The Day Watch (15 page)

Then Igor clapped his hands. “All right! Now we’ll put the fire out and go for supper!”

They brought two buckets of water from somewhere and he began dousing the glowing embers.

I stood there for a while, following his sparse, precise movements. Igor looked as if he’d spent his entire life putting out campfires. Probably he did everything like that-playing the guitar, putting out fires, working on his computer, caressing a woman. Precisely. Conscientiously. Reliably. Satisfaction guaranteed.

White steam billowed up from the hot embers. The children scattered in all directions. Then suddenly, still dousing the fire, Igor asked, “Do you like swimming at night, Alisa?”

I shivered. “Yes.”

“So do I. By one o’clock, the children will have settled down and I’ll go to the beach for a swim, where we were this morning. Come along if you like.”

For just a moment I lost my head. It was a feeling I’d completely forgotten. Instead of me hitting on a man, he was hitting on me!

Igor splashed the remains of the water onto the campfire and looked at me. He smiled. “I’d be really glad if you could come. Only… don’t get the wrong idea.”

“I think I’ve got the right idea,” I replied.

“Will you come?”

I really wanted to say no. Just to provoke him. But it would have been stupid, after all, to give up my own pleasure for the sake of one little gibe.

“Probably,” I said.

“I’ll be waiting,” Igor replied calmly. “Shall we go? A glass of ryazhenka before bed is very good for tired camp leaders. It guarantees sound, healthy sleep.” His smile was wonderful.

In Artek “lights out” comes at half past ten.

The bugles sounded solemnly in the loudspeakers and a gentle woman’s voice wished everyone goodnight. I was standing in front of the mirror, looking at my reflection and trying to figure out what was happening to me.

Had I fallen in love?

No, that was impossible! I loved Zabulon. I loved the greatest Dark magician in Moscow! One of the few individuals who really controlled the fate of the world. And what was an ordinary human being, compared to him? Even if he was attractive. Even if he had a fine figure. Even with that idiotic reliability that oozed out of him with every move he made. He was an ordinary male of the human species with the ordinary little thoughts of human males. Pretty good for a resort romance, but nothing more than that. I couldn’t really fall in love with him!

The cell phone in my purse rang and I started. Mom? Unlikely-she was terribly careful with money and never rang

me on my cell.

I took it out and accepted the call.

“Hello, Alisa.”

Zabulon’s voice sounded tired. Affectionate and tired, as if he’d barely been able to find the strength to make the call, but really felt he had to…

“Hello,” I whispered.

“You’re feeling anxious, I can sense it. What’s happened to you, my little girl?”

There’s no way to hide anything from him. Zabulon knows everything… at least, everything he wants to know.

“I’m thinking about taking a friend for the month…”I sighed into the phone.

“Weil, what of it?” Zabulon sounded puzzled. “Alisa, I’m not jealous of your dog, and I’m not going to be jealous of some little man who amuses you either.”

“I haven’t got a dog,” I said miserably.

Zabulon laughed, and all my stupid thoughts just seemed to evaporate.

“All right then! I’m not bothered if you have a dog or you don’t. I’m not bothered if you have a human lover. Calm down, my little one. Relax. Recover your strength. Amuse yourself any way you like. Debauch the whole of Artek, including all the Young Pioneers and the old plumbers if you like. My little fool…”

“I’m behaving like a human being, aren’t I?” I suddenly felt ashamed.

“It’s nothing to worry about. It won’t last long, Alisa. Build up your strength… only…” Zabulon paused for a moment. “Never mind. It’s nothing.”

“No, tell me!” I tensed up again.

“I have faith in your common sense,” Zabulon said, and hesitated. “Alisa, just don’t get carried away, all right?

Your vacation is strictly governed by the terms of the old treaty between the Watches. You don’t have the right to take a lot of Power. Only crumbs. Don’t turn into some crude energy-vampire. You’re on vacation, not out hunting.

If you overstep the mark, we’ll lose this resort forever.”

“I understand,” I said.

How long was that blunder with the Prism of Power going to keep coming back to haunt me?

I didn’t start pouring out promises or swearing by the Darkness and my own Power. Promises mean nothing. The Darkness doesn’t bother itself with petty details, and I had no Power right then. I simply promised myself that I wouldn’t overstep the defined boundaries for anything. I wouldn’t let down Zabulon and the entire Day Watch.

“Then have a good vacation, my little girl.” I thought I caught a hint of sadness in Zabulon’s voice. “Have a good vacation.”

“Couldn’t you come? Just for a short while?” I asked hopelessly.

“No. I’m very busy, Alisa. I’m afraid we won’t be able to talk for the next three or four days. But don’t you worry.

What good is a tedious old miscreant obsessed with global problems as a partner for a young witch on vacation?”

He laughed.

We generally tried not to say things like that on the phone, especially the cell phone, because they listen to all of them and record everything. It all sounded like a flippant conversation… But what if some ordinary little human being picked up the thread and started following it? Then we would have to waste time and energy on him.

“I love you,” I whispered. “Thank you.”

“Good luck, my little one,” Zabulon said affectionately. “I kiss you.”

I switched off the phone and smiled to myself.

Well then, everything was all right. So where had that stupid feeling of alarm come from? And where had I gotten the crazy
i.e.
that I was in love with Igor? Love was something different. Love was pure delight, a fountain of emotions, sensual delights, and enjoying spending time together. But what I was feeling-this strange, timid alarm-was only the consequence of my illness. It just felt strange to associate with a man without having any
i.e.
of how to control him… I couldn’t threaten him with a pistol, like those half-witted bandits…

“Alisa?” Olechka’s curious little face had appeared in the doorway. “Are you coming in to see us for a minute?”

The girl was barefoot, in just her panties and top. She’d already gone to bed, but she got impatient.

“I’ll be right there,” I said. “Shall I tell you all a story?”

Olechka lit up: “Uh-huh!”

“A happy one or a scary one?”

The girl wrinkled up her little forehead. But, of course, curiosity won out. “A scary one.”

All children like scary stories.

“Run back to bed now,” I said. “I’ll be right there.”

Ten minutes later I was sitting on Olechka’s bed in the dormitory, telling the girls a story in a low voice:

“And in the morning the little girl woke up and went over to the mirror and looked-and all her teeth were red! She

tried cleaning them with toothpaste, and washing them with soap, but they were still as red as ever. She couldn’t say a single word to her parents, in case they noticed. It was a good thing her younger brother had fallen ill and her parents took no notice of her at all. That’s the way it always is-the little ones get all the attention and nobody even looks at you, not even if all your teeth are red…”

Scary children’s stories are so wonderful! Especially if you tell them at night, to a pack of silly little girls, with a mysterious half-light coming in through the window.

“I’ve guessed it already,” Natasha said in a bored voice. Such a serious girl, you couldn’t impress her with scary stories. The others started hissing at her indignantly and she shut up. I carried on, feeling Olechka’s little heart pounding as she pressed herself against me. There would be a good harvest for me there…

“On the third night the little girl tied her right braid to her bed with a piece of string,” I went on in a mysterious whisper. “And at midnight she woke up because the string was stretched tight and it was pulling on her hair and hurting. And the girl saw that she was standing over her little brother’s bed and her teeth were chattering!

Chattering!”

Larisa gave a quiet squeal. Not because she was frightened, but because it was the right thing to do. And of course one of the girls began happily chattering her teeth together.

“Then the little girl went into the kitchen and took out the hammer and the pincers that her father kept in the cupboard, and before morning came she secretly pulled out all her own teeth. It hurt very badly, but she managed it, because she was a brave girl and she had strong hands. And the next morning Her little brother got better. And the little girl’s teeth grew back better than ever, because the first ones were her milk teeth!”

I lowered my voice to a whisper and said solemnly, “Only they were still pink anyway!”

One of the girls who had been waiting for a happy ending gasped in fright. I concluded solemnly: “And the parents still loved her little brother more than her. Because he was very ill that time and they were really worried about him.”

And that was all. I wondered how many of the girls had younger brothers. The birth rate in Russia is low, but if the first child is a girl, people usually try for a second.

My mother had wanted to do that when she was already too old, past thirty-what a fool… But by then I was an Other, even at the young age of twelve, and I dealt with the unexpected problem. Though probably I shouldn’t have bothered. If I did have a brother, what would have been so bad about that? Even if he was only a half brother… and only I would have known that for sure (even my mom had her doubts)… He could have turned out to be an Other-not just a brother but an ally… But what’s done can’t be undone.

“And now-to sleep!” I ordered the girls in a cheerful voice.

Of course, they started asking me to tell them another story. But I refused. It was half-past eleven already, and I still had to get to the beach… the girls’ voices were already ragged and sleepy. When I left, Gulnara tried to tell a scary story of her own, but all the pauses and hesitations suggested that she would fall asleep halfway through it.

I went back to my room, stretched out on the bed, and started waiting.

I wondered what Igor was doing right then.

Was he entertaining his kids too?

Or was he drinking vodka with some other camp leaders?

Or was he screwing one of them?

Or had he forgotten he was intending to go swimming that night and sleeping peacefully in his bed?

I shook my head. No. Anything but the last option.

He was reliable. Almost… almost like Zabulon. What an absurd comparison: There weren’t many, even among the Dark Others, who could call Zabulon reliable. But I could. I had a perfect right to do it. Love is a great power, and such a strange power…

What if Igor turned out to be a potential Other?

I squeezed my eyes shut tightly in simultaneous sweet anticipation and panic. What would I do then? Then it wouldn’t be the tryst with an ordinary man that Zabulon had approved, but a genuine love triangle…

What was wrong with me!

There couldn’t be any triangle. Not even if Igor did turn out to be an uninitiated Other. He’d go running off with his tail between his legs and forget he ever had a romance with Zabulon’s girl.

And I would forget it too.

The time dragged by unbearably slowly. The hands on my watch crept along hesitantly, as if they weren’t even sure that time was passing. I had planned to wait for half an hour, but I gave in after twenty minutes. I didn’t have the strength to hold out any longer…

I got up and walked quietly through the girl’s dormitory…

There was silence in there. The calm, pleasant silence of a large children’s dormitory with just a few sounds-breathing, snuffling, lips smacking sleepily.

“Girls,” I called quietly.

No answer.

I set off along the row of beds, gently touching shoulders, arms, hair… Nothing… nothing… nothing…

Here was something.

It was Olechka. I knelt down beside her bed and lowered my hand onto her sweaty forehead. I heard her dream and felt the flow of Power. The dream was confused and incoherent; it had nothing to do with my bedtime story.

Olechka was dreaming that she was climbing to the top of a tower-an old tower that was leaning slightly, with half-ruined stone banisters that had huge gaping holes in them. Down below at the foot of the tower there was either a medieval town or an ancient monastery. And the strange thing was that although the tower was in semi-darkness, down below the sun was shining. And there were people wandering about between the decrepit buildings-happy and cheerful, dressed in light summer clothes, holding cameras and colorful magazines. They were enjoying themselves so much, it couldn’t possibly occur to them to look up at the sky and see the little girl walking toward a gap in the banisters as if she were under a spell…

I needed to hang on just a little bit longer. Wait until Olechka started falling-that was where the dream was leading her. I don’t know what happened, but I suddenly gathered my strength and sucked in her dream. Every last scrap of it.

The dark tower above the cheerful crowd, and the gaping holes in the banisters, and the cold indifference, and the fearsome, alluring height. Everything that could give me Power.

Olechka held her breath for a moment. I even felt afraid that she might fall into a coma-it’s rare, but it sometimes happens to people when you draw Power from them too suddenly.

But she started breathing again.

I got up off my knees. I’d even broken into a sweat myself. I could feel that a bundle of energy had fallen into the empty gap left by my usual Power. No, it still hadn’t filled it, not by a long way… and I’d acted hastily for some reason…

But I was recovering.

Again-the gentle touches, the soft hair, the lips parted in sleep, the relaxed fingers…