Part 16
Dedicated to Y. E. Zhigulsky
1
News
Nikto, Prince Arel, Vitor Kors, Lis, Karina and habir Verniy returned to the Fort from the Limit. They entered the main chamber of the tower, and Tol, who was sitting at the table with Dick Nedwill, jumped up joyfully, knocking over the jug, which, fortunately, was already empty.
“How glad I am to see you!” He shouted. “Finally! I already miss you!”
He ran up to them heavily, raking Lis into an armful:
“Al! Has Nik cured you?”
“Yes,” said Lis somehow not very cheerfully, gently pushing tall and powerful Tol away from him.
“Great!” Tol didn’t catch the tension and joyless mood of his friend, froze for a moment:
“Al, what’s with your head?! What's with your hair?”
“I made it darker,” Nikto answered for Lis, seeing that he was not at all inclined to chat with Tol. Nikto removed the mask to reveal his painted face, and Tol froze, staring at him. Kors saw that at first blatant surprise flashed in Tol’s eyes, but very quickly it was again replaced by joyful delight:
“Nik, bugger me! What the war paint! Ten out of ten! I barely recognized you!”
Nikto laughed, showing black teeth and a shiny ring resting on them.
“Nik! How did you hook the ring to your teeth?!” Tol roared with delight. “I want such one too!”
“I'll show you later, okay? There under the upper lip there is a place where to hook it,” Nikto smiled.
Kors also took off his mask, in the end, he shouldn't have been embarrassed by Tol and his commoner assistant, who had the nickname Coal. Tol immediately glanced at his jewelry and the hook that wrapped around his chin. Kors clearly understood that Tol liked it very much, but he was ashamed to voice it and turn to Kors. He still considered Kors a stranger, not one of them, and was wary of him.
“Let's drink to your return!” Tol began to pour wine into mismatched and not very clean goblets and glasses piled on the table. The first goblet, apparently out of old habit, he handed to Prince Arel, who silently, without changing his haughty expression, took it. Then, according to the rules of etiquette, Tol handed the cup to the lady, Karina.
“You can open your face and have a drink,” Lis told her. Karina has already, in general, learned how to drink and eat, only slightly raising the upper part of the cape and slipping a mug or piece of food under a hard front apron, but if Lis allowed, why bother. She immediately lifted the cloth and took the glass from Tol. Everyone drank, and Lis, lifting the bottom of the mask, too. Having drunk, Tol happily and involuntarily raised his hand to his lips, intending to wipe his mouth with his sleeve, pulling it up a little, but at the last moment something stopped him, he froze, and, lowering his hand, took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his lips with it. Kors chuckled.
“Al, why don't you take off your mask?” Tol asked, pouring wine over the second round without a pause.
“I can't yet, Nik is still treating me,” said Lis, shaking his head, and turning, looked with his yellow eyes with black edges, glistening in the slits of the mask, at Nikto. He looked, as it seemed to Kors, with some resentment.
“Yeah,” Tol drawled in some confusion, but immediately cheered up, overshadowed by another thought: