cleaned up crumbs from her muffin. "What do you think she'll choose?"
That was a question keeping Moira awake at night. "I don't know. It will depend what her heart is ready for. A traveler's discipline is in putting one foot in front of the other every day, whether you want to or not. A musician's is much the same, I would think."
"Yeah. This is different."
It certainly was.
"Maybe Marcus is right to be cautious." More desire to protect coming from the woman who claimed not to like the most cranky resident of Fisher's Cove.
But she wasn't right about what was needed. "Oh, quite the opposite, I think. It will be courage that wins this day, not caution."
Nell's eyes narrowed. "What are you up to?"
That was the beauty of it. Moira was pretty sure she didn't need to be up to anything at all.
Marcus stared at his closing front door, bemused. It was the girl children on the meddling trail this morning - and so far, he couldn't find a lot of reasons to be disagreeable.
Morgan had just teetered off happily, holding Lizzie's hand, bound for greener pastures. Something about cookies and a sword fight. Mike was supervising, so it was probable that nobody would actually get run through.
And if they did, the man was a passable healer.
Marcus huffed and settled into his gaming chair. Two whole hours of freedom, guaranteed by a seven-year-old who generally meant what she said.
His laptop screen pinged. Sophie grinned at him from video chat, looking unreasonably happy herself. "You ready to go?"
Apparently the Realm duelers had recruited everyone. "They're scraping the bottom of the bucket if they want the two of us."
Her eyes twinkled. "Speak for yourself. My skills aren't that rusty." She dusted her fingers on her shirt. "And I've been practicing my bunny-slipper spells."
He was never going to live that down. And would have suspected her of being in cahoots with Ginia, except that Warrior Girl was awaiting him in her castle. Strategy session. He frowned at his screen - might as well collect intel on the way. "Who's your partner?"
Sophie laughed merrily. "You really are rusty if you think I'm going to spill my secrets that easily."
Hmm. Nell and Kevin were the duo who had issued the global challenge, but most of the other partnerships were murky. "I hear Govin's playing." Smart tacticians concerned him, especially if they were teamed up with crafty healers.
"Mmm." Sophie was reading her screen, which might be evasion - or honest distraction. "Do you know who's working with The Hacker?"
Marcus grinned. Nell's husband, Daniel, was easily the most fearsome coder in Realm. And what he lacked in magic, he made up for in plain sneakiness. "Yes."
Sophie's eyes got crafty. "And are you going to share that information?"
Not unless it was to his advantage. He was fairly certain Aunt Moira and Daniel were the team to beat. If he was very lucky, their elder witch was on babysitting duty this morning. Lizzie had seemed to think so.
Then again, Daniel could probably run circles around the rest of them single-handedly for days.
Ginia was paging him. "My presence is required at Warrior Girl's castle. May the best witches win."
He ported into Realm with Sophie's laughter ringing in his ears. She was far too cheerful for his liking.
A warrior with blonde curls and pink armor awaited him none too patiently. He raised an eyebrow. "I'm not wearing princess gear."
"Hardly." Her eyebrow mirrored his. "I expect yours is old, black, and rusty."
Something like that. He tried not to be amused. "Beware those of us with a little rust on our joints, youngling. Your father is a fearsome competitor."
Warrior Girl shrugged, clearly not all that worried about a lowly librarian. "Mama can take him."
Maybe. Evidence over the years was somewhat divided on that account. "Regardless. A lot of Realm's old talent is back for this duel, and you'd do well to respect it."
Ginia giggled and stepped up to peer over her ramparts. "Silly. We invited you."
He wasn't entirely sure that was a form of respect, but he had better things to do than try to teach a preteen girl to mind her elders. "Have you been up to anything useful this morning? Defenses, perhaps?" A good warrior always protected himself first.
"Sure." She waved negligently at a pile of spellcubes as tall as a house. "I've got force fields, rainbows, whackers, puffballs, silencers, sticky feeters, and glitter clouds. And a couple of new things."
Marcus grimaced. Only a ten-year-old girl would have dreamed up a cloud