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ARINA WAS SITTING ON A CHAIR, WITH HER HANDS RESTING MODESTLY ON her knees She wasn’t seneral she was as e without any ed into the real world My back et and htly

"Can I stay in this form, watchman?" Arina asked in a low voice

"What for?" I asked, unable to resist taking petty revenge "I’ve already seen the real you"

"Who’s to say what’s real in this world?" Arina said pensively "It all depends on your point of view Regard ht One"

"And the attempt to enchant me¡ªwas that a caprice too?"

Arina shot a bright, defiant glance at ht appearance but here and now, this is what I a the desire to please"

"All right, stay like that," I growled "I can’t say I’ of a repeat perforical objects"

"As you wish, Light One" Arina ran her hand over her hair, adjusting the style

And the little house changed just a bit

Now instead of the teapot, there was a s on the table, with stea froer ran to a nonexistent power-socket; instead it was stuck into a large brownish to at the TV "And how often do you have to change the vegetables?"

"To "A head of cabbage works for two or three days"

I’d never seen such an ingenious way of producing electric power before Sure, it was possible in theory but in practice

Anyway, I was more interested in the books in the bookcase I walked over and took out the first small volume that came to hand, a slim one in a paper cover

Hawthorn and Its Practical Use in Everyday Witchcraft

The book had been printed on so like a rotary printer Published the previous year It even gave the print run¡ª 200 copies And it even had an ISBN nu house was unfaenuine botanical text Do you people really print your own books?" I asked adly

"Someti out by hand"

"Copying by hand isn’t the worst of it," I res are written in blood"

And I took the Kassagar Garsarra down from the shelf

"In my own blood, mind," Arina said laconically "No abominations"

"This book itself is an abo people against each other without excessive effort’"

"Why are you trying to incriminate me?" Arina asked, irritated now "Those are all academic editions Antiques I haven’t stirred up trouble for anybody"

"Really?" I said, leafing through the book " ’Soothing kidney ail out dropsy’ Okay, we’ll let you have that"

"You wouldn’t accuse anyone as reading de Sade of planning to torture someone, would you?" Arina snapped "That’s our history All sorts of different spells Not divided into destructive and positive ones"

I cleared ht The fact that there were all sorts of different ether in the book didn’t constitute a cris like this: "How to relieve the pain of a woht there beside it was "Killing the fetus without harether with the wo the way it alith the Dark Ones

But despite these foul recipes and the recent atte I liked about Arina In the first place, there was the way she’d dealt with the children There was no doubt that a smart old witch could easily have found so melancholy and lonely about her¡ªdespite all her power, her valuable library, and attractive hu?" Arina asked peevishly "Co it out, sorcerer"

"Are you registered?" I asked

"Why, am I a vampire or a olf?" Arina asked in reply "Noants to put a seal onabout a seal," I reassured her "It’s just that all ed to inform the district center of their place of residence So that their movements will not be interpreted as hostile actions"

"I’m not an enchantress¡ªI’icians, enchantresses, and Others of equivalent power" I recited wearily "You are on the territory of the Moscow Watch You were obliged to inform us"

"There was never any of that before," the witch muttered "The foremost sorcerers told each other about theistered and everybody left us alone"

That sounded strange

"When was ’before?’" I asked

"In ’31," the witch said reluctantly

"You’ve been living here since 1931?" I said, unable to believehere for two years And before that" She frowned "It doesn’t matter where I was before that I didn’t hear about the nes"

Maybe she was actually telling the truth It sometimes happens like that with old Others, especially those who don’t work in the Watches They hide themselves away soa or the forest, and sit there for decades at a tiets too o you decided to ht

"Yes What would an old fool like hed "I just sit here and watch TV, read books Catching up on what I’ve missed I found an old friend of mine she sends ht," I said "Then it’s just the norot a sheet of paper?"

"Yes?"

"Write a statement Your name, where you’re from, year of birth, year of initiation, if you’ve ever served in a Watch, what level of powers you possess"

Arina obediently took out a piece of paper and a pencil I frowned, but I didn’t offer her a ballpoint pen She could write it with a goose quill if she wanted

"When was the last tiistered or encies of the Watches in any other way Where you have been since then"

"I won’t write it," said Arina, putting here pencil down "All this newfangled paper-scribbling Whose business is it where I’ve been war like an old peasant wo perfectly noruise," Arina declared without batting an eyelid "Oh, all right But you drop that bureaucratic tone as well"

She rapidly covered the entire sheet with close, neat handwriting Then handed it to me

She wasn’t as old as I’d been expecting Less than two hundred years Her mother had been a peasant wo her relatives She had been initiated as a girl of eleven by a Dark Magician or, as Arina stubbornly referred to hiin At the same time he had deflowered and abused her, which for so "the lascivious wretch" Ah there was the reason This "Gerirl as his servant and student¡ªin every respect And he had evidently not been too bright or too gentle¡ªby the age of thirteen the little girl had acquired enough power to vanquish her mentor in a fair duel and deician After that she had come under the surveillance of the Watches of that time But she had no other criminal acts in her record¡ªif her statement could be believed, that is She didn’t like cities She had lived in villages andpetty witchcraft

After the Revolution, several attempts had been made to reeducate her the peasants had realized she was a witch and decided to set the security police onto her Mausers and s couldn’t go on like that forever In 1931, Arina

I looked up at the witch and asked, "Seriously?"

"I went into hibernation," Arina said cal time For a nuhteen, or sixty years We witches

always have to take a lot of conditions into account Six years or eighteen was too short for the communists I went to sleep for sixty years"

She hesitated, and then confessed, "It was here that I slept I protectedor Other could come close

Now I understood Those were bad times Others were killed alo

"And you didn’t tell anyone you were sleeping here?" I asked "None of your friends"

Arina laughed "If I’d told anyone, you wouldn’t be here talking to ht One"

"Why?"

She nodded toward the bookcase "That’s my entire fortune And it’s a substantial one"

I folded up the statement and put it in my pocket Then I said, "It is But there’s still one rare book I didn’t spot there"

"Which one?" the witch asked in surprise

"Fuaran"

Arina snorted "Such a big boy, and you believe in fairy stories There is no such book"

"Aha And the little girl made up that title all on her own"

"I didn’t clear her hed "Tell ood deeds?"

"Where’s the book?" I asked sharply

"Third shelf down, fourth volume from the left," Arina said irritably "Did you leave your eyes at home?"

I walked across to the bookcase and leaned down

Fuaranl

Written in big gold letters on black leather I took the book out and looked triu

I looked at the title on the front cover¡ªFuaran¡ªFantasy or Fact? The word "Fuaran" was in large print, the others were smaller

I looked at the spine Now I saw it The smaller letters had faded and crumbled away

"A rare book," Arina ad in 1913, at the printing works of His Iht when the moon was full I don’t kno htened little girl only have seen the word printed in big letters?

Of course she could