Gatefather

by Orson Scott Card

  “I can only do it one at a time. What if there are too many of them?”

  “You said a moment ago that there’s nobody. Go now, before the ship is gone and it’s too late.”

  “So I have to clean up after your clumsiness,” said Hermia.

  Before Gerd could shout at her to move, Hermia grinned. “I bow to your vast wisdom, O ancient lady.” And she was gone.

  A few minutes later, Hermia was back on the terrace. “Only one man, and yes, drunk as a skunk. He was actually on the verge of death from smoke inhalation, but I got him out into the water, and of course the movement immediately healed him.”

  “Did it teach him how to swim?” asked Gerd.

  “Don’t sailors all know how to swim?”

  “A Greek should know the answer to that,” said Gerd.

  “Well, now it’s required of every sailor on every ship in our fleet,” said Hermia, “but in ancient times … and yes, you’re right, he’s already completely underwater.”

  Hermia disappeared, and this time when she returned she was soaking wet. “I wasn’t really in the mood for a dip tonight,” she said, shaking herself a little. “But I got him right over to a boat that’s headed for his ship, and they’re pulling him in. Of course he got undrowned in the process. It’s nice that some aspects of this take no effort.”

  That farthest ship was burning to the waterline.

  And the two boats that had been pulling toward it suddenly reversed direction and raced over the river, heading back toward shore.

  “Well, well,” said Gerd. “I think we will have accomplished more than we hoped for.”

  “What do you mean?” said Hermia. “Obviously they saw that it was hopeless and they’re heading back.”

  “At that speed?” asked Gerd. “No, I think somebody has invented gunpowder or some other explosive, and that ship is full of it.”

  As if in answer to her statement, the burning ship was replaced by a fireball and then the boom of an explosion, so forceful that the terrace trembled and Gerd could hear glassware and ceramics in the house breaking.

  “It must be explosives used in mining, that’s all,” said Hermia.

  “Mining is done with the help of Cobblefriends and Rockbrothers,” said Gerd. “This is Westil, where magery isn’t a secret and technology isn’t a solution.”

  “Good point,” said Hermia.

  “Nix was bringing explosives here for some other reason. I think it will be nice for us to allow the Nixies to explain why they anchored that ship so far out in the water, with only one watchman aboard. What were they going to do with it? Why did they bring it right upriver to Ny itself?”

  “You have a gatemage’s heart,” said Hermia.

  “In a box on my closet shelf,” said Gerd. “Now take me home to my husband. I think he may conclude that we need to find out if Nix has reached a technological level that Alf and I can work with.”

  14

  “I wish you wouldn’t,” said Wad, but Anonoei knew that he couldn’t stop her. And, because he couldn’t, he wouldn’t even try.

  “You’re free to come along and watch,” said Anonoei.

  “You think I oppose this because I’m afraid for you,” said Wad, “but I’m not. I know you can escape instantly. I still don’t understand what you do, or how Danny North managed to teach it to you. But you’re safer alone than you are with me.”

  “Why do you oppose it, then? The last thing we need now is for Frostinch to invade Iceway, and I intend to prevent it.”

  “I know you’ve been practicing with Bexoi’s powers, since you have them along with your own.”

  “I’d be a fool not to,” said Anonoei.

  “I don’t want Frostinch’s life to end in flames,” said Wad.

  “There’s no reason why it should,” said Anonoei.

  “He’s a selfish little cretin and he poisoned his own father, but only because you persuaded him to.”

  “I take responsibility for that,” said Anonoei.

  “No, you don’t, and you never will, because if you did, people might realize that Bexoi’s lovely body no longer contains Bexoi’s ugly little pret.”

  “Inside my own mind, I take responsibility for it.”

  “And feel not even a spark of guilt.”

  “Frostinch’s father was the Jarl of Gray, who forced King Prayard’s father to accept humiliating terms and compelled Prayard himself to take Bexoi as his wife. I can’t mourn too much for his unfortunate demise.”

  “And when you’re there in the presence of Frostinch, his murderer and successor, it will occur to you that Frostinch frightened is not half so useful as Frostinch dead.”

  “Now it won’t occur to me there,” said Anonoei, “because you said it to me here.”

  “There are larger issues in the world than whether Iceway or Gray is the dominant power in the North.”

  “Larger to you,” said Anonoei. “Wad, don’t you see? Danny’s the one in control of things now.”

  “Danny has no gates,” said Wad.

  “Danny doesn’t need them,” said Anonoei. “And if he did have gates, then Set would have been able to use them.”

  “Danny thinks he has Set under control, and so he’s going to try to do stupid things.”

  “Danny told you that he knows that whatever control he has over Set can’t be relied on, and he will never bring him here.”

  “Until he changes his mind,” said Wad.

  “So only you are wise,” said Anonoei.

  “Only I am a thousand years old,” said Wad. “I’ve learned to be relentless, and Danny North hasn’t.”

  “You’re telling me to abandon the liberation of my own people, who are currently under the control of a conquering enemy, in order to help you prepare for a struggle that’s over, except in your nightmares.”

  “Exactly,” said Wad. “Because my nightmare is infinitely worse than the petty humiliations that Gray exacts from Iceway.”

  “Let’s not quarrel,” said Anonoei. “I promise not to kill Frostinch.”

  “You shouldn’t put King Prayard’s baby in danger.”

  “There’s no danger.”

  “What you really mean,” said Wad, “is that it’s not your baby. But it’s the child of that body you’re wearing, and that’s the only body you can ever use to have a child, so you might as well consider it to be yours.”

  “I have two sons of my own, real sons, back in Mittlegard,” said Anonoei. “When I bring them home—”

  “King Prayard will have them killed, because they’re bastards born to a mistress and now they pose a threat to his legitimate heir. What story will you tell him, Bexoi, to explain that you’re secretly his mistress after all? How will you convince him that you’re not insane?”

  “Wad, I came to you as a courtesy, because I thought you were my friend. I see that you want to control me—”

  “I’m trying to persuade you,” said Wad.

  “You want me to do your will,” said Anonoei.

  “I want you to help me save Westil.”

  “I have Bexoi’s powers,” said Anonoei, “plus my own, all enhanced by passage through a Great Gate. When I’ve resolved things in the North, I’ll help you wherever you need me.”

  “I know you mean what you’re saying…”

  “Wad, you know that if I wanted to use my powers to persuade you…”

  “I know you’ve told me that you never have.”

  “And I spoke the truth. If it weren’t true, do you think I’d waste time arguing with you now?”

  “I think you know that I’m right, and so you don’t want to meddle with my superior wisdom.” He said it with a slight smile, meaning her to take it as irony, as wit.

  But Anonoei decided to distract him with something true. “Wad, I know that there’s more danger to Westil than whatever Danny North poses. That selfish, irresponsible Greek girl brought someone else from Mittlegard several days ago. A week, now, come to think.”

  “T
here was no Great Gate, and she can’t make gates anyway.…”

  “How long did you think it would take trusting, sweet-tempered Danny North to teach her to do what he taught me to do?”

  “This power of movement can carry you between worlds?”

  “Without the creation of any kind of gate.”

  “And you can sense it?”

  “Just as you can sense gates,” said Anonoei. “I can also sense every person who dies, from the moment their pret moves away from Mitherhame to return to Duat. It’s distracting but not unpleasant. Like a kind of music in the background of my life. A lot of people die, every hour of the day and night.”

  “Where is the Greek girl?”

  “She took the woman back to Mittlegard,” said Anonoei. “They were only here for a day. In Ny, though I can’t think why.”

  “Did you go there? Watch them? Listen?”

  “I can’t peep through tiny gates the way you can, Wad. Either I’m there or I’m not. And I’m pregnant. I have no idea what powers the mage she brought with her might have. So I’m not going to put the baby at risk.”

  “If you had told me she was here, I could have listened and watched to see what this was all about.”

  “So go now,” said Anonoei, “and ask people if anything strange happened a week ago.”

  “I needed to know what they were planning.”

  “Then go to Mittlegard and interview her yourself. I couldn’t tell you she was here, because I didn’t know where you were. This is the first time you’ve come to me since it happened, and so you can see that I told you at the first opportunity.”

  “You know where I am all the time,” said Wad.

  “I suppose I do,” said Anonoei. “But I can’t very well show up, a pregnant queen, when you might be involved in some delicate conversation.”

  “While you wear that face,” said Wad, “it’s better if you don’t make foolish excuses or gloat about having deceived me.”

  “I’m not doing either,” said Anonoei. “I’m not trying to control you, I’m trying to give you your freedom as you used to give me mine.”

  “Nobody can control you, so you have your freedom,” said Wad.

  “I do,” said Anonoei. And with that she moved herself instantly to a corridor in Frostinch’s palace.

  The truth was that she didn’t know exactly where Wad was, the way he could instantly track every gate and leap right to it. She had a bit of herself in Wad, just as she did in Frostinch and every one of the others she influenced—her heartbound, if truth be known. But unless she actually chose to take control of him, she couldn’t locate him precisely in space.

  Nor did her new pret-sense help much. She could tell whether a pret was in one world or the other, so she had known immediately when Hermia brought that North matron to Westil. But it had taken her several hours of moving from one place to another until she finally found them on the streets of Ny, stealing from shopkeepers in order to dress themselves as fine women. She had thought of talking with them, but decided it was better if they thought that nobody knew they were there. She also thought of telling Wad, but she was tired. Being pregnant took the strength out of her when she stood and walked and simply stayed awake too long. She had devoted hours to finding them, and because of that she could tell Wad to look in Ny to find out what, if anything, they were planning. More than that was beyond her power.

  I have so much power, and yet so many things remain beyond me. The power of the gods is much overrated. We are still so limited in what we can do. Except Danny North. He seemed to be able to do whatever he thought of.

  Someone was coming along the corridor toward her. This was not a good moment to be discovered. So she moved down the corridor—jump, jump, jump—making not a sound, staying out of sight. Until she found an open door and stepped inside.

  The people who passed the room she was in were talking, but about nothing important. They said nothing to tell her where Frostinch might be.

  Well, she knew how to find his bedchamber and, for that matter, his toilet. If she could not stealthily locate him, she could wait for him to come to her.

  Or burn the castle down.

  No, no. That isn’t my purpose here.

  Besides, stone does not burn.

  But the ceilings are of wood, and all the hangings and the carpets are of cloth.

  And perhaps when a Lightrider of Bexoi’s power ignites a fire, stone may heat and crack and crumble. A castle might come down, if the fire is hot enough.

  She could imagine Wad saying, “What a subtle way to announce your power. So many dead, who did nothing but serve their jarl.”

  She could imagine Danny looking at her coldly and then going away. Despite the fact that she had known Wad so long and loved him so much, it was Danny’s disapproval that made her tremble.

  Why? What would Danny do to her? There was nothing he could do, especially if he continued to refuse to come to Westil because of the creature he carried inside him.

  Yet even as she told herself that Danny was powerless, she found herself obeying an order he was not even here to give. There would be no flames in Graywald tonight. No common folk would die. It was Bexoi who killed to get her way—who killed even when she did not need to. Anonoei had come here to prevent a war that she had once set in motion in order to defeat Bexoi. Now she was Bexoi and needed to stop her own plots. She was a manmage, enhanced by a Great Gate, and now with the added power of moving as swiftly and invisibly as a gatemage herself. Manmage, firemage, gatemage, all in one, all in me; surely I can win Frostinch’s obedience without killing anyone.

  He came to his bedchamber alone—of course, for Frostinch’s lack of interest in women was a prime target for speculation within the jarldom of Gray. He did not see Bexoi until the door was closed and half his clothing was off.

  “Are you an assassin?” he asked, looking at her in the shadows where she stood. He looked more closely. “Pregnant. An odd choice for such a mission.”

  “I’m not here to kill you,” said Anonoei. As she spoke, she kindled the part of her outself that she had left within him, making him feel relief, the beginnings of trust. He could believe this woman, he could feel that.

  “Then you won’t mind if I go to my privy,” he said. “I had to flee the dining room to vacate my bowel without offending the company.”

  “Don’t fall in,” she said merrily. “Our conversation will profit us both.”

  This close to him, she could sense all that he was feeling, everything that he desired. It was true that his bowels were causing him considerable distress. It was also true that he did not feel safe going into his privy. She well remembered how she had first accosted him there.

  Why did I come myself? she wondered. Bexoi had the power to raise a clant so real that it could bleed. I haven’t even tried. To send a clant on this mission …

  But then she would not have been so close, so easily able to understand him, to influence him. So she waited patiently, wondering if it would weaken her influence over him if she sat on his bed. It was so wearing to stand, and her back hurt.

  She stood. She bore the pain. She listened to Frostinch’s noisy evacuation and was glad she wasn’t sharing the room with him.

  Then she saw that Wad was standing beside her. “I thought you’d want to know,” he whispered, “that Hermia and Danny’s mother showed off a bit in Ny. They’re trying to provoke a maritime war between Nix and Ny.”

  “Birds of a feather, fight together?” asked Anonoei.

  “Are you referring to Nix and Ny, or to Hermia and Gerd?” asked Wad.

  “Is that Danny’s mother’s name? How unfortunate.”

  “How are things going here?”

  “I waited for him to come to his bedchamber, so we could have a private interview. But now I can sense that he is fully … relieved.”

  “Allow me to witness your conversation,” suggested Wad.

  “You don’t trust me,” said Anonoei.

  “This is B
exoi’s body, and she was a creature of astonishing rage and cruelty,” said Wad. “Are you sure you have these passions under control?”

  “I’m a manmage, you miserable witling kitchen boy. Go away, please.”

  “I can’t watch the master of manipulation at work?”

  “Go.”

  “Afraid I’ll recognize the techniques you use on me?”

  “Nothing that works on Frostinch would work with you. He’s coming, so go.”

  The privy door opened; Anonoei didn’t have to look to see that he was gone. Whatever else Wad might be—and he did have the trickster streak—he would not deliberately subvert what she was trying to do here.

  “So who are you?” asked Frostinch. “Since your intentions are so benign.”

  “Don’t you remember me, my darling boy?” said Anonoei.

  Frostinch took a candle from a sconce on the wall. “Cheeks fatter, but that’s the pregnancy. I do believe you’re my Aunt Bexoi, Queen of Iceway. Astonishing that you could have come here without any ceremony. Or invitation.”

  “So much diplomacy and back-and-forth, if I were to come with fanfare,” said Anonoei. “We have so much that we can work out between us.”

  “I believe,” said Frostinch stiffly, “that any problems are between Prayard and me.”

  “History is the huge chain we drag behind us. A thousand years ago, Iceway conquers Gray, seizes half our coastline, moves their ancient capital of Kamesham to an inlet of the sea in what was once our land, and then becomes a mightier seafaring nation than Gray ever was.”

  “Don’t forget that they forced the King of Gray to accept his reduction to the rank of jarl.”

  “A title that your ancestors have changed into a synonym for king.”

  “Not all of history works against us.”

  “Ancient hatreds. So your father fed on that ancient hatred and defeated Iceway in turn. Not so decisively that those ancient wrongs could be reduced—especially since the people of what used to be our lands are now so committed to being Icewegian.”

  “I was once told,” said Frostinch, “that you were plotting to kill Prayard as soon as your son is born, rule in his name, and conquer Gray again.”