Chapter 15: Lisandra

“Dad, we need to find mom, it seemed to me that she wasn’t among the elves. Though she might not have noticed us while we were helping the wounded... I don’t know, it all happened too fast.”

“Laylith, you saw how the tukhtaashes and arqilunians united and attacked us!” her father replied.

“And they probably grabbed Arel and... your girlfriend!”

“My brother’s daughter, don’t be naive,” Lisandra said. “We must go south to wake up my sisters and children. What will the angry, worthless ermirians do if we show up now?”

“They will try to kill us,” said Laylith.

“Why south? Didn’t you send your sisters’ children north to Hoogmeerfall?” Edelmer wondered.

“Yes, and asked them to wait there. And it would be unwise to return to them without the rest of the dragons and my sisters that sleep on the Wall of Ghosts. We must wake them up, they will help find the rest of the survivors on this side of Ermir and we’ll all head to Hoogmeerfall,” Lisandra said with confidence.

Suddenly they heard a scream and a small snow-white argiphone flew up to the travellers and landed next to Lisandra.

“Kundaminokh!” Lisandra was delighted. “Where had you been, loyal friend?”

Kundaminokh purred and screamed. Lisandra stroked his beak.

“You hurt a little, I see,” she saw small scorched dark areas on the snow-white plumage, “if we fly on you, you can’t handle this, I know, my friend,” and she scratched him on the head.

“He looks capable of carrying five as well,” Edelmer said, looking at the bird with admiration.

“Brother, I’ll not torture the wounded bird!” Lisandra snapped. “You’ll fly first on Kundaminokh, brother, and I’d stay and look after my niece while we wait for Slu. Then Kundaminokh will come back for us.”

“I think it’s more efficient to all fly at once when Slu comes back than to have the bird fly back and forth several times,” Edelmer said.

“No, brother, it will be easier for Kundaminokh to bear a moderate weight, return light, and then do the same again, even few more times, and with the four of us on his back he will constantly fall, and maybe not even take off, he will rest more often, and we will wear him down very much, believe me!”

“Well, Lisandra, of course, you know better,” Edelmer agreed.

“But when we wake up... um... our relatives,” Laylith put in, “will we finally try to look for mom and Arel?”

“Yes, of course, daughter, and my girlfriend too!” Edelmer smiled and took Laylith by the shoulder.

Laylith gave him a reproachful look.

“Then climb on it now,” Lisandra said to Edelmer. And Edelmer went up to the argiphone, and the bird lowered its back and wing. “Yes, that’s it. Kundaminokh, fly south, and when you get tired, let Edelmer get off and then fly back, but remember to rest!”

“Does he understand you?“Laylith was surprised.

“Yes, in a way he understands a lot,” Lisandra replied. And Kundaminokh screamed.

“So long, Laylith! Sister, take care of my daughter!” Edelmer said, and a snow-white argiphone with scorched plumage took off and flew south.

“I can take care of myself,” Laylith said when her father flew away.

“We are the daughters of the First, we didn’t know our parents either, you at least had a chance to know your father, Laylith,” Lisandra said suddenly.

“I still don’t understand who the First are?”

“They are like the gods, there are many legends about who they are and how they were born us. Honestly, I’m already confused myself, I know one thing, I may be someone’s daughter, whom I’ve never seen, but also I’m someone’s mother, whom I saw and want to see again! What about Erbalar, Korinsilar, Lortar? Three of my children were alive when I last saw them. Three died, Erbalar told me. And six are unknown where, and I think they are sleeping on the Wall of Ghosts. That’s also why I’m so pulled there, Laylith. I just want to see my children!”

“Who sleeps in the mountains of the Belt of Twilight, I understand, yes,” Laylith said. “As for my father, I’m not sure if I will have time to get to know him better, because... your children, and everything that happens and happened to us is not give me confidence that we will survive.”

“Niece! If you don’t believe in the best, don’t believe in victory, then you can take a dagger and cut your throat right here and now because it is the hope for good or strong beliefs that makes intelligent beings move forward,” Lisandra said.

“Um… Auntie,” Laylith addressed, “I think that naive faith is worse than an objective judgment. If everything is bad, you need to admit that everything is bad and admit that it could be even worse, and already build on the options for how to do it better, but do not expect them to work. Blind faith in success will lead to the fact that you do not instantly cut your throat, but life itself will gradually drain blood out of you so that you suffer and slowly die.”

“A practical approach is quite useful, but almost all living beings move from birth to death, life takes blood from everyone drop by drop every day. But you believed that your father is alive that made you who you are. Your faith and your desire to find him forged your character. Your faith-filled life has meaning and strength. And if you really doubted, you would have given up long ago.”

“Maybe it was not faith, but a duty.” After these words, they walked a minute in silence.

“So, we’ll set up camp here,” Lisandra said, looking at the desert-hilly area. “Ooh San Mar Dak Akir Hron Sur Vas Kan Tajur!” she cast an askaldenfirst spell, which creates a long-lasting dome-barrier for sleeping.

“I like this dome barrier, it’s looking great!” Laylith exclaimed.

“Roh Akras Mus Akh Dracal,” Lisandra cast an askaldenfirst spell, which created a protective circle of fire that surrounded the dome from the outside, and such a circle can hold for a long time.

“Auntie, maybe you could teach me these spells?” Laylith asked hopefully.

“You are my brother’s daughter, I think you can do more than such simple magic, so of course I could teach you, and I will,” Lisandra smiled, “but now we need to sleep, Kundaminokh can fly even at night, I don’t know how far he can carry your father.”

“I hope he’s all right, and my mom and Arel.”

“Try to sleep, child,” and Lisandra herself lay down on the sand-rocky surface, Laylith lay down nearby. It was late evening, and Silenta had already disappeared over the horizon.

“I hope your children are all right too,” Laylith said suddenly.

“Thank you for your concern, niece, I hope so too,” and Lisandra, lying on her back, looked through the flickering dome at the stars, and decided to close her eyes.

Suddenly they heard a muffled scream as the dome suppressed the outside sound, and then a magical attack was launched, but the dome held out. Laylith and Lisandra jumped up and exhaled calmly. Lisandra removed the dome and fire barrier.

“Have you forgotten about me?” Slu Tis asked angrily.

“Um...” Laylith didn’t know what to say.

“Where is Edelmer? I still don’t understand why I went hunting if he is a large northerner who knows how to hunt, and both of you can easily create food and water?!” And Slu Tis stepped back and took the rope, and then pulled behind her two carcasses of sandy rainerturs, animals similar to earthly not big monitor lizards, only with a spider’s head and small horns.

“Sandy rainerturs!” Laylith exclaimed. “I’ve never seen them alive!”

“And you won’t, cause they’re not alive,” Slu Tis grinned.

“Yes, I see!” Laylith threw her a look with anger, and went closer to the carcasses, “And where are their heads? They must be many-eyed!”

“Girl, I had to chop off their heads and drain the blood. Less blood means lighter weight, and you know, I didn’t want to take their heads to make the child happy,” said Slu, and Laylith snorted, but Slu ignored her and address Lisandra, “Now it’s time to skin them, and then roast them, please, conjure me some water now, I’m very thirsty.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Lisandra said, and cast the spell to create water, and held out the waterskin to Slu Tis.

Slu took it and drank almost everything, after that she cast a fire spell, and began to strip the skins from the killed animals and pull out the offal.

Lisandra moved away from them and looked at the night horizon, the hills were shrouded in night, but somewhere now flew her faithful Kundaminokh, bringing her brother closer to her children and the children of her sisters. After a few minutes, Lisandra came back to Slu and Laylith.

“My father flew away on Kundaminokh, on Lisandra’s little snow argiphone, girl,” Laylith told Slu.

“Aaahh,” Slu held out. “And I need to somehow get back to my people as soon as possible!” She pulled out the guts and carried them away. “What a stench.”

“I hope that under your rule, you will abolish the slave system, girl,” Laylith said.

“Laylith,” Lisandra turned to her, “please, observe etiquette even here, Slu Tis is the queen of Itskel-taash, and she should be treated appropriately.”

“Not necessarily, and I’ve started first to call her a girl,” said Slu and smiled. “Lisandra, it was you who made me queen, though it was a good thing that you killed that obnoxious boy Ikki. I wanted to kill him many times by myself, but I understood that I’d be executed for it. However, now I can be sentenced to death in any way. I am responsible for so many deaths. If I stopped you, Lisandra, maybe I wouldn’t be sitting here.”

“Maybe you would have been executed, Your Majesty or maybe not,” Laylith said, “but there is no need to rush to your people. Lisandra is right, we need allies. We’re not going to conquer or capture something or someone, but to reason our citizens, we need to have some power. Dragons and askaldenfirsts, they are a power! And what happened in Itskel-taash is a terrible coincidence and tragedy,” she paused. “I think about mom, where is she?

“I hope with your mother everything is all right,” Slu said.

Slu also brought branches with her and built a kind of skewer, planted the carcass and began to cook.

“Where did you find the trees?” Laylith asked.

“Although I live underground, I know Kaushmanashtoon, trees and shrubs grow here if you know where,” Slu answered.

“I see,” Laylith said, “I have another question. Why did you kill two sandy rainerturs instead of one, they are huge–”

Suddenly they heard that someone was approaching, but it was too late, a huge giant ashklahar, similar to an earthly wolf, only a little larger than an earthly horse, jumped onto the fire and grabbed the fried rainertur with its teeth.

The women jumped abruptly, Lisandra took off.

Slu grabbed her staff, and Laylith took a fighting pose and began to cast a fireball spell.

“Föhr Mod Sak Rin Alt Man Drog,” Lisandra uttered the askaldenfirst spell, and a huge ice trident poured from the sky right into ashklahar, it hit the animal in the head, pierced the eye and the jaw. Ashklahar died.

But immediately other ashklahars began to attack Slu and Laylith.

“Pok Rum Har Sov Nod Makr,” Slu uttered a tukhtaash spell and created a protective barrier that the ashklahars could not penetrate.

“Rum Lit Skod,” Lisandra said, and the whole area lit up with a bright light.

Dozens of ashklahars surrounded Slu and Laylith, trying to break through the protective dome.

“Hold on there,” Lisandra shouted, “Plar For At Skar Khat,” she cast an askaldenfirst spell and hundreds of fire arrows fell from the sky, killing animals or setting fire to the animals’ fur.

The ashklahars whined, some were on fire, some were dying of wounds, the rest decided to run away.

Lisandra descended. Slu stopped supporting the dome and approached the dead ashklahar as he lay on the second carcass of the rainertur.

“That’s why I killed two, Laylith. To stock up is the basic life credo of many tukhtaashes, and I am no exception.”

“Ooh San Mar Dak Akir Hron Sur Vas Kan Tajur!“Lisandra uttered the askaldenfirst spell creating a long dome-barrier for sleeping, “this time, I hope, it will not need to be removed.”

And the three of them sat down by the fire as if nothing had happened. One of the dead ashklahars was even lying under the dome with them, but the women didn’t care about that.