But the Light Ones were still keeping up the pressure on our magician, they were maintaining the press, if only by inertia, and we had no more power left to share with Edgar. Olga had gone rigid and lost consciousness; now she was standing in the ring like a limp wooden puppet. Zhanna was already sinking to her knees, but heroically maintaining a grip with her hands as she gave up the last of her energy. Lena’s face contorted in an agonised grimace and she raised the knife above the twitching little girl – she was conscious, otherwise the discharge of energy would have been reduced, but she was restrained by a spell of silence. My body felt as limp as cotton wool, I felt myself beginning to sway. I wish they’d hurry … I won’t be able to hold out …
‘Stop!’ shouted Semyon. ‘We surrender the witch!’
Hold it … hold the Circle. I tried to draw energy from the surrounding space, from the little girl who was frightened to death, from the people walking nearby, diligently paying no attention to what was going on.
It was useless, I’d been completely drained. It was Lemesheva … that was why she was standing there stronger than everyone else, the lousy … we were all going to die here for an old woman no one needed, and she’d be left … that vile creature …
But the Light Ones had already shoved a scruffy, plump woman in a dirty house coat and torn slippers into Edgar’s arms. She had no idea what was happening – she was staring all around and trying to cross herself.
‘You’ll pay for this,’ were Semyon’s last words.
Edgar pulled the witch’s arm behind her back with a sharp jerk – he had no time for explanations and no strength left for magic. He dragged her down the staircase.
Hold the Circle …
A sacrifice is an act of such great power that it is best held in reserve. The right to use it might have been won twenty or thirty years earlier by the cunning use of intrigue and provocation. That was why Kireeva was still standing stony-faced above the little girl, with the knife gleaming in her hand, ready to cut out her heart in a single swift movement, while Deniska monotonously recited the words of the appropriate spells. At any moment we could have received a powerful stream of energy … only it was better for us to do without it.
Hold the Circle …
My anger was the only thing that saved me. Anger at the entire unsuccessful day, at all the failures of the last year, at Lemesheva, who clearly knew more than she was saying. I don’t know where I found that final reserve of power, but I did! And I drove it through the limp bodies of Olga and Zhanna, so that Lemesheva could transmit the thin stream of power to Edgar.
The first to climb back into the minibus were the vampire brothers … those useless field agents … Then Lenka let the little girl go and she raced off, howling. Deniska stopped intoning spells, picked up the little table and tossed it into the back of the minibus. And it was only then that Lemesheva broke the Circle.
Everything was swimming in front of my eyes. For some reason I started coughing as I tried in vain to free my hand from Olga’s rigid fingers.
‘Into the bus!’ Anna Lemesheva shouted. ‘Quickly!’
Edgar appeared – at least he looked fairly cheerful. He pushed the witch into the back of the bus and jumped into the seat beside Deniska. Anna Lemesheva dragged Olga into the bus and I helped Zhanna in – she was in a very bad way but she was still conscious.
‘Who are you? Who are you?’ the rescued woman wailed. Lemesheva slapped her hard across the face and the witch shut up.
‘Deniska, step on it,’ I said. As if he needed to be told …
We tore out of the courtyard with a screech of tyres. Edgar was holding his head in his hands and working – correcting the reality lines, clearing the way ahead of us.
‘Feeling bad, Aliska?’ Lena asked with avid curiosity. I gritted my teeth and shook my head. But Lena complained: ‘I’m completely exhausted. I’ll have to take time off.’
The rescued witch whined quietly until she caught my hate-filled glance. Immediately she fell silent and tried to move backwards, away from me, but the vampires were sitting there. Battered, bloody and angry – I think they’d been sensible enough to try to keep away from the shape-shifter, but each of them had caught one or two blows from her paws.
‘And they burnt Vitalik to ashes,’ Deniska said gloomily. ‘He was an idiot, of course, but he was our idiot … Anna Tikhonovna, are you sure this bitch was worth all this bother?’
‘The order came from Zabulon,’ Lemesheva replied. ‘He probably knows best.’
‘He could have helped us then,’ I couldn’t help remarking. ‘This was a job for his powers, not for ours.’
Anna Lemesheva gave me a curious kind of glance.
‘I don’t think so. That was a wonderful effort, my girl. Quite marvellous. I didn’t think you could give so much power.’
I barely managed to stop myself crying like a child. To hide my tears I looked at Olga – she was still unconscious. At least I could take comfort in that – she’d come off far worse than me.
I raised myself with a struggle and slapped Olga on the cheek. No response. I pinched her. She didn’t stir.
Everybody was looking at me curiously. Even the quietly swearing vampires stopped licking their wounds and waited.
‘Anna Tikhonovna, couldn’t you help her?’ I asked. ‘She was hurt in the line of duty, and according to standing instructions – ’
‘Alisa, my dear, how can I help her?’ Lemesheva asked in an affectionate voice. ‘She’s dead. Since five minutes ago. She miscalculated and drained herself completely.’
I jerked my hand away. Olga’s limp body jerked backwards and forwards in the chair and her chin lolled across her chest.
‘What, can’t you tell?’ Zhanna whispered. ‘Aliska, what’s wrong with you?’
Telling the living from the dead doesn’t even require any spells. It’s elementary power work. That subtle substance that some call the soul can be sensed immediately … if it’s there.
‘You gave up too much power!’ said Lenka. ‘Oh, Alisa, you’re completely empty now! For five years – empty. Like Yulia Bryantseva, who drained herself during an operation two years ago, and since then she can’t even enter the Twilight!’
‘Don’t get your hopes up,’ was all I said, trying to keep a calm expression on my face. ‘According to standing instructions, they have to help me restore myself.’
It sounded pitiful.
‘Did they help Bryantseva?’ Lena asked.
But Anna Lemesheva sighed and said:
‘Alisa, if only everything had been according to standing instructions a year ago, when Zabulon was so fond of you.’
Before I could even think of a reply, Romashova suddenly squealed hysterically:
‘Where are you taking me? Where are you taking me?’
That’s when I lost it. I jumped up and started lashing out at the solitary witch’s face, trying to scratch her as badly as I could. She was so frightened she didn’t even try to resist. I pounded her for about three minutes to the approving cries of the vampire brothers, reproaches from Lemesheva and encouragement from Lenka and Zhanna. Only dead Olga couldn’t say anything; I kept stumbling over her in the crowded space of the minibus. But I think she would have supported me.
Then I sat down to catch my breath. The old witch was sobbing and feeling her bloodied face.
If only they were chasing us! I’d bite into those Light Ones’ throats as hard as any vampire! I’d finish them off without any magic!