“This is a world long ruled by gods. When I closed the Great Gates, I weakened them, and as the old mages died, the new ones had only a fraction of their power, and life got better here. Now what counts as a great mage is a person of relatively petty power. But the mages of Mittlegard will come here with power unseen in this place for fourteen centuries. They’ll bring their wars and rivalries with them, and then provoke more, as the mages here attempt to resist them, and fail. Only you can stand before them as an equal. As their master, if you prepare, if you’re readier for war than they are.”

Ced remembered an old line from a movie. “I’m a lover, not a warrior.” He thought it might have been Rodney Dangerfield who said it. The man who got no respect.

“If you love something, then there’s something to fight for,” said the Gate Thief. “I think you’ve come to love these people.”

Ced wasn’t so sure. Guilt was surely not identical with love. But maybe there was a little overlap.

“But this is a different kind of war,” the Gate Thief went on. “The lover has to stay alive inside the warrior. Because I don’t want you to destroy them, Ced. I want to master them, but then to win them over to our side.”

“Our side?” asked Ced. When had they become allies? Aloud, he said, “If the mages from the Great Families join us, who would we be fighting against then?”

“Someone worse,” said the Gate Thief.

“The Families are monsters,” said Ced. “They train their children to be monsters, and I can’t imagine anybody worse.”

“I can,” said the Gate Thief.

“Who?”

“Mitherkame and Mittlegard are not the only worlds with people on them, and not the only mages capable of becoming monsters.”

Ced felt tired. “I don’t want any part of it.”

“I know,” said the Gate Thief. “What you wanted was to pass through a Great Gate and find out what it would do to your power.”

“And it made me a monster.”

“It made you a great mage,” said the Gate Thief. “Your inexperience and lack of self-control led to the monstrous things you did. You can learn to control them. You can help the Families learn to control their greater powers. Only then will we have a chance against the Eater of Souls.”

Ced thought of how Danny and Hermia had spoken of the Gate Thief—the legendary enemy, the Minotaur, the terrible monster that they would have to face.

“Why are you laughing?” asked the Gate Thief.

“You said ‘Eater of Souls’ exactly the way people say ‘Gate Thief.’”

The Gate Thief nodded. “I was the thing that Danny North feared most.”

“You destroyed every gatemage you found for a thousand years.”