“Then maybe that’s an excellent reason for you not to go.”

“Keep an eye on me, my castle-monkey, and extricate me if there’s any real danger.”

At that moment, however, Wad sensed that someone was coming to Westil through the Wild Gate. Several people. More and more. Yet Danny North seemed oblivious to the fact. Certainly he wasn’t sending them.

“This is actually a very bad time for me to send you anywhere, especially anywhere dangerous,” said Wad. “Someone’s coming through the Wild Gate.”

“What is the boy thinking? I thought you said he fully understood the danger of accidentally letting this Dragon through to Westil, hidden inside the body of some traveler.”

“Danny North isn’t doing it. Ah, now he’s finally noticed it, and he knew at once what was going on. One of his friends moved the gate.” Wad was impressed. “Clever girl, that Hermia. It’s very hard to move someone else’s gate without their noticing.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“I have to go watch this end of the gate. As long as everyone turns around and goes straight back to Mittlegard, there’s no danger. But if somebody tries to stay…”

“That young windmage stayed,” said Anonoei.

Wad got out of bed and began to dress. “By the time Danny North helped me remember with clarity who our enemy is and what he can do, Ced was already here. I knew him well enough to be reasonably sure he was not possessed by Set.”

“And if some other arrival is possessed by Set—how will you know?”

“I won’t. So anyone who tries to stay, I get him back to the return Gate and push him through.”

“Aren’t you afraid he’ll possess you, if you come so close?”

“By ‘push’ I didn’t mean push,” said Wad. “Any would-be immigrant, I’ll gate him to a point where he’ll stumble directly into the Wild Gate the moment he emerges. I will never be near him. And Set can’t jump so easily from one person into another. Especially someone with a powerful inself. A ka that won’t just move out of the way.”

“You flatter yourself,” said Anonoei.

“Possibly,” said Wad. “But it’s not the same as what you do. He jumps in with his whole ka. But never having owned a body, worn the ape as his very self, it’s harder for him to get in. So I think I could keep him out.”

Anonoei rolled her eyes. “Send me to Keel now, please,” she said.

“It’s too dangerous,” said Wad. He was fully clothed now. “I’m going to be distracted, watching all these people come through. I need to see them so I can remember them later, if they get past me somehow.”

“I’ll be fine,” said Anonoei.

“Is Keel a timid, fearful man?”

“A very bold and courageous one.”