"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.

"No. It is only my horse I can pacify. I trained him like that. No one else."

Servants were pressing to the walls in terror, and the friends were silent and looked at Nikto.

"What"s wrong, Lis?" Now Nikto was talking calmly. "Two hours ago you were sure I could read someone else"s thoughts and you were not afraid of it. And now you"re implying that I"m going to hypnotize you. Why didn"t I hypnotize you when you killed my friend Lamy then? When you were beating and abusing my Unclean? When you nearly killed me!"

"Why indeed," Lis said; he was very pale.

Nikto squeezed his temples with his palms.

"Enough of it, enough," he whispered. "You wanted me to be with you, you voted, you came to an agreement with me. I am what I am, and if you"re going to suspect me in every little thing, I"d better leave now."

"No!" Orel exclaimed. "You"re not leaving! Lis will leave if he decides to say anything else."

He gave Lis an expressive look.

"I don"t like magic tricks,” Lis said. "If he is a warlock, I"d like him to admit it now."

"Lis, he lived among the Unclean, his horse is an Unclean, he hangs around with them, he"s used to it. No magic here," Enriki said.

"Do you even care how Nikto talks to his horse," Tol said.

"If you"re going to pick on Nikto because of small things, you"d better leave, Lis," Orel said.

"I won"t say another word," Lis promised. "What are we standing here for?"