Duane, Diane - Wizards - Young Wizards 04 - A Wizard Abroad

VIP免费

2024-12-11 0 0 404.88KB 123 页 5.9玖币

侵权投诉

Diane Duane - Young Wizards 04 - A Wizard Abroad

A Wizard Abroad

by Diane Duane

Young Wizards 04

A Wizard Abroad

Printed in U.S.A.

Dedication:

For Lt. Col. Shaun Johnny' O'Driscoll, USAF (ret.)

CONTENTS

ADMONITION TO THE READER

1. an tSionainn Shannon

2. Cill Cumhaid Kilquade

3. Bri Cualann Bray

4. Ath na Sceire Enniskerry

5. Faoin gCnoc Under the Hill

6. Baile atha Cliath Dublin

7. Slieve na Chulainn Great Sugarloaf Mountain

8. Cheárta na Chill Pheadair Kilpedder Forge

9. Casleán na mBroinn/Caher Matrices Castle Matrix

10. Lughnasád

11. ag na Machairi Teithra The Plains of Tethra

12. Tir na nOg

A SMALL GLOSSARY

file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Duane,%...%20W4%20-%20A%20Wizard%20Abroad%20v1.5.html (1 of 123) [7/14/2004 3:32:22 PM]

Diane Duane - Young Wizards 04 - A Wizard Abroad

Introduction

Contents -Next

ADMONITION TO THE READER

Geography in Ireland is an equivocal thing, and perhaps meant to be so. The more solid the

borderline, the more dangerous the land's own response to it; the vaguer the boundary, the

kindlier. This is best seen in the behavior of the borders between what we consider our own reality,

and the other less familiar realities that shoulder up against it. Such boundaries are never very

solid in Ireland, and never more dangerous than when one tries to define them, to cross over.

Twilight is always safer there than full day, or full dark. This being the case, I have taken

considerable liberties with locations and with 'established' boundaries, including those between

counties and towns. County Wicklow is real enough, but there are a lot of things in the Wicklow in

this book that are not presently located in the 'real' county -and my version of Bray is not meant to

represent the real one… at the moment. The description of the townlands around Ballyvolan Farm

and the neighborhood of Kilquade is more or less real, though the two are actually some miles

apart. And Sugar loaf Mountain looks like parts of its description… occasionally.

Most specifically, though, Castle Matrix exists - possibly more concretely than anything else in the

book. But it has been moved from its present, 'actual' location. Or perhaps one can more rightly

say that Matrix has stayed where it is, where it always is, but Ireland has shifted around it.

Stranger things have happened. In any case, let the inquisitive reader beware… and leave the maps

at home.

—Diane Duane

1. an tSionainn

Shannon

Contents - Prev/Next

I am the Point of a Weapon (that poureth forth combat),

I am the God who fashioneth Fire for a head… Who calleth the hosts from the House of

Tethra? Who is the troop, who is the God who fashioneth edges?

(Lebor Gabdla Erenn, tr. Macalister)

Three signs of the Return: the stranger in the door: the friendless wizard: the unmitigated Sun.

Three signs of the Monomachy: a smith without a forge: a saint without a cell: a day without a

night. (Book of Night with Moon, triptychs 113, 598)

file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Duane,%...%20W4%20-%20A%20Wizard%20Abroad%20v1.5.html (2 of 123) [7/14/2004 3:32:22 PM]

Diane Duane - Young Wizards 04 - A Wizard Abroad

The first that Nita found out about what was going to happen was when she came in after a long

afternoon's wizardry with Kit. They had been working for three days to attempt to resolve a

territorial dispute among several trees. It isn't easy to argue with a tree. It isn't easy to get one to

stop strangling another one with its roots. But they were well along towards what appeared to be a

negotiated settlement, and Nita was worn out.

She came into the kitchen to find her mother cooking. Her mother cooked a great deal as a hobby,

but she also cooked as therapy. Nita began to worry immediately when she noticed that her mother

had embarked on some extremely complicated project that seemed to require three souffle dishes

and the use of every appliance in the kitchen at once. She decided to get out as fast as she could,

before she was asked to wash something. "Hi, Mum," she said, and edged hurriedly towards the

door into the rest of the house.

"What's the rush?" said her mother. “Don't you want to see what I'm doing?"

"Sure," said Nita, who wanted to do no such thing. "What are you doing?"

"I've been thinking," said her mother.

Nita began to worry more than ever. Her mother was at her most dangerous when she was

thinking, and it rarely meant anything but trouble for Nita. 'About what?"

"Sit down, honey. Don't look as if you're going to go flying out the door any minute. I need to talk

to you."

Uh oh… here it comes! Nita sat down and began playing spin-the-spoon games with one of the

wooden spoons that among many other utensils was littering the kitchen table.

“Honey," her mother said,"this wizardry...”

“It's going pretty well with the trees, Mum," Nita said, desperate to guide her mother on to some

subject more positive. Her present tone didn't sound positive at all.

“No, I don't mean that, honey. Talking to trees - that's all right, that doesn't bother me. The kind of

things you've been doing lately… you and Kit…"

Oh no. "Mum, we haven't got in trouble, not really. And we've been doing pretty well, for new

wizards. When you're as young as we are. . ."

"Exactly," her mother said. "When you're as young as you are." She did something noisy with the

blender for a moment and then said, "Hon, don't you think it would be a good idea if you just let all

this - have a rest? Just for a month or so."

Nita looked at her mother without understanding at all, and worrying. "What do you mean?"

"Well, your dad and I have been talking - and you and Kit have been seeing an awful lot of each

other in connection with this wizard business. We're thinking that it might be a good idea if you

two sort of… didn't see each other for a little while."

"Mum!"

"No, hear me out. I understand you're good friends, I know there's nothing… physical going on

between you, so put that out of your mind. We're very glad each of you has such a good friend.

That's not a concern. What is a concern is that you two are spending a lot of time on this magic

stuff, at the expense of everything else. That's all you do. You go out in the morning, you come back

worn out, you barely have energy to speak to us sometimes… What about your childhood?"

"What about it?" Nita said, in some slight annoyance. Her experience of most of her childhood so

far had been that it varied between painful and boring. Wizardry might be painful occasionally,

but it was never boring. 'Mum - you don't understand. This isn't something that you can just turn

off. You take the Wizard's Oath for life."

“Oh, honey!” her mother said in some distress, and dropped a spoon. She picked it up, wiping it off.

file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Duane,%...%20W4%20-%20A%20Wizard%20Abroad%20v1.5.html (3 of 123) [7/14/2004 3:32:22 PM]

Diane Duane - Young Wizards 04 - A Wizard Abroad

'Why do you have to make this harder than it. Never mind. Look. Dad thinks it would be a good

idea if you went to visit your Aunt Annie in Ireland for a month or so, until school starts again."

“Ireland!”

'Well, yes. She's been inviting us over there for a while now. We can't go with you, of course -we've

had our holiday for this year, and Dad has to be at work. He can't take any more time off. But you

could certainly go. School doesn't start until September the ninth. That would give you a good

month and a half now."

There was going to be nothing good about it, as far as Nita was concerned. The best part of the

summer, the best weather, the leisure time that she had been looking forward to using working with

Kit. . .

“Mum," Nita said, changing tack, "how are you going to afford this?"

“Honey, you leave that to your dad and me to handle. Right now we're more concerned with doing

the right thing for you. And for Kit."

“Oh, you've been talking to his parents, have you?"

“No, we haven't. I think they're going to have to sort things out with Kit in their own way: I

wouldn't presume to dictate to them. But we want you to go to Ireland for six weeks or so and take

a breather. And see something different: something in the real world."

Oh dear, Nita thought. They think this is the real world. Or all of it that really matters, anyway.

“Mum," she said, “I don't know if you understand what you're doing here. A wizard doesn't stop

doing wizardry just because they're not at home. If I go on call in Ireland, I go on call, and there's

nothing that's going to stop it. Or can stop it. I've made my promises. If I have to go on call,

wouldn't you rather have me here, where you and Dad can keep an eye on me and know exactly

what's going on all the time?"

Nita's mother frowned at that, and then looked at Nita with an expression compounded of equal

parts of suspicion and amusement. “Sneaky," she said. "No; I'm sorry. Your Aunt Annie will keep

good close tabs on you - we've had a couple of talks with her about that. . ."

Nita's eyebrows went up at that - first in annoyance that it was going to be difficult to get away and

do anything useful if there was need: then in alarm. "Oh, Mum, you didn't tell her that I'm. . ."

“No, we didn't tell her that you're a wizard! What are we supposed to do, honey? Say to your aunt,

"Listen, Anne, you have to understand that our daughter might vanish suddenly. No, I don't mean

run away - just disappear into thin air. And if she goes to the Moon, tell her to dress up warm.” "

Nita's mother gave her a wry look and reached out for the wooden spoon that Nita had been

playing with. “No. You managed to hide it from us long enough, Heaven knows… you shouldn't

have any trouble keeping things under cover with your aunt." She paused to start folding some

beaten egg white into another mixture she had been working on. "Your dad is going to see about

the plane tickets tomorrow. I think it's Saturday that you'll be leaving - the fare is cheaper then."

“I could just, you know, go there," Nita said desperately. "It would save you the money, at least."

“I think we'll do this the old-fashioned way," Nita's mother said calmly. "Even you would have

some logistical problems with arriving at the airport and getting off the plane without anyone

noticing that you hadn't been there before."

Nita frowned and began to work on that one.

“Wo," Nita's mother said. "Forget it. We'll send enough pocket money for you to get along with;

you'll have plenty of kids to play with. . ."

Play with, Nita thought, and groaned inwardly.

“Come on, Neets, cheer up a little! It should be interesting, going to a foreign country for the first

time."

file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Duane,%...%20W4%20-%20A%20Wizard%20Abroad%20v1.5.html (4 of 123) [7/14/2004 3:32:22 PM]

Diane Duane - Young Wizards 04 - A Wizard Abroad

I've been to foreign galaxies, Nita thought. But this I'm not so sure about. However, further

argument wasn't going to help her. No matter: there were ways around this problem, if she would

just keep her mouth shut.

“OK," she said.” I'll go - but I won't like it."

Her mother gazed at her thoughtfully. "I thought you were the one who told me that wizardry was

about doing what you had to, whether you liked it or not?"

“It's true," Nita said, and got up to go out.

“And Nita," her mother said.

"What, Mum?"

“I want your promise that you will not be popping back here on the sly to visit Kit. That little

"beam-me-up-Scotty" spell that he's so fond of, and that I see you two using when you want to save

your train fare for ice cream."

Nita went white, then flushed hot. That was the one option she had been counting on to make this

whole thing tolerable. “Mum! But Mum, it's easy, I can just. . ."

“You can not just. We want you to take a break from each other for a while. Now I want you to

promise me."

Nita let out a long breath. Her mother had her, and knew she did; for a wizard's promise had to be

kept. When you spend your life working with words that describe and explain, and even change,

the way the Universe is, you can't play around with those words, and you can't lie… at least not

without major and unpleasant consequences.

“I promise," Nita said, hating it. “But this is going to be miserable."

“We'll see about that," Nita's mother said. "You go ahead now, and do what you have to do."

“Oh, no!" Kit said. "This is dire."

They were sitting on the Moon, on a peak of the Carpathian Mountains, about twenty miles south

of the crater Copernicus. The view of Earth from there this time of month was good; she was

waxing towards the full, while on the Moon there was nothing but a sun very low on the horizon.

Long, long shadows stretched across the breadth of the Carpathians, so that the illuminated crests

of the jagged peaks stood up from great pools of darkness, like rough-hewn pyramids floating on

nothing. It was cold there; the wizardly force-field that surrounded them snowed flakes of frozen

air gently on to the powdery white rock around them when they moved and changed the field's

inner volume. But cold as it was, it was private.

"We were just getting somewhere with the trees," Nita muttered. "I can't believe this."

"Do they really think it's going to make a difference?"

"Oh, I don't know. Who knows what they think, half the time? And the worst of it is, they won't let

me come back." Nita picked up a small piece of pumice and chucked it away, watching as it sailed

about a hundred meters away in the light gravity and bounced a couple of meters high when it first

hit the ground again. It continued bouncing down the mountain, and she watched it idly. "We had

three other projects waiting to be started. They're all shot now: there won't be any time to do

anything about them before I have to go."

Kit stretched and looked unhappy. "We can still talk mind to mind; you can coach me at a distance

when I need help. Or I can help you. . ."

"It's not the same." She had often enough tried explaining to her parents the 'high' you got from

working closely with another wizard: the feeling that magic made in your mind while working with

another, the texture, was utterly unlike that of a wizardry worked alone - more dangerous, more

difficult, ultimately more satisfying.

Nita sighed. "There must be some way we can work around this. How are your parents handling

file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Duane,%...%20W4%20-%20A%20Wizard%20Abroad%20v1.5.html (5 of 123) [7/14/2004 3:32:22 PM]

Diane Duane - Young Wizards 04 - A Wizard Abroad

things lately?"

At that Kit sighed too. "Variable. My dad doesn't mind it so much. He says, "Big deal, my son's a

brujo." My mother… she has this idea that we are somehow meddling with Dark Forces." Kit made

a fake theremin noise, like that heard in a bad horror movie when the monster is lurking around a

corner, about to jump on someone. Nita laughed.

Kit shook his head. "When are they making you leave?"

"Saturday." Nita rested her chin on one hand, picked up another rock and chucked it away. "All of

a sudden there's all this stuff I have to pack, and all these things we have to do. Go to the passport

office and wave the tickets at them so they'll give me one fast. Go to the bank and get foreign

money. Buy new clothes. Wash the old ones." She rolled her eyes and fell silent. Nita hated that

kind of rushed busy-ness, and she was up to her neck in it now.

"How's your sister holding up?"

Nita laughed. "Dairine likes me, but she's hardly heartbroken. Besides, she's busy managing her

wizardry these days… spends most of her time working with her computer. You wouldn't believe

some of the conversations I've heard over its voice-link recently." She fell into an imitation of

Dairine's high-pitched voice, made even more squeaky by annoyance. "No, I will not move your

galaxy… what do you want to move it for? It's fine right where it is!"

"Sheesh," Kit said. Dairine, as a very new wizard, was presently at the height of her power; as a

very young wizard, she was also more powerful at the moment than both of them put together. The

only thing they had on her at the moment was experience.

“Yeah. We don't fight nearly as much as we used to… she's gone really quiet. I'm not sure it's

normal."

“Oh," Kit said, and laughed out loud. "You mean, like we're normal. We're beginning to sound like

our parents."

Nita had to laugh at that too. "You may have something there." But then the amusement went out

of her. "Oh, Kit," she said, “ I'm going to miss you. I miss you already, and I haven't left."

"Hey, c'mon," he said, and punched her in the shoulder. "You'll get over it. You'll meet some guy

over there and. . ."

"Don't joke," Nita said, irritable. "I don't care about meeting "some guy over there". They're

probably all geeks. I don't even know if they speak the same language."

"Your aunt does."

"My aunt is American," Nita said.

"Yeah, they speak English over there," Kit said. "It's not all just Irish." He looked at Nita with a

concerned expression. "Come on, Neets. If life hands you lemons, make lemonade. You can see a

new place, you can probably meet some of their wizards. They'll be in the directory. Neets… give it

a chance," he said, glancing around them. He picked up a rock too, turning it over and over in his

hands. "Where are you going to be? Dublin? Or somewhere else?"

"That's all there is," Nita said grimly. "Dublin, and the country. All potato fields and cow

pastures."

"Saw that in the manual, did you?"

Nita rolled her eyes. Kit could be incredibly pedantic sometimes. "No."

Kit sighed and looked at her. "I'm going to miss you too," he said. “I miss you already."

She looked at him, and saw it was true: and the bad mood fell off her, or mostly off, replaced by a

feeling of unhappy resignation. "It's only six weeks," she said then.

Kit's face matched her feeling. "We'll do it standing on our heads," he said.

Nita smiled at him unhappily. Since wizards did not lie outright, when one tried to stretch the truth,

file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Duane,%...%20W4%20-%20A%20Wizard%20Abroad%20v1.5.html (6 of 123) [7/14/2004 3:32:22 PM]

Diane Duane - Young Wizards 04 - A Wizard Abroad

it showed woefully. "Come on," she said, "we're running out of air. Let's get on with it."

Saturday came.

Kit came with them on the ride to the airport. It was a grim, silent sort of ride, broken only by the

kind of strained conversation people make when they desperately need to say something, anything,

to keep the silence from getting too thick. At least, it seemed silent. She and Kit would pass the

occasional comment mind-to-mind. It wasn't all that easy; they didn't do it much… they'd got in

the habit of just talking to each other, since telepathy often got itself tangled up with a lot of other

information you didn't need, or want, the other person to have. But now, habits or not, they were

going to have to get a lot better at mindtouch if they were going to talk at all frequently.

They reached the airport, did the formalities with the ticket, checked in Nita's bag - a medium-sized

one, not too difficult for her to handle herself, though she was privately determined to make it

weightless if she had to carry it anywhere alone. And then the announcement system called her

flight, and there was nothing to do but go on.

She hugged her mum, and her dad. "Have a good time now," her father said.

She sighed and said, “I'll try, Daddy. Mummy. . .“ And she was surprised at herself; she didn't

usually call her mother 'Mummy'. They hugged again, hard.

"Be good, now," her mother said. “Don't. . .“ She trailed off. The “don't” was a huge one, and Nita

could hear in it all the things parents always say: don't get in trouble, don't forget to wash - but

most specifically, don't get into anything dangerous, like the last time. Or the time before that. Or the

time before that. . .

"I'll try, Mum," she said. It was all she could guarantee.

Then she looked at Kit. 'Dai," he said.

"Dai stihó," she replied. It was the greeting and farewell of one wizard to another in the wizardly

Speech: it meant as much 'Bye for forever' as 'Bye for now'. For Nita, at the moment, it felt rather

more like the first.

At that point she simply couldn't stand it any more. She waved, a weak gesture, and turned her

back on them all, and slung her rucksack over her shoulder, and her warm jacket that her mother

had insisted she bring, and she walked down the long, cold hall of the airport, towards the plane.

It was a 747. Her sensitivity was running high -perhaps because of her own nervousness and

distress at leaving - but the plane was alive in the way that mechanical things usually seemed to her

as a result of working with Kit. That was his speciality - the ability to feel what a rock was saying,

reading the secret thoughts of a lift or a freezer, the odd thing-thoughts that run in the currents of

energy which occur naturally or are built into physical objects, manmade or not. She could hear the

plane straining against the chocks behind its many wheels, and its engines thinking of eating cold,

cold air at thirty degrees below, and pushing it out behind. There was a sense of purpose about it, of

restraint, and of eagerness to get out of there, to be gone.

It was a reassuring sort of feeling. She absently returned the smile of the stewardess at the plane's

door, and patted the plane as she got in; let the lady help her find her seat, so as to feel that she was

doing something useful. Nita sat herself down by the window, fastened her seat belt, and got out her

manual.

For a moment she just held it in her hand. Just a small beat-up book in a buckram library binding,

with the apparent title, so YOU WANT TO BE A WIZARD?, the supposed author's name, Hearn,

and the Dewey Decimal System number, all written on the spine in white ink. Nita shook her head

and smiled at the book, a little conspiratorially, for it was a lot more than that. Was it only two

years ago, no, two and a half now, that she had found it in the local library? Or it had found her;

she still wasn't too sure, remembering the way something had seemed to grab her hand as she ran it

file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Duane,%...%20W4%20-%20A%20Wizard%20Abroad%20v1.5.html (7 of 123) [7/14/2004 3:32:22 PM]

Diane Duane - Young Wizards 04 - A Wizard Abroad

along the shelf where the book had been sitting. Whether it was alive was a subject on which the

manual itself threw no light. Certainly it changed, adding new spells and other information as

needed, updating news of what other wizards in the world were doing. Using it, she had found Kit

in the middle of a wizardry of his own, and helped him with it, so passing through their Ordeal

together and starting their partnership. They had got into deep trouble together, several times: but

together, they had always got out again.

Nita sighed and started paging through the manual, very much missing the 'together' part of the

arrangement. She had been resisting looking for the information on Ireland that Kit had mentioned

until this point, hoping against hope that there would be a stay of execution. Even now she

cherished the idea that her mother or father might come pushing down the narrow aisle between

the seats, saying, “No, no, we've changed our minds!" But she knew it was futile. When her mother

got an idea into her head, she was almost as stubborn as Nita was.

So she sat there, and looked down at the manual. It had fallen open at the Wizard's Oath.

In Life's name, and for Life's sake, I assert that I will employ the Art which is Its gift in Life's

service alone, rejecting all other usages. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve

what grows and lives well in its own way; nor will I change any creature unless its growth and life,

or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened, or threaten another. To these ends, in the

practice of my Art, I will ever put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so -

looking always toward the Heart of Time, where all our sundered times are one, and all our myriad

worlds lie whole, in the One from Whom they proceeded…

The whole plane wobbled as the little tug in front of it pushed it away from the gate. Nita peered

out the window. Pressing her nose against the cool plastic and looking out, she could just barely

make out her mother and father gazing through the window at her; her mother waving a little

tentatively, her father gripping the railing in front of the window, not moving. And a little behind

them, out of their range of vision, looking out the window too, Kit.

Stay warm, he said in her head.

Kit, it's not like I'm going away. We'll be hearing from each other all the time in our heads. It's not

like I'm really going away… Is it?

She was quiet for a moment. The tug pushing the plane began to turn it, so that her view of him was

lost.

Yes it is, he said.

Yeah, well. She caught herself sighing again. Look, you're going to have the trees to deal with again,

and you need time to plan what you're going to do. And I need time to calm myself down. Going to call

me later?

Yeah. What time?

This thing won't be down until early tomorrow morning, their time, she said.

Doesn't want to come down at all, from the feel of it, Kit said drily.

Nita chuckled, caught an odd look from a passing stewardess, and made herself busy looking as if

she had read something funny in her manual. Yeah. Call me about this time tomorrow.

You got it. Have a good flight!

For what it's worth, Nita said.

The plane began to trundle purposefully out towards the runway. They didn't have to wait long; air

traffic control gave them clearance right away -Nita, eavesdropping along the plane's nerves, heard

the pilot acknowledging it. Half a minute later the plane screamed delight and leaped into the air.

New York slid away behind them, replaced by the open sea.

Seven hours later, they landed in Shannon.

file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Duane,%...%20W4%20-%20A%20Wizard%20Abroad%20v1.5.html (8 of 123) [7/14/2004 3:32:22 PM]

Diane Duane - Young Wizards 04 - A Wizard Abroad

Nita had thought she would be completely unable to sleep, but when they turned out most of the

lights in the plane after the meal service, she leaned her head against the window to see if she could

relax enough to watch the film a little.

The next thing she knew, the sun was coming in the window, and there was land below them. Nita

looked down into the early sun - six o'clock in the morning, it was - and saw the ragged black

coastline and the curling water white where the water smashed into the rocks, where the Atlantic

threw itself in fury against this first eastern barrier to its will. And then green - everywhere green,

divided by little lines of hedge; a hundred shades of green, emerald, viridian, khaki, the pale green

that has no right to be anywhere outside of spring - hedgerows winding between, white dots of

sheep, tiny cars crawling along little toy roads: but always the green. The plane turned and she saw

the beginning sprawl of houses, and Shannon town - a little city, barely the size of her own.

The plane was turning to line up with the airport's active runway, and the sun caught her full in the

eyes. She shivered, a feeling that had nothing to do with the warmth of the sudden light. That was

warm enough, but the feeling was cold. Something about to happen, something about the lances of

light, the fire. . .Nita shook her head: the feeling was gone. I didn't sleep very well, she thought. I'm

susceptible to weird ideas. But then when wizards have weird ideas, they do well to pay attention to

them. She forced herself to relive the feeling, to think again of the cold, and the fire, the sun like a

spear. . .

Nothing came of it. She shrugged, and watched the plane finish its turn and drop towards the

runway.

It took them about fifteen minutes to get down, and for the plane to trundle up to the arrivals area.

With her rucksack over her back, she said goodbye at passport control to the stewardess who was

taking care of her. “No, I can manage myself, thanks…"

She went up to the first empty desk she found and laid her passport on it, and smiled at the man.

He looked down at her and said, “Here's a wee dote of a thing to be traveling all alone. And how are

you this morning?"

“I didn't sleep very well on the plane," Nita said.

“Sure I can't do that myself," the man said, riffling through her passport. “Keep hearing things all

the time. Coming to see relatives, are you? Here's a nice clean passport then," the man said.

“Where do you want the stamp, pet? First page? Or save that for something more interesting?"

Nita thought of the first time she had cleared 'passport' formalities at the great Crossroads world-

gating facility, six galaxies over, and warmed to the man. “Let that be the first one, please," she

said. The man stamped the passport with relish. He was a big kindly man with a large nose and

little cheerful eyes. He handed the passport back to her and said, “You're very welcome in Ireland,

pet. You ask for help if you need it, now. Chad milfallcha."

At least, she had seen that spelled over the doorway past the arrivals hall: cead mile faille - 'a

hundred thousand welcomes'. 'Thank you," she said, and walked on towards baggage claim and the

big duty-free shop. She wandered around it with her mouth open for a little while, never having

quite seen anything like it before. It was the size of a small department store, filled with crystal and

linen and china and smoked salmon, and books.

Soon she needed to go to the gate for the flight that would take her to Dublin.

Another flight, another plane equally eager to be gone. It was about an hour's flight, over the green,

the thousand shades - and all the bright rivers winding amongst the hills, blazing like fire when the

sun caught them. Her ears had started popping from the plane's descent almost as soon as it

reached altitude, and Nita looked down and found herself and the plane sinking gently towards a

great green range of mountains, and three mountains notable even among the others. Nita's mother

file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Duane,%...%20W4%20-%20A%20Wizard%20Abroad%20v1.5.html (9 of 123) [7/14/2004 3:32:22 PM]

Diane Duane - Young Wizards 04 - A Wizard Abroad

had told her about these three, and had shown her pictures. One of them wasn't a mountain, but a

promontory: Bray Head, sticking out into the sea like a fist laid on a table with the knuckles

sticking up. Then, a mile further inland, and westward, Little Sugarloaf, a hill half again as high as

Bray Head. And then westward another mile, and higher than both the others, Great Sugarloaf,

Slieve na Chulainn as the Irish had it: the mountain of Wicklow, its name said. It was certainly one

of the most noticeable - a grey stony cone, pointed, its slopes green with heather -no tree grew there.

The plane turned off leftward, making its way up to Dublin Airport. Another ten minutes and they

were down.

Nita got her bag back, got a trolley, looked around curiously at the automatic change machine that

took your money and gave you Irish money back, and briefly regretted that she didn't have an

excuse to use it. She sighed and pushed her trolley out through the customs area, out through the

sliding doors and past the bored uniformed man at the desk who kept people from coming in the

wrong way.

“Nita!" And there was her Aunt Annie. Nita grinned. After spending your life with people you

know, and then having to spend a whole day with people you didn't know, the sight of her was a

pleasure. Nita's aunt hurried over to her and gave her a big hug.

She was a big silver-haired lady, big about the shoulders, a little broad in the beam; a friendly face

with pale grey-blue eyes. Her hair was tied back in a short ponytail behind. “How was your flight?

Were you OK?"

“I was fine, Aunt Annie. But I'm really tired… I wouldn't mind going home."

“Sure, honey. You come right out here, the car's right outside." She pushed the trolley out into the

little parking lot.

The morning was holding fresh and fine. Little white clouds were flying past in a blue sky; Nita put

her arms around herself and hugged herself in surprise at the cold. “Mum told me it might be

chilly, and I didn't believe her. It's July!"

“Listen, my dear," her aunt said,"this is one of the cooler days we've been having lately. The

weather-people say it's going to get warm again tomorrow: up in the seventies."

“Warm," Nita said, wondering. It had been in the nineties on the Island when she left.

“We haven't had much rain, either," said her aunt. "It's been a dry summer, and they're talking

about it turning into a drought if it doesn't rain this week or next." She laughed a little as she came

up to a white Toyota and opened its boot. They drove around to the parking lots ticket booth, paid

the fee, and went out. Nita spent a few interested moments adjusting to the fact that her aunt was

driving on the left side of the road. “So tell me," Aunt Annie said, “how are your parents?"

Nita started telling her, with only half her mind on the business; the rest of her was busy looking at

the scenery as they came out on to the main road - or the 'dual carriageway', as all the signs called

it - heading south towards Dublin, and past it to Wicklow. AN LAR, said one sign: and under that it

said DUBLIN: 8. "What's "An Lar"?" Nita said.

"That's Irish for "to the city centre"," said her aunt.

"We're about fifteen miles south of Dublin… it'll take us about an hour to get through it and home,

the way the traffic is. Do you want to stop in town for lunch? Are you hungry?"

"Nnnnnno," Nita said, yawning. "I think I'd rather just go and fall over and get some sleep. I

didn't get much on the plane."

Her aunt nodded. "No problem with that… you get rid of your jetlag. The country won't be going

anywhere while you get caught up on your sleep."

And so they drove through the city. Nita was surprised to see how much it looked like suburban

New York, except that - except. . .Nita found that she kept saying 'except' about every thirty

file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Duane,...20W4%20-%20A%20Wizard%20Abroad%20v1.5.html (10 of 123) [7/14/2004 3:32:22 PM]

文档加载中……请稍候！
如果长时间未打开，您也可以点击刷新试试。

下载文档到电脑，查找使用更方便

5.9 玖币 0人已下载

立即下载 VIP免费下载

摘要：

DianeDuane-YoungWizards04-AWizardAbroadAWizardAbroadbyDianeDuaneYoungWizards04AWizardAbroadCopyright©1993byDianeDuanePrintedinU.S.A.Dedication:ForLt.Col.ShaunJohnny'O'Driscoll,USAF(ret.)CONTENTSADMONITIONTOTHEREADER1.antSionainnShannon2.CillCumhaidKilquade3.BriCualannBray4.AthnaSceireEnniskerry5.Fao...

展开>> 收起<<

Duane, Diane - Wizards - Young Wizards 04 - A Wizard Abroad.pdf

共123页,预览25页

还剩页未读，继续阅读

声明：本站为文档C2C交易模式，即用户上传的文档直接被用户下载，本站只是中间服务平台，本站所有文档下载所得的收益归上传人(含作者)所有。玖贝云文库仅提供信息存储空间，仅对用户上传内容的表现方式做保护处理，对上载内容本身不做任何修改或编辑。若文档所含内容侵犯了您的版权或隐私，请立即通知玖贝云文库，我们立即给予删除！

Duane, Diane - Wizards - Young Wizards 04 - A Wizard Abroad

相关推荐

开通VIP享超值会员特权

作者详情

相关内容

热门标签

举报选择: