Not many of his thoughts were happy, and some were angry and some were sad. He hated that he would never see his mother’s face again, that she would wear Bexoi’s simpering face and he would have to find some way to believe it was really Mother. He hated Wad and yet knew he had no choice but to trust him, and he seemed really to care about Mother and, for that matter, about Eluik and Enopp. Veevee was too overpowering; Hermia always had her own agenda. Danny and Pat were the ones he liked best. So he would think about them and work up whatever emotions attached to them. And then he would think of something or someone else.

What he thought about most was going back to Westil. Enopp talked about someday making a Great Gate and Eluik always warned him that the Gate Thief would eat it, but what Eluik really thought was: Who needs a Great Gate? That’s only for when you want other people to be able to make the passage.

Why shouldn’t I just … go? I know Iceway better than I know America; if I can jump to Ohio or other parts of Kentucky, why can’t I jump to Iceway?

Two things stopped him. First, he didn’t know how Great Gates worked, so how could he be sure he wouldn’t need one? What if his jump took him only partway, and he ended up in the vacuum of deep space?

Second, he wasn’t sure he could come back, once he returned home to Westil. Because it was home, and this place wasn’t, it might be possible that he could bridge the gap between worlds, but only one time, and only one-way.

So he didn’t try that jump. He just kept imagining making it—thinking of where his arrival point might be. The palace? The prison? The poor little farm up in the mountains? On board a ship? The house where Mother took care of them when Enopp was a newborn?

Could any of the gatemages find me? Could Wad? Could Danny?

Eluik hoped not. There had to be some way to get himself out of playing a bit part in other people’s dramas.

Chapter 13

13

Gerd North was not happy. “I don’t like Taiwan,” she told Alf.

“We won’t be here much longer,” he replied.

“I miss our quiet life on the farm.”

“We didn’t have a quiet life on the farm. We were always traveling here or there, doing diplomacy with the other Families, working on honing and expanding our mageries, harmonizing them. And I think that right here, in this war of survival for Taiwan, we’re proving that we’ve achieved more than any other mages in history.”