A Wizard Abroad

think thisis the real world. Or all of it that really matters, anyway. 'Mum,' she said, 'I don't know if you understand what you're doing here. A wizard doesn't stop doing wizardry just because they're not at home. If I go on call in Ireland, I go on call, and there's nothing that's going to stop it. Or can stop it. I've made my promises. If I have to go on call, wouldn't you rather have me here, where you and Dad can keep an eye on me and know exactly what's going on all the time?'

Nita's mother frowned at that, and then looked at Nita with an expression compounded of equal parts of suspicion and amusement. 'Sneaky,' she said. 'No; I'm sorry. Your Aunt Annie will keep good close tabs on you — we've had a couple of talks with her about that. .'

Nita's eyebrows went up at that — first in annoyance that it was going to be difficult to get away and do anything useful if there was need: then in alarm. 'Oh, Mum, you didn't tell her that I'm. .' 'No, we didn't tell her that you're a wizard! What are we supposed to do, honey? Say to your aunt, 'Listen, Anne, you have to understand that our daughter might vanish suddenly. No, I don't mean run away — just disappear into thin air. And if she goes to the Moon, tell her to dress up warm.' ' Nita's mother gave her a wry look and reached out for the wooden spoon that Nita had been playing with. 'No. You managed to hide it from us long enough, Heaven knows… you shouldn't have any trouble keeping things under cover with your aunt.' She paused to start folding some beaten egg white into another mixture she had been working on. 'Your dad is going to see about the plane tickets tomorrow. I think it's Saturday that you'll be leaving — the fare is cheaper then.' 'I could just, you know,go there,' Nita said desperately. 'It would save you the money, at least.' 'I think we'll do this the old-fashioned way,' Nita's mother said calmly. 'Evenyou would have some logistical problems with arriving at the airport and getting off the plane without anyone noticing that you hadn't been there before.' Nita frowned and began to work on that one.

'Wo,' Nita's mother said. 'Forget it. We'll send enough pocket money for you to get along with; you'll have plenty of kids to play with. .' Play with, Nita thought, and groaned inwardly.

'Come on, Neets, cheer up a little! It should be interesting, going to a foreign country for the first time.'

I've been to foreign galaxies, Nita thought.But thisI'm not so sure about. However, further argument wasn'tgoing to help her. No matter: there were ways around this problem, if she would just keep her mouth shut. 'OK,' she said.' I'll go — but I won't like it.'

Her mother gazed at her thoughtfully. 'I thought you were the one who told me that wizardry was about doing what you had to, whether you liked it or not?'

'It's true,' Nita said, and got up to go out.

'And Nita,' her mother said.

'What, Mum?'

'I want your promise that you will not be popping back here on the sly to visit Kit. That little 'beam-me-up- Scotty' spell that he's so fond of, and that I see you two using when you want to save your train fare for ice cream.'

Nita went white, then flushed hot. That was the one option she had been counting on to make this whole thing tolerable. 'Mum! But Mum, it's easy, I can just. .'

'You cannot just. We want you to take a break from each other for a while. Now I want you to promise me.'

Nita let out a long breath. Her mother had her, and knew she did; for a wizard's promise had to be kept. When you spend your life working with words that describe and explain, and even change, the way the Universeis, you can't play around with those words, and you can't lie. at least not without major and unpleasant consequences. 'I promise,' Nita said, hating it. 'But this is going to be miserable.'

'We'll see about that,' Nita's mother said. 'You go ahead now, and do what you have to do.' 'Oh, no!' Kit said. 'This is dire.'

They were sitting on the Moon, on a peak of the Carpathian Mountains, about twenty miles south of the crater Copernicus. The view of Earth from there this time of month was good; she was waxing towards the full, while on the Moon there was nothing but a sun very low on the horizon. Long, long shadows stretched across the breadth of the Carpathians, so that the illuminated crests of the jagged peaks stood up from great pools of darkness, like rough-hewn pyramids floating on nothing. It was cold there; the wizardly force-field that surrounded them snowed flakes of frozen air gently on to the powdery white rock around them when they moved and changed the field's inner volume. But cold as it was, it was private.

'We were just getting somewhere with the trees,' Nita muttered. 'I can't believe this.' 'Do they really think it's going to make a difference?'

'Oh, I don't know. Who knows what they think, half the time? And the worst of it is, they won't let me come back.' Nita picked up a small piece of pumice and chucked it away, watching as it sailed about a hundred meters away in the light gravity and bounced a couple of meters high when it first hit the ground again. It continued bouncing down the mountain, and she watched it idly. 'We had three other projects waiting to be started. They're all shot now: there won't be any time to do anything about them before I have to go.'

Kit stretched and looked unhappy. 'We can still talk mind to mind; you can coach me at a distance when I need help. Or I can help you. .'

'It's not the same.' She had often enough tried explaining to her parents the 'high' you got from working closely with another wizard: the feeling that magic made in your mind while working with another, the texture, was utterly unlike that of a wizardry worked alone — more dangerous, more difficult, ultimately more satisfying.

Nita sighed. 'There must be some way we can work around this. How are your parents handling things lately?'

At that Kit sighed too. 'Variable. My dad doesn't mind it so much. He says, 'Big deal, my son's a brujo.' My mother. she has this idea that we are somehow meddling with Dark Forces.' Kit made a fake theremin noise, like that heard in a bad horror movie when the monster is lurking around a corner, about to jump on someone. Nita laughed. Kit shook his head. 'When are they making you leave?'

'Saturday.' Nita rested her chin on one hand, picked up another rock and chucked it away. 'All of a sudden there's all this stuff I have to pack, and all these things we have to do. Go to the passport office and wave the tickets at them so they'll give me one fast. Go to the bank and get foreign money. Buy new clothes. Wash the old ones.' She rolled her eyes and fell silent. Nita hated that kind of rushed busy-ness, and she was up to her neck in it now. 'How's your sister holding up?'

Nita laughed. 'Dairine likes me, but she's hardly heartbroken. Besides, she's busy managing her wizardry these days. spends most of her time working with her computer. You wouldn't believe some of the conversations I've heard over its voice-link recently.' She fell into an imitation of Dairine's high-pitched voice, made even more squeaky by annoyance. 'No, I willnot move your galaxy. what do you want to move it for? It's fine right where it is!'

'Sheesh,' Kit said. Dairine, as a very new wizard, was presently at the height of her power; as a very young wizard, she was also more powerful at the moment than both of them put together. The only thing they had on her at the moment was experience.

'Yeah. We don't fight nearly as much as we used to. she's gone really quiet. I'm not sure it's normal.'

'Oh,' Kit said, and laughed out loud. 'You mean, like we're normal. We're beginning to sound like our parents.'

Nita had to laugh at that too. 'You may have something there.' But then the amusement went out of her. 'Oh, Kit,' she said, ' I'm going to miss you. I miss you already, and I haven't left.' 'Hey, c'mon,' he said, and punched her in the shoulder. 'You'll get over it. You'll meet some guy over there and. .'

'Don't joke,' Nita said, irritable. 'I don't care about meeting 'some guy over there'. They're probably all geeks. I don't even know if they speak the same language.'

'Your aunt does.'

'My aunt is American,' Nita said.

'Yeah, they speak English over there,' Kit said. 'It's not all just Irish.' He looked at Nita with a concerned expression. 'Come on, Neets. If life hands you lemons, make lemonade. You can see a new place, you can probably meet some of their wizards. They'll be in the directory. Neets. give it a chance,' he said, glancing around them. He picked up a rock too, turning it over and over in his hands. 'Where are you going to be? Dublin? Or somewhere