LITMIR.BIZ

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can only criticize, it's easy to do! Can you do anything but take a dig on me? Suggest your allocation, I'll think about it. What, why do you keep silent?"

      "Who's gonna listen to me, you listen only to Nikto."

      Everyone froze.

      "Ooh shit," Nikto, who kept silent till now, drawled.

      "So, you think I do what Nikto tells me," Orel reached for a cigarette. "Right?"

      "Right," Lis said. "Who else will take Squint-Eye away from Enriki not to risk Squint-Eye, and who else will put Tol with Asa to protect her."

      "Lis, don't drag me into it!" Enriki pleaded.

      "Really! Enough humiliating him," Squint-Eye said. "He has already got to understand what his love and devotion are worth. And I'm not surprised, Orel did the same to me."

      "Yes," Orel raised his voice. "I give up on Enriki, if you care. He is weak and I don't want to risk Squint-Eye for him!" He looked around. "I'm honest with you, what will you say?" He turned to Enriki. "Tell me whatever you want. I admit it, I'm betraying you. If Squint-Eye stood by you, very possibly you'd be just wounded but then Squint-Eye would be wounded, too, and I cannot afford it. With Vil you'll likely be killed. This is how I paid you for everything you did for me." He shook his head tossing his hair back. There was no embarrassment or repentance on his handsome grey face. He looked at Enriki, looked at his face calmly and confidently.

      Enriki lowered his head.

      "Thank you for your honesty, Arel. I know you for a long time and I'm not surprised. I understand that you think realistically and correctly. We are not children to weep over not being taken into a game. We're not toying here, it's life – everyone is for himself. But I will make you change your mind about me after the fight," he raised his head. "It's too early to write me off! I won't say anything else, words don't prove anything. You'll see it with your own eyes." And, seeing pity on their faces, he shouted. "I won't die to please you! You don't believe me? Fine! I shit care about you and your allocations, I just want to live! I want to stay alive! And I will survive even if you leave me all alone. Don't think I'm just wasting me breath, I am afraid, very afraid to go into fight with it," he raised his mutilated hand, "but I have to, or I cannot respect myself. And you betraying me – I would do the same if such a thing happened to someone else. If you're unlucky, it's your problem, don't drag anyone else into it." He stopped.

      No one from those sitting around the table said a word. Vil seemed to want to say something but changed his mind and kept silent, too. He started getting used and was tuning his behavior up to Lis and Orel. Vil became more silent and thoughtful, he became different.

      "Maybe he is right," Tol said at last. "Why are we burying Enriki in advance? But I still think it's better to put me with him."

      "Shut up," Orel snapped.

      "But I don't want to be paired with Asa! She is too weak for me!"

      "She's restored and she is okay for you!"

      Asa asked something in Unclean. Lis answered her, naming their new allocation. Asa laughed happily.

      "Nikto is promoting you just the way you want," Lis said. "What did you do to get into his grace? Maybe, used your Unclean hole?"

      Asa got white with fury.

      "Wasn't you ready to lick my hole just a short while ago?"

      "Soon all of us will be licking one Unclean hole," Lis hissed.

      "Do you want to start right now?" Nikto interfered.

      "Hey!" Orel yelled. "Speak Black! Since when there is Unclean sounding at this table?"

      "Get used," Lis said to Orel. "Soon we'll all start singing in Unclean, like good boys."

      "Never!" Tol was enraged. "I will never do it!"

      "You will be the first," Lis snapped.

      "Shut up!" Orel was in fury. "Shut up, you all! Or it won't ever end. You're not kids. You're experienced warriors. No matter how I'll put you, it'll be good."

      They laughed.

      Orel stopped in surprise, then smiled.

      "Don't pick on my choice of words. That's it, we finished discussing. You'll fight as I tell you. Have you finished, Lis?"

      "Do I have a choice?"

      "No."

      "I've finished."

      "Then it's decided."

      "I don't want to be paired with Asa! I don't!"

      "Look, Tol," Orel said barely controlling himself. "Is she your wench or mine?"

      "Hm," Tol muttered.

      "You dragged her here, to the castle, you begged me to take her in!"

      "Yes, but fucking her is one thing, fighting in pair with her is another!"

      "Ah so!" Orel got up. "Then I'll finish her off right now and no more questions."

      He walked around the table quickly, coming up to Asa. She got up, also very quickly, pushed Vil, stood behind him and took out her sword. Vil got up, his face distorted but he didn't make an attempt to move aside, he stood protecting her.

      "Arel, don't!" Tol screamed.

      But it was too late, Orel didn't hear him. Using Vil as a shield, he pushed him to Asa, to her sword, and she had to pull the blade back. When she'd tried to use Vil as her protection, she only worsened her situation: her momentary confusion was enough for Orel to grab her hand and wring her wrist sharply. He was strong and experienced and acted swiftly and mercilessly. She screamed in pain, her fingers couldn't hold the sword any more; it fell on the floor and rolled down from the dais. Orel hit her with his free hand, without letting her wrist go, then yanked her forward, toppling her over on the floor. He didn't give her a single chance to recoup and do something. At the next moment he pulled out his blade, ready to kill her – in his signature blow that chopped off his enemies' heads in one movement. When he pushed Asa to the floor, he carefully turned her to the edge of the dais so that nothing could hinder his blow – neither Vil, frozen in terror, nor massive chairs. Defeated, Asa looked at Orel and understood she'd die now. Then she screamed very loudly in Unclean:

      "Nikto! Help me!"

      It was a scream of despair. Orel froze, starting back from her. Nikto who sat at the table screwed his eyes shut and squeezed his temples. Lis didn't look away from him, staring at him with his yellow penetrating eyes. Orel slowly lowered his sword. He didn't know Unclean but everyone in the city knew how 'help me' sounded in it. And the name, the name she'd cried out in her last hope, the name of his most precious person, the name he whispered hundreds times relishing in its sound and naively thinking he was the only one to have this right… The name that left her lips so unexpectedly but naturally and easily, as if it belonged to her, too, stunned him. He suddenly realized very clearly that he was not the only one, that there were others who also considered themselves entitled to say those five letters. It seemed she robbed him. No, she couldn't take anything from him because he had never had anything – he'd only thought he owned something, it was an illusion, a fallacy Nikto instilled into him. Nikto! Orel turned around abruptly; looking past Tol, white as a sheet, he gazed at the man sitting there.

      "What is there between you?" Orel's voice was hoarse.

      "There is nothing between us that might anger or hurt you," Nikto said even without looking at Orel.

      "I don't believe you!" Orel came up to Nikto.

      "Calm down."

      Orel made a wheezing sound; he grabbed Nikto's hair, pulling his head back, pressing his sword to Nikto's neck right above the collar.

      "Are you suggesting me to calm down? To sit down and shut up?"

      Nikto didn't move.

      "Yes," he said and his voice was completely calm, as if Orel was not holding a sword at his neck but was chatting with him over a glass of wine.

      "Don't kid me!"

      Nikto looked up at Orel, simply looked. A thin trickle of blood leaked from under the

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