Диана Дуэйн: Wizards Holiday

It s time it got recycled into something alive to make up for what happened to it in the fridge. Sure. Nita went softly down the stairs and headed toward the dining room. Voices were speaking there. She stopped not far from the stairs, out of sight. I m parenting for two here, Tom, Nita heard her dad say. I know, Tom said quietly. It can t be easy. I don t want to be hard on her. But at the same time, I have to try to keep some semblance of normalcy around here…keep some structures in place that the kids know they can depend on. There was one of those pauses in which Nita could practically hear her father rubbing his face. You re doing the right thing, Tom said, getting up. You know you are. In the meantime, Harry, any time you need a friendly ear, you know our number. One or the other of us is almost always around. Wizardry isn t all about errantry. Mostly it s just talking. I know, her dad said. I see that here a lot There was a knock at the back door. Nita heard her dad s chair scrape back as he went to answer it. Oh, hi, Kit, her dad said. Come on in. I can t get used to it, the times when you walk over: I keep expecting you to just appear out of nothing in the living room, as usual. Her dad laughed then. As usual… Uh, hi, Mr. Callahan. No, I didn t want to, because … Tom got up as Nita put her head around the living room door into the dining room. News travels fast, huh Tom said to her as the back door shut behind Kit. Uh, yeah, Nita said. She picked up Tom s jacket, which was still wet, and shook it off before handing it to him. Residual water went everywhere. Why didn t you keep the rain off you when you came over she said. I don t always do wizardry just because I can, Tom said, smiling slightly and shrugging into the parka. An attitude toward errantry that you ll understand a lot better when you re my age. Besides, I like the rain. By the way, how s the reading coming When Tom asked Nita this, she knew it didn t have anything to do with fiction. Nita had been spending a lot of time with the manual over the past months, starting to explore for herself the kind of research wizardry that Tom did. In particular, she had been studying the Speech more closely, mostly for its own sake there was always something new to find out about the language in which the Universe had been written but also with an eye to finding other ways to deal with the Lone Power than just brute force. I ve been doing some more research on the Enactive and pre-Enactive modes, Nita said. Ancillary Oaths and bindings. Oh ho, Tom said. That ll keep you busy for the next couple of years… There s a lot of finicky material there. A lot of memory work, too. Hit the Binding Oath yet Some references to it, Nita said. But I haven t seen the Oath itself. It s worth a look, Tom said. Our own Oath is based on it. Or maybe I should say closely related. It s worth studying, even if its uses are limited. Meanwhile, we ve got more immediate problems than research. He glanced back toward the stairs. Talk to her, will you I did. Good. See you later. See you, Kit. Tom went out the front door and closed it behind him. Honey, Nita s dad said, I need to change out of my work clothes. Give me a few minutes. It s such a pleasure to get out of the house, Kit said. The phone hasn t stopped ringing all afternoon. Why Carmela. Every five minutes it s yet another of her slavering horde of boyfriends. I didn t think she d gotten up to the horde level, Nita said. She told me she was just planning to test the wonderful world of dating. Test Kit said. It s more like she s holding auditions. There s a new one on the phone every ten minutes. And I really don t want to be around when she narrows them down to the short list. Being here is a relief…even just for a little while. So are you coming over for dinner Nita sat down and reached across the table for a pen and a pad of sticky notes, pulling off the top note and starting to jot down a list of needed groceries. We have to go shop first. I ll come over when we get back. We ve really got to talk about the next couple of weeks. That business on Mars, Kit said as he sat down across from her. We need to get that taken care of before it gets out of hand. Those depth charges in Great South Bay…It s time to get together with S reee and the rest of the deep-side team to deal with those before they get any more unstable. And then there s that gate-relocation thing in the city… Kit paused, glancing toward the back of the house as he heard the bedroom door close. It was Dairine, yeah Kit whispered. Yeah. What did she do What did Tom do He grounded her. She can t leave the system. Kit whistled softly. What about your dad I thought he was going to lose it completely, Nita said, under her breath. He sent her to her room. I can t even remember the last time he did that. What did she do! Kit said. Nita finished with the sticky note, then put the pen down and told him. Kit s eyes slowly went wide. Wow, Kit said. Halfway across the galaxy, he said Yeah, said Nita. That d really be something. You don t get to do a transit like that every day, and this would be a sponsored one! Think of being able to go that far and not have to pay for the energy. Nita had been thinking of it, in an idle way. Halfway across the galaxy was forty-five thousand light-years or so. If you independently constructed a spell to do that kind of distance, it would really take it out of you. And doing such a transit using a previously set-up world-gate had its costs, too you needed a good reason to do it, such as being formally on errantry. It s a shame you couldn t go, anyway, Kit said. Oh, come on, Nita said. I couldn t go now. Why not It s spring break. We ve got two whole weeks off! Nita frowned, shook her head. It wouldn t be right somehow. My dad Your dad wouldn t mind, Kit said. And then his expression went very amused. Come to think of it, my dad wouldn t mind. Nita looked at Kit in confusion. What You haven t been over in the past couple of days, Kit said. Between Carmela and Ponch Oh no, Nita said. What s Ponch doing now Wait till you come over, Kit said, looking rather resigned. It ll be easier for you to see than for me to explain. But when I told my pop that we were going to have to go to Mars, he said, Don t let me keep you. Nita stared at Kit in surprise. I bet your mama didn t say that, though. Kit s grin had a slight edge to it. No. My mama suggested I go take a look at Neptune while I was at it, and not hurry home. Nita snickered. Seriously, Kit said. This would be really neat. If we went to see Tom… They heard the door to Nita s dad s bedroom open. Look, Nita said, let s talk about it later. But I don t think Nita s dad came in from the living room. You ready he said to her. Yeah, Nita said, getting up. Daddy, can I have dinner at Kit s Sure, her dad said. Kit, she ll see you later. Neets, let s get this shopping done. Fifteen minutes later, Nita and her dad walked in the sliding doors of the grocery store. The way things had gone in the old days, on occasions when the whole family went to the store together, it had been Nita s dad s job to push the cart and make helpful suggestions: Her mom had done the choosing. Nita now sighed a little as her dad went for the cart, and she consciously took on the choosing role for the first time. When shopping before, she had been rather halfhearted about it, which possibly had been the cause of some of the trouble. I guess I owe the fridge a little apology, she thought, and got out the sticky-pad page on which she d made her list. They went down the vegetable aisle and got potatoes, celery, tomatoes, and a head of lettuce, which Nita very pointedly handed to her dad. The crisper this time, she said. He s counting on you. He Nita s dad said, turning the lettuce over several times in his hands and looking at it closely. How can you tell If you re a wizard, you can look at the gender equivalent of the word lettuce in the Speech, Nita said. Читать дальше