SWNOVELS Chapter 25: Nulara
Nulara watched her father sail away, leading the other ships after his flagship.
Her cloak fluttered in the strong wind, and the rain wet her forehead and hair. Finally, she began to descend the cliff. Her father had left no battleships near the islands, and only fishing boats loomed at the pier, on which it was better not to sail in the Outland Sea. Suddenly she heard a bell ringing. She ran to the castle.
When she got there, she saw that distant aerial dots flying up to the islands were similar to those mythical creatures called dragons, whose cult flourished in Eileenelia, however, progressive moods in the arqilunian society led to a reduction in rituals and mysteries, to decreasing the reading of the ancients books related to dragons, though it still was popular.
Islanders crawled out to look. On the high walls of the castle were ancient ballistae made of stone wood. Legends went that earlier, in ancient times, these ballistae had been used to kill dragons. But no one has seen dragons from the living islanders, and now the massive weapons of the past were only a piece of decor.
Barnis Provade, an old larmarian knight-mage ran up to Nulara.
“Hide, young lady,” he said to her.
“Barnis, where did the dragons come from?”
“I don’t know, but there’s no time, please, Nulara, hide in the castle,” and he, not expecting an answer or reaction, began to cast a spell, “Ghazar Dar Togap Vaelun Per Farlon.”
A huge dome appeared, shimmering in turquoise color with lightning and sparks. It covered all the islands. Barnis was considered an outstanding magician because only a few could create such a huge dome in all Ermir.
Nulara did not obey the knight but came closer to the wall, the rain and wind stops, because of the magic, the sounds became clearer inside the dome, and it was almost inaudible what was happening outside of it.
“Nulara!” she heard the familiar voice of a friend. Eldith Stargot had been Nulara’s friend since childhood, a green-eyed brunette with a narrow chin, tall and muscular.
“Eldith, I counted nineteen. Maybe they came with peace?”
“I doubt it.” His voice startled her.
Soon, the dragons came close to the dome, but they couldn’t pass it. Some flew around, while others tried to pierce the dome with fire, but in vain. One of the dragons spoke to his kin in an ancient language, and they all dived into the water. Barnis’s dome did not penetrate the water, and in a moment the nineteen dragons were releasing blasts of fire inside the dome. One dragon roasted a larmarian archer so quickly alive that he didn’t even have time to scream. Barnis stopped supporting the dome with magic and began to cast an ice spear spell. Eldith and Nulara took refuge in a tower on the wall, through the loopholes of which they watched what was happening. Barnis threw ice spears but never hit the dragons. A reddish-brown dragon with yellow veins flew around Barnis and burst into flames. The spear instantly turned to steam, and Barnis’s body was charred and crumbled to dust. Nulara screamed.
The round tower had a spiral staircase that led to the basement. Eldith and Nulara went down there, they heard screams, and they smell the smoke and fire.
Once down in the basement of the castle, Nulara and Eldith followed the tunnel leading to the bay. Larmarian thought about Barnis. The tears in her eyes prevented her from walking forward, but she felt not only grief, but also anger, and anger gave her strength. Since her birth, the knight-magician cared about her no less than her father...
When they reached the shore, they got into a fishing boat and sailed. Unthinkable horror was breaking out over the castle and the surrounding countryside, the screams of larmarians were heard, and the ruthless dragons were hidden by the smoke that curled from the flapping of their wings, and puffs of smoke and fire turned the island into a blood-red fiery spot. Rain was over, but tears completely blurred the picture, and Nulara turned away from the terrible sight. Eldith worked with oars and tried to hide his pain.
“We will have our revenge!” he said at last.
“Yes, we will kill every scaly creature, we will root out their kind, find everyone we can and slay them all!” Anger with tears made her eyes glow.
The only place they could sail now was the nearest port in Farderland, Fishgartard, a small town of the tonnebeards sailors. They went there, and the voyage was long, but they survived.
When they finally reached the town, they saw a heartbreaking sight. The heads of the dwarfs were impaled on the spears and lined up along the coast. Their long braided beards swayed in the wind. The blood had already dried.
The larmarians could not utter a word. Eldith even stopped rowing near the shore for a minute and just watched, the boat began to drift away, and he forced himself to row again... They had recently survived a dragon attack, and now the islanders once again faced a heartbreaking bloody landscape.
“What happened here?” Nulara asked.
“I don’t know,” with these words, Eldith pulled the boat ashore, and Nulara, standing in the water, looked at the mountains of corpses. If the heads were impaled on the spears, the bodies formed several hills.
The smell of dead mingled with the smell of fishing nets. Nulara came closer, and then her gaze was attracted by the distant line of heads, without dwarfs long beards... Her legs buckled, she fell to her knees, tears poured down, covered her face, she began to sob long, sob and sob again. She didn’t want to get up, she didn’t want to convince herself that it was true. In addition to the heads, she saw torn bodies.
“Dad… ” she blurted out, “Dad…”
Eldith ran to her, and shock reflected on his face, he opened his mouth. In front of them stretched another line of spears with impaled heads and another hill of corpses, and these were not tonnebeards, they were larmarians. Her father’s head flaunted next to the head of the knight whom Nulara had seen, how her dad patting him on the shoulder; behind him was her uncle, Morn Tossed, and next to him was his son, Ralmer Tossed, and then there were her father’s friends... Tears came from Eldith. He tried to hug Nulara, but she pushed him away in a fit of anguish. Her whole life, all her hopes, dreams, everything turned into dust and emptiness. Now she didn’t want to live anymore, she longed to die, even so, to be killed by someone and to show off at the spear, but to be with her father, uncle, cousin. But she could not give up. She forced herself to get up and tearfully approached Eldith.
“It’s dangerous to stay here,” she said, and, looking at her father again, took a breath to keep from sobbing, “we could burn them as we should, but such a fire would be visible from afar. Now we need to find water and something to eat,” Nulara paused. “When I find who did it, I will personally cut off their heads and look into their eyes, I will watch how they let out their last breath, and then I will take their heads home and put it on the spears, right next to the heads of the dragons!”
The Eldith nodded and they, casting a farewell glance at the horrors of Fishgartard, moved inside the town in search of provisions.