Gesar shook his head skeptically.
"I didn't come right away," Edgar went on. "Especially since Witezslav said he was summoning Inquisition operatives from the security cordon."
"Was he afraid of something?" Zabulon asked curtly.
"Witezslav? I don't think so, not anything specific. But it is standard procedure when an artifact of such great power is discovered. I completed my round of the security posts and was actually talking to Konstantin when our operatives reported that they had surrounded the house but they could not sense Witezslav's presence. I ordered them to enter the house. They reported that there was no one in the house. At that point I…" Edgar hesitated before continuing "… felt rather puzzled. Why would Witezslav hide from his colleagues? I took Kostya with me, and we got here as quickly as we could. It took us about forty minutes-we didn't want to go through the Twilight because we might need all of our Power-and our agents were unable to put up a reliable portal. There are too many magical artifacts here…"
"I see," said Gesar. "Go on."
"There was a cordon around the house and two agents were on guard inside. We entered the secret room together and discovered Witezslav's remains."
"How long was Witezslav left without protection," Gesar asked, still speaking doubtfully, but with a new note of interest in his voice.
"About an hour."
"And for another forty minutes Inquisitors guarded his corpse. There are six of them, third- and fourth-level." Gesar frowned. "A powerful magician could have gotten through."
"Unlikely," said Edgar, shaking his head. "Yes, they are third- and fourth-level-Roman is the only one who's just barely second-level-but they're equipped with our guard amulets. Not even a Great One could have gotten through."
"Then the killer must have been here before they arrived?"
"Most probably," Edgar confirmed.
"A magician powerful enough to kill a Higher Vampire swiftly…" Gesar shook his head. "I can only think of one candidate."
"The witch," Zabulon muttered. "If she really did have the Fuaran, she could have come back for it."
"First she abandoned it, and then came back?" Svetlana exclaimed. I realized she was trying to defend Arina. "That's not logical."
"Anton and I pursued her," Edgar responded ingenuously. "She fled in a panic. Clearly she didn't make a run for it immediately, as we assumed, but hid somewhere nearby. And then when Witezslav found the book she sensed it and panicked."
Gesar gave me and Svetlana a dark look. But he didn't say anything.
"Or perhaps Witezslav died without any help?" Svetlana persisted. "He found the book, tried to work some spell in it… and was killed. There have been such cases."
"Aha," Zabulon said acidly, "and in the meantime the book grew legs and ran away."
"I wouldn't even exclude that possibility," said Gesar, standing up for Svetlana now. "It could have sprouted legs, and it could have run away."
Silence fell, and in the silence Zabulon's scoffing laugh sounded especially loud.
"Well, well! So we believe in the Fuaran?"
"I believe that someone killed a Higher Vampire with ease," said Gesar. "And that someone is not frightened of the Watches or the Inquisition. That very fact demands speedy and efficient investigation. Don't you agree, colleague?"
Zavulon nodded reluctantly.
"If we accept even for one moment that the Fuaran really was here…" Gesar shook his head. "If all the rumors about this book are true…"
Zabulon nodded again.
Both Great Magicians froze, looking at each other. Either they were simply trying to stare each other down or, despite all the defenses around them, they somehow managed to conduct a magical conversation.
I walked over to the vampire's remains and squatted down.
A disagreeable sort. Disagreeable, even for a vampire.
But still one of us.
An Other.
Behind my back Edgar was burbling something about the need to bring in fresh reinforcements, and how catching Arina had now become a matter of vital importance. The witch was out of luck. An old violation of the Treaty, even on a grand scale, was one thing. But killing an Inquisitor was something else altogether.
And all the facts were against her. Who else was powerful enough to take out a Higher Vampire?
But somehow I didn't believe Arina was guilty…
For some reason, I didn't find Witezslav's remains disgusting. There was obviously nothing human left in him at all, there wasn't even any trace of bones. Gray dust, like the ash from a slightly damp cigarette, maintaining its form, but absolutely homogenous in structure. I touched something that hinted vaguely at the form of a clenched fist-and was not at all surprised when the ash crumbled away, revealing a crumpled piece of paper.
"A note," I said.
A deathly silence fell. Since there were no objections, I picked up the piece of paper, straightened it out and read it. And only then looked at the magicians.
All their faces were as tense as if they expected to hear me say, "Witezslav wrote down the name of his killer before he died… it was you!"
"Witezslav didn't write this," I said. "It's Arina's writing; she wrote the explanatory note for me…"
"Read it aloud," Edgar ordered.
"Dear Inquisitors!" I read in a loud voice. "If you are reading this, it means that you are still pursuing issues from the past. I suggest a peaceful settlement. You get the book you have been looking for. I get a pardon."
"So you were looking for it, then?" Gesar asked in a very calm voice.
"The Inquisition tries to locate all artifacts," Edgar replied calmly. "Including those that are classed as mythological."
"Would she have gotten her pardon?" Svetlana asked unexpectedly.
Edgar looked at her in annoyance, but he answered:
"If the Fuaran had been lying here? It's not my decision to make, but the answer's probably yes. If it's the genuine Fuaran."
"I'm inclined to think now that it is the genuine article…" Gesar said in a quiet voice. "Edgar, I'd like to consult with my colleagues."
Edgar merely shrugged. The Inquisitor probably wasn't too keen on being left alone with Zabulon and Kostya, but his expression remained imperturbable.
Svetlana and I followed Gesar out of the secret room.
The Inquisitors greeted us with suspicious glances, as if they thought we'd killed all the Dark Ones. But it didn't bother Gesar.
"We're withdrawing for a conference," he said casually, heading for the door. The Inquisitors glanced at each other, but they didn't argue-one of them just walked toward the secret room. But we were already out of the witch's house.
It seemed as if morning hadn't arrived yet here in the dense heart of the forest. All around there was a mysterious semi-darkness, like the very first hour of dawn. I glanced up in surprise, and saw that the sky really was unnaturally gray: It was like looking through a pair of dark glasses. Apparently that was the manifestation in our world of the magical defenses erected by the Inquisitors.
"Everything's falling apart…" Gesar muttered. "Things are really bad…"
His gaze shifted rapidly from me to Svetlana and back, as if he couldn't decide which of us he needed right then.
"Was the Fuaran really there?" Svetlana asked.
"Apparently. Evidently the book exists." Gesar pulled a wry face. "This is bad, really bad…"
"We'll have to find the witch," said Svetlana. "If you want…"
Gesar shook his head. "No, I don't want. Arina has to get away."
"I understand," I said, taking Svetlana by the hand. "If they catch Arina, she might confess who that Light One was…"
"Arina doesn't know who that Light One was," said Gesar, interrupting me. "That Light One came to her in a mask. She can suspect and surmise, she might even be certain-but she doesn't have a single fact. It's something else that's the problem…"
That was when I understood.
"The Fuaran?"
&nbs
p; "Yes. That's why I ask you…"
Before he could finish, I hurriedly put in, "We don't know where Arina is. Do we, Sveta?"
Svetlana frowned, but she nodded.
"Thank you," said Gesar. "That's the first thing. Now for the second. We have to find the Fuaran. At any cost. They'll probably put together a search party. I want Anton to be our member of it."
"I'm more powerful," Svetlana said in a quiet voice.
"That makes no difference at all." Gesar shook his head. "Not a scrap. Svetlana, I'll be needing you here."
"What for?" Svetlana asked cautiously.
Gesar hesitated for a second. Then he said, "To initiate Nadya if we should need to."
"You're out of your mind," Svetlana said in an icy voice. "No way can she become an Other at her age and with her Power!"
"It might turn out that we have no other choice," Gesar muttered. "Svetlana, it's up to you. All I ask is that you stay with the child."
"Don't worry about that," Svetlana snapped. "I won't take my eyes off her."
"Well that's fine." Gesar smiled and walked toward the door. "Do come and join us, our Council at Fili is about to start."
The moment the door closed behind him, Svetlana swung around to face me and asked in a demanding voice: "Do you understand anything at all?"
I nodded.
"Gesar was unable to find his own son. He really was just an ordinary human being! He only became an Other just recently."
"Arina?"
"Looks like it. She emerged from hibernation and took a look around. Found out who was at the top now…"
"And used the Fuaran to give Gesar a little secret present? She turned his son into an Other?" Svetlana shrugged. "It makes no sense, why would she do that? They're not that close, surely?"
"Why? Now Gesar will do everything possible to make sure they don't find Arina. She took out an insurance policy, get it?"
Svetlana screwed up her eyes and nodded. "But listen, what about the Day Watch…"
"How do we know what she did for Zabulon?" I shrugged. "Somehow I get the feeling the Day Watch won't demonstrate any excessive zeal looking for the witch either."
"What a cunning old hag," Svetlana said, but with no malice. "I was wrong to think so little of witches. And did you understand that about Nadya?"
I shook my head.
What Gesar had said really made absolutely no sense. Sometimes Other children were initiated at the age of five or six, but never any earlier than that. A child who has acquired the abilities of an Other but is unable to control them properly is a walking bomb. Especially an Other as powerful as Nadiushka. Even Gesar himself would be unable to stop the little girl if she got overexcited and started using her Power.
No, I couldn't figure out what Gesar had meant.
"I'll pull his legs off and put them where his arms used to be," Svetlana promised in a perfectly calm voice, "if he even hints that we have to initiate Nadya. All right, shall we go?"
We linked arms-we really wanted to feel close to each other at that moment-and went back into the house.
* * *
The Inquisitors whom chance had chosen to make privy to the secret had been put back in the security cordon around the house, and the other six of us were sitting around the table.
Gesar was drinking tea that he'd made himself by taking the witch's brew and adding herbs from her abundant reserves. I took a cup, too. The tea smelled of mint and juniper; it was bitter and spicy, but bracing. No one else was tempted to drink it- Svetlana politely took a sip and put her cup down.
The note was lying on the table.
"Twenty-two or twenty-three hours ago," said Zabulon, looking at the piece of paper. "She wrote the note before your visit, Inquisitor."
Edgar nodded and added reluctantly, "Possibly… just possibly even during our visit. It was hard for us to pursue her in the depths of the Twilight-she had quite enough time to gather her wits and write a note."
"Then we have no grounds for suspecting the witch," Zabulon muttered. "She left the book in order to buy off the pursuit. She had no reason to come back for it and kill the Inquisitor."
"Agreed," Gesar said after a pause, and nodded.
"A most astonishing unity of thought between the Dark Ones and the Light Ones," said Edgar. "You frighten me, gentlemen."
"This is no time for disagreements," Zabulon replied. "We have to find the killer and the book."
They definitely had their own reasons for protecting Arina!
"Good." Edgar nodded. "Let's go back to the beginning. Witezslav calls me and tells me about the Fuaran. Nobody heard the conversation."
"All cell phone calls are monitored and recorded…" I put in.
"What are you suggesting, Anton?" Edgar looked at me ironically. "That the human special services are conducting a campaign against the Others? And when they heard about the book, they immediately sent an agent here? And that agent killed a Higher Vampire?"
"Anton's not that far off the mark," Gesar said in my defense.
"You know, Edgar, that every year we have to suppress human activity directed at exposing us. And you know about the secret departments in the special services…"
"We have our people in them," Edgar retorted. "But even if we assume that they're searching for Others again, that there's been a leak of information, then Witezslav's death still remains a mystery. No James Bond could have crept up on him without being noticed."
"Who's James Bond?" Zabulon inquired.
"That's another myth," Gesar laughed. "Contemporary mythology. Gentlemen, let us not waste time in idle discussion. The situation is perfectly clear. Witezslav was killed by an Other. A powerful Other. And most likely someone the Inquisitor trusted."
"He didn't trust anyone, not even me," muttered Edgar. "Suspicion is in a vampire's blood… pardon me for the pun."
Nobody smiled. Kostya gave Edgar a moody glance, but didn't say anything.
"Are you suggesting we should check the memories of everyone here?" Gesar inquired politely.
"Would you agree?" Edgar responded eagerly.
"No," Gesar snapped. "I appreciate the work done by the Inquisition, but there are limits!"
"Then we're stuck." Edgar shrugged. "Gentlemen, if you are not willing to cooperate…"
Svetlana cleared her throat delicately. "May I speak?" she asked.
"Yes, yes, of course." Edgar nodded politely.
"I think we're on the wrong track," said Svetlana. "You have decided that we need to find the killer, and then we'll find the book. That's right, only we don't know who the killer is. Why don't we try to find the Fuaran? And then locate the killer through the book?"
"And how are you going to look for the book, Light One?" Zabulon asked ironically. "Send for James Bond?"
Svetlana reached out her hand and cautiously touched Arina's note.
"There… as I understand it, the witch put this note on the book. Perhaps even between its pages. The two things were in contact for some period of time, and the book is a very powerful magical object. If we summon up a simulacrum… you know, the way novice magicians are taught to do…"
She faltered under the gaze of the Higher Magicians and began to lose her thread. But both Zabulon and Gesar were looking at her approvingly.
"Yes, there is magic like that," Gesar muttered. "Of course, I remember… they stole my horse once, and I was left with just the bridle…"
He stopped and shot a glance at Zabulon, then suggested in a very friendly tone of voice, "After you, Dark One. You create the simulacrum."
"I'd prefer you to do it," Zabulon replied with equal politeness. "There'll be no unnecessary suspicion of deception."
There was something wrong here. But what?
"Well then, as the old saying goes: 'First lash to the informer!'" Gesar responded cheerfully. "Svetlana, your idea is accepted. Go ahead."
Svetlana looked at Gesar in embarrassment.
"Boris Ignatievich… I'm sorry, these are such simple magi
cal actions… It's such a long time since I performed them. Perhaps we ought to ask one of the junior magicians?"
So that was it… The Great Ones couldn't manage the basic elements of magic that were taught to beginners. They were confused and embarrassed-like academics who have been asked to multiply figures in a long column and write out letters in neat lines.
"Allow me," I said. And without waiting for an answer, I reached out one hand toward the note. I half closed my eyelids so that the shadow fell on my eyes and looked at the gray piece of paper through the Twilight. I imagined the book-a thin volume bound in human skin, the journal of a witch cursed by humans and Others alike…
The image began slowly taking shape. The book was almost exactly as I had visualized it, except that the corners of the binding were protected by golden triangles of metal. Evidently a later addition, one of the Fuaran's owners had taken care to preserve it.
"So that's what it's like," Gesar said with lively interest. "Well, there it is…"
The magicians rose from their seats and examined the image of the book, which only Others could see. The note was quivering gently on the table, as if there was a draft in the room.
"And can we open it?" asked Kostya.
"No, it's only an image, it doesn't contain within itself the essential nature of the object…" Gesar said amiably. "Go on, Anton. Stabilize it… and invent some kind of tracking mechanism."
It was hard enough for me to stabilize the image of the book, and I was definitely not prepared to come up with a tracking mechanism. Eventually I settled on a grotesque simulacrum of a compass-it was huge, the size of a dinner plate, with a pointer swinging on a pin. One end of the pointer glowed more brightly-the end that was supposed to point toward the Fuaran.
"Add more energy," Gesar said. "Let it work for at least a week… you never know."
I added more energy.
And then, completely bushed, but pleased with myself, I relaxed.
We looked at the compass floating in the Twilight. The pointer was pointing directly at Zabulon.
Twilight Watch Page 28