Koshchei the Deathless and an Evening Stroll Under a Full Moon

Two days later, already near morning, Tibidox was disturbed by a crash: someone was drumming the main gates with all his might. The guard cyclops Dumpling Maker got up on his bed made of planks covered with sheepskins and began to shake his cauldron-shaped head. He was used to, before someone knocked on the gates, the normal zoomer thundering, reporting that the spell of passage was in action. Now the zoomer held its tongue. The spell of passage was also clearly not uttered — whereas the crash did not cease but became increasingly more persistent. It seemed any minute now the massive gates would tear away from the hinges.

Having groped for the poleaxe in the corner, Dumpling Maker touched the point in a business-like manner with a calloused finger and, muttering under his breath the words of the song Our service was dangerous, and difficult..., widely popular among the magicians at the suggestion of the moronoids, he began to stomp to the shaken gates.

“Well! Who’s there? ” The cyclops bellowed.

“Open up — you’ll find out! Move, lazy! ” Demanded from the other side.

“I’ll open now! Only you’ll be sorry for this! ” Dumpling Maker promised and leaned his weight on the wheel, setting the hoist in action.

A thin figure in a dark raincoat decisively squeezed through the slightly opened gates. The cyclops let go of the wheel, gripped his poleaxe and was about to rush to him, but did not have time to take even three steps as a short, really abrupt spell was hear. Dual red flashes flared.

Dumpling Maker was tossed and, after flipping over in the air, landed in the ditch. The frogs answered this unceremonious intrusion with excited croaking. Following the cyclops the poleaxe whistled in the air. Dumpling Maker attempted to get out, but the walls of the ditch were too slippery. Then he sat on the bottom burning with malice and stared at the frogs. His only eye was revolving in orbit and rolling behind. To those who knew Dumpling Maker, this was a sure sign that it was time to escape. However, to the frogs it would only be a whimper. They only stared at him from the water and croaked as if inviting the rest to take a look at the fool.

Meanwhile, the stranger in the raincoat was already moving towards Professor Stinktopp, who jumped out of his room in sky blue striped pyjamas with little yellow hearts. Even the best deputy Uncle Herman did not have such absurd pyjamas and he had already been collecting pyjamas for seven years.

“Who are you? Okay, stop, and I’ll not shoot! Hands hoch! Zat is, hands upvard! ” Stinktopp shouted, throwing up his hand with the ring.

The unknown waved his hand expressing annoyance and shoved in front of Stinktopp’s nose a small piece of blue bark with a mouldy skull printed on it.

“Magciety — Jerky Magtion. Inspector-consultant Koshchei the Deathless, ” appeared on the cover.

While Professor Stinktopp studied the bark, the newly arrived magician flung open his raincoat and dropped the hood.

A stylish silver armour from Paco Grabanne and the handle of a two-handed sword flashed. The face of the magician was small, shrunken, exactly a skull stretched over with skin, with small roguish eyes.

Having finally understood who was before him, Professor Stinktopp joyfully rubbed his rough paws.

“Oh, ve vere acqvainted earlier! Ve met at ze conference on protection of rights of trolls and fampires! I vas vaiting for you only yesterday! Let’s go into my office! I’ll report to you efferyzing in detail! ” He exclaimed happily and, curtsying from impatience, began to mince in front, showing the road.

Beyond the forest, breaking through the fog reeking of iodine, dawn was already burning. However, the night had not yet hurried to surrender its position.

The old man in the silver armour and Professor Stinktopp in pyjamas with little hearts were not the only ones roaming the gloomy corridors of Tibidox today. There were others...

* * *

“Hey, baby without the birthmark, do you have the nerve? Indeed you’ll not shriek? I’ve arrived, and, by the way, not alone! ” Someone whispered anxiously.

Tanya, sleeping on her stomach, opened her eyes and raised herself on her elbows. In a lilac haze next to her bed swam Lieutenant Rzhevskii, resembling a cloudlet slightly gone haywire. Beside him Unhealed Lady delicately looked out from behind the fanning Black Curtains.

“I apologize very much... I have this migraine. Can you please find an aspirin or at least a phial with poison? I’m suffering terribly, ” she said melodiously.

“She lies all the time! Don’t give her poison! All the same she won’t drink it. She overheard us last time and there and then made up her mind about the box of The Ancient One! Even threatened to tell tales to Horror if I go without her! ” Lieutenant dismissed her.

Unhealed Lady turned pink from indignation.

“Jean, why so? Indeed I asked you to keep everything in secret! I entreated you! ” She said, pursing her lips.

Lieutenant yawned.

“Well, so, shall we go? ” He proposed. “Eyeless Horror is already shaking his rusty rattles in the basement. In such an hour even the most terrible spectres become sentimental. They drop tears, cold and sticky like yesterday’s bouillon. The way is clear.”

Tanya looked sideways at the adjacent bed, on which Coffinia was already snuffling without any Pointus harpoonus, and thought for a bit. Only yesterday she would forego this adventure, but now, when an elusive spirit was hiding in the labyrinths of Tibidox and Bab-Yagun was transferred to the black magicians, there was nothing to lose at all.

Tanya dressed quickly and slipped into the common room. The spectres sailed slightly in front showing the way, which even without them was known to her. But unexpectedly, to Tanya’s surprise, Rzhevskii turned into a side corridor clearly leading to the Hall of Two Elements.

“Hey, where are we going? You said it’s in the attic of the Big Tower? ” Tanya did not understand.

“Uh-huh! But better if we slip up by the stairs of the Atlases, and then already on the gallery we’ll cross to the Main Staircase! Trust me, an old fox, this way will be more farsighted! ” Rzhevskii whispered mysteriously.

Tanya shrugged her shoulders.

“As you wish. But, in my opinion, it’s foolish to make such a detour, ” she said.

“I indeed know all the tricks of Slander! He arranged a heap of spells between the habitable floor and the attic! But only very early on. Then everything is clear. And so, we have to search for roundabout corridors.”

Rzhevskii, attracted by his new role of chief of expedition, borrowing from the respected traditions of a mountain ghost, thundered with a dagger in a warlike manner. The dagger was simply of a staggering size. His only flaw was that he did not take it out of the scabbard.

Screwing up her face from any sound, Unhealed Lady languidly slid along half a metre above the floor. If she chanced upon a wall along the way, Lady in her absent-mindedness did not notice and passed through it.

They had already passed the Hall of Two Elements divided by the line of fire when by the stairs of the Atlases Lady threw up a transparent hand. Tanya froze.

“What’s with you? ”

“Sh-h! What, are you deaf? There’s somebody there! ”

Tanya distinctly distinguished dull sounds wafting from the top. Something was definitely happening on the marble staircase. The Atlas holding up the arch nearest to them turned away, pretending that it personally heard nothing. However, its rock face at the same time was suspiciously honest.

“Wait here! We’ll find out what problem there is and we’ll return! ” Lieutenant whispered and noiselessly evaporated following Lady.

Fearing to be seen by Slander or one of the instructors, Tanya dived under the stairs. The stairs were lying on the shoulders of two powerful Atlases, but they, indeed clearly not pretending, were sleeping standing. An eagle owl was hooting in the ear of one of them.

Confident that when necessary, the spectres nevertheless would find her, Tanya went deeper, keeping along the wall. The round hall here turned into a narrow corridor, where the arches were kept elevated at regular intervals. The ceiling between the arches was covered by stained glass with a complex pattern. The dim moonlight outside shone through the coloured glass. Whimsical reflections danced on the floor.

The further in, the lower and narrower the corridor became. Soon Tanya could make her way along only by bending down, and then even on all fours, hitting the top of the arch. A little bit more — and it was necessary for her to crawl forward on her stomach. This discovery did not inspire the girl.

“A so-so corridor! Interesting, whom is it built for at all? For dwarfs and Lilliputians? What if I crawl backwards and I get stuck! ” She muttered.

Intending to get to work on it, Tanya began to search for a wider area to turn around. Such an area was discovered behind one of the arches. Baby Grotter began to turn and... almost buried her nose into a low oak door.

Someone was talking behind the door. Tanya involuntarily listened.

“Give me the plane! ”

“Here! ” Something whistled in the air.

“Hey, Scrap, why are you throwing planes? Grown stupid? ”

“Me stupid? Me? And how can you work after the way we’re treated? No, you think: she was not even warned! The girl did not pay off her debts to us as assumed! She gave neither three twigs from a broom or even a thread from the magic tablecloth! ” Someone squealed indignantly.

Interested, Tanya moved an eye closer to the keyhole. Coffinia would call this “sneaking a peek.” In the keyhole she saw a narrow room with several joiners’ benches. On the walls, on shelves, on the floor, and generally everywhere, where possible, tools were lying and hanging — chisels, saws of different sizes, hand drills, pliers, wrenches, fretsaws, and files.

By the outer joiner’s bench two house-spirits were quarrelling. From one of them — red-nosed, cocky, with a dishevelled beard seemingly plucked — even the cap flew off.

“No matter, worse for her! Let everything go as it should! We told no one that the Rope almost broke, ” he giggled.

“Well, and you’re mean, Scrap! You yourself mended it! Tried two evenings! ” Another house-spirit said conciliatory.

“I did — yes, but it’s already not quite what it was at first... Moreover, I used a waxed thread for seven-league boots, but it’s not exactly quite the thread for magic ropes...”

Red-nosed Scrap reached for a tobacco pouch with low-grade tobacco and conciliatorily offered it to his friend. The house-spirits started to smoke.

“Here last night I dropped in on a wood-goblin... He said the fire now flares up every night and burns till dawn... They, the wood-goblins, indeed don’t even poke their noses near there. The water-sprites also don’t show their noses from the pond... Earlier they tried to pick fights, they bawled, and now they sit quietly. But here even all sorts of nonsense started. There, you see how the oil stove burns? Perhaps it blazed like that earlier? And in some forge? It’s impossible to shape a sensible nail. You only bring a rod to red heat and it has already cooled, ” said Scrap.

“So far you did not tell the magicians? ”

“Ne-a, we never say anything to them. Magicians turn their nose from us. We’re evil spirits to them, but who would they be without us? Moronoids! ”

“And who built Tibidox for them? They probably never even cut a lock...” his friend supported him.

The house-spirits did not say anything anymore. After smoking, they again took up the planes. Along the boards with cameo-shells spread fragrant curls of shavings. Trying not to draw attention to herself, Tanya carefully made her way from the tight corridor and was soon by the stairs again.

“Well and I’m a thankless pig! I indeed truly gave them nothing. Even did not say thanks! ” She thought.

A delicate cough was heard, and Unhealed Lady rose up before her. Behind her shoulders loomed Rzhevskii.

“Do you know what the noise there was? The Atlases set on one of their shady ones. It didn’t want to hold the ceiling. Contrived so that all the weight fell on its neighbours. Now they taught it, ” Lieutenant said noncommittally.

What happened put the spectre in a good mood, and he began to tell some intricate story about a cardsharp. Allegedly the cardsharp badly marked the deck, was suspected, and they chased him for a long time in order to put a bronze candlestick to him. As a result they did not use the candlestick but hit his ear with a plaster bust of Ovid. Suddenly Tanya realized that the story clearly had autobiographical details. Although the Lieutenant narrated about the cardsharp in the third person, he continually slipped to “I” and began to complain on the reverse of fortune.

“Well, so? Are we going or do I also have to chase after you with a candlestick? ” Tanya impatiently asked.

Rzhevskii sulkily turned towards her his back stuck with knives and floated like a haughty swan above the stairs. A quarter of an hour later they were already in the attic. Tanya’s legs ached from the many high steps. In her eyes continued to flicker the fires of hundreds of torches.

The attic of the Big Tower was sufficiently picturesque. Semicircular, with timber along the walls up to the roof supported by oak buttresses. Window-loopholes went out to a wide ledge girding the tower.

Unhealed Lady immediately began to whine that she was terribly afraid of heights.

“Now, you watch, I’ll break apart! I’ll break into smithereens! I have nightmarish presentiment! ” She reckoned.

“Yes, but you... eh-eh... that...” Tanya began carefully.

“Exactly, I’ve already died, you managed to hint on that with such moving sensitivity. However, there’s no need to constantly remind me of it! What savage, shocking tactlessness! ” Lady was angry, and with an attacking reproach straightened the hat with faded roses.

Tanya blushed. She understood that she blurted out something quite awkward, in the spirit of Bab-Yagun. Lieutenant Rzhevskii, who was already on the ledge, saved her from the awkwardness, waved his hands inviting her to follow him. The girl carefully squeezed through a loophole and looked down. The ground was not visible now: everything was lost in the fog. From there even the moon seemed like the yellow spot of a flabby omelette on a burning frying pan.

With her shoulder blades pressed against the cold stones of the Tower, Tanya began to edge along the narrow ledge.

“Interesting, will Oyoyoys smackis thumpis work if I tumble from this height? ” Tanya pondered, taking heart in order to go out onto the open area, where the wind was droning furiously.

A step. The wind pushed at her shoulder and attempted to tear her away from the ledge.

“No, the question, of course, is interesting, but better I won’t answer it for the time being, ” Tanya thought and took another step.

The girl did not believe herself when her fingers finally caught hold of the edge of the crack knocked out by lightning, out of which Lieutenant Rzhevskii was already impatiently looking.

“And the little box is here! And here is the same place, where they expelled me with a Briskus! ” He informed her happily, hovering above one of the stones. In the next moment he was drawn with a loud chomping into the flagstones, as if someone turned on a magic vacuum for a moment.

“They’ve killed him! Yet another plot against us, helpless ghosts! ” Shaking a pale fist, Unhealed Lady started to wail.

Suddenly she broke off and began to flicker. The luminous, recently disappeared spectre elbowed his way through the wall.

“I apologize! Who would have guessed that one more spell was placed here? Indeed one cannot manage here without the vile insidiousness of the vilest villain and mean scoundrel Slander! ” He stated.

Continuing to stand in the crack, Tanya looked around. The reddish and greenish crackling curtains, normally accompanying any guard spell, were seemingly not noticeable. Not trusting herself very much, she released a green signal spark, but it flew around the entire closet, did not once blink or change colour. So, it was true there were no other spells besides the one which Rzhevskii ran into.

“Well, what’s with you? Open quick! In a similar box I once stored love letters! I’m sure that The Ancient One did that too! ” Unhealed Lady hurried Tanya.

She had long ago been twisting as a dove-coloured column of smoke around the box and was clearly dissatisfied that she could not succeed in filtering inside.

“Love letters? I don’t think that The Ancient One fell in love once. They talk about him as a dried-up old man, ” doubted Tanya.

Lady smiled thinly.

“Everyone falls in love. Trust me. I know, ” she said with incomprehensible confidence.

Thinking that Verka Parroteva was not alone in her tendency to suspect love notes everywhere, Tanya approached the box. In appearance the box was the most ordinary — wooden, without any carved patterns on the lid and even without a lock. It clearly did not smell of any magic here. Tanya stretched out her hand and... she herself did not understand what happened. Suddenly it seemed to her that she was standing on the spot, but the Tower floated away somewhere with short sirens of a steamer. Furthermore from the direction of the ocean for some reason a sharp cry of seagulls began to reach her.

And then Tanya suddenly understood that all this had been shown to her. She was lying with her cheek on the floor, and above her soared Lieutenant Rzhevskii and Unhealed Lady.

“Useless for you to do this... Shouldn’t call The Ancient One a dried-up old man! ” Lady said reproachfully. Rzhevskii winced.

“What’s with The Ancient One here! The whole problem is her ring. I’m sure it had the occasion to shoot red sparks. Remove it and try again, ” advised Lieutenant.

Tanya sat down on the stone floor. The tower no longer floated away, and the floor did not move away from under her feet. The box of The Ancient One continued to stand in its previous place.

“It took me for a black magician... And not only it. Professor Stinktopp also considers me black. And Dentistikha, ” thought Tanya.

She removed from her finger the ring of Theophilus Grotter and cautiously approached the box. For her to touch it a second time was even less desirable than to test with two wet fingers how many volts were in an outlet.

“Box, I’m not black. I... I myself don’t know what I am. But I awfully don’t want to be black! ” She said confusedly.

Certain that the Tower would again set off floating, filling with the cries of seagulls, Tanya screwed up her eyes, stretched out her hand and unexpectedly felt a warm wooden surface with her fingers.

The lid of the box was turned back. Looking inside, the girl discovered that on the dark velvet, in the hollow which could perfectly be intended for a magic ring, was... And here more continuous questions began. What is it? A worm? A caterpillar? A baby snake?

“Eek, it’s nothing but the Golden Leech! It’s a sucker there. Just as I thought! ” Lieutenant Rzhevskii exclaimed with disappointment, having already managed to sneak a peek in the box.

“Phew, Leech! How humdrum it is! ” Unhealed Lady screwed up her face. It was evident that just now she was disappointed in The Ancient One and in the entire humanity.

While Tanya was pondering why the Golden Leech could so worry Sardanapal, Lieutenant Rzhevskii listened. He flew up to the wall and pushed his head through the masonry.

“Horror! So that the emperor would again mention me in the parade of slobs! ” He exclaimed.

“You what? ” Tanya did not understand.

“Slander is running over here! I for some reason also thought that he would slip a notify spell somewhere! ” He exclaimed and hurriedly vanished into thin air, escaping from an unavoidable Briskus.

Unhealed Lady also hurried.

“Oh, Tanya, you know, I wet my handkerchiefs with tears and now I fear that they have gotten quite soaked. You won’t object if I absent myself temporarily? And, by the way, if you are also running away, don’t forget your magic ring. You never know who might see it, ” she advised, disappearing in the deep crack between the stones.

“Traitors! They abandoned me here! ” Tanya thought and muddle-headedly began to rush about the closet. Somewhere beside her, behind the wall, Slander was already hurrying to the loophole. Only one exit remained — to go around the Big Tower on the ledge and to slip away along the stairs while Slander was in the closet.

Not giving much thought to why she did it, Tanya put on the ring, grabbed the Golden Leech and, after slamming shut the box, stepped onto the ledge. The stern dean of Tibidox was somewhere very near: the girl already heard his panting. Pressing her back against the wall, she rapidly slid to the opposite side. The void, beginning all of a half-metre in front of her, beckoned. One would like to take a step forward and hence run away from Slander. Five steps, ten... Everything was decided in an instant. It seemed to Tanya that the caftan of Slander flickered with the rounding of the tower, but he could hardly see her because he immediately dived into the crack.

And yet half a minute or fifteen steps later — depending on how to count time, swearing was heard from the crack. Tanya surmised that the dean again tried to open the box and paid for it. After diving into the first loophole that cropped up, the girl slid to the staircase and began to get down quickly.

She was lucky that Slander was in too much of a hurry to place a cyclops here. After several flights, making sure that no one was racing after her, Tanya caught her breath, and stopped looking around every second.

The danger finally passed. The dean was left high and dry.

Going down, the girl did not notice that the torches behind her alternately flared up, sparked, and went out, emitting pungent resinous smoke. It seemed that something invisible — something whose existence only the fire knew about — was noiselessly sneaking behind...

* * *

“Bewitched pass — one of the most complex elements of dragonball! ” Nightingale O. Robber began. “Complex because not so much adroitness and power but measured and wise application of magic are demanded here. In the simplified form the essence of a bewitched pass consists of the following: the player catches the ball and, after putting a spell on it, passes it to another player of his team. Such an enchanted ball cannot be caught without utterance of the appropriate counter-spell. If earlier you could completely manage without bewitched pass, now you must master them before the match with the Afghan genies. Especially as the genies, in my opinion, don’t at all know what a normal pass is.”

Seven-Stump-Holes straightened the carpet nozzle on the chrome-plated pipe of his vacuum.

“Well, it’s all nonsense! Bewitched ball, not bewitched ball... All the same it won’t get away from me! Here the main thing is not magic, but the grip! ” He stated provocatively.

Nightingale O. Robber stopped and rubbed the long scar cutting across his cheek to his eye. Possibly, the peasant son Ilya Muromets was not even a professional archer, but he knew how to stretch the bowstring. With all his heart. According to rumours, even an oak broke apart into woodchips.

Some of these chips, until now, could be seen in the Museum of History of Tibidox, which was opened exclusively on Fridays, when they coincided with the 13th number, and the 13th number, in turn, befell a solar eclipse. At other times the exhibits of the museum were invisible and simply dangerous to the health of the students as a result of some ancient curse. True, there were sceptics claiming that the pithecanthropus Tararakh, whom Sardanapal appointed as responsible for the museum, was simply unwilling to be occupied with this, here he even created all this nonsense about Fridays and solar eclipses.

“So, Stump, you don’t believe in bewitched pass? You think that I’m simply putting myself out here this way before you? Well then, come here! ” The trainer said slowly.

Seven-Stump-Holes dropped the pipe. Long ago rumours had gone around in Tibidox that Nightingale changed players who angered him into horse saddles. And that saddles necessary to no one were lying around in disorder in the small shed near the dragon hangars, this everyone could confirm. Coffinia Cryptova nervously giggled.

“What, are you deaf? Wax jammed up your ears? Get over here! ” Nightingale impatiently repeated.

The forward of the Tibidox team cautiously moved forward. He already felt sorry that he did not bite his tongue in time. The trainer clicked his fingers dryly. The pepper ball jumped by itself into his hand.

“I’ll throw it to you, and you catch. Understand? ” He asked.

Seven-Stump-Holes licked his lips. Relief flooded his face. To catch the ball, on top of that also on the ground — really can anything be simpler?

“Ready? Catch! ” Nightingale whispered something with his lips and weakly, almost without a swing, threw the ball to Seven-Stump-Holes.

Stump bent down slightly and arranged his hands, confident that to catch such a pass would be no trouble. Suddenly the pepper ball changed trajectory, began to twirl, with striking adroitness dodged from the hands of the forward, rushed by between his legs, soared up, and easily hit him on the top of the head.

Seven-Stump-Holes dropped on the spot, and meanwhile the ball again jumped into Nightingale’s hand and settled in it, as if expecting praise for a good job.

“Did you see or are there still those wanting to try? ” Nightingale asked. “No takers? Then we’ll continue. It’s possible to bewitch a ball with different methods. There are three permitted spells and as many means of blocking. The most complex is to guess which spell has been uttered by the one who throws. Specifically to guess correctly. As you understand, to overhear him when the wind drones is unrealistic. Now and then confusion appears even with the delivery of one’s team-mates, to say nothing of adapting oneself to the enemy...”

Limping, Nightingale approached and helped Seven-Stump-Holes get up.

“And now memorize. The spells of the bewitched pass — Gullis-dullis, Trullis-zapullis, and Figus-zatsapus, and the counter-spells — Tsap-tsaraps, Leos-zafindileos, and Shchups-kuroshchups. There are no universal blocks, therefore don’t mix them up. Today you will master them on the ground, and tomorrow by this time in the air.”

“Well, no! I cannot learn this! Not for anything in the world! We have lessons so full to the brim, and here are yet all kinds of zatsapus, ” Coffinia Cryptova said accusingly.

“And no one forces you, Cryptova. Everything is strictly voluntary, you don’t want to cram — don’t cram. But only if you immediately arrange with someone to scrape you off the shielding barrier. I personally will not, ” Nightingale nodded to Seven-Stump-Holes, who was still spitting out sand.

Coffinia shook her violet mane, quickly considered everything and chickened out.

“Okay. So it is. I’ll somehow cram the bewitched pass, though it’s also inhuman, and here are lessons... eh-eh... well I, in short, will say that you allowed us not to do them, ” she said.

True, about the lessons Coffinia added intentionally quietly so that the rather deaf Nightingale would not catch it.

Soon the entire team of Tibidox, having been divided into pairs, were working through the action of the different spells.

“ Gullis-dullis! Tsap-tsaraps! Leos-zafindileos! ” It was heard from different ends of the field.

Magic sparks crackled dryly. The balls traced improbable curves in the air. Continually were heard deafening slaps, which meant that someone again blundered the counter-spells.

Bab-Yagun, paired with Tanya, mastered the bewitched pass, mastered unwillingly, also, with a grouchy face. Even Damien Goryanov, several times whisking in front of his nose and allowing himself a couple of dubious little jokes, remained scot-free. The previous Yagun would not miss a chance to put him in his place, whereas the present one did not even notice his presence.

The fact that he was now in the black department and in addition was deprived of the commentator’s mouthpiece did not permit Yagun to sleep quietly. The main thing which gave meaning to his life had disappeared, while what remained did not suit him.

“Imagine, Stinktopp forces me to release red sparks! But I shoot green to spite him! Here to spite him! ” He informed Tanya during break.

“Green? With black magic spells? ” Tanya with doubt asked him to repeat, convinced that it was impossible.

“Exactly! ” Yagun pronounced with satisfaction. “You can’t imagine what gets under way in case of a black spell with a green spark! Twice already water-sprites were summoned for the fire! And now more and more they make me answer for the place when the board again flares up.”

“And you aren’t afraid that Stinktopp will pay you back? He’s so terribly vindictive.”

Yagun contemptuously snorted.

“What can he do to me, your Stinktopp? All the same it’s impossible to devise anything worse than the black department. Sardanapal won’t allow my being turned into a zombie, he’s against that. Send me to the moronoids? Let them! I’ll only be glad — but only a minor detail, they won’t send me there. They know I’ll screw things up so much that they’ll have to come with all of Tibidox to take me away... With flowers and the combined orchestra of cyclopes.”

Tanya very much doubted this; however, she did not start to argue. Especially as break was already over and Nightingale O. Robber again sent everybody off to master the bewitched pass.

It would not stick. To guess the spell placed on the ball was rarely successful. Much more often a blundering player betook himself to digging with his nose a burrow for gophers. Finally, convinced that all the same there was no way out, the team gathered together and began to develop universal secret signs. After long debates almost leading to a fight, they agreed that Gullis-dullis would be accompanied by a quick nod of the head, before Trullis-zapullis it was necessary to touch the chest with the ball, and before Figus-zatsapus it was required to seemingly casually smooth one’s hair.

Nightingale only chuckled and did not interfere with anything. He did not even recommend making the secret signals less noticeable, knowing full well that in flight, when everything all around was flickering and spreading, to figure out what was what would indeed not be so simple.

But even with the secret signals nevertheless there was enough confusion. The children continually mixed up the signs, and the dragon handlers rushed with rakes to level out the sand.

“Ugh! Again a full mouth of this trash! Yagun, how do you manage to guess! You alone never got knocked down! Have you really learnt all the signs? ” Spitting, Tanya exclaimed, again mixing up Leos-zafindileos and Shchups-kuroshchups.

“I mirror your mind, ” the grandson of Yagge acknowledged. “Before you even whisper the spell, like it flares up in your consciousness. Easily — and everything is known to me! So you can leave your signs to yourself. And then all the same you become entangled in them...”

“Here’s a cheat! ” Tanya exclaimed.

She recollected that now and then she felt in her head a suspicious tickling, but, absorbed by training, did not pay it any attention. Now, stung, Tanya decided to fling Yagun out of her consciousness. She began to wait for him to climb into her thoughts the next time, but Yagun nevertheless managed to slip out earlier.

Then Tanya decided to go along another path. She smiled, she blew on the ball, tossed it up in plain view, and the ball, after tracing an intricate arc, hit Yagun on the crown.

“It’s dishonest! You thought Gullis-dullis, and whispered Trullis-zapullis! How could this happen? ” Yagun shouted indignantly, when his nose was again lifted a little above the sand.

“Usual female logic! A woman thinks ‘yes’ but says ‘no.’ Or, on the contrary, thinks ‘no’ but says ‘yes.’ Here indeed no mirroring would help. Get used to it, Yagunchik! ” Tanya explained.

Training came to an end already in twilight. Before dismissing the players, Nightingale called everyone to him.

The dragon hangars shuddered. From the cracks poured out smoke. Past the fireproof gates the dragon handlers roamed in alarm.

“Goyaryn is roaring, ” Katya Lotkova pensively said.

“Yes, it’s roaring. I ordered not to feed it... You understand what this means? ” Nightingale asked.

“The match is soon? Really a day has been appointed? ” Zhora Zhikin guessed.

“To a T. In nine days you will meet the genies... But now march to your rooms and try to get a good sleep. Who begins to goof-off at training — will watch the match from the guest stands. Understand? ” The trainer bellowed.

“What’s not to understand here? Understood! ” Kuzya Tuzikov nodded, with the jet broom whisking away the sand from his knees.

Tanya lifted the double bass and, heeling over to one side, overtook Bab-Yagun. Usually he helped her carry the case, but now he was too absorbed by some of his own thoughts to recall at all the existence of the double bass.

“Protect yourself!!! Hey, young weight-lifter, out of the way! Don’t tangle under foot! ” Someone mockingly shouted.

Looking around, Tanya saw Coffinia. Cryptova was walking easily, demonstratively waving her empty hands. Zhora Zhikin, Kuzya Tuzikov, and Seven-Stump-Holes, rubbing each other’s shoulders, dragged the vacuum after her. Tanya only sighed. For a moment she experienced a light envy, but then, comforting herself, she thought:

“Suppose they would propose to me to change bodies with Coffinia and get all her admirers. Would I agree? Not for anything in the world! ”

Vanka was waiting for them in the common room. He as always was hungry and as always was chewing. The maimed scrap of magic tablecloth lay before him. It only knew how to fry cutlets and, mysteriously snapping the edges, to extract pickles from some unknown.

“You think I’m eating? ” Vanka asked. “Nothing like it: I’m suppressing uneasiness! ”

“Of course. And I would say so at once! Let me also suppress it, ” said Yagun, taking away his pickle.

“It’s no joke. I have truly bad news! ” Vanka said. “Sardanapal has been called to Magciety of Jerky Magtion. Allegedly to address a meeting. When he’ll return is unknown. And while he’s gone, Tibidox will be led by...”

Yagun dropped the pickle.

“Professor Stinktopp? ” He guessed.

“Uh-huh! Stinktopp. He and Koshchei the Deathless, one may say, a vile type... The blacks are now beside themselves with happiness. All evening they yell... Does no one want the cutlet? No? Well, then I...” Vanka sighed and moved the tablecloth to himself.