“At what time?” asked Thor.
“At the time I return,” said Danny.
“And when will that be?” demanded Gyish, who was apparently unhumbled by what Danny had just done to Zog.
Danny didn’t bother to answer. He just gated back to his living room, where the others were waiting.
“That went well,” said Hermia dryly.
It took a moment for Danny to realize that Hermia had been watching-and Danny had not made gates for her and Veevee this time.
“Oh, don’t get all uffish about it,” said Hermia. “I’ve been working on trying to do something besides lock your gates.”
“You made a gate?” asked Danny eagerly.
“I wish,” said Hermia. “But I moved the other end of the last viewport you made for me.”
“You moved it all the way to the library?”
“No,” said Hermia. “I attached it to you, and you carried it with you. I was essentially looking and listening through the top button of your shirt.”
Sin giggled. Xena glared at her. “Woah, cool,” said Wheeler.
This was a huge breakthrough. Hermia could move the end of a gate and attach it to an object.
“Can you do it, too?” Danny asked Veevee.
“I haven’t tried,” said Veevee. “This is the first I’ve heard of it. I didn’t even realize she was listening while you were gone, or I would have been angry at you for not making me a viewport. I may not be as young and pretty as Hermia, but I love you more than she does.”
“Will you teach her how to do it?” Danny asked Hermia.
“Of course,” said Hermia. “I only succeeded for the first time just now, and I only had to move it a few feet. I have no idea how far I can reach with it. Probably not very far.”
“So the messages are delivered,” said Pat, “and Hermia thinks you handled it well with your family.”
“Actually, I think she was being sarcastic,” said Danny.
“No, I wasn’t,” said Hermia. “I really think it went well. You made your point with that bully Zog, and everybody else you treated respectfully. I don’t know if I could have done that.”
“He’s so ni-i-i-ice,” said Wheeler.
“He is!” insisted Xena.
Please get off my side, Xena, said Danny silently. Especially because I don’t even have a side.
“My point is,” said Pat, “the messages are delivered, so isn’t it time you took us through a Great Gate?”
“You?” asked Hermia in genuine surprise. “What’s the point?”
“To see what it does to us,” said Pat. “There’s a lot of bastard mageblood in the world by now. Who knows whether we might not have some latent abilities?”
Veevee laughed. “You don’t have to invoke all those happy impregnators among the corps of minor gods. Magery is certainly latent among the entire human race. Or so Danny thinks, since he’s so sure that humans began here in Mittlegard and only became mages when a tribe stumbled on a naturally occurring gate and got carried to Westil.”
“If there were such a thing as naturally occurring gates,” said Hermia, “don’t you think there’d have been one during the centuries since Loki ate all the gates?”
“The Gate Thief got any gate that opened,” said Danny. “And maybe they only happen when the planets are aligned somehow. Maybe there are cycles.”
“Or epicycles,” said Hal.
“Danny’s a Virgo,” said Xena. “I’m not sure how the planets lined up for him, though.”
“It’s just a theory,” said Danny. “And it has nothing to do with astrology.”
“Let’s test it,” said Veevee. “Take these little darlings through a Great Gate and see what it does to them.”
“If you’re going to do it at all,” said Pat, “you need to do it before you send any of the Family mages through. Once there are other great mages loose in the world…”
Danny thought of his father coming home with his power over metal and machinery multiplied by two. Or ten. And for that matter, what would his mother be able to do? There were gods in the past who really could hurl lightning. No doubt a mage of light and heat like Mama would be able to make lightning, after passing through the Great Gate.
Pat was right. The Family mages would be godlike, and if they weren’t quite scrupulous about keeping their word to Danny, he’d be busy dealing with them. He wouldn’t have time to work with his drowther friends to find out just how permanent their drowtherhood might be.
Well, he hadn’t told the Families exactly when he’d make this Great Gate he was promising. Obviously he couldn’t delay forever. If they became impatient, there was a Great Gate in existence, one that was not in Danny’s control.
And that night, as Danny was undressing for bed, he couldn’t stop himself from playing through in his mind a not-terribly-unlikely scenario in which he delayed far too long, angering the Families, which then united against him and attacked the Silvermans in order to show their displeasure.
Powerful as Marion and Leslie now were, because of their passage through a Great Gate, they could not stand against the united Families. Perhaps not even against one Family in a concerted assault. Yes, Leslie could detach all the beastmages from their heartbeasts. Yes, Marion could break up the earth under them.
But there would be threats they couldn’t see. There would be winds and water that they couldn’t stop. There would be fire.
And even if the whole farm in Yellow Springs was burned to the ground, there that public Wild Gate would be, waiting. As the victorious enemies gloated, walking over the burnt-out ruin of the Silvermans’ farm, their refuge, their lives, someone would accidentally step through the Great Gate. Wouldn’t that be the kind of prank that spacetime looked for?
No, Danny could not delay forever. But if he took his drowther friends through a new Great Gate right away, perhaps there would be time enough to train them a little. Maybe they would have latent mageries that bloomed into sudden life. Maybe …
Maybe pigs could eat with knives and forks. Even powerful mages born in Families took years of training in order to master their abilities. What fantasy was this, that Danny could bestow on his friends what his Family had as their inheritance?
I am not all-powerful. I may have the most useful magery in the world right now, the one that can change everything. I may have other people at my mercy. But I can’t even control a Great Gate that I made. I didn’t know the consequence of weaving into it the lingering outselves of long-dead rage-filled mages-but the fact that I’m not to blame doesn’t mean that I’m not compelled to live with the consequences of my foolishness.
How much more foolishness will I have to bring about because of the things that I don’t know? It isn’t my drowther friends who need training. It’s me. But the only person in either world who can possibly help me is my most dangerous enemy. The Gate Thief.
I have most of his gates under my control right now, but who knows what tricks he knows that I am not aware of? Who knows what danger I would be in if I went to him for help? He’s a Gatefather-he can lie to me as easily as he can breathe, so even if he promised to help me, how would I know that he meant to keep his word?
And that image of the Silvermans’ farm as rubble and ash kept coming back to his mind.
There was a knock at his door.
He felt a thrill of terror, his heart leaping with sudden adrenaline. The Families had found him!
Then he heard Pat’s voice. “It’s me,” she said. “I need to talk to you.”
Relieved, his heart still racing, Danny took the five steps to the door-the house was so tiny-without remembering that he was in the middle of undressing for bed. When the door opened, Pat looked him up and down.
“I see you were expecting someone else,” she said.
Danny was wearing his tighty-whities and his socks.
“I was in the middle of undressing for bed,” he said. “And I wasn’t expecting anybody.”