Somehow I was certain it wasn’t Arina.
And I had no intention of playing the fool and asking who had come visiting.
‘Come on in, gentlemen.’
There were two gentlemen – a young one and an elderly one. And there was also a middle-aged lady.
All three of them were Others, and all Light Ones. They had politely not masked their auras. The elderly man was a Fourth-Level Magician. The young man was a Second-Level Magician. The woman was a First-Level Clairvoyant. Oho. I didn’t think the Taiwan Watch could exactly be packed full of First- and Second-Level Power. So my unofficial visit had been taken with all due seriousness and appropriate respect.
‘Will you allow us to enter, Anton Sergeevich?’ the young man enquired politely. And then, without waiting for my permission, he continued: ‘You may call my male companion Esteemed Mr Pasha, my female companion Esteemed Miss Lena and me – simply Petya.’
‘Come in, Pasha, come in, Lena, and you come in too, Petya,’ I replied and stepped aside. Naturally the Russian names were a gesture of traditional Chinese courtesy – they would have introduced themselves to an American as John, Jim and Jill, for example. ‘Please forgive my bathrobe. I took a shower after the journey.’
‘That is very good,’ Petya said approvingly while his companions came in and seated themselves in the armchairs. It was only then that I realised there were obviously too many chairs in the room – four of them. I could even see that two of them were a slightly different colour from the others and were standing in rather inconvenient spots in the passage. ‘A healthy mind in a healthy body,’ Petya concluded.
‘As they say in Russian: “You have to choose one or the other”,’ I joked sourly.
‘They are mistaken,’ said Petya, waiting for me to sit down. I sat down and swore under my breath – I felt like striking an affectedly casual pose by crossing my legs, but in the bathrobe that was impossible.
Which was what they had been counting on.
Okay, I’d have to put up with it. No point in getting fancy and changing the bathrobe into a suit, or teleporting my own clothes onto myself. That would just be too affected altogether.
Once he was sure we were all seated, Petya himself perched on the edge of an armchair, looked at Pasha and asked me: ‘Did you have a good flight? Did you have any problems on the way? Did you like our airport? Have you had a chance to enjoy the architecture and atmosphere of Taipei?’
‘Yes, no, yes, no,’ I replied. ‘Are my respected visitors in good health? Have the consequences of the latest typhoon been liquidated?’ (To be honest, I didn’t know when there had last been a typhoon here and how strong it was, but they happen all the time in Taiwan.) ‘Are the Dark Ones up to their mischief?’
The elderly man suddenly smiled.
‘And the views of the rice and tea harvest are good here, too,’ he said, with a nod. ‘All right, Anton, let’s stop the fencing. A visit by such a powerful member of the Russian Watch is a conspicuous event on our quiet little island. We would like to enquire what has brought you here – and with such a surprising companion.’
I didn’t reply immediately.
For some reason Arina and I had never discussed this situation at all, even though we realised that our arrival would not go unnoticed.
‘This isn’t a business trip,’ I said. ‘It’s a private visit.’
The elderly man nodded and looked at me, waiting.
‘Certain events took place in Moscow … some time ago …’ I went on cautiously.
‘We know,’ said the woman. But she didn’t clarify.
‘Since I was personally involved in the events, I took what happened very much to heart,’ I continued, finding myself constructing the phrase in an almost Asian style. ‘When the esteemed Witch Arina and I met in London, I was informed by her that, as often happens, the same thing had already happened somewhere else … and that the highly esteemed Mr Fan Wen-yan, who works in the Gugun Imperial Museum – the Gugun National Imperial Museum’ – I corrected myself – ‘can cast some light on that old story …’
The Taiwanese exchanged glances.
‘Your companion is wanted by the Inquisition and by your own Watch,’ said Pasha. ‘Does that not perturb you?’
‘As a Higher Other of the Night Watch I have the right to choose my own tactics and decide how to act,’ I said cautiously. ‘And in addition, at the present moment her interests and my own coincide. And as for the Inquisition … unfortunately, I am not able to guarantee the detention of the Witch Arina. She is in possession of a Minoan Sphere and at any moment she can disappear to absolutely anywhere at all. Teleportation with the assistance of this artefact cannot be intercepted or traced,’ I added, to make things perfectly clear.
‘We are aware of that,’ Pasha said, nodding. ‘We acknowledge your right to make this visit.’
‘And your right to choose your own tactics,’ added Lena.
‘And to speak to Mr Fan Wen-yan,’ said Petya, putting in his own kopeck’s worth.
‘But any unsanctioned use of magic against the Others and people of Taiwan will be punished with the full severity of the law,’ Pasha continued.
‘Even if you are provoked, in danger or only indirectly responsible,’ Lena advised me.
‘Mr Fan Wen-yan will decide for himself whether or not to have dealings with you. You must not badger him,’ added Petya.
All right, fair enough. Honesty had proved better than politics.
I paused and then nodded: ‘Thank you, dear colleagues. I had not dared to hope for or expect such a cordial reception and magnanimous conditions. Naturally, it is not our intention either to violate your customs and traditions or to inconvenience in any way the Others and ordinary citizens of Taiwan.’
Pasha smiled.
‘We are all citizens of Taiwan, Mr Gorodetsky, including the Others, both Light and Dark. Allow me once again to welcome you to our island and … I can sense several artefacts in your bag, and I find one of them especially interesting. May I take a look at it?’
Especially interesting?
There was nothing magical in my suitcase, apart from the suitcase itself being enchanted. And in my bag … there was the comb that Svetlana had given me for my birthday, nothing special, simply so that my hair would grow well and the style would hold … a few small bottles of healing potions, also from her – the magical equivalent of painkillers and antacids … a perfectly ordinary silver ring with a piece of amber in which a small amount of Power had been accumulated, also a present, but Olga had given me it after a certain Watch operation – nothing unusual, every second Other wears a ring like that …
‘What artefact do you mean?’ I asked.
‘It has the form of a chalice,’ Petya clarified politely.
So that was it …
I walked over to the bag, took out Erasmus’s chalice and held it out to Petya. He hid his hands behind his back.
The chalice was taken by Pasha, who politely pretended not to have noticed my gaffe. Or perhaps it wasn’t a gaffe? Who was I supposed to hand the artefact to – the most powerful of them, as a sign of respect, or the weakest, so that he could check to see if it was dangerous before handing it on to his boss?
These Chinese rules of courtesy are so complicated!
Pasha took the chalice and turned it round in his hands. Then he looked at me.
‘Do you know how to use this, Gorodetsky?’
‘No.’
‘And are you sure you want to find out?’
‘Yes,’ I replied without hesitation.
But Pasha didn’t explain anything to me. He looked at the chalice, stroking it with his dry, tenacious fingers as if he was making conversation. Perhaps he was a tale-ender – a rare specialisation that involved the use of objects to extract information from the past …