High Wizardry New Millennium Edition (26 page)

It spoke to her, not with words but as if she were thinking to herself.
My shadows are still abroad in the world. As I’ve done evil, for some time yet they shall. Stop them. Stop
me.

We will. Always.

Then the worlds are saved, as long as you save them all over again, every day.

Deal,
said another thought, as if her own mind spoke to itself; but the thought was Kit’s.

And light broke out again—

*

Backyard light. It was Nita’s and Dairine’s backyard, dark with evening; and hanging low in the west, the evening star. Voices floated out the windows from inside; Tom and Carl, still talking to the Callahans. In the elm tree, a mockingbird was doing blue jay imitations and demanding muffins.

The three looked at each other and let out the same long breath of relief. Dairine headed around the house to the screen door, yanked it open, and hollered, “Hi, Mom, hi, Dad, we’re home!” And pandemonium broke out inside.

Kit paused in the doorway. “What are we going to tell Tom?” he said.

Nita shook her head. “The truth?”

They went in in time to see Dairine go straight to her mom, willingly, and then to her dad, and hug them hard. This triggered a few minutes of loud noises, brief crying spells, and much fast talking. In the midst of it, Nita met her mother’s astonished eyes over her dad’s and Dairine’s shoulders. She shrugged, and grinned. Some things not even being a wizard was going to help her explain.

It didn’t last, of course. Dairine promptly disentangled herself. “If I don’t go to the bathroom right this moment” she said,
“I’m going to die.”
And she headed up the stairs.

On the living room coffee table, calmly, as if it agreed with her, the black Apple laptop she’d dropped there grew legs, climbed down, and went after Dairine.

Nita glanced at Kit, and together, as usual, they sat down to face the music.