which I'd parked the car the evening before.

And then Svetlana came out of the house – I didn't see her, but I sensed her. That meant Nadiushka had settled down and was enjoying a sweet after-lunch nap. Sveta came over, stood at the head of the hammock and paused for a moment, then she put her cool hand on my forehead and asked:

'Bored?'

'Uhuh,' I mumbled. 'Sveta, there's nothing I can do. Not a single thing. How can you stand it here?'

'I've been coming to this village since I was a child,' Svetlana said. 'I remember Uncle Kolya when he was still all right. Young and happy. He used to give me rides on his tractor when I was still a little snot-nose. He was sober. He used to sing songs. Can you imagine that?'

'Were things better before?' I asked

'People drank less,' Svetlana replied laconically. 'Anton, why didn't you remoralise him? You were going to – I felt a tremor run through the Twilight. There aren't any Watch members here . . . except you.'

'Give a dog a bone and how long does it last?' I answered churlishly. 'I'm sorry . . . Uncle Kolya's not where we need to start.'

'No, he's not,' Svetlana agreed. 'But then any intervention in the activities of the authorities is prohibited by the Treaty. "Humans deal with their own affairs, Others deal with theirs . . .".'

I didn't say anything. Yes, it was prohibited. Because it was the simplest and surest way of directing the mass of humanity towards Good or Evil. Which was a violation of the equilibrium. There had been kings and presidents in history who were Others. And it had always ended in appalling wars . . .

'You'll just be miserable here, Anton . . .' said Svetlana. 'Let's go back to town.'

'But Nadiushka loves it here,' I objected. 'And you wanted to stay here another week, didn't you?'

'But you're fretting . . .Why don't you go on your own? You'll feel happier in town.'

'Anybody would think you wanted to get rid of me,' I growled. 'That you had a lover here.'

Svetlana snorted.

'Can you suggest a single candidate?'

'No,' I said, after a moment's reflection. 'Except maybe one of the holidaymakers . . .'

'This is a kingdom of women,' Svetlana retorted. 'They're either single mothers, or they're here to give the children some fresh air and exercise while their husbands are slaving away. That reminds me, Anton. There was one strange thing that happened here . . .'

'Yes?' I asked, intrigued. If Svetlana called something 'strange' . . .

'You remember Anna Viktorovna called to see me yesterday?'

'The teacher?' I laughed. Anna Viktorovna was such a typical schoolmistress, she should have been in the old Soviet film The Muddle. 'I thought she came over to see your mother.'

'Both of us. She has two kids – a little boy, Romka, he's five, and Ksyusha, who's ten.'

'Good,' I said, giving Anna Viktorovna my seal of approval.

'Don't try to be funny. Two days ago the children got lost in the forest.'

My drowsiness suddenly evaporated and I sat up in the hammock, grasping a tree with one hand. I looked at Svetlana:

'Why didn't you tell me straight away? The Treaty's all very well, but . . .'

'Don't worry, they got lost, but then they turned up again. They came home on their own in the evening.'

'Well, that's strange,' I couldn't resist saying. 'Children who stayed in the forest for an extra couple of hours! Don't tell me – they actually like wild strawberries?'

'When their mother started giving them what for, they told her they got lost,' Svetlana went on, ignoring me. 'And they met a wolf. The wolf drove them through the forest – and straight to some wolf cubs . . .'

'I see . . .' I murmured. I felt a vague flutter of alarm in my chest.

'Anyway, the children were in a real panic. But then a woman appeared and recited some lines of verse to the wolf, and it ran away. The woman took them to her house, gave them some tea and showed them to the edge of the forest. She said she was a botanist and she knew special herbs that wolves are afraid of . . .'

'Childish fantasies,' I snapped. 'Are the kids all right?'

'Absolutely.'

'And there I was, expecting foul play,' I said, and lay back down. 'Did you check them for magic?'

'They're completely clean,' said Svetlana. 'Not the slightest trace.'

'Fantasies. Maybe they did get a fright from someone . . .