She pressed the button. The player blinked its green eye as it span the disc; the laser slid across the tracks and stopped on one.
‘It’s Nautilus Pompilius,’ said Svetlana, adjusting the earphones slightly. ‘“Fallen Angel”. It’s certainly appropriate.’
‘You know,’ Anton told her emphatically, ‘call me superstitious, but I knew it would be Nautilus. I really love that song.’
‘Let’s listen to it together,’ Svetlana suggested, sitting down on the sofa.
‘Okay,’ Anton agreed, and mentally thanked the person who invented mini-earphones without a headpiece.
They sat for a long time with their arms round each other, each with a tiny Nautilus Pompilius singing in one ear. The three of them shared the feelings of bitterness and happiness – the magician, the enchantress and the fallen angel.
‘But when I went into the terminal building,’ Shagron said, ‘there was nobody there. They’d just closed the portal, over near the entrance, just a little to the right, where the baggage hall is. The Light Ones had already moved their HQ out and I could barely sense them, somewhere near the edge of the airport. Either they were getting into their cars or they’d already driven off.’
‘What about the Brothers?’ Edgar asked.
‘Damned if I know what’s happened to them. I think one of them got killed. The Light Ones immobilised the Others and took them away with them.’
‘What for?’ Deniska asked in surprise, even putting down his coffee. ‘Why didn’t they finish them off on the spot?’
‘Come on, they’re Light Ones!’ said Yura, amazed by the question. ‘The Brothers surrendered, so they arrested them. They’ll probably hand them over to the Inquisition … The sadists. It would have been better just to kill them.’
‘I think he got away after all,’ said Nikolai, toying idly with his discharged wand. The power it had contained only recently had melted the snow on the airport runway in a few moments and then dried out the ground. ‘Well, Yura, what do you think?’
‘I can’t sense the Talon. It’s not in Moscow.’
‘But how could he have got away?’ said Anna Tikhonovna. She kept pursing her lips, and it made her look like a strict school marm. ‘How could he slip through Gesar’s fingers? Somehow I can’t believe it.’
‘I don’t know,’ Yura snapped, ‘but something happened back there.’
‘Maybe he could have used a portal?’ Edgar asked cautiously.
‘A portal?’ Yura snorted. ‘Can you use a portal?’
‘Not easily,’ Edgar admitted. ‘I don’t have the power.’
‘And,’ Yura said emphatically, jabbing his finger towards the ceiling in a vague gesture, ‘apart from that, after the fight on the boulevard our friend looked like a squeezed lemon.’
‘But after the fight in the airport it was the Light Ones’ enchantress who looked like a squeezed lemon,’ Nikolai remarked innocently. ‘And don’t anyone try to convince me she gave the power away voluntarily.’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ said Shagron, brightening up. ‘When you think about it, the energy picture of what happened at Vnukovo looks pretty much like straightforward vampirism. Everything was kind of purple.’
Yura shook his head sceptically.
‘I must admit the Ukrainian didn’t strike me as capable of that. In order to snatch power from the Light Enchantress right under Gesar’s nose, you’d have to be Zabulon at least. And have the right to a first-degree intervention.’
‘What have rights got to do with it?’ Anna Tikhonovna exploded. ‘During the last twenty-four hours we’ve registered three gross violations of the Treaty by the Light Ones, including one violent attack using power! The Light Ones have forgotten what rights mean!’
‘Anna Tikhonovna,’ Edgar said with feeling, ‘the Inquisition has given the Light Ones another indulgence. As long as their actions are directed to returning the stolen artefact, the Treaty is suspended. Until Fáfnir’s Talon is handed over to the Inquisition, the Night Watch has the right to do whatever it likes. In effect, we’re at war. Like in forty-nine – you should remember that.’
The silence in the room was like outer space.
‘And you didn’t say anything?’ Anna Tikhonovna asked reproachfully.
‘What’s the point of making our young people nervous? I’m sorry, Deniska. We’re already at a disadvantage as it is. First – the chief isn’t here, and second – we’ve just had two pretty unsuccessful years. How many times have we been forced to give way to the Light Ones during those two years? Five, ten?’
‘So we’re trying to avoid defeatist attitudes, are we?’ Yura enquired acidly. ‘Keeping things quiet? Protecting young people from pernicious influences? Well, well.’
‘What’s the point of just saying “well, well”?’ Edgar snarled. ‘Why don’t you try suggesting where we go from here?’
‘The chief left you in charge,’ Yura said indifferently. ‘So you do the thinking.’
‘You and Kolya refused, that’s why he appointed me,’ said Edgar, turning glum and sulky. ‘Some fighters you are.’
‘Hey, boys, just shut it, will you!’ said Anna Tikhonovna, turning scarlet with indignation. ‘This isn’t the right time! Even my witches work together better than this!’
‘Okay let’s forget it,’ said Yura with a wave of his hand. ‘You’re asking me what we do now? Nothing. The Ukrainian can’t go too far out of Moscow. I think he has the Talon with him. If he hasn’t done anything yet, it means the time still hasn’t come. We wait until he comes back. He has to come back – the Talon has to be in Moscow within the next two days. Otherwise the probability peak will have passed, and it will just be a powerful artefact, nothing more.’
Nikolai nodded approvingly.
Edgar looked closely at them, first at one magician, then the other.
‘Then we wait,’ he sighed. And he added: ‘Yes. Our Ukrainian friend has turned out to be cunning, all right. More cunning than Gesar.’
‘Ne kazhi gop,’ Kolya advised him. ‘That’s Ukrainian for “don’t count your chickens”.’
‘Anna Tikhonovna,’ Shagron asked rather ingratiatingly. ‘Tell the girls to make some coffee. After all this, I feel like I can hardly move.’
‘You’re a lazybones, Shagron,’ said Anna Tikhonovna with a shake of her head. ‘But all right, I’ll be nice to you, since you distinguished yourself. You’ll be an example for the Others.’
Shagron grinned happily.
To my surprise, it was warm in the tent all night long. Of course, we slept without getting undressed – I just took off my jacket and my shoes and climbed into the sleeping bag I was offered. The tent belonged to the bearded Matvei, and it could have held three or even four people if necessary. But there were just the two of us. The next tent was about twenty metres away. As soon as everyone had wandered away from the camp-fire, I could hear the birthday girl moaning sweetly in it, wrapped in someone’s tight embrace – so we weren’t the only ones who were warm. It was strange. As a southerner, I’d always thought it was cold and miserable in the forest in winter.