SWNOVELS Chapter 3: Slu Tis
Slu stepped out to meet the flying snow-white dragon. The dragon landed and transformed into Edelmer.
“I can’t get used to you not being him,” Slu said.
“Your negotiating manners are curious,” Edelmer said. “Well, I’ll start. I am Edelmer Arnwaldskar, and I represent the kingdom of Zualafaran.”
“And I am Slu Tis, the queen of the underground kingdom of Itskel-taash, and now I represent several ermirians along with the dragons from Ermir.”
“What are your intentions, Your Majesty?” Edelmer asked. Slu saw the spark in his eyes.
“Our intentions have always been the same, we want to survive. That is the only thing we care about right now. But not just personal survival, but the survival of our nations, as far as it is correct to speak of it now. We have recently realized that we fought on the side of a lying, insane criminal, one of the Firsts. We don’t know the motives of your First or the other Firsts, but I wouldn’t recommend trusting any of them. But perhaps we’d agree that first your First will take us back to Ermir to where the fire dragon is now. And we’d also like you to free Edelmer–”
“Aren’t those conditions too much for invaders?” Edelmer asked sharply, interrupting her.
“We’re not invaders, we’re not capturing anything and have no intention of doing so–”
“But you set the conditions, Your Majesty,” Edelmer interrupted her again. “I must set the conditions! Here are Zualafaran’s terms. First, you give us the mother of dragons known as Lisandra. Second, you surrender yourselves, and we will judge you–”
“Unfortunately, Lisandra is dead.”
“Hmm...” Edelmer stretched. “I won’t fall for such a trick.”
“It’s true,” Slu said calmly. “And we can’t surrender because we know neither the laws, nor the customs, nor the traditions of Zualafaran. We have defended ourselves. And most of the ermirians have died on this alien planet to us. I think we have paid for our mistakes and the vicissitudes of fate. Edelmer, at least talk to the other First, let him consider my proposal.”
“Your Majesty, he does not decide such matters, the king does. And since you murdered the king, I am temporarily responsible for such matters. And you need to repent of the wrong–”
“Repent?!” Slu exploded. “I saw children and adults burned, I saw my arqilunian friend crying as he held two dead wallitarf girls in his arms! It was a massacre!”
“And who is to blame for this massacre?!” Eder erupted. “I’m giving you a day to get out of the kingdom! If you don’t, I’ll bring my squads of dakradrafs against you, call on our First, and we’ll see who survives another massacre! This negotiation is over!”
“But, Edelmer–” she managed to tell him as he began to turn into a dragon. And he flew away.
Slu slowly walked toward their makeshift camp. As she approached, she saw three dragons flying past her to the northeast. It was Ulli(black dragon), Fernir(light gray dragon) and Irkir(light blue dragon).
“What did he say?” Arinella ran up to her, she was annoyed.
“That he gives us a day to leave the country. And why did Ulli, Fernir and Irkir fly away?”
“A day?!” Arinella was shocked.
Arel ran up, followed by Hemrockhever.
“So why did the dragons fly away?” Slu asked.
“You know them, Your Majesty,” Arel said. “You must have realized by now that Ulli is such an ideologist of the racial superiority of dragons, he considers all other races miserable and unworthy. Constant skirmishes with Delmir tired everyone, so he persuaded Fernir to fly away, even though Fernir seemed to be sane, and Irkir didn’t want to leave his brother alone.”
“And they flew away before a possible battle!” the queen said unhappily.
“And what is the news about our Edelmer?” Arinella asked.
“They won’t just give him to us. This Edelmer-dragon now represents the kingdom, they have a council, and apparently they can’t choose a king, a new ruling dynasty.”
“Then we need to free our Edelmer, lightly tint his hair and beard with ashy color, capture the Eder-dragon, and let our Edelmer start ruling, since he is now acting as king, and then we’ll figure it out,” Arinella suggested.
“I realize, of course, that your Edelmer is a prisoner, but I have very important business on Ermir,” Hemrockhever interjected, “I have friends there, and they’re waiting for me!”
“Well, if we make our Eder at least temporary ruler, we can learn how to teleport from here,” Arinella insisted.
“No, we need to all get out of here, leave the kingdom,” Slu said, making a decision.
“What? Leave where?” Arinella became indignant.
“I understand that you don’t like me, Arinella. I’m considerably younger than you, and I have less experience, perhaps, in all matters of life, including military craft and magic, but if we try to pull off your adventure, we may die. And if we leave now, there’s a chance to get to some neighboring country and try to take temporary refuge there, where we’ll discuss our situation and further options thoroughly and in detail. ”
“Oh, no!” Arinella said, “I don’t agree! Arel, Hemrockhever, let’s go.”
And the tonnebeard and the arqilunian followed her, and Slu hesitated, too, and there the dragons and Jamashar were waiting for them.
“Stellartalanjir, Darlatsimonish, Halicksimonish, Delmirbirznaaks, listen, who thinks she is our leader,” Arinella pointed at Slu, “Slu says we must run, but I have seen the strength and courage of dragons, I have seen what you can do, and how powerful you are, we’ll fight these Zualafaran creatures, who are not worthy to be called dragons! We’ll destroy with our small forces the superior troops of the enemy, we’ll–”
“There will be hundreds of them!” Slu interrupted her. “Hundreds of dragons, and we were given a day to leave the territory of this kingdom. I suggest–”
“Shut up!” Arinella shouted.
“I want to hear the queen’s suggestion,” Stellar’s voice boomed. “After all, my mother was close to her.”
“Me too,” Delmir said.
“Arinella,” Hemrockhever addressed her, “if we attack the dragon army, we’ll all die. You won’t save Edelmer, and won’t return to the tonnebeards and my friends. It’ll all be in vain, we’ll perish here in a senseless battle!”
“Oh, Sirridwyn, what is he doing?” Darlatsimonish exclaimed, gazing into the distance.
On the horizon of the hilly sandstone terrain to the east of the capital of Zualafaran, Ulli was burning something or someone, igniting the trees. Irkir and Fernir flew back, flapping their wings as hard as they could. Zualafaran’s dragons began to rise into the sky.
“Idiot!” Slu shouted. “Dragons, land, carry us from here to the south! Now!”
The dragons obeyed and landed, spreading their wings. Jamashar and Hemrockhever climbed on Delmir, Slu climbed on Stellar, Arinella climbed on Darlat, and Arel climbed on Halicksimonish.
“Let’s wait a little for Fernir and Irkir,” Slu said, horrified at the dark blur that loomed over the capital. They were dragons.
Suddenly they heard a terrible roar, Ulli resisted briefly, and he fell there, on the horizon, right into the burning trees. A dozen or so dragons could be seen continuing to spew jets of flame into that area.
“That’s it, let’s fly,” Slu shouted, “Fernir and Irkir won’t lose sight of us anymore!”
And the dragons, carrying the ermirians, flew south.