Kit,  Tom said,  ignore the whimpering from the sidelines for the moment  Be careful not to get sucked in. This youngster may seem very, very stuck when you meet him, and you ve got to resist the temptation to give him help he doesn t need. You could end up endangering yourself, not to mention altering the focus of his Ordeal  which could make him fail it.Or worse.

 I ll watch out.

 Okay. Go see what you can find out. You may want to leave your manual on record when you re talking to him; it may pick up some nuance that you miss at first.  He paused.  Listen to that,  he said.

Kit listened, puzzled.  I don t hear anything.

 What the master of sarcasm over there means is that the dogs have stopped barking,  Carl said.  They ve been having some kind of metaphysical discussion for days now. And they re loud about it.

 Have they been asking you about the meaning of life   Kit said.

Both Tom and Carl gave Kit a look.  Uh, yes,  Tom said.

Kit covered his face.  It s my fault,  he said.  A new kind ofblackmail, and I know where they got it. They probably want dog biscuits.

 New tactic,  Tom said wearily, getting up. Old problem. I ll bear it in mind.

Ponchcame lolloping back into the dining room. Kit got up, too.  I ll get in touch as soon as I find anything out,  Kit said, opening the patio door to letPonch out.

 Thanks,fella ,  Tom said. Daistiho.

 Yeah, you go well, too. Well enough not to electrocute somebody, anyway!

They headed back the way they d come, Kit pausing briefly in Tom s backyard with the spell-chain in his hands to adjust the variable that determined how much and how fast the air displaced around their transiting mass when they  came out of nowhere. Ponch was bouncing up and down around him, making it difficult for Kit to remember where in the structure of the spell the variable actually was.  Would you sitdown   he said under his breath toPonch , while passing the softly glowing chain of words through his hands until the little barbed bit sticking out from the variable scratched his skin. Kit held the word up in front of his eyes, squinting at it like someone threading a needle, and managed to catch the delicate outward-hooked tail of the spell character between finger and thumb.