“There 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.