hesitated. He wanted to lie – and at the same time, he realised that I would sense it if he did. Our powers were more or less equal, and even his Inquisitor's gimmicks wouldn't necessarily work.

'We have some old leads on the witch,' the Dark Magician admitted. 'On file from back in the 1930s. The Inquisition has a number of questions for her.'

I nodded. I'd been bothered from the start by her story about being persecuted by the malicious NKVD. All sorts of things happened back then, the peasants could have kicked up a racket to attempt to try to get even with a witch. But they could only have tried. A trick like that might work with a lower-grade Other. But not with a witch of such great power . . .

'Okay, we'll go to see her,' I agreed. 'Would you like some breakfast, Edgar?'

'I wouldn't say no,' the Dark Magician replied frankly. 'Er . . . Will your wife object?'

'Let's ask her,' I said.

It was an interesting breakfast. The Inquisitor felt out of place and tried awkwardly to crack jokes, at the same time as paying compliments to Svetlana and Ludmila Ivanovna, talking baby-talk to Nadiushka and praising the simple omelette.

Clever little Nadiushka took a close look at 'Uncle Edgar', shook her head and said:

'You're different.'

After that she never left her mother's side.

Svetlana found Edgar's visit amusing. She asked him innocent questions, recalled the story of the Mirror* and in general behaved as if she was entertaining a colleague from work and a good comrade.

* See The Day Watch, Story One

But Ludmila Ivanovna was delighted with Edgar. She liked the way he dressed and spoke. The way he held his fork in his left hand and his knife in his right made her ecstatic. Anyone would have thought the rest of us were eating with our hands. And the fact that Edgar firmly refused 'a little glass for the appetite' provoked a reproachful glance in my direction, as if I was in the habit of gulping down a couple of glasses of vodka every morning.

And so Edgar and I set out feeling well fed, but slightly irritated. I was irritated by my mother-in-law's fawning raptures, and he seemed to be irritated by her attention.

'Can you tell me what the charges against the witch are?' I asked as we approached the edge of the forest.

'Well, after all, I suppose we did drink to Brüderschaft back in Prague that time,' Edgar reminded me. 'Why don't we address each other less formally? Or is my new job . . .'

'It's no worse than your job in the Day Watch,' I laughed. 'Okay, at ease.'

Edgar was satisfied with that and didn't drag things out any longer.

'Arina is a powerful and respected witch . . . within their narrow circles. You know how it is, Anton, every group has its own hierarchy. Gesar can mock Witiezslav as much as he likes, but as far as vampires are concerned, he's the most powerful there is. Arina occupies a similar sort of position among the witches. An extremely high one.'

I nodded. My new acquaintance was clearly no simple witch.

'The Day Watch asked her to work for them more than once,' Edgar continued. 'Just as insistently as your side fought for Svetlana . . . please don't take offence, Anton.'

I wasn't offended in the slightest . . .

'The witch refused point-blank. Okay, that's her right. Especially as she did collaborate on a temporary basis in certain situations. But early last century, shortly after the socialist revolution, an unpleasant event took place . . .'

He paused. As we entered the forest, I set off with rather ostentatious confidence, and Edgar followed. Looking absurd in his city suit, the Dark Magician clambered fearlessly through the bushes and the gullies. He didn't even loosen his tie . . .

'At the time the Watches were fighting for the right to conduct a social experiment,' Edgar told me. 'Communism, as you know, was invented by the Light Ones . . .'

'And subverted by the Dark Ones,' I couldn't resist adding.

'Oh, come on, Anton,' Edgar said resentfully. 'We didn't subvert anything. People chose for themselves what kind of society to build. Anyway, Arina was asked to collaborate. She agreed to carry out . . . a certain mission. The interests of the Dark Ones and the Light Ones were involved, as well as the witch's. Both sides were in agreement over the . . . mission. They were both counting on winning