“They can’t come here,” said Anonoei. “They will always be in danger here, because extra sons will always attract would-be rebels.”

“Wherever they are, you can go to them from time to time. Now that Hermia has proven that this new kind of gateless movement works between the worlds.”

“I didn’t think of that.”

“Something you didn’t think of!” said Wad in feigned amazement. “I hope you saw how loyally I followed your lead. As I moved the baby outward, by tiny relentless fractions of an inch, your body responded magnificently. It was a completely natural childbirth, by the end.”

“You’ve been loyal to me even when you didn’t trust me.”

“That’s what puzzles me,” said Wad. “Your plan required my compliance, and not just to retrieve Frostinch’s dagger. Yet you never managed me. I still had all my misgivings every step of the way.”

“Why should I try to compel a willing friend?” she asked.

It was even mostly true.

Chapter 15

15

Danny North took little pleasure in high school anymore. It was a refuge, where he had meant it to be an adventure. After a school year treading its halls, everything was familiar, including the faces of the other students. He didn’t feel the disdain of the Families for drowthers; rather it was the disdain of high school students for their fellows. It was the tribe he dwelt with, but could never fully join. How could he? To them, their classes and grades mattered; or if not those, then their position in the social hierarchy of the school, or the college they would go to, or the job they planned to get. To Danny, all these things were the business of children.

“What are you thinking?” asked Pat.

Danny could hardly hear her over the din of the other students milling about at the end of the school day.

“That my life was better when Coach Bleeder was on my case and the worst problem I faced was whether to compete with the track team.”

“Oh, well,” she said. “Feeling sorry for yourself is always an entertaining train of thought.”

“I allow myself a half-hour a day of self-pity,” said Danny.

“I was noticing the cloud of unrelated prets that seem to cluster around some students, and not others.”

Danny hadn’t even been noticing prets. Familiar as the faces were, he had been looking only at the people, not the prets they were composed of, and certainly not unrelated prets dogging them through the halls.

But now that Pat pointed them out, Danny could see that several of the students had dozens, and some hundreds, of prets that didn’t seem to belong to anyone or anything. Not even particles of dust. Yet it was no accident they were there, and it took only a moment’s thought for Danny to realize.

“Sutahites,” he said.