The Gate Thief (Mither Mages) (40 page)

“There
are
no ‘spells,’” said Danny. “Just persuasion.”

“Yeah, well, I want to see a windmage persuade him a tornado,” said Wheeler. “And clants. I want to see a stonemage turn stone into a walking monster, like the Incredible Hulk.”

“A tornado’s a terrible thing no matter how it comes into existence,” said Danny. “And your stone clant isn’t going to care who it tramples.”

“I know that,” said Wheeler. “And I deplore it, abhor it, I
roar
it—”

“As you bore us,” said Hal.

“And we ignore you,” added Laurette.

“I didn’t make the magic come back into the world,” said Wheeler. “Can I help it if it’s exciting? All those extras in the movies who run screaming from Godzilla or wave like idiots when the aliens come to blow them up in
Independence Day
—sure, they get squished, they get barbecued, but they were
there
.”

“You’d buy tickets to
anything
,” said Sin.

“I would,” said Wheeler. “Once.”

Danny sighed. “I just wanted to go to high school.”

“Why?” said Laurette. “I mean, we’re glad you’re here, but why would anybody in his right mind
choose
to spend your days like this?”

“Sitting in the woods?” asked Pat.

“Down there in Parry McCluer,” said Laurette.

“Come on, Rette, you’ve got the system sussed,” said Xena. “You’ve got the teachers and the principal eating out of your hand, the office staff loves you, your grades are good, and you’ve got a great body. There is just no reason why
you
should be allowed to hate high school.”

“Because it’s not how I’d spend my days,” said Laurette. “If I had a choice.”

“But Danny does have a choice,” said Pat.

Danny was thinking that if Laurette came from one of the Families, her ability to make people from every group like her might be considered a sign of manmagery. Then Pat turned the conversation back to him, and he could barely remember what they’d been talking about. He was that sleepy.

“High school is boring,” said Danny, “and if anybody cared, you could finish the whole curriculum in a year. It’s mostly just a tool for keeping kids out of the work force and out of criminal activities for at least half the day. But I swear it looked like the coolest thing in the world when I was reading about it in young adult novels.”

“Young adult novels,” said Pat, “are no closer to reality than Wheeler’s videogames.”

Wheeler laughed. “Reality is so overrated. In between catastrophes it settles down to the most-boring-possible-explanation-for-everything. ‘That can’t happen,’ until it does. ‘Things don’t work that way,’ until they do.”

“Girls can never find a god to fall in love with,” said Xena, “until they do.”

“Girls find gods to fall in love with all the time,” said Pat. “Then they wake up pregnant and the god is gone. All that’s left is an asshole.”

Everybody laughed at that, even Danny, tired as he was.

“‘Who’s the father of your baby?’ ‘Oh, Daddy, it was a
god
,’” said Pat. “‘What does he look like?’ ‘Oh, Mother, he forbade me to turn on the light and see his face.’ Nobody ever wants to admit they fell for a lying moron. Every bastard ever conceived is the love child of a god.”

“Yeah, but there’s also been a
lot
of genuine drowther-boinking,” said Danny. “The Mithermages have a lot of descendants scattered through the human race. In fact, by now I’d say that every living human has a Westilian ancestor.”

“So why didn’t the Great Gate waken the mage in me?” asked Hal.

“Maybe it did,” said Danny. “It takes time to learn how to find your affinity and make things happen.”

Right then, a little dust devil formed in the middle of the group, stirring up a bit of dust. And then it was gone almost as soon as they noticed it.

“OK, who did that?” asked Danny.

Nobody said anything.

“We’re talking about finding your affinity,” said Danny, “and one of you shows the power of a windmage.”

The dust devil reappeared and then skittered over to spatter dust and leaves on Wheeler. He jumped up and brushed himself off. “Sneak attacks are against the rules,” he said, brushing himself off.

“You wanted to have a monster chase you,” said Hal.

“Seriously, who did that?” asked Danny.

Everybody acted innocent. They were all curious about it, looking at each other, but nobody fessed up.

“What’s the point of hiding who can do this?” said Danny. “That’s really good, that’s like what a second-year windmage learns to do. And dumping the stuff on Wheeler, if that’s who you were aiming at, that’s why I call it a second-year thing. Nobody can do that in their first year.”

Danny watched to see who showed pride when he said that. But nobody showed anything on their faces. Which is why Danny was reasonably sure that it was Pat. She was the only one who could keep her face a complete blank, when she wanted to.

But if she had some reason for not coming forward in front of the others, Danny would respect that.

“I know why you’re in high school, Danny,” said Sin. “It’s your secret identity.”

“Clark Kent at the
Daily Planet
,” said Laurette.

“Without the glasses,” said Sin.

“And you don’t even need a phone booth,” said Hal.

“He doesn’t wear a costume so he doesn’t need to change clothes,” said Laurette. “Or a bat cave to keep his car in. Or anything.”

“But it’s still his secret identity,” said Sin.

“‘By day, a mild-mannered high school track star,’” Laurette fake-quoted. “‘By night, Loki! Mercury! Thoth! Faster than a speeding bullet!’”

“Mightier than a thrown spitwad,” said Hal.

“Able to leap onto curbs in a single bound,” said Pat.

“And look inside the girls’ bathroom whenever he wants,” said Wheeler.

“Eeew, you
could
,” said Xena. “But why would you want to? It’s poo and pee, just like boys.”

“
Not
just like boys,” said Wheeler. “Most definitely
not
.”

“How did we get onto poop and peeping toms?” asked Pat.

“I don’t spy on people without a reason,” said Danny.

“Yeah, like you want to see whether they drop their dirty undies on the floor or put them in the hamper,” said Laurette.

Danny lay back and closed his eyes. “Wake me when it’s over.”

“It’s over,” said Pat. “Because we’re all growing up. Right now. I declare puberty to be finished.”

“I hope not,” said Wheeler. “I was really hoping for more body hair.”

All the girls but Pat said “eeeewwww” at once. Wheeler was delighted.

“I’m supposed to be at track practice but I’ve got to get home and sleep,” said Danny. “It’s getting cold and the sun is still up.”

“Supposed to be a storm coming through tonight,” said Xena.

“Not snow,” said Laurette.

“No, just rain,” said Xena. “To make little things grow.”

“Xena likes to make little things grow,” said Hal.

“As long as they’re attached to Danny North,” said Laurette.

Xena turned on Hal in fury. “Hal!” she growled.

Before she could say anything or throw something at him, Hal moved away. “Why are you going after me? It was Laurette who—”

“Girls can say things like that
to each other
,” explained Pat.

“I’ve got to go talk to my parents,” said Danny. “And I have to get Veevee to write out an excuse for my absence today.”

“You need to get a nap first,” said Pat.

“Do you think they’re going to do like Zog in
Superman II
and make the President kneel to them in the Oval Office?” asked Wheeler.

“If they feel like it,” said Danny. “If they even care.” And then Danny said, “They won’t make anybody kneel, but they’ll definitely want to get control of the army and navy and air force and all. Because we’re not immortal, and so we have to know where the weapons are so we don’t get blown up or beheaded while we’re trying to control a clant a hundred miles away. Especially because weapons got really powerful since the Gate Thief closed things down in 632. So you don’t necessarily get advance warning.”

“It really is going to be war,” said Hal.

“Yeah,” said Wheeler, grinning.

“Danny, take me home with you, just for a minute,” said Pat.

Several woos and wo-hos from the others.

“I need to
talk
with you,” said Pat, rolling her eyes.

“‘Please put your baby in me,’” said Hal in a falsetto.

“Let’s get out of here so they can gossip about us,” said Danny. He reached out a hand for Pat. She took it.

He gated to his living room and the moment she saw where they were she clung to him, her whole body pressed against his. Hungry. Frightened. “It really
is
war,” she said. “What you did with the Great Gate last night and this morning, taking all the mages in the world through it, because that disloyal
bitch
—”

She stopped herself. “No. If you’re not angry, I’m not going to get angry.”

“I’m angry,” said Danny. “I just can’t do anything about it, so why develop an ulcer?”

“People will die,” she said. “
You
could die. If somebody blows you up, who’ll put you through a gate to heal you?”

“It’s not likely, but it could happen,” said Danny. “I’m more worried about a completely different enemy, though. One who can take over people’s bodies and control them.”

Pat looked up at him, without letting go. “You’re talking about being possessed by the devil.”

“Who knew it was true?” asked Danny. “But it is. And I don’t even know if anyone would be able to tell if I was taken over.”

“I’d know,” said Pat.

“Would you?” asked Danny. “I’m worried that maybe
I
wouldn’t even know.”

“If somebody was inside you? Making you do stuff against your will?” Pat shook her head. “You’d know. And I’d know, because I’d test you. I’d ask you a question and if you didn’t know the answer, I’d know it wasn’t you.” She pulled on his head and neck to draw him down and kiss him. Then she licked the tip of his nose. “I’d ask what I did right after I kissed you.”

“What if he had access to all my memories?” said Danny. “What if he could answer all the questions?”

“I’d still know,” said Pat. She kissed him again, this time long and hungrily. Her hands moved across his back, gripped his buttocks.

He pulled away from her. “No,” he said.

“This isn’t a game for me,” said Pat. “Like for the others. I’m not playing ‘sleep with a god and tell your friends.’ I love you, Danny North. I’m not too young to know that. Girls married a lot younger than me. Juliet was thirteen.”

“That was fiction, and it didn’t end all that well,” said Danny.

“You’re going off to war. When you told us what you spent all night doing, I thought, what if something had gone wrong, what if Hermia had trapped him or tricked him and he simply never came back? And instead of crying when I thought that, my hands just instinctively went to my belly. My empty uterus. It’s an
instinct
, Danny. We want to be pregnant when our man goes off to war.”

“I’m not going to make any bastards,” said Danny. “Period, ever. You think your parents are ready to let you marry a high school kid with no job, who lives in a shanty like this?”

“I don’t care about marriage,” said Pat. “People don’t, they just don’t care about that.”

“The smart people do,” said Danny. “The people who want to raise a family, and not just get pregnant.”

She had her hands inside his waistband and was pushing downward on his pants. He thought of Lana the first time he met her in Stone’s house in DC. His body was responding the same way, only this time he wasn’t surprised and frightened. If anything, he wanted Pat more than she wanted him.

“I love you, too,” said Danny, “but I’m not one of those gods.” And, just as she got his pants down to his thighs, he gated her away, back to her own bedroom.

He wanted so badly to go through that gate after her.

Instead, he ate the gate so Hermia couldn’t use it to get into her house, just in case she decided to start going after his friends. And then, too tired to make a decision about pulling his pants back up or taking them off the rest of the way, he gated himself to his own bed and fell asleep exactly as he was.

He dreamed of her, though. He vaguely remembered dreaming of other things, forgotten things, strange things, he dreamed that she was on the bed beside him, pressing herself against him, naked, whispering to him. “I love you, Danny,” she whispered.

In the dream he held her, explored her body. He tried to kiss her but for some reason she evaded his kiss. He laughed and moved his hand up to her face and still she tried to turn her face away when he went to kiss her. He was ready to explode with desire for her. She didn’t want his kisses, she wanted his baby, and that’s all he wanted, was to give her that.

In the dream his body was poised over her. She was pulling his hips down. Then he kissed her before she could dodge.

It wasn’t Pat.

He opened his eyes.

It was Nicki Lieder, the coach’s daughter.

“I came to see you, the door was unlocked,” she whispered, “and here you were, so ready for me.”

It still felt like a dream. But it also felt completely real. Real, but with the cloudiness of a dream in his mind. Nicki Lieder. Not Pat at all. He didn’t love Nicki. But she was naked under him, and he knew how much she wanted him, and at this moment all he could think of was that he wanted her, too. Not
her
, but a woman, the woman here under him, the woman who had come to his bed. The woman in this extraordinary dream.

No, it’s not a dream, said something inside him. It’s not a dream, it’s someone who has the power to cloud your mind.

“You want me inside you,” said Nicki.

“Yes,” said Danny, even as something in his mind screamed at him, Listen to what she said, listen to what you just agreed to, it’s not
you
inside
her
, it’s someone asking to come into
your
body, and you said yes, you said yes, you fool.