The spell built and built in power, and the air sang the note ears sing in silence, but much louder.
"Nothing not its own original can exist in this room," Carl said, "once I turn the spell loose. Harry, you're having trouble believing this, are you? You think I would treat your real daughter this way?"
Nita's father said nothing.
"Run," Carl said softly.
Dairine vanished. Air imploded into the place where she had been: manuals ruffled their pages in the sudden wind, papers flew up and slowly settled. Behind them, the Apple simply went away; its monitor fell two inches to the desk with a loud thump, its screen gone dark, and the hard-drive cable slithered off the desk like a stunned snake and fell in coils to the floor.
Nita's father put his face in his hands.
Her mother looked sharply at Tom and Carl. "I've known you two too long to think you were toying with us," she said as Carl sat down slowly on the sofa, looking a bit pale. "You said something a moment ago about forces that weren't friendly. ."
"Nita's told you some of what wizards are for," Tom said, looking at Carl in concern, then up again.
"Balance. Maintenance of the status quo; protecting life- There are forces that are ambivalent toward life.
One in particular. that held Itself aloof from creation, a long time ago, and when everyone else was done, created something none of the other forces had thought of: death. And the longest Death… the running-down of the Universe. The other Powers cast It out. . and they've been dealing with the problem, and the Lone Power, ever since."
"Entropy," Nita's mother said, looking thoughtful. "That's an old story."
"It's the only story," Tom said. "Every sentient species has it, or learns it." He looked over at Nita's father, who was recovering somewhat. "I'm not about to pass judgment on whether the Lone One's invention was a good idea or not. There are cases for both sides, and the argument has been going on since time was set running. Every being that's ever lived has argued the case for one side or the other, whether it's been aware of it or not. But wizards fight the great Death, and the lesser ones, consciously.
and the Entity that invented death takes our interference very personally. New wizards always meet it in one form or another, on their Ordeals. Some survive, if they're careful. Nita and Kit were careful. . and they had each other's help."
" 'Careful' is not Dairine's style," Nita's mother said, sounding rueful. "And she's alone."
"Not for long," Tom said. "We'll track her, and see that she has help. But I think Nita will have to go.
She knows Dairine's mind fairly well."
"I'm going too," said Kit.
Carl, still ashen from the exertion of his spell, shook his head. "Kit, your folks don't know you're a wizard. You might have to be gone for quite a while — and I can't sell you two a time warp as I did once before. My time-jurisdiction stops at atmosphere's edge."
"I'll tell them what I am," Kit said.
Nita turned and stared at him.
"I've been thinking about doing it for a while, since you told your folks," he said to her. "You handled it pretty well," he said to Nita's parents. "I should give my mom and dad the benefit of the doubt." The words were brave: but Nita noticed that Kit looked a little worried.
"Kit, you'll have to hurry," Tom said. "She's got a long lead on you, and the trail will get cold fast. Neets, where would Dairine want to go?"
Nita shook her head. "She reads a lot of science fiction."
Carl looked worried. "Has she been reading Heinlein?"
"Some," Nita said. "But she's mostly hot for Star Wars right now."
"That's something, at least. With luck she won't think of going much farther than a few galaxies over.
Anything in particular about Star Wars?"
"Darth Vader," Kit said. "She wants to beat him up."
Tom groaned and ran one hand through his hair. "No matter what the reason," he said, "if she goes looking for darkness, she'll find it."
"But Darth Vader's not real!" said Nita's mother.
Tom glanced at her. "Not here. Be glad."
"A few galaxies over…" Nita's father said to no one in particular.
Carl looked grim. "We can track her, but the trail's getting cold; and at any rate Tom and I can't go with you."
"Now, wait a minute…" Nita's mother said.
Carl looked at her gently. "We're not allowed out of the Solar System," he said. "There are reasons. For one thing, would you step out the door of a car you were driving?"
Nita's mother stared at him.
"Yes, well," Tom said. "We'll get you support. Wizards everywhere we can reach will be watching for you. And as for a guide-"
"I'll go," said Picchu abruptly, from the computer table.
Everyone stared, most particularly Nita's mother and father.
"Sorry, I should have mentioned," Carl said. "Peach is an associate. Bird, isn't this a touch out of your league?"
"I told you I was needed," Picchu said irritably. "And I am. I can see the worst of what's going to happen before it does; so I should be able to keep these two out of most kinds of trouble. But you'd better stop arguing and move. If Dairine keeps throwing away energy the way she's doing, she's going to attract Someone's attention. . and the things It sends to fetch her will make Darth Vader look like a teddy bear by comparison."
Nita's mother looked at Carl and Tom. "Whatever you have to do," she said, "do it."
"Just one question," Tom said to Picchu. "What do They need her for?
"The Powers?" Picchu said. She shut her eyes.
"Well?"
"Reconfiguration," she said, and opened her eyes again, looking surly. "Well? What are you staring at? I can't tell you more than I know. Are we going?"
"Gone," Nita said. She headed out of the room for her manual.
"I'll meet you in the usual place when I'm done," Kit called after her, and vanished. Papers flew again, leaving Nita's mother and father looking anxiously at Carl and Tom.
"Powers," Nita heard her father say behind her. "Creation. Forces from before time. This is-this business is for saints, not children!"
"Even saints have to start somewhere," Carl said softly. "And it's always been the children who save the Universe from the previous generation, and remake the Universe in their own image."
"Just be glad yours are conscious of the fact that that's what they're doing," Tom said.
Neither of her parents said anything.
In her bedroom, Nita grabbed her manual, bit her lip, said three words, and vanished.
Randomization
Dairine did not go straight out of the Galaxy from Mars. Like many other wizards when they first cut planet-loose, she felt that she had to do a little local sightseeing first.
She was some while about it. Part of this was caused by discomfort. The jump from Earth to Mars, a mere forty-nine million miles, had been unsettling enough, with its feeling of first being pinned to a wildly rolling ball and then violently torn loose from it. But it hadn't been too bad. Piece o' cake, Dairine had thought, checking the transit directory in the computer. Somewhere out of the Solar System next. What's this star system? R Leporis? It's pretty close. . But she changed her mind, and headed for the moons of Jupiter instead. . and this turned out to be a good thing. From Mars to Jupiter, bypassing the asteroid belt, was a jump of three hundred forty-one million miles; and the huge differences between the two planets' masses, vectors, and velocities caused Dairine to become the first Terran to lose her lunch on Jupiter's outermost satellite, Ananke.