The Gate Thief

by Orson Scott Card

  Only then did Wad go in search of the ancient treemage—now long dead, though this one who was training Ced was a disciple of a disciple of—who got a tree to let him inside its bark, to feed on its sap and keep both himself and the tree vibrant and alive forever.

  Forever, that had been the plan.

  But the tree expelled him. Or he unconsciously pulled himself out of the tree. Or both. And Wad had no idea why. The system had been working, and now it was broken.

  It was broken because he—or the tree, or spacetime—knew that Wad had no power to resist or control Danny North, let alone steal from him.

  It had to happen, Wad supposed. If there were two mages, one would be greater than the other; and, given time enough, you could find a third who was greater still. Powerful as Wad was, there was bound to come another, eventually, who was stronger than he was. One whose gates could not be eaten.

  “Please talk to me,” Anonoei asked.

  Whether it was because he was dying to talk to someone about all that he had just remembered, or whether she used her manmagery to cajole him or control him into telling, he told her all of it.

  “You saved the world,” she said.

  “And Danny North has it in his power to unsave it. Now there is an open gate, and if the Dragon—Set—can find someone, some mage, to ride through it, he’ll be here, along with as many wanderers as he can bring, and this world is lost.”

  “I can see how you’d think that was a bad thing,” said Anonoei.

  “You think it isn’t?” demanded Wad.

  “I was being ironic,” said Anonoei. “It’s the worst thing that could happen. All the power of all the Mithermages, under the rule of a monster? I’m against that.”

  “I’m glad to hear it.”

  Ced and the treemage had listened to all of Wad’s account. But now the treemage said, “Time to return to work, Ced.”

  “But after hearing all of this, how can I concentrate?” asked Ced.

  “It is precisely at such times that you must have the power to concentrate. So now you’ll make a whirlwind small enough to use a single grain of sand to bore through a block of wood, a hole that is only one sandgrain in diameter.”

  “Impossible,” said Ced.

  “Two sandgrains, then,” said the treemage. “The single-grain tunnel will be tomorrow.”

  They went back to work.

  Anonoei had only one question for Wad. “These Sutahites, these Belmages. Are they manmages, then?”

  “No,” said Wad.

  “But they work in the same way. What my outself does, reaching into a person, persuading him—that’s what they do, only using their whole ka?”

  “They can’t separate ka from ba, or so Kawab said.”

  “Why can’t you just say yes or no?”

  “Because I don’t understand all the ramifications of the things Kawab told me. He isn’t—wasn’t—a mage himself, so he doesn’t even know the ramifications. It’s lore that he learned and memorized and then intended to pass on. To other disciples of the order, but they were being persecuted at the time, so there were no others. They had been killed or had fled or had obeyed when Kawab commanded them to go into hiding. There was no one left to teach.”

  “Only you,” said Anonoei. “But you were enough.”

  “For sixteen hundred years or so,” said Wad. “Until now.”

  “And now?”

  “Set is surely still alive somewhere. Waiting for a chance to get control of Danny North.”

  “If he can,” said Anonoei.

  “Danny is a strong-willed boy,” said Wad. “Stronger than me. So maybe he can resist. As long as he doesn’t do something stupid, like inviting Set in.”

  “What form could such an invitation take?” asked Anonoei.

  Now that his memory had been awakened, Wad could think back to the lore of possession that, as a gatemage, he had been required to learn. “Words, of course. Calling the Belmage by name, if they have names—maybe the name didn’t matter, just the fact of calling.”

  “And no other way?”

  “A Belmage could jump from one person to another if they had some kind of physical intercourse.”

  “Sex.”

  “Or a deep kiss. Or a common flow of blood—two wounds pressed together. There were some people so weak-willed that a Belmage could jump between them with only a steady gaze connecting them. But few Mithermages are so weak as that.”

  “That’s how it is with me,” said Anonoei. “A weak person, my voice alone is enough. A little stronger, and I have to have them in gaze before I can send my outself into them and turn them to my will. If I’m going to ride them like a heartbeast—well, before passing through the Great Gate, I didn’t have the power to do that. And even now, I can’t do it without consent. Without … the kiss.”

  Wad understood the hesitation. It wasn’t kissing she had used. She had doubtless slept with several of her toadies in order to be able to ride them as heartbeasts.

  “So you’re saying that they are like manmages,” said Wad.

  “Or manmages are like … Sutahites?”

  “Like Set. Like the devil and his angels. Yes. Like that.”

  “No wonder everybody fears and hates us,” said Anonoei.

  “Including me,” said Wad. “Not hate, but fear. I always wonder if you’ve used your magery on me.”

  “Not deliberately,” said Anonoei. “I’ve never sent anything into you. But I do this by reflex. I’m sure that I’ve probably had some influence I wasn’t even aware of. But never enough to control you. Your choices have been your own.”

  “So the powerful desire I have to sleep with you,” said Wad. “That’s not of your making?”

  “I think it has more to do with—what did Kawab say?—the apewoman that I’m riding in.”

  “In other words, I just think you’re pretty,” said Wad.

  “You’re male and I’m female,” said Anonoei. “You think any willing female is pretty.”

  “You’re willing?”

  In answer, she kissed him.

  “But is it safe for me to sleep with you?” he asked her, when the kiss was over.

  “Doesn’t that depend on how strong your own will is?” she asked.

  “It’s a foolish thing to do right now,” said Wad.

  “You’re right,” she said. “But what if we gate somewhere that Ced and his teacher can’t see us.”

  That sounded good to Wad, and so he moved the end of the gate she had just used so now it led to a room in Nassassa, a locked room. With a bed.

  After all, I’ve slept with a queen, thought Wad. Why not with a king’s ex-concubine?

  Vaguely he thought: Shouldn’t I have the strength of will to resist this desire?

  Clearly he answered himself: It is my will to have this woman, right now. And she’s willing. So shut up.

  19

  TREACHERY

  This is high school, Danny reminded himself. This is what you wanted.

  Supposedly he was helping Laurette study for a precalculus test that was coming up. Danny thought of calculus as a game—sometimes tedious, but usually enjoyable. To Laurette, however, it was a perpetual mystery. Danny explained in words that he knew were clear. He demonstrated over and over.

  Laurette concentrated hard, echoing his words, even tracing the operations he performed, yet she still didn’t really understand it. Once she got an answer right but instead of being thrilled or relieved, she almost wept in frustration. “I don’t know what I did,” she said.

  “You did the operation and entered all the right numbers in the calculator and I didn’t do any of it. You got it right.”

  “But why did I get it right? I thought I did all those things with all the other problems that I screwed up!”

  “Laurette, are you planning any kind of career that’s going to need math?”

  “I just don’t like being stupid,” she said, and then she did weep.

  “You’re not stupid,” he said
. “You’re just not interested in math.” He put his arm across her shoulders.

  She melted into him, weeping onto his shirt. “I’m interested in A’s,” she said. “That’s always been enough before.”

  And then he realized that instead of just clinging to him, she was stroking his chest.

  And that’s when he decided that he hated high school. Nothing was ever what it seemed to be. Laurette seemed genuinely frustrated by her math class. And yet here she was, turning it into something romantic. So how much of her crying was real? How could he know?

  They’re all manmages, girls are. Every damn one of them.

  Not Pat. Give her credit—she played no games.

  But she also didn’t need any help with her homework.

  Danny took Laurette’s hands in a brotherly way and set them on the table. “You just need to do it again. On the next problem. I’ll watch. Do the steps. You can get it right every time, Laurette. Just concentrate on the operations, not the numbers you’re plugging in.”

  “I know you like Pat,” said Laurette. “But I just don’t see why.”

  “Fortunately,” said Danny, “you don’t have to.”

  He got up from the table and headed for the refrigerator. “Is there anything off limits in the fridge?”

  “Everything in the fridge is off limits,” said Laurette. “My mom micro-menus. She calculates the family diet down to the microgram.”

  “So doubtful,” said Danny. “You don’t own a scale that reports micrograms.”

  “You can eat anything from the cookie jar,” said Laurette.

  “But your mother’s vegan wheatless cookies are inedible,” said Danny. “None of you has a gluten allergy.”

  “She read somewhere that wheat is bad. It’s just a phase, she’s probably already sneaking bread herself on the sly. Then she’ll feel guilty, confess to us all, and we’ll get bread again, too.”

  “It’s amazing that your whole family doesn’t look like concentration camp victims.”

  “We all cheat,” said Laurette. “Though in my case, it’s not for flavor or even hunger. It’s all about keeping the cleavage.”

  “Yes, well,” said Danny.

  “You never look anymore.”

  “Don’t have to keep reading a book I’ve already memorized. Wasn’t Sin coming over, too?”

  “No,” said Laurette.

  “She said she was.”

  “It’s my turn tonight,” said Laurette.

  “I hate high school,” said Danny.

  “I don’t want to have sex with you,” said Laurette. “I just want you to be interested in it. I know you’re not gay, because of what Pat said.”

  Danny’s heart sank a little. “What did Pat say?”

  “I asked her, ‘What was it like to kiss him?’ And she said, ‘I wonder whether we’re really going to Grandma’s for Thanksgiving or if my parents are going to call it off again this year.’”

  “Oh,” said Danny.

  “And then I said, ‘So you slept with him, is that it?’ And she said, ‘My parents always have these big plans but then they don’t do any of the jobs you have to do to make the plans come off.’”

  “Her parents are very frustrating to her,” said Danny. “But I think if procrastination bordering on laziness is the worst thing wrong with your parents, you’re doing pretty well.”

  “I don’t actually care about Pat’s parents, Danny,” said Laurette. “Boys are supposed to be constant horndogs. And mythological gods are supposed to be even worse.”

  “Some of them are,” said Danny. “Maybe most of them.”

  “Maybe you are, too, if you find girls you think are attractive.” She was crying again.

  “What is this?” asked Danny. “We’re friends. You’re attractive. And funny and nice and I like you fine.”

  “But you don’t want me.”

  “Is that the only measure of … anything?” asked Danny. “And you need to get your homework done so I’m leaving.”

  “Please don’t,” said Laurette. “Please just … can’t you just kiss me and see if you like it?”

  “I’d like it just fine. I’d like it a lot. That’s why I’m not going to do it.”

  “You can’t possibly be Christian,” said Laurette. “Why can’t you ever do something because it’s fun?”

  “I do things for fun all the time,” said Danny. “But I don’t like hurting people.”

  “Pat doesn’t own you! You’re not married.”

  “Actually, I lied. I do like hurting people. I spent my whole childhood thinking up malicious pranks and playing them. Really nasty stuff. Involving poo and pain and bad smells and minor injuries. Plus a lot of humiliation. But that’s because I detested everyone in my family, and they detested me back. And my pranks were funny. There’s nothing funny about kissing you when I don’t mean it and when I know you’d talk about it and it would hurt Pat and it would also hurt Xena and Sin because I didn’t do anything with them.”

  “What if I didn’t talk about it?” asked Laurette.

  “I’m going now,” said Danny.

  “You said that before, and yet you’re still here.” She got up from her chair and put her arms around him and leaned her head on his chest. “You really are physically fit, you know. Good health is so attractive.”

  “Now you’re just being idiotic,” said Danny.

  “And you’re still here,” said Laurette. She slid a hand down his back, under the waistband of his pants.

  “All that’s down there is my butt,” said Danny. “You have one, too.”

  She used her other hand to grab his wrist and plant his hand on her backside. “That’s a butt,” she said, “and you don’t have one. That’s what I’m looking for. To see what holds your pants up.”

  This had gone far enough. Because it was working exactly as she intended and he just didn’t understand why she was doing this. It seemed like a game among the girls, but they also seemed to mean it.

  He gated back three paces.

  She burst into tears. “I’m that repulsive.”

  “The opposite. You won’t leave me alone and you are not repulsive and I’m grimly determined not to be that guy.”

  “What guy?”

  “The guy who thinks he’s a god and impregnates women left and right.”

  “I’m on the pill, if that’s what worries you. And I know you don’t have AIDS so you don’t have to use a condom.”

  “I can’t believe you said that,” said Danny.

  She was back in front of him, fiddling with his zipper.

  “What happened to ‘No means no’?” he said, removing her hands from his jeans.

  “That’s so eighties,” she said. “I wasn’t even born then. And it’s about girls saying no, anyway.”

  But he had no snappy retort, because in that moment he felt something that could not be real.

  He felt somebody using the Wild Gate.

  He knew it was that gate because there were a dozen of his own gates woven into it in one direction, two dozen in the other, so the feeling of gate-use was that much stronger.

  Hermia and Veevee used gates often and he knew what that felt like. It was part of the background noise of his life—though it was far more noticeable now, since he’d been through a Great Gate himself. This, though. This was someone he didn’t know. And then another person. And another.

  “Excuse me,” said Danny. “Something’s happening. Nothing to do with you. Got to go.”

  “What’s wrong? You look—”

  But he didn’t get to hear how he looked. He had already gated to the Silvermans’ barn.

  There was no one there.

  There was also no Wild Gate. Someone had moved it. And he hadn’t even felt it.

  No, he had felt it. That’s part of what drew his attention to the use of the gate. Someone moved it and then people started using it.

  Someone? There were only two gatemages in the world, besides Danny. Unless it was the Westilia
n kid that Loki had dropped off with the Silvermans.

  Danny gated to the house. The boys were sitting in the living room. The younger one was playing a videogame. The older one was staring into space. Both here, nothing changed.

  “Danny,” said Leslie. She stood in the doorway that led to the hall. “What’s wrong?”

  “Somebody’s using the gate.” He didn’t need to specify which one.

  “No!” said Leslie. “Nobody’s come in here!”

  “Somebody moved this end of the gate,” said Danny. “It’s not in the barn anymore.”

  “Hermia,” said Leslie.

  “I didn’t know she could do it,” said Danny. “But who else? Veevee?”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “She’s already sending people through. Her Family, no doubt. So much for my two-from-each-Family rule.”

  “You realize that you have no time at all,” said Leslie. “Without the advantage of having been through a Great Gate when they haven’t, Marion and I aren’t such great shakes as mages. They’ll blow us away.”

  “I suppose you’re right—they wouldn’t be doing it this way if they had peaceful intentions. I can’t believe she did this.”

  “She thought she could get away from those Family ties, and she was wrong,” said Leslie. “You can talk to her about it later. Right now, what are you going to do?”

  “I’ve got to get you and Dad and these boys somewhere safe.”

  Leslie nodded, and there were tears on her cheeks. “I’ll get Marion in from the quarry.”

  “No,” said Danny. “I will.” He walked to the boys on the couch and peeled the headphones off Enopp’s head. “Take my hand,” he said.

  Enopp did, then took Eluik’s hand. Danny reached for Leslie, and as soon as they gripped each other he gated them all to the pit at the north end of the farm where Marion quarried simple granite from the bedrock. The pit wasn’t deep. He quarried by sending his outself deep and drawing up the stone, floating it to the surface. The pit was just so the neighbors and passing cars couldn’t see the stones rise through the soil without the aid of human hands.

  Marion grasped the situation as soon as Danny said, “Hermia moved the gate and she’s using it.”

  He gated them to Veevee’s condo. Veevee wasn’t there.