him to climb in from that position ... Everybody start running clockwise. Toothless, I want you to grab this rope and pull it in the same direction. We have to get this balloon spinning around ..."

All together, they began to run and the balloon began to spin, slowly at first and then with gathering speed, round and round and round like The Hopeful Puffin having one of her turns.

And as that balloon spun it slowly, slowly, slowly unscrewed the hook of Alvin the Treacherous.

He felt his hook loosening and realized what was happening, but there was nothing he could do. "I'll get you, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third!"

cursed Alvin as the hook unscrewed as far as it would go. "I'll get you one daaaaaaaay!" and he plunged downward into the sea and a mass of waiting Sharkworms, leaving only a great, golden hook swinging from the bottom of the basket.

The balloon soared upward, and as the screams of Alvin grew fainter and fainter, so too did the shrieks 216 of the dragons, and the whole wild cacophony of Fort Sinister died away in a matter of moments.

Hiccup, Fishlegs and Camicazi slumped to the floor of the basket.

Quietly, softly, the balloon drifted on. The only sounds were the gentle puffs of the Gronckle's flames, and the panting of the Vikings as they caught their breaths, their hearts beginning to slow down. Gradually, they smiled at one another as they realized that they might, just possibly, be safe at last.

"Phew," said Camicazi, bright red in the face, "that was a close one ... What did I tell you? You can't keep a Bog-Burglar under lock and key. And you didn't do too badly ... for boys, of course."

[Image: A hook.] 217 Hiccup staggered to his feet and peered over the edge of the basket.

A warm breeze blew his hair back.

"Look!" cried Hiccup, pointing downward and then turning back to the others in sudden excitement. "My father's War Party! He did send it after all!"

"Well, I don't know what you're so pleased about -- it's a bit late, don't you think?" grumbled Fishlegs. "One day earlier and it could have saved me about three thousand heart attacks ..."

"It doesn't matter," grinned Hiccup. "He sent it, and that's the important thing.

He doesn't think Snotlout would make a better Heir after all."

218