I didn’t like that comment at all. Gesar was acting as if Sveta and Nadya were going to be under siege. But we were talking about a Higher Enchantress here (Svetlana might specialize in healing, but everyone knows that any healing spell can be used just as effectively for attack) and an Absolute Enchantress as well. (The fact that she was only ten years old didn’t make Nadya defenseless. She could set up a perfectly standard Sphere of Negation, but pack so much Power into it that you couldn’t breach it with a cannon.)

“I heard,” said Sveta. “Right now I’m throwing clean underclothes into a bag . . . Shall I bring anything for you?”

“Er . . .” I hesitated. “Well, a pair of socks, a couple of pairs of shorts . . .”

“I’ll take a risk and grab a clean shirt as well,” Svetlana decided.

When we had almost reached Gesar’s office I decided to speak up after all—the boss wasn’t faltering as he walked along anymore, he’d obviously contacted everyone he needed to . . .

“Boris Ignatievich, I can see you already understand what’s going on . . .”

“I don’t understand a damn thing, Anton,” answered Gesar. “Not a damn thing. I’ve never even heard of anything like this. And it . . .” He chewed on his lips, trying to choose the right words. “It frightens me.”

He swung the door open and we walked into his office.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

THE FIRST THING I NOTICED WERE THE PORTALS HANGING IN the air. The Higher Others summoned by Gesar certainly weren’t wasting any time.

Then I counted the portals. One of them, with a thin, glittering frame, was waiting for my girls to pass through it. And three portals were already slowly fading away.

Three?

I gazed at the people sitting there at the table.

Olga. Clear enough. I nodded to her automatically.

And this quiet little old man with the tousled gray hair, wearing a threadbare suit and wide, old-fashioned tie, looking like an aged professor or doctor?

And this sturdy man with a beard, whose face seemed familiar to me somehow—not from the life of the Watch, but from human life? I’d seen his face on TV, or maybe in the newspapers . . .

We didn’t have anyone like these two in the Watch.

“Thank you for not delaying,” said Gesar, walking over to his chair. “Let me introduce you. This is Anton Gorodetsky. You must have heard of him.”

“Who doesn’t know Anton Gorodetsky?” the little old man said, with a smile.

“This is Mark Emmanuilovich Jermenson,” said Gesar. “Higher Light One and Battle Magician.”

“Sergei,” said the second man, introducing himself. “Sergei Glyba. Higher Light One.”

“I know you,” I said, finally remembering. “You’re . . . you’re that—”

“Clairvoyant!” he confirmed delightedly.