Dairine put her plate aside and stood up. “Irina, if you had to apologize to her about me,” she said, “then I’m sorry. But the way they’re treating Mehrnaz is terrible. Her family is screwed up and her home life is one giant head game. They’re kicking her around like, I don’t know, a football or something, and if it doesn’t stop they’re going to screw up somebody who could be a really powerful wizard, really useful. More useful than the whole bunch of them.” She scowled. “And that aunt . . . She is a complete waste of time.”
Irina stood quiet for a moment. “I remember seeing something in one of your personality précis about your tendency to speak truth to power,” she said. “It wasn’t exaggerated.” And Irina smiled. “Or the bit about your loyalty, once you’ve decided someone’s worthy of it. Those qualities are all very well. But if it turns out the situation warrants it, and I can’t calm things down, I may require you to apologize formally to Mehrnaz’s aunt.”
Dairine scowled at her. “If I have to,” she said, “I’ll do it. But at a price.”
Irina’s eyebrows went up. The parakeet stared at Dairine and made a scratchy little scolding noise.
“I want somebody to look into her situation,” Dairine said. “Somebody who’s got the power to do something about it. It’s not fair for her to have to suffer like this.”
That smile came back again. “Not the kind of price one might have expected,” Irina said. “ . . . But I think we can agree on that. Meantime, you can help me out by writing up a description of what instigated the exchange. Be thorough. Give me at least three sets of reasons for what you did, each one better than the last.”
“Shouldn’t be hard,” Dairine said.
“Have it to me tomorrow morning, then,” Irina said. And she nodded to Dairine, resettled the baby sling, and walked off.
Dairine swallowed as it hit her what she’d said and done just a few minutes earlier. And Nita thinks her temper’s something, Dairine thought. Maybe the stress is getting to me . . .
She went off with her iced coffee to tour slowly around the room, looking for Mehrnaz. She was getting a sense, now, that Mehrnaz liked to be on the edge of things where she could see what was going on and make the decision whether or not she wanted to be drawn in. Sure enough, after five minutes or so Dairine spotted her over by the room’s back wall, leaning against it with her hands cupped in front of her and looking vague.
Dairine headed over to her. “You okay?”
“Sure. Just making dua.”
“Making do with what?”
“No! Making dua,” Mehrnaz said, amused. “Talking to God.” She shrugged.
“Oh.”
Mehrnaz laughed at Dairine. “What? It’s not like you’re not always saying ‘oh God’ this and ‘oh God’ that!” She smiled. “It’s not a big deal, I know it’s just how you talk. But God likes it when you make time for conversation. Likes to be asked for things, told what you need, told what you’re thinking. I mean, isn’t that some of why we’re here? It’s not like Allah needs anything. He likes to hear from us, that’s all. Is that iced tea?”
“Oh, no, coffee. The ice kind of watered it down.”
“Tea, I really need some tea . . .”
“Then let’s go get you some. I just had a talk with Irina . . . best you know what happened.”
The evening went on. Kit had spent a while letting himself be drawn into new groups, chatting with people he hadn’t seen since the Pullulus War. It’s very relaxing. Which is a bit of a surprise: sometimes I get so stressed meeting people. But these are my people. Wizards . . .
He’d purposely been trying to give Nita some space today. Some remark she’d made to him earlier about the two of them “living sheltered lives” had stuck with him. She doesn’t need me looking over her shoulder all the time. There have to be people here she’d rather be talking to without me standing there hanging on every word! Still, his eyes kept roving, seeking her out . . .
Like now. Across the room Kit caught sight of Nita talking briefly to Penn as he was coming off the dance floor. Something inside him squeezed uncomfortably at that. First of all, she looked so good. She’d dressed for summery weather in a little flowery skirt and a kind of low-cut pink top and pink flats, and she looked altogether . . .
Hot. The word you’re looking for is hot. Admit it.
The problem was, he had trouble admitting it. There were lots of girls he thought of That Way, but it wasn’t until recently that he’d ever found himself looking at Nita That Way.
And it was so strange. Sometimes it was all perfectly natural, and he saw her looking back at him and got the sense that she really liked him looking at her That Way. On Mars, for example: the old Martians’ casual daywear, what there was of it, had suited Nita brilliantly—the glint of precious metals in the bodice and hip harness, the flow of translucent veils in that thin Martian wind. Mmf! he thought, flushing a little at the thought.
Then Kit laughed at himself. I’m like some cartoon character with my eyes bugging out. But at the same time, there was no point in pretending otherwise: he liked the feeling. And he’d started wondering, in a casual way, what kinds of feelings she might like. It wasn’t something he spent more than a few hours a week on the Internet researching, and he always made sure to scrub his search history very thoroughly afterward. Where Carmela was concerned, Internet privacy was a concept that afflicted only lesser minds.
He saw Nita make a laughing, dismissive gesture at Penn, a sort of go-away wave, turn her back on him, and walk off. Better, Kit thought. Because as for him . . . even if she were interested in him, which she’s not, he’s nowhere near good enough for her. He doesn’t even know how to see her as a human being. The things he says, honestly . . . somebody should kick him.
Kit sighed and kept on wandering. Why do I see her more clearly when we’re around other people? It’s weird.
Meantime, there were additional distractions. The music of all the voices around him, all the different accents, sometimes using the Speech, sometimes in English, fascinated him. One group of voices, briefly laughing raucously, got his attention, and one voice, recently gone deeper than he remembered it, dominated.
“She is getting hotter by the minute,” it said, “but a wise wizard wouldn’t get too closely involved. She’s armed and dangerous. In fact she’s dangerous whether she’s armed or not.”
“Terrific, though.”
“A real looker.”
“You’d have to wonder what she’d be like.”
“Just look at her, are you kidding?”
“Now, now, kind of objectifying there . . .”
“I would say the divine Ms. Rodriguez is absolutely worth objectifying.”
“With that hair . . .”
“And that butt . . .”
“I can think of somewhere she could sit that down!”
Kit’s eyes widened. He slipped quietly close to the group from behind.
“Excuse me,” he said softly, “but are some of you guys discussing hitting on my sister?”
A shocked silence fell as all eyes present turned toward him. Some of them went confused. Some went embarrassed. “More than hitting on her!” Kit said. “That was sex being discussed!”