Almond spends the summer of her parents’ separation at her aunt and uncle’s house in Broadwing, and in the attic there–hot, close, bright with dust motes–she finds the magic knucklebone that whips her back in time to their adventures as headlong, dangerous young conjurors. The moral is about how you can’t summon up the people you really miss. Almond resents that, and (decades later) subsumes fear about her own marriage until she turns into a pretty frightening sorceress herself. The kid she hasn’t had yet has to show up to save the world; but then, that’s what they’re for.