Now he was sincerely delighted with the letter from Tol. Probably, yet, unlike Karina, the prince believed that everything was in order with them and he was living a good life, maybe because he didn’t know another.
“Finally! He has given a birth to a report. The very last! Even Kors has already noted, and Tol, as always, is fucking slow!”
“Not the last, my Ver has not arrived yet,” said Nikto.
“And the soldiers?” Arel started at once. “Does he have soldiers behind?”
Nikto nodded.
“Yes. And more will come.”
“We will win! We will win!” Arel didn’t hide his joy.
“Are they unclean?” Lis asked.
“Half-breeds, unclean, everyone I have, Lis. You know, only you are my people.”
“What's the difference, Lis! They are soldiers! This is power!!!”
“Absolutely none,” agreed Lis with the prince. “I'm glad about it too.”
“You will have an army! Your army, Lis!” Arel said. “Right, Nik?”
Nikto nodded.
“Yes,” he smiled at Lis.
And he was embarrassed:
“Okay, Arel, let's open the envelope.”
Arel opened the envelope and took out a small cardboard with a colored picture painted on it.
They froze. Arel twirled the cardboard rectangle in his hands.
“Tol sent a greeting card?” With some surprise, he asked a little dumbfounded.
“Fucking shit…” Lis drawled. “He's hopeless. It's good that there are Borgan and Coal, otherwise I would have worried about Lower.”
Arel turned the card over and read:
“Hi everyone! You, prince, red-haired half-breed (I have forgiven you, Lis), Karina (I dream to drink with her again) and Nikto.”
Hearing that Tol dreamed of drinking with her, Karina blushed, she hoped that he had forgotten that shameful evening.
“We are great!” continued to read Arel in syllables. “And I invite you to the wedding, I will marry Lila. Come, my dear friends!”
And then the date of the wedding was indicated.
That was all. Arel tossed the message away from him.
“Is he mad? He's getting married! Again, Tol, damn him! We need soldiers! Get your ass up and come here with the army! What an idiot! What a moron?!” Arel clasped his head in his hands.
Lis took the discarded postcard and read it too. He saw nothing new there, turned it over in confusion, and suddenly his face stretched out:
“Arel! This is our street. Exactly, Rat Dead End, where we somehow lost fifty soldiers, remember?”
“Come on?” Arel didn’t believe. “I remember very well, but…”
He began to examine the drawing too:
“Now this place is unrecognizable. Is it a fountain?”
Arel passed the message on. Karina saw that the picture depicted beautiful tall houses, all in patterns and decorations, painted in light pastel colors: pink, yellow, blue. The trees were green. There was a fountain. Smartly dressed people were walking around. It was written in gold lettering at the top: “Congratulations! We wish you happiness!” And at the bottom, smaller – the name of the street.
“It looks like Upper,” said Karina in surprise. “These postcards with the beautiful streets of the Upper Town are sold at fairs and bookstores.”
“This is our Rat Dead End,” Arel said. “It’s on postcards now too.”
“No, Arel, this is no longer Rat Dead End,” said Lis, grinning. “Read the street name. Now it is Asa street.”
And his grin came out bitter.
“What does it mean?” Karina didn’t understand. And jealousy sounded in her voice. “Why was the street named after her?!”
Lis was silent, and Karina turned to Arel:
“What for does Tol forgive him?”
Arel nodded towards Lis:
“Let him tell you.”
“Do you have any pretensions to me now?” Lis said defiantly, he tensed, and his face became angry.
“What are you saying,” Arel said indifferently. “Nobody gives a shit.”
Lis looked at Nikto.
And Nikto smiled at him, he held a postcard in his hands and looked at the smart Lower. And he smiled.
“Let’s write to Tol, let him take as many soldiers as possible and come here for a honeymoon. It will be an unforgettable honeymoon trip, he will love it!” Nikto said.
“I’ll write a letter to my father,” Karina suddenly interrupted their blissful state. “I will explain the situation and ask to help you. To send everyone who stayed with him too.”
Arel looked at her in surprise:
“But…”
“I want to contribute to the common cause. Arel, is this a common cause? I'm on the team, right? And I sit and do nothing!”
“Karina! For the fact that you didn’t give up Lis at the trial and pulled Nik out of the cell, for this I will be grateful to you for the rest of my life!” Arel said quite sincerely, and she felt very good from these words.
“This is Nik…” She hesitated. “It was he who taught me not to give up and bring things to the end.”
Karina thought that even if Lis did something to Asa (and it looked like it was), she didn’t care about it. Surely this aggressive and arrogant creature itself asked for it. And yet, when they were alone in the room, she could not resist and asked:
“So what happened to Asa?”
And Lis looked at her, straight in the eyes, without a shadow of embarrassment or remorse, and answered with a challenge:
“I killed her.”
“Oh! Wow! But why?”
“She talked too much shit.”
“Yes, that's for sure. Well, since Tol has forgiven you, it means that he himself understands that Asa provoked you.”
“Yes. And so it was. She provoked me. I wouldn't do that now. I was just… at that moment acting under the influence of emotion.” Some unspoken bitterness was reflected on his face, and he stubbornly shook his head so sharply that the bells tinkled. “And this bitch… she laughed at me, she brought me out.”
He ran his hands over his face as if tired, and smoothed his hair.
“Dumb unclean! She messed up the banks of the river?” Karina said, repeating