Chapter 7: Haemner

The city must be surrounded by the army, and while Haemner went to the city wall, his companions, taking with them the remaining three girls, including the one who watched the birds, who had already been raped many times, went to the northern part of the city. But Haemner supposed that whoever was leading the army can’t be an idiot, and he almost certainly sent soldiers to encircle the city.

“Surrender, no matter how many of you there are,” Carlfrig said, “in the name of queen Nulara Tossed, I order you to lay down your arms, open the gate and surrender!”

“Oh!” Haemner shouted. “You haven’t burned Ganrikter’s corpse yet, but you’ve already chosen a queen for us. Nulara Tossed, she is larmarian, isn’t she? I’ve never heard this name before!”

“Today you will hear it for the last time,” Nulara said angrily and rode forward on her karkhash, “you may not surrender, snunorf, we’ll take the castle by storm and kill you! And whoever surrenders, we will execute them all!”

Carlfrig looked disapprovingly at the queen.

“Your Majesty, perhaps it’s better to use life imprisonment as a punishment for the one who releases the citizens if someone is still alive in the city? Let them open the gates and lay down their arms and confesses to all the crimes that they have committed.”

“No!” She threw a furious glance at Carlfrig, and then shouted, turning to Haemner, “You will all be executed or killed, do not hope to get life in prison and eat our food. Many fields have been destroyed because of the dragons, the harvest has been stopped, there will be little of it, and when I imagine, that somewhere a child will starve…” she looked at Carlfrig again and turned her gaze to Haemner, “and you will eat our supplies, it hurts my sense of justice!”

“Wonderful negotiation,” Haemner said and laughed. Suddenly he leaned sideways sharply as someone had fired an arrow at him.

Carlfrig turned, looked at the army and shouted, “Stand down!”

“Hey, hey, you must be more careful up there, or I’m going to kill the hostages!” Haemner shouted.

“How many hostages have you got?” Carlfrig asked.

“A lot, they’re all tied up and locked in wooden houses, which I’ve doused with fuel. If you start the assault, I’ll set the houses on fire, and they’ll all die!” Haemner smiled at the made-up lie.

“What are your terms?“Carlfrig asked.

“We will not negotiate with criminals!” Nulara said sharply.

“But Your Majesty, these are your subjects! What will you be like in the eyes of northerners, your army, if you don’t try to save the innocent?” Carlfrig turned to her.

“I will be a fair queen, stormentan!” Nulara rode away from Carlfrig and turned to Haemner, “Soon I will give the order to storm the castle, and you can now surrender and free the prisoners! But if you refuse and set fire to the houses, then the death of innocents will be on your hands! I feel sorry for them, but that won’t stop me!”

“You’re tough! It makes me want to fuck you!” Haemner shouted.

“Go out and try!” with these words she directed the karkhash back to the army.

“Your Majesty, I–” Carlfrig wanted to say something.

“Carlfrig, give the order to storm the castle. Let the soldiers assemble the ladders and prepare the rams,” Nulara interrupted him.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Carlfrig obeyed and began to give orders.

Jamashar approached Nulara.

“Your Majesty,” the isters addressed to Nulara, “whatever pain was inflicted on you earlier, the death of the hostages will only add to it.”

“I know, old man!” Nulara snapped, and tears came to her eyes, but she restrained herself.

“It’s not too late to cancel the order,” Jamashar hoped.

“No,” Nulara said firmly, “I’ll go to the end, no matter how many victims will be on my conscience. I will not become a puppet in the hands of criminals!” the queen rode away from the old isters.

Haemner decided that he had enough of watching, and ran to see what was in the northwestern part of the city.

He climbed the wall carefully and began to study the situation, there seemed to be no one in this area. He went down and ran to the northern part. When he got there, he also carefully climbed the city wall and saw the dead bodies of the criminals. They were not his friends, but they crowned him nonetheless. Next to the bodies, he saw three girls. Looks like his “friends” had time to cut the throats of the filthy skarkeshuhs!

Someone noticed him, and the arrow almost pierced his head again. Haemner decided to return to the northwest part of the city and try to sneak there.

He had just climbed the wall when he saw a soldier rushing with a ladder straight to the wall, where he wanted to jump.

“Tarragorad take you all!” Haemner cursed aloud and quickly ran to the royal castle.