Wizards At War

Ronan nodded and stood up. “All right. Well, let me know when you’re ready.” He disengaged his force-field bubble from theirs, and headed off toward the center of the crater.

Nita came up behind Kit and bumped her bubble into his. As she slipped into his bubble, she glanced the way Kit was looking. “Got a problem?”

“I don’t know. Does Ronan seem kind of abrupt to you sometimes?”

Nita laughed silently. “More like always. But more now than before. Probably something to do with his passenger.”

“I guess so.”

“Look, we should think about where we’re going, and how. Dairine and Roshaun are heading off by themselves, so it looks like our group is you, me, Ponch, Ronan, Sker’ret, and Filif.”

“Okay. Did S’reee mention if anybody around here has a gate to the Crossings running already?”

“No,” Nita said. She reached into her otherspace pocket for her manual. “Let’s do a scan…”

“In a minute. Did you ask anyone else to meet us here?”

Nita looked surprised. “No.”

“Then who’s that?” Kit looked toward the center of the crater. One force-field bubble was moving toward them. As the bubble got closer, Kit could see that the occupants were two kids of maybe twelve or thirteen, a boy and a girl. The girl was wearing a dark off-the-shoulder top splashed with a bright tropical pattern over a miniskirt and leggings and ballet shoes, and had very long, straight, dark hair worn loose; the boy’s hair was cropped very short, and he was wearing something that at first glance looked like a suit—though as they got closer, Kit saw that it was actually one of those dark Far Eastern collarless jackets, worn somewhat incongruously over boot-cut denim. Both of the kids looked lean and perhaps a little small for their ages. They were Asian, delicately featured, handsome, though there was something a little fierce about both their faces.

They bumped their common bubble up against Kit’s. “Can we come in?” the girl said.

“Sure.”

Their bubble merged with Kit’s. “You’re the ones who did the Song of the Twelve, right?” the girl said. “Dai stihó!”

“Dai,” Nita and Kit both said. And Kit laughed, and said, “Well, maybe you both know who we are—”

“I’m Tran Liem Tuyet,” said the boy.

“I’m Tran Hung Nguyet,” said the girl.

“We’re a twychild,” they said together.

Then they both burst out laughing. “Sorry, bad habit!”

“Twin wizards!” Kit said. “Yeah, I guess you would hear each other think most of the time.”

“Constantly,” they both said.

“But twychilding is more than just being twins, isn’t it?” Nita said. “I read about it in the manual a while back. You guys bounce spells back and forth between you, right? And they get stronger.” And then Kit was surprised to see Nita blush. “Sorry, I don’t know which of your names it’s okay to use.”

“The last one’s like the Western first name,” said the girl. “Nguyet’s fine for me. But as for the spells, yeah, that’s how it goes. The output multiplies, sometimes even squares.”

Kit grinned. “You sure you aren’t breaking the laws of thermodynamics or something?”

Tuyet snickered. “Probably,” he said. “Nguyet breaks most things.”

Nguyet glared at him. “I do not!”

“Oh yeah? What about that lamp last week?”

“That was an accident!”

The ground under all their feet suddenly began to vibrate. Kit and Nita looked at each other in alarm. “Guys!” Kit said.

The ground’s shuddering stopped. The twins looked at each other. “Uh, sorry…”

“It’s him doing it,” Nguyet said. “He’s younger.”

“Oh, yeah, right, two minutes younger!” Tuyet laughed. “That makes me more powerful.”

“Are you two going out, or staying in?” Kit said.

“Staying in,” Tuyet said. “That’s what we wanted to check with you. We’re putting together a notification list in the manuals so that wizards who’re staying home can cover for the ones who’re going on the road when the trouble starts. S’reee told us you guys were probably going off-world, so we added you to the list. You going through the Crossings?”

“Yeah.”

“We’ve got a custom gate wizardry set out in the middle of the crater,” Nguyet said. “Been a lot of traffic through there in the past few hours, in both directions. You can never tell … it might confuse Somebody.” She grinned. When she did, that fierce look in Nguyet’s face got fiercer. Kit liked it: it made her otherwise extremely delicate, “porcelain” prettiness look more like the kind of porcelain that’s made into high-tech knives.

“I hope so,” Kit said.

Tuyet’s grin was even more feral than his sister’s. “We’ll keep an eye on things here,” he said. “Get out there and make It crazy.”

“That’s the plan,” Nita said. “Good luck, you two.”

The twychild waved and headed on out of the force field, making their way down toward S’reee. “That was interesting,” Kit said.

“Yeah,” Nita said. “Imagine how it must have been for them. Joint Ordeals. Never having to find someone to help you with a spell…” She shook her head.

“Having another wizard in your head with you all day, instead of by invitation?” Kit said. “A little too weird for me.”