"A strange friendship – between a friend of the Unclean and someone who fights them," he said.

"He helped me like no one else," Mark"s eyes flashed with an unhealthy sparkle, his fingers twitched nervously. "Thanks to him I created a real hell for the Unclean in the west! How we killed them! How we killed them, Orel, if only you could see it. If only any of those fat townsmen could see it! We slashed them! Hanged them! Burned them! Tore them apart. We razed their houses to the ground. We chased them to the very mountains, freed the outpost and many people…" Mark stopped suddenly.

"I see you are a real warrior. A rare thing in our times," Orel said.

"Nikto is a warrior, too."

"I know, figured that out. But he"s a warrior of the Unclean."

"You can stop worrying about it. Yes, he is a warrior of the Unclean but he isn"t their ally. More than that, I think he hates them."

"Why is he with them then?"

"The cities of the Unclean accept him as a warrior, hold him as an equal and even higher than many of them. And humans don"t accept him."

"But you? Haven"t you accepted him?"

"I have but he can"t team up with me, the Unclean will kill him for that."

"And can he team up with me?"

"Yes, he can. You don"t interfere in the business of the Unclean. If you make Nikto your friend, the Unclean will be your friends, too. Your power will multiply, and I heard, prince Arel, your state of affairs is horrible now."

"Perhaps it is, but I don"t want to become a toy of the Unclean for the sake of that power! My independence is my strength."

"Not a toy. But having an ally won"t hurt you."

"Do I hear it from you? You who fight them to death? I can"t believe my ears."

Mark shrugged. "To each their own."

"And that girlfriend of his. That perfect sample of a non-human! She"ll cut the throat of anyone who dares harm her precious. I hope you haven"t seen that monster."

"I brought her to him from the west."

"What?"

Mark laughed.