“Okay,” Penn said. “Well, listen . . . I’m really sorry. I wish this had gone better.”
Nita shook her head and smiled, glancing over again at Dairine. “Penn,” she said, “don’t sell yourself too short. You’ve been a pain in the butt, but this has gone way better than you think. So you get going, okay? And go incredibly well.”
He smiled sheepishly, and looked surprised and pleased when Kit put a fist up to bump. But when Nita moved forward and put her arms around him and gave him a big squeeze, his mouth fell open.
“Go on,” she said as she let him go, noting with amusement Kit’s slightly widened eyes. “Get out of here and go get some rest.”
“Yeah,” Penn said. “Yeah. Dai stihó . . .”
He and Matt moved off together and dropped out of sight. When they were gone, Kit regarded her with astonishment. “You willingly touched him,” he said.
“Yes, I did,” Nita said. “Doesn’t mean I’m ever going to do it again . . .”
“Good,” Kit said, with such emphasis that Nita gave him a cockeyed look.
“Not the jealousy thing!” Nita said. “You have zero need for that. Meanwhile, we have other things to think about.” And she looked around them. “One of them being that I think I’ve got my sister back . . .”
Dairine was sitting up among her own medical people, who were leaving her one by one. She looked white and drawn and incredibly tired, but her eyes were bright, and the grin of absolute joy spread across her face gave Nita a pang of happiness. She dropped to her knees in the moondust and threw her arms around her sister and whispered in her ear, “I am so happy.”
Dairine hugged her back. “So am I,” she said. “You have no idea.”
“And still in big trouble,” their dad remarked.
Dairine threw her hands in the air. “Okay!” she said. “Okay! I did a dangerous thing! But look how well it turned out!”
Her father covered his eyes and shook his head. “You are plainly too drunk on adrenaline and happiness for us to have this conversation right now,” he said. “And I am too relieved to see Roshaun back, and happy for Nelaid and Miril, and amazed that I have lived to see a Phoenix rise from the ashes, more or less, and blown away that I’m standing on the surface of the Moon while this whole thing is going on, even though I keep falling down every time I try to get anywhere—”
“That would be because your pockets are full of Moon rocks,” Nita said. “They still have mass, Daddy, and when you—”
“Don’t interrupt.—And I’m completely covered with dust and need a shower—”
“Yes, you do. So why don’t you take Dairine home? Nelaid’ll come and get her as soon as they’ve got Roshaun sorted out.”
Nita’s sister was staring at her with a thoughtful kind of astonishment. “And this has been really good for you,” Dairine said, “because I have never heard you speak so much good sense at any one time in my life.” She leaned up against Nita. “And you were the one who told me to stick with this, even though I was jet-lagged out of my mind. Now I’m wondering if I’d even have made all these connections without being so wired from exhaustion and pissed off at Mehrnaz’s people!” And she laughed wearily. “Maybe not. Maybe the Powers know what they’re doing . . .”
Nita smiled at her. “From you,” she said, “that’s some concession.”
A movement off to one side caught Nita’s eye. She turned and saw Mehrnaz Moon-bouncing in their direction, and within a few moments she had joined Nita on her knees next to Dairine and thrown her arms around her. “I told you,” she said, “I told you how awesome you were. Do you believe me now?” She turned to Nita. “She went in the Sun! That is so amazing!”
Dairine laughed. “You think that was amazing,” she said to Nita, “you should have heard me tell off her aunt. That was something.”
Mehrnaz clapped her hands in delight. “It truly was! You should have seen her face afterward. It would have curdled milk for hours.”
“The only problem I have with that now,” Dairine said, “is that it’s probably going to make more trouble for you with your family.”
“It’s not,” Mehrnaz said. “There are people in my family who have been wanting to do that for decades. And Irina called my mother herself and told her—” Mehrnaz blushed. “Well, a lot of good things about me. So it’s all going to be okay. The World Earthquake Management Group has already messaged me about my spell, they want to use it as a jumping-off point for some other implementations . . .” Then her expression changed and she said nervously, “But I have to present next and you won’t be here!”
“Listen,” Dairine said, “you know I’m always right. Didn’t I tell you that you were going to make a difference in people’s lives? And see, you’re doing it already. So now I’m telling you you’re going to be fine, and I’m right about that too. So go get an energy drink or something and get ready to present. I have to go, I have to . . . but I’ll watch on the live manual hookup.” She patted Mehrnaz’s back. “And don’t forget your spell-casting thing! You’re such a star.”
“You made me shine,” Mehrnaz said, and leaned over and kissed Dairine’s forehead.
Dairine smiled. “Go on, get out of here before I faint some more.”
Mehrnaz bounced up, made a little baby-wave at Dairine, bowed to everyone else, and vanished.
“I think that’s all the cute I can stand for one day,” Dairine said. “Can I please go home and have some coffee before I leave for Wellakh?”
Nita rolled her eyes at her dad. “She’s all yours . . .”
Nita wandered back to where Kit had been watching this farewell and others. “I’ve just about had it,” she said. “Too much excitement. Shall we stick around for Mehrnaz and the other guy, or should we wander?”
“You could convince me,” Kit said—and then paused, suddenly going stiff and tense. “Except . . .”
Nita stared at him. “What’s the matter?”
Kit pointed. About fifty yards away, a tall dark shape draped all in shadows was standing quite still and watching them.
Nita laughed. “Feel around you,” she said. “It’s not our old friend. This is . . . someone different. Come on . . .”
She bounced over to him, Kit following her. When they came to a stop and the dust was settling, Nita said, “Pluto, Kit. Kit, Pluto.” She smiled. “See, I got it in the right order that time.”
Kit’s eyes widened. “Excellent Planetary,” he said, with a bow, “greetings, and may our orbits cross without too great a perturbation.”
He bowed to Kit in turn. “Always a pleasure to meet a cousin who is learned in the protocols,” he said. “I hope you’ll forgive me.” He turned to Nita. “Third time’s the charm, they say. May I have a word?”
“Sure,” she said, mystified, and moved a short distance away.
He followed her in his drift of shadows. “My own sphere calls me,” he said, “and I won’t be here much longer: just until the last two have presented. But before I leave I feel I should warn you that some of us who’ve been here have not merely been scouting new talent. Some of us are investigating possible future colleagues.”
Nita stared.
The shadowy shape looked down at her with an amused glint in its darker-than-dark eyes. “There is a sort of . . . I think in your idiom the phrase would be ‘steering committee.’ Those of us who have experience of more than one solar system lead it, as we’re thought to be less invested in the inevitable in-system politicking: more objective. In years when the Invitational’s held, normally one or another of us will be in attendance, looking for wizards who might be suited to such a role. Ideally, these are individuals who are not overawed by size or power, who’ve survived fairly broad or deep experience acquired rather early. Frequent change of specialties can be an indicator in some cases, or dissatisfaction with one area of study that leads to research into another. Sometimes personal crises are involved, but that’s not necessarily a diagnostic.”