t in the food court that had a huge salad bar. Fortunately, it was at about that point that Carmela began describing one of her favorite places up there the ice cream stand. The others, even Roshaun, were enthralled by this. You freeze food, and then you eat it Roshaun said. Don t you break your teeth Not if you re careful, Carmela said. She went on talking about ice cream for some minutes, until the bus came. Dairine was fascinated by how much attention Roshaun was paying Carmela. He s not all that interested in ice cream, Dairine thought. Kit is just about going to bust a gut when he hears about this. I can t wait for him to call in fact, if I have a chance, I should message him myself from the mall. The bus pulled up, and Sker ret and Filif regarded it with wonder. Roshaun eyed it with some suspicion. There are other people in this vehicle, he said. Of course there are, Dairine said behind him. Wizards are supposed to support public transport. It s ecologically sound. Besides, you were the one who wanted to use ground transport and see your local environment. Well, here s the environment for you. So get in, put the money I gave you in the box, and sit down! Roshaun did as he was told, though not without throwing a glance at Dairine that suggested he would discuss this impertinence with her later. She snorted and sat down herself. The ride took about twenty minutes, which ranked among the twenty longest minutes of Dairine s life. She had cautioned her colleagues not to speak in the bus more than they had to. Because they were using the Speech, the other bus riders would hear them exactly as if they were speaking in their own languages and some of the ethnicities in the area might find that a little strange, in terms of the way the strangers looked. Especially, Dairine thought, considering the kinds of things these guys are likely to he saying if they get started. But, by and large, the visitors behaved themselves pretty well, at least in terms of not talking. Nothing Dairine could do or say would keep them from plastering their noses up against the window of the bus at least in Filif s and Sker ret s cases; Roshaun would not have done anything so declasse, and sat there looking scornfully unfocused. But even he would steal the occasional glance of wonder out the windows, and the others gawked at everything they saw, exclaiming softly to themselves sometimes when they just couldn t hold it in any longer. Everything was amazing to them. Storefronts, parked cars, parking meters, traffic lights, real estate signs in front of houses, trees and flowers, garbage in the street…and advertising. Especially advertising. Dairine spent nearly half the bus ride, from the point where they left her town to the point where they entered Hempstead town and drove through it toward the shopping center, explaining what milk was and why it was important that you should got some. Yet at the same time, the bus ride made Dairine nostalgic for the first time she had gone off-planet, when everything had been new and strange. As they piled off the bus in the parking lot of the shopping center, Dairine remembered her first alien parking lot, and how she had nearly been killed by any number of alien vehicles before she got her bearings. And how I talked to somebody s luggage for the better part of five minutes, she thought, before I realized what I was doing. It seemed like a long time ago now. She had almost forgotten what it was like. But she was quickly being reminded; and the other wizards attitude toward the strangeness of her world was beginning to affect her. She found herself looking at shopping-cart pens and sliding doors and the displays in the outer shop windows of the shopping center as if she had never seen such things before. It was refreshing. They went into the mall, and in a matter of seconds, Dairine was being bombarded with questions. What s that for Why is that colored that way You mean people actually ride on those They should fall off, shouldn t they Isn t that beautiful! Why is all this water in here What s that smell Are those decorations That was the question that got asked most frequently. Filif was fixated on the concept. Those decorations, Filif said, those look especially nice… He moved over to the window in question and peered in. Dairine came up behind him, not wanting to touch him that always ran the risk of breaking the visual illusion but she leaned over him and whispered, I don t think these are for you. Why not Well… Dairine looked up at the sign over the store s door. Can you read that Filif turned his human face up toward the sign, dutifully. Though he seemed to be looking at it with human eyes, somehow Dairine could still perceive the alert attention of a whole array of berries trained on the letters. Victoria s did I pronounce that right Secret. That s right, Dairine said. Who s Victoria said Filif. And what s its secret I ve never been clear about that myself, Dairine said. But if you start wearing those, people are going to talk. Come on. She turned away, having a great deal of difficulty dealing with the image of a Christmas tree in a garter belt. Filif moved away carefully, but not without a backward look at the bright colors of the lingerie in the window. Then Dairine saw Sker ret hurrying ahead of them, and she began to fear the worst. Sker ret she said. Wait up! She went after him as quickly as she could, with a glance at Carmela to suggest that she should keep an eye on the others. But Carmela already had her hands full. She and Roshaun had paused by a window display of clothes and were apparently discussing them. Sker ret had moved a little farther away and was closely examining a freestanding gift stall stacked high with balloons, cards, gift plaques, and bright-colored candies. Oh no, Dairine thought. What is it with the colors These guys are like five-year-olds. The sound of laughter came to Dairine from down the mall. A group of five older kids high school juniors, Dairine guessed came wandering along toward them, much more interested in the shoppers of their own age than in the merchandise. Hey, sweet things! one of them called to Carmela. Who s your skinny friend Carmela didn t respond. Hey, elf boy! shouted another of the guys. Nice hair! This was followed by a chorus of snickering and laughter. Dairine saw Roshaun draw himself up to his full height and turned to favor the oncoming group with an expression of truly withering scorn. Elf boy he said softly. What kind of disrespectful, speciesist One of his hands moved in a gesture that Dairine recognized as the preliminary to producing some predesigned wizardry. She gulped and hurried toward him. But Carmela merely glanced over her shoulder at the approaching group. Ah, ah, ah, she said under her breath, and reached out sideways to take Roshaun s hand in hers. Roshaun s eyes went wide, and he stopped absolutely still, as if he d been frozen that way. Dairine slowed down a little, caught between surprise and admiration. She may not be a wizard, she thought, but she s got some moves. Just loudly enough to be heard, as the five passed close by, Carmela said to Roshaun, Don t mind them. They re just wonder-struck by your profound majesty and glory and so forth. We don t get a lot of princes around here, and when they see somebody like you and contrast your elevated station with their tiny antlike lives, it s really hard for them to cope. Carmela said all this not in English, but in perfect Japanese, the language she d been studying when she first started to pick up the Speech. As wizards, Dairine and Roshaun had no problem understanding her; they heard the language through the Speech and made sense of it that way. But the five guys were completely thrown off. They saw what seemed like a Japanese translator of some kind who looked at them as coolly as if they were members of an alien species who was apparently carefully translating what they d said for someone who looked like a living anime star, someone whose expression was better suited to the last half hour of a samurai movie than anything else…the part where things really break loose. Dairine saw faint unease ripple through the guys as they found themselves facing something they didn t understand. The guys passed close to Carmela and Roshaun, who watched them with expressions of clinical interest and complete disdain, and didn t stop just headed on down the mall. It took a few moments for them to get their composure back, and then one of them muttered something under his breath. Roshaun looked at Carmela in curiosity as Dairine came over to them. Duckhead he said. He called me a duckhead. A…duck That s some kind of flying creature, isn t it Carmela had let go of Roshaun s hand and was gazing after the five nonplussed guys with barely concealed amusement. Now she glanced over at Dairine, not saying anything. Uh, Dairine said. Yeah, it is. They swim, too. Roshaun looked thoughtful. I see. The idiom suggests that a humanoid can share the same attributes of flexibility…the ability to adapt to multiple environments. I like that. Evidently they saw they d misjudged me, even if it took them a few moments. Dairine was ever so glad that what Roshaun had said had come out as a statement rather than a question, but then it didn t seem to be Roshaun s style to ask a lot of questions. Saved by a personal blind spot, Dairine thought with relief. Normally she hated being saved by anyone or anything, but at the moment, she was all too willing to make an exception. Then Dairine remembered Sker ret. She looked around in panic and saw him proceeding quickly up the mall ahead of them, looking in windows, while a shiny, silver, Mylar balloon bobbed and trailed along behind him. Hey, he s got the hang of money already, she thought. Maybe this isn t going all that badly. Ahead of her, Carmela was now actually strolling along arm in arm with Roshaun, pointing out things in the store windows to him. How does she do it Dairine wondered. She s got him eating out of her hand. Maybe I don t want to know…She hurried off after Sker ret. He was going up one of the escalators at some speed. Dairine thought she knew why. The smell of fast food was coming from somewhere up ahead, and Sker ret had targeted on that with the intensity of a heat-seeking missile looking for the tailpipe of a jet. Sker ret, she called after him, this is really no time for that. We can do this later! In fact we can all do it together! Do what Sker ret said. Eat, Dairine said. Again. Sker ret was standing in the middle of the food court when Dairine caught up with him. His disguise was firmly in place, but Dairine could still dimly perceive, underneath the illusion, all his eyes writhing in every possible direction, looking around at all the goodies. Sker ret turned slowly in a circle, looking at the kosher hot dog place, the McDonald s, the Chinese fast food place, the burrito joint This is wonderful! he said. Every planet should have places like this! Oh, come on, Sker ret, Dairine said. Rirhath B has places like this! Even the Crossings has some. Not like this, Sker ret said, a little sadly. He stopped spinning, training all his available eyes on the kosher hot dog place. Besides, I m not allowed to go into the ones in the Crossings. For the moment, Dairine concealed her surprise. Sker ret made his way back toward the escalator, stepping sadly onto the downward-running side and riding it back the way he d come with an expression of deep sorrow. Dairine followed him, wondering what that had been about. Something else to ask him about later… They rejoined the group and then set about systematically wandering through the entire mall, wing by wing, until everyone had seen everything. Even Roshaun was beginning to get a little tired as they got near the end of the crawl a source of irrational pleasure for Dairine. Some of that otherwise indelible arrogance came off him; he looked like he just wanted to sit down for a while. Goodness, Carmela said, as Roshaun sat down on the bench at the base of one of the escalators, we have to do something about your stamina. If you re going to become serious about mall crawling, you can t poop out after an hour like that. I have not pooped out, Roshaun said. But my feet do pain me somewhat. And keeping up the disguise takes a certain amount of energy. Perhaps a restorative Food! Sker ret said. Dairine chuckled. Carmela, she said could you take these guys upstairs and get them something Ice cream, probably. Filif… She looked over at him; he was gazing down the length of the mall with a yearning expression. I m going to be your personal shopper for a little while. You and I should go off and see about some of those decorations we were discussing. That way, I don t have to worry about you stumbling into the salad bar, which is probably going to look to you like the site of a mass murder. Filif was delighted. Yes! he said. Let s go! You have enough money on you, Carmela Dairine said. I brought some spare cash It s okay, Carmela said. I m fairly loaded today. She turned to Roshaun and Sker ret. Come on, boys, she said. They got up, and she shepherded them through the mall. Come on, Dairine said to Filif. Together they headed down the center of the shopping mall, toward the place that Dairine had spotted Filif looking at with most interest earlier. Well, she thought, the second-most interest. The store she had in mind was a chain sportswear shop specializing in bright colors indeed, colors that were almost too bright for Dairine to look at. But she had noticed several times now that whenever Filif stopped to look in any window for long, it had been one where Day-Glo colors were splashed onto things with abandon. Now, as they headed down the mall together, Dairine became aware of some looks from other kids on spring break who were passing by on the other side of the mall, and looking curiously at Filif. Hey, kid, one of them shouted at him, you walk like a dweeb! There was a gust of laughter from the other kids. Dairine ostentatiously ignored them, but she stole a glance at Filif and saw that this was slightly true: His mimicked gait was already somewhat less polished than it had been when they left home. He, too, was getting tired. Hey, Dairine said, never mind this. We ll get you out of here and come back another time. But right now maybe we should get you back home, where you can get that off Oh, no, Filif said. Not until we see the decorations! She smiled at him. He was so intense about it. Okay, Dairine said. Just hang on. They went into the sportswear store, a tremendous place full of sneakers and workout clothes and shorts and bathing suits all in the year s popular colors, any one of which, Dairine thought, should burn her retinas. Look at the mannequins, Dairine said. See those models of people, up on top of the racks and in the windows Those give you an idea how we wear these things. And over there she pointed are places to try things on, if you see something you like…We can always do that another time, though. There are hats, and T-shirts, and shorts…all kinds of things. Filif nodded. I see, he said. Okay, Dairine said. Look around a little, and see what you think of things. We ll go in a little while and catch up with the others. Filif made his way off among the racks, delighted. Dairine watched him begin unhooking shirts and shorts from the racks, holding them up to the light, admiring the colors. For all I know, Dairine thought, maybe there s not a lot of bright color in his world. And his people seem to go about their lives just walking around in the dirt…She turned, looked at a T-shirt, and then turned her attention back to the mall outside, listening carefully. There were no sounds of screaming, or of people running. The disguises must still be holding all right upstairs. I just hope Carmela yells for me if Sker ret gets out of hand, she thought. That boy s appetite… She walked idly between the racks of T-shirts, then started looking at some bathing suits. In the background, over the insipid chain-store Muzak, she could hear one of the staff saying to somebody in the changing room, Sir, can I give you a hand with that No All right. You, sir, how are you doing in there You need that in a twelve Fine… Dairine sighed and turned her attention back to the T-shirts. I can t believe how garish the colors are this year, she thought. I can t wait for it to be next year, when the style changes and things might calm down a little bit. She yawned again. Sir said the cheerful voice in the background. How are you in there Those sizes all right Fine. Hello Sir Dairine stretched, pulled a bathing suit off the rack, looked in astonishment at the garish print. Not on your life, she tho