Danny North was such a compelling presence in Wad’s mind that it took Wad days to realize that he knew something very important about events here on Westil.

There was a new mage in the world. A mage who had passed through a Great Gate. The powers of the Great Gate still clung to him; it was as if his footfalls reverberated like temblors through the deepest rock of the world, and made the slightest of vibrations in Wad’s gatesense. Even though the Great Gate had not been of his making, the disturbance in spacetime could not be hidden from an old Gatefather like Wad.

What was he? What magic was this interloper doing? Whatever it was, the world was waking up before this surge of magic. No one had exercised such bright power since the closing of the Great Gates fourteen centuries before. Whatever Danny North was doing in Mittlegard, Wad was here on Westil, and this new greatmage was Wad’s business.

And because Wad was not as decent, as unambitious as Danny North, his first thought was this: How can I harness the great power of this new greatmage and use it to wreak vengeance on my enemy, Queen Bexoi, and make her suffer as I have suffered?

Assassins

5

ASSASSINS

By the time Danny got to the farm in Yellow Springs, Marion had already suspended a rope over the central beam of the cowbarn. “Ladder work?” asked Danny.

“I’m a Cobblefriend,” said Marion. “I can’t fly, nor can my clants, such as they are.”

“Then why didn’t you wait for me to make a gate and carry the rope up there?” asked Danny.

“Hard for you to believe, I know, Danny, but before you ever came to this farm, I was able to wipe my butt all by myself.”

Danny grinned. “Are you suggesting that you want me to install a rectal gate? Outbound only, I promise.”

Marion made as if to smack Danny, though he never had and never would. But then he stopped. “Could you?” he asked. “Not rectal, but a gate that’s attached to a person instead of to a place?”

“When Hermia gets here,” said Danny.

“Hermia. Veevee. They’ll only know what’s in books.”

“And I only know what I’ve tried,” said Danny. “All those years I tried to figure out how to lock gates and how to take them back inside myself, and I couldn’t figure any of it out until I saw it done.”

“Somebody had to be the first gatemage,” said Marion. “And from what Hermia says—if you can trust a Greek—”

“It’s only a problem if they’re bearing gifts,” said Danny. “And she’s Pelasgian.”

“From what she says you may be the most extravagantly gifted gatemage ever. So you’re going to have to break new ground to reach your potential.”

“Parents always think their children have more potential than they actually have,” said Danny.