Lermont leaned his face down to me and whispered confidentially:
‘But only because his enemies didn’t fight. They’d been here long enough to realise that they couldn’t get to the seventh level of the Twilight.’
‘How many of them were there, Thomas?’
‘Three, my friend, three. The right number.’
‘Did you get a look at them?’
‘Only a short one,’ Thomas said with a shake of his head. ‘You can’t read an aura properly here, but Thomas managed. A Dark Other – an undead vampire. A Light Other – a sorcerer-healer. An Inquisitor Other – a battle magician. Three came together for the legacy of Merlin. Three almost got through. Three Higher Others. But even Higher Ones cannot get though to the seventh level of the Twilight.’
‘A Dark One, a Light One and an Inquisitor?’ I asked in amazement. ‘All together?’
‘The legacy of Merlin is enticing to all. Even Light Ones. Why else do you think, young magician, that Thomas wished to keep your arrival secret from his Watch?’
‘Are they all men?’ I asked.
‘All men. All women. How should Thomas know? Thomas didn’t touch them. Thomas just saw a little bit of their auras.’
‘Thomas, we have to go,’ I said, looking into the giant’s eyes. ‘Thomas, it’s time to go back. Time to go home.’
‘Why?’ the giant asked in surprise. ‘It’s good here, young magician. You can live here. A magical land, a kingdom of fairies and magicians … Thomas can settle here, Thomas can find his haven …’
‘Thomas Lermont, you are the head of a Night Watch! The whole of Scotland is under your protection! Witches, vampires, ghouls – you’re not going to let them all run riot, are you?’
Thomas said nothing, and for a moment I thought he would refuse to go, that he really had found the fairy kingdom to which, legend said, he had withdrawn four hundred years earlier.
Of course, the Dark Ones wouldn’t have run riot. Help would have come – from England, from Ireland, from Wales. And Light Ones would have been found in Europe and America to come to the aid of the orphaned Scottish Watch.
But would Lermont’s disappearance be the final drop that triggered Egor’s transformation into a Mirror Magician?
‘Let’s go, my young friend,’ Lermont said. ‘You’re right, you’re right, and I am in too much of a hurry … it is not yet time … But listen, young magician! Listen to the ringing of the silence, to the singing of the crickets in the grass, to the night birds beating the air with their wings …’
Either he made me hear it, or it was all real, but through the giant’s noisy breathing I heard the silence and the sounds.
‘See how hotly the fire blazes, how the silvery leaves catch the moonlight, how dark the grass is beneath our feet…’ Lermont whispered. ‘You could live here …’
And I saw.
‘Not many Others have been here when they were still alive …’ Lermont said and sighed. ‘We only come here after we die, do you understand? We come here for ever …’
I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. I remembered the members of our Watch who had died: Igor, Tiger Cub, Andrei…
‘Did you know that? Did you know that earlier?’
‘All Higher Ones who have managed to reach the fifth level know it,’ Thomas said in a sad voice. ‘But this knowledge is too dangerous, young magician.’
‘Why?’
‘It is not good to know what awaits you after death. Thomas knows – and it is a burden to him. Thomas wishes to come here. Far away from cruel and greedy people. Far away from human evil and human good. It is so sweet… to live in a world of Others…’
‘Live?’
‘Live, young magician … Here even vampires have no need of blood. Here everything is different, otherwise. Everything is the way it should be. Here is the real world … on the fifth and sixth levels, and the seventh – the very greatest. Here the towers of wise men studying the world of creation soar up to the heavens; cities full of Light and Dark seethe with vital life; unicorns roam through virgin forests and dragons guard their mountain caves. We shall come here … I sooner, and you later… and our friends will come out to greet us. I too shall be glad to greet you, young magician …’
A gigantic arm hugged me round the shoulders as if I were a child. Foma heaved a deep, heavy sigh and continued:
‘But it is not yet time. Not yet time. If I had been able to reach the seventh level… I would not have come back. But my Power is not sufficient for that. And yours will not be either, young magician …’
‘I’m in no hurry for the time being,’ I muttered. ‘I have …’
What did I have? A wife and daughter? They were Others, Higher Others. We could all depart together. For the cities of Light and Dark … where Alisa and Igor were happy together, where no one remembered about those stupid little people …
I shuddered. Was I dreaming, or had I become taller too? Or had Lermont started to shrink?
‘Foma, let’s get going!’
‘Wait. Look at this!’
A white light had started dancing above our heads. Foma reached out his hand and pointed to a slab of transparent red stone hidden in the grass under our feet. What was this, a ruby the size of a large tea tray?
I squatted down, ran my hand across the smooth surface and looked at the lines and dashes of the Celtic Runes.
‘What’s written here, Foma?’
‘Merlin wrote that,’ Lermont said, with a thoughtful note in his voice. ‘Merlin wrote that, it is the keyhole and the final key, both at the same time. It says here in Coelbren …’ He paused. ‘If we say it in high style … then …’
‘Say it in any style!’ I exclaimed, feeling the time slipping away.
‘The Crown of All Things is here concealed. Only one step is left. But this is a legacy for the strong or the wise –’
Foma declaimed in a strange voice, one that was higher and more tuneful. And at the first words he spoke the letters carved in the stone started to glow, as if someone had lit up a powerful lamp underneath it. One after another the letters were transformed into slim columns of light, shooting up into the sky.
‘You shall receive all and nothing, when you are able to take it. Proceed, if you are a strong as I;
Or go back, if you are as wise as I;
Beginning and end, head and tail, all is fused in one,
In the Crown of All Things. Thus are life and death inseparable.’
The final letter flared into white brilliance just as Lermont spoke the final word.
‘I hate karaoke,’ I said. ‘What does all this mean?’
‘Thomas knows no more than you do, young magician,’ said the giant, clutching me in his arms. ‘And now, let’s be leaving!’
I thought Lermont was going to step straight into the real world. But no, he went to the fifth level first and waved to Semyon and the black guy.
‘Leave!’
They didn’t have to be asked twice. Then Lermont winked at me, leaned down over the golem – and jerked Merlin’s Rune out of the snake’s body.
The beast’s eyes flashed in fury, its trunk swirled up into the air, and both mouths opened wide in unison.
But we were already out of the Guard’s reach. In the ordinary human world. In a room full of dead bodies.
Overweight, ageing Lermont put me down and collapsed on the floor. His face was covered with sweat – there were even beads of it hanging on the ends of his moustache.
We were surrounded by a familiar hustle: Light Others were taking prints of auras, studying the bodies, collecting small pieces of flesh and drops of blood for analysis. When I arrived, and Semyon straight after me, we were immediately met with wary glances, and I felt the probes of spells slipping over my body. When they discovered that we were Light Ones, and high-ranking, the embarrassed watchmen withdrew their probes.