Diane Duane - A Wizard Alone

I can’t get off

, Nita remembered the clown crying in the dark. Now she began to wonder whether the despairing voice was all the boy’s… or some frustrated aspect of the Lone One’s.

And her eyes widened. It’s been chasing him… and he runs and runs. All the time I’ve been assuming that it’s the Lone Power in control here. And maybe it’s not… !

He started to fade out. “Wait! Don’t leave yet!” Nita cried.

“I have to. It’ll realize something different is happening if I stay here too long.”

“Then at least don’t let yourself go again!”

“I have to,” he said. “If I don’t, It’ll realize what’s happening, and all this will have been for nothing.”

He smiled that delighted smile as he turned away. Then he was gone. Nita found herself standing alone in the darkness, and nearby a spotlight out of nowhere shone on the dark floor: just a pool of light. What briefly had made the light special was now gone.

Oh my god

, Nita thought.

It really is him — the kid Kit’s been hunting. It’s Darryl! And now I think I understand “the Silence”

! she thought. Wizards got their information from the universe in a lot of different ways. On Earth alone, the manual in either its printed or online versions was only one method. Whale-wizards heard the Sea speak to them; the feline wizards had told Nita about something called the Whispering. This has to be like that …

But she was still left with entirely too many mysteries to solve. Nita stood there wondering what in the worlds to do next, then shook her head.

Waking up would probably be a good idea.

It took Nita a few seconds to remember the way to break the dream without waiting for a normal awakening. When she opened her eyes, she was looking sideways at the wall beside her desk, having put her arms down on the desk and her head down on her arms as she initially slid into sleep.

Nita rubbed her eyes, blinked, stretched. I’m completely wiped out , she thought. I’ve got to get some real sleep, now, or I’ll be useless tomorrow. But Kit’s got to hear about this .

She glanced down at her manual. “What time is it?” she said.

The page cleared and showed her the time in every zone on Earth, as a Julian date, and on all the planets in Sol system.

“Show-off,” she said softly, glancing at the local time for New York. The readout said, “0223.”

It was late, but this was important. Kit ? Nita said silently.

Nothing. But it wasn’t the “asleep kind of nothing: Kit was missing.

“Message him,” she said to the manual.

The page blanked itself, then showed Nita the words, “Subject is out of ambit.”

That “error” message she now recognized. Kit and Ponch were off world-walking somewhere, out of this universe proper. Nita sighed. I’ll have to catch him in the morning , she thought. But bed first

…

She slept hard and deep, and for a change woke up not in the dark, but just after dawn. I still wish spring would hurry up

, Nita thought as she swung her feet out of bed and rubbed her eyes. This winter seems to be lasting forever

But at the same time, it was hard to dislike a morning like this, when there was what looked like six inches of new snow outside, and it was Saturday as well. The snow was wet, clinging delicately to the bare branches of the trees out in the backyard, and everything was very still, the sky a pure, clean blue behind the white branches. Who knows? Maybe I’ll sneak out there, make a snowball or two, and stick them in Dairine’s bed. Give her about three seconds of thinking I’ve had second thoughts about her, her bed, and Pluto .

Nita threw last night’s sweatshirt and jeans on and went downstairs to the kitchen, manual in hand. Her father was there, making his own coffee for a change. He looked at Nita with some surprise when she came in. “You’re up early for a Saturday,” he said.

“Not that early. I got some sleep for a change.”

“You don’t look like it.”

Nita yawned and stretched. “I don’t feel like it, either,” she said.

“Just a long week at school, maybe?”

“I don’t know.” She went over to put the kettle on for herself. She ached all over, as if she’d had a particularly bad gym class, and she just felt generally weary. As if I was a long, long way away last night .

But if that really was Darryl, then I was only two towns away, in his mind.

Or possibly in an alternate universe he created, one a whole lot further away than that —

“How are you coming with what you were working on yesterday morning?” Nita’s dad said.

“Any progress?”

“Yeah,” Nita said, “but I don’t understand it.” She opened a cupboard and tried to decide what kind of tea she wanted. She finally decided on mint, and got the tea box down, fishing around in it for the right tea bag.

“Your alien, or the progress?”

“Both. And it looks like it wasn’t even an alien, if I’m right. It’s a little kid who lives over in Baldwin.”

Her father looked surprised at that as he went to get his coat from the rack by the door. “Another wizard?”

“Supposedly not yet,” Nita said. “Assuming this is the person who I think it is. I have to check with Kit.” But that brought up another odd problem for Nita to consider. From her own experience, Nita knew that being on Ordeal imparted a certain tentative feel to your wizardry, even when your power levels were at their highest. Even Dairine’s use of wizardry, when she was on Ordeal, had exhibited that tentative quality. But it was completely missing in Darryl. That’s something else to ask torn and Carl about .

Her dad put on his coat. “Well, that sounds encouraging, anyhow,” he said. He came over, gave her a hug and a kiss. “Leave me a note if you have to go anywhere. Is Dairine going to be getting involved in this?”

“Jeez, I hope not,” Nita said. “It’s confusing enough already.”

“Okay,” her dad said. “She has some school project she’s supposed to be working on this weekend. If you want to just have a look at one point or another and make sure she’s staying on track…”

This was, in fact, the last thing Nita wanted, but she nodded. “I will.”

“Thanks, baby girl. See you later.”

Nita wasn’t sure, as her father went out, whether to bristle or smile. When’s the last time he called me “baby girl”

? she thought. It was one of those nicknames that Nita had complained about forcefully for years when she was younger, until her dad finally stopped using it. And now I’m not even sure I mind anymore

, she thought. I wonder if somehow he’s trying to remind himself of how things were when Mom was still here .

After a moment she laughed at herself for thinking such “shrinkly” thoughts. Millman is affecting me

, Nita thought.

She made a face then, as the kettle came to a boil. Oh god… Millman and the card tricks. But how long can it take to learn a card trick? I’ll do it later. I have other things to think about right now .

Nita glanced at the digital clock on the stove. It read 7:48. A little early, but then Kit did tend to get up early on the weekends. Kit ? she said.

For a moment there was no response.

Hnnnhhh?

I’m not sure, but I think I may have found your guy.

A pause. When he answered, he still didn’t sound incredibly awake. When ?

Last night. The time’s hard to judge, but I think it would’ve been around two-thirty.