The Mist and the Lightning. Part 14 - стр. 2
“We have won! We have won!”
“Al!” Tol shouted.
And on the exhausted face of Lis sincere joy was reflected:
“Tol! Tol, damn you! Where are you from here?!”
“We followed in your footsteps,” Tol smiled, “you got so far!”
He looked around: everything around him was on fire, walls in many places were collapsed.
“What a beautiful fortress!” Tol said absolutely sincerely. He dismounted, heading for Lis, and he rushed to meet him, embracing him. They hugged each other tightly, like two friends and warriors. Finally, Tol, pulling back, patted Lis on the shoulder.
“Al, you sly ass, where did you get in?!”
He looked at Arel:
“Orel! How glad I am!”
And Arel, looking at him, smiled at him too:
“I am no longer Prince Orel from the family of Eagle, Tol,” he said, “now everyone calls me just Arel.”
Tol happily hugged him, not paying any attention to these words and the slightly surprised look that Lis, Kors and everyone else around had, because they completely lost the habit that Arel could speak, forgot his voice. And he said it to Tol so simply, and, as was his habit, drawing out his words a little lazily, and his beautiful low velvety timbre of voice, from which common people usually fell into a reverent trance, hadn’t changed at all.
“Nik!” Tol shouted, no doubt recognizing Nikto despite the mask. And they also hugged tightly.
“Karina!”
“Eh, no, Tol, I won't hug you!” She laughed. Her face was stained with gunpowder soot, very successfully hiding traces from the whip on her cheeks.
“You motherfucker, I don’t believe, we have won!” Lis said. Walls and buildings were almost destroyed, but Death, though reluctantly, retreated, remembering this place and wanting to return here to finally finish his dance.
“We have won, just as you said, Nik!” Lis shouted happily.
And Nikto put a finger to his mask, indicating a smile.
Kors stood and watched as the captive red warriors, who were lined up in the square, bowed their heads and knelt before Atley Alis, thus demonstrating their submission and loyalty to him. Now they would fight on their side. Lis approached each and asked for the name and rank, and his adjutant entered everything in a journal.
Kors saw Alis walk over to the red one, whose face was completely wrapped in dirty bloody strips of cloth that replaced his bandages. The warrior, like the others, when his turn came, bowed down to Lis and knelt down.
Kors watched them with bated breath, he perfectly understood who it was, but from his place he couldn’t hear their conversation. He only saw that Lis asked the red one something and then waved his hand to the side, to where the wounded prisoners were taken, they lay and sat a little to the side. The soldier, disfigured by Kors, stumbled to the other wounded. He didn’t look at Kors and didn’t see him, and Kors for some reason involuntarily smiled, he himself didn’t understand why, but he felt pleased. And Lis, no longer paying attention to the unfortunate red, continued and stopped at the next captured warrior.
The unclean survivors of Nikto and black mercenaries, several peasants from the militia of Prince Arel and several people of Marmer began to restore Crimson Rock. The soldiers Tol brought with him immediately became actively involved in the life of the Fort, and helped them. Since the confrontation with the Black Bey ended, and Bey himself perished in the village of swamp inhabitants, there was no longer a need to defend the territories in the Black City, so Tol, no doubt, brought with him almost all the warriors of Prince Arel. Borgan stayed in Lower to keep order, but Nikto sent almost a thousand unclean ones. The red prisoners were also involved in the work, and they tried very hard.