Sergei Lukyanenko: Nightwatch

«I don't believe it.»

«You can lodge an appeal at the highest level.»

«Will they have time to consider it before the day Svetlana picks up the chalk and opens the Book of Destiny?»

The boss closed his eyes and sighed.

«No, they won't. It's all happening tonight, just as soon as our time begins. Are you happy now that you know when exactly it's all going to happen?»

«Boris Ignatievich,» I said, deliberately using the name by which I'd first known him. «Listen to me, please. You once left your homeland and came to Russia. Not to serve the interests of the Light, not for the sake of your career. Because of Olga. I don't know very much about your past history, how much hate and love, how much betrayal and nobility there is in it. But you have to understand me. Because you can.»

I don't know what kind of answer I'd expected. Maybe I thought he'd look away, or promise to cancel the project.

«I understand you very well, Anton,» the boss said with a nod. «In fact, you can't even imagine how well. That's exactly why the plan will go ahead.»

«But why?»

«Because, my boy, there's such a thing as destiny. And there's nothing stronger than destiny. Some are destined to change the world. Some are not. Some are destined to bring entire states to their knees, and some to stand in the wings holding the puppets' strings, with their hands covered in chalk dust. Anton, I know what I'm doing. Believe me.»

«I don't believe you.»

I got up, leaving my untouched beer with its wilting cap of foam. Alisher gave the boss an inquiring look, as if he were prepared to stop me.

«You have the right to do whatever you want,» said the boss. «The Light is in you, but the Twilight is always waiting behind you. You know where any false step will lead. And you know that I am willing to help you; I am obliged to help you.»

«Gesar, my mentor, thank you for everything that you have taught me,» I said with a bow, and the parachutists cast curious glances in my direction. «I believe I no longer have the right to expect your help. Please accept my gratitude.»

«You are free of all obligations to me,» Gesar replied calmly. «Act as your destiny requires of you.»

That was all. He cast off his former pupil as simply as that. I wondered how many pupils he'd had who failed to acknowledge his supreme goals and sacred ideals?

Hundreds, thousands.

«Goodbye, Gesar,» I said. I glanced at Alisher. «I wish you luck, new watchman.»

The young man looked at me reproachfully:

«If I may be allowed to say something…«

«Say it,» I told him.

«In your place, I would not be in any hurry, Light One Anton.»

«I've already lost too much time, Light One Alisher,» I said with a smile. I was used to thinking of myself as one of the most junior magicians in the Watch, but everything passes. And for this novice I was an authority. For the time being at least. «One day you will hear the sound of time rustling as it slips through your fingers like sand. Remember me then. I wish you luck.»

Heat.

I was walking along Old Arbat Street—artists sketching cartoon portraits, musicians playing clichéd music, street traders all selling the same souvenirs, foreigners with the standard look of interest in their eyes, Muscovites in their usual irritated mood running past the stalls of sham craftwork.

Should I shake you all up a bit?

Should I put on a little show for you?

Juggle a few bolts of lightning? Swallow genuine fire? Make the paving stones open up to reveal a fountain of mineral water? Heal a dozen crippled beggars? Feed the homeless urchins darting around with cakes conjured up out of thin air?

What point would there be?

They'd toss me a handful of small change for the fireballs that should be used to kill creatures of evil. The mineral water fountain would turn out to be a broken water main. These crippled beggars are already healthier and richer than most of the people walking by. And the homeless urchins would run for it, because they learned a long time ago that there's no such thing as free cakes.

Yes, I could understand Gesar, I could understand all the higher magicians who'd been fighting against the Darkness for thousands of years. You can't live forever with a feeling of powerlessness. You can't keep sitting in the trenches forever: That kills the army more surely than the enemy's bullets.

But how did I come into it?

Did the banner of victory really have to be sewn out of the fabric of my love?

And how did these humans come into it?

Turning the world upside down and then turning it back again was easy enough, but who'd stop all the people from falling off?

Were we really incapable of learning anything?

I knew what Gesar was planning to do, or rather, what Svetlana was going to do on his instructions. I knew how it might turn out, and I could even imagine which loopholes in the Treaty would be used to justify interference with the Book of Destiny. I had information about when the act would be performed. The only thing I didn't know was the place of the operation and whose destiny was to be changed.

And that was a fatal gap in my knowledge.

Almost fatal enough to make me pay Zabulon a visit.

But then I'd be dispatched into the Twilight.

I was halfway along the Old Arbat when I sensed a surge of Power—very faint, at the very limits of my sensitivity. There was magical activity taking place somewhere very close, not very strong, but even so…

The Darkness!

Whatever I might think about Gesar, no matter how much I disagreed with him, I was still a soldier of the Night Watch.

I reached into my pocket for my amulet, summoned my shadow, and stepped into the Twilight.

Oh, how neglected everything was!

It was a long time since I'd walked round the center of Moscow in the Twilight.

Everything was covered with a thick carpet of blue moss. The slow oscillations of the short threads created an illusion of trembling water. Circles ran out from where I was standing as the moss simultaneously drank in my emotions and tried to creep away from me. But I wasn't interested in the Twilight's petty pranks right now.

I was not alone in the gray space under that sunless sky.

I looked for a second at the girl standing with her back to me, and I could feel a wicked smile spreading across my face. A smile unworthy of a Light Magician. Some «moderate intervention» this was!

A third-level magical intervention?

Oho!

That's very serious, my girl. So serious, you must be absolutely crazy. Third level's way beyond your powers; you must be using someone else's amulet.

But I'll use my own powers to investigate.

I walked up to her and she didn't even hear my steps on the soft blue carpet. The vague, shadowy forms of humans were sliding past us, and she was too absorbed in what she was doing.

«Anton Gorodetsky, Night Watch,» I said. «Alisa Donnikova, you're under arrest.»

The young witch screeched and swung round. She was holding an amulet in her hand, a crystal prism through which she had been viewing the people walking by. Her first instinctive gesture was to try to hide the amulet; then she tried to look at me through the prism.

I grabbed her arm and forced her to stop. We stood close to each other for a second as I slowly increased the pressure, twisting the witch's wrist. A scene like that between a man and a woman would have looked shameful. But for us Others, physical strength doesn't depend on our sex, or even on how well-developed our muscles are. Strength lies all around us—in the Twilight, in people. I couldn't tell how much Alisa might have extracted from the world around her. It could even be more than I had.

But I'd caught her at the scene of the crime. And there could be other Watch members nearby. Resisting a member of the other Watch who had officially declared you under arrest was cause for immediate elimination on the spot.