[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Yes, of course, there have been, there still are, and there always will be those who have not become Others, but
managed somehow to remain people. But there are so few of them, so very few. Or perhaps we're simply afraid to
look at them more closely? Afraid to see what we might discover?
"Am I supposed to live for your sake?" I asked. The forest didn't answer; it was already prepared to accept
anything I said.
Why must we sacrifice everything? Ourselves and those we love?
For the sake of those who will neither know about it nor appreciate it.
And even if they did find out about it, all we'd earn for our efforts would be an amazed shake of the head and the
insulting exclamation: "Stupid hicks."
Perhaps it would be worth just once showing humankind who exactly the Others are? What one single Other is
capable of when he's not shackled by the Treaty, when he breaks free of the Watches?
I actually smiled to myself as I pictured the whole scene. The general picture, not just my place in it: I'd be
stopped soon enough. So would any Great Magician or Great Sorceress who decided to violate the Treaty and
reveal the Others to the world.
What a hullabaloo there'd be!
Aliens landing at the Kremlin and the White House wouldn't even come close.
Impossible, of course.
Not my path.
In the first place, because I didn't want to take over the world or throw it into total turmoil.
I wanted only one thing: that they not force the woman I love to sacrifice herself. Because the path of the Great
Ones is genuine sacrifice. The appalling powers they develop change them totally and completely.
None of us are quite human. But at least we remember that we used to be human. And we can still be happy and
sad, feel love and hate. The great magicians and sorceresses move beyond the bounds of human emotions. They
probably feel emotions of their own, but we can't understand them. Even Gesar, a magician beyond classification,
isn't a Great One. And Olga somehow failed to become a Great One.
They'd bungled something. Failed to pull off some grandiose operation in the struggle against the Darkness.
And now they were willing to fling a new recruit into the breach.
For the sake of human beings who didn't give a damn about the Light and the Darkness.
Page 152
They were jumping her through all the hoops an Other is supposed to jump through. They'd already raised her
powers to third grade; now they were working on her mind. Very, very rapidly.
There had to be a place for me somewhere in this insane pursuit of some unknown goal. Gesar made use of
everything that came to hand, including me. Whatever I did-hunting vampires, chasing down the Maverick, talking
to Sveta in Olga's body-all that was just playing into the boss's hands.
Whatever I did now was bound to have been foreseen too.
My only hope was that not even Gesar was capable of foreseeing everything.
That I could find the only way to act that would ruin his plan. The great plan for Sveta's powers.
And avoid causing Evil in the process. Because if I did, it would be the Twilight for me.
But in any case, I'd be doing Svetlana a great favor.
I caught myself standing with my cheek pressed against the trunk of a scraggy little pine tree. Standing there,
hammering my fist against the wood. In fury or in grief, I couldn't tell which. I stopped my scratched and bloody
hand from moving. But the sound didn't stop. It was coming from somewhere in the forest, from the very boundary
of the magical barrier around the house. Blows in the same rhythm, a rapid, nervous drumbeat.
I bent over and ran between the trees, like some grown-up still playing at paintball wars. I already had a pretty
good idea of what I'd see.
There was a tiger jumping around in a little clearing. Or rather, a tigress. Her black and orange skin gleamed in
the rays of the rising sun. The tigress didn't notice me; right then she wasn't capable of seeing anybody or
anything. She dashed between the trees, with the sharp daggers of her claws ripping the bark. White scars
sprang out on the pine trees. Sometimes the tigress stopped, rose up on her hind legs, and started slashing at
the tree trunks with her claws.
I set off slowly back to the house.
All of us relax the best way we can. All of us have to struggle, not just against the Darkness, but against the
Light. Because sometimes it blinds us.
But don't feel sorry for us: We're proud, very proud. Soldiers in the worldwide war between Good and Evil, eternal
volunteers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 4
The young man walked into the restaurant as confidently as if he came there every day for breakfast. But that
wasn't the case.
He went straight over to the table where the short, swarthy man was sitting, as if they'd known each other for a
long time. But that wasn't true either. With his last step he sank smoothly to his knees. He didn't slump; he
lowered himself calmly, without losing his dignity or bending his back.
The waiter who was walking past gulped and turned away. He'd seen all sorts of things in his time, let alone petty
incidents like a mafia underling kowtowing to his boss. Only the young man didn't look much like a minion, and
the swarthy man didn't look much like a mafia boss.
The trouble he could smell in the air threatened to be far more serious than a mobsters' shoot-out. He didn't know
what exactly was going to happen, but he could feel it coming, because he was an Other himself, although he
wasn't initiated.
But only a moment later he had completely forgotten what he'd seen. He had nothing but a vague sense of
unease somewhere in the region of his heart, but he couldn't remember why.
"Get up, Alisher," Gesar said in a low voice. "Get up. We don't do that around here."
The young man got up off his knees and sat down facing the head of the Night Watch. He nodded.
"We don't either. Not any longer. But my father instructed me to bow on my knees to you, Gesar. He followed the
old rules. He would have knelt. But now he will never be able to."
"Do you know how he died?"
"Yes. I saw with his eyes, heard with his ears, suffered his pain."
"Give me also his pain, Alisher, son of a devona and a human woman."
"Take what you ask, Gesar, Exterminator of Evil, equal of the gods, who do not exist."
They looked into each other's eyes. Then Gesar nodded.
"I know the killers. Your father will be avenged."
"I must be the one to do it."
"No, you will not be able to do it, and you have no right. You have come to Moscow illegally."
"Take me into your Watch, Gesar."
The head of the Night Watch shook his head.
Page 153
"I was the best in Samarkand, Gesar," the young man said, staring hard at him. "Don't smile; I know that here I
would be the lowest of the low. Take me into the Watch. As a pupil of your pupils. As a guard dog. I ask this in
honor of my father's memory-take me into the Watch."
"You are asking too much, Alisher. You are asking me to give you your death."
"I have already died, Gesar. When they drank my father's soul, I died with him. I walked along with a smile while
he distracted the Dark Ones. I walked down into the metro while they were trampling his ashes underfoot. Gesar,
I have a right to ask this."
Gesar nodded.
"Let it be so. You are a member of my Watch, Alisher."
Not a trace of emotion showed in the young man's face, but he nodded and pressed his hand to his heart for an
instant.
"Where is the thing that you have brought, Alisher?"
"I have it, my lord." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl akte20.pev.pl
Yes, of course, there have been, there still are, and there always will be those who have not become Others, but
managed somehow to remain people. But there are so few of them, so very few. Or perhaps we're simply afraid to
look at them more closely? Afraid to see what we might discover?
"Am I supposed to live for your sake?" I asked. The forest didn't answer; it was already prepared to accept
anything I said.
Why must we sacrifice everything? Ourselves and those we love?
For the sake of those who will neither know about it nor appreciate it.
And even if they did find out about it, all we'd earn for our efforts would be an amazed shake of the head and the
insulting exclamation: "Stupid hicks."
Perhaps it would be worth just once showing humankind who exactly the Others are? What one single Other is
capable of when he's not shackled by the Treaty, when he breaks free of the Watches?
I actually smiled to myself as I pictured the whole scene. The general picture, not just my place in it: I'd be
stopped soon enough. So would any Great Magician or Great Sorceress who decided to violate the Treaty and
reveal the Others to the world.
What a hullabaloo there'd be!
Aliens landing at the Kremlin and the White House wouldn't even come close.
Impossible, of course.
Not my path.
In the first place, because I didn't want to take over the world or throw it into total turmoil.
I wanted only one thing: that they not force the woman I love to sacrifice herself. Because the path of the Great
Ones is genuine sacrifice. The appalling powers they develop change them totally and completely.
None of us are quite human. But at least we remember that we used to be human. And we can still be happy and
sad, feel love and hate. The great magicians and sorceresses move beyond the bounds of human emotions. They
probably feel emotions of their own, but we can't understand them. Even Gesar, a magician beyond classification,
isn't a Great One. And Olga somehow failed to become a Great One.
They'd bungled something. Failed to pull off some grandiose operation in the struggle against the Darkness.
And now they were willing to fling a new recruit into the breach.
For the sake of human beings who didn't give a damn about the Light and the Darkness.
Page 152
They were jumping her through all the hoops an Other is supposed to jump through. They'd already raised her
powers to third grade; now they were working on her mind. Very, very rapidly.
There had to be a place for me somewhere in this insane pursuit of some unknown goal. Gesar made use of
everything that came to hand, including me. Whatever I did-hunting vampires, chasing down the Maverick, talking
to Sveta in Olga's body-all that was just playing into the boss's hands.
Whatever I did now was bound to have been foreseen too.
My only hope was that not even Gesar was capable of foreseeing everything.
That I could find the only way to act that would ruin his plan. The great plan for Sveta's powers.
And avoid causing Evil in the process. Because if I did, it would be the Twilight for me.
But in any case, I'd be doing Svetlana a great favor.
I caught myself standing with my cheek pressed against the trunk of a scraggy little pine tree. Standing there,
hammering my fist against the wood. In fury or in grief, I couldn't tell which. I stopped my scratched and bloody
hand from moving. But the sound didn't stop. It was coming from somewhere in the forest, from the very boundary
of the magical barrier around the house. Blows in the same rhythm, a rapid, nervous drumbeat.
I bent over and ran between the trees, like some grown-up still playing at paintball wars. I already had a pretty
good idea of what I'd see.
There was a tiger jumping around in a little clearing. Or rather, a tigress. Her black and orange skin gleamed in
the rays of the rising sun. The tigress didn't notice me; right then she wasn't capable of seeing anybody or
anything. She dashed between the trees, with the sharp daggers of her claws ripping the bark. White scars
sprang out on the pine trees. Sometimes the tigress stopped, rose up on her hind legs, and started slashing at
the tree trunks with her claws.
I set off slowly back to the house.
All of us relax the best way we can. All of us have to struggle, not just against the Darkness, but against the
Light. Because sometimes it blinds us.
But don't feel sorry for us: We're proud, very proud. Soldiers in the worldwide war between Good and Evil, eternal
volunteers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 4
The young man walked into the restaurant as confidently as if he came there every day for breakfast. But that
wasn't the case.
He went straight over to the table where the short, swarthy man was sitting, as if they'd known each other for a
long time. But that wasn't true either. With his last step he sank smoothly to his knees. He didn't slump; he
lowered himself calmly, without losing his dignity or bending his back.
The waiter who was walking past gulped and turned away. He'd seen all sorts of things in his time, let alone petty
incidents like a mafia underling kowtowing to his boss. Only the young man didn't look much like a minion, and
the swarthy man didn't look much like a mafia boss.
The trouble he could smell in the air threatened to be far more serious than a mobsters' shoot-out. He didn't know
what exactly was going to happen, but he could feel it coming, because he was an Other himself, although he
wasn't initiated.
But only a moment later he had completely forgotten what he'd seen. He had nothing but a vague sense of
unease somewhere in the region of his heart, but he couldn't remember why.
"Get up, Alisher," Gesar said in a low voice. "Get up. We don't do that around here."
The young man got up off his knees and sat down facing the head of the Night Watch. He nodded.
"We don't either. Not any longer. But my father instructed me to bow on my knees to you, Gesar. He followed the
old rules. He would have knelt. But now he will never be able to."
"Do you know how he died?"
"Yes. I saw with his eyes, heard with his ears, suffered his pain."
"Give me also his pain, Alisher, son of a devona and a human woman."
"Take what you ask, Gesar, Exterminator of Evil, equal of the gods, who do not exist."
They looked into each other's eyes. Then Gesar nodded.
"I know the killers. Your father will be avenged."
"I must be the one to do it."
"No, you will not be able to do it, and you have no right. You have come to Moscow illegally."
"Take me into your Watch, Gesar."
The head of the Night Watch shook his head.
Page 153
"I was the best in Samarkand, Gesar," the young man said, staring hard at him. "Don't smile; I know that here I
would be the lowest of the low. Take me into the Watch. As a pupil of your pupils. As a guard dog. I ask this in
honor of my father's memory-take me into the Watch."
"You are asking too much, Alisher. You are asking me to give you your death."
"I have already died, Gesar. When they drank my father's soul, I died with him. I walked along with a smile while
he distracted the Dark Ones. I walked down into the metro while they were trampling his ashes underfoot. Gesar,
I have a right to ask this."
Gesar nodded.
"Let it be so. You are a member of my Watch, Alisher."
Not a trace of emotion showed in the young man's face, but he nodded and pressed his hand to his heart for an
instant.
"Where is the thing that you have brought, Alisher?"
"I have it, my lord." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]