“She knew you were the Gate Thief?” asked Anonoei. And when Wad didn’t answer, she smiled. “I see—you told her the truth, except when the truth might make her like you less.”

“So what is it that you aren’t telling me?”

“That I think you’re right, the boys will be safer on Mittlegard, and if I can’t take the risk of trusting you to get me through a Great Gate and back again, I might as well give up. If you’re not trustworthy then I’ve got nothing, but if I refuse to trust you then I’ve got nothing. So I might as well trust you and hope that you amount to something.”

“A fair gamble.”

“I trusted a king once,” said Anonoei.

“He never let you down.”

“But he did,” said Anonoei. “He may not have meant to, but he failed to find me and set me free.”

“My powers were too much for him,” said Wad. “What could he do against a gatemage?”

“Queen Bexoi did something,” said Anonoei.

“She murdered a baby when I was distracted. That was the limit of her power.” He said it calmly, as if the mention of Trick had not caused emotion to rage upward from his belly to fill his heart with grief and his mind with rage. “And she knew what I was. If Prayard had known, he would have suspected me, and if he had suspected me in your disappearance, he would have had me tortured to find out where you were.”

“You? Tortured?”

“He would have tried.”

“Did he even ask you?”

“I told him that I had looked at every inch of the castle and you weren’t there. Nor had I seen anyone carrying you out. All true, you’ll note.”

“And also lies,” said Anonoei. “I’m such a fool to believe in you.”

“I’m all you’ve got, and you’re all I’ve got.”

“All you’ve got to use against Queen Bexoi?” said Anonoei. “Why not just pass her through a gate to the bottom of the sea?”

“She has to lose and know that she has lost,” said Wad. “She has to see you in her place, and your sons in the place of her son.”

Anonoei laughed and nodded. “Now I can trust you. Now I know your heart.”

But she did not know him, not his heart, not his mind. Yes, he meant to wreak his vengeance on the queen, and so he spoke that way because Anonoei would understand that motive and believe him. But his real reason was that until he had put Anonoei back in her right place, beside the king, with her sons as his heirs, the guilt of his own crimes would be unbearably heavy, more than he could bear.