Chapter 17: Yashkirran

Forest elves had underground dungeons for special prisoners, and it was in one of them that Yashkirran was now.

“My king?” he heard a voice, “Is that you, Your Majesty?”

“Who is there?” It was difficult to see anything in the dim light of the vast dungeon.

“Harrah Bneur, Your Majesty,” answered azdairik young woman. She came closer to the king. She had huge eyes and black straight hair gathered in a ponytail, she was really beautiful.

“You are a sharain in my army,” Yashkirran recalled.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I am no longer a king, call me “deshaar”. How long have you been here?”

“It has been a week, if I counted the days correctly, your... my deshaar.”

“Something was going on yesterday, did you notice the guards were gone? Breakfast was not brought.”

“Forgive me, my deshaar, I have lost my sense of time.”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Yashkirran replied. “We need to get out of here, Harrah.”

“Yes, my deshaar, if you have an idea–”

“Shhh,” Yashkirran said. “Do you hear that? Something’s collapsing... Get in the corner now!”

They barely had time to run away when a column broke through the ceiling, stones fell... And they saw the horror going on in Grandavalnall. A huge fire dragon flew over the forest capital, but because of the low angle of view and dust, they only saw part of the picture. Yashkirran and his companion ran along the fallen column, and then got out into the street, and rushed between the trees and houses. The forest capital has turned into an open graveyard of ashes. But dust, ash and smoke helped the prisoners escape unnoticed.

“What a horror!” The girl exclaimed when they were able to catch their breath and watch the fall of the majestic capital of the forest elves.

“Maybe the wallitarfs on the combat gatakanaties would have left the same horror after our attack. I’m more concerned about why we didn’t hear it?”

“Look, there’s a prison over there,” she pointed with her hand, “and the dragon was burning that part of the city,” she pointed again, “and it’s unclear why the column fell. Look closely, it’s just a city in ashes and soot, and the dragon has destroyed less than half so far.”

“Yes, indeed.” Yashkirran looked at the dragon, which was quite far from them. “But look how huge it is, and it seems to be–”

“A fire! A pure giant fire …and the flame will revive us,” Harrah said.

“Prophecy... I don’t want to think about prophecies. But the dragon is worth thinking about because this creature will soon incinerate everything in the world!”

“For now, all I can think about is our survival, my deshaar. The bridge across the river was built only here in the capital?”

“Yes, as far as I know. The arqilunians loved to travel on their argiphones, they had no reason to build additional bridges on Arikayrnira,” Yashkirran said, turning to the azdairik woman, and he saw how beautiful she was.

“I suggest then to go around the river from the east side and go home,” Harrah said.

“And what shall we do at home?” Yashkirran was surprised. “How can I look at my people? If many adults died in battle, but we captured Eileenelia, Farderland and Norvinoria, I would not be ashamed. And now... The dragons have spoiled my plan, and they still burn our lands. I thought I had awakened the dragon, I thought the dragon would destroy the star and that’s the point of awakening! I even hoped that the dragon would become part of my army. How arrogant I’ve been!”

“My king!” young woman took his hand. “You’ve united different races, and even managed to agree with faintly intelligent beings to fight for our country! And it all was for the survival of our people! It was wise, worthy and powerful!”

“And if we had won, would forest elves or tonnebeards accept foreign invaders for a long time?”

“Those who wouldn’t want to live in peace would have tasted death on their lips!”

“I like you, sharain, but the war and the politics isn’t the same thing. Sometimes to win a war means to lose,” Yashkirran said and put his other hand on her wrist.

“Politics is a war, always one war,” Harrah said with a smile, and then removed her hand.

A dragon was circling in the distance, continuing to burn the city.

“I’ll go north,” Yashkirran said firmly. “I don’t command you, Harrah, I’m no longer your king and not the leader of the army, you are free to go anywhere. But I will go north.”

Harrah hesitated.

“Then I’ll go with you, my deshaar, if you will let me,” and the girl bowed politely.

“I will, and I shall be glad your company, Harrah,” Yashkirran said.

And they headed out of the city.