Chapter 78: ...Sailor Take Warning

*One of the great advantages of dragon-mounted warfare is the freedom of movement it grants. Control of the air grants incredible supremacy over those below; a simple rock dropped from above becomes a deadly weapon, and the armory available to a dragon-rider is vaster than mere sticks and stones. But the weapons alone are only part of that supremacy. Ground-level enemy forces cannot stand in your way unless you choose to fight them. Enemy leaders become targets or traps, huddled under half of their army for fear of being plucked like ripe fruit.*

*For all of the peaceful uses of dragons and their abilities, in war, they make it so that the only thing that can fight or defend against a dragon-armed force on anything resembling equal footing is* another *dragon-armed force. And while exceptions abounded in those early years—at the First Battle of the Seine River, for example, or the New Year Fire-Rout—part of that was due to a lack of understanding in how to properly use dragons on the battlefield. But it swiftly became apparent to everyone in those early days that there were two options: Either one has dragons, or one is beholden to one who has dragons.*

*There was, and is, really no middle ground.*

*—The Wing And The Ax, Queen Marshal Astrid Haddock I, undated draft, Waterford University Archives*

## Major Events

* Drago attacks Cuman and Kipchak chieftains and their people with his dragons, after they refuse to submit to him.
* Mildew arrives in Iceland and forces the inhabitants of Höfn to serve him. One Sámit trapper named Eret offers to find him dragons.
* Viggo arrives in Genoa with
* Stoick leaves Gobber in charge while he travels with the census to meet the people he rules.
* Sigurd is framed for attempted rape, and only saved by the confession of one of the conspirators.
* In Kyiv, Vladimir asks Tuffnut to ask Stoick about fostering several of his siblings, and teaching them to train dragons.
* In Cors Fochno, Atali confesses her past to Cami and asks to be taken to Berk to meet Heather.
* Dogsbreath and Inga arrive in Constantinople and bring Snotlout news from Berk, including Hiccup's two marriages.

## Characters

### Humans

* Unnamed Cuman and Kipchak chieftains
* Drago Bludvist
* Mildew
* Eret Eretsson (first appearance)
* Viggo Grimborn
* Alvin the Treacherous
* Gobber the Belch
* Gabriel Hallvarsson
* Stoick the Vast
* Sigurd Trondsson
* Theodora Porphyrogenita
* Demetrius Pachis
* Gunnar Bræsisson
* Iōannēs Komnēnos (first appearance)
* Unnamed senator
* Unnamed young woman
* Doux Lydoi (first appearance)
* Tuffnut Thicknutsson
* Vladimir Yaroslavich
* Doux Melissenos (first appearance)
* Harald Sigurdsson
* Gudmund Hallvarsson
* Sophia Makris
* Esther bat Rivkah
* Niv ben Shelomo
* Maor ben Dovid (first appearance)
* Bracha bat Rivkah (first appearance)
* Rabbi Shimon (first appearance)
* Father Gallchobhar (first appearance)
* Miriam bat Yehudit (first appearance)
* Cami Berthasdóttir
* Big-Boobied Bertha
* Atali (first appearance)
* Basil Spondyles
* Alexios Arianites
* Dogsbreath Rolfsson
* Inga Roswynnsdóttir

### Dragons

* Drago's unnamed dragons
* Mold
* Grump
* Skuggi
* Hookfang
* Redsnout

## Analysis

### Epigraph Tie-In

* The epigraph explains that due to the military superiority of dragons during the era, either a power has dragons or they will be beholden to a power with dragons with no middle ground. The chapter shows the following:
	+ Drago using the dragons to forcefully bring the various Cumans and Kipchaks tribes under the Pechenegs.
	+ Vladimir explaining to Tuffnut that his princedom realises that they need dragons of their own to defend themselves from the Byzantines and the Pechenegs.
	+ An attempt to discredit the dragon-riders of the Byzantines is thwarted because one of the recruited conspirators realises how foolish it was to destroy their greatest military asset.