Last Watch

by Сергей Лукьяненков

  Yes, he was hung all over with amulets, like decorations on a Christmas tree. But there was something else besides the amulets. Charms: combinations of the very simplest natural components that don’t require much effort to become saturated with magic and that acquire their magical properties from light, almost imperceptible touches of Power, in the same way that saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur-almost harmless in themselves-together become gunpowder, which explodes at the slightest spark.

  It was no accident that Edgar was dressed completely in cotton, linen, and leather. Natural materials have an affinity for magic. You can’t charm a nylon jacket.

  And these charms that transformed his clothing into magical armor bothered me. Charms are the weapons of enchantresses and witches. Magicians rarely make use of them. There was no way I could imagine Edgar carefully impregnating his own trousers with herbal infusions.

  So was this the work of another member of their criminal gang? The Light Healer? Yes, healers knew how to work with charms; I knew that very well from Svetlana.

  “Edgar, you realize that I am obliged to arrest you?”

  “And what if you can’t?” Edgar asked, but he didn’t wait for an answer. The fingers of his left hand began moving, weaving together a spell. I realized which one it was-and I hesitated for just an instant as I made up my mind whether to warn Rustam. Strangely enough, it was in my interest for Edgar to get what he wanted.

  “Rustam, he’s working the Confession!” I shouted.

  I warned him because, after all, this ancient magician with bats in the belfry was a Light One…

  Edgar instantly struck with the spell, simultaneously shouting, “How can I take the Crown of All Things?”

  There you go. I hadn’t needed to use my four bracelets that compelled an honest answer to any question!

  We all gazed at Rustam in silence. He was slowly rubbing his chest where the spell had struck him. He raised his head, looked at Edgar with his cold blue eyes, and said, “With your hands.”

  Alisher started laughing. Edgar had been caught out by the ambivalence of his presentation of the question. Even under a powerful spell Rustam had managed to give a perfectly precise and absolutely useless answer.

  And then, with a slight movement of his lips, Rustam struck back. And he struck with something entirely unfamiliar to me. No fancy effects, but Edgar was shaken from side to side, and his cheeks swelled up in red blotches from slaps delivered by an invisible hand.

  “Never try to put pressure on me again,” Rustam warned him when the slapping session was over. “Do you understand, Inquisitor?”

  Before Edgar could decide what to say, if anything, I threw up my hand, feeling absolutely delighted that I hadn’t used my set of bracelets against Rustam, and fired off all four tongue-loosening spells against Edgar instead. The amulets on the Inquisitor’s body blazed up brightly, but they couldn’t absorb the full force of the blow.

  “Who was the vampire with you in Edinburgh?” I shouted.

  Edgar’s face contorted as he struggled painfully to hold back the word that was rising to his tongue. He failed.

  “Saushkin!” he shouted.

  Rustam laughed again and said, “Bye-bye!”

  Afandi was suddenly himself again. It was as if a rubber doll had been partly deflated! He lost height, his shoulders narrowed, wrinkles appeared on his face, his eyes dimmed, and the hairs of his beard fell out and scattered.

  Edgar and I looked at each other with hatred in our eyes.

  And then, without wasting any time on gathering Power or intoning spells, Edgar struck at us. A fiery rain poured down from the sky, seething and bubbling on the Shields that Alisher and I had erected. But there was no fire around Afandi, who was still confused and hadn’t yet recovered his wits-evidently one of the protective rings had been activated.

  The minute that followed was full of attacks and counterattacks. Alisher wisely left me to conduct the battle, took a step backward, and fed Power to our Shields, only occasionally allowing himself a brief lunge of attacking magic.

  Gesar must have involved the finest diviners in the Watch in the preparation of our equipment. After the fire came ice. A blizzard started howling through the air, tiny snowflakes with edges as sharp as razors tested the strength of our Shields and melted impotently as they approached Afandi. Before the storm of ice had even died away, Edgar struck with the Kiss of the Viper and the rocks beneath our feet were suddenly covered with drops of acid. Afandi was protected yet again. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that the old man wasn’t just doing nothing, he was weaving some weak but very intricate and unusual spell. I didn’t really expect him to be successful, but at least he was busy and not getting under our feet.

  The fourth spell that Edgar used was a vacuum. I was already expecting exactly that-and when the air pressure around me started falling rapidly, I calmly carried on lashing Edgar alternately with Opium and Thanatos. Behind me Alisher was striking out with Fireballs and lumps of supercooled water from the wands. The combination of Fireballs and icy shrapnel exploding into viscous blue drops was remarkably effective: I could see the Inquisitor’s amulets, confused by the contrast, starting to lose their Power.

  But there was more to all this than just the amulets. Edgar, a first-level magician, was holding out against both of us and still managing to counterattack! Either he was pumped to the maximum with Power or he had surpassed the first level. I didn’t have the time to make a thorough check of his aura.

  The failure of the vacuum seemed to dent Edgar’s fervor. It was such a rare spell that our readiness for it bewildered the Inquisitor. He began slowly backing away, circling around the charred Toyota that was now smoking from acid and covered in hoarfrost. He got snagged on an icicle that had smashed through the car’s door and almost fell. As he waved his arms about to keep his balance, he almost let my Opium through.

  “Edgar, surrender!” I shouted. “Don’t make us kill you!”

  Those words stung the Inquisitor, inciting his fury. He paused for a second, then took a strange pendant off his belt-a bundle of small gray feathers tied together with string, like a small twig broom. He tossed it into the air.

  The feathers turned into a flock of birds like overgrown sparrows, but with beaks that glittered like bronze. There were twenty or thirty of them, and they came dashing straight for me, maneuvering like supermodern reentry vehicles, the pride and joy of the generals in the space program.

  The “chicken god” hanging around my neck broke and fell off its chain. And the flock of birds began fluttering about aimlessly in the air. They didn’t try to approach Edgar, but they couldn’t attack me-and they carried on fluttering about like that until finally Edgar swore and waved his hand to make them disappear.

  Afandi also flung his spell and seemed to break through Edgar’s defenses. But there was no visible effect on the Dark Magician. He carried on backing away, occasionally counterattacking. There was a glow on his chest that kept getting brighter and brighter all the time-an amulet hidden under his clothes had been activated and was preparing to respond. For an instant I even thought that Edgar had equipped himself with a suicide spell, Shahid or Gastello, which would take us to the grave along with him.

  “More Power to the Shields!” I ordered, and Alisher gave it everything he had, powering up the Shields around us as well as one around Afandi.

  But Edgar was clearly not in the mood for a dramatic suicide. He launched one more brief attack and then pressed his hands to his chest, where the amulet was glowing. The blue lines of a portal sprang up around him. The magician took a rapid step forward and disappeared.

  “He’s hopped it,” Alisher said. He sat down on the rocks and immediately swore and jumped back to his feet with his trousers smoking. The Kiss of the Viper was still in effect.

  I stood there, feeling completely drained. Afandi stood beside me, laughing.

  “What did you throw at him?” I asked.

  “The next seventy-seven times he li
es down with a woman, he will suffer shameful failure!” Afandi explained triumphantly. “And no one will be able to remove the spell.”

  “Very witty,” I said. “Very Eastern.”

  With a few brief spells I cleared away the traces of magic from the ground under our feet. The drops of acid had raised bubbles in the stone like rising dough.

  Saushkin!

  So it was Saushkin!

  Epilogue

  GESAR DIDN’T ANSWER STRAIGHTAWAY. IN FACT, TO BE QUITE HONEST, IT was more than two minutes before he answered.

  “Anton, do you think you could-”

  “No, I couldn’t,” I said.

  The sky above me was gradually growing brighter. The strangely large southern stars were fading. I took another swig of cola out of my bottle and added, “Thanks for the amulets. They were all spot-on. But now pull us out of here. If one more psychopath comes along…”

  “Anton.” Gesar’s voice sounded a bit softer now. “What happened?”

  “I had a heated conversation with Edgar.”

  Gesar paused and asked, “Is he still alive?”

  “He is. He left via a portal. But first he spent a long time trying to finish us all off.”

  “Has our friend the Inquisitor completely lost his mind?”

  “Possibly.”

  Gesar hummed something into the phone and I suddenly realized the boss was trying to think of the best way to use this information when he talked to Zabulon. Of how he could humiliate Zabulon the most with this story about his former colleague.

  “Gesar, we’re very tired.”

  “A helicopter will come to get you,” Gesar said. “Putting up a portal would be very difficult. Wait for a while, I’ll get in touch with Tashkent. Are you…at Rustam’s place?”

  “We’re on the plateau where you used the White Mist against the Dark Ones.”

  It’s not often that I manage to embarrass Gesar. I couldn’t afford to let the chance slip.

  “The helicopter will be there soon,” Gesar said after a pause. “Did you talk to Rustam?”

  “Yes.”

  “And did he answer?”

  “Yes. But not all the questions.”

  Gesar gave a sigh of relief. “Well, at least he told you something… You didn’t have to…er…prevail upon him?”

  “No. I discharged all four bracelets into Edgar.”

  “You did?” asked Gesar, growing more cheerful with every word I said. “And what did you find out?”

  “The name of the vampire who’s working with Edgar.”

  “Well?” Gesar prompted. “Who is it?”

  “Saushkin.”

  “That’s impossible!” Gesar barked. “Absolute nonsense!”

  “Then the spells failed.”

  “My spells couldn’t have failed. But you could have missed,” Gesar said in a slightly softer voice. “Anton, we’ll have to do without…unnecessary delicacy. When you get here, I’ll show you something I didn’t want to show you.”

  “I’m all agog,” I said with a snort.

  “I’m talking about the remains of Konstantin Saushkin. We keep them here, at the Watch.”

  Now it was my turn to pause. But Gesar said, “I really don’t want to distress you once again. Charred bones are not a very pretty sight. Konstantin Saushkin is dead. There can be no doubt about it. Not even Higher Vampires can live without a skull. That’s all. Now relax and wait for the helicopter.”

  I cut off the call and looked at Alisher. He was lying close by, munching on a chocolate bar. I said, “Gesar told me that we have Saushkin’s remains.”

  “Yes,” Alisher replied calmly. “I’ve seen them. A skull with the glass from the space suit melted into it. Your Saushkin’s dead.”

  “Don’t be upset,” Afandi put in. “Sometimes with an effort it’s possible to lie under any spell.”

  “He couldn’t have been lying…,” I whispered, recalling Edgar’s face. “No, he couldn’t have…”

  I lifted the cell phone up in front of my face, went into the MP3 menu, and chose something at random. When I heard a woman’s voice singing along with a quiet guitar, I put the phone down beside me. The tiny speaker strained as hard as it could.

  We used to rise with the dawn

  And live for a thousand years.

  Then someone went and stole

  The fire-the flickering light.

  And then some of us started praying

  And others sharpened their fangs,

  But we all drank from the Blue River.

  But then time slipped through our fingers,

  And by winter the river was shallow.

  And those who had always lived here

  Blamed those who had come from afar.

  Some had daughters growing,

  And others had sons,

  But we all drank from the same stream…

  “Afandi!” I called. “Do you know that my daughter told me about you? Back in Moscow.”

  “Yes?” Afandi asked in surprise. “Is your daughter an enchantress, then?”

  “Yes, she is,” I said. “But still a little one. Only five years old. She asked if you would give her your beads. The blue ones.”

  “What a fine daughter!” Afandi exclaimed in admiration. “Only five, and already thinking about beads! And turquoise is a fine choice…here!”

  I didn’t see which pocket he took the beads out of before he handed them to me. I looked curiously at the string of sky-blue pieces of turquoise and asked, “Afandi, they’re magical, aren’t they?”

  “Only a tiny bit. I charmed the string so that it will never break. But apart from that, they’re just beads. Beautiful ones! I chose them for my great-granddaughter, she’s getting on a bit, but she still likes her finery. Never mind, I’ll buy her some more. These are for your daughter, may she wear them in good health.”

  “Thank you, Afandi,” I said, putting the present away.

  One rose higher and higher,

  Another damaged his wing.

  In some fields the grain swelled and ripened,

  But in others nothing would grow.

  One was killed, struck by a bullet,

  And the other fired the gun,

  But we all drank from the same stream…

  After the wine or the poison potion,

  Some remember their father, some their mother.

  One decides it is time to build,

  Another that it’s time to destroy,

  But every day at midnight

  He who sits by the Mill of Fate

  Resolves all their arguments

  And says who must go out on watch.

  Alisher cleared his throat and said quietly, “Perhaps it’s none of my business-after all, musicians are pretty strange people!-but I think we ought to hold an official inquiry into that song…”

  Story Three

  A Common Destiny

  Prologue

  THE TUTOR, VADIM DMITRIEVICH, LOOKED AROUND INTENTLY AT THE trainees. He was young himself; not so long ago he had been standing in their place, and now he was desperately lacking in respectability. Or at least, that was what he thought.

  “We’re about to make our first field trip,” the tutor said. His hand automatically reached up for the bridge of his nose-he was always trying to adjust his spectacles despite not having any. Why on earth had he cured his own shortsightedness? Spectacles would have added to his respectability! “Andrei, repeat the assignment.”

  A skinny teenage boy took a step forward and recited in a breaking voice, “We walk along the street. We examine passersby through the Twilight. If we see any Dark Ones or Light Ones, we inform you. But we pay most attention to finding uninitiated Others.”

  “What do we do if we discover an uninitiated Other?”

  “Nothing,” the boy said firmly. “We inform you, and then act according to the circumstances. An Other should be initiated at an appropriate moment, when he is most inclined toward the Light.”

  “What do we
do if we notice a criminal act committed by Dark Ones?”

  “Nothing,” the boy replied with obvious annoyance. “We inform you and then contact the Watch…”

  “While maintaining a safe distance,” the tutor added. “And what if we discover a crime being committed by human beings?”

  “We also do nothing,” the boy replied, this time in a really somber voice. “All we do is watch!”

  The other trainees smiled. In addition to the boy, there were two adult men and a young woman standing in the line. In the tutor’s opinion, those three were all destined for the fourth or fifth level. But the boy might possibly get as far as the second, or even the first. He was an excellent prospect for a Battle Magician.

  “Thank you, Andrei. You put everything quite correctly. We watch. We are only learning. Is that clear? Do not enter the Twilight, do not work any spells. Our basic task is to search for uninitiated Others. And don’t go thinking that it’s easy. Sometimes a person has to be studied for several minutes to determine if he or she is a potential Other. By the way, Anton Gorodetsky was discovered during a study assignment like this one. Gesar himself discovered him.”

  The tutor paused for a few seconds and then joked, “Well, I’m not Gesar, but I am planning to become a Higher Other.”

  In point of fact, he had absolutely no chance of reaching the Higher level. Actually, he had less than half an hour left to live. But the tutor couldn’t sense that. In the bundle of probability lines that he could have examined, there was only one inconspicuous little line that led to death.

  At that precise moment, however, dozens of coincidences were coming together and that slim thread was swelling up with blood. Unfortunately, the tutor was too busy to study his own destiny every hour.

  “We walk along Chistye Prudy Boulevard,” he said. “We don’t do anything, we just watch.”

  One kilometer away, at the very center of the city, on Lubyanskaya Square, a car was stuck solid in a traffic jam. The Caucasian driver shrugged and glanced guiltily at his passenger, who thrust several bills into the driver’s hand and climbed out of the car. The driver put the money in his pocket and frowned as he watched his passenger walk away. He was not very likeable, somehow. He had paid well enough, but…The driver looked at the little icon glued to the dashboard of the old Zhiguli, then at the copper plaque with a sura from the Koran. He mentally thanked both the Christian and Muslim gods that the journey had been short. He really hadn’t liked that passenger!