The Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

ever.
    “Yes. My friend’s fallen ill. I’m going to take her place. But I’ll try to come back again next year.”
    Makar nodded. “Do, this is a good place we have here. I’m going to come next year too. I’ll be fifteen then.”
    Maybe I imagined it, but I thought I saw a brief sparkle in the little imp’s eyes.
    “And after you’re fifteen?”
    He shook his head and replied with obvious regret. “You can only come until you’re sixteen. But anyway, at sixteen I’m going to go to Cambridge to study.”
    I almost choked in surprise.
    “That’s pretty expensive, Makar.”
    “I know. It was all planned five years ago, don’t worry.” He had to be the son of one of those New Russians. They had everything planned in advance.
    “Well, that’s doing things thoroughly. Are you going to stay there?”
    “No, what for? I’ll get a decent education and come back to Russia.”
    A very serious child. No doubt about it, these human beings sometimes threw up amusing types. It was a pity I couldn’t test him for Other abilities right now… we could use kids like that.
    I followed my guide as he turned off the pathway and its square flagstones onto a narrow track.
    “This is a shortcut,” the boy explained. “Don’t worry, I know everything round here…”
    I followed him in silence-it was pretty dark, and I was relying on just my human abilities, but his white shirt was a reliable marker.
    “There, you see that light?” Makar asked, turning back to look at me. “You go straight toward that. I’m off now…”
    It seemed like the boy just wanted to play a trick on me… it was three hundred meters to the light through the dense growth of the park. He would have been able to boast to his friends about how he led the new teacher into the bushes and left her there…
    But Makar had no sooner taken a step off to the side than he caught his foot on something and fell with a cry of surprise. I didn’t even feel like gloating-it was so funny.
    “Didn’t you say you knew everything round here?” I couldn’t resist asking.
    He didn’t even answer, just breathed heavily through his nose as he rubbed his bruised and bleeding knee. I squatted down beside him and looked into his eyes:
    “You wanted to play a trick on me, didn’t you?”
     
    The kid glanced at me and quickly turned his eyes away. He muttered, “I’m sorry…”
    “Do you play tricks like that on everyone?” I asked.
    “No…”
    “So why was I accorded such an honor?”
    It was a moment before he answered. “You looked like… you were very sure of yourself.”
    “I should think so,” I agreed simply. “I had some adventures on my way here. I was almost killed on the way-word of honor! But I got through it. So how am I supposed to look?”
    “I’m sorry…”
    All his seriousness and self-assurance had completely deserted him. As I squatted beside him I said, “Show me your knee.”
    He took his hand away.
    Power. I know what it is. I could almost feel it, the Power pouring out of the boy: generated by the pain, the resentment, the shame-it was pure Power… I could almost take it-like any Dark Other, whose strength is people’s weakness.
    Almost.
    But it wasn’t what I actually needed. Makar sat there gritting his teeth and not making a sound. He wouldn’t give way, and he held the Power inside himself. It was too much for me right now…
    I took a flashlight as slim as a pen out of my purse and switched it on.
    “It’s nothing. Do you want me to put a Band-Aid on it?”
    “No, don’t. It will be okay like that.”
    “As you wish.” I stood up and shone the flashlight around. Yes, it would have been difficult trying to find my way to that lighted window in the distance… “What now, Makar. Are you going to run away? Or are you going to show me the way after all?”
    He got up without saying anything and set off, and I followed him. When we were already at the building, which turned out not to be small at all-it was a