“Did they know who you were?”

Enopp thought a moment. “I don’t know,” he said. “But they knew I was little.”

“You have a point,” said Danny. “Enopp, why did your mother and Wad bring you here?”

Enopp shrugged. “It isn’t safe for us in Iceway. I think they want us to be safe here.”

“This world isn’t safer. People die on both worlds, just as easily.”

“When I’m a gatemage, I’ll hide where they can’t find me.”

“Are you sure that’s what you’ll be?”

“I’m already good with languages,” said Enopp. “That’s a sign.”

“It is,” said Danny. “Are you also a devilish little brat?”

Enopp gave that more thought than Danny had expected. “I don’t know. I have only been free of my prison for a few weeks.”

“We’d better watch carefully then,” said Danny, “so we don’t get taken by surprise when the pranks start.”

They kept milking till the job was done. Only then did Danny take Enopp by the hand and walk with him across the yard to the house.

In the kitchen, Leslie had the table spread with small plates and a big platter of warmed-up sliced bread and an array of butter, jams, and honey. Everyone was eating. Enopp ran right to the table beside his brother and started jabbering to him. Danny saw that Eluik did not answer him, or even show a sign of listening. But Enopp was undiscouraged by this; and it wasn’t as if Eluik were inert, for he was eating steadily, though without any visible pleasure in the food, which Danny knew from experience was extraordinarily good.

“Did my son bore you?” asked Anonoei. “He chatters as if he thought himself a great philosopher or statesman, with the world eager to hear his words.”

“I could not have been more eager,” said Danny, adopting the arch-formal tones he had only overheard when spying on the adults meeting in the library of the old house in the North Family compound. “Your son is surprisingly happy for one so recently a prisoner.”

“He is resilient,” said Anonoei.

Danny could not help glancing at Eluik, but then looked at Loki, as if he had only chanced to look at Eluik as his gaze passed from Anonoei to the Gate Thief.

“You have achieved your first purpose,” Danny said to Loki. “You have passed through a Great Gate.”

“My first purpose was to see that no such gate existed,” said Loki. “But having failed in that, it is true that I thought it wise to refresh such small powers as are left to me.”

“You know more than I about how these powers work,” said Danny, “but it seems to me that while our brute force depends on the number of our gates, our dexterity depends on knowledge and experience. I have the brute force, it’s true, but you have the deftness of long practice.”