A Song of Askaldenfirsts and Dragons. Part six: The death
Chapter 8: Itullannoth on Malderfir

A huge royal hall with large columns was on a hill, proudly towering over a dusty yellow city. Several malderfirians and the First were standing on a protruding part of the building that resembled a giant balcony. Tsakdolf Blomgrensway II, nicknamed Handsome, king of Zualafaran, a swarthy green-eyed man of about fifty years old, walked from side to side on the large balcony of the hall and looked out over his domain. He belonged to the kargetarian race, reminiscent of Ermir’s isters, swarthy and dark-haired, but kargetarians could also be fair-haired, even blue-eyed, though quite rarely… Warm air blew into his face.

“You said,” the king said irritably, turning to Itullannoth, “that I would get new slaves, that I only needed to invade with my army, defeat the army of ermirian dwarfs and wood elves after their alliance is weakened by the army of what’s-his-name...”

“Yashkirran Vindrick, Your Majesty,” Daiya Khiktai put in, she was the assistant to the chief military adviser, a kargetarian, a swarthy young, beautiful woman with brown eyes. Ishgild Drakalei glanced at her angrily; he was the chief military advisor, also a kargetarian, an older swarthy man with brown eyes and a gray beard, with a slightly lighter face than the king’s.

“Yes, that’s him,” the king remembered. “And you told my father he ought to take the snunorfs into his service, give them privileges, and... what was the result? They could barely accept the fact that they had to enslave the citizens of Tarsuran! And then what happened? Half of your mighty northerners fled to the Free Provinces of Baratsk!”

“I want to note that these are your allies, Your Majesty. Although the Provinces strongly condemn the political and cultural customs of Zualafaran, nevertheless, what the Tarsuran Empire has done to them...” Itullannoth said breaking his silence, then paused. “They themselves would have gladly captured anyone and everyone in the Empire!”

“And now what happens?” ignoring the First’s excuses, the king continued, “Your dragon Gaal, for the first time in the history of your conquest of Ermir, I want to note that you have been on the planet for three thousand years and have not succeeded,” the king continued, raising his tone, “returned as a fiery dragon and began to burn my future lands and slaves! And then your hermit Ansellellor showed up and began to create simply unthinkable madness! But it was he who sent Gaal to Kaartarnar, wasn’t it?”

Daiya was just about to open her mouth, but Ishgild showed Daiya with his hand that he would answer.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” he confirmed. Itullannoth decided to remain silent again.

“And the greyskuggies moved from Kaartarnar to Ermir. Ha!” the king laughed and turned to the First. “You said you had great plans, that you weren’t going to waste another couple of millennia on this dreary planet. Ha! Itullannoth, I’m forty-eight years old, and you’re several thousand years old. And you, planning this whole conspiracy, didn’t even bother to visit Taashtar, where your colleague Gaellkoet has completely violated your rules and lost control! My kingdom, my ancestors, by the way, gave so many dragons to you and your Firsts!”

“A kingdom that might soon be under siege,” Itullannoth remarked caustically, he hated to hear the king’s reproach. Tsakdolf glared at him angrily.

“And to whom do we owe this opportunity?” the king asked.

“We will make a new plan and follow it,” Itull said, ignoring the king’s question. “Gaal is no threat to us, at least not yet, Your Majesty. Lisandra and her dragons and some other ermirians are in the valley of Malbalaray right now, I’m sure that you with your army and dragons will be able to destroy her.”

“How many dragons does she have?” the king asked.

“Fifteen or sixteen, I’m not quite sure,” Itull replied.

“Fifteen?! And the mother of dragons herself! With her magic! Oh, why did my ancestors agree to give you the seed of our dragons? From a political and military point of view, this is complete shortsightedness. It’s as if I took my army and gave it to the enemy, and then went out into the field alone.”

“Tsakdolf, you are exaggerating,” Itull said.

“Keep your courtesy, the honourable Itullannoth,” said Ishgild, ” please, address the king properly.”

The king looked at him in surprise.

“Ishgild, do not interfere,” Tsakdolf said.

Suddenly Tritta Gianhei (maiden name Batskarson) ran in, she was the head of king Tsakdolf ’s guard. A young light-skinned woman, a snunorf, brunette with brown eyes and a stiff boyish face. Local laws allowed foreigners, even outlanders from other planets, to hold such posts. But the law forbade the head of the guard, i.e. a woman, to give birth or bear a child at all, but allowed unions for romantic-family relations. And it was even possible to adopt a child if it did not affect the performance of her immediate duties...

“Your Majesty, forgive me for interrupting, but a giant bird is approaching the capital, followed by two dragons. The dragons are definitely not ours,” Tritta said.

“This is the kind of day that’s ruined my mood since this morning,” the king said irritably.

“A bird is the creation of the ikhagatbers,” Itull said.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” the king suddenly roared. “Daiya, where is your husband, he commands my army?! Find him and tell him to begin preparations.”

“Actually, it is you who is the commander-in-chief of the army, since you are the king, Your Majesty,” Daiya said.

“Are you being rude to the king on purpose?” I’ll make you a slave, you know I can do it!” the king said with a smile.

“And this is your right, Your Majesty,” Daiya said calmly.

Suddenly, a roar was heard in the sky.

“Edelmer, stop!” Some dragon roared.

Itull saw a giant white argiphone flying toward a huge balcony. And behind him flew a white dragon with silver scales, followed by another, a light pink dragon with blue stripes.

Suddenly the argiphone began to transform and began to fall, reincarnating, but the white dragon pushed its body like a ball, and the unexpected guest turned into a snunorf and fell right onto the balcony, next to the column. He jumped up and instinctively covered his crotch with his hands.

“Edelmer?” Tritta exclaimed.

“No, it’s not him, Tritta, it’s his double, look, he’s younger!” Daiya said.

“I see! Arrest him!” Tritta said, turning to the two guards.

“Where are our dragons?!” the king shouted. “Why don’t we control the sky?! Shouldn’t you be fired, Ishgild? Or make you a slave?”

Two guards in helmets and light leather armor approached Edelmer.

“Dress him in something,” Daiya said.

“Wait, who are you? I just happened to be here!” Edelmer was indignant.

One guard tried to grab his arm, but Edelmer punched him just below the neck, Edelmer slightly scratched his hand with part of the guard’s helmet, and drew guard’s sword with the other hand. The other guard also drew his sword.

“Edelmer, you get down there, we’ll burn them all,” Daervar shouted to him. The columns and parts of the climbing plants of the palace prevented the dragons from seeing the full picture of what was happening.

Itullannoth, meanwhile, decided to use a displacement spell by touch, and after a couple of seconds he ran up and grabbed Edelmer by the shoulder. In the next second, Itullannoth and Eder found themselves in an underground prison behind bars.

“Who’s there?” the guard shouted.

“I brought one here, he threatened to kill the king, he’s Edelmer’s double, so don’t listen to his lies if he tries to insist on release,” Itull shouted to the guard, and then instantly disappeared when he saw Edelmer swing his sword. Itull reappeared on the balcony of the royal palace.

“Talanjirs, I suppose,” he shouted to the dragons.

“And you’re one of the Firsts,” Erbalar realized, “but clearly not as friendly as Ansell.”

“You don’t know much, Erbalartalanjir. But yes, I don’t consider you my children, though neither does Ansell, as far as I know.”

Erbalar spewed a furious stream of flame into the sky.

“Where is Edelmer?” Daervar asked.

“He’s safely hidden now, you don’t want him to get hurt, do you?” Itull asked.

“So where is your husband, where is Wanerk Khiktai?” the king suddenly interjected, turning to Daiya.

Suddenly dragons appeared in the sky, and they began to dive straight at Talanjirs.

“Kra Farnus Dan Kor Mah Athar Pri Nok Rah Danus!” Itull cast a spell of powerful fiery magical cell-prison, it was a big fire cage, and Erbalar was inside it, right in the air, but the cage began to fall.

“Erbalar, no!” Daervar shouted and flew after the cage. Erbalar inside the fire cage flapped his wings, and the fire burned him slightly, but did not hurt him. The cage collapsed at the foot of the palace, there was a sandy embankment, and in the distance there were trees with huge branching trunks and root-like branches hanging from their trunks. To the right was a paved road leading to the palace.

Four red-brown dragons landed nearby, Daervar wanted to spew flames, but then Itull appeared near the cage.

“We’ll either replace a way to negotiate, or you’ll all die!” Itull shouted to Daervar.

“Fly away, Daervar,” Erbalar said.

“I won’t leave you, brother!” Daervar said and growled to Itull, “Let him go!”

Daervar landed not far from Itull, raising a huge whirlwind of sand. Daervar took advantage of the moment and released a huge stream of fire in the direction of the First, but Itull had already managed to cast the spell of a four-sloped powerful protective dome, and the fire hit it, reflected and flew directly into Erbalar’s cage, but faded on impact. Erbalar started to blast a jet of fire inside the cage, but immediately realized it was useless and the fire would only be reflected or absorbed by the bars.

“Daervar, you don’t think we created beings stronger than ourselves, do you?” Itull asked.

Daervar suddenly moved abruptly toward the dome. The red-brown dragons were circling over the area at this time, waiting for the dust and sand to settle so they could land successfully.

“Now you will meet your Gaal,” Itull said and began to cast the portal spell.

A huge portal to Kaartarnar has opened. Itull then concentrated and cast another spell, and the fiery cage with Erbalar trapped in it rose into the air and headed into the portal.

Daervar spewed out a huge stream of flame, which crashed into the dome of the First, causing no harm. Suddenly two red-brown dragons flew at Daervar, and both of them spewed jets of flame, but both missed. A third red-brown dragon appeared from behind and forcefully hit the flying Daervar with a paw in the back, and another dragon flew up from the left and wanted to bite Daervar’s head, but missed. Four red-brown dragons with power in flight, while Daervar was trying to regroup, began to dive at him with powerful paws forward, pushing him into the portal. In the end, Daervar couldn’t avoid the attack, he dived into the portal himself, and the portal closed.