“Dad, I'm sorry,” she whispered, seeing how she had like a butcher finished the guard, who, by the way, covered her all this time.
Well, okay! Well, let it be so!
She returned for Nikto:
“How are your eyes? Can you see anything?”
Nikto shook his head.
“Well! Come on!”
Having left the chamber together with Nikto, she squatted down next to the guard lying prone, unfastened his bandage and his knife.
“Let’s take his sword,” she explained, “suddenly it may come in handy.”
Both the knives and the bandage were stained with blood. She could be accused of murder and imprisoned, this was not a joke and she got into a really bad thing, Karina understood this. But she reasoned so: she will pull out Nikto, sit out somewhere, and then her father could not bear the separation and would call her back. Time will show that she was right and did nothing wrong. Maybe she could even manage to reconcile him with Nikto? And the security guard… well, it could well be self-defense, or she could even blame it on Nikto… For him it already doesn’t make any difference. Having calmed herself in this way, Karina handed a weapon to her plagued brother.
“Here it is, take a sword, it can come in handy.”
But he shook his head.
“Can’t you fight blindly?”
She still hung an additional sword on her back.
“Okay, let's go!” She pulled Nikto after herself.
Slowly they moved along the low corridor. Karina’s heart was pounding so that it seemed to her that now it would jump out of her throat. It was one thing to go here and get to Nikto secretly, even if they caught her, she was sure that her father would quickly forgive her, it was an innocent prank, a whim, especially since the doctor himself sent her for the first time here. And it was a completely different thing to wade past posts like this, with blind Nikto who was out of his mind. When any patrol would be a disaster for them. She frantically scrolled various options in her head and realized that her plan, by its lack of thought and stupidity, didn’t enter into any framework of sanity.
“I hold your hand. Follow me as quietly as possible, just sneak. If they spot us, I’m not sure that I will handle it!”
Slowly and carefully they walked along the narrow corridor. Karina turned into a low arch, inside of which steps immediately began to go up, and up there… there should have been another guard, no, no, not the last. Just another one. And Karina didn’t know how to pass him. And how to pass the rest?
“Wait, who's coming?”
“Karina Kors, I’m leading a convicted person to my father for interrogation!” She replied loudly, suddenly realizing with all clarity why Nikto refused to take the sword.
“Your pass!”
Karina boldly held out the paper, the guard knew her. He glanced at Nikto, perhaps it was worthwhile to put a bag on his head for greater persuasiveness?
“Lady, are you doing this alone? Can I help you?”
“No,” Karina answered very quickly and probably too harshly, “I… the soldiers and Nolan will meet me there… and you… you must let me in and not leave your post!”
“I obey, madam!”
Gods! This guard was dumb, and what will happen next? The higher they rise, the more savvy the guards will be. But! In any case, they managed to pass by this one. And some confidence that she was doing everything right settled in the heart of Karina. Nikto slowly, but to pay tribute to him, despite blindness and a lame leg, very quietly, almost silently stepped after her, and she remembered his complaints about how he fell several times on the stairs.
