"Diane Duane - The Wizard's Dilemma" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duane Diane)

тАФhexagram 61

"a, wind troubles the waters"

If Time has a heart, it is because other hearts stop.

тАФBook of Night with Moon 9.V.IX


Friday Afternoon
"HONEY, HAVE YOU SEEN your sister?"

"She's on Jupiter, Mom."

There was no immediate response to this piece of news. Sitting at a dining-room table covered with
notebooks, a few schoolbooks, and one book that had less to do with school than the others, Nita
Callahan glanced over her shoulder just in time to catch sight of her mother looking at the ceiling with
an expression that said, What have I done to deserve this?

Nita turned her head back to what looked like her homework, so that her mother wouldn't see her smile.
"Well, yeah, not on Jupiter; it's hard to do that... She's on Europa."

Her mother came around and sat down in the chair opposite Nita at the table, looking faintly concerned.
"She's not trying to create life again or something, is she?"

Friday Afternoon

"Huh? Oh, no. It was there already. But there was some kind of problem."

The look on her mother's face was difficult to decipher. "What kind?"

"I'm not sure," Nita said, and this was true. She had read the mission statement, which had appeared in
her copy of the wizard's manual shortly after Dairine left, but the fine print had made little sense to herтАФ
probably the reason why she or some other wizard had not been sent to deal with the trouble, and

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Dairine had. "It's kind of hard to understand what single-celled organisms consider a problem." She
made an amused face. "But it looks like Dairine's the answer to it."

"All right." Her mom leaned back in the chair and stretched. "When will she be back?"

"She didn't say. But there's a limit to how much air you can carry with you on one of these jaunts if
you're also going to have energy to spare to actually get anything done," Nita said. "Probably a couple of
hours."

"Okay...We don't have to have a formal dinner tonight. Everyone can fend for themselves. Your dad
won't mind; he's up to his elbows in shrubs right now, anyway." The buzz of the hedge trimmer could
still be heard as Nita's dad worked his way around the house. "We can take care of the food shopping