Ви Корс - The Mist and the Lightning. Part VIII

“Nik, did you decide to rest? Where is the exit? Are we coming soon?”

Nikto nodded.

“Well,” Karina crouched besides, since the floor in this room was dry. She put a “stone flower” next. It was completely uncomfortable there. How did he manage… In these narrow underground catacombs, Gods knew what for they were intended, all these hatches – not to drain the sewage? So, how did he manage to find there such a large room of some strange round shape and such a high ceiling?

Did he really know where the exit was? Maybe he just lost his mind and was seeing things. Karina looked at Nikto, he closed his eyes, sitting, cringing as if sleeping. In the obscure light of the “stone flower” his hair seemed light green, for some reason, Karina thought it was beautiful. In general, everything in her head mixed up in a heap, and didn’t sort out on the shelves. She was unthinkably tired and nervous, and the dumb Nikto couldn’t support her, but she went to him for advice! Everything turned completely different. If he knew where the exit was, then why didn’t he lead them further? Was he tired? But he didn’t collapse in exhaustion, which meant he could still go, she generally had the feeling that Nikto could go for a very long, endlessly long time.

In his movements, there was nothing superfluous, no fuss, he acted as a mechanism. It forced to respect his strength and endurance, respect him, and at the same time, at some instinctive level, it frightened her, as if there was something alien to human nature in him. She suddenly remembered how easily he had survived a ninety percent fatal wound in his stomach, how he then got up from the floor and went down the stairs, mounted his horse… now the same thing. Maybe her father was right in something? And Karina started shaking. Now his hair no longer seemed beautiful to her, on the contrary, this green shade gave them some ominous color. And he was on his mind, strong, hardy. Did he really need her help? Well, maybe just to get out of the chamber. And then? Why did he follow her if he had a plan in his head? The plan of escape in the exact opposite direction. Why didn’t he immediately run to the hatch? Why were all these chases and killings needed? Why did he carry her everywhere with him? “I won’t manage without you.” And Karina suddenly clearly understood, he would manage, he would open the hatch, and this room… What were they doing in this underground hall? How did he find it? Wasn’t he waiting for salvation, for some friend from the other world? No, of course, she didn’t believe in the devil and all this nonsense… or she did. In such a gloomy atmosphere, it was not difficult to believe in anything. Why did he bring her here and sat down? What was he waiting for? Karina grabbed the bag, her hands went in a sway. Apparently, having heard her swarming, Nikto turned his head to her. He was still blind, and strangely enough it reassured her a little.

“I want to give myself an injection,” she explained, “with a restorative, or… my nerves have gone to hell.”

He pointed a finger at himself.

“Well, I'll give it to you too, just write what,” Karina handed him the notebook again, and this time, he wrote what she wanted from him. At last! Not “What day is it today?” or “I want to die.”

Karina was relieved to read the name of his usual “restorative”, which meant that Nobody was recovering.

She pulled out a clean syringe and an ampoule with a rather weak (according to Nikto, Arel, Lis and others) stimulant, Karina with difficulty, and it was terrible (it was good that Nikto couldn’t see this disgrace), at third attempt got into her vein, her hands were trembling. Then, hiding, as she decided, “her syringe,” she pulled out, as she thought, “infected” syringe of Nikto. She made a solution for him. He immediately reached out, as if seeing, was he guided by sounds or by smell?

“Do you want to try yourself?”

Nikto nodded, and Karina gave him a syringe. Well, his hands were free, though a heavy handcuff with a chopped chain remained on his right wrist, well, let him try it. If he so wants. He didn’t roll up his sleeve, as she expected, and didn’t do something else, any preparing. He just put a needle to his neck, somewhere under the collar and… ten seconds hadn’t passed when he held out an empty syringe to her.

“You… you… well, cool you are!”

And Nikto, she was ready to argue, tried to smile at her, a little out of the corner of his lips.

Karina felt the trip from the stimulants. They needed to move on, a picture of what to do cleared up in my head. They had to look for a way out. What was he waiting for?

“We have to look for a way out,” said Karina. She got up and went, ran somewhere, faster, or didn’t run. There were some kind of corridors, or she still had visions, and a bright light: “I found a way out! Output!” The light was melting before her eyes, like a mirage in the desert, again a wall, and Karina again wandered through the narrow and dark corridors: “Where is the exit?! Output! Output!” Some strange walls, Karina looked under her feet, near the floor there was something like a thin white strip. Gods! This was not paint, it was a thin slit and bright light was beaming from it, these walls, they were like a curtain around her! She just had to lift it, and everything was so simple, there was freedom! How could she not have guessed before?! Karina already saw the bright green grass of a hilly field, and the blue-blue sky, and the forest near the horizon, and most importantly this fresh wind stupefying with its purity!”

Gathering her last strength into a fist, Karina made a jerk to rip off this dirty curtain, imitating masonry, to run through a meadow, through green grass, fill the lungs with clean air, instead of the musty stale air of the dungeons, and… again appeared in this terrible round room that looked like some ancient temple, and again saw Nikto sitting nearby. He was sitting next to her, as if he had not changed his posture, and the flower was still illuminating his hair with light green.

The wild disappointment of the first seconds of returning to reality was immediately replaced by fear and anxiety. She was cut off by this fucking stimulant, and it was not known for how long! Yes, she woke up rested and full of strength, only they were still in this underground room. When will it be over!

“Fuck, Nik! How much did I sleep like that? Why didn’t you wake me up? Stop sitting here, we have to go!”

And as if in confirmation of Karina’s words, they heard distant voices and signal sounds of horns. The soldiers found the hatch!

“They will find us now, Nik, we have to run!” Karina tried to pull Nikto’s hand, he reluctantly got up, as if obeying, but obviously was not going to go anywhere.

“They will find us sooner or later, don't you understand that?! We need to do something!” He didn’t react to her words, Karina pulled him along, and then… he didn’t follow her, he rested, and besides, grabbing her arm, he pulled her sharply to him, pressed her back to his chest and gripped her wrist with force. At that moment, when she realized that he didn’t want to let her go, Karina was covered by such a panic as she didn’t expect from herself, considering herself bold and cold-blooded. Suddenly all the warnings of her father surfaced and became so clear and understandable. “He fooled you! The demon in human form, the son of the devil!”

Nikto was waiting for something in this place, for something or someone. After all, he had many “unclean” friends who could make their way everywhere if they wanted. What about his servant with a dog’s head! From one memory of this creature, Karina felt sick, and the earth seemed to shake under her feet, no, the earth really seemed to sway. Gods! No, here it no longer smelled like “unclean” friends, but really by Dad himself!

“Gods!” Karina looked under her feet round-eyed, because the stone floor was trembling. It vibrated as if somewhere far away, someone was wielding a powerful jackhammer. At first, these waves were shaking at intervals, but very quickly they merged into one. “Now he will sacrifice me,” Karina thought somehow calmly and doomedly, this cannot be, but it will happen. He lured her here, deceived her.

“You could have done without me,” said Karina, angry at Nobody and her impotence. “Why do you need me?”

Nikto shook his head in a negative gesture. His face, eyes, the steel grip with which he held her hand. “But I, unlike other girls, can handle cold weapons,” she thought some time ago, ha, what arrogance! As if in response to her panicky thoughts, they again heard the screams and signals of a hearth echoing among themselves among the guards. “They'll get me out!” – it flashed through her head, like salvation, and she screamed, or rather, tried to scream with all her power.

Her scream was immediately drowned out by Nikto’s palm, he clasped her with his arms, clutching to him and clutching her hand with one hand, and holding her mouth with the other. It seemed to Karina that the revolving walls were added to the trembling floor. Her eyes darkened, everything around her started spinning and turning around, she felt only Nikto’s body, his steel grip, his icy palm on her lips, and lightheadedness, as if she was being turned inside out. Now I will die, flashed through her mind, and yes, Nikto let me down. As my father said. He needed her to open the chamber door, take off the shackles, and he pretended to be weak and miserable. But he was not like that, now she understood it, these suspicions crept into her even earlier, when he so famously cracked down on the guards. She got caught, caught, and he was a demon. But why did he follow her if he had his own escape plan? Why did he need her? Maybe to take revenge on her father? This thought literally pierced her through, and she jerked so hard, trying to break out of her steel embrace, at some point she even thought that Nikto was forced to loosen his grip, it seemed she still managed to scream before losing consciousness.

Chapter three

The ring and the mask

Kors was sitting at the table, looking at the things lying in front of him. The mask and the ring. The mask made of a strange material a bit like suede leather, worn and scratched in many places, it could be seen that it had been used for a long time and often, and a men’s ring with a dark blue sapphire, Kors took it away from Arel. And Nikto gave it to Arel. Nikto… And this was his mask lying on the table in front of Kors, and he was looking at it with an empty gaze.

Everything turned out to be completely different from what he had expected; quite, completely different. And Kors again and again sorted through scraps of memory and tried to understand why? Why?! Why everything happened as it happened? He searched and found no answers.

Nikto deprived him of everything: Iness, the son to whom he never managed to come up with a name, and now he couldn’t, so he left him nameless, calling him just a son, not daring to name him, like the others, Nikto. To some extent, agreeing that it was so, he was not named, not accepted and has not become a full-fledged person due to the sharing of essence from the lower plan. So for himself Kors called it. Therefore, Nikto had the correct name, it reflected the essence, probably… Or maybe it was too cruel.

In any case, now the demon living in him deprived Kors of his last joy, his Karina. He took her, took her away, and Kors had no doubt Karina died. The demon will destroy her, crush her and deprive her of will, as he did before with Arel, and even with Lis, whom neither the “reds” nor the “blacks” could break. But Nikto broke him the ridge. And him, Kors, too…