Laylith saw a familiar tukhtaash young woman.
"Chathi, is that you?" the half-elf shouted from her cage.
They had already reached the ocean, where there was a camp of tukhtaash outlanders. Chathi came up with a sad look, she was surprised to see Laylith. Chathi walked over to the cage and spoke to Takresh, who was dragging the cage by the rope.
"May I have a private talk with the prisoner?" Chathi asked.
"Who are you? You're not one of ours," Nigshi asked suddenly.
A short-haired thin tukhtaash man came up.
"While you were away, we found Chatkhi," he said, addressing Nigshi, "she told us what happened to Itskel-taash," he glared at Laylith, "the arqilunians, with the help of dragons and argiphones, had waged battle over the Greywind Forest, and they broke through the surface, crashing down on the city-kingdom with their gigantic bodies. And a flying woman killed king Ikki Raak! The kingdom came to ashgaker irmyk sarpunyak!" the tukhtaash finished.
"I didn't tell it like that, that's not how I told the story!" Chathi insisted.
"I was in Itskel-taash right when the ceiling began to collapse!" Laylith said, "I was a prisoner or a slave according to your stupid laws, and worked out! I wouldn't be in your kingdom if I hadn't run away to the forest, where you have traps stuffed to capture innocent travellers!"
"May I speak to her alone?" Chathi asked again, looking at Laylith.
"Well," the short-haired man suddenly agreed, "but then you will do your job with your mouth!"
"What?" Chathi didn't understand the hint.
"You will suck my dick!" he answered and the rest of the tukhtaashes laughed, "You, perhaps, helped the invaders, the elves, and are responsible for thousands of deaths! You want to talk to the enemy in private, it looks suspicious. I have reviewed your status of a tukhtaash refugee. If you want to talk to her in private, you'll suck my dick!"
"Don't even dare!" Laylith shouted, "I'll get out, you filthy things, and I'll cut your throats!"
"That's who needs to be punished," the short-haired man said. Chathi looked at him with tears in her eyes.
"I'll..." she stammered, tears welled up in her eyes, "I will…" she stammered again, "I'll suck your dick once if you let us talk in private, alright?"
"Chathi, don't do it! No, not for me! Please, don't! We can speak in front of them! We are innocent! Chathi don't you dare! No!" Laylith shouted, and then turned her gaze to the short-haired, "when I get out of here–"
"What are you blathering, half-blood?" Nigshi interrupted her, "he offered her a choice and does not force her. I'd cut her throat for betrayal!" Nigshi said with dislike and jealousy.
Laylith looked at each of them with hatred and then looked sympathetically at Chathi. Chathi stared at the sand. The tukhtaashes began to move away from the magical cage.
"Chathi, look at me. Why did you do it, why did you agree?" Laylith asked.
"I'm afraid they will execute you," Chathi replied.
Laylith could hardly hold back her tears.
"Chathi, you don't owe me anything, you need to take care of yourself. You have already been..." Laylith hesitated, "...been hurt, and now again!" for a while she looked at the silent Chathi, and then looked around, "There are thousands of them, what kind of tukhtaashes are they? I believe they came from across the ocean. They called the city Taashtar."
"This is not a city, t's a whole continent, it's across the ocean, that's the name of both the continent and the kingdom of the tukhtaashes. Taashtar is a forgotten continent, no one has sailed here from Taashtar for thousands of years. And now they came, maybe it was possible because of the destruction of Iglara. The star is gone and the wind, the storms, the climate, everything has changed. I don't know." She came closer to the bars of the cage, "Laylith, I was against the laws of Itskel-taash, against king Ikki Raak, and many of citizens from Taashtar are certainly unpleasant to me. But they are very strong warriors and I saw magicians here, and they are all quite smart, although they seem to be rude barbarians. I just wanted to tell you not to lose hope, and I'll try to save you... By the way, where are your father and flying woman?"
"We were on our way to the Belt of Twilight and then split up. First, the snow argiphone carried my father away, then Slu, and then I flew, but the argiphone was attacked by the yadonagrishes, and I fell, I fought with one yadonagrish, and then the tukhtaashes appeared and captured me, so I ended up here."
"So queen Slu was with you?" Chathi asked.
"Yes. Did you see us attacked by the elves and your kind when we were helping the wounded?"
"No, I got out later, realizing that everyone had left, but for some reason I went east, thinking that others would also choose the east direction."
"Right now, only one thing is important, I need to get out of here and cut off the balls of that thin jerk!" The half-elf said angrily.
"I'll have to keep the deal, Laylith, we can't come up with a plan so quickly, I'll have to do what they ask, I must figure out how the two of us can escape and stay alive!"
"It's very easy to escape. We have to slit the throat of the one who conjured this cage-prison, her name is Nigshi, vashkhalar with long cornrows braids. Though we have to slit the throat of the short-haired girl too!" Laylith. "If you can, then cut at least Nigshi's throat, I'll get out of here and start killing the others."
"You want to kill several hundred tukhtaashes by yourself, including very powerful magicians?" Chathi was surprised at her courage and recklessness.
"If you think that I'll be executed, then I've no choice," Laylith answered.
"We still can try to escape unnoticed."
"Exactly! We'll run away, find my father and Lisandra, and Kundaminokh. And then we'll come back here and kill them all!"
"You were more reasonable in court," Chathi said reproachfully. "You made reasonable arguments. What happened to you? Did they," Chathi averted her eyes, "abuse you?"
"No, but they're going to do it to you! Of course, you had a parody of justice in Itskel-taash, but still, it was at least a parody, but here... There is no law here! My anger has nothing to do with being captured, or with the fact that the short-haired Kyatkhi humiliated my pride, easily winning the fight! No! I saw that a certain soldier or commander, that thin one bastard, can choose who is to be considered an enemy, and who is a slave! If they have such customs, if they rape women, then they are cruel and terrible, which means they can and should be killed!"
"No, Laylith!" Chathi said harshly, "You can't think that way! Tukhtaashes is my race, but I was raped by a snunorf, but I didn't hate all the snunorfs! And I could be one of the tukhtaashes from Taashtar, sail on one of the ships, but I wouldn't force anyone to do anything, which the person didn't want to do, and I would seek a compromise. Maybe among them, there are others like me. You can't kill everyone, because you think they're all bad, if you do so, then you'll be a cruel barbarian as some of them!"
"You know, you've convinced me. I'm just furious with the whole world, because you, a nice and wonderful girl, will have to go and–"
"I understand," Chathi said, "please, don't let me regret it, I want to save Laylith, who has a great sense of justice, and not a girl who wants to kill everyone, who feeds only on blood and hatred."
"I have an idea," Laylith said, "I think my father is already looking for me, maybe instead of fulfilling your deal with the short-haired man, you should run to the west and try to find my father?"
"I'm afraid I'm not going to survive one more desert adventure. The tukhtaashes found me lying on the sand, they brought me to this camp, and gave me drink and food. I would have died in the desert. Besides, if I run away, what if they execute you, haven't you thought about that?"
"No," Laylith admitted honestly, "I just don't want you to go through violence again!"
"Your life is more important to me than what they can do to me," Chathi said.
"But why?"
Takresh came up suddenly.
"Your time is up," Takresh said, "you've talked enough, now go and suck Shard's cock and then I'll fuck you hard in your ass!" and he grabbed Chathi by the arm and dragged her behind him.
"Scum! Losharat! Skeshduck!" Laylith shouted.
"Stop it, please, Laylith. If you continue to insult them, it can be bad for me! And please don't worry about me, I'll be fine," Chathi shouted back to her.
And Takresh led Chathi into the tent.