The Day Watch (54 page)

Even though he’d had no other option but to let the Mirror take away all of Svetlana’s Power… And the most important thing was that as a result, Svetlana was still alive… But he couldn’t rid himself of the cursed feeling that the game had been lost.

Could Igor really have similar feelings when he remembered Alisa? Similar, but far more bitter? In that case Anton could only be surprised and delighted that he was still alive.

“Good afternoon, lads…” Gesar said in a soft voice.

He was wearing a modest, inexpensive suit and plain tie, looking like a run-of-the-mill businessman who bought his clothes from Marks and Spencer and always sent his employees modest presents for Christmas. In this case, of course, Gesar regarded himself as the very best present…

“Hello, Boris Ignatievich,” said Anton. He couldn’t bring himself to call this afternoon good. “Hello, Alisher.”

He and Sveta simply exchanged glances again and he took her by the hand and led her across to a chair, as if she were an invalid… It was awful.

“Good afternoon, boss,” Igor said calmly. “I’m glad to see you. Hello, Sveta. Hi, Alisher.”

Gesar’s bodyguard (that is, of course, if it was really possible to regard a third-level magician as a bodyguard for a Great Magician)-or, perhaps more accurately, his orderly, the son of a devona and a human woman-Alisher nodded to the magicians without speaking and moved into the corner of the room, where he froze with his arms crossed on his chest and partially withdrew into the Twilight. Anton sensed that Alisher’s ability to observe in the Twilight had been heightened artificially, clearly by the boss. And he also noticed that the young magician was trying not to look at Igor. That was another crazy tangle-Alisher’s father had been killed by Alisa Donnikova. And even though he hadn’t been a human being or an Other… it was hard to formulate the precise status of a devona, a faithful helper of the Great Magicians. The devona himself did not perform any great feats of heroism, that was not his job. He merely served the heroes, removed minor obstacles from their path. And he strengthened family ties, facilitating the birth of great heroes…

Anton caught his breath.

As a rule, werewolves’ children inherited the ability to transform, while magicians’ children only became Others very rarely. But how did it work with devonasl

Who was Alisher: simply a magician or a devona like his father, who had been Gesar’s assistant in Central Asia for many centuries? And what did the boss need the young Uzbeki magician for? Was it only for sentimental reasons that Gesar had taken him into the Moscow Watch and made him his retainer?

“Anton!”

He looked at Svetlana and only then realized that he was squeezing her hand too hard. “Sorry…”

Gesar was standing in front of Igor, looking into his eyes. He looked for a long time without saying anything. Then he sighed and walked away to a chair, hunched over and looking limp. He sat down and lowered his face into his hands.

“Boris Ignatievich,” said Igor, “forgive me.”

“No!” Gesar barked, with his hands still over his face, “I won’t forgive you! So what if you fell in love with a witch? I won’t condemn you for that-that’s destiny. But you’ve given up on yourself-don’t expect any forgiveness for that!”

Igor was clearly uncomfortable. As Anton looked at him, he suddenly realized he’d accomplished his mission after all. Not by simple, head-on tactics-it would have been stupid to expect to trick an experienced magician and restore his will to live with a simple drinking session and conversations about his friends. It would have been even more stupid to hope to convince him that the woman he loved was simply a repulsive, greedy bitch.

But their long nocturnal conversation, their attempts to understand what was happening and make sense of the latest stage in the war between the Watches had had an effect. Igor had been distracted from his misery and suffering. He had felt he was part of a team again.

Could that have been what Gesar was counting on? In that case, all of his behavior, including the present scene, had been carefully calculated!

But after all, the boss was right, Igor’s mind was simply clouded.

“Gesar, there are things that even you have no right to ask!” Igor suddenly said. He said it abruptly, with a reawakened fury. With life in his voice.

“Yes, of course, Captain Igor Teplov.” Gesar’s voice was as cold as
i.e.
“I have no right. But who had the right to ask you to swim down the Dnieper under fire in November ‘42? And who had the right…”

“That’s different.”

“Why is it?” Gesar stood up, walked over to Igor and stopped still in front of him again, a head shorter than Igor, small and wiry, not looking at all heroic. “Do I have to explain to you, Teplov, what a war requires? It’s not bodies that a war devours, but souls! And you knew that in the glorious city of Berlin, when you used your knife on that poor snot-nosed kid from the Hitler Jugend to make him give his friends away-you knew that.”

Igor started as if he’d been slapped across the face.

“Conscience… love… honor…” Gesar said thoughtfully. “No one has the right to make anyone go against their conscience. No one has the right to make anyone betray love. No one has the right to persuade anyone to betray their honor. No one.

You’re right. But we do it! Of our own accord. When one pan of the scales holds our love, conscience, and honor, and the other holds a million loving, decent, honorable people. We’re no angels, that’s not for us. And I understand your pain, believe me! But you take a look at Alisher! And try to understand his pain! Ask Anton what he thinks about the one you love. Ask Svetlana.”

“I can’t condemn Igor,” Svetlana said quietly. “I’m sorry, boss. Forgive me, Alisher. Maybe I’m just a fool…

unworthy to work in the Watch. But I can understand all of you.”

She said this in a very low voice, without any emphasis, but Gesar stopped talking and moved away from Igor. He spread his hands and asked, “Do you think I don’t understand?”

The silence in the room was thick and heavy.

“Gesar, when it was my duty, I carried out my orders,” Igor suddenly said. “Honestly, right down the line.

Regardless of… what I thought or felt. But my duty’s done now. I’ve reached the end of the line.”

“No. That’s where you’re wrong, Igor.” Gesar started walking round the room and took a cigar out of his pocket.

He looked at it and frowned, put it back and took out a pack of democratic Pall Malls. He crumpled that and gestured in annoyance. “The Watch needs you. We all need you. I need you.”

“Svetlana needs me…” Igor remarked casually.

“Svetlana, Alisher, Ilya, Semyon, Bear-all of us!” Gesar said very quickly. “Of course!”

Igor smiled, as if reconciling himself to the fact that he couldn’t finish what he wanted to say. And then he suddenly asked in a businesslike, serious voice, “For long?”

“Twenty years at most,” Gesar said quite calmly, as if he’d been expecting this question.

“Gesar, do you hope that will be long enough for me to stop loving Alisa?”

“That too,” Gesar admitted. “But the Watch needs you right now. In the years immediately ahead.”

“What do you want me to do, Gesar?”

“Don’t get in our way, Igor. We’re going to try to get you out of this. And we will get you out of it, believe me, if you just don’t get in our way… or even better, if you help us just a little bit.”

Igor thought about it. Then he said, “I won’t accuse Alisa Donnikova of enchanting me. It’s not true.”

“But you can express the suspicion that your meeting was set up by the Moscow Day Watch?”

“Yes, I can,” Igor said with a nod. “That’s probably the way it was.”

“That’s enough,” said Gesar with a shrug. “I don’t ask anything else of you.” And he really did look satisfied with that.

Anton cleared his throat and waited for Gesar to look at him. Then he said, “Boris Ignatievich, I’d like to ask you to do something for me. Can you explain what role Igor plays in our latest plot?”

“Just Igor?”

“Yes. What you need Svetlana for, and the devona Alisher, is clear enough already.”

The young Uzbeki magician standing stock still in the corner started.

“The new generation’s coming along well…” Gesar said in a tired voice. “Shrewd. But stupid at the same time…”

He hesitated and looked around at everyone there. Then he shook his head, and Anton sensed the Power spreading around them and flooding the room. The elastic wall was pressing something back, squeezing it out…

“I can’t tell you,” Gesar admitted unexpectedly. “I can’t tell you for one simple reason…”

“We’d refuse to cooperate?” Anton asked sharply.

Gesar shook his head. “No. On the contrary. I swear on the Light that what is going on will cause no harm to any of you. Neither to your magical or your human being… In fact, you would cooperate with genuine, sincere zeal.

But…”

He was weighing every word now.

“What is taking place now really is the final operation of the Moscow Night Watch. Unfortunately, it is also the final operation of the Day Watch. Too much depends on the actions taken by everyone sitting here, as well as on the actions taken by our enemies. We are making our moves and our enemies are making theirs. They could be wrong, unsuccessful, mistaken. But the victory will go to those who make the final correct move.”

“The victors are never judged,” Anton agreed. “And the pieces on a chessboard are not given the right to move independently.”

“Zabulon will easily read any move that any of you make!” Gesar barked. “And don’t imagine, Anton, that when you rammed the Mirror’s car it was a move that hadn’t been foreseen! Yes, it was a successful move, the lesser of two evils. But even that was anticipated. By Zabulon… and by me.” He paused for breath and went on more

calmly: “Folks… to me you are not just pieces on a chessboard. Believe me. You’re more than just tools.”

“But one of us,” said Svetlana with a smile acknowledging that she was the only woman in the room, “is the lathe for producing a tool?”

Anton didn’t ask how she had realized. Maybe she’d been drawing up diagrams too-without letting even him know? Or maybe she’d already sensed something when she still had her powers?

Gesar paused, lowering his head. He seemed to be thinking hard… And then Anton realized that the strength of the protective cocoon around them had increased to a quite incredible level. Where was the limit to the Power of the Great Magicians? Was there even a limit to it at all?

“All right,” Gesar said with a nod. “Svetlana, you’re right… but only partly… ah, Light and Darkness!”

He lowered himself into an armchair, took out the cigarettes again, and lit one. He took two drags and started speaking: “Svetlana, you are a Great Enchantress. They’re only born every few centuries. Potentially, you’re more powerful than Olga… probably… But your value to the Light Ones-and I don’t mean just our Watch, but Light Ones in general-is that you can become the mother of the Messiah.”

“After Olga rewrote my Book of Destiny,” Svetlana said.

“No. Not after that. It’s not possible to rewrite the destiny of an Other as easily as the destiny of a human being.

It was predetermined from the very beginning. We only corrected a few details. Minor ones. That don’t affect you or the future… the prospective child.”

“What details?” The anger could suddenly be heard in Svetlana’s voice, the anger she’d restrained for so long.

Now it was Anton who wanted to shout out as her fingers dug into the palm of his hand.

“Only the date.” Gesar had no intention of giving way to pressure from Svetlana. “Nothing but the date. Two thousand years after the birth of Christ is the peak of human belief in the coming of the Messiah.”

“Thank you very much,” said Svetlana in a voice trembling with fury. “So you decided when I would have him and who his father would be?”

“In the first place, why ‘him’?” Gesar asked.

Anton had been on the point of putting in a few words, mostly to clarify what Svetlana had said about the father, but he choked on this swift rejoinder. Svetlana’s hand went limp too.

“For some the father and mother decide, for some it’s the drunken obstetrician, for others it’s an extra glass of vodka,” Gesar said in a melancholy voice. There was no need for him to say “in the second place.”

“Svetlana, my child! It’s dangerous to play with such forces, with such predetermination. Even I’m not trying to do that. It is predetermined that you can give birth to a daughter who will become the greatest figure in the war between the Light and the Darkness. Her word will change the entire world. Her word will make sinners repent. At a glance from her the greatest magicians of Darkness will go down on their knees.”

“It’s only a probability…” Svetlana whispered.

“Of course. There is no fate-which is both unfortunate and fortunate. But you must believe that an old, weary magician is doing everything he can to make it a reality.”

“I should have stayed a human being…” Svetlana whispered. “I should have…”

“Have you looked at any icons recently?” Gesar asked. “Look into Mary’s eyes and think why they’re always so sad.”

The room was very quiet.

“I’ve already told you more than I have any right to.” Gesar spread his arms in a guilty shrug, and for the first time ever it seemed to Anton that he wasn’t acting at all. “But I have told you, I’ve put one foot over the line of what is permissible. It’s up to you to decide. To think who is a figure on a chessboard, and who is a rational individual, capable of seeing past imaginary offenses.”

“Imaginary?” Svetlana asked bitterly.

“When they explained that you had to wash your hands after playing in the sandpit or made you tie the ribbon on your braid in a bow-that was interference in your destiny too,” said Gesar. “And I think it was justified.”

“You’re not my father, Boris Ignatievich!” said Svetlana.

“No, of course not. But to me, you’re all my children…” Gesar sighed. “I’ll wait for you in the hall… that is, Alisher and I will wait. Join us if you want to.”

He went out, and the devona followed him like a shadow.