Johnny and Doris and Biddy and Ronan all watched this with some bemusement. 'My sister,' Nita said to Johnny. 'Dairine.'
Johnny blinked. 'This is the Dairine Callahan who. .' He paused, then, and laughed at himself. 'It would be, wouldn't it. The youngest ones are always the strongest, after all. They're just getting a lot younger these days.'
Another chair was pulled in from the living-room while introductions were made. Nita had to smile as she watched the portable computer unlean itself from against the table leg, flop down flat on the floor, grow short spidery legs, and wander over to the cat food dish where Bronski was still eating. Bronski hissed at the computer, hit it hard with one paw, and when that didn't do anything, went out the catflap in a hurry.
Nita looked over at Kit and said, 'Any problems?'
'Nothing significant,' he said. 'She'd had her dinner, so we have a few hours.' 'You've briefed her?'
'I know what you're trying to do, more or less,' Dairine said, reaching out to take a biscuit from the fresh packet their aunt had brought out. 'Mmm.' She chewed for a few seconds, then said, 'It's all been updating itself in the precis in my manual for the past few days.' She nodded over at the computer, which was still examining the cat food dish with interest.
'The language is interesting,' Johnny said, leaning back in his chair. ' 'Took a star and hammered it on the anvil. .' '
'When I was in Timeheart, I used meteoric iron,' Biddy said quietly. 'There seemed to be a certain. appropriateness to it.'
'There's plenty of that around,' Kit said. 'Not all in museums, either.'
'But not ur-matter,' Doris said. 'You would need meteoric iron from around the time of the birth of the Universe.'
Dairine shook her head. 'It wouldn't be meteoric,' she said. 'That early in the physical universe, there weren't any planetary bodies to shatter and turn into meteors, yet; not even in the oldest galaxies.' She looked at Nita for confirmation: Nita nodded. 'You're going to have to get real starsteel.'
The older wizards looked at her, beginning to understand. 'From the nucleus of a star?' Johnny said.
Dairine looked at him with interest. 'Plenty of iron inside stars, especially the type As and Fs.' Biddy stared at Dairine. 'You're suggesting that someone should put one end of a timeslide into the centre of a star light-years away and millions of years back in time, and fasten the other end here'? And then do what?'
'Forge what comes out at this end,' Dairine said. 'That's your department, though. You did that. .' She glanced over into the next room, where Fragarach lay on a sideboard, with several layers of spell-warding glowing around it to keep its power from combining disastrously with that of the Cup in the back office. 'The techniques shouldn't be so different.' 'You really think you can do this?' Doris said to Dairine.
'You mean, can I get you what you need?' Dairine said. She sat back in her chair and let her eyes drop closed a little, and then began to speak in the Speech. It was not exactly a spell, but the schematic for one, the outline, with certain key words and phrases left out so that nothing untoward would start to happen just yet. Nita lost the thread of it after about a minute: she had never heard any spell so complex in her life, and several parts of it that she did understand, the power-control parameters and the description of the matter that would be conducted down the timeslide, along with several Names to be invoked, all rattled her badly. Nita knew that her sister had, in some ways, become the manual since her own Ordeal; and by way of semi-parenthood, Dairine had the power of a whole race of sentient computer wizards to draw on. But Nita had not had those facts brought home to her quite so definitely as they were being brought home now. She shivered; it was a little like being big sister to a nuclear explosion that could pick its own time to go off, and was thinking of doing it soon.
Dairine stopped and opened her eyes again. 'That's the procedure,' she said. 'It won't be easy, but at least it's not too complicated. When do you want to do it?'
Doris was shaking her head. ' 'Forged fire into it',' she said. 'That spell would certainly produce that result. Shaun?'
Johnny was looking very thoughtful. 'If the other end of the slide were to slip out of place in either location or time,' he said to Dairine, 'it could annihilate the Earth. You realize that, of course.' Dairine shrugged. 'At the rate things are going, people might be thankful for something like that shortly. If I were you, I'd take the chance you've got. I can do this now, but whether I'll have the power next week, or next month, is a good guess. If the world still exists next week or next month.' There was a silence. 'Well, Shaun?' Doris said. 'You're the Senior.'
He sat and stared into his teacup, and then said, 'I guess we haven't any choice. Tomorrow night, then? At Matrix. Assuming the other Planetaries concur.'
Doris nodded, and Ronan, and Nita's aunt. 'Will the Treasures be all right here tonight, Johnny?'
Aunt Annie said.
'I should think so. Let's meet at Matrix around seven. This ought to be done at about sunset, so that the Spear knows what it's for.'
Everyone nodded and pushed their chairs back. Nita looked over at Dairine. 'You came a long way for just this,' she said.
Dairine stretched and grinned. 'Worth it to see the expression on your face when I outlined that spell. What a look! I thought you were going to. .'
'Never mind,' Nita said. Becoming a wizard had mostly changed her sister for the better, but it also seemed to have increased some of Dairine's more annoying traits, like the bragging and teasing. 'Listen, runt,' she said, 'I missed you too. How are Mum and Dad?'
Dairine shrugged. 'Mum keeps going on about 'her baby'. Dad looks depressed all the time.
They're fine.' Then she chuckled. 'They'll never try a stunt like this on you again.'
'Oh?'
'Uh huh. I heard them arguing about it the other day. Went on for about an hour, and finally Mum said, 'If she wants to be a wizard, fine, let her. Better to have a daughter who's a wizard, than not have a daughter.' '
'All right,' Nita said softly. 'When can I. .' She was about to say go home, except that it occurred to her that she didn't want to go home right this minute. Not until after the business with the Spear was settled, anyway. And besides, I'm on assignment… I'd have to see it through anyway. 'Never mind,' she said again. 'Did you tell them where you were going?'
'What, and get them all upset again? No way. Mum hasn't worked out a way to get any promises out of me yet, and that's the way it's going to stay. For the time being, anyhow. What time is it at home when it's seven in the evening here?' 'Two in the afternoon.'
'That's fine,' Dairine said. 'I don't have to be home for dinner until seven our time. Yes, I know where we're going: it's in the manual. See you tomorrow. Bye, Kit. Spot, heel!'
The computer scuttled over to her; cats hissed and bristled at it as it went by. Dairine vanished, and not one of the various papers on the table moved.
'Hey, pretty slick,' Kit said.
Nita laughed to herself for a second. 'Look,' she said, 'you'd better get back too. Your parents are going to start wondering.'
'Let 'em wonder,' Kit said. But he started heading for the door. Nita followed and said, 'Make sure you get your sleep.'
Kit laughed too, a rueful noise. Excitement sometimes made it hard for him to sleep the night before a big wizardry, and Nita was used to teasing him about the circles under his eyes. 'I'll try,' he said. 'Take it easy, huh?' 'Yeah.'
Kit vanished too; Johnny and Doris and Ronan headed out past Nita to Johnny's car, saying their goodnights as they went. As Ronan passed her, he said, 'That was your sister?' 'Uh huh.'
'You poor thing,' said Ronan.
Nita nodded in complete agreement. 'She has her uses, though,' she said. 'Hang loose.' Ronan chuckled and went out.
Nita went back into the kitchen, where she found her aunt staring moodily at a sink full of teacups. 'They breed,' she said, 'I swear they do.'
Nita laughed and reached up to the shelf that held the washing-up liquid.
