Wizards At War

“You’re back!” Sker’ret shouted at them, long before he got anywhere near them. The urgency of his manner was so much unlike Sker’ret’s usual soft-spoken diffidence that Nita couldn’t do anything but get down on one knee and grab him as he came up with them. Then she wheezed a little, because being hugged by someone with twenty or more pairs of legs can leave you a little short of air. “Oh, Mover without us and within,” Sker’ret said, “I didn’t know if we were going to see you again! …I mean, ‘when!’”

Nita just hugged him, then let him go. “We weren’t real sure about that ourselves,” Kit said, “so don’t sweat it.”

“The ceiling looks better,” Carmela said, looking up.

“It’s mostly back up where it belongs,” Sker’ret said. “There’s still some of it we need to regrow, but we’ve got other things to think about right now.”

“Is wizardry working properly here?” Roshaun said.

“For the moment,” Sker’ret said. “Though the manual functions went very strange there for a little while.”

“‘Strange’ has taken on many new meanings over the past sunround or so,” Filif said, pushing his baseball cap around so that the front went frontways for a change. “We should be grateful that we’ve lived to see it do so. What about the Pullulus?”

“Its density in our neighborhood increased very noticeably a couple of hours ago,” Sker’ret said. “Our star’s not endangered yet, but the increase continues.” He sounded nervous. “The odd thing is that Rirhath B seems to be affected much more severely than any system for hundreds of light-years around.”

“Somebody’s paying off a grudge,” Kit said, “and it’s going to take a lot of power to defuse it.”

“So I thought,” Sker’ret said. “All the wizards we have who’re still functional are assembling to defend this facility and our star; and help is coming from the nearest inhabited systems where the Pullulus isn’t any longer a threat. The local intervention force is assembling on one of our outer satellites, to distract attention away from the Crossings proper—because we’re going to be using that to evacuate the planet.”

Nita swallowed hard, wishing there was a way to do something similar for Earth. And you will know it was all your fault, said that cruel voice in the back of her mind. “Okay,” she said. “We’ll clear out of here and let you get on with it.”

“I checked your local news not long ago,” Sker’ret said. “Your world’s wizards are doing something similar—those who’re still viable. Not many, the manual says.”

“Thanks,” Nita said. “At least our planet’s still there. We’ll get going. But Sker’, are you sure you’re all right here? What about your ancestor?”

His eyes wreathed in barely concealed distress. “Still missing. There are many places yet to search. As for the rest of it, I’m not sure any of us are going to qualify for ‘all right’ any time soon. But we’ve all just got to cope.”

“What is the status of the Pullulus beyond your local area?” said Roshaun.

“Its expansion has either slowed or stopped completely in most places,” Sker’ret said. “Whatever you did seems to have worked.”

“Believe me, it wasn’t anything we did,” Dairine said. “Or not directly.”

Sker’ret pointed a couple of skeptical eyes at her. “I wouldn’t be too sure,” he said. “Never underestimate how connected things are: ‘All is done for each.’ But I suspect we’ve all got better things to do than start tallying up our scores just yet.” He looked past Nita and Kit to where Ronan hung in the cloud of Filif’s levitation field. “So come on over to this gate cluster and I’ll reprogram as many as you need. Roshaun, Filif, what are your plans?”

“I think I should return home,” Filif said. “My people have few enough wizards that they will need all the ones they have. The Pullulus is holding steady there, but there’s no telling whether it might not soon increase.”

Roshaun was once more holding in one hand the fierce little core of light that was his manual. He looked up from it with a slightly relieved expression. “So far,” he said, “nothing untoward seems to be going on in or near Wellakh’s system. In fact, the Pullulus seems to be receding.” He looked over at Dairine. “I will therefore return with you and have a look at your star before making my way home, just to be sure the repairs we did are holding.”

Dairine looked at Roshaun and opened her mouth as if about to say something, then closed it again and nodded. Nita found this weird enough that she would have liked to get a closer look at her sister, but Dairine had turned away to put Spot down.

She let out a long breath and turned to Filif. “Fil,” she said, and hugged him. His fronds tickled her back. “When you know that everything’s safe at home, come on back and let us know. My dad likes having you in the garden.”

“When I know,” Filif said. He was as uncertain of the near future as Nita was, but he wasn’t going to show it. He paused to look at Ronan. “Take care of him,” Filif said. “He stood strong: he does not deserve to fall.”

“We’ll do what we can,” Nita said.