“Yeah, I just bet,” Nita said, and put the rock carefully down. “Later…”
She wandered over to where Kit was standing. He, too, was in “Martian” harness and metallic kilt, his wand stuck in his belt, and he was gazing across at the spires of the city that from this height could just be glimpsed away many miles to the south, where the highlands of Aeolis Mensae ran down to the plains of Elysium. “It’s a nice location,” Kit said. “Pretty close to the equator. The weather’s as good as it’s going to get anywhere on the planet…”
And without warning they were standing up somewhere high in that city, looking down at the proud, calm people in the streets, and the little busy flying craft zipping around among the towers, more of the Shamaska going about their business. Nita looked over her shoulder and saw that the spot where they were standing was a terrace of the Scarlet Tower: and toward them came gracefully bounce-walking two people, a Shamaska female and an Eilitt male. Behind them a multi-legged, many-clawed green lizard creature was scrambling along to keep up on the polished floor.
“We thought we might see you here eventually,” Aurilelde said, smiling at Nita and Kit as they got closer. “We’re so glad you came!”
“Just look at it,” Khretef said to Kit. “It’s grown.” He gestured toward the City’s outskirts. “There have been plenty of raw materials to work with: it’s a rich world. We’ll do well here.”
“You’re running things now?” Kit said to him.
Khretef nodded. “In more ways than one. I’m the Master of the City here now, it seems. Iskard didn’t want the position: he was tired. And happy to pass rule to Aurilelde once we’d moved and were finally safe in our new home, for the stress of the old life had taken its toll. He’s got a place in the uplands now.”
“And he’s been so glad that there’s no need to fear the Eilitt anymore,” Aurilelde said. “We all have. Now we can be at peace at last.” She looked at Nita with embarrassment. “Fear can make you do such terrible things. I can’t believe the way I was thinking…”
If I was awake, Nita thought, you’d better believe I’d have something to say about that! But this didn’t seem to be the place or the time. “It was all a long time ago,” Nita said. “Or a long time from now. Let’s just forget about it. It turned out okay in the end.”
They looked out across the City. Khretef’s scorpion-pet now caught up with them, put his front end up under one of Kit’s hands, and wriggled like a puppy. Kit looked down at it, grinning, and scratched it on top of the head between the eyes. After a moment it came over to her, and Nita looked down at it, now bemused that she could ever have seen these creatures as strange or threatening. And then she caught something in its eyes, a familiar look—
I get around, said the large Presence behind the odd alien gaze. There are a lot more kinds of dogs in the universe than just the Earth ones.
Nita smiled at him, then looked over at Khretef and Aurilelde. “So the story has a happy ending,” she said.
“Ending? I don’t know that I’d call it that,” Aurilelde said. “We have our whole lives ahead of us.”
Knowing what she now knew, Nita held her smile in place and said nothing. But Khretef, who had been exchanging some silent comment with Kit, now caught her eye. “And besides,” he said, “even a short life would be a good one in this world. Once you find happiness, why sit around worrying that it might not last forever? You make what you can out of it. No point in worrying away the gift.”
He looked out to the horizon. Nita followed his glance, and realized she was not looking at the Mars of half a million years ago. Looking northward, Nita saw that Elysium Planitia was no dry plain any longer, but a mighty sea. Against the vast empty northern horizon, Elysium Mons stood up lone and splendid on its tremendous lowlying pedestal-island, silhouetted against the rose-colored afternoon. To either side of the highlands, great waterfalls poured down through chasms in the upper tablelands, draining the upland lakes around the craters Lasswitz and Wien.
Not our Mars, Nita thought. Not exactly theirs, either. But the one they found together after their time on Mars finally ended…
Kit put out a hand to Khretef. “Dai stihó,” he said. “You found your way through. Good luck with the rest of it.”
“And to you, brother,” Khretef said, clasping Kit’s arm. “Watch over your world.”
Nita looked at Aurilelde’s outheld hand, and took it in the same clasp. “Take good care of him,” she said.
“It was all I ever meant to do,” she said. “I lost my way, but you two helped me find it again.”
Aurilelde and Khretef each raised a hand in farewell and turned away, heading for the Tower, with Khretef’s scorpion-pet scrambling after them. “So there goes the first real wizard of Mars,” Nita said. “But who knows, maybe not the last…”
“Huh?” Kit was startled out of his silence. “Stop listening to me think.”
“I wasn’t!” Nita said. “It’s just kind of funny. For a while there I thought you were going to ask Irina for the position.”
Kit shook his head and grinned, gazing out over the city. “Naah,” he said. “I’ve got a planet. These guys needed a spare. I’m glad it was here for them.”
Nita nodded. “I forgot to ask them what happened to Rorsik.”
Kit shrugged. “He was all about fear. Either he’s gotten himself past that, or he’s found himself some other patch of eternity to be scared in.”
Nita nodded. “Meanwhile,” Kit said, “something I forgot to ask you.”
“What?”
“Just what was it you called me back there?”
She shook her head. “Back there where?”
“You remember. Back at Argyre Planitia, when you were telling Aurilelde you didn’t have to keep yours in a cage.”
Nita stared at him, bewildered— then realized what he was talking about, and took a very deep breath.
“My boyfriend?” she said. And then Nita felt like cursing at herself for the way her voice squeaked with stress on the second word, turning it into a question.
Kit just looked at her. “Took you long enough,” he said. He grinned at her and vanished.
Nita’s eyes went wide: then narrowed with annoyance— and relieved delight.
“I’m gonna get you for that!” she said, and went after him.
By the same author
In the Young Wizards Series
So You Want to Be a Wizard • Deep Wizardry
High Wizardry • A Wizard Abroad
The Wizard’s Dilemma • A Wizard Alone
Wizard’s Holiday • Wizards at War
A Wizard of Mars
The Middle Kingdoms Series (for adult readers)
The Door into Fire • The Door into Shadow
The Door into Sunset
Other standalone adult fantasy:
Raetian Tales: A Wind from the South
Stealing The Elf-King’s Roses
In the Star Trek (TM) universe:
The Wounded Sky • My Enemy, My Ally
Spock’s World • Doctor’s Orders
Dark Mirror • Intellivore
The “Rihannsu Quartet”
The Romulan Way • Swordhunt
Honor Blade
(omnibus edtion: Star Trek: The Bloodwing Voyages)
The Empty Chair
Collected short fiction:
Uptown Local and Other Interventions
Midnight Snack and Other Fairy Tales
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For ebook editions of many books above
and others not listed here,
please visit
EbooksDirect.dianeduane.com
or the Books page at the author’s site:
DianeDuane.com
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