‘But that’s not—’ I began.
Kostya shrugged, a guilty expression on his features. ‘Sorry, but here I am. All those dolls inside one another, and I’m the one in the middle.’
‘I killed you,’ I said. ‘Twice. You burned up in space…’
Kostya nodded, then frowned and corrected me. ‘Fortunately, I froze first.’
‘And then I disembodied all of you on the sixth level of the Twilight,’ I went on. ‘With Merlin’s spell… Are you telling me that Merlin got it wrong?’
‘Merlin didn’t get it wrong,’ said Kostya, shaking his head. ‘But the Twilight took a special view of my case. It…’ Kostya paused, trying to find the right words. ‘It raised me up.’
‘Why would it do that, I wonder?’ Zabulon pondered.
‘Hello, boss.’ It looked ridiculous, but Kostya addressed Zabulon very politely, almost fearfully. ‘Sorry for dropping in out of the blue like this.’
‘Why would it do that?’ Zabulon repeated.
Kostya unzipped the jacket, which had become too small for him.
‘For the sake of the Sixth Watch, apparently. So that it could be convened. I’m sorry, but you couldn’t have done it on your own.’
‘Because we had forgotten everything?’ Zabulon asked.
‘No,’ Kostya replied after a moment’s pause. ‘Because if I wasn’t here, the Sixth Watch couldn’t possibly defeat the Two-in-One, even theoretically. And the Twilight plays fair.’
‘So the Twilight is on our side, then?’ Gesar asked eagerly.
‘It’s on its own side,’ Kostya said. ‘But there are rules, you see, and it abides by them. An agreement was concluded between the Others and the Two-in-One. That agreement must be implemented or rescinded. For that there have to be two sides. And both sides must have a chance.’
‘Strangely enough, I’m glad to see you,’ I said.
Kostya nodded seriously. ‘Strangely enough, I’m glad to see you too,’ he replied. ‘The existence I have now is a very odd one. But it’s better than nothing.’
‘Why did it do this to you?’ I asked.
‘I haven’t talked to it about that,’ Kostya said. ‘But I have thought about it. I think one or two vampires more or less doesn’t matter all that much to the Twilight. It could return any vampire it wanted to the world, but it happened to choose me. Maybe because I killed Vitieslav, the vampire who used to be in the Sixth Watch, and from the Twilight’s point of view I became his successor? But the Twilight also gave me a little part of other vampires. Even of my father, for some reason.’
‘I gave Gennadii Saushkin my blood,’ Arina said quietly. ‘He was trying to copy your formula and increase his level of Power. He hoped that a witch’s blood would help.’
‘There’s the tie of blood,’ I said. ‘It all started because of the vampires, and everything has carried on circling around them. The Twilight has used them to link us all together.’
‘And now it will force us to make a choice,’ Kostya said. ‘Sorry, but I have to ask this. I’m not trying to give orders, but we have very little time left… The Power that has come is almost at the door. You have to choose. Who are the members of the Sixth Watch?’
I looked at Gesar.
He nodded. ‘You decide… You’re the one being asked.’
He seemed to have hunched over and gone limp. As if all the air had been let out of him.
‘In the Sixth Watch you will represent the vampires,’ I said. ‘Arina will represent the Conclave of Witches. Innokentii will represent the Prophets.’
‘As the head of the Association of Seers and Prophets, I do not—’ Glyba began, but then stopped short, looking at me. Or maybe he was looking at something else? Into the future? ‘I have no objections,’ he concluded, sounding bewildered.
‘The Mirror Magicians will be represented in the Sixth Watch by Egor,’ I continued. ‘Since there is never more than one Mirror Magician in the world at any one time, his appointment is automatic. The forces of Darkness will be represented in the Sixth Watch by Zabulon, by virtue of the right granted to him by the Inquisition, the heads of the Day Watches and the blood of Lilith, the oldest of the Dark Others. The forces of Light will be represented in the Sixth Watch…’ I looked at Svetlana and shook my head ‘. . . by my daughter, Nadezhda Gorodetsky, by virtue of her right as an Absolute Light Enchantress.’
‘The Sixth Watch has been convened,’ said Kostya. He paused for a moment and added: ‘Since this is so important to all of you, I’ll give you a little hint. The Sixth Watch has been convened correctly. We have a chance of overturning the agreement with the Two-in-One.’
‘You mean we can beat him?’ Nadya exclaimed joyfully, taking a step forward. ‘Thanks, Dad.’
I smiled at my daughter, but shook my head. ‘No, of course not. You’ve seen him. He’s not the Tiger; he crushed the Tiger. And the entire Conclave of Witches couldn’t stop him. Perhaps you could – you’re his equal in Power. But he’s more cunning and he’s used to killing. And if you killed him, you’d kill the entire Twilight. But we need that, don’t we?’
Nadya frowned.
‘There won’t be any duel, little girl,’ Arina said quietly, walking up to Nadya. ‘I’ve just realised that, old fool that I am. All we can do is revoke the agreement. Declare it null and void.’
‘He’s coming,’ said Kesha. ‘He’s coming and he—’
The boy suddenly fixed his eyes on me. This time I had no doubt that he had seen the future. And he shook his head at what he had seen.
‘What options do we have?’ I asked. ‘You know there aren’t any.’
We heard the sound of steps in the reception area and the new members of the Sixth Watch spontaneously bunched together. Even Zabulon sighed, got up from behind his desk and moved across to them.
I stayed where I was, close to the door.
‘Anton!’ Svetlana shouted.
‘Stay where you are!’ I ordered her.
The Two-in-One appeared in the doorway.
He had changed again. The Light Magician Denis and the Dark Magician Alexei had been finally and completely transformed and fused into a single creature, a man at least two and a half metres tall, with massively thick arms and legs and a disproportionately large head, even for a giant like that. His eyes bulged and his half-open mouth was full of sharp teeth. He was naked and had absolutely no sexual features.
Little children sometimes draw monsters like this, and then their concerned parents start thinking about a visit to the psychologist.
Little children sometimes remember what the old folks have forgotten and foresee what the grown-ups don’t want to think about.
The Two-in-One lowered his head and stepped into the room – and at that moment I felt the Twilight shudder.
In distant parts of the world – in the special-access collections of the Inquisition in Prague and the witches’ secret vaults under Madrid; in the regional branches of the Night and Day Watches; in the vampire catacombs of London, in Berlin and Taipei, Kiev and San Francisco, Tokyo and Warsaw – all the amulets and artefacts that had accumulated Power over hundreds and thousands of years were discharged simultaneously.
An Icelandic volcano with an unpronounceable name erupted, flinging up a pillar of ash and flame, as a torrent of energy poured through its base. In the Atlantic Ocean an American submarine broke in half when it was caught on a line of Power, a streak of boiling water at a depth of a hundred metres. In the air above Spain a single-engine plane was transformed into a swan five metres long, with the panic-stricken pilot clinging to its neck. Moscow, which had never known any serious earthquakes, was hit by a tremor measuring six on the Richter scale, which destroyed a newly built elevated road. The air was filled with a reverberating hum.