A Song of Askaldenfirsts and Dragons. Part eight: The New Queen
Chapter 9: Connifrafjollen

Waking up in one of the caves of the Belt of Twilight, Connifrafjollen slowly rose and then took off. She flew for a long time through the icy mountains in search of her sons and her sisters’ sons, as well as her sisters themselves.

When she flew to one mountain range, flying past one sheltered place, over which there was a rocky ledge hanging over the top, where there was a snow shelter below, she saw dead dragons.

“Oh, no!” Connie exclaimed.

In the distance she could see the flying silhouettes of five... falsalvudinas!

Connie sped up as fast as she could.

“Tig Ull Hwen Fing Meh Nifum!” she cast an askaldenfirst spell, creating a diamond-shaped protective parallelepiped, ice blades moving on the outside of it.

The falsalvgudinas noticed her and decided to disperse.

“Pock Fel Lag Jan Mor Argyn,” Connie cast the askaldenfirsts spell, creating a dense fog that enveloped the vast space. Connie saw the outlines of large snowy argiphones that the falsalvgudinas had turned into, and they couldn’t see her. And her fog spread from where she was, under the overhanging ledge of rock, to the clouds that covered the Belt of Twilight today. “Ster Fin Fer Calt Alsir!” she cast the askaldenfirsts spell, and Sirridwyn’s ice sword appeared in her hand, a large long sword of ice with white snow engravings on its blade.

She hovered in the mist, watching the confusion of the falsalvgudinas. And then she saw a nearby target, a snow argiphone flew in her direction. When the bird was right above her, she jumped up and did a full circle with her sword, thrusting the blade forward. The sword sliced part of the argiphone from chest to tail, and the dome blades further shredded the plumage. The argiphone didn’t even have time to scream, and the bird flew down with its partially severed body, spilling the insides on the fly.

The argiphones scurried about, two of them screeched, and one flew sharply and crashed into that rocky ledge because of the dense fog, the giant bird began to fall, and the rocky ledge cracked, Connie took off sharply. She saw only the outlines of enemies in the fog, everything else was hidden, and she realized that the ledge was about to crash down and crush the dragons’ bodies... But the rock held, avalanches were heard somewhere, something else thundered in the distance.

“Remember this day, false mothers,” Connie’s voice boomed, “this is the last day of your lives!” She saw that the last argiphones had transformed into a nimble little bird, and the other two falsalvgudinas in the form of mothers were already casting protective spells. Below, the wounded argiphone recovered from the blow and transformed into a false mother. Suddenly the ledge cracked even more, and the stones crashed down onto the dragon corpses, burying the false mother there as well. There was a rumbling sound.

Connie removed the protective dome, and carefully flew up to Lisandra’s copy from the back, and thrust her sword with all her might into the spine that the blade came out the other side, but Connie kept up the pressure, flying up, so that the body itself was thrust more and more onto the sword.

“I am too merciful, I give you quick deaths, but for what you have done, I should torture you!”

“Pr-pf-krsh...” the dying false mother mumbled something, and she tried to transformed into someone, but she was failing.

Connie drew her sword with force, and the corpse of the dead false mother fell on the little thin snow that lightly covered the rocky surface on this section of the mountains.

Suddenly Connie was girdled by an icy lash at waist level, and someone yanked her, the sword slipping out of her hands, but she managed to roll over and, putting her legs out in front of her, flew straight at her copy, which was holding the sword in her other hand. Falsalvgudina wanted Connie to fly into the sword, moving by inertia, but the askaldenfirst was able to hit the false mother in the belly so that she dropped the whip, but still held the sword in her other hand.

Once free, Connie cast a hammer arm spell, and her arms lengthened and turned into battle hammers. She flew around the false mother and hit her across the cheekbone, cracking the bone and making the falsalvgudina fly away with a scream.

“You, my copy, I will not give you a quick death,” the powerful askaldenfirst shouted.

Connie dashed toward the false mother, who lay gleaming outlines in the mist, between small rocky ledges. Suddenly the false mother turned and small shards of ice flew from her hands to Connie; the askaldenfirst managed to dodge, a few embedded in her forearm. She flew toward the false mother.

“The ice doesn’t hurt me,” Connie said, peering into her copy; she pulled the shards out and her wounds healed.

The false mother turned into a fire elemental.

“Then let’s see what the fire will do to you!” the falsalvgudina shouted and began hurling fireballs in Connie’s direction.

Askaldenfirst avoided being hit, and then, abruptly flew upward, disappearing into the fog.

“Fur Mod Sak Rin Alt Man Drog!” she cast the spell of the ice flame trident, and it swiftly swept toward the false mother, swirling streams of mist along the way. The trident struck directly at the fire elemental’s head, and falsalvgudina instantly turned into a woman, falling with her mouth half-open, one of the trident’s blades going over her lips.

Connie looked around and saw that the last false mother had burst out of the mist, transformed back into an argiphone, and flew eastward. Connie followed her.