Wizards At War

I wonder how much a thwat is? Nita thought, scowling in terrified fury. Thanks so much, mister hunch. Was that why I was in such a hurry to get here? Did I have an appointment to die?

No answer came from the peridexis. Nita was getting more angry than scared. It’s not supposed to end like this! she thought. If I’m going to die, it should be right in the middle of things, not out at the edge! And not until I know my universe is safe.

But suddenly this seemed untrue. Suddenly Nita began to understand the feeling she’d read about in books, but never really understood: the feeling that it was genuinely all over, that nothing further could be done… except to go out as well as you could. For a moment, the realization froze her rigid.

But only for a moment. I’m on Their business, Nita thought. And I am going to go out doing Their business. I’ve been through this before. I’ve been ready to go. It’s just that now … now it’s going to happen for real.

“I’m gonna stop feeding power to the main shield, and feed it to ours, instead,” Nita said. “You ready?”

“For what? Nita!”

Nita stood up and turned to face the weapon that had come up behind them and was now the closest. The dimples in the main shield grew deeper and deeper as she watched. In a moment one of the weapons would punch through and it would be all over. Nita lifted her hands in the air, spread them out to either side, and said silently to the peridexis, All right. Let’s go. You know what I need—

She closed her eyes. Perfectly clear in her inner vision hung and burned the words in the Speech that gave the Powers That Be the authorization to take the last thing you had, your life, and make the best possible use of it. You were, of course, allowed to make suggestions. Take everything I have, Nita said silently, and clear all these creatures and weapons out of here so Sker’ret can do what he has to do to keep the Lone One from getting the Crossings. For just a second she thought sadly of Kit: there would be no way to tell him what she was having to do, no way to say goodbye…

Nita squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and opened her mouth to say the first word of the wizardry, the first word of the last spell she would ever recite—

And then her eyes flew open at a sound she had not expected. A soft strange hum, scaling up, getting louder. Where have I heard that before? she thought. Sker’?

Right in front of her, the bigger mobile weapon that was trained on them shuddered, strained itself apart, and blew up.

Nita hit the floor. This is getting to be a habit! she thought, as the breath went out of her with a whoof!— but as soon as she could, she struggled up, pushing herself free from a tangle of Sker’ret’s legs, and stared out to see what had happened. How come I didn’t hear that one coming? What in the—

That hum scaled up again behind her. “Uh-oh,” Nita said, and once again went flat on top of Sker’ret. Behind them, the second weapon shuddered itself apart and destroyed itself in a huge blast of noise and fire.

“You really do want to become more than just good friends, don’t you?” Sker’ret said from underneath her, sounding rather squashed. “Don’t know how I’m going to explain this to my ancestor, assuming we ever find him.”

Nita put her head up, trying to see what was happening to the mobile weapons. That hum started to scale up once more. Again she ducked, and from much farther behind came yet another explosion. Are they malfunctioning? Or is someone else doing that? Are they on our side? And what if they’re not?

“And don’t I get to throw myself on you sometimes?” Sker’ret said. “People will think you don’t believe I can take care of myself.”

“Sker’ret,” Nita said, “will you please just put a sock in it?” Cautiously, she peered around, trying to see through all the smoke.

Sker’ret put some eyes up, too. “I don’t wear socks,” he said.