Orson Card - The Gate Thief

“I don’t expect it to hold,” said Danny. “Where’s my father?”

Thor answered. “In town. Your mother and your brother and sister, too.”

“A family outing,” said Danny. “How sweet. I’ll come back for them. The place we’re going to belongs to a good friend of mine. My friend, do you understand me? Everyone there is my friend, but it’s Stone’s house and in that place he rules .”

At that moment Zog rejoined the group, even angrier than before. “You filthy little drekka, I’m not going to-”

This time Danny gated him to the parking lot of the Lexington Walmart.

“He’s horrible, Danny,” said Aunt Lummy, “but you can’t leave him out. They’ll kill him. They hate him most of all.”

“I’m not going to leave him out,” said Danny. “I just don’t have time to deal with his assholery. I’ll gate him through and you all can tame him.” Danny made a public gate, a big one. “Before you step through this gate,” he said to everybody, “you look me in the eye and tell me that you’ll obey Stone and harm no one.”

“That’ll take too much time,” said Uncle Mook.

“Look me in the eye and say yes ,” said Danny. “Because if you don’t keep your word, I will be ruthless. Do you understand me?”

They all said yes as they passed through the gate.

Danny followed, and took back the gate behind him.

Stone’s cabin was too small for everyone to sleep there, and it was bitterly cold on this November night, but it wouldn’t matter. They wouldn’t be there long. Danny ignored everybody’s questions and headed for the narrow isthmus between two jewel-like lakes.

No rope this time. He began turning around and around. Immediately he spun out gates-his own gates, not the ones Loki had given him, and definitely not the captive gates. He took his time and wove it strong and true.

By himself, Danny would have had no idea how to build it so it wouldn’t lead to the same circle of stones on Westil where his previous two Great Gates had led. But Loki had known many good places on Westil for a Great Gate to lead, ancient places, secret places that only Loki knew.

So at Danny’s urging, the gates that Loki had given him used their kinetic memory to guide him as he threw the thick-woven gates upward.

He felt the approval of Loki’s outself: a ten-thousand-year gate, they told him. Danny wasn’t sure he was thrilled to know that the gate would outlast him by hundreds of lifetimes, but … it meant that it was well-made, and it would do the job.

Then he wove another gate, just as strong, leading back to a spot on the other side of the cabin. “Stone,” said Danny. “You and Veevee first.”

“We’ve already been through a Great Gate,” said Veevee.

“Not this one,” said Danny. “So go and come back again. Veevee can show you the return entrance. And Veevee, I need you there to shepherd everybody through-and so you can lock the gate if somebody on Westil tries to interfere or use the thing. And if Loki shows up, explain it to him. Though maybe he knows. Maybe he knows whatever his gates know.”

Danny could feel that the Greeks had stopped going through the Wild Gate. “They’re done,” he said. “That means they’re coming. Hermia knows where this gate is. She may try to interfere. I have to concentrate on watching for her and protecting this place. So when you get back, Stone, you’re in charge of this end.”

With that, Danny went off by himself, into the cabin, up into the loft.

The two Westilian boys went up the ladder after him. “You can watch,” said Danny. “But do not speak to me.” Not that the older boy needed the warning. And if the younger boy was really a gatemage, maybe he’d be able to follow what Danny was doing.

Danny looked for Hermia, though not with his eyes. She was easy to find. She only had a few divisions of her outself, her ba, but since her passage through the Wild Gate she glowed so brightly that she could not escape his notice.

She was trying to lock the Wild Gate.

Fool, thought Danny. The time to lock it was before you sent your entire Family through it.

Danny began unweaving his own gates from the Wild Gate. He knew what would happen-the former captives would remain, and he would no longer be able to feel when people passed through it.

But it would be a far weaker Great Gate without his ba woven through it. And the return gate was entirely his. That one he simply took back. There was no return now, if anyone used the Wild Gate. Hermia would know what he was doing. Let her watch.

He had thought of doing this while they were still passing through the Wild Gate. But he didn’t know what half-unweaving the outbound gate would do to anyone using it at the time. Danny wasn’t prepared to do murder, and for all he knew, that’s what it would be.

As for the return gate, yes, he could have closed that at any time. Removed it and brought it back. But that would have left Illyrian mages on Westil, stranded and angry-and far more powerful than any mages on Westil. It would be irresponsible to send such an affliction to the other world. Better to let them all come back here and then weaken the outbound gate and close off the return permanently.

Hermia was angry, no doubt. Poor dear. What did you think would happen? Did you think I’d be understanding? That I’d do nothing?

Yes, angry indeed. For now he felt her trying to take hold of the end of the outbound gate that the Norths were all passing through.

Danny didn’t even bother fighting her. He could have overpowered her easily. But then he would have had to do it again and again, whenever she felt like making another try.

So he took her gates.

As a Lockfriend, she had only three divisions of her outself. But she had to send them out in order to manipulate his gate. Without passing through a Great Gate, she would never have had power to reach this far. But now two of her three gates were here, trying to move his Great Gate.

Danny ate them.

Then he followed them back to her gatehoard and ate the last one, too. All three now, everything she had, was inside his hearthoard. He could feel their terror. But no anger. Hermia was not angry. She was afraid, but she knew she deserved this. She knew that he could easily kill her, gate her to the bottom of the ocean and have done with her. Her treachery deserved no less. It had been the opening salvo in a war she could not win.

But he wouldn’t kill her. She must have known that about him, though clearly he did not know her at all. However, she would understand that rendering her blind and crippled to gates was actually a mild punishment, compared to the rules of war. Now he would not have to stay awake, waiting for her next move.

Indeed, this attempt to move his new Great Gate might have been intended as an offering. She must have known he would detect the attempt and block it. She was giving him the chance to punish her in this lesser way. Still terrible, but there was always the chance he might give her gates back to her.

The chance, perhaps. But he could not think what she might say or do to win back his trust.

There were nowhere near as many Norths as there were Illyrians. They were already done, and all the Orphans, too.

“I want you to go through the Great Gate, too,” said Danny. “And come right back. This is a better gate. It will make you stronger than you are. Will you do that?”

“Yes,” said Enopp. “Who was it that you ate up?”

“A friend who betrayed me,” said Danny.

“But you didn’t gate her anywhere,” said Enopp. “Wad gates people places. He kept me in prison for more than a year.”

“I’m not … Wad,” said Danny. “I’m a different man and I use my magery a different way.”