Orson Card - The Gate Thief

It was broken because he-or the tree, or spacetime-knew that Wad had no power to resist or control Danny North, let alone steal from him.

It had to happen, Wad supposed. If there were two mages, one would be greater than the other; and, given time enough, you could find a third who was greater still. Powerful as Wad was, there was bound to come another, eventually, who was stronger than he was. One whose gates could not be eaten.

“Please talk to me,” Anonoei asked.

Whether it was because he was dying to talk to someone about all that he had just remembered, or whether she used her manmagery to cajole him or control him into telling, he told her all of it.

“You saved the world,” she said.

“And Danny North has it in his power to unsave it. Now there is an open gate, and if the Dragon-Set-can find someone, some mage, to ride through it, he’ll be here, along with as many wanderers as he can bring, and this world is lost.”

“I can see how you’d think that was a bad thing,” said Anonoei.

“You think it isn’t?” demanded Wad.

“I was being ironic,” said Anonoei. “It’s the worst thing that could happen. All the power of all the Mithermages, under the rule of a monster? I’m against that.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

Ced and the treemage had listened to all of Wad’s account. But now the treemage said, “Time to return to work, Ced.”

“But after hearing all of this, how can I concentrate?” asked Ced.

“It is precisely at such times that you must have the power to concentrate. So now you’ll make a whirlwind small enough to use a single grain of sand to bore through a block of wood, a hole that is only one sandgrain in diameter.”

“Impossible,” said Ced.

“Two sandgrains, then,” said the treemage. “The single-grain tunnel will be tomorrow.”

They went back to work.

Anonoei had only one question for Wad. “These Sutahites, these Belmages. Are they manmages, then?”

“No,” said Wad.

“But they work in the same way. What my outself does, reaching into a person, persuading him-that’s what they do, only using their whole ka?”

“They can’t separate ka from ba, or so Kawab said.”

“Why can’t you just say yes or no?”

“Because I don’t understand all the ramifications of the things Kawab told me. He isn’t-wasn’t-a mage himself, so he doesn’t even know the ramifications. It’s lore that he learned and memorized and then intended to pass on. To other disciples of the order, but they were being persecuted at the time, so there were no others. They had been killed or had fled or had obeyed when Kawab commanded them to go into hiding. There was no one left to teach.”

“Only you,” said Anonoei. “But you were enough.”

“For sixteen hundred years or so,” said Wad. “Until now.”

“And now?”

“Set is surely still alive somewhere. Waiting for a chance to get control of Danny North.”

“If he can,” said Anonoei.

“Danny is a strong-willed boy,” said Wad. “Stronger than me. So maybe he can resist. As long as he doesn’t do something stupid, like inviting Set in.”

“What form could such an invitation take?” asked Anonoei.

Now that his memory had been awakened, Wad could think back to the lore of possession that, as a gatemage, he had been required to learn. “Words, of course. Calling the Belmage by name, if they have names-maybe the name didn’t matter, just the fact of calling.”

“And no other way?”

“A Belmage could jump from one person to another if they had some kind of physical intercourse.”

“Sex.”

“Or a deep kiss. Or a common flow of blood-two wounds pressed together. There were some people so weak-willed that a Belmage could jump between them with only a steady gaze connecting them. But few Mithermages are so weak as that.”

“That’s how it is with me,” said Anonoei. “A weak person, my voice alone is enough. A little stronger, and I have to have them in gaze before I can send my outself into them and turn them to my will. If I’m going to ride them like a heartbeast-well, before passing through the Great Gate, I didn’t have the power to do that. And even now, I can’t do it without consent. Without … the kiss.”

Wad understood the hesitation. It wasn’t kissing she had used. She had doubtless slept with several of her toadies in order to be able to ride them as heartbeasts.

“So you’re saying that they are like manmages,” said Wad.

“Or manmages are like … Sutahites?”

“Like Set. Like the devil and his angels. Yes. Like that.”

“No wonder everybody fears and hates us,” said Anonoei.

“Including me,” said Wad. “Not hate, but fear. I always wonder if you’ve used your magery on me.”

“Not deliberately,” said Anonoei. “I’ve never sent anything into you. But I do this by reflex. I’m sure that I’ve probably had some influence I wasn’t even aware of. But never enough to control you. Your choices have been your own.”

“So the powerful desire I have to sleep with you,” said Wad. “That’s not of your making?”

“I think it has more to do with-what did Kawab say? — the apewoman that I’m riding in.”

“In other words, I just think you’re pretty,” said Wad.

“You’re male and I’m female,” said Anonoei. “You think any willing female is pretty.”

“You’re willing?”

In answer, she kissed him.

“But is it safe for me to sleep with you?” he asked her, when the kiss was over.

“Doesn’t that depend on how strong your own will is?” she asked.

“It’s a foolish thing to do right now,” said Wad.

“You’re right,” she said. “But what if we gate somewhere that Ced and his teacher can’t see us.”

That sounded good to Wad, and so he moved the end of the gate she had just used so now it led to a room in Nassassa, a locked room. With a bed.

After all, I’ve slept with a queen, thought Wad. Why not with a king’s ex-concubine?

Vaguely he thought: Shouldn’t I have the strength of will to resist this desire?

Clearly he answered himself: It is my will to have this woman, right now. And she’s willing. So shut up.

This is high school, Danny reminded himself. This is what you wanted.

Supposedly he was helping Laurette study for a precalculus test that was coming up. Danny thought of calculus as a game-sometimes tedious, but usually enjoyable. To Laurette, however, it was a perpetual mystery. Danny explained in words that he knew were clear. He demonstrated over and over.

Laurette concentrated hard, echoing his words, even tracing the operations he performed, yet she still didn’t really understand it. Once she got an answer right but instead of being thrilled or relieved, she almost wept in frustration. “I don’t know what I did,” she said.

“You did the operation and entered all the right numbers in the calculator and I didn’t do any of it. You got it right.”

“But why did I get it right? I thought I did all those things with all the other problems that I screwed up!”

“Laurette, are you planning any kind of career that’s going to need math?”

“I just don’t like being stupid,” she said, and then she did weep.

“You’re not stupid,” he said. “You’re just not interested in math.” He put his arm across her shoulders.

She melted into him, weeping onto his shirt. “I’m interested in A’s,” she said. “That’s always been enough before.”

And then he realized that instead of just clinging to him, she was stroking his chest.

And that’s when he decided that he hated high school. Nothing was ever what it seemed to be. Laurette seemed genuinely frustrated by her math class. And yet here she was, turning it into something romantic. So how much of her crying was real? How could he know?