Tol enthusiastically said about how they had restored the Lower City destroyed by the confrontation with Bey, and Lila intervened in the conversation and inserted remarks, echoing Tol with her, as it seemed to Karina, disgusting squeaky and cutesy voice. Lila got drunk and interrupted Tol more and more often, adding even more meaningless and unnecessary details to his already stupid story. But Tol didn’t get angry with her, even if she cut him off in mid-sentence, pressed him to him with tenderness and didn’t shut her mouth. Moreover, from time to time she tugged at him and intervened simply so that he poured wine or served her a pie. And Tol was interrupted, distracted and did what she asked, while losing the thread of his already chaotic narrative.
They moved to the large bed of Lis and Karina, and Karina, leaning against the pillows at the head, drank wine and, looking at the capricious Lila, upset she thought that she would never dare to behave like that with her husband. Lis was now sitting next to her very cheerful, he listened to Tol’s ramblings without any irritation and even with some pleasure and smoked cigarette after cigarette, shaking off the ashes into an empty bowl, where before that there was bread.
Tol and Lila sat opposite them. Tol hugged Lila with one hand, and in the other he held a cup, sipping from it, and didn’t shut up for a minute, describing what a fine fellow he was. Tol was very tall and big, and Lila was so small and fragile that this difference was immediately apparent and they looked funny together.
Lila seemed very happy, oppressing Karina with this, who involuntarily continued to compare the relationship in their couples and saw that Lila didn’t follow what she said and did. And Tol never even pulled her back or raised his voice at her. Karina understood that she could never be like this with Lis, and how relaxed Lila was! And Karina was tense and watched her actions and words, while still, at any moment, expecting an outbreak of discontent from her beloved. The only thing that made her happy was that Lis didn’t turn to Lila at all. During all this time, he didn’t say a word to her and didn’t comment on any of her phrases. Lila was absolutely uninteresting to him, and Karina was reassured. But at the same time, she was very offended that Tol was so delighted with his fool, and she was so fondled by him.
Lila, apparently, understood Karina’s views in her own way, she reached out to her, clearly wanting to hug and kiss:
“Karina, you have such a beautiful hairstyle, can you do it yourself or is it a maid’s work? Are there any good maids who can do hair?”
Karina not rudely, but clearly expressing her intentions, pushed her away:
“Lila, go to hell!”
“No, Karina, don’t send me to hell,” Lila stretched capriciously, “better say ‘fuck you’!”
“You’ll do without it,” Karina laughed, “if I say fuck you all the time, there will be no cocks left!”
Lila, Tol and Lis laughed. Lis opened another bottle and poured wine for everyone.
“I don’t go to Upper,” Tol continued to chat, “the moron Vil pisses me off, he runs the Castle there. I just don't like him!”
“Me too,” agreed Lis, and Tol was delighted.
“Do you know who he is with now?!”
“No.”
“Oh! I'll tell you now, you sit here, you don't know anything! And here such things are happening! Vil has found himself a woman again! A dancer again! A rotten whore who dances naked in a diner in Lower. Imagine? Why is he always with some dancers? They are all whores, I always said that! And her name is Zara.”
“Yes, he wrote about it in a letter, I have completely forgotten.”
“Well!” And Tol was a little upset that his news was not new.
And Karina remembered:
A small poor room on the border of Lower and Upper and Zara, with a mug of some cheap booze in her hand:
“Well, so which of my friends did you come to talk about? I have nothing to hide.”
“Do you know Atley Alis?”
“ Mmm…”
“He is calles Lis,”
“Ah! Lis! He’s a scum! But charming! No. He is not my friend! And not even a buddy. He dropped in a couple of times, gave a long song and dance. He promised that he would promote me and make me the King’s mistress. He said he had influential friends in the palace, everything was a complete chatter! Where is all his promised?! Chatterbox! There’s only one benefit from him – at least he fucks well. Beautifully takes a woman…
“He beautifully takes a woman,” Karina whispered.
But Lis, who was sitting next to her, heard that and looked at her, stunned:
“How do you know?!”
“I know.”
“But from where?!”
“I visited her once on the occasion. So she told you so too?!”
“A-ha-ha, Zara! What a fool!” Lis laughed. “She told me this when I fucked her, so surprised: “How beautifully you take a woman.” What an idiot!”
“And I say!” Tol intervened happily in their conversation again. “She's a whore!”
“She is Nik’s girlfriend since the “Farm” of slaves,” said Lis.
“And you happily fucked her,” Karina made a displeased face, “and at that moment you were not embarrassed that she was a whore. And a former slave who twirls her bare ass in a diner in Lower.”
“No,” said Lis.
And seeing the expression on Karina’s face, he laughed and at the same time covered himself with his hands:
“Stop!” He said through laughter.
“I'll kill you!”
He quickly pulled her to him, hugging and kissing. Karina enjoyed the moment and the fact that Lis was kind and cheerful with the guests. Tol and Lila looked at them with affection.
“Al, let's swap wives!” Tol made a proposal.
“Come on,” Lis agreed, and neither Lila nor Karina objected to them. Lis pulled Lila out of the bed, dragging her to the carpet, pulling off her dress. She began to moan, in Karina’s opinion, too loud and feigned.
Knocking on the door, Nikto entered their room, and his gaze was presented with the following picture: Karina and Tol were sitting on the bed, they watched how Lis fucked Lila, standing on all fours, without letting go of the cigarette, and there was an ashtray on Lila’s back.
Nikto laughed:
“Ah, you are having fun, okay!”
“Nik!” Shouted Tol. “Come in! Join us! We have a lot of fun here!”
Nikto looked at Karina so strangely, she noticed this look, she was very pleased. Everyone admired her today.
“No,” as if with an effort said Nikto, averting his eyes from beautiful Karina, “I won't bother you. Lis, if anything, I'm with the unclean ones.”
“Yeah,” said Lis, squinting at the smoke that got into his eyes, he never stopped the intercourse.
Nikto left, and Tol turned to Karina and so in a simple way fell on her, crushing her under him. Karina allowed.
Tol was very heavy, he literally pushed Karina into bed, under his body she couldn’t take a breath. But she wanted to try this bully. “Lila is even smaller than me and somehow she can withstand it,” thought Karina. Tol lifted the hem of her dress, lifting it up, Karina helped him, pulled herself, raising her hands, removing it. Tol immediately saw her body covered with traces of beatings, all in purple and burgundy stripes. But he didn’t say anything and didn’t even stop for a moment in his inclinations. Tol had known his friend for a long time. He and Lis fucked a bunch of women together. Tol adored group sex with several girls at the same time, and Lis often accepted his invitation to have sex with a couple of whores. And Tol knew perfectly well how he usually treated them.
It seemed to Karina that a bottle of wine was thrust between her legs, and not a genital organ. Despite his bulkiness, Tol moved at a fast pace and was not bad at all. He bent over her, kissing on the lips, and then Karina dodged away, because Tol was kissing badly, he had too much saliva in his mouth and the kisses were slobbering.
Later, Lis and Lila returned to their bed. And Tol’s wife looked at Karina’s body all with bruises and marks from a whip so that it seemed to Karina that Lila could barely restrain her exclamation, turned away, changing her face, and Karina quickly put on a dress. Lila’s reaction didn’t embarrass her or upset her. What was wrong? Sometimes it happened. Her husband was like that. He was a strict commander, and Karina had nothing to be ashamed of. This was their personal family life, Lis loved her, and these were just traces of the manifestation of his love and passion.
And Tol noticed the scars on Lis’ thigh:
“Hey bro, what is it? What happened to you?”
“Never mind,” said Lis.
But Tol continued to stare at three even, maroon stripes:
“But how? Where did you get in again, sly beast?”
“Tol, tell me better, how did you find us? You are whom I didn’t expect to see here!”
“You sent me a letter!”
“Have you started to read letters?”
“Yeah,” Tol grinned contentedly, not noticing Lis’ trick and forgetting the previous topic of conversation about his scars.
“We arrived at the Prince’s Estate,” Tol smiled slyly and looked like a contented cat, “but you were no longer there. There was no one there at all! And we decided to go after you. We followed in your footsteps.”
“But why so long!” Lis couldn’t resist.
“Why? We got lost! Lost a lot, buddy. At first we walked right up to the crossing. There your footbridge remained and everything that you did there. The carts left deep ruts… there were remnants of fire pit. It was easy to go. But after the crossing, the weather turned bad, fuck it! It rained for several days. And the river overflowed, and everything in the area was washed away, it became a continuous mess. It was not clear where to go. We went to the wrong field. Then we realized that we were going in the wrong direction and returned to the crossing. We couldn’t understand where to go. The land was large, fields and hills, even if you walk along it for a week, you will not find the right road. And there is no one to ask.”
“Oh, Gods, Tol! And the map?”
“Which map?”
“Maybe you should have looked for maps of the area in the Estate?”
“What for? Did you draw where you went?”
“Okay… How did you find us?”
Tol made a conspiratorial look:
“And, brother, death helped us three times.”
“What?!”
“We accidentally stumbled upon a corpse. We got desperate and that was it… it was Dick Coal. He kept thinking and thinking. He recalled his childhood in these parts. How the reds attacked, how they burned down his house. How he saved Lila, and he almost burned out himself. He noticed a crow. And he said: “Since the crows fly there, there is something there.” We went there and saw a grave dug by animals. Not deep. And there was a dead man. Slave. The collar was tight on his neck, the skin was swollen around, it was horrible. And he himself was thin as a skeleton. We realized that he died of hunger, apparently, you dug him in. You know how happy we were! We found the right trail! We found our way. So they began to search the ground, and after a couple of days we found a new dead man, it was a red. You captured the red, we decided so. He still had some crap on his face. Broken. Dick said these were glasses, he saw, they red ones wear it from blindness. When they don’t see, but clothe, they begin to see through this glass. We were even more delighted when this blind man was found. At this point we completely understood that we were on the right track. And for sure! We passed the blind man, and there was a third, a girl. Beautiful. Only badly beaten, broken bones, they scoffed at her great, it seems. And her hair was cut off to her shoulders, and you know what her hair was?! I've never seen this! Pink like flowers! She was just lying in the ditch. Why did you kill her?”
“This was a slave of the unclean,” said Lis, he sat in thought, his head bowed.
“That's how we found you in three deaths, Al! Well, what about you? So what about your leg? What are these scars from? Who hurt you like that?”
Lis looked at the three scars on his thigh:
“I cut myself by accident. Tol, this is all nonsense. Irrelevant! The main thing is you found us! And we won!”
“Yes!”
“Now I'm sure we will capture Ore too! Do you need diamonds, Tol?”
“Nope…”
“Hey? What are you saying, dear!” Lila interrupted him indignantly. “We need them! We will build a Theater! Big, luxurious Theater! On Asa Street!”
Tol’s face darkened:
“I pity Asa, but I have forgiven you long, long ago, my friend.”
“Sorry,” said Lis, “I didn't mean to. But she provoked me.”
“Yes, she was a bad woman, but when her wish was fulfilled, and Borgan forced me to marry her for a gambling debt, she completely lost her head.”
“Have you forgiven me?”
“Yes, brother.”
And Karina's head suddenly came up with a distinct picture:
The prince's estate, and Nikto asks Karina to comb him.
“Will you comb me? Ver doesn't know how to braid all those kinds of braids.”
“Do you like them?”
“Well, they get tangled less and you don't need to comb it for a long time.”
“Ah.”
“And I will thank you.”
“How?”
“Do you want me to fuck you?”
“No, thanks. Let's do without gratitude.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want it.”
“You want it.”
“Why do you think so? I love Lis.”
“So what?”
“I want to marry him!”
“All girls are different, but they always want the same thing! You are already the third in my memory.”
“Are you talking about Dony? And who else?”
“Never mind. I have understood you.”
“All girls are different, but they dream about the same thing. You are already the third in my memory.” Here it is! First was Asa! First was Asa! She married Tol, who, unfortunately, lost at cards, her wish was fulfilled, but she was not happy for long. By an absurd accident due to a silly quarrel, Lis killed her. And the second, second was Nikto’s girlfriend, Dony. Dony, of course Dony, because she also married some rich landowner by the sea.
Father ordered Karina to go to Dony, literally forced her, Karina remembered how she didn’t want to do this then, to find out who had hit Dony on the head, she didn’t give a shit. Now, she already knew that her beloved and best husband did it. She didn't give a damn about it then, and even more so now.
Dony, in a hurry, is packing up her things, her fiancé should come for her at any minute.
“Maybe you should, nevertheless, return to your female destiny, Karina, it seems to me that what you are doing doesn’t suit you at all. Before it's too late! Love someone in the end, and stop shaming!”
And Dony nervously knocks a puff with powder on her face and looks at Karina with open contempt.
“Lila!”
“Yes?”
“Why don’t you want to build your own theater? You don't play at Dony’s Theater anymore.”
“No,” Lila shook her head, “and there is no Theater.”
“How is Dony doing? She got married and abandoned her theater? Yes?”
Lila’s face stretched out, she turned pale, and Karina froze, feeling bad.
“You don’t know?” Lila asked.
“No.”
“They said lady Dony died in childbirth. I don't know the details…”
Karina felt cold inside: “You are the third in my memory, and everyone wants the same thing.” And they die! It wasn't long after that conversation with Nikto at the Estate, and Karina married Lis. She is the third! No!
The cell in the prison dungeon, and Nikto sits in front of Karina on the dirty straw, chained to the wall.
.“Yes. Yes! It's my fault that he became so evil!”
“You’d better have killed him then?”