all this stuff back later. I m planning on it! Here, Kit s mama said, coming in with a jacket that, Nita judged, could probably keep Kit warm in Antarctica. Kit took it from her and flung it through the access to the pup tent, where it vanished. Mama, he said, we really have to go, or we re going to be late. Is that it No, his mother said, and handed him a brown paper bag. Here s your lunch. Kit sighed, twisted around, and put the bag into his backpack, which he was wearing fully slung, as if he d expected to be out of there a good while ago. That s it, he said. I don t know, his mama said. I keep getting the idea I ve forgotten something Tell me later, Mama, Kit said, pulling up the shade of the pup-tent access interface and stowing its rod in his backpack. I ll call you. And then I can come back for whatever it is. Ponch, who had been lying on his back between Carmela and the TV, now got up, shook himself, and stood there with his tongue hanging out. Is it time Yes, it is, Kit said. Mama… He went over to her and hugged her hard. Nita was astonished to see Kit s fairly hard-boiled mom actually getting teary, and fighting to manage it. Tell Pop I ll call him tonight, Kit said. I will, sweetie. Carmela looked up at Kit and just waved at him. Bring me stuff, she said. If I remember, Kit said, very offhandedly. Nita controlled her smile; she d already seen the shopping list Carmela had given him. Come on, Kit said to her. With Ponch bouncing around them, he and Nita went out the back door and headed into Kit s backyard, making their way to the cover of the sassafras woods out in the back. To anyone who might have been watching, they vanished among the leaves. And then, a few seconds later, with just the slightest pop! of displaced air, they vanished much more thoroughly. Nita and Kit and Ponch arrived in Grand Central Terminal, where they normally went when making a transit at peak times into a dark and quiet place away from the Main Concourse proper but still inside the terminal, near one of the northernmost of the westward-pointing tracks. The platform between tracks eleven and thirteen was a spot where wheeled wire freight baskets and the occasional locked mail container were left for later pickup. There was rarely anyone there in the middle of the day, and the area was only dimly lit by the red eyes of infrared spots, while hidden security cameras passed pictures of what the spots showed them to the train master s office. No security camera, of course, can do anything about a wizard who is both invisible and shielded against infrared leakage. Nita and Kit popped out of nowhere into the dark, being careful to minimize the air displacement when they did there was no point in appearing invisibly while also making a noise like a gunshot. Carefully, Nita and Kit made their way toward where the train gates opened onto the Main Concourse, and then down to where platform thirty-three joined the main strip of platforms on the upper level. It was still hard to be careful enough, though. Ow! Sorry, I didn t see you. Nita had to snicker softly at that. It s mutual. There s the door Yeah. Are we away from the cameras now Wait a sec…Yeah, no new ones since we were here last. Let s lose these. They both stepped into the shadows, dumped the spells that cloaked them, and flicked back into visibility. Kit slipped out of his backpack, brushed himself down, and put the backpack over one shoulder again. Itchy Nita said. Yeah, being invisible does that to me…It didn t used to. He glanced down at Ponch. I think I m catching it from somebody. It s not my fault, Ponch said, sounding virtuous. Maybe you re just starting to feel your skin for a change. Kit rolled his eyes. Come on, he said. They went out through the gate for the platform between tracks fifteen and sixteen and paused just past it, looking up and down the length of the Main Concourse. It was a bright day; the scattered light of the sunbeams striking through the great south windows washed through the dusty early-afternoon air and lit up the turquoise of the painted sky high above them, washing out its stars. As they walked across the Concourse, good smells came from every direction most obviously from the steak restaurant at one end of the Concourse terrace and the progressive American restaurant at the other. Whaddaya think, Kit said. Food hall Nita gave him a pretend-shocked look. You mean you re not going to just sit down on the stairs here and eat your bag lunch Kit gave Nita a look. I m saving it for when I m feeling homesick. Meanwhile… Aha, said a voice from just below knee level. I heard you were coming through this morning. Nita looked down. Standing by them was a big, stocky, silvery gray tabby cat, waving his tail, and Nita knew only she and Kit and Ponch could see him because he was using a form of selective invisibility that left him visible to wizards but invisible to other humans. Hey, Urruah! Nita said. Dai stih ! Urruah was one of the feline wizards who kept the New York worldgates running properly, cats being much better than other Earthly species at seeing the superstrings on which the gates structures were hung. Ponch, Kit said, would you come sit over here so it doesn t look like we re talking to the floor Thanks. Ponch sat down next to Urruah, gazing at him. For a moment or so their gazes locked, then Ponch put down his ears, which had been up, and let his tongue hang out. Urruah s whiskers went forward. Nice doggy, he said. Woof, woof, Ponch said, his eyes glinting. The irony was audible. Good to see you, Kit said. Where s Rhiow today Our esteemed team leader, Urruah said, is over in the FF arhleih Building that s the old post office over on Eighth Avenue getting the substrates ready for when we move the worldgates over. I didn t think the new Penn Station was going to be ready for months yet, Nita said. It s not, Urruah said. But the more time you give the worldgate substrates to root, the less trouble the gates give you when you put them in place. We re getting ready to install a mirror substrate in the new building. Meanwhile, I see you re going somewhere for pleasure today… A sponsored noninterventional excursus, Nita said. Urruah grinned. I did one of those once, he said. The species was aquatic: I didn t feel dry for weeks afterward. Nice people, though. Where are they sending you Alaalu. Never heard of it, Urruah said. But why should I There are a billion homeworlds out there, and no time to see them all. By the way, were you issued subsidized jump-throughs You mean the custom worldgates Yeah, Kit said. And they re wrapped up tight Urruah said. You haven t tried to commission them Huh No, Nita said. The docs said you absolutely shouldn t do that. Okay, good, Urruah said. That s fine. But why shouldn t you Kit said. Urruah gave him a look. You mean, why shouldn t you take an open worldgate through an open worldgate Please. Temporal eversions are bad enough. Those you can patch, or revert, if you know how. Even simple spatial ones, if the effect isn t spread over too much area. But a multidimensional one Everything turns inside out Nita said, guessing. Urruah gave her a pitying look. The reality would be much more complex, much worse, and very much less reversible. Since I assume you like this planet as it is, and not as eighth-dimensional origami, let s not do it. When are you two scheduled back Two weeks. Well, have a good time, Urruah said. Try not to destroy your host civilization or anything. Are you going via the Crossings Yeah, Kit said. I hoped so. Would you mind doing an errand as you pass through Sure, Nita said, no problem. Great I appreciate it. Stop by the Stationmaster s office when you get there and tell him we d appreciate it if they d route the elective main trunk nontypical traffic around us for the next thirty-six hours. We re doing some maintenance on the local gate substrates. Kit had his manual open and was making a note. Thirty-six hours…Got it. That should be plenty of time. I ll message him when the maintenance is done, and one of us will drop by in a day or three to discuss some other matters. Urruah got up and stretched. Meanwhile, your transit gate will be off platform eighteen. We just moved it over there from thirty; the Metro-North staff are doing track welding today. The locus ll be patent for the Crossings in about six minutes, after the two-twenty to Croton-Harmon gets out of your way. If you hurry, you can catch it. Thanks, Nita said. Dai, big guy. Dai, Urruah said to her and Kit, and waved his tail at Ponch as he turned. Auhw heei u uuw lau hwu rrrhh uiu, Ponch said to Urruah. Urruah paused in midturn, and Nita s eyes widened slightly as she caught sight of the look on Urruah s face. It was always dangerous to judge animals expressions by comparing them with human ones, but wizards knowledge of the subverbal modes of the Speech lent them some slight latitude in reading nonhuman expressions at least those of creatures from their own worlds that were not too far removed from them in basic psychology. Whatever Ponch had said, it had been in Ailurin, the cats language, and it hadn t been something Urruah had been expecting. It had also gone by too quickly for Nita to listen in the Speech and hear what it had meant. Uh, yes, certainly, Urruah said, recovering himself. He waved his tail at them all once more, then strolled off across the Main Concourse, weaving from side to side to avoid the commuters, who couldn t see him. They turned away, and Kit looked at Ponch with some surprise. What was that about Kit said. I didn t know you spoke cat. Correspondence course, said Ponch, and kept on walking. Nita threw Kit a glance. Have I told you recently, she said silently, that your dog is getting strange You and the rest of the world… The three of them made their way to the gate for platform eighteen and, once through it, slipped to the right of it, away from the main part of the platform, where they wouldn t be seen disappearing. Hurry up, Ponch said as Kit s invisibility spell came down over him, too. It itches! So stop complaining and come on, Kit said. They walked down the length of the platform, staying to the left side, where there was no train. People went tearing past them on the right as down at the end of the platform the 2:20 s conductor yelled Boarrrrrrrrrrrd! Those last few people made it onto the train, its doors closed, and with a great revving roar of locomotive engines, deafening in that confined space, it slowly began to pull out. Kit and Nita and Ponch stayed off to the side while a few more people came running down the platform, saw that the train was already on its way out, and slowed to a stop, then turned and went back down toward the Main Concourse to find out when the next train was. We re clear, Nita said softly. Come on. The three of them made their way down to the end of the platform, where steps led down to the track level. The steps were of no interest to them, though: They looked to their left, where no train stood…but where the air just past the platform s edge, to a wizard s eye, rippled gently, as if with uprising heat. It s patent, Kit said. Let s go. Ponch, jump it, the edge is sharp… I know that! Kit grinned, took a deep breath, glanced at Nita. She nodded. They stepped forward together, into the empty air, into the dark, as Ponch jumped past them… … and the three of them stepped out again a long second later, ditching their invisibility spells in the process, into the white brilliance of the Nontypical Transit area at the Crossings Hypergate Facility on Rirhath B. The gating was a hardwired one, long-established and with a lot of comfort features built in for the convenience of the wizards who used it every day on business. Nita and Kit came out on the other side without feeling the unsettling effects usually associated with moving several light-years between worlds, which were not only spinning in different directions and velocities but being dragged through interstellar space by their home stars along wildly differing vectors. The three of them took a moment to just stand there on the shining white floor and look around. The place was worth looking at. Nontypical Transit was a wide empty space about the size of a football field, and around it that wide white floor went on and on for so far around on all sides that Nita was fairly sure she ought to have been able to see the curvature of the world, had it not been so completely covered with people of a thousand different species. Is it rush hour she said. Probably. Let s get out of here before something materializes on top of us. This wasn t really a concern, Nita knew, as the manual made it plain that the whole NT area was programmed not to allow two different transportees, whether using wizardry or another form of worldgating, to occupy the same space. All the same, she and Kit and Ponch made their way toward the edge of the Nontypical Transit area, looking up at what every tourist passing through the Crossings spent some time admiring: the ceiling. Or rather, the ceilings, for there were thousands of them, real and false, interpenetrating one another or floating under or over one another, in a myriad of airy, randomly shaped structures of glass and metal and other materials that Nita didn t immediately recognize. The effect was like a shattered, miles-wide, horizontal stained glass window, eternally looking for new and interesting ways to assemble itself, and then eternally changing its mind. It was morning at the moment, and the violent silver-gilt light of Rirhath B, only slightly softened by the eternal green-white cloud of daylight hours, burned through the glass high above them and cast bright, sliding shadows on the vast floor in a thousand colors, all changing every moment as ceilings high up in the tremendous structure briefly eclipsed one another and parted company again. It s different from last time, Kit said. Nita nodded as they finally reached the end of the NT area. It had been night the last time they d been here, and at night the ceilings simply seemed to go away, appearing to leave the whole vast terminal floor open to the view of Rirhath B s astonishing night sky a crowded vista of short-period variable stars, all swelling and shrinking like living things that breathed light. This is nice, too, Nita said, and then had to laugh at herself as they headed out into the main terminal floor. Nice was a poor word for this tremendous space, for its many cubic miles of stacked-up glass and metal galleries, holding offices, stores, restaurants, and a hundred other kinds of facilities for which English has no words. Nita and Kit and Ponch made their way down the main drag toward the core of the terminal structure, taking their time. There were three main wings to the Crossings, each several miles long, and there were small intergates strung all down the length of each wing, marked on the floor by ellipses in various visible and invisible colors. There was also a selective-friction slidewalk down one side of each wing, which, while looking no different than the rest of the polished white floor, would scoot you along at high speed if you were in a hurry. But Nita was in no rush, and neither was Kit. Ponch paced along beside them, plainly enjoying himself, looking at all the strange people and smelling the strange smells, and amiably wagging his tail. Scattered down the length of the mile-wide wing before them, in the middle of the floor, were platforms and daises and kiosks and counters of various shapes and sizes, each with a long, tall, cylindrical black sign on a black metal pole. These were gate indicators, flashing their destinations and patency times in hundreds of languages and hundreds of colors. Kit paused by one of these as they came up to it, a ring-fenced area where a number of people who looked like huge furbearing turtles striped in orange and gray were waiting for their gate to go patent. Kit put his hand on the pole and said in the Speech, Information for Alaalu On the side facing him and Nita, the jarring red symbols that had previously been showing there blanked out and were replaced by a long string of symbols in blue, in the Speech, which uncurled itself down the length of the sign. Wing three, Nita said, gate five-oh-six… In a little more than an hour, Kit said. Great, Nita said. We can sit down somewhere near the gate and have a snack. Kit got a dubious look. Uhh… Nita laughed at him: Kit had had a major problem with some of the local food their last time through. This time, she said, just don t eat anything you don t recognize, and you ll be fine. Same rule as for the school cafeteria, I guess, Kit said. Yeah, why not But let s get that errand done for Urruah first. Ye