Ви Корс - The Mist and the Lightning. Part 12

“I live the life of those whom I paint…”

Nadya Rusheva

Chapter one

In the Fort

Following an elaborate plan of Lis, they managed to capture the Fort.

Lis with Karina and Nikto descended the steep steps into the dungeon of the main tower.

“You can faster!” Lis was in a hurry and swore at Nikto in red and black at the same time.

-“No! I can’t!” Nikto swore too, only in unclean – he tried to go down the narrow steps of the stairs, and he did very badly.

“In short, come on sharper, eh?”

“Ladders are not what I like! Especially if downstairs!”

Lis held out his hand:

“Do I have to drag you on me?!”

“Damn, I’m coming!”

They went down to the dungeon of the Fort, and Niktosaw the Portal. Near it, the black mercenaries of Kors held the commander of the garrison. This red tried toescape, but didn’t have time.

“Sigmer, let me go!” He cried in despair when he saw Lis. “For our past friendship! You were sitting at my table! Sigmer! I treated you like an honored guest, we shared bread together, drank wine!”

Lis, as if not hearing his words, came up and silently punched his former friend in the jaw. The red fell to the floor, blood flowed from his smashed mouth. The black ones raised him again, holding him on bothsides: tightly bound, he couldn’t even move. The commander glanced at Lis with hatred and spat on the floor with his broken teeth along with blood.

Lis turned to Nikto:

“Is he suitable for the unclean? Can we trade him for Marcus? Or is he too old?”

“It will do,” said Nikto. “He is educated, it will come in handy.”

“Good!” Lis was delighted.

And at that moment, the floor under their feet vibrated, and the Portal opened like a door. They saw a very bright blue sky, brown rocks covered with tufts of hanging emerald green vines, and a beautiful city in the distance. The domed roofs gleamed like gold. Multi-colored: yellow, orange, red, purple – twisted spiers of the towers aimed upward. Everyone froze.

“What is it?” Karina whispered.

“It looks like this is the city of the reds in the Upper World,” Nikto said. “This is the Upper World.”

“He wanted to escape to the Upper World?” Lis was surprised.

“Apparently, yes.”

“How beautiful!” Admired Karina. She admired the picturesque landscape and city.

Lis narrowed his eyes slightly:

“Is this the Upper World? My eyes will burst now, how bright everything is! It’s like I took acid!”

The portal closed smoothly and silently. Nikto began to look at him, something was drawn on the floor, indicated by strange symbols and signs that he didn’t understand.

“What a strange Port they have,” he said thoughtfully, “it is as if the main points where you can get are already set. These are all red cities. It is tuned in, focused on them. Well, how can I orient it to my Limit?”

“Deal with it, Nik,” said Lis impatiently. “I need Marcus.”

“Your Marcus can wait! I don’t understand anything! Here you need to demolish all these settings, reset them to zero first. Oh!”

“Nik, figure it out!”

“Then all get out of here!”

Verniy took the most luxurious apartments of the commander of the garrison for his master, and Lis with Karina and Vitor Kors settled down nearby, occupying no less rich rooms of his associates.

Lis placed in front of Karina a beautiful fur vest made from the skins of fluffy white foxes living by the North Sea. Karina, seeing the fur, laughed happily. Lis smiled a little shyly at her too:

“Here, take it,” he put on top a large box full of precious jewelry.

Karina took earrings with teardrop-shaped mother-of-pearls:

“Do you think they will match my dark hair? Will it be beautiful?”

“Yes. Very beautiful.”

She embraced him impulsively:

“Thank you! Thank you! I love you so much! There's such a great bathroom here! And hot water! As soon as I climb in there, I will never get out!”

Lis smiled contentedly:

“Choose some piece of jewelry as a present for Anya. She fought very bravely.”

“What?!”

“Karina…” Lis’ voice became icy, “There’s a plenty here. Don't be a bitch and give something to Anya!”

Tears gushed from Karina's eyes:

“I'm not a bitch!”

“Then don't act like that!”

“Take it! Give her everything!” Karina threw the box at him.

“You will get lit up now! I am not kidding!” Lis raised his hand, and Karina, quickly dodging, jumped back.

“I'll go and take Anya and fuck her in all the holes in front of your eyes! Do you want it? Since you regret the fucking ring or chain for her, I will reward her in my own way, she will like it! She will brag to everyone about how the commander fucked her, and his stupid chick looked at it and cried!”

Karina’s face twisted in horror:

“I won’t forgive you!”

“And what will you do? Will you run to Nija?”

Karina, realizing that the situation was getting out of control, rushed to the box. With trembling hands, she grabbed the first gold chain with a pendant that came across and held out to Lis:

“Here, take it, please. Forgive me. I don’t mind anything, you misunderstood a little…”

Lis didn’t take the decoration:

“Then we'll talk. Nik is waiting for me. Take your bath.”

He went down the stairs to the living room.

“I opened the Port,” Nikto said.

“Should I go with you?”

“Well no…”

“If you need me, I'll go.”

“Do you want?”

“Of course not!”

“Then stay. I'll do everything with Verniy.”

“Thank you.”

“Tell me, besides the commander of the garrison, did you choose two more?”

“No. Take from the prisoners whoever you see fit. You know better which reds your unclean… friends will like. For breeding or for fucking. I don’t know what for.”

“Okay,” said Nikto, “for breeding they need purebred red.”

“They screwed up with me and Aika, right?”

“I told Javarg and Nurkh that you are not a purebred red, they didn’t believe. You thought I was just cheating because I didn't want to sell you.”

Lis at these words of Nikto looked at him like that:

“Is it possible not to pronounce these names?”

“Lis! I wasn't going to sell you!”

“Let's never bring this up again!”

“Fuck, you yourself constantly raise it.”

“Because it weighs on me that the unclean now have my child!”

“Really? Let me take her. She has dark hair and doesn't look like red at all. She is not suitable for breeding.”

“She? Is that a girl?”

“Yes. Apparently, she looks like your mother. Was your mother a purebred black?”

“Yes. But an ordinary commoner.”

“So what? Should I pick her up now too? Together with Marcus?”

“And what will I do with the child?”

“I have no idea. Let Karina take care of her.”

“Are you kidding?!”

Nikto smiled:

“Yes.”

“She'll fuck up if I bring her a child.”

“But it ‘weights on you’.”

“Okay, if everything is all right with her, let her stay for now. I'll decide later.”

“They are doing well with Aika.”

“Bring me only Marcus then.”

“Agreed,” said Nikto, “I also want to take some red ones to the Limit. Reds are rare, expensive slaves. The unclean ones have very few of them.”

“Is that why they are trying to breed them?”

“Yes.”

Nikto turned to Arel, who was standing next to him, his face lit up:

“I have the rarest and most expensive. Which no one else has!”

Due to the fact that Arel participated in hostilities, he was freed from all the attributes of a slave. He was not wearing an uncomfortable collar and the nose ring that got in his way. He could speak.

“Arel, you will stay here with Lis and wait for me. Lis is your master in my absence. Obey him!”

Arel glanced quickly at Nikto with undisguised excitement.

“Don't worry so much,” Nikto chuckled, “I'll be back very soon. Not a whole hour will pass in your world.”He patted the prince like a dog on the top of his head, stroked his completely disheveled braid:

“Arel, is that all? There’s February in your eyes, have you lost your mom? Don’t spoil my blood with your suffering.”

When Nikto and Verniy left, Lis looked at Arel, standing in complete confusion, and even some pity flashed in his gaze:

“You can sit on a chair.”

Arel, silently, apparently, the habit of being deprived of the opportunity to speak all the time, sat down at the table. Lis poured him some wine and placed a bottle next to him:

“You can drink. That’s your favorite.”

But Arel didn't want to.

After a while, Kors came down to them, he greeted Lis.

“Yeah, the Reds lived here on a grand scale,” Kors remarked contentedly. “I really liked the rooms! There are so many antiques.”

“Sit down, Kors,” Lis gestured to a chair. “Have a drink with us.”

Kors sat down and poured himself wine into a beautiful crystal glass:

“And their wine is very good.”

“Yes,” agreed Lis. “They make everything generally better than blacks.”

Kors grimaced in displeasure, clearly not wanting to continue this non-patriotic theme, and asked:

“Where is Karina?”

“Just like you, he enjoys a chic environment. She’s taking a bath, it seems. There is running water and warm water here.”

“Yes. I also took advantage of this. That’s very comfortable!”

“Women do it longer, you probably know.”

“Of course. Let her put herself in order.”

They were silent for a while, and Kors, while resting, drank wine with pleasure.

“Are you going to gather everyone in the courtyard on the square?” He finally asked Lis.

“I will, a little later. I want to wait for Nik and then gather everyone. There’s no rush, let them come to their senses too.”

“They will collect the corpses…”

“Yes,” the face of Lis didn’t reflect a single drop of pity for the dead.

Kors handed him his glass:

“For the victory, Alis!”

Lis smiled rather indifferently, he was not at all euphoric that they had captured the Fort. And so much time and effort was spent on preparation, so much excitement and hardship endured. But he still held out his cup to Kors, and only Prince Arel didn’t participate in their conversation and didn’t raise his goblet.

“You seem to be not very happy?” Remarked Kors.

“No, I'm glad,” Lis disagreed. “Kors, I'm not a boy to jump for joy, and this is not my first victory. I have had many other victories. I'm used to it.”

Kors studied him carefully.

“I am thinking now about Karina, about my daughter. Why did she fall in love with you?”

“Well?”

“And I can even understand her to some extent,” said Kors. “You are not stupid, you are cunning. Without a doubt, there is some charisma in you. And this all together makes you interesting, despite the appearance.”

Lis who drank the wine literally choked:

“Here it begins…” he drawled.

“Sorry, Alis, but you are dirty, infinitely dirty. Unfortunately, you have combined the most unrepresentative features of both races. The ugliest combination I've ever seen, and believe me, I've seen a lot of reds and their half-bloods,” Kors raised his glass of dark red wine and looked thoughtfully at Lis through the glass. “Red hair often has a burgundy shade, it's beautiful, like the color of expensive wine, your hair is lighter. Your eyes are not as beautiful as they should be. I will not say anything about the nose. Surely it has been restored countless times and inaccurately, because I see, in addition to the scar on the bridge of the nose, there is generally a curvature. But, however, your dirty appearance doesn’t surprise me, because your mother was a whore, and before your red father conceived you, at least a hundred peasants and soldiers had already cum into her. How couldsomething worthy appear from this cesspool?”