Part 9 (2/2)

Immediately she grabbed for it. ”How dare you touch that!” she said. ”I trusted you.”

”The book belongs to the one who can read it,” said Danny.

She pulled harder. He held tighter. If he made a gate right now and pa.s.sed through it, would she be dragged along with him, because she was holding on to the book that he was holding on to?

”The book belongs to the Library of Congress, for the use of serious scholars.”

Again, Danny resorted to truth, because he knew he would not be believed. ”These inscriptions are about Loki, a gatemaker. I'm a gatemaker, and I have to learn whatever it has to teach me.”

”This is a nightmare. Let go of the book, you're going to damage it.”

”And if I do, who will lose her job? Not me,” said Danny. ”Just let me read the rest of the runes and you can have it back.”

”Security!” she shouted.

Danny made a gate and let it suck him through.

He was in the restroom again, holding the book. She was not with him. She must be back in that employees-only room, clutching at nothing. Let her tell security what happened. See whether they believed it.

He took a paper towel and dried the counter around the sink, then set the book on it and opened it.

The third page of runes said: Loki found the dark gate of Bel through which their G.o.d poured fear into the world and through which he carried off the hearts of brave men to eat at his feasting table.Loki's heart was stabbed with the fear of Bel and the jaws of Bel seized his heart to carry it away.Loki held tight to his own heart and followed the jaws of the beast.

Danny read it twice to make sure his reading was accurate and it was locked in his memory. Then he turned to the next page that held a copy of the untranslated runes: 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.And when he found the gate of Bel, he moved the mouth over the heart of the sun.Let Bel eat the heart of the Sun and drag it back to his dark world!He has no more home in Mittlegard.

Well, how nice. A commemorative inscription about the achievements of the Loki of that age. No pariah then-there had apparently been some kind of war with the Carthaginian G.o.d, or perhaps merely with the Carthaginians, and Loki was given credit for shutting down the enemy. By moving the entrance to a gate, apparently, though Danny had no idea how such a thing might be done, especially if he really moved one end of it to the center of the Sun.

Enough. Danny had read it now. It was memorized. He had it.

Danny reached into the bottom of the trash receptacle and pulled out his backpack. He shouldered it, picked up the book, and made a gate back to the room where the woman had shown him the book. He could hear her in the hall, shouting for Security. Poor foolish drowther. Did she think she had any kind of control here?

He set the book right where it had been and opened it to the first runic inscription. He was tempted to stay long enough to smile at her when she returned, but no, he really did not need to be any more flamboyant than he had already been. In fact, he felt more than a little ashamed of himself now, for having responded to her trust and kindness by flaunting his knowledge and then doing something in front of her that was undeniable magery.

At the same time, he still felt the thrill of having done it-of having proven before a witness that he, too, was one of the mages of the North Family, and not a trivial mage, either. A dangerous one-so dangerous that he should be killed and put into Hammernip Hill.

He used his gate to the restroom again and then immediately outside to where he had been when he first gated into the library.

Eric was standing there, grinning. ”You kept me waiting a long time in this cold, boy,” he said. ”You got some explaining to do.”

7.

STONE'S H HOUSE Danny thought of simply making a gate and getting away. Or going back through the gate into the library.

But then he remembered that Eric was useful. And then Danny remembered that he didn't like thinking of drowthers the way the Family did-dividing them into the two categories ”useful” and ”expendable.” No, if Danny was going to get the hang of being a human being and not a sort of pathetic halfway wannabe G.o.d, he was going to have to think of Eric as something else. Perhaps ”friend.”

”What did you see?” Danny asked.

”It's what I didn't see,” said Eric.

”And what was that?”

”You.” Eric grinned. ”Neat trick, turning invisible like that.”

”Is that what I did?” asked Danny.

”That's what I saw,” said Eric. ”Come on, you can tell me. The whole way here to DC from Lexington, you were holding out on me, you owe me now.”

This irritated Danny. ”I think we're about even. You got more from begging with with me than you usually do without me. And you kept all the money.” me than you usually do without me. And you kept all the money.”

”I shared the food,” said Eric.

”I earned my share of the food. n.o.body owes anybody anything.”

”Yeah, I think you do,” said Eric. ”For instance, what if I tell the cops about you?”

”Are we five years old?” asked Danny. ”'Do what I say or I'll tell Mom'?”

”I think there are some government agencies that would love to study you.”

So maybe Eric wasn't a friend after all. Then again, his life had been all about hustling, turning anything he could to his advantage. All Danny had to do was let him see how little hold he had over Danny, and that old cooperative big-brother att.i.tude was bound to come back.

”See, that's not going to happen,” said Danny.

”You think it's not?”

”First,” said Danny, ”who's gonna believe you when you tell them all about this kid you met in Lexington? What are you going to tell them about me?”

”You can turn invisible.”

”Yeah, they always listen to teenage beggars who tell them stories about invisible kids. They got a whole department full of agents who investigate claims like that.”

”All right,” said Eric, dismissing the whole idea with a wave.

”Plus, if you gave it about three seconds' thought, you'd see a huge hole in the idea of turning me over to the government.”

”What?”

”Three seconds,” said Danny.

”Don't screw with me, kid.”

Danny counted to three on his fingers.

”All right,” said Eric again. ”All you'd do is turn invisible and they'd never be able to get you. But what if they surprised you and got handcuffs on you? What good does it do you to be invisible if you've got handcuffs on?”

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