"What do you mean?"

"It is not your idea! You wouldn't change our places, you would have thought it risky and unprofitable but you would have left us as we are. I know you and your style. You believe in luck. What you're doing now is not your style, Arel."

"Lis, I don't understand you. Do you mean the plan is good? Or is it bad?"

"It isn't good or bad, it isn't yours. It is not yours," he repeated slowly, nearly in syllables.

"Do you want to say that I cannot come up with anything?"

"You can," Lis agreed, " and you did many times, and you would never, never put Asa with Tol. You wouldn't even think of it!"

"You can only criticize, it's easy to do! Can you do anything but take a dig on me? Suggest your allocation, I'll think about it. What, why do you keep silent?"

"Who's gonna listen to me, you listen only to Nikto."

Everyone froze.

"Ooh shit," Nikto, who kept silent till now, drawled.

"So, you think I do what Nikto tells me," Orel reached for a cigarette. "Right?"

"Right," Lis said. "Who else will take Squint-Eye away from Enriki not to risk Squint-Eye, and who else will put Tol with Asa to protect her."

"Lis, don't drag me into it!" Enriki pleaded.

"Really! Enough humiliating him," Squint-Eye said. "He has already got to understand what his love and devotion are worth. And I'm not surprised, Orel did the same to me."

"Yes," Orel raised his voice. "I give up on Enriki, if you care. He is weak and I don't want to risk Squint-Eye for him!" He looked around. "I'm honest with you, what will you say?" He turned to Enriki. "Tell me whatever you want. I admit it, I'm betraying you. If Squint-Eye stood by you, very possibly you'd be just wounded but then Squint-Eye would be wounded, too, and I cannot afford it. With Vil you'll likely be killed. This is how I paid you for everything you did for me." He shook his head tossing his hair back. There was no embarrassment or repentance on his handsome grey face. He looked at Enriki, looked at his face calmly and confidently.

Enriki lowered his head.

"Thank you for your honesty, Arel. I know you for a long time and I'm not surprised. I understand that you think realistically and correctly. We are not children to weep over not being taken into a game. We're not toying here, it's life – everyone is for himself. But I will make you change your mind about me after the fight," he raised his head. "It's too early to write me off! I won't say anything else, words don't prove anything. You'll see it with your own eyes." And, seeing pity on their faces, he shouted. "I won't die to please you! You don't believe me? Fine! I shit care about you and your allocations, I just want to live! I want to stay alive! And I will survive even if you leave me all alone. Don't think I'm just wasting me breath, I am afraid, very afraid to go into fight with it," he raised his mutilated hand, "but I have to, or I cannot respect myself. And you betraying me – I would do the same if such a thing happened to someone else. If you're unlucky, it's your problem, don't drag anyone else into it." He stopped.

No one from those sitting around the table said a word. Vil seemed to want to say something but changed his mind and kept silent, too. He started getting used and was tuning his behavior up to Lis and Orel. Vil became more silent and thoughtful, he became different.

"Maybe he is right," Tol said at last. "Why are we burying Enriki in advance? But I still think it's better to put me with him."

"Shut up," Orel snapped.

"But I don't want to be paired with Asa! She is too weak for me!"