Ви Корс - The Mist and the Lightning. Part 17

And the slave looked at her with undisguised pity and sympathy.

Karina washed and put on her underwear, the slave tightened her corset so tightly that Karina could hardly breathe. At the same time, when she convulsively inhaled air, the corset creaked.

“No! No! I'll suffocate, tighten it looser!”

“But then your waist will be completely gone, lady.”

“Send it to hell!”

“Then let's make the skirt more magnificent?”

Gold smiled, as if laughing at her new and so wrong mistress.

“Why are you laughing? Drink some wine!”

The slave took the glass extended to her with two hands and obediently drank it to the bottom, her cheeks immediately turned red. She handed Karina a few crisp petticoats.

“Eh, I have already put on a bunch of them!”

“Then let's put on hoops under the skirt.”

“Are you kidding? I won't get through the door through them!”

“Hee-hee…”

Karina looked in the mirror, she quite liked herself this way. The dark red dress made of precious brocade was beautiful and perfectly emphasized, as Karina believed, her ideal figure.

The maid watched her with interest and chuckled softly.

“Why are you giggling?”

“Sorry, lady.”

“Have you ever seen black women?”

“I have seen them. But only slaves.”

“I was a slave too,” said Karina, “but then my master fell in love with me, set me free and married me.”

Gold widened her eyes:

“Is it possible?” Her surprise was so strong that she even forgot to add “lady.”

Karina brought her wrist to a brightly burning candle, a thin monogram lit up on it with fiery paths.

“See? I was marked with fire. Long ago.”

Gold was dumbfounded and silent, and now Karina laughed. Finally, the red girl came to her senses, and, apparently, the wine she had drunk also played a role, because she suddenly said:

“I also love my master.”

“Whom?” Karina was surprised. “Are you talking about Kudmer?”

The maid nodded.

“Yes. About sir Kudmer.”

“But he's fat… fat and ugly! A-ha-ha!”

Gold was embarrassed and blushed even more:

“He was kind. Tell me, was he killed?”

“No,” Karina answered, “as far as I know, he was sent to prison.”

The slave sighed with relief and handed Karina the tightly packed bags:

“Here, madam, this is for the breast.”

“I inserted it already!”

“Sorry, lady, but it seems that this is not enough.”

“And if they fall out? No. I want to relax and have fun, not watch my boobs.”

“Hee-hee…”

The slave beautifully styled Karina’s hair, making a high hairstyle. Karina put on an openwork mask on her face:

“Hmm…”

The slave smiled:

“Yes, very beautiful, lady.”

She covered Karina’s head with a lush, dark pink translucent fabric that went down almost to the floor in the back, and in the front to the middle of the chest, and put on a high precious tiara on top.

Karina froze:

“Also a rag!”

“It's a veil, lady.”

“What for?!”

“But you must be covered, lady.”

“I have put on a mask!”

“The mask is not closed enough, and the veil is always required. It’s translucent. It suits you very much, lady.”

Karina lifted the veil from her face up, but then it covered a beautiful high tiara.

“Damn,” thought Karina, “okay, I'll look around there and then take off this veil to hell.”

“When I become queen,” she said so self-confidently, as if this issue had already been decided for a long time, “I will abolish these idiotic laws that humiliate women. I will cancel all these rules. No one will wear a cape, a mask, or a veil, neither free women nor slaves. Yes!”

Gold looked at her in amazement, but tactfully remained silent.

“And they will stop cutting and stitching women, in general, somehow changing them, cutting off their tongues, mutilating them. Whoever dares to do this will be immediately sentenced to death, but first, on the square in front of everyone, he will also be cut off, let him suffer! Why are you looking like that? Don't you believe that I will do it? My husband also thinks he respects women! And he will bring another order!”

Lis went to them to find out if Karina was ready. Seeing him, the slave immediately hastily covered her face with a cape, and she and Karina knelt down and bowed their heads in front of the man.

Lis gently raised Karina, hugging:

“You're in a dress! What a beauty you are!”

“Do you like? Can I go to the ball like that?”

“Yes. You are the most beautiful girl in this world!” Lis said, lifting her veil, and gently kissing, “my wife is the most beautiful!”

Tables were laid in the throne room of the Rainbow Palace. Many blacks and unclean ones have never seen such dishes, fruits and sweets.

In a luxurious dress, a golden lace mask, covered with a translucent veil and all hung with jewels, Karina sat next to Lis-Sigmer at the head of the table and reveled in happiness. She was happy. She was having fun. She already felt like a queen and imposingly held in her hand a crystal glass filled with champagne. Lis’ father was sitting next to him, on his right hand. Igmer didn’t say anything to Karina, didn’t utter a word, but she didn’t notice any displeasure on his face when he saw her. He remained impassive, so she was dressed correctly and quite decently. Karina smiled condescendingly to those guests who approached them, congratulated them on their victory and wished all kinds of benefits. She nodded arrogantly in response and modestly kept silent. She didn’t even go up to Lila, who was sitting at the table a little further, next to Tol. Lila also covered her face with a beautiful mask of gold chains and coins hanging down with a fringe, leaving only her eyes open. Lila was born in the east and had a better understanding of the local rules for women.

Almost all black mercenaries were here and many of the soldiers of Tol, Marmer and other red ones. There were Shrad, Seamus and Anya, and now she, unlike Karina and Lila, didn’t cover her face in any way and remained dressed like a warrior, in her leather pants and a jacket, and she still cut her hair down to her shoulders.

At the end of the hall, unclean people settled down, and Karina saw Nija, he looked bad, thin, all haggard, nothing remained of former beautiful and bright Nija, and everyone had long forgotten his sincere and infectious smile, because Nija no longer smiled… Karina noticed how he raised his pale face and looked in her direction, she hastily turned away, pretending to talk to one of the guests.

Zaf was sitting at the table hugging the maid of immense size, whom he found in some unknown place. The maid was in complete shock and looked at the unclean with round eyes. She neither ate nor drank, although the tables were bursting with all kinds of food. But the poor thing, probably for the first time in her life, lost her appetite, and she was not at all up to food, she literally almost fainted from horror.

Zaf, not paying any attention to her frightened look, ate and drank like the last time, not forgetting to squeeze the unfortunate woman along the way, he pinched her now by the thick side, now by the chubby cheek, and whinnied. The rest of the unclean ones also behaved quite noisy and uninhibited, since their table was located almost at the exit.

Karina approached Vitor Kors, who was sitting between Nik and Arel, she smiled. By the middle of the evening, Karina took off her veil, leaving a precious tiara on her head, and even the mask on her face could not hide what kind of elated and joyful mood she was in:

“Father, dance with me,” Karina asked, “I am so grateful to you for everything! You are the best father in the world! Give me one dance.”

Kors smiled at her.

“Better dance with your husband.”

“He's being distracted all the time! Everyone approaches him, congratulates him, starts to say something, to ask. Some endless questions,” answered Karina displeased.

“There’s nothing to be done,” Kors said didactically. “Every victory has a downside, and that’s the price of power. Endless flatterers and sycophants looking for their own benefit. And the opportunity to cling to the strong and…”

“To be honest,” Karina interrupted him, “he also doesn’t dance very well.”

“Okay,” said Kors, smiling a little as he got up from his seat. They went to the middle of the hall, where several couples were already dancing.

Nikto and Arel watched as luxurious Vitor Kors and Karina started dancing, how beautiful they were dancing.

“And now I want to dance with Nik,” Karina said when they finally returned.

“Karina, I can't, I'm sorry,” Nikto answered, “I dance very badly and I will stumble.”

“But you move beautifully when you fight,” she said.

“Yes… but dancing… is a little different. And I learned to fight for a long time, but I didn’t learn to dance. I can dance some very simple peasant dance: I stomped, circled, circled the girl, clapped my hands,” Nik smiled, “but you dance very complex dances.”

“It was a waltz,” said Kors.

“Yes, here, you need to quickly move around the room in a circle, I will stumble, and a couple next to us will fly into us, it will be very embarrassing. Sorry, I don't refuse you on purpose.”

“Why would he dance?” Kors intervened again, “it's all nonsense.”

“But you just danced with me!”

“Just because I cannot refuse you anything! I love you very much, Karina, and you know that very well.”

“I love you too!” she looked up at Arel:

“Well, then Prince Arel, you will not slip away, I remember very well how well you dance.”

“Yes, I was not going to refuse you, Karina,” Arel said.

And they went off to dance.

The servant carefully placed a mint green envelope on the table in front of Kors:

“This is for you, sir,” he bowed politely.

“What is it?” Kors was surprised.

“I don’t know, sir, they just asked me to tell you.”

“Who?”

“This letter was given to me by a lady’s slave, sir.”

“Father! It seems that some red lady wants to meet you,” Karina laughed.

“What?” Kors waved his hand towards the servant. “Good. You are free, you can go.”

He opened the envelope, inside there was a note.

“I am writing to you first, and that already says it all. What else can I add, knowing that now you have the right to punish me with contempt, but…” and then everything in the same spirit.

Kors smiled, amused by this situation, but at the same time flattered that only he was sent a love note:

“So they are not as hammered as they might seem? She won't be executed for this?” He turned to Karina.

“But you won't tell anyone and you won't compromise her?”

“No, of course, but I will not approach her either.”

“And you won't ask her to dance?”

“No,”

“But why?”

“I’m not interested in faceless circumcised women, and to be honest, they are all too fat here.”

Karina laughed again:

“This is the daughter of the head of the Green House, she may well not be circumcised, not all red men adhere to these rules, there are those who are quite loyal and give their women freedom, don’t mutilate them for the sake of traditions. If she dared to write you a note, it means that she is quite free in her manifestations, it simply would not have come into the head of an obedient circumcised woman.”

Kors looked towards the part of the room where the family members, whose color was green, were sitting at the tables: