Диана Дуэйн - A Wizard Of Mars

Frustrated, Kit reached out and put his hand up against the gate. But it went through. Okay, Kit thought, so that’s not the problem—

He pressed himself forward against the worldgate interface, very slowly. His face went through; his arms went through; he could see what was on the other side, feel the cold of the Martian atmosphere against his face. But he couldn’t go farther. Something about chest-level was stopping him.

Kit backed up, realizing what it was. His manual wouldn’t pass. It knew he was banned, and it wasn’t going anywhere.

Kit cursed under his breath. There was nothing he could do for the moment but reach into his jacket pocket, take out the manual, and very slowly and carefully bend down to leave it leaned up against the inside wall of Carmela’s closet, where it would be unlikely to get kicked through the gate by accident. It’ll be safe enough here. He pulled out his antenna-wand, stuck it experimentally into the gate: it at least passed. So I won’t be unarmed. And I’m still a wizard— it’s not like the manual is required on the road. But all the same Kit felt unnerved at the thought of going to another planet equipped only with the very basic set of spells he had memorized: life support and so forth.

Getting back wouldn’t be a problem: he’d programmed the gate to produce an automatic portal for him three hours from now, picking him up at the border between the City of Shamask and the Martian wilderness. I’ll be back before anyone even knows I’m gone …and if I get into some kind of trouble, I can always yell for Ronan or Darryl, or even Neets. But any thought of what might cause such a need, or of the explanations he would make to the others regarding what he was doing and why, seemed very far away.

Right now the imperative of getting to Mars overrode everything else. In the back of his mind, Khretef was fretting, worrying, desperate to get back. Aurilelde needed them, needed him, before the trouble started… and Khretef seemed very sure that it would start. He also seemed very sure that they were— he was— was the only one who could stop it. We stopped it once before, Khretef’s voice said in the back of his head. But we can’t linger. We need to get going!

Kit nodded, let out one last breath of nervousness and guilt, passed through the gate, and the closet went dark behind him.

***

Nita came down for breakfast the next morning feeling very wrung out and weary of mind, for reasons she couldn’t fully understand. Granted, there’d been a lot going on lately, and the seemingly endless drudgery of the end of the school year had been wearing her down. And now there was this craziness with Kit as well. Banned. I can’t believe it. What’s the matter with him?

Coming down the stairs, Nita suddenly found herself thinking, as she’d kept finding herself doing lately, about Ponch. Obviously Kit missed him most of everybody, but it was difficult, sometimes, to look at Kit and realize that that constant, black presence was not ever again going to appear galloping along at his side. We’ve been losing so much stuff lately, Nita thought. This has not been a great year. First Mom, then Ponch…

She sighed, thinking of how she had heard her mom say sometimes that “these things come in threes.” Well, I hope they don’t! Two’s more than enough for me, thanks. Especially if losing Ponch is part of what’s left Kit acting so weird. What are we going to do about him?

In the kitchen, she yawned and put the kettle on to make tea. Listen to you, she said to herself. So depressed, and the day hasn’t even started yet! Probably your blood sugar. It was true that over the past couple of days she hadn’t been eating well: there’d been too much going on. Really need to do something about that. She leaned back against the kitchen counter, waiting for the water to boil.

It was just beginning to produce its pre-boil rumbling when Dairine came wandering into the kitchen in one of those shin-length Tshirts she favored. “You’re up early,” Nita said.

Dairine yawned, then looked at Nita with vague annoyance. “Unlike some people,” she said, “who have a half day today for the completely unfair reason that they’re older than me, I have school this morning. But if I get a head start on some of the things I need to do, I can leave early and get back to Wellakh.”

Nita nodded, turning her attention back to the kettle. “So things are going okay?”

“Dad’s lightened up, if that’s what you mean.” She opened the fridge and got out a quart of milk, then started foraging in one of the cupboards for cereal and came out with a box of her preferred oaty loops.

“Good,” Nita said.

Dairine threw her an oblique look. “When I’m working… how much is he seeing of what’s going on?”

Nita felt inclined to shy away from the question, but that would cause more trouble later. “Go ask him to show you. It’s physical stuff mostly: movements, video.” She raised her eyebrows at the slowness of the kettle and reached over to turn the stove up higher. “He’s interested, but not in an unhealthy way. So however you’ve been handling the content with him, you’re doing good.”

Dairine nodded, got down a cereal bowl from the cupboard, and poured the bowl almost entirely full of oat loops. “How are you planning to fit any milk in that?” Nita said.

“Magic,” Dairine said. “Back in a moment.” Dairine wandered out through the kitchen again, heading back upstairs to her bedroom. The milk carton that she’d left poised in midair now popped itself open, tilted, and started pouring milk into the cereal.

Nita watched this minor demonstration of expertise with interest, waiting for the milk to overflow: but it didn’t. The cereal in the bowl rose just high enough for some of the little oat o’s to teeter at the bowl’s edges without actually falling out. She’s good, Nita thought, amused. Can’t take that away from her…

Dairine came thumping down the stairs again and appeared in the dining room completely dressed, with her school backpack thrown over her shoulder, and her manual and a copy of Three Men in a Boat in one hand. “Oh, and by the way,” Dairine said as she came back into the kitchen and grabbed the milk carton out of the air, closing it and shoving it back into the fridge, “there’s a dinosaur in the back yard to see you.”

Nita stared at Dairine as she slammed the refrigerator door shut, dislodging a few of the magnets stuck to the outside of it. “What?”

“A dinosaur,” Dairine said, stooping to pick up the magnets and put them back on the fridge door, then fumbling around in the silverware drawer for a spoon. “Really big lizard? Goggly eyes? Skin all lit up in fluorescent colors like someone who’s really pissed off about something? That kind of dinosaur.”

“Oh, my god,” Nita said, and ran toward the back door. “Oops—” She ran back to the stove, shut off the heat under the kettle, and then plunged outside.

Sure enough, at the rear end of the backyard, there was Mamvish, crouching in the spell-shielded area under the sassafras saplings and the big wild cherry tree. “Mamvish!” Nita said. “Dai stihó! What’s up?”

“Apparently,” Mamvish said, fixing one eye so intently on Nita that it actually held still, “your friend Kit. What’s he doing on Mars?”

She stared. “What? He can’t be on Mars. He’s banned.”

“Exactly,” Mamvish said. The colors under her hide swirled neon-bright. “He shouldn’t be there at all. Yet somehow he is. Would you care to explain?” The nearest eye was trained on her very hard.

Nita’s own eyes went wide. “What?” she said. “Are you suggesting I helped? I knew he was grounded! No way I’d take him up there: you think I’m crazy?”