‘Quiet,’ I said. ‘I’m soaring on the wings of inspiration. Better give me some cognac.’
Gennady pursed his lips and said nothing.
Absorbed in my thoughts and surrounded by a cocoon of total silence, I completely missed the moment of take-off. When I looked out of the window we were already high up above the first layer of clouds, the first level. Aagh, now I was seeing levels that had to be broken through everywhere!
Yes, there was definitely something about that line that stuck in my mind. Head and tail, right? I’d heard about that somewhere. In magic? No, more likely in folklore. In some beliefs or other … yes, of course! Egyptian myths and, later, European ones. Alchemical treatises. Buddhism, in the form of the wheel of Samsara, rebirth …
Uroboros.
The snake devouring its own tail.
I felt goose pimples rising on my skin. It was no accident that Merlin had set a two-headed snake to guard the fifth level… The Crown wasn’t in it, of course.
But it was a hint, and a very clear one!
The beginning and the end. It gives birth to itself, fertilises itself and kills itself. An eternal and unchanging force that is dissolved in space and then restored again, the eternal circle of time, a defence against chaos and darkness, safeguarding the Universe, enclosing and supporting the world, bringing life into death and death into life, simultaneously motionless and moving …
Death and resurrection.
An eternal stream of Power, dying and being reborn …
I understood.
I understood everything.
My fingers started trembling and I grabbed hold of the armrests tightly. I caught Gennady’s suspicion glance and said:
‘I’m afraid of flying. Get me some cognac, okay? Be a real man, even if not for very long.’
Gennady got up without saying a word and beckoned to the stewardess.
Uroboros.
The beginning and the end. Life and death. The circle of Power maintaining the Universe.
I understood it all. I was the first since Merlin. Now I had something to be proud of, if only I could manage to stay alive!
‘You’ve thought of something,’ said Edgar. Half-standing, he leaned forward over the back of my seat and looked into my eyes curiously. ‘Ah, Anton! I was right. You do have an idea.’
‘I do,’ I said, not trying to deny anything. ‘Edgar, I want to ask you one more time – are you sure that bringing out those who have withdrawn is safe? You know what the Shade of the Masters is, don’t you?’
‘I know,’ said Edgar, and his face darkened. ‘It summons magicians who have withdrawn back from the fifth level, where they can exist for a fairly long time. Torn out of their natural surroundings, pumped full of Power, absolutely insane … destroying everything around them with appalling ferocity. Anton, don’t confuse the forcible extraction and exploitation of the withdrawn with their resurrection. You know, if someone woke you up in the middle of the night, hit you on the head, poured shit all over you and started yelling in your ear, you’d go on the rampage too.’
‘So you’ve definitely made your mind up …’ I said and paused. I ought not to ‘surrender’ straight away. Edgar couldn’t read my thoughts – I was a Higher One, after all – but he could sense a lie in my intonation or the expression on my face. And so could Gennady ‘Edgar, what guarantees do I have?’
‘What guarantees do you mean?’ he asked in amazement.
‘Guarantees that when I explain everything to you, you won’t give orders for the bomb in Moscow to be detonated. And that you’ll take Schrödinger’s Cat off my neck.’
Edgar laughed.
‘Anything else you’d like?’
‘I’m giving you a lot,’ I answered.
‘Will the Oath of the Light and the Dark satisfy you?’
‘Edgar!’ Gennady said in a chilly voice. ‘There are limits to everything!’
‘I swear on the Light and the Dark and the equilibrium between them,’ Edgar said in a steady voice, ‘that if you help us to obtain the Crown of All Things, I will remove Schrödinger’s Cat from your neck, will not give orders for the bomb in Moscow to be detonated and will allow you to fight Gennady one against one. If you win, I shall cause no further hindrance to you and your family, provided that I am not attacked by you. If you lose, I undertake not to undertake any measures against Svetlana and Nadya. Again provided that they do not attack me themselves. I do so swear!’
A small sphere appeared on the palm of his hand. One half of it glowed brightly and the other half was black, as if it was sucking the light into itself. The sphere revolved slowly, with light flowing into darkness and darkness flowing into light.
‘One clarification,’ I said. ‘What does “If I help you to obtain” mean? When’s that?’
‘When we have the Crown in our hands.’
‘I don’t agree,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘There’s a serious chance that you’ll be killed trying to obtain the Crown. But the Cat can only be removed by the person who put it on. I don’t fancy the prospect of spending the rest of my life with no magic and this piece of garbage round my neck.’
Edgar thought about it. Or, more likely, he pretended to think about it. He had probably decided long ago just how far he was willing to move.
‘Let me clarify, he said, looking at the sphere of Light and Dark spinning on his palm. ‘I shall order the bomb in Moscow not to be detonated just as soon as we all believe that what you tell us is the truth. I will remove the Cat before we set out to obtain the Crown. But you will be with us, bound by an oath not to obstruct us. That is as far as I can go.’
Now it was my turn to demonstrate the workings of my thoughts. Was I or wasn’t I prepared to accept such conditions? If I was going to tell the truth, then I probably ought to do a bit more haggling …
‘Another clarification,’ I said. ‘You will not only remove the Cat, you will also allow me to withdraw to a safe distance. I do not wish to be obliged to join battle on your side against my own will!’
‘Battle?’ Edgar repeatedly curiously. ‘You probably don’t mean against the members of Lermont’s Watch?’
‘No, I don’t,’ I said, with a smile. ‘You’ll have enough problems without them, believe me.’
‘All right,’ said Edgar. ‘I will allow you to withdraw to a safe distance before we set out to obtain the Crown. But afterwards you will be obliged to come back and do battle with Gennady He … wants that very much.’
‘Agreed.’ I held out my hand and said, ‘I swear on the Light.’
A sphere of fire appeared on my hand and immediately disappeared again. The Cat round my neck tightened in annoyance – and relaxed again. It wasn’t my magic: the Primordial Power itself decided whether or not to affirm a magician’s words.
‘Gennady, do you confirm Edgar’s commitments?’ I asked.
‘Yes.’ He didn’t swear on the Dark. The Primordial Power only rarely descends to vampires. But I believed him. After all, the most important thing for Gennady was to get his son and wife back. Revenge was secondary now.
Suddenly realising that the Sphere of Silence would not prevent passengers from observing the strange lights, I glanced around.
No, everything was in order. The passenger on the other side of the aisle was sleeping. His neighbour by the window was working on his laptop. What fine fellows these businessmen were …
‘It is not possible to get through to the seventh level,’ I said. ‘There is no way. Only a zero-point magician can do it… or an Other who has dematerialised and withdrawn into the Twilight.’
Gennady tensed up. Edgar asked in an icy voice: