Just that your mama s easy to shake down for dog biscuits.

Kit grinned.  You didn t need to start talking to her to find that out,  he said. He reached into his pocket, felt around for the  zipper  in it that facilitated access to the alternate space where he kept some of his spells ready, and pulled one out a long chain of strung-together words in the Speech thatglowed a very faint blue in the swiftly falling darkness.  I d keep it in the family, though,  Kit said toPonch .  Don t start asking strangers complicated philosophical questions  It ll confuse them.

It may be too late,Ponch said.

Kit wondered what that was supposed to mean, then shrugged. He dropped the spell-chain to the ground around them in a circle. The transit wizardry knotted itself together at the ends in the figure-eight wizard s knot, and from it a brief shimmering curtain of light went up and blanked the night away as displaced air wentthump !and Kit s ears popped. A moment later he andPonch were standing together in Tom s backyard, behind the high privet hedge blocking the view from Tom s neighbors  houses. Across the patio, lights were on in the house, and banging noises were coming from the kitchen.

Kit andPonch made their way past the stuccokoi pond toward the sliding porch doors,Ponch shaking his head emphatically.  Are your ears bothering you   Kit said, as the sound of barking came from further inside the house.

Only lately,Ponch said.

 Sorry. I ll have a look at the spell later.  Kit pushed the patio door to one side and went into Tom s dining room. That space flowed into the living room area, where Tom s desk sat in a corner, past the sofas and the entertainment center. But at the moment all the action was in the kitchen, off to the left, where big, dark-haired Carl, his fellow Advisory wizard, was doing something to the strip lighting that ran below the upper kitchen cupboards. Tom was leaning against the refrigerator, holding a cup of coffee, with the expression of a man who wants nothing to do with whatever s happening.