Thomas the Rhymer had become a white-haired giant almost three meters tall. His skin radiated a murky white light. He was grabbing bunches of white and blue light out of the air, mixing them together in his gigantic hands as if he was making snowballs, and throwing them off into the far distance. I followed the trajectory: The hissing bundles of flame went flying over the flat plain, sweeping aside the rare trees in their path, and fizzled out in a dark cloud that was moving rapidly away. Burning trees marked the shots that had missed.
“Foma!” I shouted. “I’m here!”
The giant mixed up a truly immense sphere in his hands and grunted as he hurled it after the dark cloud. He turned around.
He had an amazing face. Kind and harsh, beautiful and frightening, all at the same time.
“The young magician has passed the barriers,” Thomas rumbled. “The young magician has hastened to come to our aid…”
He was a little bit crazy just at that moment-like all Others who take on their deep Twilight forms in the heat of battle.
Thomas covered the distance between us in just a few steps. It seemed to me that the very ground shook under his feet.
“They didn’t manage it, my friend…” The ancient bard lowered a hand as big as a shovel onto my shoulder and spoke in the third person as if he meant someone else. “They only got as far as the sixth level. Thomas drove them away, he did. Thomas drove them away, like cowardly little puppy dogs.”
Lermont leaned his face down to me and whispered confidentially, “But only because his enemies didn’t fight. They’d been here long enough to realize that they couldn’t get to the seventh level of the Twilight.”
“How many of them were there, Thomas?”
“Three, my friend, three. The right number.”
“Did you get a look at them?”
“Only a short one,” Thomas said with a shake of his head. “You can’t read an aura properly here, but Thomas managed. A Dark Other-an undead vampire. A Light Other-a sorcerer-healer. An Inquisitor Other-a Battle Magician. Three came together for the legacy of Merlin. Three almost got through. Three Higher Others. But even Higher Ones cannot get through to the seventh level of the Twilight.”
“A Dark One, a Light One, and an Inquisitor,” I asked in amazement, “all together?”
“The legacy of Merlin is enticing to all. Even Light Ones. Why else do you think, young magician, that Thomas wished to keep your arrival secret from his Watch?”
“Are they all men?” I asked.
“All men. All women. How should Thomas know? Thomas didn’t touch them. Thomas just saw a little bit of their auras.”
“Thomas, we have to go,” I said, looking into the giant’s eyes. “Thomas, it’s time to go back. Time to go home.”
“Why?” the giant asked in surprise. “It’s good here, young magician. You can live here. A magical land, a kingdom of fairies and magicians… Thomas can settle here, Thomas can find his haven-”
“Thomas Lermont, you are the head of a Night Watch! The whole of Scotland is under your protection! Witches, vampires, ghouls…you’re not going to let them all run riot, are you?”
Thomas said nothing, and for a moment I thought he would refuse to go, that he really had found the fairy kingdom to which, legend said, Thomas the Rhymer had withdrawn seven hundred years earlier.
Of course, the Dark Ones wouldn’t have run riot. Help would have come-from England, from Ireland, from Wales. And Light Ones would have been found in Europe and America to come to the aid of the orphaned Scottish Watch.
But would Lermont’s disappearance be the final drop that triggered Egor’s transformation into a Mirror Magician?
“Let’s go, my young friend,” Lermont said. “You’re right, you’re right, and I am in too much of a hurry…it is not yet time… But listen, young magician! Listen to the ringing of the silence, to the singing of the crickets in the grass, to the night birds beating the air with their wings…”
Either he made me hear it or it was all real, but through the giant’s noisy breathing I heard the silence and the sounds.
“See how hotly the fire blazes, how the silvery leaves catch the moonlight, how dark the grass is beneath our feet…,” Lermont whispered. “You could live here…”
And I saw.
“Not many Others have been here when they were still alive,” Lermont said, and sighed. “We only come here after we die, do you understand? We come here forever…”
I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. I remembered the members of our Watch who had died: Igor, Tiger Cub, Andrei…
“Did you know that? Did you know that earlier?”
“All Higher Ones who have managed to reach the fifth level know it,” Thomas said in a sad voice. “But this knowledge is too dangerous, young magician.”
“Why?”
“It is not good to know what awaits you after death. Thomas knows-and it is a burden to him. Thomas wishes to come here. Far away from cruel and greedy people. Far away from human evil and human good. It is so sweet…to live in a world of Others…”
“Live?”
“Live, young magician… Here even vampires have no need of blood. Here everything is different, otherwise. Everything is the way it should be. Here is the real world…on the fifth and sixth levels, and the seventh-the very greatest. Here the towers of wise men studying the world of creation soar up to the heavens; cities full of Light and Dark seethe with vital life; unicorns roam through virgin forests and dragons guard their mountain caves. We shall come here…I sooner, and you later…and our friends will come out to greet us. I shall also be glad to greet you, young magician…”
A gigantic arm hugged me around the shoulders as if I were a child. Foma heaved a deep, heavy sigh and continued, “But it is not yet time. Not yet time. If I had been able to reach the seventh level…I would not have come back. But my Power is not sufficient for that. And yours will not be either, young magician…”
“I’m in no hurry for the time being,” I muttered. “I have…”
What did I have? A wife and daughter? They were Others, Higher Others. We could all depart together. For the cities of Light and Dark…where our fallen friends were happy together, where no one remembered about those stupid little human people…
I shuddered. Was I dreaming, or had I become taller too? Or had Lermont started to shrink?
“Foma, let’s get going!”
“Wait. Look at this!”
A white light had started dancing above our heads. Foma reached out his hand and pointed to a slab of transparent red stone hidden in the grass under our feet. What was this, a ruby the size of a large tea tray?
I squatted down, ran my hand across the smooth surface, and looked at the lines and dashes of Celtic runes.
“What’s written here, Foma?”
“Merlin wrote that,” Lermont said with a thoughtful note in his voice. “Merlin wrote that it is the keyhole and the final key, both at the same time. It says here in Coelbren”-he paused-“if we say it in high style…then…”
“Say it in any style!” I exclaimed, feeling the time slipping away.
The Crown of All Things is here concealed. Only one step is left.
But this is a legacy for the strong or the wise—
Foma spoke in a strange voice, one that was higher and more tuneful. And at the first words he spoke, the letters carved in the stone started to glow, as if someone had lit up a powerful lamp underneath it. One after another the letters were transformed into slim columns of light, shooting up into the sky.
You shall receive all and nothing, when you are able to take it.
Proceed, if you are as strong as I;
Or go back, if you are as wise as I.
Beginning and end, head and tail, all is fused in one
In the Crown of All Things. Thus are life and death inseparable.
The final letter flared into white brilliance just as Lermont spoke the final word.
“I hate karaoke,” I said. “
What does all this mean?”
“Thomas knows no more than you do, young magician,” said the giant, clutching me in his arms. “And now, let’s be leaving!”
I thought Lermont was going to step straight into the real world. But no, he went to the fifth level first and waved to Semyon and the black guy.
“Leave!” he shouted.
They didn’t have to be asked twice. Then Lermont winked at me, leaned down over the golem, and jerked Merlin’s Rune out of the snake’s body.
The beast’s eyes flashed in fury, its trunk swirled up into the air, and both of its mouths opened wide in unison.
But we were already out of the Guard’s reach. In the ordinary human world. In a room full of dead bodies.
The once-more overweight, aging Lermont put me down and collapsed on the floor. His face was covered with sweat. There were even beads of it hanging on the ends of his mustache.
We were surrounded by a familiar bustle-Light Others were taking prints of auras, studying the bodies, collecting small pieces of flesh and drops of blood for analysis. When I arrived, and Semyon arrived straight after me, we were immediately met with wary glances, and I felt the probes of spells slipping over my body. When they discovered that we were Light Ones, and high-ranking, the watchmen withdrew their probes in embarrassment.
I saw Bruce off to one side. The Master of vampires no longer looked like a walking corpse, the rosy bloom having returned to his cheeks. He was squatting in the corner, drinking something from a glass. I didn’t try to see exactly what it was.
“Well, I never!” said Semyon, shaking his head. He looked absolutely happy. “I never even imagined I’d see the fifth level someday, like the Great Gesar or Thomas the Rhymer. Oh…now I can die happy!”
He winked at me.
“I’ll sew your mouth shut,” Lermont declared in a very familiar tone of voice. “The fifth level of the Twilight is no subject for idle talk.”
“Aha,” Semyon agreed quickly. “It’s just my stupid way of nattering.”
“Foma…” I reached out one hand to help the magician up. “Thank you…for coming back. And for showing me-Thank you for that.”
“Let’s go,” said Foma, walking quickly through to the next room and the mooring, where the metal boat was swaying on the dark water. I followed him. Lermont hung an umbrella of silence over us and the noise immediately died away. “Did you want to ask something?”
“Yes. Who are they?”
“I don’t know.” Foma took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat off his face. “Several attempts have already been made to reach the legacy of Merlin. But I’m not certain it was these Others who tried. The last attempt was more than a century ago. And in particular, no one has ever made such wide use of humans before… This is all very serious, Anton. But we’ve been lucky-Merlin has puzzled everybody with the third key.”
“What does that poem mean?”
“It’s a riddle. In those days they were very fond of riddles, Anton. It was considered good form to give your opponent a chance to beat you. Even if it was only the bare ghost of a chance.”
“One thing is clear: Apart from simply going head-on, trying to break through into the seventh level, there’s an alternative route,” I said.
“It looks that way. But I don’t know what to say to you about that. And if I did, I wouldn’t say it.”
“Are you going to guard Merlin’s hiding place until the end of time?”
“For as long as I can,” said Lermont, turning the Rune of Merlin over in his hands. He sighed. “At least now the Guard is watching over the fifth level again. Next time the enemy will have to subdue it.”
“Destroy the Rune, Foma!”
He shook his head. “There aren’t any simple answers, Anton. If the Rune is destroyed, the Guard will disappear too. I’ll hide it as securely as I can. You don’t need to know how. And…thank you for your help.”
“Meaning, ‘Now get lost’?” I asked, smiling.
“Meaning, ‘Thank you for your help.’ The more outsiders there are here, the more fuss there will be over everything that has happened. I’m grateful to you, and to Semyon. Your plane tickets will be delivered to your hotel.”
“Fair enough. And thank you, Foma.” I bowed. “May you walk with the Light!”
“Wait,” Lermont said in a gentle voice. He walked up to me and embraced me. “I mean it: Thank you. Don’t take offense. We’re going to have a lot of problems here, and a lot of visitors from the Inquisition. Do you really want to get stuck here for a month?”
“Guard the Crown well, Foma,” I said after a pause.
“Think about what you’ve seen, Anton. I’m sure that one of your compatriots is involved in what has happened. Approach the mystery from your side-and we’ll meet again.”
“If I find whoever it is from our side, I’ll tear his legs off and stick them in his ears. Good-bye, Thomas the Rhymer!”
When I had already reached the door, I added, “Oh yes, by the way, we’re used to flying first class!”
“Be grateful if I don’t send you as baggage,” Foma replied in the same tone of voice. Then he turned and walked back to his colleagues.
Epilogue
“YOU KNOW, THAT’S A REALLY BAD MOVE, TO TELL SOMEONE YOU fought side by side with that you’ll meet again later,” Semyon declared somberly. “He hasn’t got a single free moment to see me. And now we’re flying back home, like real ninnies. If we had just a week…we could have gone to the lochs, done a bit of fishing…”
“Semyon, the Inquisition will arrive any minute-we’d be stuck here for a month.”
“So, what’s wrong with that?”
“I’m a family man.”
“Oh, that’s right…,” Semyon said with a sigh. “With a little daughter… Is she walking yet?”
“Semyon, stop playing the fool!”
We stopped in front of the hotel entrance. Semyon chuckled and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Er…how much time have we got?”
“Five or six hours. If the tickets are for the evening flight.”
“I’ll just drop into a shop and buy a few souvenirs. Shall I get some for you?”
“What, exactly?”
“What sort of question’s that? Whisky and scarves. Whisky for the men and scarves for the women. I usually get five of each.”
“Go on, then,” I said, waving him away. “But get me a child’s scarf too, if you see one. Something bright and cheerful.”
“Definitely.”
I walked into the hotel lobby. The receptionist was not at his desk, but there was an envelope lying there with my name written on it in large letters. Inside were three first-class tickets-for me, Semyon, and Galya Dobronravova. Foma had acted with incredible efficiency, and he hadn’t even forgotten about the wolf-girl.
I knocked on the door of the Dark suite on the fourth floor. No response. I listened and heard the sound of water flowing somewhere inside. I took Galya’s ticket out of the envelope and pushed it under the door.
I found the key in my pocket and went into my own suite.
“Slowly-slowly-go-over-to-the-armchair-and-sit-down,” a voice said at incredible speed. It was the young red-haired guy who had introduced himself to me as Jean in the Dungeons of Scotland.
He had positioned himself perfectly-at the window, with the blinding sunlight pouring in through it. My shadow was behind me: There was no way I could plunge into it.
“Start-moving-toward-the-armchair-slowly-slowly,” the young guy rattled off.
He was accelerated, enveloped in the green glow emanating from the amulet on his arm. It looked like an ordinary woven bead trinket, the kind that hippies make. His reflexes now were many times faster than those of a normal human being. And since he was holding an Uzi automatic rifle and its magazine of charmed bullets was glowing bright red, it would have been unwise of me to object.
“Speak more clearly,” I said, walking over to the chair and sitting in it. “Since you didn’t kill m
e straightaway, there must be something to talk about.”
“You’re-wrong-wizard,” the young guy said.
I thought it was funny, his childish use of “wizard.”
“I-was-ordered-to-kill-you-but-there’s-something-I-want-toask-you.”
“Ask away.”
I needed my shadow. I needed to turn my head, see my shadow, and dive into the Twilight. I would be faster than him there.
“Don’t-turn-your-head! If-you-look-at-your-shadow-I’ll-shoot-straightaway. How-many-of-you-are-there?”
“What?”
“How-many-brutes-like-you-are-there-walking-the-earth?”
“Well…” I thought for a moment. “Do you mean Light Ones or Dark Ones?”
“It-doesn’t-matter.”
“Approx…imate…ly…one…in…every…ten…thou…sand…,” I drawled slowly. Not to be a wise guy, but to try to convince this young fellow that he was speeded up too far. But then, was he even able to control the effect of the charm?
“Bastards-I-hate-them,” he said, as quickly as ever. “I-was-told-to-say-you-betrayed-a-friend-and-deserve-to-die…”
There was a knock at the door. The young guy’s glance darted in that direction and then back to me. In a single movement he pulled the tablecloth off the table and covered his automatic rifle, which was still trained on me. He said, “Open-it!”
“Who’s there? It’s open!” I shouted.
If it was Semyon, we’d have a chance.
The door opened and Galya walked in. The way she looked simply took my breath away. A short little black skirt, an almost transparent pink top-she would have had Lolita smoking nervously in the corner.
Jean was dumbstruck too.
“Hi.” The girl was chewing something. She concentrated and blew out a huge bubble of gum. The bubble burst and Jean jumped, startled. I was afraid he would start blasting away, but the moment passed safely. “And who are you?” she asked.
She gave Jean a look that made him blush bright red. He managed to jabber and mumble at the same time: “I’m-just-visiting.”
“Well, friends of Anthony’s get a discount,” Galya said, and winked at the young man. She walked up to me, swaying her hips, and said, “I left my knickers in your place, did you find them?”
Last Watch Page 14