In the Closet

Disclaimer: The characters in question belong to Diane Duane. I own only the plot.

Chapter 10: Thursday

When Nita walked through the door, Roshaun was on the couch, half asleep apparently. He gave a most inelegant groan as the door opened and light flooded into the room. She squinted. "You okay? You need some aspirin?"

He sat up, rubbing his temples. "I returned to my home-world to take care of a few things in preparation for the upcoming intervention. Speaking with the Sun-King-That-Was frequently takes much more energy than it ought. I will recover."

Nita stifled a chuckle. Even aliens had a hard time talking to their parents. "I'm going upstairs to get some reading done. Shout if you need anything. Dairine will probably come barreling through the door shortly."

"Don't forget to make ready for our transit tomorrow. Dairine and I intend to leave as soon as you are free from school. Inform Kit."

Nita rolled her eyes. She knew tomorrow was Friday and that they'd be going. "Any particular supplies I'll need?"

Roshaun looked at her rather levelly, quite a trick for someone sitting down on the couch looking up at someone on the stairs. "You're the expert kernel-hunter."

"It's your planet."

He shook his head once. "Nothing in particular. All of your physical needs can be provided for at the palace—my mother is seeing to it that rooms are prepared for yourself and for Kit. You know your own needs regarding the wizardry necessary to locating and altering Wellakh's kernel." He stood up, his body tense. "I shall be in the backyard. I need to feel the sun on my skin." Wellakh will not fall while I stand Sun-Watch. Whether the Isolate choose to attack through Thalis or other means…it will not fall.

Nita went down the stairs, wandering into the kitchen. She'd double check the spells on her charm bracelet tonight; maybe she'd adjust the particular spells since she wouldn't be operating in her usual territory. She picked up the phone in the kitchen and dialed the Rodriguez house.

"Hello?"

"Hey, 'Mela, it's Nita. Kit home yet?"

"No, not yet…you haven't called to talk to him on the phone in ages. Telepathy not working?"

She snorted. "No, just thought I'd do this the old fashioned way. It's not exactly great manners to go crash someone's brain uninvited. Do you know if he told your parents about this weekend yet?"

Carmela made a confused sound. "This weekend?"

She resisted the temptation to roll her eyes. "Great…waiting to tell your parents at the last minute that he's going out of town on Business."

"How long? Where to? Can I come?"

Nita could hear faintly in the background a vexed voice. "Carmela, if you're talking to Nita, no you may not come. We've got a world to save."

She whined into the phone. "But I'm so good at it! And I've got plenty of practice with the curling iron now."

There was a brief scuffle as Kit wrestled the phone away from his sister. "Neets?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm still here. You didn't tell your parents yet?"

"Pop was cross when he got home last night. Glaring typo on the front page that somehow nobody had caught…Anyway, I'll tell them tonight."

"You'd better. Roshaun says he and Dairine want to leave right after school tomorrow."

He juggled the phone onto his shoulder, going to the fridge for a sandwich. "Of course they do."

"It's not a bad idea though. I've never been there and it might take me a while to find the kernel. Unless something catastrophic goes down, we've got to be back here by Monday for school."

He groaned.

She snickered, but the snicker had a little sympathy in it. "I know. At least the gating is subsidized."

"I want to come!" Carmela shouted, picking up the extension.

"No, no, and no," Kit said, glaring at his sister across the room. "You can't come. Go call Ireland and bother Ronan or something."

"I can't call him while you're on the phone, El Niño."

"Then get off the line and let me finish, 'Mela." Kit turned his attention back to the receiver. "I'll tell them during dinner. Any supplies I should bring?"

"Just the usual spells. Roshaun couldn't think of anything specifically to bring—said that we'll be staying in the Palace. I think we ought to have the puptents just in case we're out on the planet and have to stop for the night somewhere."

"Yeah. A little food and some clothes. I know the drill."

She shifted on her feet. She was ready to get out of this skirt and into some comfortable jeans. "So you'll talk to your parents, and I'll talk to my dad tonight. Can you come straight home with me after school tomorrow, or are you going to have to stop off at your place?"

"I can put the stuff I want in my backpack in my claudication so I can come straight from school. No worries."

"I'm only planning on throwing some blankets in the puptent—not hauling my bed in or anything."

"Yeah. Got ya. Just an emergency situation."

"Exactly. No sense moving furniture for a couple of nights. I've got a ton of reading to get done before tomorrow."

"Same here. I haven't looked at hardly anything about Wellakh yet. I'll stop by before school again."

Nita hung up. She knew she had hours and hour of reading ahead of her, on both Wellakh and kernels. There was always more to learn about any subject…you just had to look for it. She had a lot of cramming to do.

Dinner was just winding down when Nita decided to bring up the weekend's excursion to her dad. However, he brought it up first. "Dairine, Roshaun, how has that spell you've been working on this week been going?"

"Actually, it hasn't. It was a dead end, we came up with an alternative," Dairine said. She shot Nita a look as if to say, "Your cue!"

Nita swallowed the bite of chicken in her mouth. "It looks like we might know how to fix the drought. I need to go with Dairine and Roshaun this weekend, Daddy. I've got experience dealing with the type of wizardry that we're going to need on this…and they don't. If it's alright, I was going to leave right after school tomorrow. The sooner I get there, the longer I have to get a feel for what I need to fix. There's a good chance I'll be gone all weekend."

He gazed across the table at her. "So you're effectively not asking me if you can dart around the galaxy…you're telling me that you need to for the good of the universe."

She looked at him. "Daddy, I'm still asking, but I also know you understand that I need to do this or there could be problems with major repercussions. If someone without experience and practice tried to intervene with a world's kernel they could screw things up pretty badly. If we wait for Dairine or Roshaun to get that kind of experience…it might be too late for Wellakh." The drought was ongoing, but wasn't critical yet. However, tempers were running high and it would only be so long before some sort of chaos on the planet broke out, probably including an assassination attempt. Of course, if the Lone Power had any influence—which he always had his foothold somewhere—the sun would choose right about then to flare and probably turn the live side of the planet to slush and slag like the current burned side. She shook her head. She was not going to let that happen.

"Is Kit going with you?"

Nita was thrown aback. She wasn't expecting that question. "He's talking to his parents right now, but he should be."

Mr. Callahan nodded. "He's got a good head on his shoulders. He'll keep an eye out for you."

She stared at him. "Daddy, are you saying I can't take care of myself?"

"I know you can. But I like to know that you've got reliable back up. The two of you have kept good eyes on each other so far. I feel better knowing he's out there with you."

Oh, Powers, she thought. Is he going to feel so good about it when he finds out Kit and I are dating? "I can ask right now if you want." She felt around for him in her mind, making a tentative connection. He was eating dinner with his family.

Mr. Callahan leaned forward with his forearms on the table, waving one hand. "Don't disturb the family at dinner. Roshaun, are your parents okay with this?"

"Arrangements have been made for places for Nita and Kit to stay if they are able to accompany Dhairine and myself on this intervention."

"Have you talked to Tom and Carl?"'

"I left a message for them in my manual. The information I needed has appeared, so whatever authorization I needed came through from somewhere."

He frowned, wanting to make sure all of his bases were covered. "What about your homework?"

"There's not that much, and I'll bring it with me. And I'll do my chores when I get home."

"Dairine…"

"Homework and chores. Got it," she said blithely, wondering when she'd have the time. She had an entire planet's government to rearrange. It seemed so much more important than biology homework.

"I'll give Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez a call after dinner. Go work on your homework and pack. Do you need me to go to the store and get any granola bars or anything?"

Nita grinned at her dad. "Have I told you lately you're fantastic?"

"Not today…and I can always stand to hear it again. Make a list—I've got to go to the grocery store anyway. You too, Dairine."

Kit had packed up his pup tent. He looked at the corner where can after can of dog food had been stacked from his previous excursions with Ponch. He took them out, putting them in the kitchen for Abernathy. He wouldn't have Ponch around to "walk" him out of trouble this time. He glanced around the tent. He had water bottles, a couple jars of peanut butter, bread, a knife, some fruit, beef jerky, and an assortment of other foods. His clothes were piled in one corner. He had just remembered to take the dirty clothes out of here yesterday from the last time he'd used this thing. He had piled blankets and a pillow in another corner.

When he had told his parents he needed to go away this weekend, his pop had rolled his eyes and his mama had asked if there was any way he could put it off 'til the school year was over, after all exams were coming up. He went into the specifics of the situation—that there was a planet that needed saving, and after all, wasn't it better for school if he saved it this weekend, rather than , say, Wednesday? They made light of the situation, but he still knew his parents weren't totally at ease with off-planet excursions. It was really remarkable that they handled everything as well as they did. "It's not as if I'm going on a weekend camp out on the moon. This is a job and it needs doing." A weekend campout on the moon! There was an idea that sounded like fun. He and Neets could up with Ronan and Darryl and get to have fun for a couple of days. Or maybe just him and Neets. If only they actually could do that. It'd take a fair amount of power…

By the time Nita went to bed, she'd managed to put granola bars, lemon soda, water, toilet paper, blankets, a pillow, a flashlight, and even her math textbook in her pup tent. She tossed in a couple of pairs of jeans and a few t-shirts, and clean socks and underwear, as well as an old pair of sneakers so that she'd have spare shoes. She was rightly a little nervous—most of her work had been with the kernels of people, not planets. She felt like with a planet, there was a whole lot more that could go wrong, for so many more people. Wellakh was not a small planet. She might make the air un-breathable or turn the ground to jelly. And she had to figure out what exactly she was asking the planet for. She needed it to be hospitable. Where was the water going? Drying up on the surface? Drying up below ground?

She rubbed her temples.

Author's Note: The chapter is short, yes, but the next chapter is well under way and it's longer. I'd really appreciate some feedback, so please review! I miss you guys…