Wizards At War

Kit looked over at Nita. “Blackmail,” Kit said.

Nita shrugged.

“Oh, all right,” Kit said. “Come on, let’s see what we can find.”

Ponch sprang to his feet, spun around in three fast, tight circles where he stood, and then shot off down the concourse. Kit jogged after him. Behind them, ostentatiously by himself, Ronan strolled away.

Filif came up next to Nita, also looking after them, but mostly at Ronan. “And to think that the One’s Champion is hiding in there.”

“One version of it,” Nita said. “An avatar, I guess we’d say, sort of a splinter of the whole Defender. As much as could fit inside a human being, anyhow.” She reached out to readjust Filif’s baseball cap. “The concept doesn’t seem to surprise you much.”

“Why should it? The One’s Champion does that kind of thing all the time, the Wind says. Seems like It loves to dress up.”

Nita grinned. “Well, you haven’t seen it the way we have,” she said. “It lived at Tom and Carl’s for a long time, disguised as a bird.” She rubbed one ear thoughtfully. “It had some issues then, too. Kind of a temper.”

She could feel Filif’s amusement. “Such was the Defender’s way with us, as well. It was the Great Tree, the Star-Reacher, that first caught the Wind in its branches and shared the sound of it with us.” Filif turned most of his eye-berries to look down the other end of the concourse, and upward toward the vast and splendid Rirhait sky. “Before that, the Wind was just another noise. After that, it became the sound of words and wizardry, the power to change our world…”

Nita glanced around them. “Fil, did you see where Sker’ret went?”

“Uh, no.” Filif rotated in place. “He was working at that kiosk.”

“We can always message him,” Nita said. “Come on, let’s see what they’re up to.”

The two of them headed in the direction that Kit and Ponch had gone. The Crossings might have been quieter than usual, but Nita didn’t mind that, since it meant that you had less chance of being run over by aliens and their luggage while rubbernecking. The place was nearly half the size of the island of Manhattan, and besides the actual worldgates—set into the floor all down the length of the concourse, as their entry gating area had been—it was also full of endless haphazardly stacked modular bluesteel “cubes” containing shops, lounges, living areas, food courts, and every other kind of facility necessary to cater to the needs of the thousands of species that used the Crossings as a vital transportation link among several major galactic and transgalactic civilizations. Even at a “quiet” time like this, there were any number of fascinating beings to look at as they wandered from place to place, gazing into the windows of stores or restaurants. Though not as many as usual, Nita thought.

“Is that Kit coming back?” Filif said to Nita. “Who’s he with?”

Nita peered down the concourse. “Doesn’t look like him.” She took another look. “But they’re human.” There were three people there, heading in their direction—two boys and a girl, Nita thought.

“Other wizards,” she said to Filif, as they got closer and it became plain that the approaching three were Earth-human and not some other variety. One of the boys, with shaggy fair hair, was wearing dark pants and a matching dark sweater that might have been some kind of school uniform; the other one, a dark-haired kid, was in jeans and a windbreaker, close enough to what Kit was wearing and close enough to his height that Nita could see why Filif might have made the error. The girl, who had short brown hair, was wearing what seemed to be a short, richly patterned silk kimono over leggings and low-heeled boots, a look that Nita admired as soon as she saw it.

The newcomers were a hundred feet or so away from Nita and Filif when Kit and Ponch appeared from one of an array of cubicles over to the left. Over here, Nita said silently to Kit. We’ve got company.

Ponch came bouncing up to Nita, who reached down to ruffle up his ears. “So how was it?” she said.

We didn’t even go to a restaurant, Ponch said, in profound disappointment, throwing a reproachful look over his shoulder at Kit. He just went to a machine and put words from his manual in it and food came out. But there was only one blue thing. That was hardly enough. Look at me! You can see my ribs.

“Later,” Kit said. “We need to find Ronan and Sker’ret. And talk to these guys, I think.”

“Dai stihó!” the girl said, as they got close.

“Dai,” Nita and Kit and Filif said more or less in unison.

“You just up from the Moon?” said the boy in the school uniform, in a broad Australian accent. “The gate there still open?”

“It was a few minutes ago,” Kit said.

“Great,” said the boy. “We’re heading back.”

“Where’ve you been?” Nita said. “If it’s not private.”