DIANE DUANE - A Wizard Alone

Oh, theyare saints, Carl said. That aspect of their power doesn t have anything to do with wizardry as such, though it can coexist with it, the same way you could be, say, a mathematician and a really nice person at the same time.

Nita made a face. You haven t met my statistics teacher.

I hear you. I still hate anything more complex than long division. But the trouble with sainthood these days is the robe-and-halo imagery that gets stuck onto it. Carl got that brooding look again. People forget that robes were street clothes once and still are, in a lot of places. And halos are to that fierce air of innocence what speech balloons in comics are to the sound of the voice itself.Shorthand. But most people just see an old symbol and don t bother looking behind it for the meaning. Sainthood starts to look old-fashioned, unattainable even repellent. Actually, you can see it all around, once you learn to spot it.

You make it sound like there are saints all over the place.

Of course there are. You don t think it s just wizards that keep the universe running, do you But saints tend not to be obvious. For one thing, they don t want to draw the Lone One s attention to them. Also, they tend to be too busy. Mostly sainthood involves hard work.

Carl leaned forward to pick up Nita s manual again, paging through it. Anyway, I think you can understand why information about theabdals would be pretty carefully controlled, most of the time. The whole point of the way they function is that they re notsupposed to know what they are. And the more mortals whodo know, the more might let it slip. Darryl is important. Far more important, in the larger scheme of things, than you or I, or than just about anybody else I know, or am likely to know.Abdals don t exactly grow on trees. Carl looked suddenly thoughtful. Well, actually, some places they do. What I mean is,they re not commonplace. The One invests a lot of power in them. There wouldn t be many of them on a given planet at any one time and we want to keep the ones we ve got. Or theone we ve got, because as far as Earth goes at the moment, Darryl may well be it. And his presence here, even when he doesn t seem to be doing anything, is important for the world, because through him, the One channels into the world some of the powerwe use. If you ll pardon the plumbing analogy, think of us as faucets and Darryl as the reservoir, or the well. Cut that off, and Carlshook his head.

Nita was silent for some moments, digesting this. So what do I do now she said at last. I don t want Kit to think I m horning in on his assignment or something because I m worried about him. But I think maybe I am. He was okay when he started this, pretty much as far as I was able to tell anything clearly about his state of mind when I was so stuck in my own. But now he doesn t feel like he usually does. And I can t tell for sure whether that s good or bad.

I wouldn t be sure, either, Carl said. Well, the first thing you can do is, when he gets up, tell him I want a word with him, pronto. I don t like to lean on my wizards as a rule, but Kit s been a little less careful than usual, and with what you ve discovered about the situation, he d better sharpen up. The stakes have been raised.

She came back from Tom and Carl s the quick way, popping out into the backyard. The snow there was untouched, rather to her surprise.Dairine was as much a snow fiend as their mom had been. It was unusual to find that she hadn t been out here at least long enough to make a couple of angels. Under more normal circumstances, there would have been a whole snowman by now.But the circumstances aren t normal

Nita went in, shucked her parka off and left it by the back door, and went up the stairs to see whatDairine was up to. She found her in her bedroom, staring at her desk. Spot was sitting in her lap, also staring with its littlestalky eyes at the construction sitting there.

Nita looked at the desk. It was covered with tinfoil. On the foil and on a subsidiary bed of newspaper rested what appeared to be a model volcano sculpted out of wetpapier-mache. The volcano was extremely broad and flat, of the shieldtype, and Nita recognized it immediately.

How does it look Dairine said.

Not bad, Nita said. What s it for

We re doing a geology unit in our science class.

Nita raised her eyebrows. Bending the rules a little,Dair she said. That s OlympusMons . It hardly counts as geology.

Okay,areology , then. Dairine sat there wiping her hands on a towel.

It looks a little bare right now, Nita said.

Her sister turned a look of withering scorn on her. Spot cocked one eye in Nita s direction as if to suggest that she d asked for this. Of course it looks a little bare, Dairine said. I have to paint it first. Myreal project for today is constructing an airbrush out of nothing but wizardry.

Sounds like a moderate challenge, Nita said.

And when the volcano s done, I m going to make it blow up in class, Dairine said.

Nita s eyes widened slightly at the first image that occurred to her.

Withlycopodium powder, Dairine said, more scornfully than before, if that was possible. Sheesh,Neets .

Just checking, Nita said.

Yes, Dairine said, I know you were. She rolled her eyes. Tell Dad I m being good.

If you re good enough, I won t have to tell him anything, Nita said. She turned away.

Wouldn t it be fun to do it with real lava, though Dairine said from behind her as Nita headed to her room.

There are times, Nita said, when I think a nice big lava flow would improve that school a lot. You know any card tricks

The silence in answer to that question was unusually eloquent.

Nita sighed and sat down in her room.You awake yet she said silently to Kit.

She waited for a few seconds.

Huh Kit said.

Well, that s half my question answered, Nita said.You sound pretty tired. You okay

I guess so.

Nita raised her eyebrows. This wasn t exactly a normal response for Kit. Either he was okay or he wasn t, but the middle ground wasn t usually an option for him, in Nita s experience, especially when he sounded as dulled as he did.I m coming over in a while , she said.There s some stuff I have to show you .

Okay.

And that was it.

Either he s exhausted, Nita thought,or there s something wrong

She knew what her present hunch suggested, though. She was starting to get worried about him.He s been hitting this problem with Darryl so hard , Nita thought,that he s just been wearing himself down. That s one possibility .

Why don t I think that s what s really going on

Nita headed downstairs to make herself a sandwich. By the way, Dairine said in a piercing voice as Nita went past her door, someone seems to have eaten all the bananas.

Nita sighed. I ll stop byBrazil on my way home.OrPanama .

Costa Rica.

Please, Nita said as she went down the stairs. She had never been any good at remembering which exports came from which countries. It struck her as information that, for someone in junior high, was aboutas useful as dissecting the history of the gold standard.When I get a job at an import-export firm , Nita thought, turning the corner into the kitchen, thenI'll worry about who exports bauxite and who exports tin. Not before .

She opened a can of tuna fish, drained it, mashed it in a bowl with mayonnaise andTabasco sauce, made herself a sandwich with it, and ingested the sandwich without paying it much attention. Darryl was on her mind.He s more important than all of us, Carl said . The thought was sobering. She and Kit had done some moderately important and useful things in their time working together, but what Carl seemed to be describing was a different level of function, one in which just being there, just being alive and breathing, could be more important to the world than any amount of running around doing things. It made a strange kind of sense when Nita put it together with what Tom had been saying about the Powers finding the difference between active and passive work illusory. If just by being here, Darryl is channeling the One s power into the world, then if something were to happen to him suddenly

It was a scarier thought than any Nita had had in quite some time.Whatever else I do , she thought,I ve got to find a way to help him .

Because he doesn t know it, but he s helped me

Nita went to get her coat, and then went out to walk over to Kit s.

Hola,Carmela .Que-pasa Nita said as she came in Kit s back door.

Watasbiwaureshii! Carmelasaid, more or less dancing past Nita into the living room, with the TV remote in her hand.

Nita blinked as she slipped off her coat and dropped it on the floor beside the dining room sofa. The Japanese thing was somethingCarmela had been working on for a while, and now that she was getting good at it, you never quite knew which language you were going to get from her. Let me guess. You re saying you re going to turn into a giant robot

No, Carmela said, that would be,Watashi,imakarasugo-ku o-kinarobottoninamno !

I m impressed, Nita said.

If I really did turn into a giant robot, I bet you would be, Carmela said, heading back into the living room.

Nita followed her. Oh, she said. Is this the new TV

Ohayogozaimas ! shouted the TV and the DVD player together.

Oh, Nita said. Hi, cousins.Nice to meet you.

Dozoyoroshikul

Uh, yeah. ToCarmela she said, Don t you find that a little unusual

I m used to it now. Kit says he thinks we re having some kind of wizardry leakage in the house, Carmela said, very matter-of-fact. Mama can hearPonch . And Pop and I can hear the TV when it shouts at the DVD. Mostlyit s friendly shouting now, since Kit fixed the remote. Carmela plunked herself back down on the sofa, stretching out her legs.

Fixedit, Nita said, still having some trouble with this concept.

It was a lot worse before. He said he was going to ask Tom what was going on. Meanwhile, in case you re wondering, Kit s in his room. Mama and Pop are out shopping, and they did not take Kit with them because they areannoyed with him. She lowered her voice. But also because he slept real late, and he looks like hell. Mama thinks he s coming down with something.

Thanks for letting me know, Nita said. Uh, have you been having any trouble with She glanced in the general direction of the TV and DVD while turning enough to conceal the look.

Trouble Not at all.Weird stuff turns up sometimes, but all the regular TV s there, the cable and all. I don t care how many aliens I see, as long as I ve got my MTV and the shopping channels.

Nita grinned. This wasDairine s attitude as well, though it was the music channels that interested her more than the shopping. Half the time, with some of those videos, you can t tell what planet they re from anyway, Nita said.

Carmelasnickered. Later, Nita said, and went back to Kit s room.

He was lying on the bed, his manual open and facedown on his chest, looking up at the ceiling.Ponch was lying next to him on the bed, with his head on Kit s chest.Ponch s eyes shifted to Nita as she came into view, but he didn t move or say anything.

Nita paused in the door and knocked on the door frame. Hey, she said.

Kit glanced over at her. It was the least-interested glance that Nita could remember seeing from him in some time.Why doesn t he just come out and say that he wishes I wasn t here Nita thought, shocked. But it occurred to her then that she d been distant enough with him lately. Maybe he was giving her a taste of her own medicine.That wouldn t normally he his style, either. But if he s really feeling sick, maybe he s just saying what s on his mind, stuff he d keep to himself otherwise .

Nita felt briefly guilty, then put the feeling aside. You look kind of out of it, she said.