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 梱
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 Merlins 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