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Nita went over to the bed and looked down at him. “Mostly,” she said, “because of you.”

“Now why do I doubt that?” Ronan said. He started to stretch, and then scowled. “Janey mack, feels like somebody’s been performing Riverdance on my chest.”

Nita spared a moment to wonder who or what “janey mack” was. “That would be because of the incredibly dumb stunt you pulled,” she said.

“Wasn’t so dumb, was it?” Ronan said. “We’re here.”

Nita found herself getting annoyed. “You scared us to death.”

Ronan looked at her. “Oh, stop your whinging,” he said. “I couldn’t go anywhere, the way you were yelling at me. Don’t think I didn’t hear you.” He turned his head wearily to look at Kit. “What is it with these women? Always yelling…”

“They do that,” Kit said, rolling his eyes.

Nita scowled at him, joined by Dairine.

“But it has to be a lot quieter in there now,” Kit said.

Ronan snorted. “And sure now don’t I miss Him,” he said, sounding annoyed. “Typical. If I’d known I’d be rid of Him so soon, maybe I’d have appreciated Him more.”

“But you didn’t know,” Nita said. “You thought He was going to be in there forever.”

He knew, though. That much I gathered as He was leaving. And He was just after gathering that the Spear hadn’t been forged for me, or for Him, all that while ago. It was always forged for Her, for the Hesper, even when the Smith of Falias first made it, ten thousand years ago. And I thought I was just a spear-carrier? So was He.” And Ronan laughed, then. “He thought it was a stitch. You should have heard Him laughing.”

“I did. I mentioned about His sense of humor,” Nita said, and rubbed one ear in memory of having been bitten there by the Defender, long ago.

“You did. But the whole bloody thing was a setup. The Hesper’d never have broken loose all the way unless the Lone One was there trying to stop Her. If It’d just ignored Her, none of this would ever have happened.” He grinned that dark grin of his. “But wasn’t that how They had it planned?”

He sighed, then, and glanced at Kit. “Where’s the big fella?” he said.

Kit shook his head and turned away.

“It’s a long story,” Nita said. “You get some rest. We’ve got some things to do.”

“And what’s that big ugly thing on your face?”

Nita put up one hand, astonished. The zit stung her. She glared at Ronan.

“As soon as you’re rested,” she said, “go home, you ungrateful slob!”

Ronan grinned at her as they went out.

***

Nita paused just long enough to take the shower she had been desperately longing for and change her clothes. About half an hour later, pausing only to stop in at a shop in a little strip mall on the way, she and Kit were standing on Tom and Carl’s doorstep.

Nita pushed the doorbell. She looked at Kit uneasily while they waited, and waited.

The inside door opened. Tom and Carl were standing there looking at them.

“Uh, hi,” Nita said.

The silence lasted a few moments. Then Tom said, “We are on errantry… and, boy, do we ever greet you!”

He held the screen door open for them. Nita tackled Tom, and the hug went on for some time.

A few minutes later, they were sitting around the kitchen table. Nita shrugged out of her backpack, pulled out the little cup for which she’d stopped at the strip mall, and put it down on the table.

Carl picked it up, looking bemused. “Why thank you,” he said. “It’s been months since anyone brought me half a pint of mealworms.”

“Tell Akegane-sama that I owe him one,” Nita said.

“Her,” Carl said.

“Are you guys okay now?” Kit said.

“If ‘okay’ includes being tragically embarrassed,” Tom said, “yes. But we couldn’t help it, any more than any other adult wizard on the planet could.” He turned to Nita. “I remember saying exactly what I said… and I believed it.” He shook his head. “It was terrible.”

Carl was nodding; he ran his fingers through his hair. “Imagine not doing anything but work for the TV station.” He shuddered. “It was a nightmare. Thank the One there’s more to life. Meanwhile, let’s see your manuals.”

Nita and Kit pulled them out and dropped them on the table. They were both back to their normal size.

“So it’s over,” Kit said.

“Oh,” Tom said, “I very much doubt that.”

Kit looked briefly panic-stricken. “You mean the Pullulus could happen again? But It said—”

Nita shook her head. “It’s never going to do that again,” she said. “The whole reason for the Pullulus was to keep anyone from helping the Hesper wake up. It’s too late for that now, and the Lone One won’t waste so much energy again on an attack. This was a one-off.”

“Is that a precognition?” Carl said.

Nita opened her mouth, closed it again. “Uh,” she said. “I don’t know…”

“Well, you’d better start keeping an eye on what you say,” Tom said. “You started your Ordeal with a precognitive event, as I remember. At the time I wondered if that was going to be something that would develop in more detail later on. Looks like I was right; you may be changing specialties again. Better get back to your manual studies and make sure.”

Nita shook her head. “And just when I thought things might get quiet now, stay the same for a while…”

Carl shook his head, smiling slightly. “There’s only one part of this job that’s the same for life,” he said; “that everything’s subject to change without notice.”

Tom nodded. “Anyway, I’d agree with your assessment,” he said. “The Pullulus itself is retreating rapidly everywhere now. Within days, even hours, perhaps, it’ll be completely gone. And in the event on the Moon, it was burned clear out of space for something like eight light-years in all directions. As far away as Sirius.”

“The Dog Star,” Nita said softly, and smiled.

“There was also another interesting development associated with that burnout,” Carl said. “It seems to have duplicated itself on a smaller scale in the neighborhood of Rirhath B. They burned clean about the same time we did, the manual says.”

Kit managed a small smile. “Probably someone saying ‘thank you’ for all the blue food,” he said. “Carmela told us about that when she got back from checking on Sker’ret.”

“Did they track down the Master, finally?” Tom said.

Nita nodded. “It took some doing, but once wizardry got working again in the neighborhood, Sker’ret found him and the Crossings staff on some little ice planet orbiting a brown dwarf in the Lesser Magellanic. I think the Tawalf and their masters had some idea that they might use them as hostages, or hold them for ransom, if the attack didn’t go as planned. They were all suffering from exposure, but Rirhait are tough: they’ll recover in a few months. Sker’ret will be the Master for the time being.”

“Good,” Tom said. “That place works best when a wizard’s running it.” He stretched.

Carl sat back, his arms folded. “Well, the universe is fortunate to have come through this with so little damage,” he said. “Not that in other times and places the Lone Power won’t attack in ways that are as awful, locally. But that doesn’t change the fact that this was a victory of a kind we may never see again in our lifetimes.”

Kit had been looking out the window into the backyard, his expression unreadable. Nita looked at him with some concern. “Is it true, you think, what we heard from the Powers?” he said. “That we’re going to see more ‘births’ of the Hesper, and each one’ll get stronger?”

Carl, too, had been wearing a brooding look. Now he stretched and stood up. “It seems likely,” he said. “But the Powers, like the One, are cagey about their scheduling. They’re not going to give away anything that will make it easier for the Lone Power to derail what They’ve got planned.”