I looked at her – and the images came crowding into my mind.
. . . A beautiful woman in a long, old woman's dress with a bright-coloured Pavlovsk shawl . . .
. . .Walking beside her, a little girl . . . falling behind . . . the woman picks her up in her arms . . .
. . . Along the riverbank . . .
. . . Grass . . . tall grass . . . why is it so tall – above my head . . .
. . . I jump over a stream – with all four paws, put my nose to the ground, pick up the trail with my animal instincts . . .
. . . A stunted patch of trees, merging into a hummocky field . . . trenches, ditches . . .
. . . A smell . . . what a strange smell this land gives off . . . it's thrilling . . . and it makes me want to squeeze my tail between my legs . . .
. . .The woman with the little girl in her arms goes down into a deep trench . . .
. . . Back . . . back . . . it's the same witch, the same one, that's her scent . . .
'What is it?' Svetlana asked. 'If it's not far away, why didn't I find them?'
'A battlefield,' I whispered, shaking the images of what the little wolf-girl had seen out of my head. 'The front line ran just past here, Sveta. The earth there is soaked in blood. You have to look for something specific to find anything at all. It's like trying to probe the Kremlin with magic.'
Igor came up, cleared his throat politely and asked:
'Is everything all right then? Maybe we could wait for the investigators at the camp? We don't really need to rush things, our session there ends in a week, and I can report to the Night Watch to explain everything . . .'
I was thinking. Trying to correlate what I'd seen with the map of the area that I'd summoned up in my memory. Twenty kilometres . . . the witch hadn't simply walked there with Nadiushka. She'd shortened the journey – witches can do that. We wouldn't catch her in a car, mine wasn't a jeep, after all, and there wasn't a single Niva or UAZ four-wheel drive in the whole village. What you really needed for those roads was a tractor . . .
But I could enter the Twilight.
Or even better, make myself faster.
'Sveta,' I said and looked in her eyes. 'You've got to stay here.'
'What?'
'The witch is no fool. She won't give us three hours to think. She'll get in touch sooner than that. With you – she's not expecting anything remarkable from me. You stay here, and when the witch contacts you, talk to her. Tell her I've gone to prepare the corridor through the encirclement . . . Lie, tell her anything. Then I'll summon you and distract her.'
'You won't manage it,' said Svetlana. 'Anton, you're not strong enough to withstand her. And I don't know how quickly I'll be able to open a portal. I'm not even sure I'll be able to. I've never tried, only read about it. Anton!'
'I won't be alone,' I replied. 'Right, Igor?'
He turned pale and started shaking his head.
'Hey, watchman . . . That's not what we agreed!'
'We agreed that you would help,' I reminded him. 'We didn't define what counts as help. Well?'
Igor cast a sideways glance at his young wards. He frowned and said:
'You're a real swine, watchman . . . It's easier for me to fight a magician than a witch. All her magic comes from the earth. It cuts straight to the quick . . .'
'Never mind, we'll be together,' I said. 'The five of us.'
The cubs – I forced myself to think about them only as cubs – glanced at each other. Galya jabbed Petya in the side with her fist and whispered something.
'What do you need them for?' Igor asked, raising his voice.
'Watchman! They're only children!'
'Werewolf cubs,' I corrected him, 'who almost ate human children. Do you want to atone for your guilt? Get off with a caution? Then stop yapping!'
'Uncle Igor, we're not afraid,' Petya said unexpectedly.
The young Anton backed him up.
'We'll go with you!'
They looked at me calmly, without resentment. Clearly they hadn't expected anything else.