"He drafted the layouts of farms and villages of the Unclean, told about their outposts and other things. Without him I wouldn't have had triumphed! I asked him if he'd follow me but he refused. Then I promised to avenge him, avenge everything that'd been done to him.
"He said to me: 'What the Unclean did to me is nothing in comparison with what others had done before them.' I said: 'They slashed your face.' He said: 'I did it myself.'
"He said it so seriously that I felt uneasy. And I didn't ask him anything else.
"We parted. I went to the west and he, to the east. Bidding farewell I warned him that the Unclean would get him sooner or later, to punish him for betrayal. He just smiled. He probably knew what he was doing.
"That woman – Amba – he described her to me, said she was his owner and asked not to torture her but to kill her quickly. But she is very cunning and when I killed all her family, she wrote to me asking to take her to Nikto to the city, and then no Unclean in the city would harm me.
"She wrote about Nikto: 'I hear him, he needs me.' And I took her along. When we arrived to the city, Nikto came and took her away. And the king of the Unclean didn't do anything to me, or to my people, or to Nikto, or to her. You know they even respect Nikto for avenging his humiliation and fear him. The Unclean from the city don't particularly like their western congeners at all. But I think Nikto is a human being, he needs to live among humans, he suffers living with aliens."
"What you told me is terrible," Orel said. "That Unclean knows that because of him all her family was killed. And she still loves him as if nothing happened?"
"Yes, they are like that." Mark laughed. "She's even proud of him, and she doesn't care shit about her family. Well, is it enough for you? You can ask him about the rest."
Orel sighed.
"My people are absolutely against him."
"You know what?" Mark smiled. "Take them tomorrow night to the Lower Coliseum. Nikto will be there, and when they see him fighting, they will beg you to take him on the team!"
"What would I do without you, Mark!" Orel's eyes flashed with joy.
Chapter 3
The Agreement
"He isn't coming," Enriki said.
"He will come," Orel argued.
"If I were him, I wouldn't come," Enriki said. "Definitely."
"But you are not him!" Orel stabbed Enriki's chest with his finger in annoyance. "You are not."
"All right." Enriki raised his hands. "Fine."
A servant brought a tray with wine, bowed and started putting glasses on the table.
"He's here," Lis said quietly; from his place he could clearly see the entrance. Everyone froze.
"Is it really him?" Orel asked.
"I swear. He has your cloak and he's coming right up here," Lis whispered looking down at his glass quickly.
"Get out," Orel hissed at the servant who dropped the tray and disappeared in a moment. Nikto came up to them.
"Hello."
"Hi. Take a seat." Orel pointed at the chair on the opposite side of the table, in the corner.
The tables here were separated by high walls. Tol got up to let Nikto in. Nikto glanced at Tol and took the offered place without saying a word. When he pushed off the hood and let the cloak slip from his shoulders. Nikto's blonde hair fell onto his forehead, and he shoved it aside with a familiar gesture of his fingerless hand. The only difference was that they had seen his scar then and now his face was hidden behind a black mask.
