‘Ask away, Anton,’ Olga said to me in exactly the same tone.
‘Do you know what I’m going to ask?’
‘I think I can guess.’
I glanced around. There was no one near us. It was still that brief moment at the beginning of a dacha picnic when people want to eat and they want to drink, before their stomachs and their heads start to feel heavy.
‘What’s going to happen to Svetlana?’
‘It’s not easy to read the future. Especially the future of Great Magicians and Sorceresses …’
‘Don’t avoid the issue,’ I said, looking into her eyes. ‘Stop it. We worked together, didn’t we? We were partners? When your punishment was still in force and you didn’t even have that body. And your punishment was just.’
The blood drained from Olga’s face.
‘What do you know about my offence?’
‘Everything.’
‘How?’
‘I work with the data, after all.’
‘You don’t have high enough clearance. And what happened to me has never been entered in the electronic archive.’
‘Circumstantial evidence, Olya. You’ve seen ripples running across water, haven’t you? The stone might be lying on the bottom already, deep in the silt, but the ripples still keep on going. Eroding the banks, casting up muck and foam, even overturning boats if the stone was really big. Let’s just say I’ve spent a long time standing on the bank, standing and watching the waves wearing it away.’
‘You’re bluffing.’
‘No. Olga, what happens to Sveta, after this? What stage of the training?’
The sorceress looked at me, completely forgetting her cold kebab and half-empty glass. I struck again.
‘You’ve been through that stage, haven’t you?’
‘Yes.’ It looked as if she was going to open up. ‘I have. But I was prepared for it more slowly.’
‘So what’s the great hurry with Sveta?’
‘Nobody was expecting another Great Sorceress to be born this century. Gesar had to improvise, make things up as he went along.’
‘Is that why they let you have your old form back? Not just for doing a good job?’
‘You say you understand everything!’ said Olga, and her eyes glinted angrily. ‘So what’s the point of tormenting me?’
‘Are you monitoring her training? On the basis of your own experience?’
‘Yes. Satisfied?’
‘Olga, we’re on the same side of the barricades,’ I whispered.
‘Then don’t try and stop your comrades getting on with the job.’
‘Olga, what’s the final goal? What was it you couldn’t do? What is it Sveta has to do?’
‘You …’ she said, genuinely confused now. ‘Anton, you were bluffing!’
I didn’t answer.
‘You don’t know anything! Ripples on the water! You don’t even know which way to look to see them!’
‘Maybe so. But I got the most important thing right, didn’t I?’
Olga looked at me and bit her lip. Then she shook her head.
‘You did. A straight answer to a straight question. But I’m not going to explain anything. You shouldn’t even know about it. It doesn’t concern you.’
‘That’s where you’re wrong.’
‘None of us wishes Sveta any harm,’ Olga said sharply. ‘Is that clear?’
‘We don’t know how to wish anyone harm. It’s just that sometimes our Good is no different from Evil.’
‘Anton, let’s stop right there. I have no right to answer your questions. And we shouldn’t spoil this surprise holiday for the rest.’
‘Just how much of a surprise is it?’ I asked suggestively. ‘Well, Olya?’
But she’d already pulled herself together, and her expression remained impenetrable. Much too impenetrable for a question like that.
‘You’ve found out too much already.’ Her voice was louder, it had assumed its former tone of authority.
‘Olya, we’ve never been sent off on holiday all at the same time before. Not even for one day. Why has Gesar sent all the Light Ones out of Moscow?’
‘Not all.’
‘Polina Vasilievna and Andrei don’t count. You know perfectly well they’re just office workers. Moscow’s been left without a single Watch operative!’
‘The Dark Ones have gone quiet too.’
‘So what?’
‘Anton, that’s enough.’
I nodded, realising I wouldn’t be able to get another word out of her.
‘Okay Olya. Six months ago we were on equal terms, even if it was only by accident. Now we’re obviously not. I’m sorry. This is a problem for someone with the proper competence to deal with.’
Olga nodded. It was so unexpected I could hardly believe it.
‘You’ve finally got the idea.’
Was she fooling me? Or did she really believe I’d decided not to interfere?
‘I’m pretty quick on the uptake,’ I said. I looked at Svetlana. She was chatting happily with Tolik.
‘Are you angry with me?’ Olga asked.
I touched her hand, smiled and went into the house. I wanted to do something. I wanted to do something as badly as a genie who’s been let out of his bottle for the first time in a thousand years. Anything at alclass="underline" raise up castles, lay waste to cities, program in Basic or embroider in cross-stitch.
I opened the door without touching it, by pushing at it through the Twilight. I don’t know why I did it. I don’t often do things like that, just sometimes when I’ve drunk a lot, or when I get really angry. The former wasn’t the case here.
There was no one in the sitting room. Why would anyone want to sit inside, when outside there were hot kebabs, cold wine and more than enough loungers beneath the trees.
I flopped down into an armchair, picked up my glass – or Sveta’s – from the low table and filled it with cognac, then downed it in one, as if it was cheap vodka, not fifteen-year-old Prazdnichny. I poured myself another glass.
That was when Tiger Cub came in.
‘Don’t mind, do you?’ I asked.
‘Of course not.’ The sorceress sat down beside me. ‘Anton, has something upset you?’
‘Take no notice.’
‘Have you had a quarrel with Sveta?’
I shook my head.
‘That’s not the problem.’
‘Anton, have I done something wrong? Aren’t the guys having a good time?’
I stared at her in genuine amazement.
‘Tiger Cub, don’t be stupid! Everything’s just great. Everyone’s enjoying themselves.’
‘And you?’
I’d never seen the shape-shifting sorceress look so uncertain of herself. Were they having a good time or weren’t they? You can’t please everyone.
‘They’re continuing with Svetlana’s training,’ I said.
‘What for?’ she asked with a slight frown.
‘I don’t know. For something that Olga couldn’t do. For something very dangerous and very important.’
‘That’s good.’ She reached for a glass, poured herself some cognac and took a sip.
‘Good?’
‘Sure. That they’re training her, giving her direction.’ Tiger Cub looked around, trying to find something, then frowned and looked at the music centre by the wall. ‘That remote’s always going missing,’ she said.
The music centre lit up and Queen started to play ‘It’s a Kind of Magic’. I was impressed by how casually she did it. Controlling electronic circuits at a distance isn’t a simple trick, it’s not like drilling holes in a wall just by looking at it or keeping mosquitoes away with fireballs.
‘How long did you train to work in the Watch?’ I asked.
‘From when I was about seven years old. At sixteen, I was already involved in field operations.’