Loe raamatut: «The Mist and the Lightning. Part 10»

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Foreword

With a slightly awkward gait, inherent, probably, to many pregnant women, Dony slowly walked along the coast of the calm silver sea, wrapped from above, like a blanket, with a whitish fog. From time to time she bent down to pick up a shell or pebble she liked from the sand. And, when she looked a bit at it, she threw it back into the water with careless ease. Lazy waves barely licked the edge of the shore. But this was not always the case; lumps of seaweed and piles of broken shells thrown ashore reminded of this. Dony picked up a smooth matte pebble, it was green. She stroked its rounded edges and slightly rough surface:

“You were once a shard of glass,” Dony said. “Bright, transparent, with sharp dangerous edges, which could easy injure.”

She smiled a little sadly:

“How the sea rolled over you with its waves! You are no longer a sharp shard. You are now a harmless pebble. Like many others. And only your color reminds of your past.”

And, unlike all her other finds, she didn’t throw it away, but put it in her pocket. And she turned towards a house on a high hill.

At home, she put the green stone on the table.

“What is it?” Her husband asked.

“The sea gave me such an unusual stone today. A former shard of glass from a green bottle,” Dony replied. “You will bring me luck, right?” She smiled at the pebble. She opened her notebook:

“So… where did I stop?” She thought for a second. “Yeah…”

And, bending over the notebook, she quickly began to write. The words from under her hand folded into lines. She wrote as if someone was dictating to her, almost without crossing anything out. Page by page.

Chapter one. The rite

“Where is Karina? Where is this bitch?! This fucking creature!!!” Prince Arel shouted like mad. He literally flew into Lis’ room, and he could not answer him with a crippled tongue, only rolled his eyes in incomprehension and shook his head.

“I'll kill her! I will kill her! Do you know where she is?”

Lis shook his head negatively and, quickly fingering with two fingers, showed movement.

“Escaped? No such luck! She's at the old woman’s! At the witch's, I tell you!”

And seeing the lack of understanding in the eyes of Lis, who because of his swollen tongue could not utter a word, Arel grabbed him by the hand and dragged him along.

“Let's go! Now you will see everything! Now you will understand what she did!”

They burst into the prince's room and saw Nikto sitting on the bed. And Nikto looked at them and past.

“They banished the Demon to save the brother. Now he is worth nothing! Now he's just a piece of meat! He doesn't see anything! He is blind and dumb. Bring the Demon back! Bring back my Demon!!!” Arel shouted, and tears gushed from his eyes. “I will not survive this! I will not survive!” He literally sobbed. “I can't lose him again! I don't need anyone but him! And you,” he turned to Lis, who was standing in some kind of stupor. “You can forget about the crown! Now we will not be able to beat the Reds, and you will not become king!”

Lis looked at him in horror.

“Lis. If my Demon doesn’t return, I will commit suicide,” Arel suddenly said very calmly and simply. “I’m warning you. I cannot live without him. Sorry. And I warn you,” he looked at Lis seriously, as if he had already decided everything. “I warn you: first I will kill Karina, and then I will commit suicide. And maybe at least so I will go to Hell and meet him there!” Unable to control himself, he screamed again, his face was pale, and tears flowed from his eyes.

Lis shook his head with all his might and tried to say something, it turned out badly, and he covered his mouth with his hand, wincing in pain.

“Lis, you will be left alone. You can live here. In my Estate.”

Lis nevertheless pulled himself together and said very slowly, but clearly:

“No. Deal with it.”

“What?! To accept it?” Arel jumped up. “You were almost king over the reds and lost everything! Are you resigned?”

And Lis nodded sadly.

“And now you've lost your second chance! And again because of her! Her father and she are the cause of all troubles!”

And then Karina rushed into the room, with a drawn sword she rushed to Nikto, protecting him:

“Don’t touch him!” She shouted to Arel. “Kill the body – and the Demon will never return!”

“Give him back!” He shouted back. “What have you done?! You fucking fool! Have you thought about others?! All ours rest on the power of the Demon! How do we defeat the Reds now?! You ruined everything! You ruined the life of me, Lis, Vil and everyone else!”

“What do they have to do with it?” Asked Karina. She still stood alert, clutching a sword in her hand and not leaving the rack, although she saw that Arel was all in tears and snot and didn’t seem to be trying to nail her on the spot.

“Have you been to the old woman’s?”

“Yes!”

“Did you exorcise the Demon?”

“Yes.”

“How did it come to your mind? What for?!”

“I was afraid of you! I was afraid that you were going to cut me! Not only can you cut my hair!”

“I don’t fucking need you! I wasn't going to do anything to you! Did I do something to you ?! Did I?!”

“No.” Karina lowered her sword.

“Nobody needs you! Nik rather checked me what I would do!”

“And Lis? You're torturing him!”

“Are you protecting Lis? Wow! Do you think he can't cope without you?! Can't stand up for himself?”

Arel turned to Lis:

“Look, Lis, what a protector you have! We offend you, can't you fight back? Legendary Commander of the Reds, Sigmer Death!”

Lis clasped his head in his hands; if his face had not been covered with a white layer of dye, they would have seen his cheeks turn red. He turned away from them, trying not to meet the eyes of either Arel or Karina. Karina also looked away in embarrassment, she felt uncomfortable.

“Lis had a Contract with Nik,” continued Arel, “do you think it was so easy for him to let him damage his tongue?! Nik would have led our people further and made Lis king of the reds!”

“What?!”

“And my Castle? Now everything will collapse without support and guidance for Vil and Talas. And the Lower?! The unclean won't help us anymore! Vil will lose the Castle! Tol will lose the Lower! I will lose everything!!!”

“How would he make Lis the king? Are you out of your mind? And you've already lost the Castle and the Lower!”

But Arel didn’t seem to hear her, he rushed around the room in despair, and it was terrible to look at him.

“I wanted to go with him to his world! Do you think he made fun of your brother on purpose? You know nothing! He suffered as much in this body as your brother! He didn’t of his own will possessed him. He was ordered! Maybe he was sent here as punishment, I don’t know for sure, he didn’t want to speak about it, but the fact is that he was unhappy here, I am sure of that! He needed to complete a task, he just tried to perform some actions in our world. And all he wanted was to get out of here as quickly as possible! He has long been fed up with our world and stupid people. Only I gave him joy and helped to free himself. By helping him, I pulled him out of prison in the form of your brother's body! And your brother only interfered with him and spoiled his body, so that people would not take him seriously, so that everyone would consider him a scarred freak. It was difficult for him to complete tasks. He could not complete the tasks, could not leave!”

“But now he has gone into his world,” Karina said somehow confusedly.

“He didn’t complete the task! Are you a fool? What will they do to him now?! Will they move him into another body – and all over again? Or maybe it is already impossible to fix it? Maybe his task was to make Lis the king in order to finally end the war! You haven't even thought about that? Yes, Karina?”

“Arel…”

“What – Arel?! You thought I was stupid?! Why do you all think I'm stupid? Because I have a beautiful appearance and I don’t talk smart about serious things? You thought I didn't know anything about Nik? I knew everything about him, even when you didn’t see him at all! You thought he didn't share anything with me? Do you know how many times I saw him almost howl from helplessness? How tired he was, because in this body he was deprived of many of his powers. He didn't complain to anyone. Only to me! And you are such an idiot that you thought I was just fucking with him and that was all, the rest was fucking incomprehensible to me. I understand a lot, and I was, as it were, in your brother's body, too, by the way, he was not completely blind then. Apparently, the eyes were rebuilt gradually. And I was in the Unclean Limit and in the World, which Nik-Demon created there for himself as an outlet. Where he was not as pathetic as he was here. And Lis was there too. And I saw him, and felt his strength and power. He was lovely. And then he had to come back here again and communicate with such idiots as you! And pretend that he was a man, although he didn’t give a shit about all this. I could beat him and praise him, he didn't give a damn about either. Only later did he feel a little the joy of this life, of this world with me. He said that only I was holding him and that soon he would do everything and could return. We agreed that I would go with him. And he could leave your brother's body. Only he is blind and dumb. But he himself is to blame for this, there was no need to resist! This is inherit in your family, apparently – not understanding, to go to the trouble. Maybe now he would have been free and would not have been so disfigured.”

“I didn't think…”

“Of course you didn't! Have you ever thought of talking to me? Of course not! I'm a “stupid handsome prince”. Has it ever occurred to you that you don’t know even a hundredth of relationships and ties? You just stupidly took everything and deleted it! And it would be better to ask him to leave his brother's body and ask how you can help? And ask him to return his vision and voice! I'm sure the Demon could do it if he wanted to. But you stupidly drove him out and left your brother crippled. Well done!”

Karina began to cry.

“Go and do everything back! Otherwise I will kill you!”

“I can’t!” Sobbed Karina.

“Why?!”

“The old woman is dead!” And Karina fell to her knees and, covering her face with her hands, began to cry.

“How is it – dead?” Arel barely uttered.

“I don’t know! When she performed the ceremony, she said some words. Spell. And then she fell… Maybe her heart could not stand it…”

“Lis, I'm sorry, I'll kill her now,” Arel said, and his face became terrible.

But at this moment Nikto, all this time indifferently, like a doll sitting in the corner, suddenly jerked as if he had been shocked, and everyone turned to him in surprise.

He looked at them and then said:

“It's all right, Arel.”

And the prince rushed to him, embracing him. Karina shied away from him.

“Your happiness that he returned, otherwise I would have killed you!” He threw to her.

“Karina wanted to banish you,” he said to Nikto.

“I know. But they didn't succeed. And never do that again, Karina.”

Karina, sniffing, nodded:

“I’m sorry.”

“Lis,” Arel turned to Lis, still standing as a silent statue. “Take this bitch to the room and lock her there. We'll decide what to do with her later. And now I don't want to see her!”

Lis obediently pulled Karina by the forearm.

Until the morning she cried in the room. Until Arel came for her.

“We talked all night, he is very kind. Go, you can talk to your brother, the Demon left him. He can do this for a while, but he must always return. I begged him to leave for just an hour. I can't take it anymore. He said that when I calmed down and began to trust and not be afraid, he would leave for a longer period. He says that he himself is sick of everything here and that he is still holding on because of me.”

“Later I want to talk to the Demon too,” said Karina, sadly with tears. “Ask him to leave my brother when he leaves. When he finishes all his business here,” Karina tried to wipe away her tears; she looked tortured. “All your tasks. And return his voice and vision.”

“Come on, talk to your idiot. I hate him!”

“But for what?!”

“For making Nik weak.”

“Do you think it's really her brother?” Lis asked, he spoke slowly, but did not lisp at all.

“So what?” Arel didn’t understand.

“Maybe he's just making fun of her. Breaks comedy?”

Arel laughed:

“Maybe so. You're already talking, Lis, great!”

“Yes. But it really hurts.”

“And in my opinion, you got out, as always!”

Karina cautiously and embarrassedly entered the prince's room. Nikto, to her surprise, was not sitting on the bed as usual, but just on the floor next to her, with his back against the wall. He lifted his head in response to her steps. And for a second it seemed to her that she was there again, in the prison tower. And Nikto sat the same on the floor in front of her, just not on the dirty straw, and his hand was not twisted, chained to the wall. But he was still shrinking, sick, lonely.

“Gods,” she whispered, taking out the prepared notebook and pencil. “How can I withstand this… Hello.”

He only smiled slightly in return. Very tortured, very crooked. The Demon did it better.

Karina sat down next to him:

“Why are you sitting on the floor?” She tried to make her voice cheerful. “Maybe we can sit on the bed?”

But he literally recoiled from her, and she was frightened.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't think. I didn't think it was so painful for you…”

He extended his left hand, his left hand really worked better. She put their means of communication in his fingers. He quite confidently wrote to her: “Hi Karina.” Then he hesitated a little and added: “Please leave. Go away. Get out of here. Save yourself!”

He wrote and wrote as if trying to convey the meaning to her in different words.

She shook her head, forgetting that he didn’t see her:

“No. No, I'm not leaving! Don’t worry about me! I will talk to the Demon, I will ask him to leave you when he finishes all his business here. Do you understand? And Arel says that he has not much to do. You are still young. You will recover. I want to ask the Demon to return your eyes and voice. But even if he doesn't, I thought… Dr. Balthazar Nate will be able to repair the ligaments, and the eyes …”

Nikto shook his head violently and quickly wrote: “He's fooling you! He's fooling you. He fooled you.”

“I understood you. But I want to believe in the best. Please listen to me! Obey me now, don’t interfere with him, don’t resist, let him do everything that he was ordered to do and leave. It seems to me that it would be better not to disturb him. Don't you understand? Otherwise, he will completely destroy you.”

Nikto smiled wryly again, as if telling her “hah, right away!”, and she was amazed at his courage, he fought the Demon one on one, interfered with him and, it seemed, was not going to give up.

He wrote again: “He deceived you. Run before it's too late.”

“Gods! Why are you so stubborn?! Why can't you come to an agreement when it so happens that you are sharing one body? Yes, I understand you hate him because he possessed you. But he himself told me that the Demon world is full of restrictions and orders. And each Demon follows the instructions of a higher Demon. He was simply ordered. He is as much a slave as you, in a strange body and in a strange world, and… He is not so bad, and sometimes he is very cool, this Demon of yours, and quite fair. Why were we able to make friends with him, but you did not? Let's try together, it will only make everyone better.”

Nikto wrote, “He took your souls. I'm sorry.”

“Why are you so stubborn?!” Karina screamed in despair. “I'm trying to save you!”

Nikto with a sigh ran his hands over his face, hair, pulling them back, and wrote: “What is the date today?”

This question always knocked Karina out of her rut. She was horrified only by the thought that he was living in fits and starts, wasting days, months, and maybe years. Now she understood why he seemed younger to her: probably, if you put everything together, he lived in consciousness not for twenty-five years, but much less.

“How do you feel when he is completely in you?” She asked quietly.

And he shook his head and wrote, “Nothing.”

“Like you fell asleep on Friday and woke up on Monday?”

He turned away, he didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want to listen to her. And she only had an hour. What to do?

She sat in confusion, and her brother also sat with his back against the wall, and was silent. It looked like this was his favorite pastime. Maybe he really was mentally retarded, as Arel said. Arel knew him better than anyone, now she understood it. And now she respected the prince for that. For insight and fearlessness.

“Nik?” She called, finally realizing that he didn’t intend to continue the conversation and fell into his favorite stupor. He shuddered, he responded to Nik.

“Nik, he left for only an hour. Do you want a cigarette? Or wine? Feel the taste for yourself.”

He shook his head.

“Maybe… “restorative”?” She asked carefully. And he again shook his head negatively, then he thought about it and wrote: “Water.”

She got up and poured water from a jug, gave it to him, put it in his hand, he took a few sips, and the water ran down his chin. The paralyzed side of his face didn’t move. He wiped the water off with his hand. The hand also moved badly.

“Why are you so opposed to him? Do you know something more? About his plans? What else does he have to do here? You know?”

“He spoils the souls of people. Now he is collecting them. He has collected a lot. You gave him a lot of strength.”

“Let him collect them! What does it matter to us? Think about yourself!”

“I think. He didn't take mine. I will not obey. I will not submit.”

“Then he will just smear you!!!”

“You have already been smeared,” her brother Nikto wrote.

“You are crazy! He will make Lis the king of the Reds in this world and, perhaps, he will help me too, so that I become his queen, I will ask him about it, why not? And you… will you continue to interfere with him like a ram?”

Nikto wrote, “Yes.”

And Karina, no longer able to stand it, shouted:

“Arel! Lis! Come here!”

She noticed how he tensed as they entered the room, responding instantly to her call. She silently handed them the notebook.

“Hi Karina. Please leave. Go away. Get out of here. Save yourself! He's fooling you! He's fooling you. He fooled you. Run before it's too late. He took your souls. I'm sorry. What's the date today? Nothing. Water. He spoils the souls of people. Now he is collecting them. He has collected a lot. You gave him a lot of strength. I think. He didn't take mine. I will not obey. I will not submit. You have already been smeared. Yes.”

“You see what he writes,” she complained to them.

“Can I hit him?” Arel said when he finally read what he had written. Lis had read it earlier and turned away.

“No, though,” Arel changed his mind. “I'll give him a duel! Hey bro, can you fight?”

Nikto nodded.

“He’s blind,” said Lis.

“He seems to know how to fight blind,” said Karina. “I saw it in prison.”

“Then let's go! Where is Nik’s sword? Come out into the yard!”

“Let's go,” said Karina, slightly pulling her brother's hand, and he got up. Without resisting, he followed her.

They went out into the courtyard, Lis put a sword in his hand, with which Nikto-Demon fought.

“And if he kills you, Arel?” He asked suddenly. Because the blind Nikto took the sword very confidently, as if he himself wanted it.

“Me?!” Arel laughed. “He won’t kill me. And I will just make him run a little.”

And he began to bypass Nikto, twirling his weapon in his hands. And Nikto was standing. But when Arel lunged to poke him, Karina's brother sharply parried the blow and attacked towards Arel. Arel was a little taken aback, but continued to circle, and for some moments they clashed fiercely and with all their might. Nikto seemed to try to constantly maintain contact with the blade of the enemy's sword, and he also guessed or heard where the blow would come from. And it was creepy. As always, at the last minute he preempted the blow, and Arel only managed to knock him to the ground a couple of times, but Nikto immediately dodged and immediately got up. And he moved very little, trying to always stay in place. He let the enemy get closer, and then tried not to disengage with him with the sword.

“Ah well!” Arel got angry and tried to attack him again. Nikto managed to deflect the blow again. The atmosphere grew more and more tense, and Karina became afraid. Her blind brother didn’t let Arel approach and didn’t look like a human now, but quite the opposite.

“Lis, I don't like this. Tell them to stop!” Asked Karina.

Unfortunately, Lis now always, leaving the house, hid his jester’s makeup under a mask, and Karina didn’t see the expression on his face, but she was sure that he also didn’t like what was happening.

“Arel, that's enough!” She shouted. “It was a bad idea!”

The prince turned to her cry and received a crushing blow, he fell, and Nikto pressed the blade of the sword to his throat.

“No!” Karina screamed.

And Nikto’s hand suddenly trembled, and he literally flew away from Arel, fell backward, as if he had been hit with all his strength in the chest, and then, rising, he shouted:

“Arel, what are you doing?!”

Arel sat down, shaking his disheveled head, pressed his hand to his cut neck, blood ran down his fingers, he raised his eyes to Nikto:

“Damned motherfucker! Which one is the Demon? You look more like a human than he is!”

Nikto ran up to him, hugging him, examining the wound.

“Your brother is cool,” said Lis to Karina and headed towards the house.

And Karina, stunned, stood and looked at the Arel and the Nikto-Demon, who seemed to be more cheerful, kinder and more humane than her brother.

Arel closed his eyes as Nikto put a rag soaked in healing medicine to his throat.

“Fuck! Nik! I don't envy you, how do you live in his body?!”

Nikto laughed:

“It's not that bad. But don't do that anymore. What if my human part kills you?”

“Could he do it? To spite you?”

“He was able to spite me to cut himself like meat, and you – in general, easily!”

“Don't leave like that anymore! Don't let him loose!”

“Are you afraid?” Nikto laughed and, taking a glass, took a few good sips of wine, and Karina noticed that he didn’t miss a drop.

“Okay, okay, he just wanted to teach you a lesson. He actually loves you!”

“Really?” Arel asked, and there was doubt in his voice.

“He wouldn't have killed you.”

“Why did you come back then?” Lis said.

“Hasn't an hour passed?”

“No,” Lis shook his head. “He wanted to kill Arel, maybe even out of love, so that you wouldn't get him. He wanted to save him. Like Rosa.”

And he handed Nikto a piece of paper with notes.

Arel squeezed his temples in his hands.

“So, Lis, it was not a comedy?”

“It looks like not,” said Lis seriously.

“Well, so much the worse for him!” Arel got angry.

“And I wanted to ride him on a horse,” Karina said suddenly, and since everyone looked at her as if she were a fool, she fell silent in embarrassment.

“Lis, come to me,” Nikto called. “I want to see how your tongue heals. You started talking quickly. Maybe it's time to get the threads out.”

Lis obediently approached him and opened his mouth.

“I'll take them off in a few days,” Nikto examined his tongue. “And talk less, it's too early, it starts to bleed. Be patient, talkative Lis.”

Lis said nothing dejectedly.

“I want to know what happened in the prison,” Arel said. “Karina, tell me everything. How did you escape?”

Later, Arel and Nikto remained alone in the room.

“It was just the only way to get her to save me. Otherwise she would not have done it!” Nikto explained Karina's rather emotional story, where she outlined in detail their chaotic escape.

“Well, yes, she is kind and saved a person!” Arel grinned. “Weren't you afraid to leave like this and leave the human alone?”

“No, I was not afraid. After all, I am he. This is part of me. From which I have nowhere to get away!”

“He got on your nerves a lot, didn't he?”

“I use his soul, I am here thanks to his soul, to the fact that he is alive.”

“And to the fact that he resists?”

“Well, no, the fact that he resists is bad, this is with what he gets me.”

“It seemed so simple when the witch brought his little body for you, right?”

“Although… Maybe it's better this way, he used to resist very much and cripple himself, but now he doesn't. We have learned to somehow coexist, and, I confess, sometimes… he takes over. But I'm no longer angry, it gives me humanity. It is easier for me in this world from its emotional impulses and throwings. I am almost human and thanks to him I have feelings, and people understand and accept me better. So… what seemed like a hindrance and a mistake before, has become an irreplaceable help in the end. Anyway, I do what I want!” Nikto smiled. “Only with feeling. As a man!”

“And… did he start loving me?” Arel asked in a trembling voice.

“I chose you,” Nikto answered. “And he… fell in love. He loved you all. And through him I too.”

“Why did he love me? After all, I beat him and humiliated him, fucked him.”

“Well, Arel, you yourself didn’t notice, but in fact you treated him well. And he saw so few people, spoke little.”

“Did he even see me?”

“Yes. He can see a little with my eyes. If I let him. If I let him, he can say something through me. He can see and feel everything, but just cannot do anything at the same time. I can connect and disconnect with him in any way.”

“It's like sex.”

“Do you want it like that?”

“Yes. You entered my body. I felt it and didn’t resist. And you can enter my body and use it, I will only be happy.”

Nikto hugged his prince:

“Meanwhile this is not necessary, I'm used to being blond.” He chuckled. “I am a white half-breed. And you, noble black, I want to see next.”

“But you’re not going to leave like this again?” Arel asked, hugging him back, stroking him affectionately, looking into his eyes like a devoted dog. “I don’t want it.”

“Arel! You've been with him many times. I have gone many times and left you with him. However, I pumped him with drugs, but…”

“Don't! Don’t do it anymore! I'm asking you!”

“Sometimes I need to leave, a part of me remained in my world. I live several lives at once. It is difficult for a human to understand this…”

“I understand. But you may not always leave completely. Leave at least a small part of yourself in order to still control him.”

“I may.”

“Then just do it! And now, now squeeze him out altogether, let him not see, hear nothing and feel nothing!”

And Nikto, putting him on his back, laughed:

“Good. I will punish him for making you so upset.”

“Now I hate your scars too. Now I also see them as your defeat. I hate him! For crippling you! He made you an outcast. I want to see the real you, I want!”

“Everything has its time. If you want, we will tie the body, and I will go out, and you will fuck him and do whatever you want.”

“No. I don't want to fuck him! I don’t want anything. He's gone. He doesn’t exist. I don't want to see him again, do it!”

“I will try,” Nikto hissed and inserted into the prince.

Later they went downstairs to the living room, to Lis and Karina. And Karina asked Nikto to talk to her in private too. Nikto agreed.

“What do you want to ask me? About your brother again?” Nikto looked pretty calm, he poured himself and her wine.

“No. Will you help me?”

“I remember how you hated me, maddened. You only liked to fuck with me, yes, it attracted you, and you couldn’t resist. You love a sex. You like sleeping with different men. You are not one of those women who strive for a family, have children and raise them. You are like a lone she-wolf, a predator, you know how to stand up for yourself and walk in search of adventure.”

“I love Lis. If you take Arel, I want to stay with Lis. And I will be a faithful wife. And give birth to children if I can. Am I doing whatever is necessary? You let Dony go and she made her life well. You told me then: “She did everything that needs to be done.” I didn't understand these words, now I understand. Am I doing whatever it takes?”

“But what about the salvation of your brother?”

“It was probably a stupid idea. Like a lot of stupid ideas and actions before. But I will gladly try to persuade him more. He just lived a little and doesn’t understand anything. For him, perhaps, the throne and power, love is an empty phrase. I will explain to him that this is important to us if he wants us to be happy.”

“He loved Rosa.”

“And?”

“And? And sent her away. To the Upper World. In order not to get her.”

“And he wanted to send me too, persuaded me to run, but I am not Rosa. And I am not sixteen years old, but almost thirty, and this is my last chance, and I want a husband, and I want a husband-king. And I want to look my father in the eye with pride so that he understands that I am not at all the wayward idiot he thinks I am. I want to achieve something! What's the use if I leave? To vegetate somewhere in Komra? What should I do there? Praying for the salvation of your soul? Maybe a little later, when I become an old woman and I have absolutely nothing to do. Moreover, I have not done anything terrible! Is what I decided is stupid? Or bad?”

“This is very good,” Nikto smiled.

“Now!” Karina jumped up. “Wait a minute, I'll bring you something.”

She ran out of the room and quickly returned, holding a small box in her hands:

“The courier brought it from the village for my name.”

“What is it?”

“A parcel from my father.”

“And what does he write to you?”

“Nothing. There was money. I gave more than half to this witch for the ceremony. Excuse me.”

“This is your money, Karina, don’t report to me.”

“Yes. But here's one more thing, and I'm sure this is for you.”

Karina pushed the box towards him: it contained a ring with a blue stone and a mask.

Nikto seemed to be sincerely happy: