Crown of All Things was concealed in the body of this miserable two-headed beast. Somewhere in the middle, where one part ended and the other began. Where head and tail were indis tinguishable... Go back, that is, to the fifth level, and you'll find it there!
Well, that sounded very convincing. If it was said with a straight face. They didn't have the Rune, and Edgar wasn't likely to be able to get it. Just let them try to destroy a golem created by Merlin!
Of course, if the Crown of All Things really was found in the belly of that creeping horror, then that would be ... that would be very annoying.
But I doubted that would be the outcome.
'You're smiling,' said Gennady. 'What have you come up with?'
'Quiet,' I said. 'I'm soaring on the wings of inspiration. Better give me some cognac'
Gennady pursed his lips and said nothing.
Absorbed in my thoughts and surrounded by a cocoon of total silence, I completely missed the moment of take-off. When I looked out of the window we were already high up above the first layer of clouds, the first level. Aagh, now I was seeing levels that had to be broken through everywhere!
Yes, there was definitely something about that line that stuck in my mind. Head and tail, right? I'd heard about that somewhere. In magic? No, more likely in folklore. In some beliefs or other... yes, of course! Egyptian myths and, later, European ones. Alchemical treatises. Buddhism, in the form of the wheel of Samsara, rebirth...
Uroboros.
The snake devouring its own tail.
I felt goose pimples rising on my skin. It was no accident that Merlin had set a two-headed snake to guard the fifth level... The Crown wasn't in it, of course.
But it was a hint, and a very clear one!
The beginning and the end. It gives birth to itself, fertilises itself and kills itself. An eternal and unchanging force that is dissolved in space and then restored again, the eternal circle of time, a defence against chaos and darkness, safeguarding the Universe, enclosing and supporting the world, bringing life into death and death into life, simultaneously motionless and moving...
Death and resurrection.
An eternal stream of Power, dying and being reborn...
I understood.
I understood everything.
My fingers started trembling and I grabbed hold of the armrests tightly. I caught Gennady's suspicion glance and said:
'I'm afraid of flying. Get me some cognac, okay? Be a real man, even if not for very long.'
Gennady got up without saying a word and beckoned to the stewardess.
Uroboros.
The beginning and the end. Life and death. The circle of Power maintaining the Universe.
I understood it all. I was the first since Merlin. Now I had something to be proud of, if only I could manage to stay alive!
'You've thought of something,' said Edgar. Half-standing, he leaned forward over the back of my seat and looked into my eyes curiously. 'Ah, Anton! I was right. You do have an idea.'
'I do,' I said, not trying to deny anything. 'Edgar, I want to ask you one more time ?are you sure that bringing out those who have withdrawn is safe? You know what the Shade of the Masters is, don't you?'
'I know,' said Edgar, and his face darkened. 'It summons magi cians who have withdrawn back from the fifth level, where they can exist for a fairly long time. Torn out of their natural surround ings, pumped full of Power, absolutely insane... destroying everything around them with appalling ferocity. Anton, don't confuse the forcible extraction and exploitation of the withdrawn with their resurrection. You know, if someone woke you up in the middle of the night, hit you on the head, poured shit all over you and started yelling in your ear, you'd go on the rampage too.'
'So you've definitely made your mind up...' I said and paused. I ought not to 'surrender' straight away. Edgar couldn't read my thoughts ?I was a Higher One, after all ?but he could sense a lie in my intonation or the expression on my face. And so could Gennady. 'Edgar, what guarantees do I have?'
'What guarantees do you mean?' he asked in amazement.
'Guarantees that when I explain everything to you, you won't give orders for the bomb in Moscow to be detonated. And that you'll take Schrodinger's Cat off my neck.'
Edgar laughed.
'Anything else you'd like?'
'I'm giving you a lot,' I answered.
'Will the Oath of the Light and the Dark satisfy you?'
'Edgar!' Gennady said in a chilly voice. 'There are limits to everything!'