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'tusually 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 stiho," 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.
