SWNOVELS Part II: The renegades. Chapter 1: Tulvarick
The town square of Forsholden was filled with morning light. The tonnebeards and snunorfs regarded the scaffold in silence. Tulvarick came out with a huge axe.
“Citizens! We have gathered today to carry out the verdict of the court and execute the condemned person sentenced for the mass murder of the larmarians, tonnebeards and snunorfs. Kings don’t usually carry out the sentences by themselves, I know,” he said, pointing to Melkath, who was already on his knees, “but this azdairik, this...” Tulvarick could not restrain himself, came up and kicked the condemned in the face with his boot. And then, without further ado, in a burst of anger, he swung his axe and cut off Melkath’s head. The head fell into the prepared vat, blood pulsing from the neck, shot out and splattered the king’s face. Tulvarick got angry and swung the axe once again, aiming at the azdairik’s head. And he cut it in half, along with a metal vat.
The executioner who was nearby brought a handkerchief to the king, Tulvarick took it dismissively and wiped his face, his long braid-beard and hands, and, throwing the handkerchief to the ground, he simply walked down into the crowd, and then headed for the city castle, where he, as the guest of the snunorfs and the king of the tonnebeards, had his chambers. On the way, he stopped next to Nulara and looked up. A girl from the Larmar Islands flowed with tears, she lowered her eyes to the dwarf, and then turned again to the scene where a stuck axe in a vat and flowing blood became her only consolation, but not enough to drown out the pain. The king nodded to her and walked further in the direction of the castle.
And Tulvarick himself was not satiated with revenge, but now there were more important problems, dragons. He did not know their number, but there were many of them. According to reports from various parts of Ermir, there were hundreds of dragons. The ancient ballistae which many of the Ermir races had have proven themselves. And in one of the cities of Eileenelia, the arqilun elves were able to kill one dragon! “But just one!” the king was angry at his helplessness. “Damned ancient elves, and even the arqilunians with their false prophecies, dragon worship and other nonsense!” Despite the contradictions, many tonnebeard dwarfs were more neutral than negative, in rare cases, they even had a positive attitude to their neighbours, the arqilunian wood elves, but the ancient elves, the oldenmessers and the sand elves, the arnadacres were dismissive and distrustful, as well as to their kindred dwarfs, the wallitarfs. But because it was the arqilunians who were associated with dragons and a prophecy, the dislike for the forest elves began to grow rapidly.
Tulvarick reached his chambers and asked the guards not to let anyone in. He stripped off his armor and lay down on the huge bed, wondering what to do next. The dragons incinerated Kaushmanashtoon ’s gigantic army led by the famous isters warrior Yashkirran Vindrick, King Yashkirran. “King!” Tulvarick grinned, stood up, walked over to the table by the window and poured himself from a decanter a strong drink of the tonnebeards, tenliash, which, however, the northerners made even more burning than the dwarfs themselves. The northerners had their own strong drinks, but the king preferred tenliash.
Dragons burned several cities, villages, towns, and a huge number of fields. It is said that the dragons even burned the sand of Kaushmanashtoon in the south and the flowers of the Dragon’s Tear in the north. This year there will be a shortage of smoking mixture... “What am I thinking about?” The king wondered to himself. “The dragons will burn all of Ermir!” He was well aware that killing one dragon did not bring victory any closer. And the ballistae were gigantic and peculiar, they were often located on high walls or towers of castles, and it would be dangerous and imprudent to move them or cart them off anywhere the dragons could swoop down and burn them because only on the Larmar Islands there were stone ballistae from the stone trees of skuld, which were unable to burn. But Nulara had told him how her castle and the whole island were on fire, and that dragon fire had burned and melted any fireproof things in its path. But he had ballistae to deal with...
Looking out of the castle window at the road along which mostly snunorfs and tonnebeards walked, Tulvarick realized that Forsholden could also burn, just as Nulara’s home, just like his home, the capital of his country, Farderland, Anvertarda. When Yashkirran’s army was to leave Alaidaksinish and move in the direction of Anvertarda, dragons flew in. The fiery creatures caught the army on its way out of the city, and then they flew in and burned the capital of his kingdom. “How could this have happen, the huge army of Kaushmanashtoon, a bunch of yadonagrishes and jartraxies, all these skillful flyers, how could they not have killed at least one?! At least one?!” the king thought to himself. And the vaunted wallitarfs on the combat gatakanaties are not worth a hair from the beard of any tonnebeard!” It is said that Yashkirran was able to escape...
Tulvarick twirled the empty goblet in his hands, put it on the table, put on his armor and left the chamber.