The next moment, the man screamed, and I chose to turn away.
“An exceptionally loathsome character,” said Edgar. “His threat was serious, even though the little girl is his own daughter. But now we have the blood we need, with none of the killing of innocent people that upsets Arina so much.”
“You’re no better than him,” I replied.
“I don’t pretend to be,” Edgar said with a shrug. “Let’s go. It’s not the first time we’ve entered the Twilight together, is it?”
Edgar even took hold of my hand. I didn’t protest. I found my own shadow on the floor and stepped into it. Through the gust of icy cold wind, into the frozen, hungry space of the Twilight...
The first level.
We moved on without delay. The second level. The space around us was seething, agitated either by the fresh blood or the hole that Merlin had made here in the fabric of creation.
Edgar and Arina were still beside me. Intensely focused. A moment later Gennady also appeared, with blood on his lips. On the second level I could barely recognize Saushkin senior, his face was so badly distorted by hideous malice and insane hatred.
The third level. The final eddies of the vortex of Power that had been blocking our way so recently were still raging here.
Edgar started looking around and said, “Someone’s following us... one of the signs has been activated.”
“Successfully?” A cloud of steam escaped from between Arina’s lips as she asked.
“I don’t know. Let’s go lower!”
The fourth level greeted us with its pink sky and colored sand. I pulled my hand out of Edgar’s grasp and said, “We agreed! I won’t join the fight against the golem!”
“And nobody’s forcing you to,” Edgar said with a toothy grimace. “Don’t worry, you can keep out of it. Forward!”
This was the point at which I had planned to start an argument. To drag things out and then run for it, or even stay on the fourth level and send the Last Watch on to a pointless battle against the monster.
But something seemed to urge me on. Something like the insane obsession that had possessed Arina, Edgar, and Gennady seemed to take possession of me, too. I had to go down to the fifth level... I had to!
If only to distract them from their vigilance...
“All right, but I don’t intend to lay down my life for your sake!” I shouted, and stepped down to the fifth level under Edgar’s watchful eye.
They appeared beside me almost instantly. Yes, they had certainly pumped themselves full of Power. Gennady was the only one who was slightly delayed. He had obviously got through at the second attempt.
And this level of the Twilight was so much nicer than the ones above it! Cool, even chilly, but already without that icy wind that sucked the life out of you. And the colors here looked almost natural...
I looked around, trying to spot the golem, and I saw it about two hundred meters away: There were two snake’s heads sticking up out of the grass, turning this way and that like submarine periscopes. Then the golem spotted us. The heads shuddered and reached up higher. There was a loud hissing sound—very much like a real snake’s hiss, except that it was coming from such a long distance away... .
A moment later the snake was already slipping toward us, managing to keep both of its heads above the grass at the same time.
“ ‘Head and tail,’ ” Arina said pensively. “I don’t know, I don’t know... Edgar, release Kong.”
I understood what she meant when I saw Edgar take a small jade figurine out of his pocket. It was a long-armed monkey with short, pointed horns protruding from its head. The Inquisitor breathed on the figurine and then unscrewed its head—the figurine turned out to be hollow—and carefully set it down in the grass. We barely had time to jump back before the vessel started giving out green smoke that coiled into the form of a monster.
The deva that had hunted Alisher in Samarkand was nothing like King Kong. He didn’t have the height for that, since he only stood about three meters at the withers. But the toothy, gaping jaw, muscular limbs with sharp claws, coarse dark-green fur, and brutish, flaming-orange eyes impressed me far more than the sentimental giant from the old movies.
And the movie King Kong probably never had such a repulsive, acrid smell, either. How can a golem stink when it consists of concentrated Power, not flesh, or even clay, and it has been stored in a magical vessel? I didn’t know. Maybe it was an accidental side effect. Or maybe it was a joke played by the monster’s creator?
“Go and kill it!” Edgar shouted, pointing to the snake. Kong roared and went dashing toward the snake in huge bounds. The snake slithered toward him, not at all frightened by his sudden appearance, even seeming to liven up at the prospect of a worthy opponent. The earth shuddered under their feet and coils, the monkey’s thunderous roar and the snake’s deafening hiss fusing together into a single mighty rumble.
Now was the time! While they were entranced by the prospect of the forthcoming battle.
I turned around—and froze. Standing behind me was a short old man with a beard, dressed in white. At some moments he looked absolutely real, I could count every last hair in the gray beard and gaze into the weary face furrowed with wrinkles; at others he became a hazy white shadow through which I could see the grass and the sky.
The old man slowly pointed to the ground at his feet. Then he repeated the gesture.
Did he want me to go down to the sixth level?
I mimicked the gesture and jabbed my hand downward. The old man nodded, and an expression of relief appeared on his face.
He began melting away into the air.
There was no time to hesitate. At any moment one of the Last Watch might turn around and realize that I was preparing to make my escape.
The Power is within me! I can go down to the sixth level.
The Power is within me! I can see it always.
I must do this! Therefore I will do it.
I felt a blast of icy wind.
As I stepped through the barrier I heard Arina’s voice. “Somebody really is—”
The voice fell silent, cut off at the border of the sixth level. At the border that protected the world of Others who had withdrawn.
“Thank you for coming,” the old man said. And he smiled.
Before I answered, I looked around me.
Daytime. A blue sky with white fluffy clouds and a sun. A meadow of green grass, birds twittering in the trees.
An ancient, gray-haired old man standing in front of me. His clothes had probably never been white—the coarse, grayish sackcloth had only appeared to be white at first glance. And he was barefoot, too... but the cumulative effect was not one of a pastoral, sentimental closeness to nature. He was simply a man who went barefoot, who didn’t think it was worth wasting time on making shoes.
“I greet you, Great One,” I said, bowing my head. “It is an honor for me... to see the Great Merlin.”
The old man looked into my face curiously. As if this wasn’t the first time he had seen me, but he’d never had a chance to look at me properly before.
“An honor? How much do you know of my life, Light One?”
“I know about some things,” I said with a shrug. “I know about the ship with the little children.”
“And even so it is ‘an honor’?”
“It seems to me that you have already paid for many things. And in addition, for millions of people you are a wise defender of good and justice. That also counts for something.”
“There were only nine of them... ,” Merlin muttered. “Legends—they always exaggerate. The bad things, and the good things... .”
“But they did exist.”
“They did,” Merlin confirmed. “Why do you think that I have already paid? Do you not like the heaven that awaits Others
after death?”
Instead of answering I bent down and plucked a stalk of grass. I put it in my mouth and bit it. The juice was bitter... only not quite bitter enough. I squinted and looked at the sun. It was shining in the sky, but its light was not blinding. I clapped my hands—the sound was very slightly muted. I breathed in, filling my lungs with air—the air was fresh... and yet there was something lacking in it. It left a slight musty odor, like the one in Saushkin’s apartment...
“Everything here is not quite genuine,” I said. “It lacks life.”
“Well done,” said Merlin, nodding. “Many do not notice that straightaway. Many live here for years, or centuries, before they realize that they have been deceived.”
“Can’t you get used to it?” I asked.
Merlin smiled. “No. It is impossible to get used to this.”
“Remember the joke about the fake Christmas tree decorations, Anton?” someone asked from behind me. I looked around.
Tiger Cub was standing just five steps away.
There were many of them. Very many of them, standing there and listening to my conversation with Merlin. Igor Teplov and Alisa Donnikova—they were together, holding each other by the hand, but there was no happiness in their faces. The girl werewolf Galya was hiding her eyes. Murat from the Samarkand Watch gave me an embarrassed wave. A Dark One I had once killed by throwing him off the Ostankino Television Tower looked at me with no malice or resentment in his eyes.
There were so many. The trees prevented me from seeing just how many of them were standing there. If not for the forest, the Others would have stretched all the way back to the horizon. They had let the ones I had known come through to the front.
“Yes, Tiger Cub, I remember,” I said.
I didn’t feel any more fear or anger. Only sadness—a calm, weary sadness.
“They look so real,” Tiger Cub said and smiled. “But they bring no joy at all... .”
“You’re looking good,” I muttered, for the sake of saying something at least.
Tiger Cub pensively examined her tiger-skin cape. She nodded. “I made an effort. For the sake of this meeting.”
“Hi, Igor!” I said. “Hi, Alisa!”
They nodded. Then Alisa said, “Good for you, Anton. You’re powerful. But don’t get too bigheaded, Light One! Merlin himself has been helping you.”
I looked around at the old man.
“Sometimes,” Merlin admitted tactfully. “Well... besides that outlandish tower escapade of yours. And then when you were fighting that werewolf in the forest... And only just a little bit... ”
I wasn’t listening to him any longer. I was gazing around, trying to find the one whose words were most important of all to me.
Kostya pushed aside the Other he had been standing behind and came forward toward me. Of everyone there, he probably looked the best and the most absurd at the same time: He was wearing a tattered space suit that had once been white, but was now blackened and burned through in several places.
“Hello, neighbor,” he said.
“Hi, Kostya,” I replied. “I... I’ve been wanting to say something to you for a long time: Forgive me.”
He frowned. “Will you drop those Light affectations of yours... What is there to forgive?... We fought honestly, and you won honestly. Everything’s fine. I ought to have realized that you weren’t erecting the Shield because you were afraid... .”
“Even so,” I said. “You know that I hate my job. I’ve turned into a small screw... a tiny part of a machine that gives no quarter and shows no mercy!”
“And how else could it be, between us?” Kostya suddenly smiled. “Drop that... And you... forgive my father. If you can. He never used to be like that.”
I nodded. “I’ll try. I really will.”
“Tell him that Mom and I are waiting for him.” Kostya paused and then added firmly, “Here.”
“I’ll tell him,” I promised, trying to spot Polina in the crowd.
Kostya suddenly took a step forward, shook my hand awkwardly—and stepped away again.
And in that brief instant when our hands touched, I felt his cold hand turn warm, saw his skin flush pink and his eyes gleam once again. Kostya stood there swaying, looking at his hand.
But my hand was seared by an icy chill... .
The ranks of Others shuddered. Slowly, involuntarily, they began moving toward me. There was hunger and envy in their eyes—in all of their eyes, even Tiger Cub’s, even Igor’s. Even Murat’s... .
“Stop!” Merlin shouted. He darted forward and stood between me and the withdrawn Others, raising his hands high in the air. I noticed that he carefully skirted around me to avoid touching me.
“Stop, you mad fools! A few minutes of life... that is not what we want, not what we have been waiting for!”
They stopped and looked at one another with embarrassment. Then they moved back. But the hungry fire was still blazing in their eyes.
“Leave now, Anton,” Merlin said. “You understand everything and you know what you have to do. Go!”
“I can’t get through. The Last Watch is up there,” I said. “Unless your golem has stopped them... .”
Merlin looked straight through me at something. Then he sighed. “The golem is dead. Both golems are dead. A pity, I used to go up to the fifth level sometimes and play with the snake. But it was sad and lonely too.”
“Can you take me through?” I asked.
Merlin shook his head. “Not many of us are capable of going up to the fifth level. Only a very few can reach the first level, and even so we are powerless there.”
“I won’t be able to get past them,” I said. “And I can’t go straight forward to the seventh level either.”
We smiled at each other.
“You will be helped,” Merlin said. “Only, do everything right, I beg of you.”
I nodded.
I didn’t know if it would work. All I could do was try.
The next moment the air around me started to vibrate as if something seething with a huge excess of Power had broken through the Twilight. What levels, what distances? What did these mean in the face of this Power resonating in awareness of its own self?
Little Nadya stepped down onto the grass. She waved her arms about but couldn’t keep her balance and plopped down onto her bottom, looking up at me.
“Get up,” I said strictly. “It’s damp!”
Nadya jumped to her feet, dusted off her velvet jumpsuit, and jabbered, “Mommy taught me how to walk into the shadow! That’s one! And there was a monkey and a snake fighting, and they both beat each other. That’s two! Two men and a woman were watching the snake and saying very bad words. That’s three! And Mommy told me to bring you straight back home for supper! That’s four!”
She gulped when she saw the huge crowd around her, then lowered her eyes in embarrassment and said in a polite little girl’s voice, “Hello... ”
“Hello,” said Merlin, squatting down in front of her. “Are you Nadezhda?”
“Yes,” Nadya said proudly.
“I’m glad I’ve seen you,” said Merlin. “Take your daddy home. Only not straight home. First go back to the sleeping people. And then home.”
“Backward means forward?” Nadya asked.
“That’s right.”
“You look like a wizard from a cartoon,” Nadya said suspiciously. Just to be on the safe side, she took hold of my hand, and that clearly made her feel more confident.
“I used to be a wizard,” Merlin confessed.
“A good one or a bad one?”
“All kinds,” he said with a sad smile. “Go now, Nadezhda.”
Nadya cast a wary look at Merlin and asked me, “Shall we go, Daddy?”
“Yes, let’s go,” I said.
&
nbsp; I turned around and nodded to Merlin, who was watching us silently, in sad anticipation. The first to raise her hand and wave good-bye was Tiger Cub. Then Alisa. And then they were all waving to us... waving good-bye forever.
And when my daughter, the newly initiated Absolute Enchantress, took a step forward, I stepped after her, holding her hand in order not to lose my way in the swirling vortex of Power that had completed its circle and was returning us to our world.
Because the Twilight, of course, has no end, just as no ring or circle has an end.
Because the warmth of human love and the cold of human hate, the running of beasts and the singing of birds, the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings and the sprouting of a grain through the earth do not pass away, leaving no trace. Because the universal stream of living Power out of which parasites like the blue moss and the Others greedily snatch their crumbs does not disappear without a trace—it returns to the world that is awaiting rebirth.
Because we all live on the seventh level of the Twilight.
.
.
A COMMON DESTINY
Epilogue
“How! lovely! it is! here!” Nadya exclaimed.
I picked her up in my arms. We were standing on a cobbled street in Edinburgh, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of sleeping people. The sirens were drawing closer and closer as the time of the Others was coming to an end.
“Yes,” I agreed. “Everything here is real.”
“Only, everyone’s sleeping,” Nadya observed sadly. “Like in the fairy story about the sleeping princess. Can I wake them up?”
She could... She could do anything at all now—if she was taught.
“But aren’t you tired?” I asked. My legs were buckling under me and I was feeling a bit dizzy.
“What from?” Nadya asked in surprise.
“In a little while,” I said. “Just a little while, we’ll wake everyone up... all those we can. Daddy just has to do one thing that’s very important first. Will you help me?”
Last Watch Page 36
