"Why are you so sure?"

"Because I know that and I know such things aren"t bought. They are cut off with fingers usually. Right, Nikto?"

"Are you going to give it back?"

"No, don"t worry. I can imagine how much really valuable jewelry passed through your hands and you wasted it on drugs."

"The really valuable thing is your family ring. You have to be proud you wear it. You have the right to wear it."

Orel looked at his "royal" ring.

"Perhaps you"re right but it rather reminds me of the lost power of our family. It angers me and nothing else. What"s the point of wearing the true royal sign of power if I"m not a king."

"You said something about freedom."

"Yes, right. Maybe I don"t have everything I want but I"m free!"

"And your friends, why did you brand them? Don"t they deserve freedom?"

"Oooh, it was a long time ago, I was younger and angrier. I enjoyed proving my authority. They had to accept that I alone could stay absolutely untouched. I had to break Lis and Enriki but I made them submit. They wanted to be with me but they didn"t want to carry my brand. They wanted to be free, just like me. I had to crush them, brand them by force. It was easy with Squint-Eye and Tol."

"And what"s going to be about me?" Nikto asked quietly and very seriously.

Orel leaned towards him but stopped, controlling himself.

"Nikto, I only dream of you to become mine. But how can I make you do anything you don"t want yourself?"

"Fine, then your brand will be the best brand in my collection."

"Nik…" Orel stumbled in half a word; he reached his hand and touched Nikto"s face. Nikto let him do it.

Orel gently passed his finger over the intricate letters on Nikto"s cheekbones, repeating the lines. He raised his eyes.

"May I?"

Nikto barely nodded closing his eyes.

Orel gingerly touched his lips. Then, more boldly, he passed his fingers over two rings in Nikto"s lower lip. He pulled one of the rings slightly; Nikto"s lip followed it. Orel let go. He rearranged the ring turning it in the lip, then stroked Nikto"s cheek with his palm – first his clean cheek then the scarred one. He repeated the lines of the tattoos with his finger again, several times; then gently patted Nikto"s nostrils, touched a ring there, returned to Nikto"s lips again. Nikto didn"t move.