She thought for a second and added: ‘Most likely Vanka, I wasn’t really comely enough for the lord to summon me.’
‘And I was sure you killed your teacher for the rape,’ I said. ‘Remember what you wrote in your statement? “Lascivious brute” – I think that was it.’
‘Lascivious brute!’ Arina agreed. ‘And so he was. I washed for him and cooked for him, and in bed I tried with all my young girl’s might! But every month he went to the whorehouse, or seduced some society lady … I wept and wailed and hammered at him with my fists, but he just spread his arms and said: “Meine liebe Arina – you must understand that man is by his nature a licentious beast, disposed to seek conquests in the field of love. I sleep with you because it is useful for your instruction and training, but you have neither the body nor the experience to lay claim to my full attention.” Of course, I realised that he was right. Only I thought I’d filled out really well on my pupil’s rations, with my breasts way out here, and a backside like that! And I already knew how to satisfy a man in any way at all. But he still kept going off to others on the side! It was my birthday, I was thirteen, and he spent the day in the brothel! Well … I just couldn’t stand it. I challenged him to a duel, all fair and square. I hoped he would surrender and ask for forgiveness – I would have forgiven him. But he obviously couldn’t believe that I’d grown stronger than him, he fought to the death … and so …’
Arina sighed.
‘You’re not making fun of me, are you?’ I asked.
‘No, why would I?’ Arina replied. ‘You have to understand, Light One, that life is complicated, it’s not black-and-white, but coloured, in fine speckles. Of course, there are some who are villains to the depths of their soul, and some who are righteous through and through. But their kind don’t live long. And most are a mixture. Everything’s jumbled up together in people, and we came from people, and there’s no getting away from that …’ Arina turned to a hostess who was passing by and said, smiling: ‘Dearie, bring us something to eat, will you? Champagne for me and cognac for my beau.’
‘I don’t want it,’ I muttered.
‘Then champagne for him too,’ Arina said imperturbably.
CHAPTER 7
I WAS CERTAIN they would start to check us out at the airport. Naturally, we passed through passport control without any problems – the vigilant Taiwanese border guards saw non-existent Taiwanese visas in our passports, and the smart Taiwanese computers docilely swallowed their non-existent numbers. Arina dealt with it – to be honest, I would have preferred simply to pass through the control point while invisible, or walk in through the Twilight. But the Witch preferred to create the fake entry documents, muttering: ‘Just to keep my hand in …’ We hadn’t got any sleep in the plane after all, but we had drunk plenty of champagne and cognac, and our eyes were tired from watching films, so we were looking in really fine shape. All I personally wanted was to get to the hotel and collapse into sleep.
After passport control we passed through the control point for Others, and once again it all looked remarkably friendly. No one blocked our way: as we approached passport control we simply saw a poster that was only visible to our kind, politely inviting all Others to ‘visit the check room’. For humans, the poster had a far more frightening message – it declared that in Taiwan the penalty for importing narcotics was capital punishment, and if you had anything suspicious that had been left in your pockets by oversight, it would be best to drop it into the rubbish bin thoughtfully placed below the poster …
‘What remarkable trust,’ I said as we made our way towards the ‘check room’. ‘And what if we simply decided not to go? The way out’s wide open.’
‘Don’t be a dunce, charm-caster. I’m sure we’ve been followed from the moment we left the plane – or rather, from when we were still on the plane.’
‘What makes you think that?’ I asked in amazement
‘Our hostess was a Light Other. Weak, only Seventh-Level. But we weren’t concealing ourselves – and I think we did right not to.’
The check room was tucked away closer to the exit, between the toilets and a souvenir stall. (I can’t imagine who would buy souvenirs when they’ve only just got off the plane, but there were a couple of strange individuals like that standing at the stall.) We walked through the door into a perfectly cosy little area with soft furniture, a tiny bar counter, its own toilet and a supervisor’s desk. In this case the term ‘reception desk’ would have been rather more appropriate. I really didn’t want to think of the two pretty girls behind the desk as supervisors. In Russian the word carries far too many bureaucratic associations. The girls were twenty at the outside, and they looked even younger than that: they both had pretty, smiling faces – but one was Light and the other was Dark.
That applied in the literal sense too – one of them had very thoroughly bleached hair.
In fact, no one tried to conceal the fact that we had been watched. As we walked in, the light-haired girl was just pouring a second glass of champagne. Arina laughed and directed my glance to the bottle with her eyes – I looked closer and realised it was the same sort that we had been served in the plane.
‘Welcome to the land of Taiwan,’ the dark-haired girl said, leaning towards us in a half-bow. ‘Have you chosen the hotel in which you will stay, venerable Great Ones?’
‘The Shangri-La,’ Arina replied, accepting a glass.
‘Here is a card with the address, which you should show to your driver,’ said the dark-haired girl, holding out a small rectangle of cardboard to the witch. ‘Unfortunately, not all our drivers here know English …’
‘We are Others, and we can—’ I began, astounded at the absurdity of the situation – after all, we were speaking Chinese.
‘If you begin talking in Guoyu or Taiwanese, the driver will feel very awkward. The card indicates the approximate cost of the journey to the hotel in new Taiwanese dollars. If the driver demands a greater amount, pay him, and then call the phone number on the card to let us know.’
‘And then what will happen?’ I asked out of curiosity.
‘He will be sacked,’ the girl twittered. ‘And your money will be returned. May your stay in Taiwan be calm and joyful.’
‘Do we have to fill in any forms?’ I asked.
‘There is no need for that, Mr Gorodetsky,’ the girl replied in Russian – and not just in Russian acquired by magical means. Her speaking voice had the very slightest hint of an accent – just enough to add a little piquancy – and perfectly clear Moscow pronunciation.
I wondered whether, if I had been from St Petersburg, I would have been met by a girl who had studied or worked there.
Feeling slightly embarrassed, I finished my champagne, took the card, bowed briefly to the girl (now where did I get manners like that?) and then Arina and I left.
‘They do their job well,’ Arina said approvingly.
‘I like their approach to money-grabbing taxi drivers,’ I said, nodding in agreement.
‘Certainly. Although I should point out that frequently one taxi driver working here in Taipei feeds half of his mountain village. The temptation to rip off a tourist is very great … But I agree, it’s not good to abuse tourists. Especially if those tourists are us.’
‘And did you notice that their level of Power was screened?’ I asked. ‘Of course, I didn’t scan them actively …’