"How can it be that Tol is Unclean?"
"Borgan found out everything. He sent his servants to the place where Tol was born, to his estate. His parents are humans, they don't know anything, just like he doesn't and you didn't. Borgan's people talked to the Unclean slaves who lived there. One Unclean, when she heard someone was asking about Tol, was very happy because they didn't hear anything about him for a long time, since he left his parents and went away in search for adventures. She said that she was a maid in the main house about twenty years ago. She was Unclean but very beautiful and looked like a human. The mistress loved her in her own way. This Unclean replaced the mistress's child with the boy of her sister, he looked very much like human, that's why they decided to do it. It worked as she planned, their mistress gave birth to a child – I don't know if it was a boy or a girl – it was taken to the slaves' barrack and I don't know what they did to it."
"I can guess what," Lis said darkly. "What then?"
"Then they put the Unclean child in the baby's place. The master and the mistress didn't suspect anything, they were very happy that the baby was handsome and strong, they named him Ram and loved him very much. They didn't have any more children and doted on him. And the Unclean loved him, too, they dreamed that he would grow up and become a master, and then they'll tell him everything and he'll free them and the estate will belong to the Unclean. But Tol left them and isn't going to come back. He destroyed their hopes."
"What is she saying?" Tol couldn't stand it any longer. "What?"
"She explains that there is nothing between her and Nikto, and you know, Tol," Lis made a somewhat guilty expression that could deceive only Tol, "it seems she made me believe her. Forget everything I said before. I was wrong," he finished quite cheerfully.
Asa was listening worriedly.
"Relax," Squint-Eye said quietly. "Lis will not tell him anything." He smiled. "I suspected it from the beginning. I heard he was 'phoning' at once. But damn it…"
"You won't tell him, will you?" Asa interrupted him.
"No, you can be sure I won't."
"So, Lis, it was your fantasies, right?" Tol asked suspiciously.
"Yes," Lis said simply. "Just imagine, I was mistaken, my imagination got me carried away."