"I hate this city," Orel said. "It's too small for me!"

Everyone laughed because the city in front of them was enormous.

"I see the lights in the quarters of the Unclean. What are they doing now?" he asked Nikto.

"Some dirty things, likely," Nikto said. "Can they even do anything but dirty things?"

The group of friends laughed again.

"No, I mean it. Many times I looked at their neighborhoods from here and they always have lights at night. I thought the Unclean didn't need so much light."

"They don't need light at all. They work," Nikto said, "and they will be working throughout the night, in their workshops and forges. It's the light of their ovens."

"Let's go," Orel said, turning his horse and riding to the castle.

The bridge was down, a servant was hastily opening the gates. The watchman on the tower had given him a signal that the master was coming. The square in front of the main entrance was lit brightly.

"Orel, why do you never raise your bridge?" Enriki asked.

"What for?" Orel said. "Let anyone who cares come, and we'll deal with them."

Tol cackled in approval.

"Wow! What a horse you have!" Orel was looking at Nikto's stallion in the bright light of torches. The stallion stepped from one hoof to another impatiently and snorted: he wanted to continue his gallop. Nikto pushed off the hood of his cloak and took off his mask. He smiled from his horse barely keeping the stallion in place.

Orel dismounted and passed his beautiful horse to the servant, then reached his hand to the muzzle of Nikto's black stallion. The horse raised its lip and bared its teeth, growling and showing sharp fangs.

Orel withdrew his hand quickly.

"Is he Unclean?"

"Yes."

The stallion reared and Nikto shouted at him in the language of the Unclean, striking him with a lash. The stallion danced under him.

"He is wild," Lis said. "He won't tear our horses, will he?"

"And our servants as well," Enriki said.

"Is he eating meat?" Tol asked.

Nikto tossed his head pushing away his hair.

"Yes."

He jumped down quickly, put his palm onto the stallion's muzzle and whispered a few words. The horse calmed down immediately, as if falling asleep. Nikto turned to the group of friends, they took off their masks and watched him with interest.

"Here, he won't harm anyone now."

"He's out of it! Just like that! I can't believe my eyes," Tol said.

"I'll have him kept separately from others and locked up, just in case," Orel said.

The servant was afraid to come up.

"Hey, what are you standing there?" Orel said. "Take the horse, do you have any shame left?"

The servant, paper-white, slowly pulled the Unclean horse who obediently followed him.

"How much does such a beast cost?" Orel asked. "Thirty thousand, I bet."

"Why are you so rich?" Tol got curious.

"I'm fighting for money," Nikto said. "And the stallion is a gift."

"Welcome to the castle of the prince Arel Chig!" Orel made an inviting gesture.

They walked up the stairs and the servants opened massive carved doors for them.

"Not like the first time, is it?" Orel said to Nikto. Nikto glanced at him.

"Yes," he said simply.

"Hey, Nikto, can you make someone else's horse fall asleep?" Lis asked. Nikto stopped at the entrance.

"Lis, what's bugging you?"

"Tell me." Lis met Nikto's grey eyes with his yellow eyes and didn't look away.

"Yes, I can pacify a horse."

"Only your own horse? Or any horse? Or maybe not only a horse?"

"No." Nikto almost hissed it. He was speaking slowly, carefully choosing every word, and because of it his accent and a distorted timbre of his voice were even more pronounced, revealing his alien nature.