They'd screwed something up. Failed to pull off some grand scheme in the struggle against the Dark.
And now they were willing to hurl a new recruit into the breach.
For the sake of humans who couldn't give a damn for the Light or the Dark.
They were driving her through all the hoops an Other is supposed to jump through. They'd already raised her powers to the third grade, now they were working on her mind. Very, very fast.
There had to be a place for me somewhere in this insane pursuit of an unknown goal. Gesar made use of everything that came to hand, including me. Whatever I did – hunting vampires, chasing down the Maverick, talking to Sveta in Olga's body – all that had just been playing into the boss's hands.
Whatever I did now was bound to have been foreseen too.
My only hope was that not even Gesar was capable of foreseeing everything.
That I could find the only way that would ruin his great plan for Sveta's powers.
And avoid causing Evil in the process. Because if I did, it would be the Twilight for me.
But in any case, I'd be doing Sveta a huge favour.
I caught myself standing with my cheek pressed against the trunk of a scrawny pine tree. Standing there, hammering my fist against the wood. In fury or in grief, I couldn't tell which. I held my scratched and bloody hand. But the sound didn't stop. It was coming from somewhere in the forest, from the very edge of the magical barrier around the house. Blows in the same rhythm, a rapid, nervous drumbeat.
I lowered my head and ran between the trees, like an adult still playing at paintball. I already had a pretty good idea of what I'd see.
There was a tiger leaping around in a small clearing. Or rather, a tigress. Her black and orange coat gleamed in the rays of the rising sun. The tigress didn't notice me, right then she wasn't capable of noticing anything. She ran between the trees, the sharp daggers of her claws ripping at the bark. White scars appeared on the pine trees. Occasionally she stopped, rose up on her hind legs and started slashing at the trunks with her claws.
I set off slowly back to the house.
We all of us let off steam the best way we can. We all of us have to struggle, not just against the Dark, but against the Light too. Because sometimes it blinds us.
But don't feel sorry for us: we're proud, very proud. Soldiers in the world war between Good and Evil, eternal volunteers.
CHAPTER 4
THE YOUNG man walked into the restaurant as confidently as if he came there every day for breakfast. But that wasn't so.
He went straight over to the table where the short, swarthy-faced man was sitting, as if they'd known each other for a long time. But that wasn't true either. With his last step he sank smoothly to his knees. He didn't slump, he lowered himself calmly, without losing his dignity or bending his back.
The waiter who was walking past swallowed and turned away. He'd seen all sorts of things in his time, let alone petty incidents like a mafia underling kowtowing to his boss. Only the young man didn't look much like an underling, and the older man didn't look much like a mafia boss.
The trouble he could smell in the air threatened to be far more serious than a mobsters' shoot-out. He didn't know what exactly was going to happen, but he could feel it coming, because he was an Other himself, although he wasn't initiated.
But only a moment later he had completely forgotten the scene he'd just witnessed. He had nothing but a vague sense of unease somewhere near his heart, but he couldn't remember why.
'Get up, Alisher,' Gesar said in a low voice. 'Get up. We don't do that round here.'
The young man got up off his knees and sat down facing the Night Watch chief. He nodded.
'We don't either. Not any more. But my father asked me to go down on my knees to you, Gesar. He followed the old rules. He would have knelt. But now he never will.'
'Do you know how he died?'
' Yes. I saw with his eyes, heard with his ears, suffered his pain.'
'Give me also his pain, Alisher, son of a devona and a human woman.'
'Take what you ask, Gesar, Exterminator of Evil, equal of the gods, who do not exist.'
They looked into each other's eyes. Then Gesar nodded.
'I know the killers. Your father will be avenged.'
'I must be the one to do it.'
'No, you will not be able to do it, and you have no right. You have come to Moscow illicitly.'
'Take me into your Watch, Gesar.'
The head of the Night Watch shook his head.
'I was the best in Samarkand, Gesar,' the young man said, staring hard at him. 'Don't smile, I know that here I would be the lowest of the low. Take me into the Watch. As a pupil of your pupils. As a guard dog. I ask this in honour of my father's memory – take me into the Watch.'
'You are asking too much, Alisher. You are asking me to give you your death.'
'I have already died, Gesar. When they drank my father's soul, I died with him. I walked along with a smile while he distracted the Dark Ones. I walked into the metro while they were trampling his ashes underfoot. Gesar, I have a right to ask this.'
Gesar nodded.
'Let it be so. You are a member of my Watch, Alisher.'
Not a trace of emotion showed in the young man's face, but he nodded and pressed his hand to his heart for an instant.
'Where is the thing that you have brought, Alisher?'
'I have it, my lord.'
Gesar reached across the table without speaking.