"Orel, please…"
Orel reached for the sword behind his back.
"One more word and you're dead," he said slowly.
"I'm sorry," Vil sniffed. He was nearly in tears.
Orel turned his horse to the restaurant; Lis and Nikto followed him without saying a word to Vil. Vil stayed in the street alone. After a while he finally spurred his horse in fury and rode away.
Three of them entered the restaurant and sat down at the opposite side of the table where Edin and his people already sat. The waiter wasn't in a hurry to serve them. Customers watched them in fear but didn't run – it was the Upper City where people were not that terrified.
"I'm listening," Orel said looking at Ol in contempt.
"Bey sent me to talk to you, it's just a conversation, nothing more."
"I got it. And?"
"Leave the Lower City, prince," Ol said quietly but firmly. "Leave it in an amicable way. Bey still gives you such a chance. You have no business in the lower streets; they belong to those who were born and live there. You came from the Upper City, we'll drive you away. Just like you, rich bastards, drove away and closed the access to the Upper City for commoners. Yours is the Upper City, the Lower is ours. Enough of trying to grab both yours and someone else's, Arel Chig, you've lost any shame. You invaded our streets using your nearly limitless power and money. But we've had enough of you! We tried to bear with you and your people to the very end. But now we cannot stand it any more. We cannot stand what you're doing in the streets of our Lower City!
"Now I see you finally lost your mind if you brought mercenaries from the Unclean District to our Lower City! How dared you litter our city with the Unclean from the valley levels? How dared you bring half-bloods from behind the river to our neighborhoods! Bey warns you for the last time. Either you take away your Unclean trash," Ol quickly glanced at Nikto, "or the whole Lower City rises against you. People don't want to live next to those creatures. You don't care shit about their safety, I understand it, you're safely hidden behind the strong walls of the Upper City and you don't care what happens to the people in our streets, you just want to get more money from them.
"Isn't it so, prince? Even though you already have more money than you need but your greed doesn't have any limits. What will those bastards you gathered do to peaceful citizens? If you don't take them away, we'll unite with the owners of the northern and eastern territories, they are ready to do that. When it concerns protection of our people from the Unclean, we act together. You're a stranger in our territory and everyone will be against you. Do you understand it? That is why – stop until it is too late. We're not afraid of you or your allies.
"We'll dispose of you, we won't let you litter our streets and set a new order here. The Unclean will have no place in the Lower City!
"If you want to deal with them – go there and don't soil the Lower City with your presence. You're a disgrace among humans. Your rich friends kicked you out but we'll do the same. We won't let you ruin our city, our streets. Do you get that?"
"I would kill you right here," Orel said calmly, "but I want you to pass my words to your master. I won't take the Unclean away from my streets and I'll bring more if need be." He kept silent for a while watching Ol's reaction. "And I shit care about your threats. If Bey doesn't submit, I'll tear apart the whole Lower City. You want the war – you'll have it. I'll kill everyone. Everyone who lives in your streets. I'll raze your streets to the ground and will inhabit them with the people I want.
"You're right, I don't care about people who live there and that's why I can do things that will make you regret a million times that you opposed me. I'll slaughter the whole Lower City if I want. You cannot stop me! I'll tear you apart just for fun! If you care so much about peaceful life of common people – which I really doubt – think twice before opposing me. They'll die because of you. They'll suffer and it'll be your fault. Don't even try to touch me – I will do whatever I want. I didn't touch you but you made me and I won't stop until I take everything that belongs to Bey. I'll take all his streets! And he will swallow it. I don't envy you, there are difficult times in store for you," he smirked. "That's all, I don't have anything else to say to such an idiot as you. If Bey cares, let him come and bow to me." Orel laughed.
Edin Ol was red in face, barely controlling himself.
"So, that's it?" he hissed through the clenched teeth. "You're declaring a war."
"Yes, that's it."
"You'll regret it!"
Orel got up. "Let's go," he said to Lis and Nikto, "we have nothing to do here."
They left the restaurant.
"You're insane," Lis said when they reached their streets. "The whole Lower City is going to oppose you. And they will be right. We'll be eliminated."
"I'm not afraid of anything," Orel said. "I have friends and they'll help me, won't they?" He turned to Nikto.
"You can always count on me," Nikto said. His face was tightly covered with a mask, black glass glittering through the eye-slits.
They arrive at Orel's military camp where he decides to arrange a show trial for Bey's captured people.
Before his warriors, Orel executes the captives with his own hand.
Their chopped-off heads are sent to Bey.
Later Nikto goes to the castle and injects himself 'black water'.
For the whole next day he doesn't come out of his room. The friends go on with their business without him. At night Lis decides to talk to Nikto, and Nikto allows him to enter.
Chapter 18
Conversation between Lis and Nikto
Nikto got up greeting Lis. Leaning against his cane, he walked up to the bar. Lis sat down in the armchair and watched him silently. Nikto tried to take a bottle and pour a drink but his hands didn't obey. His fingers didn't bend; they were so swollen and blue as if someone beat them with a hammer. His cut fingernails blackened, the tattoos on his fingers and hands looked like black burnt furrows. After a few unsuccessful attempts to pour drinks for Lis and himself, he turned back. His face was covered with a mask.
"Lis, can you pour a drink for us?" he asked.
His voice didn't change. It was strange, unpleasant but familiar. Lis got up, came up to the bar and poured wine silently.
Nikto turned his hand so that his fingers fit into the gap between the glass and its handle, and Lis put the glass there.
"Wait, I forgot." Nikto carefully gave his glass back to Lis. "I want to take off my mask and sunglasses."
"Yes," Lis said, "it's difficult to talk to a man if you don't see his face and eyes."
Nikto froze in indecision, then very slowly, using both his hands, took off the mask. He looked horrible; 'black water' disfigured him. His face was swollen, the skin on his cheekbones burst and dry blood caked there hiding the letters of the Unclean. But the scarred half of his face looked worst of all – the scar was black and swollen. The cheek was swollen, too, his eyes barely open. Nikto tried to smile with his puffy cracked lips.
"I know I look bad but I cannot do anything about it now." His reddened eyes glittered feverishly; he looked at Lis.
Lis lowered his gaze giving Nikto his glass and returned to his place.
"You don't look bad," he said. "You cannot look any worse! A corpse that spent a week in the warm ground looks better. If only Orel could see you!"
Nikto sat down in the armchair in front of Lis, put the cane next to him. He was silent.
"Your human body is falling apart," Lis continued, "and it is so young!"
Nikto's face darkened.
"Don't say that, Lis," he said, "don't repeat what the Unclean say." He lowered his head.
"What happened to the man whose body you use? He was mute and insane, wasn't he? He was mute, that's why you couldn't use his voice, you had to keep your own."
Lis watched Nikto. "He was very beautiful. You chose a beautiful body," he said thoughtfully. "But you treated his beauty cruelly and didn't take care of it. You damaged it – but it doesn't matter because its former owner isn't there any more. He died, didn't he?"
Nikto looked at Lis.
"No, he didn't die," he said slowly. "He is me."
"I don't believe you," Lis shook his head. "You're nobody. You don't have a body in our world. And I can't imagine how you look in reality. But your eyes are enough for me to know that it is for the better. The eyes are yours, right? You're looking at our world with your eyes. That's why you can't see well. You try to restore his vision but you cannot do it yet. Maybe that man was not only mute but also blind?"
"No," Nikto said, "he wasn't blind and he wasn't mute. It's all fantasies of the Unclean. That man could see, and hear, and talk normally but he lived among dark creatures and tried to be similar to them. He rebuilt himself with their help. His eyes started seeing just like their eyes. And his voice changed unrecognizably because he was speaking only their language. He was with them for too long and started looking like them. He lost himself. But he didn't die. You're talking to him now," he passed his swollen hands over his disheveled hair trying to smoothen it. "I barely look like human, I know. But I am a human. And I'm tired of being anything else. You are not talking to a demon, Lis, you're talking to me. I'm not a demon, I'm a man."
Lis was silent.
"Light me a cigarette please," Nikto asked.
Lis took out a cigarette, lit it, made a small drag and gave it to Nikto. Nikto leaned towards him and Lis put the cigarette between his lips.
"I knew it would be a difficult conversation," Lis said, "but I'll be honest, I wanted to talk to you anyway. You attract me just like you attract others, even though I hide it. There is something in you that make me respect you. Maybe it is the way you use your power deftly and unnoticeably – because you can do a lot, right? I'm amazed with your self-control. If I had such powers as you do, I wouldn't be sitting here and listening to some silly fantasies of a human who imagines himself too smart."
Nikto laughed nearly letting the cigarette fall out of his mouth.
"I wouldn't make efforts and spend my time constructing one situation after another," Lis said. "You make people do what you want but in the way they think they want it themselves. You work with everybody, going all out, including me. I wouldn't ever do that! I would control everyone without explanations! I'd use them as my puppets carelessly. I'd make them obey me and kill those who wouldn't."
"And what would the great Lis do to himself – as he is now?"
"I'd kill him first of all," Lis said without hesitation.
Nikto laughed again.
"And then you'd stay alone, on the mountain of corpses, and you wouldn't have a friend to exchange a word with. You would go mad and howl at the moon," he said laughing. Lis laughed, too.
"You have a better knowledge what an unlimited power could bring. But the temptation is too big to think of consequences."
"I don't know anything about it," Nikto said. "Whatever I knew I lost. Sometimes some things come back to me, things from my former life but it's nothing in comparison to the abilities you attribute to me."
"You're a practiced liar," Lis smirked. "Here I'm talking to you and you almost made me believe you're really a human – just a little bit different from others."
Nikto shrugged and stubbed his cigarette.
"You'll see for yourself when you get to know me better, if we stay together."
"Do you want to stay with us?"
"Yes."
"Though I probably said it wrong: it's us who are with you."
"No. It's me who is with you," Nikto said. "It's me with you," he repeated.
He finished his wine.
"I feel so bad! If you could know, Lis, you wouldn't say I'm able to do anything. If it were so, would I let myself get into such a condition? Oh yes, it is not my body, I don't need to spare it, I forgot. Sorry, Lis, you made such a beautiful and neat construction that I even enjoyed it."
He clenched his arm where his damaged veins were. "Shit, will it ever end?!"
"Do you really feel pain?"
"Yes," Nikto said. He got up and hobbled to the bar leaning onto his cane. He managed to pour some wine.
"Why are you limping?" Lis asked.
"I don't know. As long as I remember myself, I was lame. I wasn't mute or insane. I was lame…" he said thoughtfully. "I barely remember anything about living with my mother. Sometimes I have memories, especially when I have a dose of 'black water'," he laughed. "No, Lis, I'm lying, I recall. I was insane and mute for two years after I was captured. Later I restored but everyone thought I got possessed by the devil. And I didn't reassure them. When I say that I restored I don't mean I became as I had been before. I lost a lot and I can't bring it back."
"You were captured by the Red and they broke you. It is true, your tattoo witnesses it. But I can't understand," Lis paused thinking, "I had to know you! If you were held captive by the Red why didn't I know anything of you?"
"Why should you have known about me? They had many captives. Well, you didn't ever take any captives, you preferred to kill them all straight away, including women and children. Right, Atley Alis – or Sigmer? Which of these names is the real one?"
Lis screwed his eyes shut suddenly as if he were in pain.
"You found out. I was prepared to that."
"It wasn't difficult. Three years passed but the Black at the borders still cannot forget you and your army. They call you Sigmer the Death."
"Yes, I know. But it isn't me any more."
"Why did you betray the Red?"
"It's a long story. I fell out of grace, was accused of all deadly sins and sentenced to death. I had no other way but to run to save my skin. My mother was Black, you know that, I was born at the border and grew up among you. I even fought against the Red for a while. Then I found my father. He accepted me and named me Sigmer, in the manner of the Red. That's how I became Red. I fought for them for almost ten years but one day my power was destroyed. I returned and got my former name my mother gave me. I couldn't stay at the border, too many people knew me there. I came to the city and met Orel. I used to have everything. Now I have nothing… but Arel."
"What happens when the Black buy you out?"
"They know about me, they just don't have serious proof. I wasn't leaving any witnesses alive. Besides, they don't want to oppose Orel."
"Does he know the truth?"
"Yes, sure. He, and Enriki, and even Tol."
"Why does he protect you?"
Lis smiled showing his sharply filed teeth.
"I'm an experienced warrior and a good strategist. Do you think Orel would be able to seize so many territories with his pathetic number of people without my help? Arel doesn't know how to take care of people." Lis lit a cigarette. "By the way, I'd like to talk to you about him. Can you promise me not to do Orel any harm? You mean too much for him."
"I promise you," Nikto said. "You don't need to worry. I won't do anything bad to him."
"Good," Lis nodded. "I'll believe you. Maybe, for the first time I'll believe you."
He got up to leave.
"And tell him I'll be all right by tomorrow night," Nikto stopped him. "I'm in such a bad shape because I managed without 'water' for too long and got out of habit. Tell him not to torture yourself. He thinks he hurt my feelings but it is not so, it was my fault as well. Tell him forget everything that happened."
Lis smiled. "Fine, I'll tell him. Get well faster, Black Bey pushes and we need you."
He left the room.
When Lis walked downstairs, Orel rushed to him.
"Did you talk to Nikto? Did you figure out anything?"
Lis shook his head. "I talked to him but I didn't figure out anything, I got even more confused. Now I don't understand anything at all!"
Orel laughed.
"Poor, poor Lis, maybe enough tormenting yourself?"
"No," Lis said, "now I won't give up for sure. I'll find out everything, no matter what it costs me."
"Will it make you feel better?"
"Hardly. But it doesn't matter. By the way, I talked to him about you. He told you to forget what happened between you. He said he was to blame, too."
Orel brightened up.
"Lis, thank you! He really said that, you're not lying, are you?"
"I'm not," Lis said, "I can't be sure about him."
Enriki brings good news: Squint-Eye is getting out of prison.
At Tol's request, Orel takes Asa on the team without the right to vote.
Chapter 19
Squint-Eye
'Backara' was celebrating. Squint-Eye was already tired of answering endless congratulations. He leaned onto the table, putting his head onto his arms.
"I'm so out of habit with all this!"
"Get used again!" Tol laughed. "There are great victories in front of us!" He gulped from his glass. Asa who sat on his lap purred something tenderly. Squint-Eye looked at her in surprise but didn't say anything. Enriki noticed that.
"What did she say?" he asked Squint-Eye "I seem to know Unclean but can't understand what she babbles."
Squint-Eye shook his head tossing away thick black bangs that hid his left eye.
"She says to Tol she loves him, every minute," he smirked.
Enriki's sister laughed seeing his eyes that stared at different directions.
"I almost forgot how you look," she said. "You're so funny!"
He smiled at her quite kindly.
"I could've looked even funnier if not for your bother. He did his best to get me out."
Mily glanced at Enriki with love and respect.
"I know my brother is the best," she said proudly.
Enriki grinned contentedly: "All right, all right, I wasn't saving Squint-Eye on my own. Everyone participated."
"But it was you who saved me from the shameful brand," Squint-Eye said. "Otherwise I'd have my nostrils torn and a brand here," he pointed at the center of his forehead.
"Nostrils torn, how horrible!" Mily said fearfully puckering her pretty face in disgust.
Enriki laughed. "No problem, he'd just get new ones."
Mily smiled and looked at Squint-Eye very affectionately.
Orel who was quite drunk by then hiccupped and looked at his friends with misted eyes.
"Now everything is gonna be different!" He slammed his goblet against the table. Tol laughed. There were new tattoos on his gums.
Two pretty girls from 'Backara' came up to their table, posing gracefully and pouting. "Are you going to drink up everything here? Let's dance!"
"Vil, you're drooling," Lis said. "Close your mouth."
Everyone laughed.
One of the girls hugged Enriki.
"You're so handsome, master Galas! Let's dance!"
Enriki kissed her gently. "Sure!"
Squint-Eye looked at Mily. "May I ask you?"
She lowered her eyes and got up readily.
Orel and Lis exchanged glances. Lis laughed and shook his head.
"I need to find someone, too," he said. "You're okay for me," he said to the remaining girl.
"You're okay for me, too," she said leaning towards Lis in such a way that Vil's nose nearly got buried between her breasts.
Tol and Asa also stood up.
"Orel, let's go jump with the music!" Tol said. "Or are you going to do book-keeping with Vil again?"
"No-o-o, anything but that! I'll find someone… And it is called 'to dance', Tol."
"Who cares!" Tol hugged his girlfriend.
They started kissing with such passion that everyone shrieked in delight and applauded.
Vil didn't want to stay alone, he followed the others. He chose a girl and started dancing, too.
Nikto and Dony came out of their room. Seeing the complete chaos at 'Backara' they laughed and came downstairs to their friends.
Nikto looked much better than a few days ago. The scarred half of his face was always hidden behind the black mask, the other half was fully healed. He didn't even paint his face shocking the audience with the tattoos of the Unclean. Instead of his usual nose ring he inserted quite a heavy decoration with a chain into his nostril. The chain went over the mask and ended with a ring in Nikto's ear. There were two rings in his lower lip – a sign of half-bloods.
Clients of 'Backara' and its staff looked at him in an unconcealed horror.
"I want to dance, too," Dony said, "but I think I can't. Where is Mily?" she started asking everyone.
Everyone smiled, hugged her, kissed, congratulated but no one knew where Mily was. At last she met Lis.
"Where is Mily?" she asked.
"I think she's gone to the loo," he said, "and Squint-Eye helps her find the way." Lis laughed.
"Oh shit," Dony said. "All right, thank you."
"Not at all," Lis started petting his girlfriend again.
Nikto sat down at the table and poured a drink. Dony was stuck in a crowd of her acquaintances. Squint-Eye came back to the table, sat down on the opposite side from Nikto. Nikto looked at him.
"Didn't you guard Mily at the loo?" he smiled.
"Yes," Squint-Eye said. "A year and a half in prison cost me dearly. I guarded her too quickly." He was somewhat upset.
"I think you'll restore fast."
"I hope so," Squint-Eye tossed his bangs away and shook his head sorrowfully. "Oh shit," he muttered unhappily.
Nikto was drinking silently and watching him. Over Squint-Eye's upper lip there was a thin black thread with little knots.
Squint-Eye looked up.
"Are you reading my thread?" he asked.
"Yes. Every knot is someone's life. Your thread has such knots that I haven't seen on any thread before. It's just too cool! What are you in Orel's team? A pro killer?"
Squint-Eye laughed mirthlessly.
"In Orel's fucking gang I'm a scapegoat. Orel is having fun and I'm going to prison for him! Is it cool, you think?" He lit a cigarette narrowing his squint eye against the smoke. "The times when I fought for my right to wear the thread passed. Frankly speaking, I'm tired of everything."
Squint-Eye inhaled the smoke.
"I'm tired. Tired of endless disfavor, of prison, I'm tired of doing dirty work for everyone," he looked at Nikto with his good eye. "Do you know what I mean? I met Orel when I was in prison for the first time, for murder. His sentence was two years, he was the king's relative but I got the full term. He won me over – he was so strong. He had to go through so much humiliation but he didn't break. I respected him and we became friends. Later, when he went clear, he helped to free me after a while. We eliminated everyone who had to do with his process, didn't show mercy to anyone. That's when I started wearing this thread. And then Orel was bored with me. He got new friends. I got to prison again and so was it. I'm the man he throws into the king's maw to absolve himself. Everyone is happy but me. I haven't seen any life! Fucking Lis, a war criminal sentenced to gallows both here and in his own land, is walking free and doesn't care! Enriki, an unscrupulous, corrupt investigator: you can't imagine what deals he made under the king's very nose! His family got rich! He is respected. I don't mention Orel at all, he does whatever he wants. He'll demolish the whole Lower City – no one will say a word. Let him enjoy himself as long as he doesn't raise any claims for the throne. And I'm in deep shit! My house is burnt, my family had to run to the west. They cannot come to the city. I'm in such ass, Nik or whatever your name is…"
"You say that because you've just got free. Wait for a little while and everything works out," Nikto said.
"No," Squint-Eye shook his head. "I want someone else to go to prison next time, not me."
He stubbed the cigarette.
"By the way, I've heard a lot about you. You got free only recently, too, right?
"You can say that."
"Were you in the 'king's prison'?"
"Not for a long time, I spent more at the 'farm'."
"Are you a slave?"
"Yes," Nikto said very slowly.
"How did it happen?"
"Do you want me to tell you my life story? Perhaps not tonight?"
Squint-Eye laughed.
"Fine, sorry for my curiosity. It's just your face – it's like a picture book. Even someone who can't read will understand. But I can read, unlike others. And I wonder whom Orel is going to give my job."
Nikto looked at him sharply.
"I don't want to compete with you," he said.
"Don't worry. Do you think I see a rival in you? It is useless, even if I don't let him interfere with my orders, Orel will give you a couple of profitable jobs sooner or later, you're his favorite, after all. I don't have a choice, in any case I'm out of the game." Squint-Eye lit a new cigarette and looked at Nikto. "But I don't mind. I told you, I'm sick and tired of everything. Let everything stay as it is – and then we'll see."
"I think Lis owes you his nickname," Nikto smiled.
"Do you think I'm sly? No-o-o, but I wouldn't mind exchanging nicknames with Lis. I'd give him mine gladly, together with my eye!"
Nikto laughed.
"With your eye? Why?"
"It just hinders me." Squint-Eye shook his head in irritation. "I see everything somehow dumb because of it. Besides, everyone is always staring at me and laughing." He looked at the dancers angrily. At the same time his squint eye looked straight at Nikto. It was so unnatural and funny that Nikto laughed involuntarily covering his mouth with his hand. Squint-Eye turned to him.
"You're laughing! I'm so tired of it! An eternal clown, for fuck's sake!"
"I'm sorry," Nikto said. "I understand you, I really do."
"No, you don't," Squint-Eye said. "Your appearance frightens but doesn't make people laugh. And my eyes always amuse everyone. I look like a fool."
"What's your real name?"
"My name is Bert Dallen."
"Cool!"
"Yeah, it's cool – but no one remembers that."
The friends, tired of jumping around, came back to their table in a noisy crowd. They laughed and talked all together.
"Pour some drinks, now, now!" Orel shouted. "Let's toast for Squint-Eye once more!" he looked at him. "I'm so happy to have you on the team again!"
Tol yelled and started expressing his joy so flamboyantly than nearly overturned the table. Everyone sitting there started back; girls shrieked and Asa almost fell. She laughed and cursed in Unclean. Tol nearly fell, too. Nikto caught him just in time; his chain swayed and clicked against the hard mask loudly.
"Hey, Tol, watch out!" Nikto shouted.
Tol looked at him drunkenly and hugged him laughing.
"Nikto, Nikto, my friend!"
"Now, Tol, leave me alone! I don't want you!" Nikto pushed him away and laughed.
"Tol, calm down and go hug your Asa," Orel said.
"Yes, my lord!" Tol said readily and put Asa onto his lap. "Nikto, will you pierce my nose?" he asked. "I want to wear the same thing you have!"
Everyone laughed.
"He won't pierce your nose, he'll smash it," Lis said, "if you don't leave him alone."
"And I'll smash your whole face," Tol said happily, "if you don't stop butting in."
"Again!" Orel moaned. "You can't stay away from each other even for an hour."
Squint-Eye laughed.
"Lis and Tol didn't change at all. They're still confessing their love to each other every moment."
"Nikto, don't you get tired of your decorations?" Enriki said. "You're a good guy but I'm sick of your jewelry."
"No, I don't," Nikto said.
"I know it's not my business but maybe you should stop looking like an Unclean? Humans leave their faces untouched, that's the law. Besides, you set some bad fashion, and Tol is the first victim of it. If it goes on like that, soon all of us will start wearing rings and tattooing our asses."
Everyone rolled with laughter.
"Enriki is right," Orel said. "Tol needs a tattoo on his ass, to be completely happy."
"Why not?" Tol guffawed. "But who's gonna do it for me?"
Nikto looked at Orel's grey face: its skin already started peeling because of his permanent use of paint. He looked at Squint-Eye: on his cheeks right under his ears silver needles pierced his skin holding the thread. He looked at laughing Lis: all his upper teeth were filed sharp.
Lis noticed his stare.
"Don't look at me," he grimaced. "I shit care about the laws of the Black, I don't wear signs of half-blood in my lip and I am proud about my scars."
"We're outlaws, Nik," Orel said.
"Yes!" Tol yelled. "We're all touched! Arel put his brand on every one of us and Enriki should stop pretending, he's also 'touched'."
"Oh, here is goes again," Enriki sighed. "Of course I'm touched since I'm here with you and not at the palace."
Vil gets on Orel's nerves with the problems in the Upper City. But Orel doesn't hurry to bring everything into order.
He is carried away with the Lower City and his revenge on Bey. Orel's army take their streets back and it's just the beginning. Orel is obsessed with his idea to take away everything that belongs to Bey, just as he threatened. Now he prepares invasion to the rival's territory and gets more soldiers from Borgan.
Squint-Eye goes to his estate in the west to hire more people for the war.
Participating along with others in the street fight, Asa proves herself a good warrior.
Enriki manages to settle down all the claims of the king to them and the king kindly allows Orel to "establish order" in the Lower City.
Bey is feverishly looking for allies to unite against Orel.
Chapter 20
Vil's Acceptance
The day was waning, and they spent their time at the 'Arbor' in the Upper City. Noise and music reached them from a nearby market square. Street artists were giving their performances, people danced and enjoyed themselves.
Lis, as usual, watched motley jolly crowd below through the tracery grate. Enriki nodded leaning back in the chair. Even Tol was quiet today and sat silently, staring at the wall with a dumb look. Orel smoked and looked through the business documents from the Upper City Vil regularly and lovingly provided him with. He narrowed his eyes against the cigarette smoke.
"Hey, anyone, help me!"
Enriki flinched and woke up.
"No-o-o, Orel, I'm so tired of papers at the palace."
"Just throw them away," Tol said, "do you care?"
"I care," Orel said sharply. "Where is that fucking Vil? He's late!"
"No," Enriki objected, "we are early."
Nikto took a few papers from Orel and laughed.
"Wow! You need abacus, are you calculating that in your mind?"
"Well, I'm trying," Orel blushed.
Lis looked at a nearly empty bottle on the table in front of Orel and snorted in understanding, then looked at the square again.
"Make the owner bring abacus," Nikto said, "it is impossible to calculate something like that mentally."