“Nikto, how did you think to take me for a ride, disfiguring his body like that? Didn't Arel tell you how my interrogations usually end?”
“He told me,” Nikto said.
“And what did you hope for, you didn’t think how it would infuriate me?”
Nikto was silent and didn’t raise his head.
“Or did you want to infuriate me?! Throw this in my face and say: “See what I did?”
Nikto raised his left hand to his face, put his fingers under the edge of the half mask near the ear, and pulled it away, tearing it from the skin, revealing the scar.
“See what HE did? The one you wrote to the dead! He got involved in the stories one dumber than the other! He cut himself in despair.”
“I'm glad he resisted. It pleases me!”
“Enjoy it!”
“His grave will be beautiful! Do you believe me?!”
“Yes! Cram him into the grave quickly, out of sight. And then howl in sorrow as if for your wife, for the rest of your life! Bury him deeper, no matter that he is still alive!”
“And what is this?” Suddenly Kors asked himself rather quickly, and going up to Nikto, who pressed into the wall, leaned over him and with a sharp movement tore off a thin gold chain with a small ring on it from his neck.
He clenched the ring in his fist:
“Don't you dare desecrate her memory!”
“This is my girlfriend’s ring,” Nikto said defiantly, “why do you care?”
Kors looked at him a little in surprise and grinned:
“To begin with, this ring… however… what a difference now.”
He returned to the table and, opening his palm with a strange expression on his face, looked at a small piece of jewelry.
“Lead him away,” he finally whispered. “Take him away! And… damn you!” He cried when the convoy picked up Nikto from the floor and putting a bag over his head, dragged him out the door.
Chapter five
Afterwards
“Well?!” Karina in joyful excitement ran into the interrogation room. “Did you make sure? I couldn’t wait when you finish…” She looked at her frozen, hunched father, on an overturned chair, blood on the floor, a hill of bracelets of Nikto lying on the edge of the table.
“What did you do with him here?” Her voice became deaf, “Are you out of your mind?”
“Don’t dare,” Kors rose sharply, suddenly shouted at her so that Karina's tears came involuntarily because of this evil shout. But she restrained herself:
“You can… you can, at least explain to me.”
“Nikto is a demon!”
“Nonsense! I don’t believe in demons!”
“And I believe!”
“And you will execute him?”
“Sure! But first, I will avenge him, cruelly I will avenge! I’ll give him a walnut finish, my daughter! I have some thoughts on this subject, I’ll mock him great, be sure!”
“Gods! You already scoffed at him enough! Much more than enough! You didn’t even look at him, without understanding, you sent him to the mines! And if then I talked with him, then I saw him… It is quite possible then he could still be saved and he would not be so spoiled!”
“I don’t have time to meet and interrogate personally everyone!”
“But you regret doing so then? Are you sorry? Well, confess to me! Confess that you could have done differently!”
“I could. But I don’t regret it!”
“You regret!”
“Well, I'm sorry, but I don't care what you think about it. And then it was too late! And now even more so.”
“I don’t think so, he’s not as bad as he seems, he’s better than other people of the prince. Well, of course! How could I have thought that you would accept him! How would you introduce him to all your pompous friends. Tell them that your son is a slave, a rag from the “Lower”, and a half-breed.”
