“It isn’t the place,” said the Gate Thief. “It’s you. Passing through the Great Gate was what woke you. The air has been calling to you all along, as much in Mittlegard as here in the shadow of the Mitherkame.”

“I don’t know those words, sir.”

“Mittlegard is the word for Earth, as you know quite well. And this is the Mitherkame,” said the Gate Thief. “These mountains are the spine of the world called Westil among the mages of Mittlegard—though Westil is only one of the languages here, and also the ancient half-forgotten name of a kingdom that once included all the Hetterwold and the forests of the north.”

“I’m a stranger here,” said Ced. “If the wind hadn’t called me with such strength, I wouldn’t have missed the passage back to Earth. Can you send me home?”

“You know I can’t,” said the Gate Thief. “You know that Danny North took my gates from me, all but a handful, too few for me to make a Great Gate even if I wanted to. And I don’t want to. Bad enough to have you here; worse for Mittlegard if I returned you there.”

Ced understood. “So here I am, alone and friendless.”

The Gate Thief looked at him quizzically. “Friendless? When they let you sleep in the place of honor near the fire?”

“They’re kind folk, and forgiving, but they don’t know who I am. They only know the power of the wind, and they’re afraid of me.”

“If they treat you well, and don’t seek to kill you or control you, then they’re your friends. Don’t set so high a standard for friendship, Ced, or you’ll have no friends.”

“So what are you?” asked Ced. “You took me here without my consent. I hear the winds that whine around this crag, far below me—if I stepped to the edge I’d fall and die. So I’m a prisoner.”

“Do you think the winds you’re hearing would let you fall? They’d bear you up if you asked them to, and land you gently anywhere.”

Ced felt a thrill of joy at what he said. “You mean that I can fly?”

“I mean that the wind you serve so well and rule so weakly has no desire to let you die.”

“I suppose if you wanted me dead, you could have plunged me into the middle of the sea.”

“There’s air in the sea, and it would find you instantly, gather around you, make a bubble for you, and bear you up to the surface, where the wind would dry you instantly and again, you would fly.”

“Then into the heart of a mountain—you could kill me if you wanted to.”

“You’ve figured out my secret,” said the Gate Thief. “I would like to be your friend.”