"They've been gone for too long, we need to go back," the northerner said.
"I agree," queen Slu replied.
Suddenly a ghostly image appeared in the sky. It was the outline of an old snunorf man who looked like an Ikhagatber. Edelmer saw Ikhagatbers several times in his life, so he could easily recognize one of them. The ghostly face of the Ikhagatber began to mutter something. Slu assumed a fighting pose. Edelmer suddenly felt himself changing. He fell to the wet ground.
Edelmer and Slu were near the river where Kundaminokh had brought them. The river flowed from the highlands of the Belt of Twilight and here, not far from the desert, a small oasis with vegetation had formed.
Edelmer began to transform into a huge snow argiphone, all of his clothes tore apart. Slu ran away from him and did not know whom to attack. The ghostly image of the Ikhagatber vanished, and Edelmer completely turned into a giant bird.
Edelmer looked at Slu, she seemed so small. He wanted to say something, but he screamed.
"Are you... are you Edelmer?" Slu asked in surprise, not knowing what to do and how to react.
The snow argiphone nodded. And an irresistible desire to rise into the air arose in Edelmer. He flapped his wings so hard that Slu was blown away slightly by the air stream, and she lost her balance and fell. The giant snowy northern argiphone flew up into the sky. Edelmer felt a sense of joy from the flight, he screamed, expressing his pleasure. After flying for a while, he landed near Slu and lowered his wing, signaling for her to climb. He looked at Slu to make sure she caught his gaze, then turned his head to the north and nodded. Slu understood and began to climb, clinging to the firmly seated feathers.
Finally, she climbed up and they took off. Small clouds floated by, and Edelmer flew as high as possible towards them, his keen eyes helping him to distinguish between different movements. They headed north.
After several hours, they spotted Lisandra, and Edelmer landed.
"Edelmer?" askaldenfirst was surprised to recognize him.
Argiphone nodded. Slu got off him, rubbing her hands.
"Please, let's not fly so high again, maybe you don't feel how cold it is, but I do!" noticed Slu displeased.
"My brother, but you must be a dragon, not an argiphone!" Lisandra said with regret.
Suddenly Edelmer began to transform back. After a couple of minutes, he was back to his usual form and he was naked.
"Tar Wick Sun Rithrak Onk Makri," Lisandra cast an askaldenfirst spell, creating a set of clothes.
Slu wanted to turn away, but a strong desire to appreciate the northerner's appearance made her look. Edelmer got dressed.
"We could not wait for Laylith and Kundaminokh. When did you send him?" Edelmer asked.
"Long enough, they should have made it. I'm worried too," Lisandra remarked calmly, "but Kundaminokh won't leave Laylith until he is certain–"
"How can I turn back into a bird?" Edelmer suddenly interrupted her.
"I don't know," Lisandra replied.
"I must find my daughter!" the northerner said loudly.
"We need to find them," Lisandra agreed. "Maybe something happened."
"Maybe?!" Edelmer barked, "Well, sister, it was your idea to go on a bird one by one! I suggested that everyone should fly together!" Edelmer without waiting for a reaction headed south.
"We'll find her," Slu ran up to him, "I think she's all right, she can take care of herself!" and Slu took the warrior by the shoulder. Edelmer looked at her and patted her hand.
Lisandra followed them.
"How did you do it?" Slu asked Edelmer suddenly.
"Did what, Your Majesty?"
"Became a snow-white argiphone? How did you change into a bird? Any other northerner has got that ability, or are you not a snunorf at all?" Slu asked curiously.
"I don't know what I am right now. But I feel who I am. I'm a snunorf who married an arqilunian, and I have a daughter! My precious Laylith! And now my daughter may be in danger! The fact that I can turn into a snow argiphone doesn't bother me at all. Recently, Your Majesty, I learned that I might be Nordavindurrin, brother of askaldenfirst. And now not only me, "he turned and looked at Lisandra," but others may doubt it as well.
"Yes, I understand," Slu said, "I also recently became a queen, who was not recognized by many, and when I return to my people, I may stop–"
Suddenly they heard a stomp. A gigantic gatakanati rushed towards them from afar. Apparently, the animal has gone wild. Thirty feet powerful gatakanati look like earthly triceratops.
"Can you charm it?" Edelmer suddenly shouted to Lisandra as she flew into the air.
"I don't think I have enough strength. We'll have to kill it!" Lisandra replied.
At that moment, the gatakanati wanted to hook Edelmer with his horns, but he jumped over and dodged. Slu just wanted to start casting a spell, but the gatakanati hit her with its tail and the tukhtaash woman flew off, hitting her head slightly on a rocky ledge, and passed out. Edelmer jumped on the animal with a sword, but the animal managed to react, and Edelmer fell to the rocky-sandy surface. Lisandra cast the spell of an ice trident, which fell from the sky and hit the animal's back, but didn't enter very deeply, the spell turned out to be weaker than usual, and the gatakanati had a very strong skin-shell on its back, and only ashklahars could gnaw a stone-like skin with their powerful fangs. Gatakanati howled in pain, and with fury began to beat by its tail at the place where Edelmer was, but the warrior quickly reacted and dodged attacks.
Slu woke up and began to cast a fireball spell, which she released into the animal and hit, it significantly burned the animal's tail. The enraged gatakanati turned and rushed to Slu. Edelmer ran parallel to the animal, jumping over hilly-rocky terrain, he was above the gatakanati, and jumped at a run on the animal with a sword, but hit right the burned tail, driving the sword deep, gatakanati again let out a terrible roar and shook his tail, throwing Edelmer to the stones. At that moment, suddenly the gatakanati's head began to slowly separate from the body. And Lisandra from a small height collapsed unconscious. Gatakanati fell dead. Slu in a frozen position, taken aback, looked at the head of the animal. Edelmer rushed to Lisandra.
"Sister, wake up! Wake up!" he looked at the queen, "Slu! Slu!" the tukhtaash woman did not respond, "Slu!" finally, she ran up to him. "Do you know any spell of healing, restoration or some kind of that?" Edelmer asked.
Slu began to cast a healing spell. Lisandra didn't react.
"Don't you know how to make scones and water, like the arqilunians?" Edelmer asked.
"No, sorry," Slu replied regretfully.
"Sister! Lisandra!" he held her face in his palm and gently ran his finger along the scar on her cheek, feeling its texture. Her hair at the roots turned light lilac, and the turquoise tips turned to dirty light green. Silenta's light, travel and exhaustion have changed the color of her hair," Lisandra, don't leave me! Don't leave your children! Wake up, sister!"
But askaldenfirst didn't react.
"Do you know what will help her?" the warrior turned to Slu, "Anything?"
"No. She's not wounded, she's unconscious," Slu replied.
"Is there a spell that can help me turn into a bird?"
"I don't know any, sorry," Slu replied.
"But you know the geography of Kaushmanashtoon, don't you? We need water and food. Where is the nearest oasis?"
"If we head southwest, we can reach Murnizanash, a town beyond the desert on the Furgaar river. But this is impossible! We will have to go through almost the entire Kaushminapal desert!"
"Yes, we will have to!" said Edelmer and lifted Lisandra. She was breathing but did not regain consciousness. And they went southwest.
Despite the strength of the warrior and the relative lightness of the woman, Edelmer quickly got tired, thirst tormented him.
Suddenly they heard the flapping of wings. Edelmer put Lisandra down and happily ran to wave to the dragon. Slu cast a disapproving glance at him and shook her head.
The dragon flew closer and saw his mother.
"What have you done to her?" the dragon shouted and released a stream of fire at Edelmer, but the warrior managed to jump back.
"I'm her friend! I'm your uncle, I suppose. I'm Nordavindurrin! We want to save her!"
The dragon looked at him in surprise. It was a light pink dragon with blue stripes.
"Ermirian, you call yourself my uncle, whom no one has ever seen? What have you done to my mother, answer me?!" and the dragon again blazed fire at him, but Edelmer jumped back again. Slu began to cast the protective dome spell.
"Stop attacking! We need your help to save her! She lost consciousness!" Edelmer shouted, hiding under the dome created by Slu.
"If the dragon spews a fire, it will blow through the dome," Slu said.
The dragon released a stream of fire, and the dome could not stand it, but Slu and Edelmer managed to bounce back.
Lisandra suddenly began to regain consciousness and saw what was happening.
"Daervartalanjir!" Lisandra's voice boomed. "Stop!"
"Marthedraar!" the dragon flew towards her. "What happened to you? Did these vile creatures try to kill you?"
"No, son, they are helping me, I was just flying to wake you and your brothers and other askaldenfirsts!"
"I tried to wake up my brothers," the dragon said, "but they are asleep, and I could not find their mothers, no matter how many times I flew among the endless mountains."
"Have you seen your brothers? And you haven't seen a single askaldenfirst?
"I only saw Erafner and Stellar, mother, but they are asleep."
"I have sad news, son, Furelak, Granskhel and Heskan are dead," Lisandra said with a pain in her voice.
"No!" the dragon shouted and raised his head to the sky and spat out a stream of fire.
"I suffer too, Daervar. But I saw Erbalar, Korinsilar and Lortar, and they were... almost fine. I don't know if they're alive now. This is exactly what needs to be done, son! We must find all dragons, all askaldenfirsts, and unite. We must wake everyone up. Gaal has fulfilled the prophecy but returned as a revived... unreasonable animal, he doesn't understand what he is doing! And maybe this is what the prophecy is! Then don't want to follow it!"
"Mother, what are you talking about? Gaal fulfilled the prophecy? And you think he lost his mind?"
"Yes, he just became fire itself! And he burned many dragons!" Lisandra replied.
"How is that possible?" the dragon asked.
"We have woken and fallen asleep many times, son, you know, and my memories are kind of strange as if something like this had happened before, but I feel and understand that Gaal has never returned before. In every dream and memory I have, there are always two shadows, shadows from the light of Iglara and Silenta. But Gaal did destroy one star. Someone woke up immediately after that, someone belatedly, and someone, like you, only recently."
Edelmer came closer to Lisandra and decided to interrupt their dialogue.
"I was worried about you, sister, you shouldn't have wasted so much energy."
"I had a choice, Edelmer, I could try to charm gatakanati, stop it with other spells that spend as much energy as the beheading spell, but I did what must be done. Last time I cut off the heads of the tukhtaashes and didn't even feel tired. But now something is wrong with me."
"Maybe you and Slu will stay here, and your son will carry me and I'll find water and food, and then we will fly to look for my daughter and your Kundaminokh?!" Edelmer asked.
Lisandra looked at Daervar, he was displeased.
"I think my son will take us all where we can recover, and then we will fly together to find your daughter, Edelmer, and Kundaminokh," Lisandra said.
The dragon landed and spread his wing as much as possible so that Edelmer would help the exhausted askaldenfirst climb onto his back. Slu climbed up after them. They found something to hold on to, and the dragon took off, heading south.
"I feel the death of... sisters!" and Lisandra fainted.