“This temporary body of mine is a good one, a good gift that gave itself to me. I’ll be able to hold on to it until we talk again.”

“The important thing is that Set is gone,” said Wad.

“Set isn’t gone,” answered Danny. “He’s still inside my body back on Mittlegard, and I don’t know whether he’s capable of taking control again. I know that if he sees a chance, he’ll try. So I’m not coming to Westil, not in person.”

Wad nodded. “I think I need to go and get the king. His wife misses him.” He smiled at Anonoei, and to her relief, the smile was kind and gentle—though not without irony and just a touch of bitterness. That was the best part—that he seemed to harbor some regret that she would never again belong to him.

“If I didn’t have so many reasons for hating Bexoi,” said Anonoei, “I would be jealous of her now because she carries her babies so high and lightly. I know the baby’s due in a very short time, and yet I barely feel pregnant, compared to what it was like with both of the boys.”

“That’s a comparison you should avoid making,” said Wad. “Because Bexoi only had one other son, and you never saw him.”

“And you did,” said Anonoei. “I’m so sorry that what you lost can’t be restored to you.”

“I’m content,” said Wad. “The monster is gone.” Then he looked at Danny. “Or, well, one monster.”

Danny laughed. “Go and tell the king.”

Wad left at once. By gate, not by walking.

Anonoei laughed. “I think you’re the only person that Wad could possibly obey.”

Danny looked flustered. “I didn’t command him.”

“You didn’t even say please,” said Anonoei.

“But I wasn’t—I didn’t—”

“No, you didn’t,” said Anonoei. “But if you did command him, do you have any doubt whether he’d obey?”

Danny shook his head. But then the sound of shouting came, and someone running down a stone-floored corridor. When Anonoei looked up to suggest that Danny really ought to go, he was already gone.

Chapter 11

11

Pat knew she should dislike Hermia so intensely that she would hate every moment she spent in her company. And for a while, stuck in Veevee’s condo with Hermia, Pat tried to resist any kind of conversation. Terse replies, a clear sense that whenever Hermia spoke to her it was an inconvenience, a burden.

But that wasn’t how Pat was raised. It bothered her to treat anyone with open rudeness. Pat knew how to be self-protectively quiet, but she also knew that she must answer politely when spoken to. The first rule of good manners was to make the other person comfortable.

I don’t want Hermia to be comfortable.