DEEP WIZARDRY 183"Be careful he doesn't hear you," Nita's mom said mildly, "or he'll deck vou again. —How have you two been getting along?""Huh? We're fine. Kit's great." Nita saw a slightly odd look come into her mother's eyes. "For a boy," she added hurriedly."Well," her mother said, "be careful." And she took the watering can off jn to the living room.Now what was that about? Nita thought. She finished her cornflakes at high speed, rinsed the bowl and spoon in the sink, and hurried out of the house to find Kit. Halfway across the sparse sandy grass of the front yard, another voice spoke up. "Aha," it said. "The mystery lady.""Put a cork in it, Dairine," Nita said. Her sister was hanging upside down from the trapeze swing of the rusty swing set, her short red hair rufHing in the breeze. Dairine was a tiny stick of a thing and an all right younger sister, though (in Nita's estimation) much too smart for her own good. Right now entirely too much smart was showing in those sharp gray eyes. Nita tried not to react to it. "Gonna fall down and bust your head open," she said. "Proba-bly lose what few brains you have all over the ground." Dairine shook her head, causing herself to swing a little. "Naaah," she said, "but I'd sooner"—she started pumping, so as to swing harder—"fall off the swing—than fall out the window—in the middle of the night!"Nita went first cold, then hot. She glanced at the windows to see if anyone was looking out. They weren't. "Didyou tell?" she hissed."I—don't tell anybody—anything," Dairine said, in time with her swing-ing. This was true enough. When Dairine had needed glasses, when she'd started getting beaten up at school, and when she was exposed to German measles, nobody had heard about it fromher."Y'like him, huh?" Dairine said. Nita glared at Dairine, opened her mouth to start shouting, then remem-bered the open windows.
