The Mist and the Lightning. Part VI - Ви Корс

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sighed heavily.

      Nikto laughed, bowing his head over the paper and reading it: “Twelve days, three hours.”

      “What?”

      “This paper. Document,” Nikto handed it to Arel. Arel indifferently took the sheet:

      “Ahhhh…” he said, “it was Enriki who gave me that. The decree. He grunted scornfully. Those freaks imposed a fine!”

      “You’re taking time, it’s dangerous.” Arel cocked his head:

      “What do you suggest?! To give you away?!” He asked in exasperation. Nikto looked down, handing Arel a clogged cigarette:

      “Hold on.”

      Arel literally snatched it from Nikto’s fingers.

      “Why did they set such a deadline?” Nikto asked. “Why such strange numbers, twelve days, three hours?”

      Arel blew smoke, and handed the jamb back to Nikto: “Will you?”

      Nikto nodded.

      “They are morons,” Arel continued, “for me their stupid orders mean nothing. Twelve days, thirteen days, a week. I don’t give a shit… shi-i-i- t…”

      “It just sounds so cool – twelve days, three hours, they should have written twelve minutes, three seconds!”

      “Yes, fucked up,” agreed Arel, taking the cigarette again and taking a deep drag.

      “They first demanded for a week or something,” he continued after a while, when he blew smoke. “Then they realized that it was pointless, they wrote this demand. Knowing fully well that this was pointless. They just supposedly do everything according to the law. First warning, second, third. Then a fine.”

      “And what next is the law? Nikto asked. “When these twelve days end?” “Next? Guard is next, Nik…”

      Nikto shook his head.

      “I have a finale in the “Lower” Coliseum.” “I know.”

      “It sucks…” Nikto returned to his bag.

      “It’s jamming me so much, oh!” Arel leaned back on the pillows. He crouched into a lump, and covered himself with a blanket:

      “Why is shit always happening to me, Nik? Will you explain me? Why am I always a laughing stock? Why do stories go about me, not you, not Lis, not Enriki, it’s me who always gets into a stupid position!”

      “Don’t talk nonsense, you are just high a little, that's all.”

      “Aha! And why didn’t they manage to comb out my horse properly? All combed out, and mine skims like cattle!”

      Nikto laughed:

      “If it weren’t so cold in the winter in the stable, they wouldn’t have become so overgrown with wool.”

      “Yeah…”

      “Is your stomach alright?” “Nah…”

      Chapter five

      Good weed. Lis and Squint-Eye talk about love

      “Hi, Alis,” Squint-Eye went down the stairs to the hall and sat at the end of the table in Arel’s place. Leaning with his elbows on the countertop, he laid his chin on his hands with his palms open up:

      “What are you doing?”

      “Hello,” Lis muttered distantly, on the table in front of him lay a deck of cards.

      “I thought everybody were already on a picnic.”

      “They are,” Lis nodded and thoughtfully picked up the cards in his hands.

      “Why don't you go?”

      “I'll go now…” Slowly, as if reluctantly, Lis began to shuffle the deck. All the first half of the day he spent with Tol, until he ran away to

      organize his lamb barbecue. When Lis was leaving, Asa, the dumb Asa, asked him:

      “What bothers you so much?” She noticed it!

      “Nothing!” He brushed off.

      And she looked at him very seriously, and said, as he thought, a little regretfully:

      “I would like to help you.”

      He got angry. Probably not even on her, but on himself, for really wanting to share this with someone.

      “It's all right, Asa.”

      “Well, as you know,” she answered, shrugging her shoulders. She didn’t insist.

      And he suddenly said:

      “I just want to know the answer to one question, that's all.” She didn’t laugh, as he expected:

      “Do you know what I do when I want to find out about something?” “Well?”

      “I ask a question and remove the card from the deck. If the red color falls, then the answer is yes. If it is a black card, the answer is no.”

      Lis pulled out a card.

      “Let’s have a smoke?” Suggested Squint-Eye.

      “With me?!” Today, everyone offered him something to do with them: Tol to drink, Squint-Eye to smoke, Asa to fuck. Or they suggested earlier, just Lis didn’t notice.

      “Well, yes,” said Squint-Eye simply.

      “But what about Arel? You usually light up with him.”

      “Arel has already smoked a little since morning with Nik,” Squint-Eye grinned.

      So all this was pointless! In vain Lis lurked so much time at Tol! Heck! “Why?!”

      “What “Why?” Asked Squint-Eye, looking at Lis in surprise.

      “Why did he smoke with Nikto, and not with you? After all, all the last time he was getting high with you!”

      “Well yes. Lis, what are you getting at?”

      “At nothing!” Lis looked at Squint-Eye with hatred.

      Squint-Eye, not paying any attention to his gaze, saluted the tip of the jamb, set fire to it, dragging on. His eye was covered with a blindfold. Scruffy hair framed his thin face. Lis couldn’t understand what Arel found in this man. Why was he so loyally friends with him, for so many years. Why he sat for hours in his room.

      “So what?” Squint-Eye inquiringly looked at Lis. “Come on…”

      They lit up.

      Lis took out another card. Just in case. To confirm answer?

      “Are you still jealous of Arel, or what?” Asked Squint-Eye a bit later. “Why do you care so much that he gets high, as you put it, with me?”

      “Squint-Eye, I feel sorry for you,” Lis said without annoyance.

      “Does it infuriate you that he communicates with me, and not with you?”

      “I don’t care!”

      “Do you miss Arel?”

      “I don't need Arel! And I'm tired of all these cheap jokes!” Squint-Eye laughed:

      “Yeah. Everyone knows that Arel is the best lover in this city. And whoever tried him will never want anything else.”

      “Yes, I have fucked him. So, what is next? I was pleased

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