“That’s not what’s bothering you,” Arina said calmly. “It’s something else. What you’ll tell your daughter when she grows up and realizes that she could have been a supremely powerful Enchantress, but has become an ordinary human being. The fact that your wife will get old and wrinkles will cover her face, and behind every glance there’ll be the question: ‘Why this?’ And you’ll be old and sick too, doddery and gasping for breath, with a stabbing pain in your side, struggling to make ends meet on a meager pension and groaning over the injustice of the world . . . no longer able to defend yourself, let alone help anyone else. You’ve tried what it’s like living without magic for one evening. And it frightened you.”

I didn’t answer.

“But you don’t have any choice,” Arina went on. “I know that you like me—not as a woman, but as a person. And I like you. But Wen-yan killed the friend he loved more than himself. Only that could prove to the Twilight that he would keep the secret of the prophecy. And that prophecy probably only promised disaster for a billion Chinese, but ours will kill the Twilight itself. Our prophecy must either die with us or be fulfilled. Any move leads to defeat.”

“In chess that’s called a zugzwang,” Kesha put in out of the blue.

I looked at him and asked: “But do you know what I should do?”

Kesha looked at me as if I was an idiot and exclaimed: “I’m ten years old—how should I know?”

“In the movies, when things get critical, a little child always suggests a brilliant move to the hero,” said Arina. “Don’t be surprised, Kesha. When grown men don’t know what to do, not only will they ask a child, they’ll even ask a woman . . . Anton, make your mind up. The Tiger won’t take long to find us.”

“Can you recharge the Sphere?” I asked, holding out the little ball of marble.

“It’s completely drained,” Arina replied after inspecting the artifact. “It wasn’t intended for dragging four Others through space. If it isn’t completely dead, it will take at least five years to recover. A pity—it’s unique, it opens a portal from anywhere at all at any time, in any circumstances. No, Anton. You can’t run away any longer.”

“Can I have a sweet?” Kesha asked.

“Of course,” Arina agreed hospitably. “I can give you some bread and milk, too. Nadya, would you like some bread and milk?”

The lad was in a well-balanced state of mind. I wondered what that meant. After all, he was a Prophet, and if we were about to be killed, he ought to foresee it.

So had I made up my mind?

“I’ll just have a smoke, Arina,” I said. “All right?”