The Mist and the Lightning. Part VII. Ви Корс
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guards immediately began to obey the order. They stopped holding Nikto’s head in a tilted position, and he immediately lowered it down, a mass of white hair covered his face.
And Kors involuntarily looked at the beautiful, clear that good and expensive boots on Nikto’s feet. The new, not worn out sole was lined with shiny steel plates.
The convoy commander, whose name was Nolan, noticed the look of his boss, and nodded in understanding.
“I also noticed,” he said, “great boots!”
“Yeah! Dressed like a master, not a slave,” Kors agreed with a grin.
He stepped with the tip of his boot on the tip of one of Nikto’s braids lying on the floor. He saw that on the one side Nikto had two braids, and on the other – only one.
“Why three braids, not four or two?” He asked.
“What?” Nikto said quietly and a little surprised, he tried to turn around, but the soldiers didn’t allow him.
“And here it is, under his hair,” Nolan roughly lifted part of Nikto’s hair. “It’s short, as if cut off,” he grunted.
“I earn money by honest labor,” Nikto said, as if through force, “I fight at the Coliseum, and with that money… with this money I buy boots.”
The guards and Kors laughed.
“No need to make excuses,” Kors continued to smile, “no one currently blames you for anything. There is nothing wrong with being well dressed. I even like it!”
Nikto was silent.
“Well? Why did you shut up? You have such a funny accent, as if lisping, are your teeth all in place?”
“In place,” Nikto snapped back.
The guards laughed again.
“Okay, I'm joking. I see that they are in place. Tell me, as usual, that you are not to blame for anything, and you were treated unfairly. Everyone who happens to be here in this room always tells me about it. All innocentand arrested unfairly!”
Kors turned to the soldiers:
“Have you heard at least one person admit right away that he is here in fairness and for the cause?”
The guards continued to have fun:
“No, sir!”
“After all, they also treated you unfairly? Isn’t it so? And you are not to blame for anything? Correctly?”
“Yes,” Nikto answered.
Kors, barely restraining himself, made a signal to the soldiers to shut up:
“Stop having fun! Man has sorrow!”
They calmed down instantly, clearly continuing to enjoy the performance and anticipating what usually followed a little later.
“Here you see! And how was it that those people treat you unfairly? Will you tell us?”
Vitor Kors returned to the table:
“Well? Why are you keeping silent? Say it, don’t be shy, everybody are my people here!”
Nikto raised his face, and Vitor Kors again involuntarily turned his gaze to the portrait.
“I was not born a slave, but they made me it! Unfair!” Nikto said with some challenge.
Vitor Kors stopped smiling:
“What does it mean?”
Nikto blinked several times, bowed his head to the side, trying to dodge the light falling on him from the window:
“Yes. I didn’t commit any crime, for which I could be branded as slave and sent to hard labor!”
“Why did you sit in jail at the reds then if you are so good?” Asked Vitor Kors, but it was noticeable that this conversation no longer entertained him.
“The patrol of the reds spotted me near the portal, and I killed one of them. But this is not a crime. Killing the “red” is not a crime. I just didn’t want to go with them and defended myself.”
“What did you do near the portal? Wanted to escape to the upper world?”
“No. I just came there in memory of my girlfriend. That was stupid. But I had nowhere else to go. And I sat there for hours. But I didn’t open it.”
“Yeah, and what was to be done with you? Can you give some advice?”
“Maybe it was better to leave me there, at the Doctor, and give him the opportunity to treat me completely.”
Vitor Kors dropped a portrait of his wife:
“Heck!” He cursed, putting it in place.
“So, what is next? Let’s suppose a doctor would cure you. His name was Caspar, if I am not mistaken? Caspar Yanti.”
Nikto nodded.
“Yes.”
“And what would you do next?”
“Maybe… maybe he would let me stay with him and help him. I would like that. I would stay with him. I understand medicine and would help him.”
“Do you understand medicine?!”
“Yes. Mother and sister taught me.”
“According to my sources, Caspar Yanti moved to the city several years ago, and lives here.”
“I know that,” Nikto answered.
“Why aren't you with him now? Why don’t you help him?” A grin played on Kors’ lips.
Nikto bowed his head:
“Now it's too late… But,” he raised his face in some kind of a fit, “I still love medi… medicine! Especially I’m good with eyes!”
Kors stopped smiling.
“You tell me everything very frankly, Nikto, that's what your name is, right?”
“Yes.”
“What did the prince call you?”
“Prince Arel?”
“Yes.”
“Nik.”
“Just Nik?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm… I never would have called you Nik. But that’s only Arel! If he doesn’t have enough imagination, even to come up with decent names for his people! If a person is squint, he will call him Squint-Eye, if he is red-haired, he will be Lis, if Nikto, he will be Nik,”Kors grinned.
“Yes. Nik,” Nikto confirmed.
“Nik, and Prince Arel didn’t tell you how our conversations usually went with him?”
“He told me.”
“Didn’t he tell you to keep your mouth shut? Didn’t he tell you to be silent, as to Squint-Eye or others?”
“My words, they mean nothing, I don’t do anything bad to anyone through them, they are no use now.”
“So