The Mist and the Lightning. Part 14
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“Oh, Gods, Tol! And the map?”
“Which map?”
“Maybe you should have looked for maps of the area in the Estate?”
“What for? Did you draw where you went?”
“Okay… How did you find us?”
Tol made a conspiratorial look:
“And, brother, death helped us three times.”
“What?!”
“We accidentally stumbled upon a corpse. We got desperate and that was it… it was Dick Coal. He kept thinking and thinking. He recalled his childhood in these parts. How the reds attacked, how they burned down his house. How he saved Lila, and he almost burned out himself. He noticed a crow. And he said: “Since the crows fly there, there is something there.” We went there and saw a grave dug by animals. Not deep. And there was a dead man. Slave. The collar was tight on his neck, the skin was swollen around, it was horrible. And he himself was thin as a skeleton. We realized that he died of hunger, apparently, you dug him in. You know how happy we were! We found the right trail! We found our way. So they began to search the ground, and after a couple of days we found a new dead man, it was a red. You captured the red, we decided so. He still had some crap on his face. Broken. Dick said these were glasses, he saw, they red ones wear it from blindness. When they don’t see, but clothe, they begin to see through this glass. We were even more delighted when this blind man was found. At this point we completely understood that we were on the right track. And for sure! We passed the blind man, and there was a third, a girl. Beautiful. Only badly beaten, broken bones, they scoffed at her great, it seems. And her hair was cut off to her shoulders, and you know what her hair was?! I've never seen this! Pink like flowers! She was just lying in the ditch. Why did you kill her?”
“This was a slave of the unclean,” said Lis, he sat in thought, his head bowed.
“That's how we found you in three deaths, Al! Well, what about you? So what about your leg? What are these scars from? Who hurt you like that?”
Lis looked at the three scars on his thigh:
“I cut myself by accident. Tol, this is all nonsense. Irrelevant! The main thing is you found us! And we won!”
“Yes!”
“Now I'm sure we will capture Ore too! Do you need diamonds, Tol?”
“Nope…”
“Hey? What are you saying, dear!” Lila interrupted him indignantly. “We need them! We will build a Theater! Big, luxurious Theater! On Asa Street!”
Tol’s face darkened:
“I pity Asa, but I have forgiven you long, long ago, my friend.”
“Sorry,” said Lis, “I didn't mean to. But she provoked me.”
“Yes, she was a bad woman, but when her wish was fulfilled, and Borgan forced me to marry her for a gambling debt, she completely lost her head.”
“Have you forgiven me?”
“Yes, brother.”
And Karina's head suddenly came up with a distinct picture:
The prince's estate, and Nikto asks Karina to comb him.
“Will you comb me? Ver doesn't know how to braid all those kinds of braids.”
“Do you like them?”
“Well, they get tangled less and you don't need to comb it for a long time.”
“Ah.”
“And I will thank you.”
“How?”
“Do you want me to fuck you?”
“No, thanks. Let's do without gratitude.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want it.”
“You want it.”
“Why do you think so? I love Lis.”
“So what?”
“I want to marry him!”
“All girls are different, but they always want the same thing! You are already the third in my memory.”
“Are you talking about Dony? And who else?”
“Never mind. I have understood you.”
“All girls are different, but they dream about the same thing. You are already the third in my memory.” Here it is! First was Asa! First was Asa! She married Tol, who, unfortunately, lost at cards, her wish was fulfilled, but she was not happy for long. By an absurd accident due to a silly quarrel, Lis killed her. And the second, second was Nikto’s girlfriend, Dony. Dony, of course Dony, because she also married some rich landowner by the sea.
Father ordered Karina to go to Dony, literally forced her, Karina remembered how she didn’t want to do this then, to find out who had hit Dony on the head, she didn’t give a shit. Now, she already knew that her beloved and best husband did it. She didn't give a damn about it then, and even more so now.
Dony, in a hurry, is packing up her things, her fianc'e should come for her at any minute.
“Maybe you should, nevertheless, return to your female destiny, Karina, it seems to me that what you are doing doesn’t suit you at all. Before it's too late! Love someone in the end, and stop shaming!”
And Dony nervously knocks a puff with powder on her face and looks at Karina with open contempt.
“Lila!”
“Yes?”
“Why don’t you want to build your own theater? You don't play at Dony’s Theater anymore.”
“No,” Lila shook her head, “and there is no Theater.”
“How is Dony doing? She got married and abandoned her theater? Yes?”
Lila’s face stretched out, she turned pale, and Karina froze, feeling bad.
“You don’t know?” Lila asked.
“No.”
“They said lady Dony died in childbirth. I don't know the details…”
Karina felt cold inside: “You are the third in my memory, and everyone wants the same thing.” And they die! It wasn't long after that conversation with Nikto at the Estate, and Karina married Lis. She is the third! No!
The cell in the prison dungeon, and Nikto sits in front of Karina on the dirty straw, chained to the wall.
.“Yes. Yes! It's my fault that he became so evil!”
“You’d better have killed him then?”
“No, no, no!”
“Then what do you want?”
“You ask as if you were fulfilling wishes!”
“But what if it so? You know how the unclean say: “Do not want much, otherwise you won’t have enoughstrength to pay!”
“And people say: “Be careful in your desires, because they can be fulfilled!”
“Right!”