Day Watch

What was Lemesheva hoping for?

There was a noise behind the backs of the Light Ones. Aha… the vampire brothers… they must have got in through the balcony…

But the magicians didn't even seem to notice what was happening. The tigress was the only one who went dashing toward the noise, brushing aside the puny furniture in her way and ripping the linoleum with her claws. And a moment later I heard a pitiful howl from one of the brothers.

Yes, three vampires weren't really enough for the shape-shifter…

"Vitaly!" Lemesheva commanded. The mental command slid through the Twilight and our werewolf dashed toward the entrance of the house, throwing off his clothes and changing into a wolf on the way. We continued feeding Edgar with energy and he started moving forward again, even managing to squeeze Garik back into the apartment. Then a huge wolf appeared from behind Edgar and rushed forward, paying no attention to the magicians.

It was a good idea. But inside the apartment the appearance of the werewolf was met with a bolt of fire. One of the Light Ones who had been kept in reserve had joined in the struggle, and he'd immediately shown that he was serious.

The werewolf's thick brown fur burst into flames and he leapt up into the air and fell on the floor, thrashing his paws about and rolling over and over, trying to put the flames out. If he had continued the attack, he would have had a chance to get to the magician before he could prepare a second fireball…

But he'd obviously been on watch duty for far too long.

Vitaly kept trying to put out the flames, and new charges kept striking him from out of the darkness. A second, a third, a fourth… Blood spurted out and burning lumps of flesh went flying through the air. The wolf howled and fell silent-only its back legs were twitching now, with its tail lying between them, blazing like a firework. It was actually quite beautiful.

The amulet hanging at my chest-a small crystal jug with a drop of red liquid sealed inside-crunched and shattered into tiny fragments. That was bad. It was a signal that my Power was ru

" Lena!" Lemesheva ordered.

I felt the wordless command again and Lena left the Circle, moving slowly, like a sleepwalker. My right hand was left empty and the trance receded for a few seconds, before A

"The girl!" Lemesheva shouted. "One girl is more use than a dozen boys!"

Now I understood everything. Apart from one thing, that is. How had A

But then Lemesheva grasped my hand and at once I became a mindless part of the Circle of Power.

Edgar was already squeezed back into the corner of the stairwell-they weren't just pushing him back now, they were trying to crush him against the wall. He threw up one hand: "Stop!"

A terrible pain…

The Circle was draining the very last drops of energy out of me, and Olga wasn't giving any more at all. She'd been wrung completely dry and she was standing there with us, twitching as if she were holding a bare power cable, and Zha

"We have the right to a sacrifice," Edgar said coolly. "If you don't let her go…"

The Light Ones froze. I saw the way they looked at each other and Garik shook his head.

But Semyon seemed to believe it right away.

A sacrifice provides a massive discharge of energy, especially if it's the sacrifice of a child; more if it takes place inside a Circle of Power; and even more if it's performed by an experienced witch. Lena Kireeva was standing inside the Ring, the knife already in her hands and the girl lying on the black table.

If we transferred the liberated Power into Edgar, the Light Ones wouldn't be able to stand up against it. Of course, they had extreme methods of their own, but did they have the authority to make use of them?

The shape-shifter tigress sprang out into the corridor. She must have been battering the vampire brothers on the balcony and seen what we were preparing to do.

"You can't stand against us," Edgar said aloofly. "We'll take what is ours anyway, and a human child will die. And you'll be to blame."

The Light Ones were dumbfounded. It was hardly surprising: The situation behind this particular conflict didn't seem particularly important in any way. It wasn't a matter of states threatening nuclear strikes against each other if their agents were arrested for spying. Others don't threaten to use first-degree magic in the case of a petty conflict between operational agents.

But the Light Ones were still keeping up the pressure on our magician. They were maintaining the press, if only by inertia, and we had no more Power left to share with Edgar. Olga had gone rigid and lost consciousness, and now she was standing in the ring like a limp wooden puppet. Zha

"Stop!" shouted Semyon. "We surrender the witch!"

Hold it… hold the Circle. I tried to draw energy out of the surrounding space, out of the little girl who was frightened to death, out of the people walking by a little distance away and diligently paying no attention to what was going on.

It was useless. I'd been completely drained of everything. It was Lemesheva… that was why she was standing there stronger than everyone else, the lousy… We were all going to die here for an old woman no one needed, and she'd be left, that vile creature.

But the Light Ones had already shoved a scruffy, plump woman in a dirty housecoat and torn slippers into Edgar's arms. She didn't understand a thing-she was staring all around and trying to cross herself.

"You'll pay for this" were Semyon's last words.

Edgar pulled the witch's arm behind her back with a sharp jerk-he had no time for explanations and no strength left for magic. He dragged her down the staircase.

Hold the Circle…

A sacrifice is an act of such great Power that it is best held in reserve. The right to use it might have been won twenty or thirty years earlier by the cu

Hold the Circle…

My fury was the only thing that saved me. Fury with the entire unsuccessful day, with all the failures of the last year, and with Lemesheva, who clearly knew more than she was saying.

I don't know where I found those final crumbs of Power, but I did! And I drove them through the limp bodies of Olga and Zha