The Mist and the Lightning. Part I - стр. 2

"What's your name?"

"Again? Fuck! All right, all right! It's Nik. Nik."

"How can you prove it?"

"People who know me can say."

"Where are you from?"

"I came to the city from the west."

"Did you live in the local outpost in the west, on the border with the lands of the Unclean?"

"Yes."

"Did you fight them?"

"Yes."

"What happened?"

"They captured me. They addicted me to black water. Since then I depend on them."

"Do you follow their orders?"

"Yes."

"What orders?"

"Orders? Ah… well… kill people. Eliminate. Rob."

"Bastard! I'll kill him!" Tol bellowed. Orel stopped him not letting him hit Nikto.

"Calm down, Tol. Calm down."

"What do you think of our king, Nik?" Enriki asked.

"He's a shit!"

Lis laughed.

"I've had enough of it. That's utter bullshit."

"Did you conspire with the Unclean against the king?" Orel continued.

"No. They don't trust me enough for that. Too bad."

"Orel," Lis said. "He lies. He says what we want to hear."

"I'm not sure I want to hear exactly that, Lis."

"I need my drug."

"Don't give him any, Arel, let this disgrace for humans die!"

"Give him his drug he calls a restorer," Lis said.

Nikto's eyes closed.

"Hey…" Orel shook him worriedly. "Don't you dare, I haven't finished with you!"

"He's losing it, Orel, I told you so!" Lis shouted. "If he dies now, your stupidity will be to blame! What shall we do then?"

"My stupidity? Don't you dare talk to me like that! I'm a prince, I'm your lord!"

"Orel, Lis, please, not now," Enriki begged. "The client won't forgive us if he dies. We need him alive. Lis, give him a shot, you know how. Where is his bag?"

"Enriki, take off his bracelets! Hurry!" Lis got a flat box made of black wood from Nikto's bag. "Move faster, you! Unchain him!"

Enriki unlocked the cuffs and pulled on Nikto's arm trying to take off the bracelets. Nikto followed the pull and fell onto his side.

"Oooh, idiot! Stop pulling! Open them! They must be locked!" Lis rushed to Nikto lying on the floor, unclasped several silver bracelets that covered Nikto's arm from wrist to elbow. His arm under the bracelets was wrapped in the strips of black cloth.

"Fuck! Cut the cloth!"

Enriki followed the order as soon as he could – and froze looking down. Lis also halted.

"Where do I have to stick the needle? The other arm, quickly!"

"I don't feel his pulse," Enriki said quietly. Tol came up to them and snorted.

"Yeah, he wasn't lying about 'black water', it's the only thing that corrodes veins like that."

"The other arm is just the same," Lis said.

"He gets what he deserves," Tol summarized.

"No, stick it somewhere else," Orel begged nervously. "His neck…"

"His collar is too wide, Arel, and I can't take it off."

"His leg. Lis, do it for me!"

"For us," Enriki corrected Orel.

"I'll stick it into his groin," Lis said. "Strip him."

"A nice tattoo," Tol smirked looking at Nikto's tattooed thigh.

"He really seems to be from the west," Orel said thoughtfully.

"Okay, he should revive now." Lis took Nikto's wrist to check the pulse. "This tattoo on his arm, the brand of the Unclean – it is the emblem of the western community. If I'm not mistaken."

"Yeah, he has too many tattoos for a plainsman. He's from the west," Orel confirmed.

"Then he was captured, as he said?" Enriki asked. "They disfigured him and addicted him to black water, just as he said?"