Gatefather (9 page)

“The only good outcome is Danny alive and Set out of his body and gone from the world.”

“It's not a good outcome if he's gone to Westil and comes back with an army of a hundred thousand mages under his control, my dear,” said Veevee.

“Danny alive and free, and Set
not
in a position to harm anybody ever again.”

“Now you really are too ambitious, my pet,” said Veevee.

“Best outcome,” said Pat. “You can't deny that that's the best outcome.”

“Yes, it's victory in the whole war against the Belmages.”

“
And
Danny alive and free.”

“I wasn't forgetting that. But darling, you're a novice windmage—though pretty skilled, judging from the highly localized cyclone you whipped up when I first got here. I don't think there's any plan you can come up with where
your
actions can lead to the defeat of Set. Still, it's lovely to dream.”

“I don't have any plan at all,” said Pat. “But you're right. Because you came to me here and we had this conversation, I'm now looking for a different
kind
of action. Not the action of Juliet, stabbing herself to death because she thinks Romeo is dead. That's just melodrama and self-indulgence. Just
emotion
. I'll find something rational, or I won't do anything at all.”

“Rational?” asked Veevee. “Who does anything
rational
?”

“Me,” said Pat. “If I can think of something.”

“Well, if you refrain from action until you have a
rational
plan, then both you and Danny will be safe from any screw-ups you might otherwise perpetrate.”

“At least I'll be thinking instead of just walking around crying and wanting to scream,” said Pat. “So … thank you for coming to me.”

“And thank
you
for talking to
me
. Aren't we a pair of shopkeepers? Thank you. No, thank
you
.”

Pat laughed.

Veevee came to her, raised her up from the ground, and gave her a hug. “You're a dear,” said Veevee. “Danny could have chosen
so
much worse.”

“Oh, I know,” said Pat. “But I do aspire to be something better than not-the-worst.”

“You're doing very well so far,” said Veevee. “And if you do take a trip to the underworld, do come back and tell me about it.”

“You'll get a full account. Though I might have to tell it to you through a weejee board.”

“Never,” said Veevee. “I hate those things. I think it's Set's buddies who run those things, and not the dead people that you
think
you're talking to.”

“I think it's just some jerk in the group, deliberately guiding the pointer to some outrageous message.”

“Well, you know
your
friends, and I know mine,” said Veevee. “Good luck, dear girl. I'd say God bless you, only then I'd have to specify
which
god, and I'm just not in the mood for metaphysics.”

Veevee walked to the tree that held their emergency escape gate.

“That leads to Stone's house,” Pat warned her.

“I know where all gates start and where they end,” said Veevee. “But Stone is my husband, and there's a gate from his house leading to my place in Naples. Loki put them all back, right where Danny had them. So this is my fastest route home. Goodbye, Pat.”

So at the last she rated a name rather than “darling” or “dear girl.”

Pat sat there until the end of school, when it was likely that the others would use their amulets to gather there in the woods on the hill. Pat didn't use the escape gate, because she didn't want to go to DC. She just walked away along a secondary path, heading down to the parking lot in time to catch her school bus, since she was
not
riding with Laurette or Sin or any of them. Not today. Because she couldn't help Danny if she was in jail for assault and battery. Or attempted murder.

 

4

No matter how Wad explained it to him, Ced seemed puzzled. “Isn't Bexoi the great Firemaster you wanted me to help you fight?”

“Yes,” said Wad.

“And she's in a coma.”

“So it seems,” said Wad.

“Seems or is?” asked Ced. “Is she faking?”

“I think it's real. She can raise an incredibly believable clant, but no, I think this is her, that she's unconscious. Unresponsive.”

“But not dead.”

“Definitely not.”

“Pregnant.”

“That's why I haven't killed her yet.”

“You're all heart,” answered Ced.

“She killed my baby,” said Wad.

“I remember that.”

“I'm not killing hers. I'm a very nice man. Not a forgiving man, but nice.”

“That's exactly how I see you.” Ced smiled. “And while we're at it, she also killed Anonoei. I liked Anonoei.”

“Me too,” said Wad.

“What I don't understand is why we're still preparing for war.”

“Bexoi may turn out not to be a threat,” said Wad. “But I told you all along that we had to prepare for an onslaught of powerful mages from Mittlegard.”

“Even though you now have control over all the gates in both worlds.”

“That was true for fifteen hundred years. And then the universe popped a little surprise on us. Or, I should say, the world of Duat, which sent the soul of Danny North into a gatemage's body.”

“He's a very nice boy,” Ced reminded Wad. “Even when he was burgling houses, he saved people's lives.”

“He's a nice boy who built a Great Gate and put both worlds in enormous danger.”

“Now he's paying for that,” Ced pointed out. “Lost all his gates,
and
he's possessed by this Belmage, probably for the rest of his life.”

“Only because Set will probably kill him when he gets tired of living inside a gateless Gatefather.”

“I'm not blaming you, Wad, but all your enemies seem to be … more or less neutralized at the moment. Danny North has no freedom and no gates. Set caught himself a gatemage but now he's got no power to pass between worlds. Bexoi killed everybody until she got herself into a coma. It seems to me the universe is on your side, man.”

“Yes, that's how it seems,” said Wad. “But my guess is that nothing is as it seems. Or if it is, it won't stay that way. Because mine is not the only will that's working in these worlds. Danny North is already proving himself to be resourceful and oddly undefeated. What if Bexoi comes out of her coma? Set has infinite patience, when it suits his purpose, and no scruples at all. And who knows what the world of Duat will send us next? We still need to get Westil into shape to cope with that influx of mages. And why are you even resisting this? For the next few weeks, or days, or hours, you're the most powerful mage on Westil.”

“Or years. It's also not true, because you're here.”

“Yes,” said Wad. “Ced, I can't do anything. Not compared to you.”

“Because I'm such a likable fellow.”

“So you
were
listening. You're the windmage who devastated fifty leagues of the Hetterwold and made them love you for it.”

“It wasn't a trick. I was really sorry, and I worked hard to try to help them rebuild. They treated me better than I deserved.”

“I'm a good liar, Ced, but I don't know how to make myself seem as sincerely miserable and repentant as you.”

“Because I'm not lying.”

“I know! That's why I can't do what you can do. If you make yourself master of Westil, they'll love you for it.”

“So what does that mean?” asked Ced. “That only fifty assassins will be trying to kill me, instead of the usual two hundred?”

“Oh, it'll still be all two hundred,” said Wad. “But you have me watching out for you.”

Ced only shook his head.

“Anonoei went on that little jaunt of hers against my advice, and while she was in the greatest danger, Danny North held my attention by using my gates to explore
my
memories.”

“And nothing will
ever
come together just wrong so that you can't protect me either.”

“Ced, there are no guarantees in this world. Anonoei didn't think anybody could kill her, because she could make people want
not
to have her dead. Except she came up against Bexoi, who had no human feelings, and so she had nothing to manipulate.”

“Your hypothesis.”

“No, it's a fact that she has no human feelings,” said Wad. “The only part I'm guessing about is that that's why Anonoei had no defense against her.”

Ced shook his head and laughed. “Wad, you seem to filter out of your memory anything that doesn't fit your preconceived notions! Anonoei apparently
did
have a defense, because Bexoi, the firemage, got
burnt
. It nearly killed her and she only survived because you passed her through a gate.”

“I have no idea why that happened,” said Wad.

“But it still happened, whether you have any idea of why or not,” replied Ced. “And even after you healed her, whatever Anonoei did to Bexoi, she hasn't come out of it yet. Am I right?”

“Yes.”

“Take everything into account, Wad. I keep dreaming of Anonoei.”

“Most men who met her have those dreams,” said Wad. “It's part of her power.”

“Not
those
dreams. I was once married to a
succubus
, please remember. I liked Anonoei but I didn't faunch after her like most men apparently do. The dreams I have are truly weird. Anonoei is inside a coffin, knocking and knocking to get out. But when we open the lid of her coffin, all that's inside is a moth. Or a dead … thing.”

“A dead baby,” said Wad.

“You've had the dream too?” asked Ced.

“People don't have each other's dreams, Ced. I saw the way you glanced at me and then said ‘thing' instead of what you were
going
to say. What dead thing would you
not
be able to say to me? Dead baby.”

“Well, yes. A mummified baby. And sometimes the whole coffin is full of spiders as big as my hand. It's not a pleasant dream. But I always know that it's Anonoei inside the coffin, knocking to get out.”

“That's a strange dream indeed,” said Wad. “I'm trying to think why that has anything to do with whether we go help the Doge of Drabway.”

“Because you don't want to help him,” Ced explained. “You want to use his fear in order to get control of him.”

“He's a very lazy old man who doesn't do any of his own work anyway,” said Wad. “He's already a puppet controlled by his Wazir, and
he's
a puppet controlled by Drabway's oligarchs and enemies in approximately equal proportions. Somebody's going to kill the Wazir and probably the Doge as well. So we'll be saving his life. And the Wazir's life, even if from now on he'll take his orders from us while we protect him from the people who will be discommoded by our takeover. They both get to keep their jobs, on a somewhat reduced income, and all their prestige and perquisites.”

Ced shook his head. “You don't really think they'll regard this as a favor, do you?”

“No, they'll hate us. Or rather, they'll hate
me
. But you're so likable—”

“That's where we cross over into Bullshit Land. It's one thing to apologize abjectly to peasants who are used to bowing to powerful mages. But these clowns
are
mages, right?”

“Not in your league,” said Wad.

“They're used to ruling, not being ruled.”

“They take orders from other people all the time.”

“Wad, I won't be good at this. And if I
am
good at it, then I'll hate myself for it.”

“Neither one,” said Wad. “You'll rule so benignly, so generously, that you'll even like
yourself
, I promise.”

“I only ever tried to rule one person. Not even
rule
her, just
contain
her so she didn't destroy herself and hurt a lot of other people in the process. I couldn't do it. And also, likable as I am, she hated me for it.”

“These aren't women,” said Wad.

Ced shook his head. “Wad. You keep explaining this as if I didn't
understand
. I understand completely, I just don't
agree
.”

“I know,” said Wad. “But I don't know what else to do.”

“Find a new plan,” offered Ced.

“You're all I've got, now that Anonoei is gone.”

“You've got her boys. Didn't you say they're already some freaky kind of conjoined-twin mage?”

“Ced, when I say you're all I've got, I mean it. If I had anybody else, would I still be here after you've told me no so often?”

“You still have
you
,” answered Ced. “Do it yourself, and call on me if you need a big wind. Or a little tiny one with a lot of tightly-focused force.”

“What did you want power
for
?” asked Wad, genuinely curious.

“I didn't want power over
people
, Wad. I wanted
wind
. I've had more than I want of people.”

“But the world consists of people,” said Wad. “We're humans, we have responsibility to the society we—”

“You sound like a politician.”

“I was talking like a philosopher.”

“A really boring one. Don't you get it? I'm a windmage. To me the world consists of a million different airs wandering over the surface, and people are just occasional obstructions that are fun to swirl around and take the hats off of, but I can always sweep them away and it's hard work to remember that it's not nice to do that.
Not
killing people randomly—that's the level of morality that I'm still working on. I'm not ready to take on whole kingdoms.”