Free High Wizardry New Millennium Edition by Diane Duane Page B

Heinlein?”
    “Some,” Nita said. “But right now she’s mostly hot for Star Wars.”
    “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. “She can be tracked, but we’d best start working on it before the trail gets too cold. At any rate, Tom and I can’t go.”
    “Now, wait a minute…” Nita’s mother said.
    Carl looked at her gently. “We’re not normally allowed to leave the Solar System without sanction from quite high up,” he said. “There are reasons. Would you normally get out of a car you were driving?”
    Nita’s mother stared.
    “We’ll get you support,” Tom said to Nita and Kit. “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 a collleague. Bird, isn’t this a touch out of your usual remit?”
    “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,” said Picchu, 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 anx-iously 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