Gatefather Read online

  “I’m not your judge,” said Danny. “I’m not anybody’s judge.”

  “You’re everybody’s judge,” said Hermia. “People with power are always judges, deciding whom to treat well and whom to ignore. And this power—gating without gates…”

  “Moving myself and others without using my outself,” said Danny. “I don’t know if I was meant to end up with this power, or if it’s just something that comes with katabasis.”

  “She really died?” asked Hermia.

  Danny held up his hand and looked at it somberly. “Out, damned spot,” he said softly.

  “Set used your own hand to kill her?”

  “It’s the only hand he had the use of,” said Danny. “So, yes.”

  “You remember killing her.”

  Danny nodded. “And I remember my own choice to let her finish dying and stay dead.”

  “So you could follow her to Duat,” said Hermia.

  “It was my plan,” said Pat.

  “What made you think it would even work?” Hermia asked her.

  “Persephone,” said Pat. “Isis. Eurydice.”

  Hermia could hardly believe that was all Pat had to go on. “Ancient lies, long since augmented and altered and…”

  “She took an extravagant chance,” said Veevee, “and laid her own life on the line. What did you do?”

  “I caved in at the first opportunity,” said Hermia. “So toss me off the balcony into the Gulf.”

  “The Gulf isn’t directly below the balcony, and you don’t deserve a soft landing,” said Veevee.

  “Nobody’s dropping anybody off of anything,” said Danny. “All I have right now is that Pat can move herself around at will, and I can move myself and others, all without taking any of my gates back from Loki. I can’t teach this to anybody who hasn’t died and come back. I have no idea how to turn this into anything.”

  “Maybe you can’t,” said Hermia. “And in the meantime, where’s Set?”

  Danny patted his chest.

  “You mean he’s still in you?” asked Hermia.

  “Where else?” asked Pat. “Where would Set go if Danny let him loose?”

  “You mean you’re holding him prisoner?” asked Hermia.

  “I don’t think so,” said Danny. “I asked him not to leave me, and he stayed.”

  “So he could jump from you into any of us,” said Hermia.

  “Why would he?” asked Veevee. “Danny has powers that no one has ever had. Set probably thinks he can take back control whenever he wants.”

  “Maybe he does,” said Danny, “but I don’t think he’s that stupid.”

  “I think he really can’t go anywhere,” said Pat. “You should have heard Danny when he ‘asked’ Set not to go. Danny has authority now. No, he has Authority. Capital A. Or maybe it’s AUTHORITY—all caps.”

  “Like drunk people texting?” asked Hermia.

  “The shift button doesn’t activate because your blood alcohol level reaches a certain threshold,” said Veevee.

  “Set is listening to everything? Watching everything?” asked Hermia. “Aren’t you afraid he’s learning it all? If he ever figures out how to gate between worlds without actually using any gates, then all these elaborate precautions you and the Gate Thief took are pretty worthless, aren’t they?”

  “He can’t do any of it,” said Danny. “Because he’s incapable of rooting into a living body.”

  “You’re sure?” asked Hermia.

  Pat murmured, “Idiot.”

  “I wouldn’t have done the things I’ve been doing if I weren’t sure,” said Danny.

  “What happened on Duat?” said Hermia.

  “We were dead, and now we’re not,” said Pat.

  “None of it happened in language,” said Danny. “Or with the normal human senses. It all keeps fading in and out, like a half-remembered dream. But parts of it are clear. And then other parts are clear. But I can’t put it all together into a coherent report. ‘How I Spent My Vacation in Hades.’”

  “‘Captain Stormcloud’s Trip to Heaven,’” offered Veevee. “Mark Twain.”

  “If you’ve got Set as a captive inside you,” said Hermia, “then you’ve already won the big war. What’s left for you to do?”

  “I won’t live forever,” said Danny.

  “Get Loki to teach you how to live for a thousand years inside a tree,” said Veevee.

  “You think I haven’t thought of that?” asked Danny. “But as Loki proved, even a thousand years isn’t all that long. And during that time, Set got smarter and more powerful.”

  “Oh, don’t flatter him,” said Veevee. “You know that when you talk that way, he just preens.”

  “I have no idea what he thinks or feels. If anything,” said Danny. “Even when he was controlling my body, he didn’t actually feel what I felt.”

  “So what’s in it for him?” asked Pat. “Why does he do it?”

  “He’s in it for the power,” said Danny. “The control. The puppeteer doesn’t feel what the puppets feel. Nor does he care. He just likes to make them dance.”

  “So if he ever gets loose again…” said Pat.

  “I don’t know how he could do anything worse than the kinds of things he already did.” Danny shuddered. “And while he’s here, the Sutahites are still out there, doing whatever they do.”

  “I keep telling Danny that there’s no reason to rush out and do anything,” said Veevee. “Just let things play out and see what happens. Maybe it will become obvious when Danny needs to intervene.”

  “Sitting on this balcony is already a decision to do exactly that,” said Hermia.

  “We brought you here,” said Pat. “So we aren’t just sitting around.”

  “No, you merely added another sitter,” said Hermia. “And I was already doing that on Arkoi.”

  “Danny can send you back,” offered Pat.

  “You said you cared about the drowthers,” said Hermia to Danny. “But you’re not doing anything to stop the carnage.”

  “What carnage?” asked Veevee.

  “The war among the Families is about to erupt, and it’s going to be fought by drowthers, using drowther weapons. It’s going to make the Trojan War look like an amusement park ride.”

  Danny shook his head.

  “That’s the problem,” said Pat. “We were given some … I don’t know, rules. Danny isn’t supposed to take away other people’s power of choice. Including the Families.”

  “No, I can … I can do things. Save people. Some people. Heal people. But I can’t stop them from waging their war, or at least I think that’s how it’s supposed to work. If I can persuade them not to…”

  “They’ve all been to Westil now,” said Hermia. “You don’t have any leverage.”

  “Persuasion isn’t leverage,” said Pat. “Leverage is coercion. Persuasion is to help them see things differently and change their minds, on their own. Not because they’re afraid of Danny, or because they want something he can offer.”

  “That’s the only kind of persuasion that works in the real world,” said Hermia. “People don’t actually change their minds, they just claim they did when they realize that they’ll get more advantage out of behaving differently.”

  “I wish you were just being cynical,” said Veevee, “but sadly enough, I think you’re right.”

  Danny sighed. “You think I don’t know that? But rules are rules.”

  “What an ungatemagely thing to say,” said Veevee.

  “Ungatemagely,” repeated Hermia. “Oh, that is a word that needed to be said, at least once, in the history of the language.”

  “The person I need to have here for this discussion is Loki,” said Danny.

  “Text him and see if he comes,” said Hermia.

  “There aren’t many cell towers on Westil,” said Danny.

  “And Danny can’t go there himself,” said Veevee. “Because he’d carry Set with him. And what if he got out after all?”

  “So you si
t here on the balcony taking in the sunlight,” said Hermia.

  “What were you doing in the Aegean?” asked Pat.

  “I was a prisoner there.”

  “And we’re prisoners of our ignorance,” said Danny. “But I appreciate the conversation, because now I think I understand where I’m not going to get any answers.”

  “From us?” asked Veevee.

  “From the data available to me so far,” said Danny. “If we had enough information, you might very well be able to come up with good ideas. So if you don’t mind waiting here for a while…”

  “I mind,” said Hermia.

  “I’ll escort you back to Arkoi,” said Pat. “I think I’ve learned enough of what Danny does to take a willing passenger.”

  “Are you two a thing now?” asked Hermia.

  Pat stared back at her blankly.

  “She’s asking if you’re sleeping together, dear,” said Veevee.

  “I know what she’s asking,” said Pat. “And I was giving her the answer she deserved.”

  “I was just wondering if Danny was going to be worried about the pregnant girl carrying his baby,” said Hermia.

  “That’s not me,” said Pat.

  “I don’t want to go back to Arkoi,” said Hermia. “I’m not sure I want to stay here among people who have every reason to hate me and no reason ever to trust me … but since that also describes my family, especially after my astonishing escape…”

  “Stay here,” said Veevee. “I do indeed hate you, but Danny’s free of Set’s control and he and Pat are back from the dead, so I honestly think it’s not as awful as it was just a few days ago, and I might as well have you where I can watch you.”

  “And what if I decide to walk away from here?” asked Hermia.

  “Do what you want,” said Danny. “But if you leave, then you aren’t part of anything we do from then on.”

  “Ever?” asked Hermia.

  “You’ve already betrayed us once,” said Danny. “Fool me twice, shame on me.”

  “Fair enough,” said Hermia.

  “And the food here is pretty good,” said Veevee. “You aren’t a prisoner. You can go grocery shopping or whatever. Just so you come back at night. And we know where you are and whom you’re seeing.”

  “We don’t have to know that,” said Danny. “She’s not a prisoner. I’ve had enough of keeping prisoners.”

  “Except the one,” said Pat.

  “Well, yes,” said Danny. “The Father of Lies and all that. I can’t very well encourage him to do whatever he wants. But I’m not sure he’s actually a prisoner, either.”

  “And I’m not a prisoner,” said Hermia, “but if I go too far off the reservation…”

  “You’re on parole,” said Pat.

  Hermia considered that for a moment. “Is that how it stands, Danny?”

  “Close enough,” Danny answered. “Do you promise to be a good girl and check in with Mom?”

  “Oh, please, I’m nobody’s ‘mom,’” said Veevee.

  “He meant me,” said Pat.

  “I meant Veevee,” said Danny. “Because I hope you’ll stay with me.”

  Veevee hooted. “Oh, the two of you, really. Danny, don’t you know why chaperones were invented in the first place? I think you two should get married so it’s all legal and you can make the beast with two backs without breaking any rules.”

  “We’re too young,” said Danny. “And I don’t think it’s legit for a third party to propose marriage to the two of us on each other’s behalf.”

  “Just suggesting,” said Veevee.

  “Always looking out for others,” said Hermia. “You’re such a saint, Veevee.”

  “Sainte Voyeuse, patroness of oglers, panderers, and dirty thoughts,” said Veevee.

  “I don’t think the Catholic Church will ever accept that particular saint,” said Pat.

  “Everybody has a patron saint,” said Veevee. “You gotta have somebody to pray to.”

  To Hermia this was completely incomprehensible. Didn’t they understand that gods were just members of the Families, and prayers were just … sucking up?

  Then she looked over at the corner and Danny was gone.

  And that was that. He was off doing something, somewhere.

  “I’m surprised he didn’t even say goodbye to you,” Hermia said to Pat.

  Pat just looked at her with something like pity. “I know where he is.”

  “Where, then?”

  “If he wanted to tell you, he would have,” said Pat.

  Hermia rolled her eyes.

  “Oh, she knows where he is,” said Veevee. “It’s the most romantic thing, apparently, being dead together. She never loses track of him, and if he needs her, she can be there in an instant.”

  “That sounds like hell to me,” said Hermia. “Never being able to get away from each other.”

  “You notice I’m not with him right now,” said Pat. “I don’t cling.”

  “I just realized,” said Hermia. “Every power that somebody has takes away something from somebody else. Danny can never have any secrets now as long as he lives.”

  “And vice versa,” said Veevee.

  Hermia laughed. “Oh, really. Pat can have all the secrets she wants, because it doesn’t matter what she’s doing.”

  “She’s the one who insisted on taking you out of captivity,” said Veevee.

  “My point exactly,” said Hermia. “What happens to me isn’t even interesting, in a world that has Danny North in it.”

  “But for a couple of minutes a few days ago,” said Veevee, “it didn’t have Danny North in it. He was with her, in the land of the dead. So Hermia, you can try to hurt Pat or offend her or impress on her how unimportant she is, and it’s not going to matter, because she’s already done more with her life than you and I will ever do.”

  True enough. But when Hermia looked at Pat again, she could see that the girl had tears in her eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” said Hermia. “I can’t help being catty.”

  “Meaning you’re proud of it and don’t want to quit being bitchy,” said Veevee.

  “Sorry,” said Pat, brushing a sleeve across her eyes. “I wasn’t listening. Were you talking about me?”

  “If I didn’t hurt your feelings,” said Hermia, “what were the tears about?”

  “The children. The boys. Danny’s with the boys. It just makes me sad.”

  “Hal and Wheeler?” asked Veevee.

  Pat shook her head.

  “Oh, you mean the boys from Westil,” said Veevee.

  “Sorry,” said Pat. “I think he needs me.”

  “Meaning you need him,” said Hermia.

  “Meaning that he just said that he needs me,” said Pat. And she was gone.

  Hermia sat on the balcony, watching Veevee bake in the sun. “Florida does have its advantages in the winter,” Hermia said.

  “Oh, sweetie, you don’t have to stay out here and talk with me,” said Veevee. “I think you’re a despicable traitor and I don’t enjoy your company right now. So why don’t you go make yourself a sandwich or watch something on YouTube? Indoors, with the air-conditioning. Or go shopping.”

  Hermia was beginning to think she wasn’t wanted. She went down the elevator to the beach and walked for a couple of miles. She knew perfectly well where the gates were, but she couldn’t really celebrate her new freedom by using gates that were under the control of the Gate Thief. It was walking aimlessly that made her feel free. Something that any drowther could do.

  Danny was right. Everything that matters, drowthers can do, and probably better than any Westilian. But the games of power, those belong to us, and when we play, everybody loses.

  8

  Pat did not know where she was going. She simply went where Danny was. Ever since her passage to Duat and back, enfolded—or so it seemed to her—in Danny’s inself, she knew at every moment where he was, and could join herself to him, taking her body with her.

  She
found herself in a living room—no, a parlor—with Danny, two boys, and two adults.

  “Thank you for coming,” said Danny.

  “When did you invite her?” asked the woman.

  “And why?” asked the man.

  “I thought about her, and the fact that I needed her, and she came,” said Danny.

  “What kind of magery is that?” asked the woman.

  Instead of answering, Danny made the introductions. But now Pat remembered them from the Great Gate in Maine, when she made her momentary visit to Westil and awoke her latent windmagery. Marion and Leslie Silverman, Danny’s foster parents. And they seemed to know exactly who she was, which was encouraging—it meant that Danny had talked about her. And had said good things, because they were warm in their welcome to her, though Pat also suspected there was a tinge of pity in the way Mrs. Silverman spoke to her.

  “We’re glad to have you here,” said Mr. Silverman, “and especially so if Danny needs you.”

  “Though I hope you don’t sit around doing nothing, waiting for his call,” said Mrs. Silverman. “Devotion is fine, but he’ll lose interest in you if you don’t have a life of your own.”

  “That’s not an issue,” said Danny. “It’s impossible for us not to be aware of each other at all times, and she carries on her life just fine.”

  That was not actually true, but Pat knew that Danny had little knowledge of what her life had been before she died and he brought her back, so how could he compare?

  “She’s not agreeing with you on that,” said Mrs. Silverman.

  Pat was startled. Nobody could read her face; what had she given away? “Mrs. Silverman,” Pat said.

  “Leslie,” said Mrs. Silverman.

  “Miz Leslie,” said Pat. “Nobody’s life is ‘just fine’ right now.”

  “A southern girl,” said Leslie. “‘Miz’ Leslie. I like that.”

  Mr. Silverman cleared his throat. “Are we all friends now? Can we move on?”

  “Grump,” said Leslie.

  “Why do you need her here, Danny?” he asked again.

  “Because I can’t fix what’s wrong with these boys, and there’s a good chance that she can.”

  Pat’s immediate thought was, And there’s an overwhelming chance that I can’t. But she said nothing, because she had no idea what kind of fixing they needed, or why a windmage would be involved in it.