“That’s still not too bad,” I said. “Very many people would gladly swap the heaven they desperately hope to get to someday for eternal life in a hut out in the countryside. There are certainly trees there.”

“The Other I saw didn’t look very happy,” Svetlana said. “Of course, he was…well, kind of blurred, not very clear. But that’s only natural, if his usual habitat is the seventh level of the Twilight. But he looked so…creased and rumpled. And he ran toward me, as if he wanted to tell me something. But I had other things on my mind at the time, you understand.”

Neither of us said anything for a while.

“Maybe they really would be brought back into our world,” Svetlana said. “And that might be enough to make Edgar, Gennady, and Arina work together. They must all have lost loved ones, not just Saushkin. And probably anyone who has lost loved ones would be thrown off balance by an opportunity like this.”

“It would throw anyone at all off balance,” I said.

We looked at each other in alarm. It was good that now we were guarded around the clock. It was bad that our potential enemies were three Higher Ones.

“I’ll put up a few more protective spells for the night,” said Svetlana. “Don’t think me a coward.”

“The Crown of All Things can be reached by force,” I said. “By breaking through to the seventh level of the Twilight. But I couldn’t do it. Probably Nadya could. If only I knew how to get through by using my wits…by cunning. I’d use that artifact myself. There’d be about the same number of Light and Dark magicians down there. We’d manage.”

“And what if we’re wrong and it’s nothing but a bomb that will destroy the world?”

“That’s why I prefer not to think too much about how to reach the artifact. I’ll leave that headache to Gesar and Zabulon.”

“Let’s go to bed and sleep on it,” Svetlana said. “Tomorrow’s a new day.”

But we didn’t go to bed straightaway. First Svetlana put up several new protective spells around the apartment, and then I did the same.

Chapter 3

THE MORNING TURNED OUT SO FRESH AND CLEAR THAT ALL OF THE PREVIOUS day’s doom and gloom seemed to have evaporated into thin air. Nadya meekly ate the rice porridge that she didn’t like, and Svetlana didn’t say a word when I casually told her that I was thinking of going to work early. But she did suggest that I should come back home early too, so that all of us could go to watch some family movie that her friends had told her was really great. I imagined the Dark Ones who were guarding Nadya being forced to watch a romantic fairy tale in which, naturally, good defeats evil, and I smiled.

“Definitely. I just want to find out how things are going. Maybe there’s been some kind of breakthrough.”

“They would have called you,” said Svetlana, scattering my idle dreams like smoke.

But that didn’t spoil my mood. I got ready quickly and grabbed my briefcase full of papers (oh, yes, even Light Magicians have to do their paperwork), then kissed my daughter and my wife and left the apartment.

On the next floor down Roma, an amiable young lummox who had been working in our Watch for about two years, was making lively conversation with a thin, pretty young woman, one of the Dark Ones Zabulon had assigned to guard us.

I greeted them both and walked on, shaking my head.

That was the way romances with unhappy endings got started. The way it had happened with Alisa and Igor…

The weather was so good that for a second I hesitated, standing outside the door of the building and wondering if I ought to walk to the metro. On the other hand, I really didn’t want to go into the metro at all. Those hot trains, those jostling crowds-the rush hour in Moscow ends somewhere around midnight.

No, the car would be better. Svetlana wasn’t planning on going anywhere. And if I checked the probability lines, I could skip past the traffic jams and be at work in only twenty minutes.

I removed the protective spells that wouldn’t have done me any harm but would have made sensitive drivers give my car a conspicuously wide berth, and got into the driver’s seat. I turned the key in the ignition and closed my eyes to check the best route for me to drive. The result was rather discouraging. For some reason all the probabilities were centered on Sheremetievo Airport, which was crazy, since I had no intention of going there!

I suddenly felt something fluffy wrap itself around my neck, and an amiable voice with a slight drawl asked, “Does the king have a long journey to make today?”

I looked in the rearview mirror and didn’t like what I saw.

I didn’t see Edgar. But I did see the thing that he had thrown around my neck-a silvery strip of fur. It didn’t look much like a decorative neckpiece; there was something predatory about it…as if there were lots of tiny teeth hidden under that gray fur.

And I also saw Gennady Saushkin, sitting on the right side of the backseat. The vampire’s face was composed and impassive.

“What’s on your mind, Edgar?” I asked.

“That’s none of your business,” Edgar replied with an ominous laugh. “Don’t even think of withdrawing into the Twilight and don’t try any spells. That little ribbon around your neck exists at every level of the Twilight…at least as far down as the sixth. And it will rip your head off if you use even a trace of magic.”

“I won’t test it,” I said. “So now what?”

“Maybe you’d like to invite us back home?” the invisible Edgar asked.

“Surely you don’t think that I’d give you Nadya,” I said. I didn’t feel afraid, I was simply astonished by the question. “You can kill me.”

“I wasn’t really counting on it,” Edgar said, “but Gennady insisted on the question being asked-he’s very keen to make use of your little daughter.”

“The way he made use of his own son?” I asked, unable to resist, and I was rewarded with a vicious scowl that erased everything human in the vampire’s face.

“Quiet now,” said Edgar, nudging my shoulder. “Don’t get carried away, or I won’t be able to hold Gennady off. He’s very upset with you. Can you guess why?”

“Yes. Why don’t you make yourself visible? It’s not a pleasant sensation talking to empty space.”

“Drive out of the lot,” Edgar said, laughing. “I wouldn’t like your bodyguards to notice us… We’d finish them off before they even knew what hit them. But Svetlana’s a different matter. I’m afraid she might prove too hot to handle.”

Gennady scowled again, demonstrating that he had a full set of teeth and his four canines were larger than the average human size.

“I’m sure she would,” I said quite sincerely. I stepped on the gas and drove the car gently out of the parking lot. Maybe I should crash into a post? No, that won’t rattle them, they are prepared for tricks like that… “For Nadya’s sake she’d grind you into dust.”

“That’s what I think too,” Edgar said as politely and peaceably as ever. “The last thing we need is a rampaging woman on our trail. And whether or not your daughter can get through to the seventh level of the Twilight still remains to be seen. The chances are no better than if we give you a good shaking up.”

I snorted. “I’m afraid I’ll disappoint you there. I can’t do what’s beyond me. I’m a Higher Magician, but not a zero-point one. You have to be Merlin to get through to the seventh level.”

“I told you we have to take the girl,” Gennady said in a quiet voice. “I told you he couldn’t do it!”

“Cool it!” Edgar reassured him. “He can. He’s just not motivated enough yet, but we’ll help him, and he’ll manage just fine.”

“Try it,” I said. “But where should I drive?”

“Sheremetievo, where else?” Edgar laughed. His invisibility was gradually peeling away and he was appearing by stages, first as a transparent outline, then acquiring colors. Gennady still hadn’t fully revealed himself and I could only see him in the mirror. “I think the quickest way will be around the ring road, right? And try not to waste any time. We have a flight to Edinburgh in an hour-I think we’ll get there before anyone misses you. I don’t really want to waste the last charge in my Minoan Sphere on a portal to Scotland. But bear in mind that if you’re late for the plane, we will go through a portal.”