completion:
durationto present date: 90.3
resolution: nil
Kit stared at the duration figure for a moment: There was something wrong with it. That doesn t look right, he said at last. Did a decimal point get misplaced or something That looks like months.
Itis months, Tom said. Just a whisker over three, which is why it came up for attention today. The manual normally flags such extended Ordeals to be audited by aSenior .
I thought nobody was allowed to interfere with a wizard s Ordeal, Kit said. It s what determines whether you ought to be a wizard in the first place. Whether you can run into the Lone Power and survive
Normally that s true, Tom said. But Ordeals aren t always so clear-cut; they do sometimes go wrong. A resolution can get delayed somehow, or there can be local interference that keeps the resolution from happening. An area s Seniors are allowed a certain amount of information about Ordeals among probationary wizards who d be in theircatchment area if things went right, especially if something goes wrong in a specific sort of way a stuck Ordeal, or a contaminated one. We have some latitude to step in and try to kick that Ordeal back into operation again. While interfering as little as possible.
Kit nodded, glancing to one side as Carl came up from the basement with a very large roll of duct tape. Ah, Tom said. The substance that binds the universe together.
We ll see, Carl said, and benthimself over sideways again.
It s a brute force solution, Tom said. Inelegant. The phone s right there!
Carl ignored him and started doing something with the duct tape.
So now we come to this kid, Tom said, indicating the highlighted listing again.
Clunk! went the circuit breaker, and the house went dark again; only the text on the page in front of them continued to glow, while in the back bedroom the dogs paused, then went on barking. Tom gestured once more at the breaker box, and the lights came on. It s not like he s been physically absent from the area for all this time, as far as I can tell, Tom said. If he were, certainly there would have been something about it in the news, and there s been nothing. But at the same time, this is not a normal duration for a human Ordeal. We need to find out what s going on, but quietly. Do you or Nita know him well enough to look in on him and see what s happening Or do you know anyone who does
Kit shook his head. I can check withNeets , but she s sure never mentioned him to me, Kit said. Why bring me in on this, though You re aSenior ; you d probably be able to tell a lot better than I can what s going on with him.
Well, Tom said, let s put it this way. How come you chose to do a direct transit here rather than just walk over and knock on the front door
Kit was briefly surprised that Tom would bother asking so obvious a question. It s not exactly like you ve got any kids of your own, he said. And if the neighbors keep seeing kids wandering in and out of here every five minutes
Say no more, Tom said. We re on the same wavelength. It s just another facet of the way wizards have to behave in our culture. Attracting attention toyourself is usually unwise. In this particular situation, if people start noticingyou in the neighborhood around the object of our mutual interest, they won t think too much about it it s not far enough from your own stamping grounds to provoke suspicion.Whereas if Carl or I went to investigate personally, notice might be taken. This kind of initial fact-finding is better suited to a wizard of your age.
Besides, Carl said, peering up at the bottom of the cupboard, lately you ve been evincing a certain talent for finding things.
Well,Ponch has, Kit said.
I m not sure he d be producing these results without you as part of the team, Carl said, as he appliedduct tape liberally to the cupboard s underside. Let s not get overly tangled up in details at the moment.
From a man in your position, that has a hollow ring, Tom said.
Sure, go ahead, mock me in my torment.
Anyway, are you willing Tom said. To go over there during the next couple of days See what the kid s doing, physically, talk to him if you can, try to get a sense of what his state of mind is.
Sure, Kit said. Am I allowed to tell him I m a wizard, if he asks
I ll leave that up to you, Tom said. Normally I would suggest that you try to avoid it if possible. You don t want to take the chance of altering his perception of his Ordeal, maybe even making him think you re supposed to be involved in it somehow. But if you can come by any sense of why his Ordeal s taking him so long, I d be glad to hear it.
Carl straightened up. Okay, he said. The strip lights under the cupboards were now actually on. He looked at the light they cast on the counter with some satisfaction. At least now I m going to be able to see what I m cooking without getting blinded. He went over to the wall, turned the dimmer switch.
Clunk!
I could stop by the supermarket on the way home and get you some candles, Kit said as he got up. Fire still works.
Very funny, Carl said. I hope that someday, when duct tape is sticking toyour gray hairs
Kit, Tom said, ignore the whimpering from the sidelines for the moment Be careful not to get sucked in. This youngster may seem very, very stuck when you meet him, and you ve got to resist the temptation to give him help he doesn t need. You could end up endangering yourself, not to mention altering the focus of his Ordeal which could make him fail it.Or worse.
I ll watch out.
Okay. Go see what you can find out. You may want to leave your manual on record when you re talking to him; it may pick up some nuance that you miss at first. He paused. Listen to that, he said.
Kit listened, puzzled. I don t hear anything.
What the master of sarcasm over there means is that the dogs have stopped barking, Carl said. They ve been having some kind of metaphysical discussion for days now. And they re loud about it.
Have they been asking you about the meaning of life Kit said.
Both Tom and Carl gave Kit a look. Uh, yes, Tom said.
Kit covered his face. It s my fault, he said. A new kind ofblackmail, and I know where they got it. They probably want dog biscuits.
New tactic, Tom said wearily, getting up. Old problem. I ll bear it in mind.
Ponchcame lolloping back into the dining room. Kit got up, too. I ll get in touch as soon as I find anything out, Kit said, opening the patio door to letPonch out.
Thanks,fella , Tom said. Daistiho.
Yeah, you go well, too. Well enough not to electrocute somebody, anyway!
They headed back the way they d come, Kit pausing briefly in Tom s backyard with the spell-chain in his hands to adjust the variable that determined how much and how fast the air displaced around their transiting mass when they came out of nowhere. Ponch was bouncing up and down around him, making it difficult for Kit to remember where in the structure of the spell the variable actually was. Would you sitdown he said under his breath toPonch , while passing the softly glowing chain of words through his hands until the little barbed bit sticking out from the variable scratched his skin. Kit held the word up in front of his eyes, squinting at it like someone threading a needle, and managed to catch the delicate outward-hooked tail of the spell character between finger and thumb.
Chicken!Ponch was shouting in his head.Hurry up! It s chicken !
And philosophy goes right out the window, huh Kit said as he twiddled the mass-displacement variable; it shaded down from a bright blue to a darker one. You re a bad influence on those guys, you know that
Me Never. Chicken!
Right, Kit said, folding the variable s tail back in and shaking the spell through a quick sine wave tounkink it. It fell smoothly to the ground and knotted itself. Now sit down or you regonna wind up in two different places, and not in one piece!
Ponchsat down but still managed to bounce a little.
The spell flared up, its blue a little darker this time. A second later they were standing in Kit s backyard again, without the ear-popping effect this time, and the light faded out of the spell.
Better Kit said, winding the spell-chain up and sticking it back in his pocket.