A Song of Askaldenfirsts and Dragons. Part seven: Gaaldalksirin
Chapter 7: Nulara

“Zwerkard!” Nulara shouted.

Zwerkard turned around. And she and Ingerbert approached him. Ilselda, Dugbert, and Ebenjord were a little away, they walked ahead and stopped.

“Zwerkard, where are the others?” Nulara asked with concern in her voice.

“We have lost them. The ghost... Your Majesty...” Zwerkard mumbled.

“We ran when we saw the ghost, and Ishkmet, Arngalda, Forkjorn and Helgelka for some reason decided to fight him. But we didn’t see the fight. I think they were talking when we fled, Your Majesty.”

“You left them alone?!” Nulara asked in anger.

“And how would we fight a ghost?” Dugbert asked. “We’d all die! Your Majesty, I don’t understand why they decided to stop and fight. After all, this battle cannot be won–”

“But you left them!” Nulara wouldn’t let up.

“Nulara–” Ingerbert wanted to say something.

“Not Nulara, but ‘Your Majesty!’” Nulara interrupted him sharply.

“Yes, Your Majesty, forgive me, Your Majesty,” Ingerbert said quietly. “But there’s a chance they’re alive.”

“There is a chance?” Nulara asked irritably.

“Your Majesty has lost a friend, I understand,” Ingerbert said, “and my beloved has disappeared,” he tried again to stretch his shoulder and grimaced.

Nulara suddenly realized that she was thinking only about Ishkmet, and she did not care about the others, and she had even forgotten that Arngalda was the lover of her companion, with whom she had been traveling for a long time. Nulara felt ashamed.

“All right,” she said, “where was the last time you saw them and the ghost?”

“We were in Faltarkhogen, Your Majesty, or rather near it, for the city is no longer a city but only ruins,” Dugbert said.

“We just got lost in the Orange Dawn Forest and went west, Your Majesty,” Ilselda put in.

“I think they’re headed for the capital,” Ingerbert said.

“Why would the ghost return there, since he escaped from there with us?” Nulara asked.

“To have more vessels... I don’t know, Your Majesty,” Ingerbert said.

She glanced at the snunorfs.

“And why did you end up so far north, where did you go?” the queen asked.

“We wanted to go to Aklegskel, maybe there are supplies in the village and maybe there we can wait it out for a while–” Zwerkard didn’t finish his sentence.

“Wait it out?!” Nulara flashed again. “You, soldiers of Norvinoria, are talking to your queen about desertion right now?!”

“Your Majesty–” Zwerkard wanted to say something.

“Go!” Nulara shouted. “Go to Aklegskel, heal your wounds, if the village is intact. Go! What are you waiting for? I said go! That’s an order!”

“But, Your Majesty–” Ilselda began.

“Come on, Ilselda, go, maybe you’ll replace yourself a husband, have children, live happily for a few days, and then dragons and ghosts will tear up your house and kill your whole family!”

“Nulara–” Ingerbert began quietly.

“What did I tell you?!” She looked at him angrily. “Speak properly to your queen!”

“Your Majesty, there is no need to accuse the soldiers of being afraid of an enemy that they cannot stop even if they fight bravely and courageously. I think Ishkmet stayed because he thinks that the ghost won’t use wallitarf ’s body. Arngalda, perhaps because she wants to lose the child who was conceived against her will. Simply put, perhaps they wanted to die, not because of bravery or valor they were going to fight the ghost. Please, Your Majesty, do not be angry with those who want to live.”

“Would you run away?” Nulara asked.

“If Arngalda had stayed, I wouldn’t have been able to.”

“You see! And I expect the same attitude from others,” Nulara suddenly calmed down.

“And we won’t abandon you, Your Majesty,” Ilselda said confidently, “but if Your Majesty orders us to go to Aklegskel, we’ll fulfill the order!”

“Very well. We will not separate, but we’ll go to the capital all together. I hope you’re right, Ingerbert, and that they’re headed for Frostgarstrad.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Ingerbert agreed.

And they set off. They had warm days and windy days. Though Ilselda was a worse hunter than Helgelka, nevertheless, she set snares in one evening, sheltered in a wooded area, and managed to catch several adeloirs. The travelers were able not only to eat, but also to take with them a couple of uncut carcasses, since the weather allowed the meat not to spoil for several days. Ingerbert, however, suggested that the carcasses be dressed and smoked and dried at least a little, but Dugbert said that this way the meat would spoil faster. Nulara chose Dugbert’s decision to take the carcasses with group, to save time.

The weather worsened, more and more snow covered the roads. It was getting harder and harder to move, but at least Ingebert’s wound wasn’t festering, it was healing.

Finally, they came to the Warm Forest.

“Perhaps we can go around it, Your Majesty?” Zwerkard suggested.

“Why?” Nulara was surprised. “It’s much warmer in this forest and there is no snow. And if we move at such a pace, skirting the forest, we’ll be stuck somewhere in the snow until spring.”

“It’s quite dark there, and, as you know, Your Majesty, there are no adeloirs as well as many other animals there,” Ilselda supported Zwerkard.

“But we’ll pass through the forest faster, and the faster we pass through it, the faster we’ll reach the capital,” Nulara said, and headed first into the darkness of the trees.

She walked and felt warm. And the warmth seemed to give her strength. The others followed her. Someone was obviously grumbling something under his breath, but Nulara didn’t even want to turn around and see who.

After a few hours they found a light. Nulara stopped and hid behind a tree. The others approached.

“I’ll go and see what it is,” Nulara said, seeing the faces of the others in the half-light. Sweat trickled down Zwerkard’s forehead, either from fear or the fact that it was really warm in here.

“No, Your Majesty,” Ingerbert said, “we cannot risk your safety! I’ll go.”

“You’re wounded, you can’t go,” the queen told him in a whisper.

“Then I’ll go,” Ilselda said quietly. Nulara nodded to her.

Ilselda went, hiding behind the trees. And then everything went silent. But after a few minutes, Ilselda imitated the sound of a bird.

Nulara and the others walked towards her. When Nulara came to a small space where there were fewer trees and where there was a fire, she saw a pile of bones and skulls with spiral horns. She picked up one skull.

“These are–” Nulara started.

“Ferrassaps, Your Majesty,” Ebenjord, who had been silent most of the time, finished for the queen.

“How long have they been here?” Nulara asked.

Ingerbert raised the other skull.

“Probably a thousand years, since the bones are all that remain,” Ingerbert said uncertainly.

“Are you saying that the snunorfs have never touched these remains and didn’t want to take the bones for themselves, trying to sell them to some arqilunians or azdairiks?” Nulara asked.

“I don’t know–” Ingerbert replied.

“And the fire? Has it always been burning here, or has someone made it recently?”

“I have no answer, Your Majesty,” Ingerbert said.

“What do you think?” Nulara looked from one northerner to another. They only shook their heads.

“Ha, and I blamed myself,” Nulara laughed suddenly, “that it’s not right for me, a larmarian girl, who has never left the islands, to become your queen, because I’m young and lack not only political or military experience, but actual experience of living in Norvinoria itself. I thought that every snunorf knew every rock and every tree here, just as I knew every skuld-tree that grows on my islands! But now I realize, I was wrong to blame myself, you know nothing about your own land!”

“Ay,” Ingerbert smiled at her speech. And Nulara, seeing his reaction and the embarrassment of the other northerners, laughed. The others laughed too.

Suddenly Zwerkard fell, not far from the fire, the light of the fire illuminated his body, and some haze could be seen permeating him. Nulara took a fighting stance. So did everyone else. In a minute, only a skull and bones remained of Zwerkard. Suddenly the hazes took the form of the elf-like ermirians, they were hooded, their eyes glowing red.

“Tasteless,” a female’s voice said, and she glanced around at the others. “Dragons are tasty, two-horned winged ones are very tasty,” and she cast a regretful glance at the bones of the ferrassaps, “but snunorfs are tasteless.”

“Tell me, food, where are the dragons and these, what did you call them? Ferra–” The other hooded elf began to speak in a male ’s voice.

“–tsaps,” the female elf prompted him. “Tell us where they are, and we’ll let you live.”

“Not for long,” the elf added.

“Why, brother, do you frighten the food? Food should feel safe,” said the hooded she-elf.

“And why do you, sister, say such things in their language?” the male elf asked, and he turned to Nulara. “Show us where the dragons and the ferrazaps are, and you will live.”

“They are in the Belt of Twilight mountains , and there are many of them,” Nulara said, deciding that, despite the death of the Zwerkard, since these creatures can kill so easily, then let them eat as many vile fire-breathing creatures as possible! And the queen decided to clarify, “It’s in the south, far away from here.”

“Thank you, food,” the male elf said.

The elves instantly turned into haze, smokes, and before Nulara could react, they were blazing holes in her entire team of snunorfs.

And so the smokes flew toward Nulara, and tried to pierce the queen’s flesh. But they couldn’t. Nulara tried to grab the smokes with her hands, but only squeezed the air in her fists. The smokes turned into elves.

“Who are you?” the elf male asked.

Nulara drew her sword and lunged toward the elf, and he turned back into smoke.

“There are two of them now,” said the hooded she-elf and turned into smoke, too.

The smokes sliced holes in the bodies of Zwerkard, Ilselda, Dugbert, Ebenjord, and Ingerbert.

Nulara ran furiously after the smokes; she tried to grab them, tried to cut them down with her sword, but nothing worked. The smokes continued to devour the bodies of her companions, leaving only the bones of the snunorfs. And then these smokes flew away into the dark thicket of the forest.

Nulara approached Ingerbert’s skull, it lay not far from the fire. She picked it up for a second, then dropped it and wept.