“I’m not going to leave him out,” said Danny. “I just don’t have time to deal with his assholery. I’ll gate him through and you all can tame him.” Danny made a public gate, a big one. “Before you step through this gate,” he said to everybody, “you look me in the eye and tell me that you’ll obey Stone and harm no one.”

“That’ll take too much time,” said Uncle Mook.

“Look me in the eye and say yes,” said Danny. “Because if you don’t keep your word, I will be ruthless. Do you understand me?”

They all said yes as they passed through the gate.

Danny followed, and took back the gate behind him.

Stone’s cabin was too small for everyone to sleep there, and it was bitterly cold on this November night, but it wouldn’t matter. They wouldn’t be there long. Danny ignored everybody’s questions and headed for the narrow isthmus between two jewel-like lakes.

No rope this time. He began turning around and around. Immediately he spun out gates—his own gates, not the ones Loki had given him, and definitely not the captive gates. He took his time and wove it strong and true.

By himself, Danny would have had no idea how to build it so it wouldn’t lead to the same circle of stones on Westil where his previous two Great Gates had led. But Loki had known many good places on Westil for a Great Gate to lead, ancient places, secret places that only Loki knew.

So at Danny’s urging, the gates that Loki had given him used their kinetic memory to guide him as he threw the thick-woven gates upward.

He felt the approval of Loki’s outself: a ten-thousand-year gate, they told him. Danny wasn’t sure he was thrilled to know that the gate would outlast him by hundreds of lifetimes, but … it meant that it was well-made, and it would do the job.

Then he wove another gate, just as strong, leading back to a spot on the other side of the cabin. “Stone,” said Danny. “You and Veevee first.”

“We’ve already been through a Great Gate,” said Veevee.

“Not this one,” said Danny. “So go and come back again. Veevee can show you the return entrance. And Veevee, I need you there to shepherd everybody through—and so you can lock the gate if somebody on Westil tries to interfere or use the thing. And if Loki shows up, explain it to him. Though maybe he knows. Maybe he knows whatever his gates know.”

Danny could feel that the Greeks had stopped going through the Wild Gate. “They’re done,” he said. “That means they’re coming. Hermia knows where this gate is. She may try to interfere. I have to concentrate on watching for her and protecting this place. So when you get back, Stone, you’re in charge of this end.”