‘Yes it does!’ Nadya protested. ‘The kids asked me in schooclass="underline" “Gorodetsky, are you a Jew?” And I said there weren’t any Jews in my family. But there are. I lied to them all!’
And that suddenly relieved the tension. Zabulon started laughing first, grunting and hammering his fists on the table. Gesar started smiling, still holding his hand over the cheek that had been slapped first. Olga smiled and shook her head, and even Svetlana couldn’t suppress a chuckle.
‘Feeling better now?’ Arina asked amicably, and I suddenly suspected that our merriment had been prompted by one of her subtle, inconspicuous witch’s spells. She was very good at doing that sort of thing. ‘Now, let’s get back to business. The Watch of Six consisted of representatives of the Six Great Parties…’
‘What a surprise,’ said Svetlana.
‘Firstly, a vampire,’ Arina continued. ‘A representative of the most ancient Others. The college of vampires was represented in the Watch of Six by Viteslav.’
‘May his dust rest in peace,’ said Zabulon. ‘Ah, Kostya, you creep – just look who you killed!’
‘In fact, none of them are still alive, apart from me,’ Arina told us. ‘Secondly, the witches. As you already realise, I represented the Conclave. Thirdly, a representative of the Light Magicians: Alfred Klaus Lange.’
‘He was killed in 1040, in a duel with the Black Magician Christophe Gautier,’ Gesar chipped in.
‘To be more precise, they killed each other,’ Zabulon added. ‘For some reason they suddenly developed very strong feelings about the relations between Germany and France at that time. A strange business: they seemed to be drawn to each other… Ah! I understand!’
‘That’s right,’ said Arina. ‘Gautier represented the Dark Magicians. Obviously there really was some kind of morbid, subconscious attraction between them – they got on very well together in the Sixth Watch…’ She squinted sideways at Nadya.
‘I’m only a little girl and I don’t understand any of your innuendoes,’ Nadya declared.
‘Fifthly, there was a Prophet,’ Arina continued.
‘A Prophet,’ I said with satisfaction. ‘So there was a Prophet… And I think I know that Prophet, don’t I, Arina?’
‘You did know him,’ Arina agreed. ‘Erasmus Darwin. A good kind of fellow, but unfortunately he drank to excess. Especially after he purged his own memory… He suddenly seemed to run wild.’
‘His life lost its meaning,’ Gesar said softly.
I looked at Zabulon, but he didn’t say anything. Erasmus had once been his pupil, but the Dark Magician’s face was like a mask of stone.
‘And the Sixth Party…’ Arina paused for a moment. ‘In fact this Party is not represented by an Other in the literal sense of the word…’
‘An uninitiated Other,’ I said. ‘A Mirror Magician. Right?’
Arina nodded. ‘You almost worked it all out. A Mirror. A wonderful young girl by the name of Maria Montessori. When she forgot about serving on the Watch of Six, she forgot all about the world of the Others. But she had a well-rounded personality and she lived an interesting life. A human life.’
‘Gesar and I can appoint the representatives from the Parties of Darkness and Light,’ said Zabulon. ‘We have that right. You can appoint a representative for the witches…’
‘That’s no problem,’ said Arina, shaking her head. ‘I’ll go myself.’
‘The vampires have acquired a new leader,’ Zabulon continued. ‘And in view of her direct involvement in recent events, I think she will soon present herself to us. That leaves a Prophet and the Mirror Magician.’
‘The Mirror Magician is in Moscow. We both know him,’ Gesar said coldly.
‘Ah, everything is knotted together so tightly…’ Zabulon sighed. ‘Who brought him here?’
‘I asked him to come,’ I said.
‘Oh, well done, Antoshka,’ Zabulon said.
I pretended not to have heard him use the diminutive form of my name.
‘And a Prophet,’ Gesar put in. ‘I suppose that Glyba—’
‘Not Glyba,’ I said. ‘Innokentii Tolkov.’
‘Justify that remark,’ Gesar told me.
‘Everything here is interconnected,’ I said. ‘And there are also additional conditions, which mean that the representatives have to be the following: Innokentii Tolkov for the Prophets, Zabulon for the Dark Ones and Nadya for the Light Ones.’
CHAPTER 5
THE DAY WATCH office was empty. Zabulon had sent all his colleagues home, even the operational duty officers, before we appeared. They wouldn’t have been any help in any case.
So the tea and sandwiches were brought by Sveta and Nadya.
‘There was something else in the prophecy too, remember?’ I began. ‘“The Sixth Watch is dead” – well, that’s clear enough. Prophets are obliged to maintain the rhythm of prophecy, so the six parties had to be listed. But Prophets can’t prophesy about themselves. For instance, the prophecy said: “The Fifth Power has disappeared.” I think that’s about the witches, and specifically about Arina.’
Arina nodded.
‘“The Fourth has not come in time,”’ I continued. ‘That’s about Egor. If the Mirror Magician had already been embodied… or if Vitalii Rogoza had been able to carry out his function to the end, then everything would have gone differently. Svetlana would have been killed. Nadya wouldn’t have been born. Maybe I would have died too.’
Sveta hugged Nadya without saying a word. That was the way they sat almost all the time now, huddled up against each other.
‘The Mirror Magician wasn’t trying to liquidate a banal imbalance of force in the Moscow Watches,’ I said. ‘He was trying to deal with the global problem. But he didn’t have time… “The Third Power does not believe” – that’s about us, the Light Ones. About you, Gesar. We’ve lost our sense of purpose, we’ve lost our belief and our hope.’
Gesar looked away.
‘“The Second Power is afraid,”’ I said, nodding to Zabulon. ‘Sorry, Grandad, but that’s about you.’
Zabulon bared his teeth in a white smile.
‘“The First Power is exhausted,”’ I concluded. ‘The vampires. They were the first force of Others. They are exhausted. Worn out. They have degenerated. We have proved to be better predators than the undead who drink blood.’
‘All right, but what has all this got to do with the composition of the Sixth Watch?’ asked Olga.
‘I’ll go on in a moment,’ I said. ‘But in the meantime it would be a good idea to send for Egor and Innokentii.’
‘I already have,’ said Gesar. ‘I don’t agree with what you’re saying, but they’re on the way. Carry on.’
‘There’s also the thing that Lilith said,’ I added, looking at Zabulon. ‘But first I’d like to know who she was and what was her relationship to you.’
‘She was one of the first,’ said Zabulon. ‘And once, a very long time ago, she… took me under her wing.’
I waited for more.
‘I think the blood that runs in my veins was in hers too,’ Zabulon continued reluctantly. ‘Her life began in the most ancient of times and she hid from everyone. But she owed me a few favours. And I owed her some too. Perhaps she was one of the group that met the Two-in-One. I was hoping that Lilith would tell you more. For the same reason that she maintained contact with me.’
‘Blood,’ I said.
‘Yes, blood.’
I recalled the ancient beast who had crumbled to dust in my home. Could my line of descent really run back to her? Could Nadya really be descended from her?’
Anything was possible. We don’t choose our ancestors.
And we’re not obliged to live up to their expectations.