A Wizard Alone New Millennium Edition (20 page)

“They’re all That, in their way,” the little kid said, pointing with his chin into the darkness. He didn’t move much; he stood with his hands hanging down by his sides, like he wasn’t sure what to do with them, and his face was fairly immobile. “The Thing out in the darkness That’s been chasing me forever.”

Nita wasn’t sure what to make of this.

The kid looked at her with an expression that wasn’t entirely convinced. “It looks out of everybody’s eyes, doesn’t it? I could always see It, from when I was really young, though I didn’t realize it at first. Sometimes it would get too tough, seeing It all the time, and I’d need to pull back.” He looked away from Nita again. “And it’s tough to re-engage after that. Hurts a lot.”

Nita said nothing. Finally, after what seemed ages of silence, he turned toward her. He didn’t quite look at her as he said, “It’s looking out of your eyes, too. It’s always been close to you, hasn’t It? And lately, closer than ever.”

Nita swallowed hard. This would not be the moment to break down. “Well, you’re not the only one It chases around,” she said. “It’s after everybody else, too, one way or another. Eventually It gets us all. But if we pay attention to what we’re doing, we can make a whole lot of trouble for It along the way.” And Nita couldn’t help grinning a little. If she had one satisfaction in her life these days, it was the knowledge that the Lone Power found her a personal pain in the butt, annoying enough to try to do one of Its crooked deals with.

The kid looked over at Nita again, full force, grinning back. “I know,” he said.

Nita actually had to brace herself again. Meeting his gaze was like being hit over the head with a brick, but a
good
brick—an abrupt, concentrated, overwhelming onslaught of cheerful power with a slight edge of mischief in it. Nita had hardly ever felt so intense a wash of emotion or attitude from any being, human or otherwise.

“I definitely know,” he said again. “I’m doing just that. I do it all the time, now.” If anything, his grin got more jubilant, though he looked away again. “And it’s a
whole
lot of fun.”

Nita was on the point of saying,
Don’t start enjoying it too much—
and then stopped herself as she saw his smile go a touch rueful. “That’s why I’m spending so much time in here,” he said. “It keeps coming along to try to deal with me once and for all.” That smile went sly. “It can’t stop doing it… and I never let It close the deal.” Then he glanced away once more, his eyes going sad. “Only problem is, when it gets easier to function out there, because sometime it does, I keep having to… I don’t know… pry myself away. Step back from a world that has so much going on in it. And then it starts seeming like too much again. Too much of other people’s stuff…”

“
Don’t
step too far back!” Nita said. “Being out and about in a world full of cool people is the best part of being a wizard.” She swallowed. “Or just a person.”

“Am I a wizard?” he said, a little sadly.

Nita shook her head in admiration. “Are you kidding? If you can speak in the Enactive Recension, you’re sure on the right track!”

The growl out in the dark sounded more annoyed now, and it prolonged itself, not fading away. “Things got a lot worse lately,” the boy said, “and real fast—all at once. I think It was trying to take me out of the game before something happened.” He frowned. “But I think that might have backfired, because It’s been following me around,” he said, his tone lightening, that edge of humor coming back into it. “Around and around… It’s really funny.”

I can’t get off,
Nita remembered the clown crying in the dark. And it hit her that the despairing voice hadn’t been the boy’s. Her eyes widened.
The Lone Power’s
been chasing him, all right, and he’s been running
… but not because he’s scared…!

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

“If I stay with you much longer, it’ll realize the equation’s changed. Gotta go.”

“Just make sure you come back!”

“That’s the plan,” he said. “But I can’t stop till this is settled, or all this hard work’ll have been for nothing. Can’t let that happen!”

He smiled that slightly wicked smile again as he turned away. Then he was gone.

There Nita sat alone in the darkness, while 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 many different ways. On Earth alone, the manual in either its printed or online versions was merely one of many methods. Whale-wizards heard the Sea speak to them; the feline wizards had told Nita about something called the Whispering.
What Darryl’s got
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 he 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 and the 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. “Don’t feel like it, either.”

“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?”

“Theoretically, 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 new-and-uncertain quality. But it was completely missing in Darryl.
Something else to ask Tom 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. “Things are 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’s affecting me,
Nita thought.

She made a face then, as the kettle came to a boil.
Oh god. Millman and his card tricks.
…But how long can it take to learn a card trick? I’ll do it later. Got some 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. Time’s hard to judge, but I think it would’ve been around two-thirty.

There was a much longer pause that made Nita think Kit might have gone back to sleep. Finally he said,
It couldn’t have been.
I
was with Darryl around then.

Nita blinked at that.
You sure?
she said.

Yes I’m sure.
He sounded cranky.
Neets, look, I’m completely wrecked, and I had big trouble with my folks last night. I want to go back to sleep. Call me back, okay?

Uh, sure, but—

The connection between them didn’t so much break as dissolve in a returning wave of sleep. Nita stared at the tea bag in her hand, bemused. “Well,” she said.

She made her tea and sat down at the dining room table with the mug, the manual, and a banana. Nita didn’t go straight into the manual, partly because she wasn’t yet clear on where she should start looking. She was still trying to sort out some things about her experience last night.

There had just been something about Darryl. Nita kept coming back to the impact she’d felt when their eyes had met. It wasn’t strength, or not in the usual sense. And if it was power, it had something else added that made it more significant than usual. She was well down the cup of tea before she found the word she was looking for.

Innocence
…

Talk about the innocence of childhood tended to make Nita roll her eyes. Her own childhood was behind her—mostly to her relief, because of all the beating up. And her memory of Dairine’s childhood was way too fresh. Anyone putting
that
whole set of experiences and the word
innocence
together in the same sentence would simply have made Nita laugh. Her sister’s behavior aside, Nita knew perfectly well that most kids were no innocents.

But then most of the talk you heard on the subject came from adults, most of whom had some bizarre concept of childhood as this pure, untroubled thing that Nita wasn’t sure had ever existed. Plainly, like the counselor that Dairine had been complaining about, too few of them really
remembered
what it was like to be seven, or nine, or twelve.

Nita could understand that perfectly. Large parts of childhood hurt, and adults did with that remembered pain exactly what kids did when they could: let whatever good memories they had bury it. Oh, the moments of delight, of pure joy, they were there all right, but what adults seemingly couldn’t bear was the idea that their
whole
childhoods hadn’t been that way: that the trouble and sorrow that were the result of the Lone Power’s meddling in the worlds weren’t something they’d always had to deal with, right from the start. So despite whatever kids tried to tell them, adults just kept on reinventing childhood as something that was supposed to be happy all the time, a paradise lost in the past.

Yet in very small children, there was something that Nita had to admit she’d seen … even, occasionally, in Dairine. Last night, in her dream, Nita had looked at Darryl and had seen flashes of the same thing in his eyes, unalloyed—a sense of living in the morning of the world, a time or place either uncorrupted or redeemed; unafraid, and with no reason to be afraid; a person grounded immovably in the sense that the world worked, was just fine, would always be fine….