“Al!” Tol shouted.

And on the exhausted face of Lis sincere joy was reflected:

“Tol! Tol, damn you! Where are you from here?!”

“We followed in your footsteps,” Tol smiled, “you got so far!”

He looked around: everything around him was on fire, walls in many places were collapsed.

“What a beautiful fortress!” Tol said absolutely sincerely. He dismounted, heading for Lis, and he rushed to meet him, embracing him. They hugged each other tightly, like two friends and warriors. Finally, Tol, pulling back, patted Lis on the shoulder.

“Al, you sly ass, where did you get in?!”

He looked at Arel:

“Orel! How glad I am!”

And Arel, looking at him, smiled at him too:

“I am no longer Prince Orel from the family of Eagle, Tol,” he said, “now everyone calls me just Arel.”

Tol happily hugged him, not paying any attention to these words and the slightly surprised look that Lis, Kors and everyone else around had, because they completely lost the habit that Arel could speak, forgot his voice. And he said it to Tol so simply, and, as was his habit, drawing out his words a little lazily, and his beautiful low velvety timbre of voice, from which common people usually fell into a reverent trance, hadn’t changed at all.

“Nik!” Tol shouted, no doubt recognizing Nikto despite the mask. And they also hugged tightly.

“Karina!”

“Eh, no, Tol, I won't hug you!” She laughed. Her face was stained with gunpowder soot, very successfully hiding traces from the whip on her cheeks.

“You motherfucker, I don’t believe, we have won!” Lis said. Walls and buildings were almost destroyed, but Death, though reluctantly, retreated, remembering this place and wanting to return here to finally finish his dance.

“We have won, just as you said, Nik!” Lis shouted happily.

And Nikto put a finger to his mask, indicating a smile.

Kors stood and watched as the captive red warriors, who were lined up in the square, bowed their heads and knelt before Atley Alis, thus demonstrating their submission and loyalty to him. Now they would fight on their side. Lis approached each and asked for the name and rank, and his adjutant entered everything in a journal.

Kors saw Alis walk over to the red one, whose face was completely wrapped in dirty bloody strips of cloth that replaced his bandages. The warrior, like the others, when his turn came, bowed down to Lis and knelt down.

Kors watched them with bated breath, he perfectly understood who it was, but from his place he couldn’t hear their conversation. He only saw that Lis asked the red one something and then waved his hand to the side, to where the wounded prisoners were taken, they lay and sat a little to the side. The soldier, disfigured by Kors, stumbled to the other wounded. He didn’t look at Kors and didn’t see him, and Kors for some reason involuntarily smiled, he himself didn’t understand why, but he felt pleased. And Lis, no longer paying attention to the unfortunate red, continued and stopped at the next captured warrior.

The unclean survivors of Nikto and black mercenaries, several peasants from the militia of Prince Arel and several people of Marmer began to restore Crimson Rock. The soldiers Tol brought with him immediately became actively involved in the life of the Fort, and helped them. Since the confrontation with the Black Bey ended, and Bey himself perished in the village of swamp inhabitants, there was no longer a need to defend the territories in the Black City, so Tol, no doubt, brought with him almost all the warriors of Prince Arel. Borgan stayed in Lower to keep order, but Nikto sent almost a thousand unclean ones. The red prisoners were also involved in the work, and they tried very hard.

Lis once again had an army, bigger and better than the old one! And everyone rejoiced, not doubting that the Ore town with its Diamond Mines would soon be in their hands.

The main tower suffered least of all. The servants cleaned up rooms of Karina and Lis: they put everything in its place again, collected fragments of broken dishes and glass.

Now there were no glass in their windows, however, as in the whole tower. But the weather was very warm, and it was quite possible to do without them if an incense burner for driving away insects was burning.

Karina was more upset by the broken water pipe. The black and red warriors tried to fix it, but they didn’t figure out how to supply warm water to the rooms upstairs. Karina stood and watched as a pitiful trickle of cold water barely flowed from the tap when she heard loud screams and noise below in the square. She ran to the window and saw that Tol was entering the main gate, and Lila was sitting sideways in the saddle next to him. Tol, unlike Lis, didn’t hesitate and wasted no time, he organized a ferry and crossed the river to Riverside village, transported the servants, cooks, gunsmiths and everyone he left there, including his new wife. He also took a few of the prince’s people from those who didn’t die of hunger and typhus. And now Lila was sitting, huddled up to him, as tiny as a figurine in a beautiful dress and cape. The black mercenaries of Kors recognized her. They began to greet Lila. Karina heard their admiring cries and exclamations: