The Mist and the Lightning. Part VIII - стр. 8
“That’s it? The very that “stone bag”? Yes?” Karina asked in a whisper. She didn’t hear the chase after them, but it was so quiet there that for some reason she didn’t want to break this silence with the loud sounds of her voice.
The lid was slightly moved, and Karina involuntarily looked down. Goose bumps ran along her back. And what was he like?
Nikto, still palpating objects with his fingers, touched the stone lid. In the light of the “stone flower” Karina saw that his face had not changed expression. It was as if he was looking for something, some reference point. Having stopped at the head of this stone coffin, he seemed to have turned into hearing, listening to something inaudible for Karina. He pulled his nose, as if sniffing, and then went, no longer holding onto the wall, to the left corner, confidently, as if knowing what he was looking for, but Karina had no doubt, he was looking for something, it was there.
He knelt down, there in this corner, began to fumble on the floor with his hands. Karina understood that this was crazy, sooner or later the guards would get here. When her father becomes aware that she is here, he will order to put the whole fucking tower upside down, turn everything upside down, but find them. And Nikto… he scared her. He dealt with the guard so professionally, he can do whatever he wants with her, because she herself gave him a sword! “Ah, poor little brother, how can I help you?” Now he will put her in this coffin, and sorry, goodbye!
Nikto turned to her, or rather, almost to her, because he didn’t see her, and she stood silently, but approximately in the direction where she was. He turned around and waved his hand, as if calling her.
At that moment she heard the sounds of the trumpet and the screams of the guard, still far away, it seemed to her that a whole detachment had run over their head. Karina quickly approached Nikto and saw what he had found. It was a hatch. A small hatch, and a groove to it from a stone coffin. What was supposed to flow into this hatch? Blood? The stool of the unfortunate walled up alive?
In any case, she realized that Nikto was trying to open it, and he needed her help. Together with him she tucked the hatch with a sword:
“Oh no! Nik, a sword can be broken! Wait a minute!”
She remembered a strange thing that reminded her of a poker.
“There it is! Try it, Nik!”
Using the “poker”, or it was some old instrument of torture, Nikto pushed the hatch lid. Karina looked into a narrow black hole. And there, they will be found too, sooner or later.
“There are no exits, Nik. This is not a city sewage system; grilles and wide passages are walled up everywhere. We just get lost there, and die of hunger.”
To her surprise, Nikto shook his head. Then he put his hand to his heart and on, as if he had drawn an arch with both hands. She realized for herself that he was hoping to find a way out.
“Nik, I don’t want to deprive you of hope, but there is no way out…” She said and raised her head unconsciously, crowds of guards rushed over them on the floors.
Nikto took her hand, very gently, making her ashamed of the thought that he would take her hostage or throw her in a stone bag. He made a movement with his other hand, and she understood, gently pulled her fingers out of his hand: