Danny paid no attention to the message from Set. Instead, he now could sense how his ka connected with every cell of his body. Only that wasn’t enough. He tried, for a moment, to push the tendrils of himself deeper. Only there were no tendrils and there was no pushing. Instead, he asked his body to receive him more deeply, and now he was aware of the minute workings of the cells, the business of life at the most basic level.

And still he knew that it would not be enough.

Let me be a part of you. Let me know you well enough to serve you.

The cells of his body became large to him, because his awareness reached so deeply inside them, all at once. He felt the weight of large molecules drifting through the liquids in the cells. He sensed the businesses and processes, the atoms jostling, shifting from one molecule to another. How can I know this? Because this is the body that was given to me. The body that gives itself to me.

This deep knowledge of his own flesh and bones filled him with light and fire. There was a larger world inside himself than outside, or so it seemed.

He opened up his mouth to speak. “Pat, are you all right? Are you back?”

And then that welcome voice, that crazy voice that had volunteered to die. “Of course,” she said. “And it’s scarcely been three minutes since I came to your door.”

Danny’s mind reeled. The death of Pat, the journey to another world, the long, elaborate, wordless conversation with This One on Duat, and it all took place in such a brief period of time that their bodies had not begun to decay.

By reflex, without thinking, Danny tried to pass a gate over Pat to make sure that she was well.

Only he had no gates.

Yet still, something passed over her, something of Danny’s making, and she was well.

“I have no gates,” said Danny. “How did I pass you through a gate that I don’t have?”

“I don’t know, but I was in pain and felt logy, and now it doesn’t hurt at all, and I’m sharp and clear again.”

“But I didn’t make a gate.”

“Maybe you don’t need gates to do it anymore,” said Pat. “Maybe it’s enough for you to ask every part of my body to be healed at once.”

Danny wanted to think about this, but he was interrupted by a feeling that it took a moment to identify.

Set was trying to leave him.

“Please don’t go,” said Danny. “I don’t think you’re ready to wander off without me yet.”

And just like that, Set stayed.

Chapter 7

7

Hermia recognized the girl the moment she appeared. It was Danny’s drowther girlfriend, Pat. Only she was no drowther anymore.

“What ill wind blows you here?” Hermia asked.