But it was still a risk; why chance it just to tell two boys that their mother was dead? Surely that was information that could wait a week or two more.

No. Wad had harmed the boys enough. He owed them honorable treatment now. To leave them in ignorance of such a terrible transformation of their lives was wrong. It had to be done.

Wad made the Great Gate in the clearing where Ced was studying with the treemage. “If anyone but me comes through this Great Gate,” said Wad, “kill him immediately. Or her. Whoever it is.”

“Even if they come with you?” asked the treemage.

“Especially if they come with me,” said Wad.

“And what if the Belmage has entered you?” asked Ced.

“Then it’s all over, because you won’t be able to kill me,” said Wad.

“We could try,” said the treemage.

“You would fail,” said Wad. “And you wouldn’t know the Belmage had me, anyway. Not quickly enough. So I need you to watch for anyone else. It means they snuck through when I wasn’t looking.”

“And the penalty for that is death?” asked Ced.

“The fate of this world is at risk here,” said Wad. “If someone comes through it means I failed and something’s seriously wrong. It probably means I’m dead. Whoever comes through will be powerful and dangerous, and if you don’t kill them at once, they’ll probably kill you.”

“Remember, only you can prevent forest fires,” said Ced.

“I have no idea what you mean by that,” said Wad.

“I’m saying that we’ll do what it takes,” Ced answered.

“Ced and I will talk about this when you’re gone and reach our own decision,” said the treemage.

“I’m making such a huge mistake,” said Wad.

“Probably,” said the treemage. “But we treemages know that doing anything is usually a mistake. And so is doing nothing. Almost everything is a mistake. Have a nice visit to Mittlegard.”

Wad turned slowly a couple of times, and cast a Great Gate with both ends sealed against anybody but himself. But since there were Lock- and Keyfriends on Mittlegard, it would not guarantee anything.

He found the two boys, Eluik and Enopp, racing each other through a pasture behind the home of Marion and Leslie Silverman. They were running toward the Great Gate, so they saw Wad arrive and changed direction, both at once.

For a moment Wad thought the older boy, Eluik, might have brought his ka out of his brother’s body, but no. His eyes were still dead and empty. Yet he had been running, as surefooted as his brother. He must have been using his own eyes to see—the pasture was too clumpy and uneven for him to have been relying on Enopp’s eyes to see for them both.