"Diane Duane - Wizards 8 - Wizards at War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duane Diane)

Regime Change 362

Strategic Withdrawal 395
Catastrophic Success 482

Armistice

vi "Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the
strange voyage can measure the tides and

hurricanes he will encounterOnce the signal is

given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events." -Sir
Winston Churchill

... Moon reflected on the water: The moon doesn't get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is
broad and great, The moon's reflected even in an inch-wide puddle. The whole moon and the entire wide
sky Lie mirrored in one dewdrop on the grass. Dogen, Genjokoan

To be the miracle, Get out of its way.

-Distych 243, The Book of Night with Moon

vii

situational Awareness

In the bright light of an early spring morning, a teenage girl in faded blue jeans and a cropped white
T-shirt stood in her downstairs bathroom, brushing her teeth and examining herself with a critical eye.
Have I lost weight? she thought, pulling the T-shirt a little away from her as she looked down. This
doesn't fit like it did two weeks ago...

The view in the mirror was more or less the usual one: light brunette hair cut just above her shoulders, a
face neither unusually plain nor unusually beautiful, a nothing-special figure for a fourteen-year-old. But
there were changes besides the fit of her T-shirt. Nita Callahan racked the toothbrush and then leaned
close to the mirror over the sink, pulling down the skin above her right cheekbone with one finger. My
tan looks pretty good, hut are those circles under my eyes? she thought. / look wrecked. You'd think I
hadn't just

"I think I need a vacation from my vacation," Nita muttered.

She started to turn away from the sink... then stopped, noticing something in the mirror. Nita leaned close
to it again, pushing her bangs up with one hand and eyeing her forehead. Oh no, is that a pimple coming
up? She poked it, felt that telltale sting. Great. I really need this right now!

She sighed. "Okay," she said. Normally she wouldn't have been enthusiastic about spending any
significant part of her morning talking to a zit, but if she talked the pimple out of happening right now, it'd
take her less effort than if she waited until later.

"Uh, excuse me," she said in the wizardly Speech- and then stopped. Wait a minute. I don't know the