I'm not joking. And then again . . . I know someone who likes to have others do his dirty work for him. He'll pay me well for the death of your little girl.'

'We'll try,' said Svetlana, squeezing my hand tightly. 'Do you hear me, witch? Don't touch the child, we'll save you!'

'We're agreed then,' said Arina, sounding almost happy. 'So think how I can get past the cordons. You have three hours. If you think of something sooner, enchantress, then pick up the comb and comb your hair again.'

'Only don't touch Nadiushka!' Svetlana shouted in a trembling voice.

Immediately she made a swift pass with her left hand.

The comb was instantly covered in a crust of ice. Svetlana dropped it on the table and muttered:

'The disgusting creature . . . Anton?'

We looked at each other for a second, as if we were tossing the initiative backwards and forwards, like a ball.

I spoke first:

'Sveta, this is really risky. She can't handle us both in open combat. So she leaves herself exposed if she gives Nadya back.'

'We'll find her a corridor . . . a way out . . .' my wife whispered. 'She can get beyond the cordons and leave Nadienka there. I'll find her straight away. She can even go to another town and leave her there. I'll open a portal . . . I know how. I can do that! I'd be there in a minute!'

'That's right,' I said with a nod. 'In a minute. And then what? The witch won't have time to go far. As soon as Nadya's with us, you'll want to find Arina and dematerialise her.'

Svetlana nodded:

'Blow her to pieces, not dematerialise her . . . The smart thing for the witch to do would be to use our help, but kill Nadya anyway. Anton, what should we do? Summon Gesar?'

'What if she senses it?' I asked.

'Can't we phone him?' Sveta suggested.

I thought about it and agreed. After all, Arina had fallen well behind the times. Would she even guess that we could contact Gesar by non-magical means, using a mobile phone?

Svetlana's phone was still in the house. She dragged it out like the comb, with another casual pass of her hand, then looked at me again. I nodded.

It was time to ask for help. Time to demand help. The full might of the Moscow Night Watch. In the final analysis, Gesar had plans of his own for Nadya that we knew nothing about . . .

'Wait!' a voice called to us from the gate. We swung round, probably throwing our hands up too hastily into a combat pose. For us this was no longer the ordinary, human world. We were living in the world of the Others, where the power of your spells and the speed of your reactions decide everything.

But we didn't have to fight.

There was a young man standing at the gate, with three children behind him – two boys and a girl. They were all dressed in greyish-green, semi-military clothes that looked like the uniform of a routed army. The man was about twenty-five, the children about ten. He couldn't have been their father, or even their brother – their faces were too dissimilar.

They had only one thing in common – their dark auras. Wild and shaggy, totally out of keeping with their likeable faces and short, neat hairstyles.

'I see our werewolves have come calling,' I muttered.

The man inclined his head briefly to confirm that I was right.

What a fool I was!

I'd been looking for an adult with three children, but I hadn't bothered to check the Young Pioneer camp.

'Come to give yourselves up?' Svetlana asked frostily. 'You've chosen a bad time.'

No matter how weak they were as Others, they must have felt the recent vortex of power – and the incredible might radiating from Svetlana, which left no chance for werewolves, vampires or any other lower Dark Ones. Sveta could have buried them up to their necks in the ground with a single wave of her hand.

'Wait!' the man said quickly. 'Listen to what we have to say! My name's Igor. I'm . . . I'm a registered Dark Other, sixth grade.'

'What town?' Svetlana asked curtly.

'Sergiev Posad.'

'And the children?' she asked, continuing her interrogation.

'Petya's from Zvenigorod, Anton's from Moscow, Galya's from Kolomna . . .'

'Are they registered?' Svetlana asked. She clearly wanted to hear the answer 'No', and that would have sealed Igor's fate.

The boys pulled up their shirts without speaking. The girl hesitated for a moment, but then unfastened