of some kind, everything rotten. If you try to pick them up…”
“Edin! Sit down!” Ordered Bey, turning to the rest of the soldiers sitting at the table:
“Okay, we've been sitting here all summer, and where were they sitting? In the quagmire? Locals claim that there is nothing there but mud and water. Where?! Where have they been sitting all this time?!”
Edin Ol returned to the table:
“Now it doesn't matter, Bey, where they were sitting, in the quagmire they ate dirt or in the same hut. They showed up, and this is the main thing. We must go out at dawn!”
“Don't worry, Edin,” Mike Rout said. “They walk so slowly that it won't be difficult to ambush them.”
He chuckled:
“They barely move their legs. It's a pity to watch the girl. Very thin. Maybe they really ate swamp slurry alone. Remember her in Lower, huh? Such a beauty she was, and now she is barely alive.”
“She had to run far from them then,” said Bey, “well, it’s her own fault.”
“Yes, she drags around with him, like tied,” agreed Mike, “thin, he seemed to suck her!”
“Damn Devil!” Bey shook his head.
“We grazed them all day until they made a small fire and lay down for the night. They walk slowly, but he keeps the direction right, she trails after him, well, just like on a leash. We came close, close to them, they seemed not to understand anything.”
“What were they talking about? Have you heard?”
“Who?!”
“They!”
“They didn't speak at all! They walked in silence, lit a fire in silence and lay down. I say it looks like both of them don't understand anything. Come and take with your bare hands.”
“Well, so many days to spend no one knows where, exhausted,” said Edin Ol happily, “the easier it will be for us to deal with them.”
“He is alone, and the unclean ones didn’t come to his aid,” Mike said. “We checked everything to see if the accomplices were hiding in ambush. There’s nobody there.”
“How do you think, why is it so?” Toby asked.
“And how do we know,” Edin waved him off, “it's easier for us!”
“I can't wait to be able to cut off his stupid head!” Bey slammed his fist on the rough tabletop. “How tired I am of him, this damn Son of the Devil! I can’t think about anything but about him! And how to take revenge on them all! For the streets, for my girl! I will cut off his head and take it to the prince's estate! I would go out with this Nikto for a one-on-one battle, he was tempting me, but I just don’t want to waste time. So we will just shoot him!”
Bey turned to the warrior with the crossbow, who was sitting on a bench by the entrance.
“Shoot and that’s done!”
“Okay,” he nodded.
“And then we will cut off his head and take it to the prince! And let's see how he suffers. Just as I suffered for my Jazmina, the prince will suffer for his lover! Yes, Toby?” And Bey laughed unpleasantly.
Toby turned pale, but nodded in agreement.
“And then we will kill Prince Arel.”
“What about the girl? The crossbowman asked. “Should I shoot her too?”
“No. She is noble. Yes, nevertheless you know who her father is, we will return her safe and sound, I have no business with this sir from the Upper and I don’t want to have. We must stay away from him, otherwise you won't end up with problems!”
“That's right,” nodded Mike Rout. “We will return her, he will not touch us.”
“He has his own business, and we have ours,” agreed Edin Ole.
“Why this revenge,” Tobias Bat said timidly, “all the same the streets are occupied by Tol and Coal. Nikto and Arel have nothing to do with it now.”
“It is a revenge! Revenge for my Jazmina!”
“But she refused you!”
“Sh-h-h”, Mike Rout hissed, eyes widening.
“She didn’t refuse me, you are a stupid boy and don’t understand anything in the relationship between a man and a woman! She was just humble and clean so that she could agree right away. Therefore, she refused and ran away! This is the usual female coquetry! It is clear, you are still green!”
Toby thought it best to remain silent.
And Bey bared his teeth. He looked sideways at the straw scattered by Edin Ol and the boards lying on the earthen floor, as if covering something.
“Damn this place! I am glad that at dawn we will finally leave here!”
Chapter three
The meeting
At about noon, they went out to an abandoned cemetery. Karina felt uneasy. But not from the sight of cracked gravestones overgrown with weeds and collapsed crypts. No. Some kind of anxiety lodged in her chest, like a premonition of something bad. Something was about to happen. Nikto walked as usual in silence, and she didn’t want to ask him, she felt some kind of evil as if thickening around them, hovering in the air. And yet, despite all the premonitions, Karina cried out in surprise when from behind the ancient crypt several soldiers suddenly came out to meet them.
One of them had jet-black hair tousled, and equally inscrutable black eyes. The pupil in them merged with the iris. Black Bey! This man really had some devilish ability to appear suddenly in the most unexpected place and at the wrong time. He looked at her, clearly hearing her exclamation, and grinned contentedly. His warriors were with him. Karina recognized them: half-blood Toby, Edin Ol, and the man she'd sworn she'd seen several times among the visitors at Backara.
All this lasted literally a few seconds, and then one of Bey's men threw up a crossbow and shot at Nikto. Nikto, who stopped slightly in front, jerked sharply to the side and, bending down to the ground, grabbed his right forearm. At this moment, without hesitation, Karina rushed forward, blocking him from the shooter. She screamed, trying her best to give her voice courage:
“Stop it! Bey! My name is Karina Kors, and my father is the head of the Royal Security Service, he will pay a big ransom for me!”
She spread her arms, trying to cover Nikto with herself as much as possible:
“For me alive!”
“Get out of my way!” Bey growled.
“Order him not to shoot!”
“What are you doing?!” Nikto hissed and, clutching at the shot-through forearm, he tried to move away from Karina.
“I’m returning the debt,” she said abruptly, continuing to shield him with herself, “stop,
