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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.
"I'm not resisting," said Alisa, and she opened her fingers. The prism fell into the soft moss, and it swirled and
seethed, enveloping the crystal amulet.
"The prism of power?" I asked rhetorically. "Alisa Donnikova, you have performed a magical intervention of the
third level."
"Fourth," she replied quickly.
I shrugged.
"Third or fourth, that's of no real importance. It still means the Tribunal, Alisa. You're in big trouble."
"I didn't do anything." The witch was trying hard to look calm. "I have personal permission to carry the prism. I
didn't make use of it."
"Alisa, any higher magician can extract all the information from this thing."
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I reached down toward the ground, forcing the blue moss to part and the prism to jump up into my hand. It was
cold, very cold.
"Even I can read the history from it," I said. "Alisa Donnikova, Other, Dark Witch of the Day Patrol, fourth level of
power, I hereby formally accuse you of violating the Treaty. If you offer resistance I shall be obliged to eliminate
you. Put your hands behind your back."
She obeyed. And then she started talking, quickly and urgently, trying desperately to persuade me:
"Anton, wait, please, listen to me. Yes, I did try out the prism, but you must understand, it's the first time I've ever
been trusted with such a powerful amulet! Anton, I'm not so stupid as to attack people in the center of Moscow,
and why would I want to? Anton, we're both Others! Can't we settle this amicably? Anton!"
"Amicably?" I said, putting the prism in my pocket. "Come on, let's go."
"Anton, a fourth-level intervention, or third-level! Any third-level intervention carried out in the interests of the Light!
Not like my stupid game with the prism, a genuine intervention!"
I could understand why she was panicking. This business could easily end in dematerialization. A Day Watch
agent sucking the life out of people for her own personal ends-that would be a tremendous scandal! They'd hand
Alisa over without the slightest hesitation.
"You have no authority to make such compromises. The leader of the Dark Ones will not ratify your promise."
"Zabulon will confirm it!"
"Will he?" I was staggered by the certainty in her voice. She was probably Zabulon's lover. But even so, it was
surprising. "Alisa, I once made an amicable agreement with you."
"Yes, and I was the one who suggested overlooking your intervention."
"And do you remember how it all turned out?" I asked with a smile.
"This is a different situation; I'm the one who's broken the law," said Alisa, lowering her eyes. "You'll have the
right to strike back. You don't need permission for third-level Light magic, do you? Or for any Light magic? You
could remoralize twenty blackhearted scoundrels and turn them into righteous men. Incinerate ten murderers on
the spot! Prevent a catastrophe, create a localized time warp! Anton, isn't that worth overlooking my stupid trick?
Look around, everyone here's still alive! I hadn't done anything yet. I'd only just started..."
"Everything you say can be used against you."
"Yes, I know, I know!"
There were tears glittering in her eyes. Probably quite genuine ones too. Beneath her nature as a witch she was
still a perfectly ordinary girl. A pretty girl frightened by the mistake she'd made. And was it her fault that she'd
ended up on the side of the Darkness?
I felt my emotional shield starting to buckle and shook my head:
"Don't try to put pressure on me!"
"Anton, please, let's settle this business amicably. Wouldn't you like the right to a third-level intervention?"
Oho, wouldn't I just? It was every Light Magician's dream to be given carte blanche like that! Just for a moment to
feel that he was fighting like a genuine soldier and not sitting in the trenches, being eaten by lice and gazing
dejectedly at the white flag of truce.
"You have no right to make such proposals," I said firmly.
"I shall have!" Alisa shook her head and took a deep breath. "Zabulon!"
I waited, clutching the little combat disc in my hand.
"Zabulon, I summon you!" Her voice had become a high-pitched screech. I noticed the human shadows around us
beginning to move a little faster: A vague, inexplicable feeling of alarm was making the people lengthen their
strides.
Would her summons reach the head of the Dark Ones again?
Like that time at the Maharajah restaurant, when Zabulon had almost killed me with Shahab's Lash?
But he hadn't killed me. He'd missed.
Even though the whole operation had been planned by Gesar, and Zabulon really seemed to believe that I was
guilty of killing Dark Ones.
Did that mean he'd already had other plans in mind for me? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]