“Set, by himself, can only rule one person. Now, that person might do terrible things. But think of the worst tyrant in Mittlegard history, and ask yourself—how much evil could he have accomplished if there weren’t hundreds or thousands of people eager to obey his evil commands? And why did they do such terrible things? Because Sutahites were goading them, convincing them to follow their darkest desires, to take pleasure in following orders that they knew were immoral. Unspeakable. Isn’t that so?”

“If you say,” said Hermia. “I don’t know how you can pretend to know any of this. Danny and Pat think they can see the Sutahites now.”

“See?”

“Well, sense them. Somehow.”

“Can they sense Set himself?” asked Wad.

“Danny obviously thinks he can, because he’s sure he’s got the old devil locked up inside him, the way you locked up all those gates.”

“If he thinks he can do that, he’s a fool,” said Wad. “Or maybe I’m the fool. Who knows what Danny North became when he went to Duat? His powers increased to such a degree that he doesn’t even want his gates back. And the effect has spilled over to you and Pat and … anybody else I should know about?”

“I think you know who the others are,” said Hermia. “Because they’re from your world. The boys and their mother. They know how to leap from place to place the way I do. Sooner or later they’ll realize, as I did, that they can go from world to world.”

“And so every one of you has become exactly the person Set has been waiting for. If he can possess you, he’ll have your power to gate from world to world, only without having to make actual gates, so that I can’t prevent it by eating those gates.”

“So you’ve lost,” said Hermia.

“I had my fifteen hundred years,” said Wad. “And so far, Danny has kept Set in his place. But Set is intelligent. He learns. He experiments. He learned how to attach himself to people so he isn’t expelled when they pass through gates. What is he learning right now? Because I think that’s what’s really happening—he’s not under Danny’s control, he’s just trying to learn to do what Danny does. What you do.”

“What if he’s learning that he wants to be more like Danny? Not just to have Danny’s power, but his genuine kindness, his desire to do no harm?”