Watches about the theft of a valuable 'wonder'.

When I left the house, I saw the night was already pitch-black. And I had at least two or three hours of staggering through the forest ahead of me.

But the moment I stepped down from the porch, a ghostly blue light appeared in the air ahead of me. I sighed and looked back at the little house, with electric light glowing brightly in its windows. Arina hadn't come out to show me the way – but the blue light danced invitingly in the air.

I followed it.

Five minutes later I heard the lazy yapping of dogs.

And just ten minutes after that, I reached the outskirts of the village.

The most annoying thing about it all was that not once in all that time did I sense the slightest trace of magic.

CHAPTER 4

THE CAR IN the barn had been returned to its former appearance. But I didn't dare get into the driving seat to check how the diesel engine had survived its long ordeal at the hands of the farm mechanics. I walked quietly through into the house and listened – my mother-in-law was already asleep in her room, but there was the faint glow of a night light in ours.

I opened the door and went in.

'Did everything go all right?' Svetlana asked. The way she asked, it was hardly even a question. She could sense everything perfectly well without words.

'Pretty much,' I said and nodded. I looked at Nadiushka's little bed – our daughter was fast asleep. 'I didn't find the werewolves. But I had a talk with the witch.'

'Tell me about it,' said Svetlana. She was sitting on the bed in her nightdress, with a thick book lying beside her – The Moomintrolls. Either she'd been reading to Nadya, who would listen to anything as she was falling asleep, even a list of building materials, as long as it was read by her mother. Or she'd decided to relax in bed herself with a good book.

I took my shoes off, got undressed and lay down beside her. And started telling her everything.

Svetlana frowned a few times. And smiled a few times. But when I repeated the witch's words about my wife putting a spell on me, she was genuinely upset.

'I never did!' she exclaimed in a trembling voice. 'Ask Gesar . . . He can see all my spells . . . I never even thought about doing anything of the sort!'

'I know,' I reassured her. 'The witch admitted it was a lie.'

'Actually . . . I did think about it,' Svetlana said suddenly, with a laugh. 'You can't help thinking things . . . but it was just a silly idea, nothing serious. When Olga and I were talking about men, a long time ago . . .'

'Do you miss the Watch?' I couldn't help asking.

'Yes,' Svetlana admitted. 'But let's not talk about that . . .Well done, Anton! You got to the third level of the Twilight?'

I nodded.

'First-grade power . . .' Svetlana said uncertainly.

'No, I know my limits,' I objected. 'Second. Honest second grade. That's my ceiling. Let's not talk about that either, okay?'

'All right, let's talk about the witch,' Svetlana said with a smile. 'So she went into hibernation? I've heard of that, but it's still very rare. You could write an article about it.'

'Who for? A newspaper? Arguments and Facts? A witch has been discovered who slept for sixty years in the forest outside Moscow?'

'For the Night Watch information bulletin,' Svetlana suggested. 'Anyway, we really ought to put out our own newspaper. It would have to be a different text for normal people . . . anything you like. Something narrowly specialised. The Russian Aquarium Herald, say. How to breed cyclids and set up an aquarium with flowing water in your apartment.'

'How do you know about things like that?' I asked in amazement, and then stopped short. I remembered that her first husband, whom I'd never even seen, was a big fan of aquariums.

'I just happened to remember,' Svetlana said, frowning. 'But any Other, even a pretty feeble one, has to be able to see the real text.'

'I've already thought of the first headline,' I said.

We both smiled.

'Show me that "artefact",' Svetlana said.

I reached across to my clothes and took out the comb, wrapped in a handkerchief.

'I can't see any magic in it,' I admitted.

Svetlana held the comb in her hands for a while.

'Well?' I asked. 'What should we do? Throw it over one shoulder, then wait for a