A Song of Askaldenfirsts and Dragons. Part six: The death
Chapter 11: The true Edelmer

Tsakdolf Blomgrensway II sat on a creature similar to karkhash, next to him rode the true Edelmer in light leather armor. And behind him was the ex-wife of Thedgar Hlofgarson, Edelmer’s late friend. When Thedgar was killed many years ago, Eder and Skergalda became close. Back then... Eder forgot how many years had passed, either twenty-one years, or twenty years, at that distant time he was moved with his dwellers from Hoogmeerfall to the south, closer to the Belt of Twilight, but he didn’t forget how many northerners were with him, and he remembered that in addition to his town, the northerners were also relocated from two other towns. All this was arranged by the vile ancient elves! And when his relatives were dying of thirst, having decided to move to the Belt of Twilight to be closer to the climate in which they were used to survive, but realizing that they would die there too, Itullannoth, one of the Firsts, suddenly appeared and moved the northerners to this wet, scorched desert, where bizarre branching trees grew right out of the sand...

“Roywynard,” the king addressed him, interrupting his thoughts, “they will try to deceive you, so do not enter into negotiations with them.”

A roywynard is an officer rank, similar to an Earth colonel, often roywynards were the ones who led armies on the battlefield alongside with the king. However, kings often rode out in the vanguard on the battlefield, and then left before the battle began, leaving the roywynards in command.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Edelmer said and slowed down his karkhash slightly, allowing the king to ride forward. He waited until Skergalda to line up with him.

“This battle will be hard,” Skergalda said, and pointed to the dragons hovering in the distance.

Edelmer turned around to see a hundred or two riders on karkhash-like animals behind them, followed by foot soldiers, about a thousand or so, and he raised an eyebrow.

“Honey, there are about a hundred among the soldiers who can turn into dragons,” Edelmer said.

“Yes, but are there enough of them?” she smiled.

“We’ll see... At least now we’ll fight our war,” Edelmer said.

“Our war... But are we fighting on the right side?” she asked.

“I’m not sure... But it’s you who keep sowing doubts in me. You told me not to trust Itullannoth, because he might be lying to us. But he saved us. He said that he could maintain the eternal illusion for our enemies that the snunorfs supposedly slept in the mountains of the Belt of Twilight and that they would not look for us for a while, but that Ermir would eventually be destroyed by our hermit elders, the ikhagatbers. And he also warned that the war would spread to Malderfir and all our other wars would cease to matter. Everything he said has come true or is coming true.”

“I don’t believe his story about the ikhagatbers conspiring with the oldenmessers and the arqilunians. Itullannoth himself looks like an arqilunian.”

“When you don’t know where the truth is, you just have to fight for your life and for those you care about,” Edelmer said and smiled.

Tsakdolf’s army was moving along the sand-stone road. In a long column they descended from the hill of the city into the valley. The valley was a hilly yellowish terrain with a long road winding over the horizon. Green trees resembling terrestrial ficuses grew out of the sand, with long strands of vertically hanging branches that seemed to want to grab any living creature passing by.

Skergalda squinted and looked to where the enemy was. Edelmer looked as well. The dragons hovering over some creatures, probably the ermirians, decided to fly in the direction of Tsakdolf ’s army. Eder rode up to the king again.

“Your Majesty, it’s getting dangerous here, you need to return to the city immediately,” Eder said.

“What are you worried about, Edelmer? It’s probably a delegation. They want to negotiate,” the king was very calm.

“There are too many of them for negotiations!” Eder said and shouted, “Battle formation! Dakradrafs, prepare for an air battle, take the form of dragons!”

Dakradrafs in the Zualafaran kingdom were called malderfirians who could transform into dragons.

Part of the army separated from the main group, the dakradrafs scattered in different directions and began transforming quickly, then taking off one by one. Soon huge shadows covered the army. Edelmer saw a woman and a dragon flying towards them, on which someone was sitting. The rest of the enemy dragons were in the distance.

He rode forward without waiting for the king’s order, and he only turned around and cast an encouraging glance at his wife. But as soon as he rode, Skergalda rode after him.

Edelmer rode closer to the enemy, and the flying woman came down to him.

“Edelmer, is that you?” the woman with the brown, slightly yellowish eyes and hair that seemed to burn orange-red on the roots, going down to the light yellow ends, marveled.

“No, Lisandra, it’s not him,” said the hooded old man who had jumped off the dragon.

“Do you know me?” Edelmer wondered.

“Where are my children?! Where is the real Edelmer?!” Lisandra’s voice rumbled. The icy white dragon with turquoise scales growled something. And several dakradrafs were flying high above him, and a white-turquoise dragon seemed about to spew a stream of fire into the sky, but changed his mind.

“Lisandra, this is the real Edelmer,” the old man said and threw off his hood, and he appeared to be an old elf who looked like an arqilunian, and possibly like Itullannoth. He turned to Edelmer, “But you couldn’t have done all this without the help of some First.”

“What children are we talking about? But first things first,” Edelmer said, “I understand that you are ermirians, but now you have invaded another planet, the sovereign kingdom of Zualafaran. If your intentions are good and peaceful, I might be able to persuade the king to negotiate–”

“If it’s not our Edelmer, where is ours?” Lisandra asked, turning to the old elf.

Suddenly Itullannoth appeared.

“And here are all our answers,” the old elf said.

“Ansellellor, I see you continue your policy of permissiveness and impunity. Why did you bring our creatures here?” Itull asked.

“For the sake of salvation, of course,” Ansell said, and smiled slyly.

“Yes, for the sake of salvation, because of what you did,” Itull said, and turned to Edelmer. “You know, Eder, I told you that among the Firsts there are those who most want to harm Ermir. Here, for example, meet Ansellellor LialRinnetik, and he has brought creatures to Ermir that will destroy it. They’re called greyskuggies!”

“Well done,” Ansell smirked, “but if you remember, dear Itullannoth, I brought Gaal to Kaartarnar, and saved Ermir at least from a terrifying fiery madness!”

“Terrifying? Ha!” Itullannoth grinned. “I can guess what you’re up to, Ansell!”

“Where are Erbalar, Daervar, and our Edelmer?!” Lisandra insisted on being answered.

“Now, I’ll tell you,” Itull smiled wickedly, “Kots Bak Sart Pakus Dan Arjur!” he cast a four-sloped powerful protective dome and the dome covered Edelmer, Skergalda, and Itull himself. “I sent your children right to the same place where your friend Ansell sent Gaal!”

“No!” Lisandra screamed and took off. “Skiv Moor Sem Ren Dak Blut,” she cast a spell of two giant swords that began trying to cut through the protective dome.

“Incredible stupidity!” Ansell said, “Erafner, bring me to her!” he shouted to the dragon, which spewed a stream of fire into the dome without damaging it.

The dragons from Ermir, which were in the distance, began to approach quickly. The dakradrafs, which were now a solid red-brown cloud, were rapidly descending from the sky towards Lisandra.

Ansell began to cast some kind of spell and quickly disappeared with Lisandra and Erafner. The dakradrafs spewed streams of fire into the empty space in the air.

Suddenly Ansell appeared with Lisandra and king Tsakdolf. A ghostly dagger was placed at Tsakdolf’s throat, and the king’s hands were tied behind his back with something.

“Before all this turns into madness, we must make a deal,” Ansell suggested.

“Get out of Malderfir, Ansell, along with those you brought here!” Itullannoth said.

“Ansellellor, we have to get to the planet where my sons are!” Lisandra said to Ansell in an commanding tone.

“Let the king go,” Edelmer shouted to them, “and we can negotiate!”

“Yes, we can negotiate,” the king grumbled.

“Shut up!” Lisandra said and glared angrily at Tsakdolf.

“They must be dead by now,” Itullannoth said. Lisandra’s face changed, anger and hatred flashed in her brown-yellow eyes.

“Lisandra, control yourself, all is not lost yet!” Ansell shouted, noticing her outburst of aggression.

But it was too late... Lisandra instantly flew up to Tsakdolf and with all her strength hit a hand into his chest, piercing his chest, she forcefully tore out his heart. It was still beating in her hand as she squeezed it, with eyes full of hatred. The magical dagger created by Ansell disappeared, the king’s hands were free, and Tsakdolf fell dead on the sand.

“Noooo!” Edelmer shouted, and ran out from under the dome.

“Eder, stop!” Skergalda shouted, and ran after him.

Edelmer turned into a huge white dragon and soared into the sky.

Stellartalanjir and Darlatsimonish, Lanmeitstarlinost, Dukeiltaavagan, Chekwansilorush, Hafronsilorush, Releksdalfiaks, Ashneersimonish and Halicksimonish, Equairstarlinost, Esvetsimonish had already flown up to Lisandra.

Erafner at this time wanted to tear the dome of Itull with his claws, but could not.

“Flu Gur Par Asq Kep Nim Inis,” Itull cast the spell of the Firsts, and a winged warrior in armor and helmet appeared in the sky, his eyes glowing with a bright blue light from under his helmet, and he had an ice sword in his hands.

“How much alanjruon did you use, Itull, huh?” Ansell wondered.

At that moment the snow-white Edelmer, similar to Erbalar only without silver scales, flew to Lisandra, who surrounded herself with a protective sphere. Eder began to attack her sphere with fire, releasing huge bluish streams. Stellartalanjir, a light purple dragon, flew to protect his mother. He tried to grab Eder with his teeth, but Eder dodged and flew away.

Edelmer saw the target, it was Chekwansilorush, a blue dragon with purple stripes. Eder released a huge stream of fire into him, which managed to burn through his wing. Chekwan lost his balance in flight and crashed to the ground. The sand rose into the air and covered the place where the First and Skergalda were.

Edelmer saw this and, fearing for his wife, flew in that direction. At this time the five red-brown Zualafaran dragons began to pursue Releksdalfiaks, who was browner and with blue lines. Ermir dragons began to lead the Zulafaran dragons in different directions.

The sky was clear. Three red-brown dragons were chasing a white-green dragon with dark green scales, it was Equair. Suddenly, a winged warrior appeared from above, as if from the void, and he plunged his icy huge sword into Equair’s back, drove it to the hilt, and then abruptly pulled out. The place where he drove the sword began to turn into frozen flesh. In the blink of an eye, Equair turned into a figure of ice, and he collapsed onto the paved road, shattering into pieces.

One of the red-brown dragons, meanwhile, was digging into the wounded Chekwan’s throat. Just at the moment when Chekwan’s brother, Hafronsilrush, a purple-red dragon with blue-green transverse stripes and a scar at his throat, descended from the sky to where the red-brown bit into his brother, when a barely noticeable jagged blade appeared and cut Hafron almost in half. At that moment, Chekwan collapsed dead, and Hafron’s eyes froze in surprise and parts of his body collapsed right next to his brother. The red-brown dragon was about to take off after killing Chekwan, when Erafner flew at him and collided with the dragon, knocking him down, creating another small whirlwind of sand.

“Knev Al Knap Sem Clu Fay Moor Grip,” Ansell cast a powerful spell of the Firsts. A giant hand appeared that he could control. He grabbed one brown dragon and squeezed it in his magical giant fist, then began to swing his fist, holding the dragon by its tail, striking at random flying dragons. Then he grabbed a dragon so that only its head was sticking out, and began to squeeze the fire-breathing beast and he crushed the dragon like an earth fly. Then he grabbed another, and did the same thing. And a dozen more suffered serious fractures, and they fell in different places of the valley. Some fell on a small cluster of trees, some on sandy ground and some on a paved road.

Releks was no longer followed by five, but three kept chasing him; he dodged, but could not counterattack. At the same time, Lanmeitstarlinost led six dragons in the direction of the city.

Edelmer kept circling around Lisandra, trying to attack, but Stellar did not fly away from his mother. Lisandra had already killed several dragons that attacked her, except for Edelmer.

Suddenly Eder saw Ansell grab Skergalda and take cover under his protective four-sloped dome. All this time, Eder had been looking out for his wife from time to time, but he only noticed her now.

Edelmer instantly flew there and landed his huge body next to Ansell’s dome.

“Let her go!” Eder shouted. Skergalda drew her dagger and wanted to slash at Ansell’s throat, but he jumped back and quickly cast something that she stopped and just stood there with glazed eyes. “What did you do to her?!” Eder roared.

“She’s all right,” Ansell shouted. “Order this battle to cease immediately, and I give you a guarantee that she’ll not be harmed!”

At that moment, a winged warrior from below flew up to Esvetsimonish, an orange dragon with white stripes, and thrust his sword into the dragon’s belly. Esvet began to turn into an ice sculpture as quickly as Equair, and also collapsed, only he fell into the trees, smashing to pieces.

“Don’t listen to him,” Itull shouted to Edelmer, “it’s a trick! If you stop the fight, we’ll all die. Los Rim Nak Glu Fai Stur Vic!” he cast the spell of the Firsts, which created a huge stone fist that began to beat Ansell’s dome.

“What are you doing?!” Edelmer roared. “My wife is there, she could get hurt! Kadakhar Ast Faran Etu Bar Tun Arax,” he shouted. And the dragons stopped attacking. But the winged warrior continued, and he slashed his sword across Dukeiltaavagan’s muzzle and the dragon began to turn to ice.

“Hver Fa Skal Pad Er Galdur!” Ansell cast a powerful spell of the Firsts that dispels other spells. Such spells are often used to make enemy’s summoned creatures disappear. And the summoned winged warrior disappeared.

Dukeil stopped turning into a frozen dragon, but part of his muzzle and part of his left wing became icy. He tried to stay in flight, but failed and fell, partially damaging his wing.

Zulafaran’s dragons also stopped attacking. In the meantime, in the distance, Zualafaran’s riders managed to kill many wallitarfs, tukhtaashes and arqilunians, whom Ansell rescued from captivity in Chumbiksirinish. But the elves, wallitarfs and tukhtaashes also killed many, including the unfortunate karkhash-like animals. The animals roared and made various sounds in agony of pain. The wounded ermirians and malderfirians groaned.

“You’ve been deceived, Edelmer Arnwaldskar,” Ansell addressed Edelmer.

“Don’t listen to him!” Itull insisted.

“Let my wife go!” thundered Edelmer’s growling voice.

“Don’t let her go, Ansell,” Lisandra said, she flew up, “she’s coming with us! Ansell, open the portal to the planet! Now!”

“Wait, Lisandra!” Ansell said. “I’ve moved three tukhtaash outlanders to Kaartarnar. We need to think about that.”

“Did you open the portal to the planet where the greyskuggies came from again?!” Lisandra was furious.

“Yes, so think about it,” Ansell said, “what will happen to you and your sons if you want to doom yourself to the unknown? Gaal is on the planet, and there may be more greyskuggies, and, as I said, there are three powerful tukhtaashes! If I open the portal, I’ll put all of us in danger for the third time!”

“I said, let my wife go!” the snow-white dragon thundered again, circling over the Ansell’s dome.

“Lisandra, let’s go back to Ermir, just for an hour to discuss the plan,” Ansell tried to smile, but his smile was distorted by the dome and Edelmer saw some kind of grimace.

“But then you will open the portal to Kaartarnar!” Lisandra demanded, obviously knowing she couldn’t pressure her creator.

“Yes,” Ansell agreed and began casting the portal spell. “Dragons, keep a close eye on anything that can come in and out. Let me know about any shadow, any smoke you see.” And the portal opened.

The dragons from Ermir flew into it one by one. Ansell, supporting the dome, leaving Skergalda hostage there, teleported to the other side of the battlefield, where the ermirians were fighting the malderfirians.

Edelmer, though he did not want to leave his wife, flew after him. Ansell ran up to some crying forest elf, he had two dead wallitarf girls in his arms, one was a teenager and the other was about five or eight years old, it is difficult to determine the age of the wallitarfs. Next to him stood an arqilunian woman with traces of blood on her clothes and face. Dead bodies were lying everywhere.

“Dreya, Bareya!” Ansell almost wept, “And where is Alaya?”

“We’ve lost her,” the arqilunian woman said and looked apprehensively at Edelmer.

Edelmer landed beside her and assumed his snunorf form.

“Edelmer?!” the arqilunian woman exclaimed happily and rushed to him. He pulled away from her embrace.

“Can you turn into a dragon now? Why do you look so strange? It’s like you’ve aged,” she said in surprise.

Out of the corner of his eye Edelmer noticed someone else running toward him.

“Daddy!” The half-elf girl screamed and rushed to hug him. “You look a hundred years older, when did you get so gray?” He hugged her instinctively, and then finally pulled away from her.

“What’s going on here?” Edelmer asked.

“Look,” Ansell came up to him, glowering at him, pointing at the battlefield, “this is what friendship with Itullannoth leads to!” and the First began to cast a mass cleansing fire spell to burn the dead.

“You’re not my father,” the half-elf realized. “Who are you?”

“I am Edelmer Arnwaldskar,” Eder said, feeling pain at the sight of the dead bodies of various ermirians and malderfirians, including children. The corpses began to dissolve into the air in a bizarre fire.

“It’s not your father, Laylith,” Ansell said. “Your father, my dear girl, is a copy of this Edelmer, and it is your father who is a copy of the product of our opponents, or rather the opponents of my colleagues, so to speak, and this one–”

“First, release my wife, and then we’ll talk,” Eder interrupted him.

A tukhtaash woman came up to them, covered in blood.

“Slu, are you alive?!” Laylith rejoiced, and rushed to hug her.

“Edelmer?” Slu was glad when she saw the snunorf, but she wasn’t sure if it was him because of his appearance.

“Not our Edelmer,” Laylith said and rolled her eyes.

“What do you mean ‘not our’?” Slu wondered and then she stared intently at Edelmer.

At this time, Ansell disappeared, he appeared where his portal was and it was clear that he had closed it. Suddenly he appeared again and cast a portal spell, the portal opened and beyond it was the familiar Ermir, with the dragons already soaring in the sky or sitting on the sand. Ansell chose an area closer to the Belt of Twilight, away from the north where the greyskuggies could be, besides it was already quite cold in the north because of the winter.

“I recognize this place,” Edelmer said, looking into the portal, where the outlines of the mountains could be seen, “I was there when I was moved along with all the dwellers of Hoogmeerfall!”

“You’ve been moved… That’s what my mother always talked about, how my father always wanted to save his fellow dwellers who were moved by the oldenmessers, and that’s why he wanted to go there, and that’s why–”

“Laylith, there’s no time for this right now, I’m sorry,” Ansell interjected.

Lisandra flew back out of the portal, and Ansell gestured for everyone to enter. In addition to Slu, Laylith, the arqilunian woman and young man, fourteen other ermirians entered the portal, seven of whom were wounded.

Lisandra flew up to Eder.

“Nordavindurrin, my brother, I will not forgive you for what happened today!” Lisandra said to Edelmer.

“And I won’t forgive you for killing my king!” Edelmer said. Lisandra turned and flew back into the portal. “You started it!” he persisted, shouting after her. “We were negotiating, and you killed my king! You’ll all answer for what you’ve done! Do you hear me?! You will all answer!”

Ansell was the last to enter the portal, and the portal closed.