"Kolya," I asked him, "would you take a look at the engine in my car? I thought it was knocking a bit yesterday…"

"Sure, I'll take a look!" said Kolya, brightening up. "You know, I…"

"Take the keys." I tossed him the bunch. "And I owe you a bottle."

Kolya broke into a happy smile. "Would you like me to wash your car too? It must have cost a lot… and these roads of ours…"

"Thanks," I said. "I'd be very grateful."

"Only I don't want any vodka," Kolya suddenly said, and I started in surprise. What was this, had the world turned upside down? "It's got no taste to it… now a little bottle of homebrew…"

"Done," I said. Delighted, Kolya opened the gate and set off toward the small barn I'd driven the car into the evening before.

And then Svetlana came out of the house-I didn't see her, but I sensed her. That meant Nadiushka had settled down and was enjoying a sweet after-lunch nap… Sveta came over, stood at the head of the hammock and paused for a moment, then she put her cool hand on my forehead.

"Bored?"

"Uh huh," I mumbled. "Svetka, there's nothing I can do. Not a single thing. How can you stand it here?"

"I've been coming to this village since I was a child," Svetlana said. "I remember Uncle Kolya when he was still all right. Young and happy. He used to give me rides on his tractor when I was still a little snot-nose. He was sober. He used to sing songs. Can you imagine that?"

"Were things better before?" I asked.

"People drank less," Svetlana replied laconically. "Anton, why didn't you remoralize him? You were going to-I felt a tremor run through the Twilight. There aren't Watch members here… apart from you."

"Give a dog a bone and how long does it last?" I answered churlishly. "I'm sorry… Uncle Kolya's not where we need to start."

"No, he's not," Svetlana agreed. "But any intervention in the activities of the authorities is prohibited by the Treaty. 'Humans deal with their own affairs, Others deal with theirs…'"

I didn't say anything. Yes, it was prohibited. Because it was the simplest and surest way of directing the mass of humanity toward Good or Evil. Which was a violation of the equilibrium. There had been kings and presidents in history who were Others. And it had always ended in appalling wars…

"You'll just be miserable here, Anton…" said Svetlana. "Let's go back to town."

"But Nadiushka loves it here," I objected. "And you wanted to stay here another week, didn't you?"

"But you're fretting… Why don't you go on your own? You'll feel happier in town."

"Anybody would think you wanted to get rid of me," I growled. "That you had a lover here."

Svetlana snorted. "Can you suggest a single candidate?"

"No," I said, after a moment's reflection. "Except maybe one of the vacationers…"

"This is a kingdom of women," Svetlana retorted. "Either single mothers, or their husbands are slaving away and the women are here to give the children some fresh air and exercise… That reminds me, Anton. There was one strange thing that happened here…"

"Yes?" I asked, intrigued. If Svetlana called something "strange"…

"You remember Anna Viktorovna came over to see me yesterday?"

"The teacher?" I laughed. Anna Viktorovna was such a typical school marm, she should have been in the film The Muddle. "I thought she came over to see your mother."

"My mother and me, too. She has two kids-a little boy, Romka, he's five, and Ksyusha-she's ten."

"Good," I said, giving Anna Viktorovna my approval.

"Don't try to be funny. Two days ago the children got lost in the forest."

My drowsiness suddenly evaporated and I sat up in the hammock, holding onto a tree with one hand. I looked at Svetlana. "Why didn't you tell me straight away? The Treaty's all very well, but…"

"Don't worry, they got lost, but then they turned up again. They came home in the evening on their own."

"Well, that's really unusual," I couldn't resist saying. "Children who stayed in the forest for an extra couple of hours. Don't tell me they actually like wild strawberries?"

"When their mother started scolding them, they started telling her they got lost," Svetlana went on imperturbably. "And they met a wolf. The wolf drove them through the forest-and straight to some wolf cubs…"

"I see…" I muttered. I felt a vague flutter of alarm in my chest.

"Anyway, the kids were in a real panic. But then this woman appeared and recited some lines of verse to the wolf, and it ran away. The woman took the kids to her little house, gave them some tea, and showed them to the edge of the forest. She said she was a botanist and she knew special herbs that wolves are afraid of…"

"Childish fantasies," I snapped. "Are the kids all right?"

"Absolutely."

"And here I was expecting some kind of foul play," I said, and lay back down in the hammock. "Did you check them for magic?"

"They're absolutely clean," said Svetlana. "Not the slightest trace."

"Fantasies. Or maybe they did get a fright from someone… maybe even a wolf. And some woman led them out of the forest. The kids were lucky, but a good belt…"

"The young one, Romka, used to stammer. Quite badly. Now he speaks without the slightest problem. He rattles on, recites pieces of poetry…"

I thought for a moment.

"Can stammering be cured? By suggestion, you know, hypnosis… or what else is there?"

"There is no cure for it. Like the common cold. And any doctor who promises to stop you stammering with hypnosis is a charlatan. Of course, if it were some kind of reactive neurosis, then…"

"Spare me the terminology," I asked her. "So there is no cure. What about folk medicine?"

"Nothing, except maybe some wild Others… Can you cure stammering?"

"Even bedwetting," I growled. "And incontinence. But Sveta, you didn't sense any magic, did you?"

"But the stammer's gone."

"That can only mean one thing…" I said reluctantly. I sighed and got up out of the hammock after all. "Sveta this is not good. A witch. With Power greater than yours. And you're first level."

Svetlana nodded. I didn't often mention the fact that her Power exceeded my own. It was the main thing that came between us… that could come between us some day.

And in any case, Svetlana had deliberately withdrawn from the Night Watch. Otherwise… otherwise she would already have been an enchantress beyond classification.

"But nothing happened to the children," I went on. "No odious wizard pawed the little girl, no evil witch made soup out of the little boy… No, if this is a witch, why such kindness?"

"Witches don't have any compulsion to indulge in cannibalism or sexual aggression," Svetlana said pompously, as if she were giving a lecture. "All their actions are determined by plain, ordinary egotism. If a witch were really hungry, she might eat a human being. For the simple reason that she doesn't think of herself as human. But otherwise… why not help the children? It didn't cost her anything. She led them out of the forest and cured the little boy's stammer as well. After all, she probably has children of her own. You'd feed a homeless puppy, wouldn't you?"

"I don't like it," I confessed. "A witch as powerful as that? They don't often reach first level, do they?"

"Very rarely." Svetlana gave me a quizzical look. "Anton, do you have a clear idea of the difference between a witch and an enchantress?"

"I've worked with them," I said curtly. "I know."

But Svetlana wasn't satisfied with that.

"An enchantress works with the Twilight directly and draws Power from it. A witch uses accessories, material objects charged with a greater or lesser degree of Power. All the magical artifacts that exist in the world were created by witches or warlocks-you could call them their artificial limbs. Artifacts can be things or cornified elements of the body-hairs, long fingernails… That's why a witch is harmless if you undress her and shave her, but you have to gag an enchantress and tie her hands."