The Mist and the Lightning. Part 19

“I’ll make you a new pass now,” he said, “just don’t lose it, be more careful with the documents. And when you go to my place and the patrol stops you, and they stop you, it’s natural, since my Academy is located in one of the richest and most closed areas of the city…”

(What the fuck are you saying?!)

“Then you will show them the pass. And, Nik, if they ask where you’re going, tell it like it is — you’re coming to me because I called you.”

(Nik, why are you looking at this piece of paper like a sheep?! Don’t take anything from him!)

“Nik, will you be able to come by yourself? Or should I send someone for you?” Zagpeace clarified, also noticing some confusion with which Nik looked at the business card.

“No, I’ll figure it out, I went to Dim alone,” Nik remembered.

“I’ll write you the address on the back right now so you don’t forget it.”

(Why are you telling him, chewing on elementary things, as if my son is an idiot! He will find everything if only he needs it!)

Zagpeace put the business card on the table and began to carefully write down the address of his house on the back of it. Kors saw his hands wrapped in thin leather gloves, which he never took off, and how he was writing his address in a beautiful confident hand, holding a small rectangle slightly with his left hand without fingers. The two empty fingers in his glove were filled from the inside with something to make it seem like all the fingers were in place. An ignorant person will not understand that Zagpeace’s hand is crippled. But Kors knew it, and he was sick of disgust.

At the very end, Zagpeace’s hand seemed to tremble, breaking the perfect pattern of letters with a small squiggle. Kors realized that Zagpeace had put a secret sign on Nick's pass. For everyone, it was just a tail of a letter that didn’t mean anything, but for patrolmen, it was a special mark. It meant that the master needed this commoner to perform some task. Usually this is how the security service marked the pass for informers and assistants from Lower. And, therefore, having seen a secret mark, the patrolmen will not detain Nik, they will let him through to such an area of the Upper, where strangers never appear.

“Well,” Zagpeace slightly waved his business card so that the ink would dry faster, “when the patrol stops you, show them this.”

“Fine.”

“I hope you didn’t have any unpleasant incidents with patrolmen before this?”

“Unpleasant? Uh …” Nik nervously ran his hand under his nose and, not finding the usual ring with a bead, fiddling with which, he calmed himself, got even more nervous:

“Well, when they stopped me, I just showed my pass, and that’s it…”

“Were you detained?”

Nik with annoyance removed his hand from his nose, and, making a displeased face, reluctantly replied:

“Yes, a couple of times.”

“This is bad.”

Nik pursed his lips and said nothing.

“Tell me why you were detained so that I can prevent such situations in the future. What did you do?”

“Nothing at all!”

“You dared them, as you like it? Or behaved disrespectfully?”

“No.”

“If you didn’t do anything wrong, just tell me what happened.”

Nik froze and stood for a while, staring blankly at the floor, and then made his strange movement, jerking his head sharply, as if someone invisible had hit him on the back of the head from behind. Finally, he began hesitantly:

“I went to training at Dim’s Coliseum…” he fell silent, and Zagpeace didn’t rush him, patiently waiting for the continuation, “and they stopped me. They didn’t like my horse, that it was unclean, and it seems that I rode it too fast… But it was impossible on that street. They abruptly drove out from behind the turn to intercept me, I barely managed to stay in the saddle and didn’t tip over only because Power stood on hind legs. They surrounded me, began to demand to dismount. I did it and showed them the pass. I didn’t… didn’t dare. They asked who my master was and where I was going. I answered that my master was Prince Arel, and I was going to Dim’s Coliseum for training. They began to ask why I had an unclean horse, they began to say that it was impossible here to ride so quickly… hmmm … They ordered me to remove the mask, but I couldn’t do it as soon as they wanted, because I usually always stick it to my face. So it is more convenient to fight, it doesn’t slide anywhere. I said, “It’s glued on.” One of them reached out and pulled me hard on the edge of the mask, it hurt, but I said nothing. They made sure that I was not lying and that the mask was glued on, but still they twisted my hands behind my back, handcuffed me and took me to the police station. Until… until the circumstances were clarified. I was just there, in the cell, and couldn’t come to Dim.”