Pat sat there until the end of school, when it was likely that the others would use their amulets to gather there in the woods on the hill. Pat didn’t use the escape gate, because she didn’t want to go to DC. She just walked away along a secondary path, heading down to the parking lot in time to catch her school bus, since she was not riding with Laurette or Sin or any of them. Not today. Because she couldn’t help Danny if she was in jail for assault and battery. Or attempted murder.

Chapter 4

4

No matter how Wad explained it to him, Ced seemed puzzled. “Isn’t Bexoi the great Firemaster you wanted me to help you fight?”

“Yes,” said Wad.

“And she’s in a coma.”

“So it seems,” said Wad.

“Seems or is?” asked Ced. “Is she faking?”

“I think it’s real. She can raise an incredibly believable clant, but no, I think this is her, that she’s unconscious. Unresponsive.”

“But not dead.”

“Definitely not.”

“Pregnant.”

“That’s why I haven’t killed her yet.”

“You’re all heart,” answered Ced.

“She killed my baby,” said Wad.

“I remember that.”

“I’m not killing hers. I’m a very nice man. Not a forgiving man, but nice.”

“That’s exactly how I see you.” Ced smiled. “And while we’re at it, she also killed Anonoei. I liked Anonoei.”

“Me too,” said Wad.

“What I don’t understand is why we’re still preparing for war.”

“Bexoi may turn out not to be a threat,” said Wad. “But I told you all along that we had to prepare for an onslaught of powerful mages from Mittlegard.”

“Even though you now have control over all the gates in both worlds.”

“That was true for fifteen hundred years. And then the universe popped a little surprise on us. Or, I should say, the world of Duat, which sent the soul of Danny North into a gatemage’s body.”

“He’s a very nice boy,” Ced reminded Wad. “Even when he was burgling houses, he saved people’s lives.”

“He’s a nice boy who built a Great Gate and put both worlds in enormous danger.”

“Now he’s paying for that,” Ced pointed out. “Lost all his gates, and he’s possessed by this Belmage, probably for the rest of his life.”

“Only because Set will probably kill him when he gets tired of living inside a gateless Gatefather.”

“I’m not blaming you, Wad, but all your enemies seem to be … more or less neutralized at the moment. Danny North has no freedom and no gates. Set caught himself a gatemage but now he’s got no power to pass between worlds. Bexoi killed everybody until she got herself into a coma. It seems to me the universe is on your side, man.”