The Mist and the Lightning. Part VIII. Ви Корс

go! If we don’t do it now, he will put you in this damned coffin forever, and I won’t be able to help you! Neither I, nor anyone else!”

      Nikto didn’t get up.

      “Nik! For me! For my sake – I'm your sister! And for the sake of Arel and Lis, Enriki, Tol, Squint-Eye, Vil and all your other friends! They need you! Let's go! I beg you! For the sake of your Rosa and our mother, Iness. I beg you, Nikto, let’s go!”

      Forced by her, Nikto stood up. Without releasing his hands and holding the sword ready, Karina cautiously approached the door and knocked with a special signal. The guard immediately opened. Leaving Nikto for a second, Karina came out first. The guard had not even had time to ask her anything, as she, having invested all her strength, hit him with a sword in the lower abdomen, just there the protective bib ended. She turned the sword, ripping open his stomach. And when he, clutching at the falling out insides, fell to his knees, she hit him in the neck, it certainly was not Arel’s crown blow, but very rough and clumsy work, but the guard was huge and healthy, and Karina was small and fragile. And although she didn’t take his head off, this was quite enough.

      “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.

      Passing a few more unguarded arches and turns, they entered a rather wide corridor. Just a little more, and narrow loopholes of windows will appear, maybe to get out the window, it will not be very high, the second floor, they can try, and if to cling to the rough masonry of the tower… so what? Once in the prison yard, they will be in full view. Who will open the gates to them? Only if you put everyone down, steal the horses… if Nikto was in good condition… he could “put everyone down”, for some reason she had no doubt about it. “Yes, and I would also help,” she thought, not without pride. Only, they still have to go to the windows, and maybe it’s easier like that – to go through the cordon after cordon, supposedly leading him for interrogation. And to meet with her father at the door of his office, huh…

      Her feverish thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps. Security was checking the floor around the perimeter. The corridor was quite wide and there was nowhere to go. What to do?!

      She pushed Nikto around the corner, into some small dead-end arch, and herself darted behind him. Maybe they will not be noticed?

      Her back felt a quiet breath. Nikto didn’t move, and even his heart seemed to be beating quietly, but her one must have been beating so that the guards could hear it. Their steps were getting closer, closer …

      “Who is there?!”

      That was the end. They were noticed…

      “I’m Karina Kors, I’m leading a prisoner to my father for interrogation…” She slowly stepped apart from Nobody, came into the light.

      “Your pass!”

      “Here you are,” Karina glanced at this overseer and understood everything. Slowly, without making any sudden movements, while the overseer was still interested in her pass, she again stepped back a step, pushing Nikto who was still standing in the arch with her back, a little rude, probably as if making it clear: “It's trash!”

      “Why are you hiding from us, lady Karina Kors? And where is the escort? Are you alone?!”

      “Because the matter is secret, you see! No one should know about this!”

      And with relief, Karina felt that Nikto understood her, and slowly, carefully, gently was pulling the sword of the murdered guard from the sheath behind her back.

      “A secret matter? Show me your prisoner! Why are you hiding him behind you, behind your back?”

      Karina pulled away frowningly.

      “Oh! What is with his eyes? The Devil’s son bewitched the daughter of Kors!” They all snapped at once.

      “Take…”

      But the guard didn’t finish, blind and weak Nikto at the oblique trajectory cut him from neck to chest. Karina drew her sword, too, one of the guards ran away from them, to where there were other corridors to the exit, to where there were windows, and he desperately blew a trumpet, giving out the most vile sound that Karina had ever heard. Karina looked at Nikto, and at the bodies of four guards lying on the floor, only one there was killed by her.

      “Well, you're a monster! But what