In the Castle Again
"Why are you always quarrelling?" Berta asked.
Orel glanced at her. "I don't know."
"You're swearing all the time, saying nasty things to each other. There is something abnormal in it."
"Probably," Orel agreed calmly.
"Your people… it seems they are ready to backstab each other. I was shocked."
Orel smiled musing.
"But I was even more shocked when I saw you in the battle. Tol hates Lis and at the same time stands by him risking his own life. You completely trust that scary, absolutely crazy Bert Squint-Eye! I just can't settle it down in my mind that you can have such difficult complicated relations in life and at the same time fight with such self-abandonment. When you fight, one can physically sense your unity, the power you emanate when you're together. Then one understands that you're really a team! A well-adjusted mechanism, flawless and frightening. I've never been with you before and never felt anything like that. I was with you, I was one of you and it was incomparable! But I also can imagine what your enemies feel. It is scary. I don't envy them!"
"You're exaggerating."
"No, not at all, haven't you ever felt that?"
"It is my life," Orel said. "And theirs too. We're warriors."
"Yes, you're warriors, and you're the best! I worship you. But when you are not in a battle, you're disgusting. Tell me, if Tol hates Lis so much, why doesn't he just set him up in a battle? When they fight side by side, it seems Tol feels only Lis, forgets about himself. How can it be?"
"Well, if Lis dies, Tol will have no one to fight with, who will get on his nerves then? He'd be bored without Lis!"
"Do you put them together on purpose?"
"No-o, it just happened, and I think it comes off quite nicely."
"Yes, but they are strange…"
"You should know. But will anyone in his sane mind deal with me anyway?"
"Then I'm also insane! I have fun with you – sometimes it's very scary but it is fun, not boring. I start cherishing me life, enjoying every moment I live, every little thing I didn't even notice before. The time goes in another way. Everything is mixed – good and bad happens all together. I began to treat everything calmer."
"You're just growing up. You have a personality, you'll survive."
"The only one of you I really don't like is Squint-Eye."
"I love him."
"But he is terrible! I saw his arms, all cut and in the traces of needles, it's something!"
"Yes, I know, but it is a part of him. He is like that and I love him as he is."
"You say you love him but you always yell at him."
Orel laughed. "Squint-Eye mutilates himself. I get angry from time to time. Everyone differs. And he is not so bad as it seems to you, believe me. He cuts his arms because he suffers, his soul hurts and he tries to hush it with physical pain."
"But it is not a way out!"
"I know, and he knows, he is not such a fool as you think. He is not the worst of us."
Berta was silent, thinking.
"And who do you like?"
"You! And Lis, maybe."
"You think Lis is better than Squint-Eye?"
"Of course!"
Orel laughed. "He tricked you too."
"Why did you disfigure him?"
Orel took out a cigarette.
"Are you going to beg for him?"
"No, but I feel sorry for him, how can he stand this torture? He is suffering. How can you treat him like this?"
"I want him to beg me well."
"But you know he'll never do it, he is proud, he won't debase himself."
"What?" Orel laughed. "Proud he is, indeed…" He shook his head.
"Lis doesn't want to appear weak even in front of you, begging for your forgiveness, he waits for your love."
"Berta, you don't know anything. Lis begged me not to do it, he pleaded with me kneeling to take the stripe off several times, but now he has something on his mind, I feel it."
"Arel, you know how to be kind."
"No, I don't."
"I don't believe you!"
"I can do anything I want to you, any moment, do you believe that?"
"Even hit me?"
"Hit you? I can kill you! Ooh, you're so stupid, what am I doing here with you? You are in love with me, aren't you?"
"No!"
"I'll crush you, Berta, it is impossible to love me."
She lowered her head.
"It is impossible not to love you," she said barely audibly.
"Dear one," he hugged her. "Dim will cut off my head for you. You should leave until it's too late and forget the way here."
"Are you making me leave?" Her eyes filled with tears. "Yes, I understand. What am I for you? I'm not a lady from the high society, not like Enriki's sister. Is she your bride?"
"What is it, a scene of jealousy?"
"No, no, sorry," she wiped her tears.
"Tell me better, how do they treat Nikto at Coliseum?"
"Good, everyone likes him."
"Has he already got close with some of your female friend?"
Berta laughed. "Oh, you're trying to find info about him from me. I don't understand!"
Tol stuck his head into the door without knocking.
"Your Nik has come," he smiled. "Come down."
Orel and Berta walked downstairs to the hall.
"What?" Orel asked Squint-Eye.
"We visited everyone you said." Squint-Eye took off his mask. He looked tired, his black hair, wet, fell onto his face in icicles, and Squint-Eye pushed it away impatiently with his hand in a black glove. He looked at Orel. "We scared everyone shitless, so, we'll have money. The weather is disgusting, rain, wind, fuck them all!"
"Easy, easy, you're not in a shitty bar in the Lower City! And you're not a commoner!"
"I'm worse then a commoner. I'm frozen and wet like a dog." Squint-Eye took off his gloves, threw them on the table and turned to Orel again. He saw Berta standing there and staring.
"Why are you looking at me like that, namesake? Don't you like me?"
"I don't look at all," Berta quickly lowered her eyes.
"If you look at me like this again, you'll get sorted out, no warning!"
Berta went white.
"Got it?"
She turned away.
"I'm going upstairs," Nikto said.
He passed Orel who followed him with a distressed gaze.
"He feels awfully shitty," Squint-Eye said noticing it. "He made himself a shot in the street, under the rain – he doesn't care where, it's the end."
"Ooh gods," Enriki whispered.
"Yes, no good," Squint-Eye agreed. "I wouldn't like to be in his place."
"You will if you don't quit."
"But it didn't affect his work at all, he does everything like a machine, and it is even scarier, even I feel frightened to be near, not to mention those we visited."
Orel's face distorted.
"Nik is so down because he hasn't used 'water' for a long time," Tol said. "He needs 'water', that' all."
"Tol!" Enriki looked at Berta fearfully. "Your jokes are out of place!"
Berta blushed. "I'm not going to spy, I'm not interested. It's Dim's business, not mine."
"Vil, go see Berta off," Orel said. "Berta, go home."
She wanted to say something but seeing his expression stopped and turned away, walked to the door slowly.
"Berta, honey! Wait, I'll see you off," Vil rushed after her.
"Don't bother, Vil."
"No, no, how can I leave such a sweet pretty girl alone? I simply have to see you off, you won't mind if I do, will you?"
They left.
"I'm going to Nikto," Orel said. "Will you be here?"
"Yes," Enriki nodded.
"Find Lis."
"No need to look for him, he's in his room. He's also sick," Tol said.
"Here, take it." Orel took the key for the stripe out of his pocket and tossed it too Enriki. "You can take it off."
He quickly walked upstairs.
Nikto loses consciousness.
They make him an injection of 'black water' but it is too late, it doesn't help. He is in coma.
Vil brings the doctor that saved his life.
Comparing some facts Lis starts guessing who didn't let him fulfill Orel's order and why Vil stayed alive.
The doctor makes Nikto blood transfusion using Mina for it because she is a white half-blood. Nikto is alive but he is still unconscious.
Orel says he will die without Nikto, will kill himself because life without Nikto doesn't have any meaning for him.
He thinks that the only way to save Nikto is to get into the contact with his 'father' somehow. He looks for magic books in the castle library for it.
"At the sunrise the mage is to take a black cock, kill it and tear out its eyes, heart and tongue," Lis read and laughed. "These parts are to be dried in the sun and grinded into powder and the cock's corpse… Wait, wait, let me look," he laughed trying to yank the book out of Orel's hands. "The skin of a lamb rubbed with the powered parts of the cock's body is to be made into a parchment…"
"Get away!" Orel managed to take the book away from Lis.
"Arel, are you in your right mind? Are you going to do it?"
"No! I'm not!" Orel snapped and closed the book – he looked very embarrassed.
"Then why are you sitting in the library? Trying to read it? Do you know how to make a parchment?"
"It's not your business!"
"I just want to help! What else do we have here?" Lis opened another dusty volume, leafed through it. "The mage carrying out the ritual is to stand with his face to the altar. The altar, if possible, is to be placed at the western wall… Do you know where the west is?"
"Yes!"
"Turning counterclockwise the mage is to point his sword at the main parts of the world… Turn counterclockwise, Arel!"
"Get out!"
"Fine, fine," Lis raised his hands in a pacifying gesture. "I wanted to help, why are you growling and making such eyes," he shrugged. "If you don't want, fine…"
"Stop laughing! I'll kill you! Shit, I'll kill you instead of that fucking cock! That will be a sacrifice!"
Lis's face became serious.
"You're crazy if you think you can do it – first of all. And you're crazy if you think it can help and revive you Nik – second."
"Do you have any other ideas?"
"The doctor treats him. An excellent doctor. He healed Vil from a lethal wound."
"Doctor?! Don't you see that the doctor doesn't help! Yes, he managed to heal stupid Luven, so what? He said he needed a half-blood to give Nik clean blood – I gave him Mina! Nik is unconscious for three days, blood transfusion didn't help him! Even though it had to help! The doctor promised! I was ready to drain Mina of blood… not only Mina, myself, if need be! If I were a white half-blood and my blood suited him! And you say 'the doctor treats him'! You just don't care! You want Nik to die! And he'll die, for fuck's sake, if I don't do anything. A couple more days in this state and he won't come back! He won't restore! You understand that perfectly!"
"And that's why you decided to deal with magic."
"Yes! I decided to appeal to his father directly and beg him…"
"Oooh."
"Call for Enriki if you really want to help me! Enriki will figure out something in these fucking books and will choose something simple but effective. A cock is not a good sacrifice, it is too cheap. I'll sacrifice for Nik another thing, what people think the most precious! The most precious creature!"
"Sometimes I look at you and I don't understand what happens in your head," Lis said very seriously looking at Orel.
"Call for Enriki!"
Lis sees that Orel depends on Nikto too much. He doesn't like it; he has a plan.
Lis's Plan
Lis entered Squint-Eye's room, and Squint-Eye, seeing him, rose on his bed in surprise.
"He-ey, what do you need here? Get out!" Squint-Eye said rather rudely.
It didn't affect Lis at all. He looked around with indifferent eyes and sat down in the chair leaning against its high back as if nothing happened; his narrow yellow eyes gazed at Squint-Eye. He even smiled slightly. Squint-Eye was beyond himself.
"What?!" he yelled. "What do you want?"
"Yeah, your room isn't a model of luxury," Lis drawled examining bare walls with exaggerated attention. "Looks like a prison cell," he smirked.
"Get out," Squint-Eye repeated.
"Come on, don't pretend to be tough, I know you too well," Lis spoke absolutely calmly despite a scary expression of Squint-Eye's face. "I know you, Bert Squint-Eye, you're a real loser! A loser of all losers, one can say! Do you want to treat me something? Or do you have only 'grass'?" Lis puckered his nose barely keeping from laughing.
Squint-Eye got up. He was clad only in worn leather pants even though the chimney in his room was not lit. The chimney looked like it had never been lit at all. Squint-Eye didn't care - his thin sinewy body didn't feel cold. He put his bare feet on the stone floor - there were no carpets. Lis winced. Squint-Eye walked around Lis and grasped his neck with his elbows, pressing Lis's head to the hard back of the chair.
"What do you want?" he said slowly compressing Lis's neck so hard Lis could barely breathe.
Lis didn't move and Squint-Eye slackened his grip but didn't take his arms away.
"Why do you love me so?" Lis's voice was constricted.
"Love you?!" Squint-Eye screamed and jumped away from Lis letting him go. Lis rubbed his neck. "I hate you!" Squint-Eye was confused. "And you've deceived me just now! Gods see, I was ready to strangle you!"
"Oh I'm so scared," Lis grinned but his eyes didn't smile.
Squint-Eye sat down on his bed, pushed short strands of his hair away from his face and tucked them behind his ears. His longer hair was tied in a funny little ponytail that looked more like a hard brush for painting. He looked at Lis - that is, one of his eyes looked straight at Lis, the other looked somewhere aside. But Lis was used to it and talking to Squint-Eye looked only at his straight eye. They stared at each other for a while.
"I have business to discuss," Lis said at last.
Squint-Eye lowered his head and, gazing at his hands, started yanking his fingers cracking the joints with a disgusting sound.
"Shi-i-it!" Lis wasn't able to stand it and gripped the elbow rests. "What a fucking habit!"
It was strange but Squint-Eye stopped.
"Can you kill Nikto?" Lis asked.
"Uh oh," Squint-Eye raised his eyes. "No."
"Do you love him? Do you like him? Are you afraid of him? Why can't you kill him?"
Squint-Eye curved his lips in a smile, shaking his head.
"What restrains you? Look, Nikto pushed you aside, you lost your status. Besides, it is the most convenient moment! He is helpless, he is just meat! I'll distract Orel, it won't be a problem to do it, and you'll come up to the bed and inject him something, maybe, even 'water' - I'll find it! And we'll be free!"
Squint-Eye laughed.
"Lis, what are you trying to do? I'm not so stupid as you think and I know you betrayed Orel in your heart a long time ago and gave yourself away to a stronger master."
Lis clenched the elbow rests so hard his knuckles whitened.
"Why do you want to kill your new master? Huh? I'm not playing these games, do you hear?"
"So, you think I betrayed Orel? Right?" Lis's voice filled with cold fury.
"Yes," Squint-Eye didn't look away. "Yes, Lis, this is what I say: you betrayed Orel. Will you answer me something?"
"Orel is depending on Nikto, we all depend on him, and I want to free both us and Orel from it," Lis stressed Orel's name. "I'm thinking of Orel first of all. Do you call it a betrayal?"
"No, I don't. I would call it nonsense! If I didn't treat you seriously. But I treat you seriously, very, very seriously."
"Thank you for that."
"Not at all. If you want to finish him off, why don't you inject him a dose yourself? It is not difficult. I can even give you a lesson. But you don't need it, you were using drugs for years in your time, weren't you, Lis?"
"I would love to do it so much..." Lis said ignoring Squint-Eye's last remark. "But I'm afraid I won't have guts to do it. And you're a machine."
Squint-Eye turned away, took a cigarette from a bedside table and started smoking. Lis was always irritated with the way Squint-Eye held a cigarette: clasping the filter between two fingers.
"You can switch off your mind and do it, and I can't. That's why I'm here."
"Yes, of course, I can do it, but what will happen to me after that? I've had enough!" Squint-Eye turned to Lis abruptly. "Yes. I did everything, all the dirty work was mine and you were clean and enjoyed your lives while I was rotting in a solitary. It was a great idea - everyone is having fun and then only one answers for that. I'm tired of taking your sins, I'm tired of being a scapegoat. I've had enough! I won't take a single crime on myself any more! Even if Orel goes to prison, I don't care, I won't go there for him. Never again! Never! I won't let you use me any more, it's enough that I wasted my life, my youth for fucking nothing!"
"I think you're not that old to lament your youth. How old are you - twenty-six, twenty-seven?"
"What did I see? What did I see during those twenty-seven years? For the first time I went to jail at fifteen, for my first murder, my sentence was five years but I spent four there because in two years I met Orel. And when he was let go after a couple of years, he yanked me out too. And so it started! He and I, we made a real slaughter in the Upper City. I lost count how many times I was locked up, let go, locked up and let go again. I spend a month with Orel, then two or three months in jail, then he frees me again, and we have fun for two months or even two weeks, and then it starts all over. And the further the worse, this time I spent a whole year in a solitary! I don't even want to recall how many of those wasted years there were."
"If to add everything and not to get into details, I think it was eight years," Lis said.
"Eight years, Lis! What did I see?"
"But you were not in prison for entire eight years, you were going in and out. And maybe that's why you're the only one still alive - from those who started with Orel."
"What luck! I've never even had a girlfriend! And I won't, for fuck's sake, because my balls are over, because I'm a ruin." Squint-Eye got up, tossed the cigarette on the floor and walked up to the window not looking at Lis. There were white lash scars on his back and black brands of his sentences on his upper arms.
"You were faithful to Orel and gave away everything for him," Lis said, "and how did he thank you? Orel is worshipping another."
"I don't care, let Nikto go to jail for him. I think it'll happen very soon."
"Do you think Orel will let Nikto go there? Naive!"
"I know what I say, I know Orel as none of you does! He can't do anything himself, he is a prince and is used to others doing things for him." Squint-Eye looked back. "We met in prison. It was there I got close with him: everyone suffered there but he got it the hardest. Those who managed to put him in jail were in a hurry to take revenge, they tortured him every night. They came for him and took him to a separate cell... what he had to go through," Squint-Eye shook his head, "I think he will never forget it. They brought him back in the morning, unconscious, covered in blood, and I still wonder how he managed to stay alive and, more than that, stay just as handsome. But Orel wouldn't be the Orel you know if he let them stomp on him. Then I was caught, I was conquered: respect, love - I gave him everything. Of course, he had some plans about me, he used me but I understand it only now. I understand it... but I still love him. If he wants you to love him, he'll do everything for that, will do his best, will always achieve it. You'll get caught and give yourself away to him completely - and he'll use you, wring you dry and throw away to start anew with someone else. So many people gave their lives for him! So many people I personally killed for him! I slaughtered whole families of those he thought his enemies - everything for people to fear him even more, to respect and glorify him! But I've had enough!"
"Those gentlemen in prison - did they fuck him?"
Squint-Eye looked at Lis, somewhat surprised.
"Fucked?" He shook his head. "You're such a shit, Atley Alis!"
Lis smiled.
"Did they?"
"Can't forgive him the stripe?"
Lis touched a black plaster on his face where the iron stripe with bells had been.
"Orel is not to blame," he said seriously.
"And who is to blame? Tol? Vil?"
"Nikto. I mean it. It's Nikto's fault, he set me up!"
Squint-Eye looked at Lis doubtfully.
"You don't believe me, do you? That day he was the last to leave the 'Arbor'. I recalled it only later, when I started making connections between facts. I recalled that he was the last to leave. So, he came up to dying Vil and did something for him to stay alive. I don't know what and how, but you understand. He did something."
"Yes, I understand."
"And he left a card of his doctor. And that bitch, the dancer, instead of leaving as fast as she could, returned, found the card, and she and the owner of the 'Arbor' took Vil to that doctor."
"How did you find out?"
"I did," Lis lit a cigarette. "But neither Vil, that unfinished asshole, nor Nikto said anything to Orel! Neither of them did! They kept silent! They watched Tol mocking me and kept silent!"
"But why did Nikto do it, I don't understand."
"To set me up!"
"Is it why you want to revenge yourself on him?"
"I don't want to revenge, are you listening, I want you to kill him! Do you hear? Kill him! And you have nothing to fear. Orel won't find out, he won't even know what happened to his beloved. I won't give you away - to do it is to give myself away. I'll pay you so much as you never got for any order. I'll suck your dick, I'll let you fuck me - anything you want!"
Squint-Eye laughed; he walked back to the bed and sat down in front of Lis again.
"Lis, don't disappoint me!"
"Do you think I really can kill him?"
"I'm not sure. I'm not sure he can be killed at all!"
"Why not, for fuck's sake?"
"He can't be killed that simply, Lis, please understand. Whatever we do, whatever shit we inject him, he won't die. The demon will come back and the guy will survive."
"And if we chop off his head? Stab his heart?"
"Then you'll have to chop off Orel's head, too. Besides, Nikto will never let it happen. As soon as you come up to him with a sword or something else, the demon will save him. We can't kill him!"
"Who said he's something extraordinary? He did, and the Unclean who like spreading rumors. We are afraid of him, we are sure he is special, and he gladly lets us think so. Of course, no one will try to kill him. But what if we do try? What if everything is much simpler? Something tells me it's possible."
"But I think everything is much more difficult than it seems. And my intuition never failed me, or I wouldn't be such a good killer, Lis."
"We spend time with him every day, do you see anything special in him? Tell me what makes you think of him as of someone special? Yes, he is knowledgeable about medicine but it's not magic."
"The Unclean mercenaries follow his orders unquestioningly, did you notice? One can envy the discipline in his detachments."
"They believe he is a son of the Devil - just like all others do."
"They don't believe in anything, they know. Belief alone wouldn't keep them in order."
"I don't think so. Well, what else?"
"Women love him."
"Not only women," Lis smiled. "Well... he is good-looking, White half-bloods are always beautiful, that's why they are so precious."
"His eyes are strange."
"Squint-Eye, you have strange eyes, I have strange yellow eyes, Tol has strange eyes of different colors!"
"Lis, why do you need me? To have someone to blame if it fails?"
"You're more experienced in such things."
"Oh what a praise from you, Lis! But I don't believe you, more than that, I've never believed you! What did you do in the Red City? Didn't you do what I do here? You have a death sentence!"
"All right, call me Sigmer now," Lis grimaced.
"No, I won't! You're not Sigmer and you're not Atley Alis, I don't know who you are but I know all your stories are bullshit. You said your mother was raped by Red soldiers and she was so kind she couldn't kill you. Then you fought the Red at the border, was captured and escaped. It is the life story of Atley Alis but even children won't believe it. Another story is slightly more complicated: now your mother is a beauty from a border town who made a Red from high command fall in love with her. When you grew up, you found your father and he accepted you. But I don't believe it either. Orel might believe you but I don't! You're not a commoner and you're not a half-blood!"
"Who am I, then?" Lis asked very slowly.
"You're Red, a shitty Red who hides behind Orel and pretends to be a half-blood. You carry out a task from the Red, I don't know which one, but I think Nikto might interfere with your plans, that's why you want to eliminate him."
"It is not true," Lis said.
"Can you prove it? That's why you get so mad when Enriki makes you wear signs of a half-blood, you never wear them yourself - because being a half-blood is humiliating for you! A noble Red wearing signs of a half-blood, ha-ha, it's funny!"
"Orel won't believe you!"
"I'm not going to tell him about it. Orel doesn't care what you are - a spy of the Red or a traitor. You submit to him, indulge his little weaknesses letting him disfigure you a little. It's enough for him, he doesn't care about anything else."
"If you don't agree to help me," Lis suddenly said very sharply, "Orel will find out who cuts the women at the river. And I will make sure he'll care!"
Squint-Eye stayed calm.
"I was expecting it, Lis. As soon as you came in, I felt you wanted to blackmail me with these murders. Do you think Orel doesn't suspect me? He does, a lot, but he doesn't care what I do! And the main thing is that I didn't do it!"
"He doesn't care, it's true, but only as long as it is not in the public. As soon as Enriki, Vil and Tol find out - oh, then it'll matter! Orel will have to punish you, and I'll suggest to put you into the dungeon. I'll find hefty arguments for that."
"I didn't do it!"
"Bad luck then."
"Orel needs me in the Lower City!"
"No, he doesn't. I plan our strategy there. Enriki can't fight yet and you don't have a pair. Coal can do without you in your territory, your presence is not necessary. I'll easily explain it to Orel."
Squint-Eye fell on his back on the bed.
"Kill him!"
"Aren't you afraid of the Devil's revenge?"
"No! If you kill him, the demon, if he's there, will die too. It's bluff! Everything will be over with the death of that dumb body!"
Squint-Eye rose and lit a cigarette slowly. He was silent.
"There is no demon, you're just an executor, what are you afraid of? Even if he doesn't die, what will he do? Complain to Orel? He is in coma, he won't even notice our attempt!"
"A traitor and a murderer," Squint-Eye said thoughtfully at last. "Don't you feel sorry for Orel?"
"No." Lis got pale and stood up. "Look, Squint-Eye, killing a son of the Devil is cool! If only I could do it myself... stab his heart! But I can't!"
"Don't you wear his brand somewhere on your shoulder yet? It seems you love him just as much as Arel."
Lis didn't answer, he left the room slamming the door shut. Squint-Eye fell on the bed again.
"Killing a son of the Devil is cool." He started laughing.