“Forget it. It’s just a figure of speech. Anton, take a look around you! At the human world. You’re all Great Ones, mighty magicians, you’re not interested in watching ordinary life. But the world’s in a fever, financial crisis after financial crisis, currencies skipping up and down, governments falling in countries all over the place, revolution after revolution in the underdeveloped countries. And meanwhile our enemy is cunning and powerful, he’s on the offensive.”

“We’re supposed to have a truce with the Dark Ones,” I remarked. “And Zabulon’s not being any more malign than usual . . .”

“Zabulon! Ha!” said Las, and laughed sarcastically. “He’s small-fry. Our enemy is the Prince of Darkness.”

“The devil?” I said. “Well, there are no specific grounds for believing that he exists . . . Did you get baptized, then?”

“Do you need to ask?” Las proudly pushed his fingers in behind his collar and showed me a brand-new shiny little cross. “I got baptized, I confessed, took the sacrament—the works!”

“A good job you didn’t receive extreme unction,” I quipped. “That’s it, then. The forces of evil are doomed now.”

“Don’t mock,” Las said in an offended voice.

I suddenly felt awkward. In the final analysis, faith is every individual’s personal matter. Whether he’s an Other or a human being . . . Take Arina, the witchiest of witches, but she still believed!

“Sorry, I was wrong,” I said. “Since it’s impossible in principle to prove that God does or doesn’t exist . . .”

Las patted me on the shoulder patronisingly.

“That’s okay. I understand. But you won’t deny that the world is seeing an increase in conflicts between countries that can’t be resolved by peaceful methods, financial instability is on the increase, and all the traditional economic, political, and social models are imploding?”

“I won’t,” I admitted.

“Well then, in these conditions the Watch is absolutely obliged to prepare to take measures for the protection of the human herd.”

I thought I must have misheard.

“The human what?”

“Herd. Well, population,” Las said, frowning.

“You’re not very polite about human beings,” I said.

“Well, have they deserved any better?” Las asked in surprise. “Two thousand years since people were given the Good News! And what’s changed in all that time? We have the same old wars and violence, infamy and abomination!”

“Overall there has been some progress,” I said, disagreeing. “In wartime they used to annihilate people or turn them into slaves, the peasants starved to death . . .”