"If the Gate Thief strips you," said Marion, "we will go to the North Family, tell them all that you did, and that you have lost your outself. Maybe they'll let you alone, then, knowing that you're no longer a mage of any kind."

"Not likely," said Danny.

"But your only chance," said Stone, "if you no longer have the ability to gate away from anyone trying to kill you. Hermia and Veevee will be just as vulnerable-without your gates, they'll have nowhere to go and no way to get there."

"I don't see why we have to do this at all," said Leslie. "Why not just let Danny live his life? The power he has right now can open Mittlegard to the Orphans. If Hermia is right and he has a vast store of gates inside him, why not link all the major cities of the world with big public gates and let the drowthers move everywhere freely?"

"The Families would still hunt him down and kill him," said Marion sadly. "And then his gates would slowly fade, like the ghosts left behind when clants are stranded."

"I hate it," said Leslie. "Why not wait, at least? Why does it have to be now?"

"Every day that we wait is a day in which one of the Family spies might spot him or Hermia."

"If the Gate Thief is just going to take him-"

"Mom," said Danny-which silenced Leslie immediately, though it filled her eyes with tears. "All the other gatemages who tried a Great Gate were alone. No other gatemage with them. I have Hermia and Veevee. There's a chance they can keep the gate locked against the Gate Thief."

"Or something," said Hermia. "Since we don't know what the Gate Thief actually does."

Veevee shook her head. "I agree with Leslie. I think that this girl and I will make no difference at all-we'll just have a clearer view of how Danny gets stripped."

"Even that will move our knowledge forward," said Stone. "We can write it down, we can spread it among the Orphans. Maybe we'll learn something that will let us do better on the next attempt."

"This is all moot," said Danny. "I'm doing it. I'm doing it tonight. Either there'll be a Great Gate or there won't. Not only that, you'll all be there."

"Getting bossy, isn't he?" said Veevee.

"Because if if I make a Great Gate, it might last for a few seconds. I want all of you to go through it as quickly as you can. Get to Westil and then, if you can, come back I make a Great Gate, it might last for a few seconds. I want all of you to go through it as quickly as you can. Get to Westil and then, if you can, come back instantly. instantly."

"What's the point of that?" asked Leslie. "What if we get stranded there? We won't know anyone, anyone, they'll probably kill us the moment they notice we're there. The Gate Thief might be the ruler of the whole world there, for all we know." they'll probably kill us the moment they notice we're there. The Gate Thief might be the ruler of the whole world there, for all we know."

"But we'll be the first mages to pa.s.s through a Great Gate in fourteen centuries," said Stone. "We'll be more powerful than anybody."

"What does that mean to me?" asked Leslie. "I'll be the world's most powerful cow?"

"She's got a point," said Veevee. "Maybe she shouldn't go."

"But Marion has to, and Leslie won't stay behind alone if he goes," said Stone.

"That's right," said Leslie.

"And Marion's a Cobblefriend," Stone went on. "After pa.s.sing through the gate, he'll be the strongest stonemage in the world."

"We don't know that," said Marion. "I'll be much stronger in the things that I can already do. But none of the literature suggests that a Great Gate can turn a Cobblefriend into a Stonefather. The Great Gates make a difference in degree, not in kind."

"We'll try it," said Danny. "If you think we should, Stone, I'll go get Ced and bring him along. He's a windmage, and you say he's got a lot of ability. Maybe a Galebreath. If we bring him through the Great Gate, then whichever side he ends up on, he can protect the others. None of the Families will have a windmage to match him, once he's gone through a Great Gate, and the same will likely be true in Westil, if he gets stuck there."

"You can ask him," said Marion. "n.o.body should go if they don't want to run the risk of being stuck in Westil. Think of everything that's happened in Mittlegard since 632 A.D A.D. All of modern technology, for one thing. Immunization against plagues. Medicine. If they don't have gates, they can't heal people easily. Flush toilets. The Copernican model of the solar system. Microscopes. Telescopes. There's no reason to think they have any of that stuff."

"Or they might have better stuff," said Danny. "For all we know, the Gate Thief isn't a person at all. What if it's a machine that sucks the power right out of any mage? We don't know anything."

"And it's time we did," said Marion. "Leslie's and my kids are grown. If we're stranded there, we'll miss them, but they don't need need us." us."

"Why are we having this conversation?" said Hermia. "The gates will probably be sucked out of Danny before anybody can go anywhere."

"Greeks are so cheerful," said Veevee.

"For what it's worth," said Hermia, "we're not really Greek. We were never Greek. We're Pelasgians. We were the G.o.ds of the Illyrians, the Albanians, the Danae. When the Dorians and Ionians came, we wiped out their Families and they worshiped us. But we're not not Greek." Greek."

"Thanks for the history lesson," said Leslie.

"I think it's fascinating," said Danny.

"Oh my, Danny's in love," said Veevee. "Danny and Hermia, sitting in a tree-"

"Give it a rest, Veevee," said Stone. "Everybody's a little crazy tonight. But Hermia's right. The most likely outcome is that the Gate Thief will swallow all of Danny's gates before anybody makes it to Westil, let alone back again. And there we'll all be in Buena Vista, Virginia, which isn't exactly a metropolis, without any gates to get us home. Somebody's going to have to rent us a car so we can drive to the airport in Roanoke and get the h.e.l.l away from there. With With Danny, whatever kind of shape he's in." Danny, whatever kind of shape he's in."

"I'll do it," said Veevee. "Danny can make me a nice gate between the airport and this rope in the gym-"

"Why do we have to do it there?" asked Leslie. "Surely there are other ropes hanging from gymnasium ceilings that aren't a stone's throw from the North fortress."

"That's the one that worked today," said Hermia. "Danny proved he can make a Great Gate, and he did it there."

"If we can make a Great Gate," said Danny, "then maybe we can break down this system of miserable, hate-filled, paranoid, inbred Families."

"And replace them with miserable, lonely Orphans," said Marion. "Sorry to be cynical, but I'm not optimistic about our ability to do any better. Whoever has the power will become the G.o.ds of legend-capricious, cruel, tyrannical."

"And yet you're going to go through the gate?" asked Veevee.

"It's going to be made, isn't it?" asked Marion. "If it's going to happen, I want it to be us that go through it first. Maybe we can make it less awful for the world than it might otherwise be."

"I think we're done here," said Danny. "I've got some gates to make. From here to Parry McCluer High School, so when the time is right you can all just step through. From there to the Roanoke airport so Veevee can rent a car. It'll take her about an hour to get it up I-81 to B.V. Meanwhile I'll go get Ced, if he'll come. Stone, maybe you should come with me."

"And me," said Hermia. "I'm staying with you." She turned to Veevee. "And no more jokes about being in love. You and I are both nothing nothing without him, and you know it." without him, and you know it."

"I do," said Veevee, chastened before her fierceness.

"If you're lying to us," said Stone to Hermia, "and you're setting him up to get killed, I swear I'll kill you with my bare hands."

"I'm glad you're so loyal," said Hermia without batting an eye. "But I am no liar and no spy."

"Good, that's settled then," said Danny. "Since I'm the idiot who set this all in motion by playing around with the rope-climb in a high school gym, I apologize right now for everything that goes wrong with this. With any luck, I'm the only one who gets zapped in the outself, and everything else goes on like normal for the rest of you. But if terrible things happen, please remember that I meant well, and that I did my best. That's what I promise you. I'll do my best to try to fight off the Gate Thief and get this thing done right. It's up to you to make the most of it, if you can."

Leslie burst into tears. Danny walked over and put his arm around her shoulder.

"Oh, don't bother with her," said Veevee. "Comforting her is Marion's job. We have work to do. Move it, Gate Boy."

Everyone laughed, even Leslie. Danny stood up and made a public gate from the Silverman living room to a s.p.a.ce near the bleachers in the Parry McCluer gym. Then he took Hermia's hand and stepped through it. Veevee took Stone by the hand and followed them.

CED CAME WITHOUT argument-he knew the chance of a lifetime when he saw it, even with the risk of getting stranded on Westil. Veevee rented a big SUV and made it to the high school without getting lost. Danny pulled in all the little gates that had propelled so many students a mile up into the air, so the area was clear. argument-he knew the chance of a lifetime when he saw it, even with the risk of getting stranded on Westil. Veevee rented a big SUV and made it to the high school without getting lost. Danny pulled in all the little gates that had propelled so many students a mile up into the air, so the area was clear.

"All right, Hermia," said Danny. "Close all the public gates I just made. I don't want any students to stumble their way to Yellow Springs or Roanoke tomorrow."

"Don't worry," said Ced. "The Gate Thief will probably eat them all before morning."

n.o.body laughed.

"Sorry," said Ced. "Thought I'd brighten the mood."

"Oh, you did," said Stone. "Now everybody hopes you'll make it to Westil and stay there." That did get a few chuckles.

Danny looked at Hermia and Veevee. "Are you ready?"

"We'll be vigilant," said Hermia. "And if there's anything we can do to help you, we'll do it."

"The main thing is to tell everybody the moment the Great Gate is complete, so they can go through it. Tell them where to enter. Make it so this isn't wasted, if it's possible at all."

"I think I should go with them," said Veevee.

"Absolutely not," said Stone. "You need to be with Danny, not distracted by zipping through a gate."

"What if the Gate Thief locks the Great Gate and I'm the only one who can open it?"

"Open it from this side," said Hermia. "Our job is to stay with Danny."

Veevee sighed. "I know," she said.

"She just doesn't want to lose her loving husband," said Stone cheerfully.

"Leslie gets to go with Marion," Veevee pointed out.

"n.o.body goes with anybody until I make the gate," said Danny. "Which is now."

He walked to the rope, gripped it with his hands, then raised his legs up so his feet rested on the big knot at the bottom. "Wind me up, ladies," he said.

Hermia and Veevee began to spin him.

"Slowly, I don't want to be dizzy before I even start," said Danny.

They slowed down.

They turned him and turned him until the thick rope began doubling and Danny was rising noticeably higher above the floor.

"Enough," said Danny. "Now everybody be quiet. Only talk to me if it's something urgent that you think I don't see. It takes concentration to spin out so many gates at once."

They had already decided, from Hermia's reading, that the average Great Gate was really ten or twelve gates intertwined and twisted together, all of them spanning the whole distance. Some Great Gates had fewer, some more, and the more there were, the longer the Great Gate would last after the death of the mage that made them. But they figured average was good enough for today.

"Let go," said Danny. "But carefully, so I stay centered." Then he closed his eyes. Vision would only distract him.

Veevee and Hermia looked at each other. "On three," said Veevee. "As in 'one, two, let go.' All right?"

Hermia nodded.

"One," said Veevee. "Two. Now."

Danny began to spin.

He immediately started to form gates until he had twelve, all of them with their mouths close together at the height of the knot in the rope, facing the west wall of the gym. The tails ended at the ceiling, but that was only temporary, as he carried the mouths with him in his accelerating spin.

Hermia and Veevee were watching for the moment of maximum acceleration, when the rope was at its full length, before it started winding up again in the other direction. But Danny didn't wait for their signal. He knew from what Hermia had read in the books that Great Gates had usually been made by Gatefathers who were simply turning around and around on their feet, like children playing at making themselves dizzy. This would certainly be fast enough.

He took the tails of the twelve gates and threw them upward into s.p.a.ce, with no destination in mind except a vague idea of "there," wherever there was. "There" meaning Westil. Meaning the natural home of the mages. Meaning the place where the Gate Thief was waiting for him.

It took less than an instant. "There," he thought, and the tails of the gates arrived. Just like that.

"It's open," said Hermia. "This way."

Danny had no time to notice whether anyone was going through the gate or not. For the Gate Thief was there, just like that.

"Oh G.o.d," said Veevee.

The Gate Thief had him, just the way Bel had Loki in the runic inscription: "The jaws of Bel seized his heart to carry it away." But that had been followed by "Loki held tight to his own heart and followed the jaws of the beast."

Danny understood now exactly what the inscription meant. He could feel his entire outself, all the gates he could ever make, moving away from him. He could simply let them go, or he could concentrate on them, try to keep control of them.

But no, fighting the Gate Thief wasn't the way. "Loki tricked Bel into thinking he was captive, but he was not captive. His heart held the jaws; the jaws did not hold his heart."

Danny stopped resisting, though he maintained his concentration, his awareness of all the gates as the Thief dragged them away. He also felt it as the Gate Thief began to slurp up all the gates that Danny had ever made in his life, sucking them in like noodles from a bowl of soup.

Then suddenly his gates, his outself arrived. arrived. Inside another person, so it was no machine-but there was a powerful impression of a thousand other outselves as well. The Gate Thief had all the outselves he had stolen kept in one place, and Danny was among them. Yet he also sensed that he was stronger than any of them. No, he was stronger than all of them. His ma.s.s of potential gates was greater than the entire satchelful of outselves combined. Inside another person, so it was no machine-but there was a powerful impression of a thousand other outselves as well. The Gate Thief had all the outselves he had stolen kept in one place, and Danny was among them. Yet he also sensed that he was stronger than any of them. No, he was stronger than all of them. His ma.s.s of potential gates was greater than the entire satchelful of outselves combined.

Which of them belonged to the Gate Thief himself? Easy to find: the largest. And in that moment Danny became aware of the entire map of the Thief's active gates.

What mattered, though, was the satchel, the repository where the Thief kept his unused outself and the outselves of all the mages he had ever stripped and all the gates that he had stolen. Danny knew that he was more powerful than all of them combined, but he also knew that the Gate Thief knew things that Danny did not. He wants me to fight him. If I try to pull my own gates back, that's the moment when the jaws snap shut and cut the gates from me, like breaking a fully stretched-out rubber band.

Instead, Danny held his gates right where they were, inside the Gate Thief's stash. Then he created all his gates at once, his entire outself as one vast mouth, with the tail of it in Danny's own heart, his inself. Mouth to tail, a million gates, uncountable gates. He widened the mouth and engulfed the Gate Thief's entire satchel within it, just as he had swallowed Eric when he dragged him out of Rico's office.

His gates were back, just like that. And along with them had come all the stolen gates in the Gate Thief's satchel. And all the Thief's own gates that had not yet been made, his unused outself.

He could feel the Gate Thief pulling back on his own outself-doing exactly the thing that would allow Danny to cut it off entirely, to swallow it and leave the Gate Thief bereft.

Because he still had the Gate Thief's map of gates inside his mind, Danny knew that he was leaving them behind, not stripping the Thief entirely. But Danny had no idea how to suck them in the way the Thief had sucked in Danny's, and he didn't want to take the time to try, for fear it would give the Thief time to recover.

Instead, leaving behind the few gates the Thief had deployed in Westil, Danny broke the connection between all these outselves and the Thief himself.

The Gate Thief was gone. His map of gates was gone. But Danny had most of the Thief's gates and all the stolen ones.