"You can," Lis agreed, " and you did many times, and you would never, never put Asa with Tol. You wouldn't even think of it!"
"You can only criticize, it's easy to do! Can you do anything but take a dig on me? Suggest your allocation, I'll think about it. What, why do you keep silent?"
"Who's gonna listen to me, you listen only to Nikto."
Everyone froze.
"Ooh shit," Nikto, who kept silent till now, drawled.
"So, you think I do what Nikto tells me," Orel reached for a cigarette. "Right?"
"Right," Lis said. "Who else will take Squint-Eye away from Enriki not to risk Squint-Eye, and who else will put Tol with Asa to protect her."
"Lis, don't drag me into it!" Enriki pleaded.
"Really! Enough humiliating him," Squint-Eye said. "He has already got to understand what his love and devotion are worth. And I'm not surprised, Orel did the same to me."
"Yes," Orel raised his voice. "I give up on Enriki, if you care. He is weak and I don't want to risk Squint-Eye for him!" He looked around. "I'm honest with you, what will you say?" He turned to Enriki. "Tell me whatever you want. I admit it, I'm betraying you. If Squint-Eye stood by you, very possibly you'd be just wounded but then Squint-Eye would be wounded, too, and I cannot afford it. With Vil you'll likely be killed. This is how I paid you for everything you did for me." He shook his head tossing his hair back. There was no embarrassment or repentance on his handsome grey face. He looked at Enriki, looked at his face calmly and confidently.
Enriki lowered his head.
"Thank you for your honesty, Arel. I know you for a long time and I'm not surprised. I understand that you think realistically and correctly. We are not children to weep over not being taken into a game. We're not toying here, it's life – everyone is for himself. But I will make you change your mind about me after the fight," he raised his head. "It's too early to write me off! I won't say anything else, words don't prove anything. You'll see it with your own eyes." And, seeing pity on their faces, he shouted. "I won't die to please you! You don't believe me? Fine! I shit care about you and your allocations, I just want to live! I want to stay alive! And I will survive even if you leave me all alone. Don't think I'm just wasting me breath, I am afraid, very afraid to go into fight with it," he raised his mutilated hand, "but I have to, or I cannot respect myself. And you betraying me – I would do the same if such a thing happened to someone else. If you're unlucky, it's your problem, don't drag anyone else into it." He stopped.
No one from those sitting around the table said a word. Vil seemed to want to say something but changed his mind and kept silent, too. He started getting used and was tuning his behavior up to Lis and Orel. Vil became more silent and thoughtful, he became different.
"Maybe he is right," Tol said at last. "Why are we burying Enriki in advance? But I still think it's better to put me with him."
"Shut up," Orel snapped.
"But I don't want to be paired with Asa! She is too weak for me!"
"She's restored and she is okay for you!"
Asa asked something in Unclean. Lis answered her, naming their new allocation. Asa laughed happily.
"Nikto is promoting you just the way you want," Lis said. "What did you do to get into his grace? Maybe, used your Unclean hole?"
Asa got white with fury.
"Wasn't you ready to lick my hole just a short while ago?"
"Soon all of us will be licking one Unclean hole," Lis hissed.
"Do you want to start right now?" Nikto interfered.
"Hey!" Orel yelled. "Speak Black! Since when there is Unclean sounding at this table?"
"Get used," Lis said to Orel. "Soon we'll all start singing in Unclean, like good boys."
"Never!" Tol was enraged. "I will never do it!"
"You will be the first," Lis snapped.
"Shut up!" Orel was in fury. "Shut up, you all! Or it won't ever end. You're not kids. You're experienced warriors. No matter how I'll put you, it'll be good."
They laughed.
Orel stopped in surprise, then smiled.
"Don't pick on my choice of words. That's it, we finished discussing. You'll fight as I tell you. Have you finished, Lis?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"No."
"I've finished."
"Then it's decided."
"I don't want to be paired with Asa! I don't!"
"Look, Tol," Orel said barely controlling himself. "Is she your wench or mine?"
"Hm," Tol muttered.
"You dragged her here, to the castle, you begged me to take her in!"
"Yes, but fucking her is one thing, fighting in pair with her is another!"
"Ah so!" Orel got up. "Then I'll finish her off right now and no more questions."
He walked around the table quickly, coming up to Asa. She got up, also very quickly, pushed Vil, stood behind him and took out her sword. Vil got up, his face distorted but he didn't make an attempt to move aside, he stood protecting her.
"Arel, don't!" Tol screamed.
But it was too late, Orel didn't hear him. Using Vil as a shield, he pushed him to Asa, to her sword, and she had to pull the blade back. When she'd tried to use Vil as her protection, she only worsened her situation: her momentary confusion was enough for Orel to grab her hand and wring her wrist sharply. He was strong and experienced and acted swiftly and mercilessly. She screamed in pain, her fingers couldn't hold the sword any more; it fell on the floor and rolled down from the dais. Orel hit her with his free hand, without letting her wrist go, then yanked her forward, toppling her over on the floor. He didn't give her a single chance to recoup and do something. At the next moment he pulled out his blade, ready to kill her – in his signature blow that chopped off his enemies' heads in one movement. When he pushed Asa to the floor, he carefully turned her to the edge of the dais so that nothing could hinder his blow – neither Vil, frozen in terror, nor massive chairs. Defeated, Asa looked at Orel and understood she'd die now. Then she screamed very loudly in Unclean:
"Nikto! Help me!"
It was a scream of despair. Orel froze, starting back from her. Nikto who sat at the table screwed his eyes shut and squeezed his temples. Lis didn't look away from him, staring at him with his yellow penetrating eyes. Orel slowly lowered his sword. He didn't know Unclean but everyone in the city knew how 'help me' sounded in it. And the name, the name she'd cried out in her last hope, the name of his most precious person, the name he whispered hundreds times relishing in its sound and naively thinking he was the only one to have this right… The name that left her lips so unexpectedly but naturally and easily, as if it belonged to her, too, stunned him. He suddenly realized very clearly that he was not the only one, that there were others who also considered themselves entitled to say those five letters. It seemed she robbed him. No, she couldn't take anything from him because he had never had anything – he'd only thought he owned something, it was an illusion, a fallacy Nikto instilled into him. Nikto! Orel turned around abruptly; looking past Tol, white as a sheet, he gazed at the man sitting there.
"What is there between you?" Orel's voice was hoarse.
"There is nothing between us that might anger or hurt you," Nikto said even without looking at Orel.
"I don't believe you!" Orel came up to Nikto.
"Calm down."
Orel made a wheezing sound; he grabbed Nikto's hair, pulling his head back, pressing his sword to Nikto's neck right above the collar.
"Are you suggesting me to calm down? To sit down and shut up?"
Nikto didn't move.
"Yes," he said and his voice was completely calm, as if Orel was not holding a sword at his neck but was chatting with him over a glass of wine.
"Don't kid me!"
Nikto looked up at Orel, simply looked. A thin trickle of blood leaked from under the collar down to the carefully laced vest. Orel put his left hand onto Nikto's face, covering this unbearable gaze of grey eyes. He felt Nikto close his eyes under his palm, tickling it with his eyelashes.
"Don't" Orel said thickly. "Don't do it to me, Nik."
The blade was lowered slowly.
"Don't do it to me!" Orel screamed and in helpless rage chopped off one of Nikto's braids that stuck out of his mane of tousled hair and lay on the elbow rest of the chair. A heave thick braid fell on the floor, only silver clamps chimed pitifully.
Without looking at anyone Orel quickly left the table and nearly ran upstairs. The door slammed loudly making them flinch. Orel locked the door.
* * *
For a while they stayed frozen; then Squint-Eye got up, walked up to Nikto who sat in some kind of stupor, picked up his braid from the floor and came up to Asa.
"Take it," he said in Unclean and tossed the braid at Asa's face. Asa who sat on the floor started back instinctively, looking at Squint-Eye askance with her eyes full of hatred. "You've earned it."
Asa turned away.
"It was my fault," Tol said gloomily. "I shouldn't have…"
"Asa and Nikto are together," Lis said, "and you're a fool, Tol."
"No," Tol shook his head. "I don't believe it. Asa always hated Nikto."
"She did it for us to believe it!" Lis continued. "She acted for our sake but today she's given herself away. Bad girl, Asa, how could you?"
"But she saved her life," Squint-Eye said. "Orel really was shocked. I wonder whether Nikto would have helped her if she hadn't screamed. Huh, Nikto?" Squint-Eye turned to him. "Would you?"
Nikto kept silent.
"I think he wouldn't," Squint-Eye smirked.
"No one could help Asa at that moment," Enriki said. "Orel has gone too far."
"Noo," Squint-Eye drawled, "you're wrong. Something would have definitely happened. Something that wouldn't let Orel finish her off. But the bitch has lost her nerve. She let you down so much," Squint-Eye shook his head, "didn't she, Nik?"
"How could Nikto help her?" Tol objected. "When Orel goes crazy, no one can help."
"Tol, listen to me," Lis said, "you were cheated and so were us. Nikto chose you to go to the Lower City for mercenaries. He chose you because you are self-confident and dumb. Quiet, quiet, don't interrupt me! Listen what clever people have to say. There, in the military school, Borgan was waiting for you to give you that Asa."
"How could he wait for us if we didn't know ourselves we'd go there!" Tol interfered.
"You didn't know," Lis said coldly. "But Nikto and Borgan knew. Nikto knew everything about us, even before the moment we dragged him to the castle so carelessly. He chose Orel a year ago, when he fought in the 'damned' detachment under his command. He found a way to catch Orel… it's difficult not to catch him, he likes everything shitty!"
"Exactly," Nikto said looking straight at Lis.
Lis turned to him.
"Shut up, I'm not talking to you! When we asked you, you kept silent – now stay silent again."
"Why should I keep silent when you say these nasty things about me?"
"Afraid I'll tell the truth about you?"
"It is not truth but your fantasies!"
"You are afraid, Nik, you are!"
"I'm not afraid, I'm just tired of it!"
"If you're not afraid, why don't you let me speak? Come on, keep arguing with me! Shut me up!"
"Go to hell! Say whatever you want," Nikto pressed his hand to the cut on his neck and turned away.
"That's better!" Lis turned to Tol again. "After Nikto had chosen Orel, he planned to meet us again. I'm sure he was gathering information about us just like we gathered info about him. He found out about our fight with Bey, our difficulties, he knew we'd need soldiers sooner or later, because Orel would never give up on his streets, whatever it cost him. Since the Upper City is practically closed for Orel – if he loses the Lower City, he won't be able to come out of his castle at all. Nikto knew it and agreed with Borgan to find an ally for Nikto, assistance for him in the enemy camp. They couldn't choose a man, Orel wouldn't accept him, so, they did better. They chose a girl – who'd take her seriously? Very clever, they managed to deceive me, too. I admit, I didn't pay attention to Asa's appearance in our team. But don't you think it's strange that a half-blood who doesn't speak Black suddenly replies with such fervor at our Tol's advances – Tol who is completely alien to her? She is ready to go anywhere after him, what a strange passion! I would have understood it if she were just a wench, but even then it seldom happens – the Unclean don't like humans. I know that their kin turn away from such apostates like Asa, considering them traitors. But she is not a wench, she is a warrior, she was learning how to fight and hate humans for all her life, and now such a thing! But she keeps going back to her place as if nothing happened and no one minds, no one says her a word. Too good to be true! She loves Tol, he loves her, and everyone around love them," Lis paused evaluating the impression he made, then continued. "Then she pretends to hate Nikto but they are really allies. And I'm sure, Tol, she fucks him secretly while you and Orel are none the wiser. And now Nikto put her to be paired with you because it's safer for her this way. Well done, nothing to say. And it is just the beginning, soon he'll do away with all of us, one by one, and Orel will be in his full power, a scion of royalty, entitled to the throne, he will become a hostage of the Unclean. It's a conspiracy. Their aim is to open the Upper City for the Unclean with Orel's help."
"No," Tol whispered. "I don't believe you. You're crazy, Lis!"
"I don't like to believe it myself," Lis said quietly, "but look at their actions."
Tol swallowed hard. Enriki kept sitting still, somewhat grey and silent. Poor Vil looked in such a way as if the only thing he dreamed about was to vanish in the thin air now. Only Squint-Eye appeared undisturbed; it seemed no conspiracies could frighten or bother him. Very calm, he stood not far away from Asa, indifferently waiting for what would happen next.
"What shall we do now?" Enriki asked.
"We have to tell Orel about it," Tol said. "Let him decide what to do."
"What can Orel do?" Lis answered. "Orel can't do anything, he is in their power."
"But you can," Nikto said turning to Lis. "You're the cleverest, the most inquisitive, the most cunning – but not the boss for some reason!"
Squint-Eye grimaced smiling, watching Lis who did his best to keep a neutral expression.
"I don't mind telling Orel," Lis said, heroically coping with his wounded pride.
"So why are you still here? Go and share your discoveries with him!"