impotently as they approached Afandi. Before the storm of ice had even died away, Edgar struck with the Kiss of the Viper and the rocks under our feet were covered with drops of acid. Afandi was protected yet again. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that the old man wasn't just doing nothing, he was weaving some weak, but very cunning and unusual spell. I didn't really expect him to be successful, but at least he was busy and not getting under our feet.
The fourth spell that Edgar used was a vacuum. I was already expecting exactly that ?and when the air pressure around me started falling rapidly I calmly carried on lashing Edgar alternately with Opium and Thanatos. Behind me Alisher was striking out with fireballs and lumps of super-cooled water from the wands. The combination of fireballs and icy shrapnel exploding into viscous blue drops was remarkably effective ?I could see the Inquisitor's amulets, confused by the contrast, starting to lose their Power.
But there was more to all this than just the amulets. Edgar, a first-level magician was holding out against both of us and still managing to counter-attack! Either he was pumped right up to the hilt with Power, or he had surpassed the first level. I didn't have the time to make a thorough check on his aura.
The failure of the vacuum seemed to dent Edgar's fervour. It was such a rare spell that our readiness for it bewildered the Inquisitor. He began to back away slowly, circling round the charred Toyota that was smoking from acid and covered in hoar frost. He got snagged on an icicle that had smashed through the car's door and almost fell: as he waved his arms about to keep his balance he almost let my Opium through.
'Edgar, surrender!' I shouted. 'Don't make us kill you!'
Those words stung the Inquisitor to fury. He paused for a second, and then took a strange pendant off his belt ?a bundle of small grey feathers tied together with string, like a small twig broom. He tossed it into the air.
The feathers turned into a flock of birds like overgrown spar rows, but with beaks that glittered like bronze. There were twenty or thirty of them ?and they came dashing straight for me, manoeuv ring like super-modern re-entry vehicles, the pride and joy of the generals in the rocket forces.
The 'chicken god' hanging round my neck broke and fell off its chain. And the flock of birds began fluttering about aimlessly in the air. They didn't try to approach Edgar, but they couldn't attack me ?and they carried on fluttering about like that until Edgar swore and waved his hand to make them disappear.
Afandi too cast his spell and seemed to break through Edgar's defences. But there was no visible effect on the Dark Magician. He carried on backing away, occasionally counter-attacking. There was a glow on his chest that kept getting brighter and brighter all the time ?an amulet hidden under his clothes had been activated and was preparing to respond. For an instant I even thought that Edgar had equipped himself with a suicide spell, Shahid or Gastello, which would take us to the grave along with him.
'More Power to the Shields!' I ordered, and Alisher gave it every thing he had, powering up the Shields around us and one around Afandi.
But Edgar was clearly not in the mood for a dramatic suicide. He launched one more brief attack and then pressed his hands to his chest, where the amulet was glowing. The blue lines of a portal sprang up around him - the magician took a rapid step forward and disappeared.
'He's hopped it,' Alisher said. He sat down on the rocks and immediately swore and jumped back to his feet, his trousers smoking. The Kiss of the Viper was still working.
'The next seventy-seven times he lies down with a woman he will suffer shameful failure!' Afandi explained triumphantly. 'And no one will be able to remove the spell.'
'Very witty,' I said. 'Very eastern.'
With a few brief spells I cleared away the traces of magic from the ground under our feet. The drops of acid had raised bubbles in the stone, like rising dough.
Saushkin!
So it was Saushkin!
Part Two EPILOGUE
GESER DIDN'T ANSWER straight away. In fact, to be quite honest, it was more than two minutes before he answered.