Gatefather

by Orson Scott Card

  But it was still a risk; why chance it just to tell two boys that their mother was dead? Surely that was information that could wait a week or two more.

  No. Wad had harmed the boys enough. He owed them honorable treatment now. To leave them in ignorance of such a terrible transformation of their lives was wrong. It had to be done.

  Wad made the Great Gate in the clearing where Ced was studying with the treemage. “If anyone but me comes through this Great Gate,” said Wad, “kill him immediately. Or her. Whoever it is.”

  “Even if they come with you?” asked the treemage.

  “Especially if they come with me,” said Wad.

  “And what if the Belmage has entered you?” asked Ced.

  “Then it’s all over, because you won’t be able to kill me,” said Wad.

  “We could try,” said the treemage.

  “You would fail,” said Wad. “And you wouldn’t know the Belmage had me, anyway. Not quickly enough. So I need you to watch for anyone else. It means they snuck through when I wasn’t looking.”

  “And the penalty for that is death?” asked Ced.

  “The fate of this world is at risk here,” said Wad. “If someone comes through it means I failed and something’s seriously wrong. It probably means I’m dead. Whoever comes through will be powerful and dangerous, and if you don’t kill them at once, they’ll probably kill you.”

  “Remember, only you can prevent forest fires,” said Ced.

  “I have no idea what you mean by that,” said Wad.

  “I’m saying that we’ll do what it takes,” Ced answered.

  “Ced and I will talk about this when you’re gone and reach our own decision,” said the treemage.

  “I’m making such a huge mistake,” said Wad.

  “Probably,” said the treemage. “But we treemages know that doing anything is usually a mistake. And so is doing nothing. Almost everything is a mistake. Have a nice visit to Mittlegard.”

  Wad turned slowly a couple of times, and cast a Great Gate with both ends sealed against anybody but himself. But since there were Lock- and Keyfriends on Mittlegard, it would not guarantee anything.

  He found the two boys, Eluik and Enopp, racing each other through a pasture behind the home of Marion and Leslie Silverman. They were running toward the Great Gate, so they saw Wad arrive and changed direction, both at once.

  For a moment Wad thought the older boy, Eluik, might have brought his ka out of his brother’s body, but no. His eyes were still dead and empty. Yet he had been running, as surefooted as his brother. He must have been using his own eyes to see—the pasture was too clumpy and uneven for him to have been relying on Enopp’s eyes to see for them both.

  But either way, Wad knew that both boys would hear and understand whatever he said, even if Enopp was the one who would speak for them.

  “That’s a Great Gate you came through, isn’t it,” said Enopp.

  “You’re speaking the local language very well,” said Wad, “but you should speak to me in Icewegian.”

  “You understood me,” said Enopp. “Because we gatemages are very good with languages.”

  “I only have a few minutes here,” said Wad. “And if Danny North shows up, I’ll leave immediately, because the Belmage has possession of him.”

  “Is Danny the enemy now?” asked Enopp.

  “The being who’s controlling him is the enemy. If Danny somehow gets free of him, he’ll be a good friend to you again. But for now, he can’t be trusted.”

  “Bummer,” said Enopp.

  “I came to tell you that something very bad has happened on Westil. Your mother was surprised by Queen Bexoi.”

  Enopp immediately grew very serious. “Why didn’t you gate her away?”

  “She knew I was busy. I warned her that I couldn’t watch over her, but she insisted on going anyway. She was sure she’d be safe. By the time I knew she was in trouble, it was too late.”

  “What does ‘too late’ mean?” asked Enopp.

  “Queen Bexoi is a firemage,” said Wad. “Your mother was consumed by fire.”

  Enopp regarded him steadily. “You’re telling me the truth,” he said.

  “Yes,” said Wad. “I would never tell you something like that if it wasn’t true.”

  “You think that Mother is dead,” said Enopp.

  “I know she is,” said Wad. “Her friend Keel saw her die. There’s no mistake.”

  “Eluik says that she’s alive,” said Enopp.

  “Eluik isn’t part of this conversation unless he talks to me himself,” said Wad.

  “That’s a poor excuse for not listening to someone who knows things that you don’t know.”

  “I have no evidence that Eluik knows anything. How can she be alive? Keel saw her body consumed in a flash of fire. I saw the ashes. Boys, your mother is truly dead. I’m deeply sorry and I would have prevented it if I could. But that’s the truth.”

  “No, it isn’t,” said Enopp. “Mother is alive.”

  “There’s no way you or Eluik could know one way or the other,” said Wad.

  “Just because you don’t know of such a way doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,” said Enopp. “When we were in the cave, Eluik came to me. Came into me. He helped me calm down and not scream or cry. He also helped Mother.”

  “So even though the three of you were in separate caves, Eluik made contact with you and Anonoei?”

  “He had to stay with me all the time at first, and then he just got used to it. But he could feel Mother the whole time. He made it so I could feel her, too, and she could feel us.”

  “She never told me that.”

  “So what?” asked Enopp. “Why should she tell you anything? You were the one who imprisoned us.”

  “You’re saying that Eluik can feel her now?” asked Wad.

  “Yes,” said Enopp. “If she were dead, he’d know it because he wouldn’t be able to find her.”

  “He can’t even find his own body,” said Wad. “I’m not going to believe anything he says unless he says it with his own mouth.”

  “Why do you get to make the rules?” asked Enopp.

  “Because I’m the most powerful mage in either world,” said Wad.

  “I thought you were down to your last few gates because Danny North is stronger,” said Enopp.

  “The Belmage got him but Danny gave all my gates back to me and gave me all of his, too.”

  “He really trusts you,” said Enopp.

  “Yes, I guess he does,” said Wad.

  “Why can’t you trust me and Eluik?” asked Enopp.

  “Because I’m not as trusting as Danny North,” said Wad. “He’s a kid, and I’m more than a thousand years old.”

  “A thousand years inside a tree,” said Enopp. “That made you so much wiser, I guess.”

  Wad couldn’t believe this conversation. He had expected to comfort two grief-stricken boys. He had thought maybe his news would bring Eluik out of his trance, put his ka back in his own body. Instead, they were pretending it wasn’t true and Wad didn’t think there was any urgency about forcing them to believe. “Believe what you want,” said Wad. “I have to get back.”

  “What are you going to do?” asked Enopp.

  “I’m going to leave you here for the time being. You’re still King Prayard’s illegitimate sons. You look like him. So there are still people who’ll want to use you and people who’ll want to kill you.”

  “Not about us,” said Enopp. “Eluik wants to know what you’re going to do about Queen Bexoi.”

  “I’m going to kill her,” said Wad. “As soon as she has her baby. Your brother. Once he’s born, you’re not as useful and not as dangerous. Maybe you can go home.”

  “Don’t kill her,” said Enopp.

  “You don’t get a vote on that question,” said Wad. “Even if I don’t kill her for killing your mother, I’ll kill her for murdering my son.”

  “Don’t kill her,” said Enopp. “Eluik says you can’t.”
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  “Eluik said nothing,” said Wad. “I watched his lips.”

  “Eluik says that’s where Mother is.”

  Wad thought about this for a moment. “Inside Bexoi?”

  “The way that Eluik is inside me,” said Enopp. “That’s what he says. Only farther in. Completely in. It’s the only place she is.”

  Wad wondered if it might be true. “You mean she has Bexoi the way the Belmage has Danny North?”

  “No,” said Enopp. “She isn’t in control. They’re still fighting each other.”

  “Are you and Eluik fighting each other?” asked Wad.

  “Why should we?” asked Enopp. “He still has his own body. Mother doesn’t. She’s got nowhere else to go. Bexoi can’t throw her out and Mother’s afraid to let Bexoi leave the body for fear it’ll die. So they can’t either one of them do anything with their body.”

  “How can Eluik know any of this? They’re on separate worlds.”

  “Why can’t you believe children know what they’re talking about?” asked Enopp. “Why are you so stupid?”

  “Because this isn’t something that manmages can do,” said Wad.

  “Just because you never heard of a manmage doing it doesn’t mean it can’t be done,” said Enopp. “That’s not Eluik talking, that’s me.”

  “Anonoei’s inside Queen Bexoi’s body?”

  “That’s what Eluik says, and he wouldn’t lie about something like that. If Mother weren’t there, he’d tell you to go ahead and kill that murdering bitch.”

  “If Eluik’s so smart, why doesn’t he go back into his own body?” asked Wad.

  Enopp didn’t answer.

  And Wad finally got it. “You won’t let him go,” he said.

  “He can go whenever he wants.”

  “You don’t want him to leave you,” said Wad. “You’re afraid to let him be a separate boy again.”

  “I’m not making him do anything,” said Enopp, “and he isn’t making me do anything, either.”

  “When he thinks about going, you become afraid and so he feels like he can’t leave you.”

  “I’m not afraid,” said Enopp.

  “You’re still terrified that if he leaves you, you’ll feel the way you did back in the cave, when you were first a prisoner there.”

  Enopp said nothing.

  “I’ll tell you what,” said Wad. “I’ll think about what you say that Eluik says about your mother. And you think about what I’m saying about you and Eluik. Maybe I’ll believe you, maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll keep Bexoi alive, maybe not. Maybe I’ll think of a way to help your mother get complete control of that body and get Bexoi out of there. But when I come back, let’s see if you figured out a way to let Eluik go back to living his own life instead of being trapped helping you live yours.”

  Enopp said nothing.

  “I’m going now,” said Wad. “Think about it.”

  “Don’t kill Bexoi until Eluik says you can.”

  “When Eluik talks to me with his own mouth,” said Wad, “then I’ll take the two of you seriously. Do you understand me?”

  “You’ll kill Mother if Eluik can’t get back to his own body?” asked Enopp.

  “I don’t know,” said Wad. “First I’ve got to figure out a way to prove whether she’s in there or not.”

  “Eluik says she’s there, that’s your proof.”

  Wad only smiled. “Eluik says nothing, so there’s no proof. I’ve been here too long. I’m going now.”

  “If Danny never gets free of the Belmage, who’s going to teach me to be a gatemage?” asked Enopp.

  “Nobody,” said Wad, “as long as you’ve got your brother trapped inside you.”

  Wad stepped back into the Great Gate and arrived in the glade with Ced and the treemage. He immediately ate the gates that comprised the Great Gate, then saw that the two men were watching him intently.

  “Just me,” said Wad. “I know Danny sensed it when the Great Gate was made, but he didn’t make a gate or try to find me any other way. As far as I can tell, he hid it from the Belmage.”

  “Is that even possible?” asked the treemage.

  “No,” said Wad. “But then, Danny’s the most powerful gatemage in all of human history. Just because other mages couldn’t resist the Belmage doesn’t mean that Danny can’t.”

  And then Wad thought: What kind of mage has Eluik become, after the things he did in the caves to comfort his brother and, apparently, Anonoei? How can I be sure he doesn’t know what he’s talking about? And how do I know that in the moment of her death, Anonoei couldn’t possibly have leapt, inself and outself, from her dying body into the living flesh of Bexoi? How do I know what’s possible anymore?

  “What are you thinking about?” asked the treemage.

  “How ignorant I am,” said Wad. “And how many new things there are in the world.”

  “Your face looked like hope,” said Ced.

  “Yes,” said Wad. “That would be right.”

  “What are you hoping for?” asked Ced.

  “That maybe one of the people that I’ve loved might not be dead.”

  “That would be cool,” said Ced.

  “Why does he always talk in temperatures?” asked the treemage. “It makes no sense.”

  “He’s from Mittlegard,” said Wad. “And so am I. It makes us strange.”

  “Did you get rid of that Great Gate?” asked the treemage.

  “I did,” said Wad.

  “The Belmage wouldn’t have done that,” said the treemage. “So I guess that I won’t kill you this time.”

  “Thanks,” said Wad. “I’m going to rest now until Bexoi is alone again.”

  “Going to kill her now?” asked Ced.

  “Maybe I won’t kill her after all,” said Wad.

  “That’s good,” said the treemage. “People are so shallow rooted. It’s a shame to cut them down. They don’t grow back.”

  3

  Pat knew it was safer to stay away from Danny. Mostly because it wasn’t really Danny. Danny’s face, but not the same smile, not really—now he was too knowing, condescending like one of the jock athletes. It only made her angry and afraid and sick at heart and lonely to see him walking through the halls at school or sitting there in class, looking bored or annoyed or amused. None of it was Danny and she missed him.

  Missed him and wanted to do something to help him, but there was nothing she could do.

  At least he no longer came and sat at the same lunch table as Pat and her friends. Hal and Wheeler still came, but that was all right, even though before Danny they would never have dared—Laurette would have withered them with a look. Now, though, everybody seemed so miserable that who would want to sit with them? Just pack the food into their faces, that’s all they did.

  Then it was Friday and Hal and Wheeler either cut school or had some errand or assignment during lunch because they weren’t there, it was just Laurette and Sin and Xena sitting with Pat at one end of their table. Nobody else could hear them—nobody would try to listen anyway—and it soon became clear to Pat that the other three were working up the courage to say something.

  “Just say it,” said Pat.

  “Say what?” said Xena and Sin at the same time.

  “Whatever it is none of you has the guts to say,” said Pat. “The longer you take, the worse I expect it to be.”

  “Well it’s bad,” said Laurette, “and you’re going to hate us.”

  And then Pat guessed what it was. “Danny,” she said. “You made a play for him and you don’t have the guts to tell me.”

  “But we didn’t,” said Xena miserably.

  “We would never,” said Sin.

  “Yes, but not the way you think,” said Laurette. “We were all flirty with him. Offering things we didn’t mean to do—”

  Xena rolled her eyes.

  “OK, so Xena meant to,” said Laurette. “But after you took us to DC and told us that stuff with Stone—”

  “I thought we didn�
�t talk about things like that here at school,” said Pat.

  “Do we have to go to the place even to breathe?” asked Xena.

  “We didn’t want to make a big deal out of this,” said Sin.

  “It’s a big deal,” said Laurette. “But we didn’t understand it till that conversation. We knew something was weird but—”

  “And we didn’t know about each other until after,” said Xena.

  “We each thought we were the only one,” said Sin.

  Pat knew they’d never get it out unless she helped. “You said it wasn’t the way I think,” said Pat. “So whatever you think I think, what is it really?”

  “He came on to us,” said Laurette.

  “Not us like a group,” said Xena.

  “That would be perverted,” said Sin.

  “Why don’t you each tell me what happened one at a time?” said Pat.

  They all looked miserable and nodded and then just sat there, saying nothing.

  “‘One at a time,’” said Pat. “Not ‘nobody at once.’”

  “I can’t,” said Xena.

  “I can,” said Laurette. “He showed up at my door. I was upstairs studying—yes, I do that sometimes, I like getting good grades—and the doorbell rings and then my mom calls from downstairs, ‘Laurette, honey, Pat’s boyfriend is here to study with you,’ which was bizarre because a, Danny doesn’t study, and b, the only way my mom would know he was your boyfriend is if that’s how he introduced himself and I thought you two were being all stealthy about it.”

  “I didn’t know that’s what we were,” said Pat. “But how nice. Go on.”

  “So he comes upstairs and closes my bedroom door behind him and I say, ‘Why did you come to the front door?’ and he just reaches down and pulls me up from my chair and kisses me.”

  Pat kept her face from showing anything. She knew it wasn’t Danny, and she wasn’t surprised that the Belmage would try something like that. But she also knew that Laurette would not have put up much of a fight.

  “So when he came up for air I said, ‘I’m not sure that’s something Pat’s boyfriend ought to be doing.’”

  “How loyal of you,” said Pat.

  “I was loyal. Trying to be. But he says, ‘It’s not like that, and if she doesn’t know, do you care?’ or something like that, and then—I swear this is true—it was almost like magic, he gets his hands at my waist and in like two moves he has me”—and now she whispered—“naked.”