Ви Корс - The Mist and the Lightning. Part V

Nikto is yawning.

“I see,” – he says indifferently. Another Arel nonsense, well, he has long been accustomed to this.

"Heck! There is nothing here! Nik!"

"Arel, we have no food here."

“And when did you eat?”

“Yesterday, we ate …”

“Nik! You are hungry!"

Nikto laughs softly and says nothing.

"What did you eat?"

Nikto thinks for a second.

“Vegetables, I don’t remember the name, they were completely rotten,”

– he laughs again.

“Did you eat rotten vegetables ?!”

“The servants fired them; we all ate. And you too."

Arel makes a movement of the head, as if it drives away the annoying fly from itself.

“And I?”

“Yes.”

“And Enriki?”

“And Henrik.”

“Does he again inject himself with "water"?”

“Yes,” – Nikto replies, the illogicality of Arel questions does not bother him.

“I promised you the golden mountains when I took you to the team, promised profits, lands, slaves! And what is the result! Rotten vegetables!’

“Carrot.”

“What?”

“I remembered there were carrots, and …”

“Stop doing that! Stop it, Nik, I'm ashamed!”

“Take it easy. I picked up pretty well at Dim in the Colosseum.”

“Yeah! And he gave me everything!”

“Not all. To restore the streets, you need a lot …”

“Streets! The streets are eating everything! And my people are starving! I'm a crappy boss! And I am hungry! I need to eat! And have some coffee, do we have coffee? Or water at the worst!”

Nikto moves his lips slightly, as if uttering a new phrase to himself.

“I do not want to die! I was a living corpse now, a walking corpse! This is scary! I have to appreciate my body, take care of it! Control it! I need to eat! I want to eat!”

“Well, go and eat! Who keeps you up! Just do not yell here in the middle of the night!” – Nikto tries to lie down more comfortably, closes his eyes.

“It was scary! It is unbearable! I am human! I want to be a man! This is such a happiness; I did not understand! I need a wash! It stinks from me!”

Nikto opens his eyes again and lets out a sigh of fatigue.

“Is there water?” – Arel rushes into the adjoining room, rattles the jugs. “Nik! Call a servant, let him bring warm water!”

“Wash yourself cold, huh?”

“Are you kidding me! It is cold as ice!”

“Arel, go to hell!”

“Why is it so cold! Why not melted the fireplace! Call the servant!”

“What good, if there is no fuel.”

“Fuel?”

“Wood! Firewood! Coal, I don't know …”

“Okay! I do it myself! I'll go down and do everything myself! Here you will be bent without me from cold and hunger, and no one will lift a finger to at least do something!”

“I feel neither one nor the other, Arel …”

“I know! That scares me! I want to feel! I want to feel hunger, cold, everything! All manifestations and emotions! As a person, not as an animal!”

Nikto laughs.

“What wrong with you?”

“Nothing! Just stayed a bit out of my skin!”

“And in whose? Animal’s?”

“Not! Nik! I was you! And … And it is wrong if you live like this …”

“Another glitch, Arel …”

“I would be happy about that! Let it be just a bad coming, because if this is your life, then this is hell! Why didn't you say anything to them? Did not explain? Although yes, you didn’t really know the language, they would be even more scared, and your voice …”

“What explained? To whom?”

Arel rushes to him, snapping abruptly, squeezing his shaggy head in his hands, clinging to himself.

“To these assholes! They humiliated you! Gods! How I love you! Why – don’t know! Why do I love you so much?” – he kisses Nikto on the injured forehead, on the scar. “Poor, poor my being! My poor monster!

You are a monster, Nik, do you know about this? And I love you so much!”

Nikto meekly allows him to squeeze himself, squeeze in clumsy embraces, touch the scars.

Arel removes him from his face, gazing in the wavering light of candles, his gaze glides over the body, neck, chest, and arms, all painted black for good.

“What a horror,” – he says quietly and squeezes Nikto again in his arms. “What a horror to be like you!”

He suddenly abruptly pulls away, as another thought comes to his mind:

“Would you like to be like me? Do not cripple? Would you like to be me?”

“You are in my heart.”

“Yes! For sure! I live in you! And you in me! That's why I catch such parishes! Did you do this?”

“If there is something wrong about you, then I have nothing to do with it!”

“I believe you now, strangely enough, why would you put such memories in my head! I probably really caught them myself, I was there, on this street in Lower City, at this well!”

“Well?”

“Yes! I have never been on a plain, but if I come there, I will find this place! I swear it exists!”

“So, you were me?”

“Yes!”

“Well, you felt like a demon in human form, or obsessed?’ – in the voice Nobody reveals blatant sarcasm.

“Not! Heck! Not! But … But there was a lot of emptiness … There was enough space … for … maybe Enrique and the others are not so …’

Nikto covers his mouth with his hand.

“Enough! I do not remember any place, no well and no people, and I do not like it!”

Arel moves back even further.

“Maybe because you were not there! I was not you; I was a piece of that little man! That's why it was so awful! Gods! Poor, poor man! Not you! You just squeezed it out of your own body!’

‘That's it, go to hell! I was afraid that this would end! You wanted to be engaged in an economy, so go to servants and be engaged! And leave me alone! Leave me alone, the demon who settled in someone else's house! You see how great I am! See how good I am!’

“I see that is not very! The lodge did not suffer very little during the battle for it!”

“So, I will find a new one! Everything! Did you want to hear it? Heard? Now get out! Go, eat, you really have to take care of your body, it is still useful. And not to spoil it, like the others, it still didn’t lead to anything good and didn’t help them!’

Arel tries to laugh, turn the conversation into a joke. “Scare me on purpose? Yes? Nik? Sweet…”

“Sweet?” – a nasty smile is playing on Nikto's half-dead lips.

“Well, forgive me for those stupid words about a demon!” – Arel returns to the bed again, bows his head, trying to snuggle closer to Nikto.

Nikto removes his hands.

“You're … are you kidding me? Forgive me! Punish me! Fuck me! This is the only thing you need! Nothing else!”

“You still want in my house?”

“That’s all! Conversation is over!”

“Nik …”

“I remember you were very hungry?”

“I do not want it anymore…”

“Get out, Arel! Now go away!”

“I do not want!”

“I said go away!”

Are you ordering me?”

“Yes!”

“Like … like your slave?”

“Yes!”

Arel pulls away desperately, hands down.

“I … I am your slave, and where are the others, where is my Lis, Sguint- Eye?”

“Here, at the same time and check the rest! You can go now! I repeat for a long time! Should I get up?”

“No!”

And Arel trudges to the door:

“Do you love me?”

“Arel!”

“If it stays, I'll bring you some rotten carrots too …” and he, already laughing, jumps out, deftly dodging a bottle that has flown into him.

Arel was obedient, especially since he was actually hungry. Going down to the servants, right into the kitchen, and sitting at a huge and empty cutting table, he ate everything that was brought to him. Then, taking

two girls, he descended even lower into the cellars of the castle, to the hot springs, where there was warm water in the pool. Once so long ago that he himself did not remember this, she was fed directly into the rooms upstairs, once … He who had eaten himself almost fell asleep while the slaves washed, combed it and rubbed the skin with fragrant oil.

It was already light, but, rising to the top, Arel, to his surprise, heard voices. His friends talked loudly and played cards in the small living room upstairs, where he once entertained Nikto as a slave. Apparently, they never went to bed. The shutters on the windows were not removed, and twilight reigned in the room. The fireplace was caustically smoked by a brocade upholstery of a broken armchair, giving more stink than warmth. On the floor are lined up a whole battery of empty wine bottles. There were Lis, Sguint-Eye and Tol with Asa and a few more slaves, including Claire, Nikto’s slave. She also played cards. The whole company was drunk almost to insanity, and their skewed, sunbathing after a sleepless night face seemed sober Arel just wild.

“Fuck, stupid March! How do you distribute ?!”

He heard the voice of the Lis, and froze on the threshold. Listurned to Sguint-Eye, and Arel involuntarily shrank everything inside, he called him what he was called “black” cripples from birth, considering them to be harbingers of the degeneration and death of the “black” race. It was an insulting, derogatory nickname, and Arel never allowed it to be used against Sguint-Eye or Nikto.

The scythe did not hit the Lis, as one would expect, did not give him, as Tol would say, a rally, no. Without even changing his face, he slowly

collected the cards and began to hand them out again, and Arel hated Lis for that now.

Tol, as usual, bluntly barked:

“Who are you?”

“I am a half-breed, you moron! Half-bre-ed

"And what, the half-breed cannot be, well … they …"

“Fuck, you stupid, of course, can! But I am not!"

"And the hair?"

“What is wrong with my hair? I am a "red" half-breed, fucking how much times I need to explain, why I have such hair!"

“Tol, do you want to suck you so that you do not ask stupid questions and do not anger Mr. Atley Alice?” – asked Claire.

“And what's the point, your mouth will be busy with you, and not with him?” – Lis laughed.

Arel stepped away from the door, he didn’t go to them …

I watched them not out of interest, no. They were not interesting to me, I watched them rather from a sense of my own security. No matter how it was there, the instinct of self-preservation still worked. I had something to protect myself in case of need, and in spite of everything I could still stand up for myself! These bastards can't reach me! However, I soon became convinced that they were not going to touch me. They shunned me like a leper. I was lying in a corner on a roughly hulled trestle-bed, on a mattress soaked in my own blood, and it was as if I did not exist.

They did not even look in my direction. Scorned? Afraid? I dontknow. Believed that they are not affected. They did not need extra trouble.

Their problems were enough to even contact me! And I must give them their due, they reasonably thought, really it was not worth contacting me! Probably, it would be their will, they would get rid of me. I was just thrown to their cell after six months of a loner, and they had nothing to do but to accept this.Just to pretend that nothing is happening, that I am not there, that they do not take me for interrogation in the evening and do not bring me unconscious in the morning. No, I just do not exist.

Although, when I was dragged to them at the very beginning, they approached. I collapsed on the floor; I was in such a state that I don’t remember if they said anything. It seems that someone particularly intelligent said in a half-whisper: "This is the king's nephew, the apostate."