Part 36 (1/2)
”Why are you crying?”
She took her hands from her face, but also turned her face away.
Of course he could move the tail of the viewport wherever he wanted; but if she wanted him not to see her face, he would respect her wish.
”You were teaching me how to lock and unlock gates, weren't you,” said Danny.
She nodded.
”Why?” said Danny. ”Where's the rest of your Family?”
”They don't know where I am,” said the Greek girl.
”Are you going to tell them?”
”I can't go back,” she said. Her English was perfect, though it had a British tinge.
”Why not? They knew you were a gatemage.”
”They thought I was just a Finder. That justified letting me live, despite the treaties and laws, because I couldn't actually do do anything with gates. I never dared to show them I could move through your gates. anything with gates. I never dared to show them I could move through your gates. I I didn't even know I could until I finally came across an open one. But then... I had to go. Don't you see? I've been hungry for this my whole life. I felt so much hope when I first found you three Christmases ago, there in the North fortress. But all your gates were locked, and I couldn't open them. I could lock them more tightly-but what good was that, with you as the only other person in the world who could find them!” didn't even know I could until I finally came across an open one. But then... I had to go. Don't you see? I've been hungry for this my whole life. I felt so much hope when I first found you three Christmases ago, there in the North fortress. But all your gates were locked, and I couldn't open them. I could lock them more tightly-but what good was that, with you as the only other person in the world who could find them!”
She looked right at him, wiping tears off her cheeks as she did. ”Then I found the open gate you made for your Keyfriend, there in Florida. Yes, I was in her flat, and no, she never saw me. If she had, don't you think she would have followed? I couldn't have blocked her. Anything I can lock, she can open.”
”And anything she opens, you can lock.”
Danny made the viewport into a complete gate and pa.s.sed through it to sit beside her on the gra.s.s. ”Are you saying that you're in as much danger now as I am?”
”I'm a real gatemage, am I not?” she said. ”Not just a Finder, but someone who can change the gates. Who could lock down any but a Great Gate, who can tell where gates lead as well as where they start. They were with me walking through the mall in Naples, Florida, shopping-my parents, an uncle, the cousin they think I should marry-and I saw the open gate in a corridor leading down to the mall restrooms. I went right up to it and stepped through. I didn't care that it would cut me off from my own Family. I didn't even care where it led. I just knew that at last, after all these years, I had found a gate that I could use. And I locked it behind me.”
”So you brought no one,” said Danny.
”I came to meet you. you. But then I realized that you didn't leave all your gates open because you wanted to, you didn't even realize you were doing it. And when I got to the high school and saw that you were trying to twist a Great Gate-” But then I realized that you didn't leave all your gates open because you wanted to, you didn't even realize you were doing it. And when I got to the high school and saw that you were trying to twist a Great Gate-”
”I was?” asked Danny.
”Didn't they teach you anything?” asked the Greek girl.
”'Twist a Great Gate,'” he echoed. Then he began quoting the runes. ”'Here Loki twisted a new gate to heaven.' I thought 'twist' was just the Fistalk term for making a gate. But it was about making a gate that spirals, making it while the gatemage is spinning.”
”What do you think whirling dervishes were imitating?” asked the Greek girl. ”They had seen a gatemage spinning while he made a gate to heaven. The Tower of Babel-Nimrod was one of the earliest gatemages to reach Mesopotamia, a mighty hunter who built a tower from which he suspended a rope, so he could wind himself up and then create a gate while spinning a long, long time. Doesn't your Family have these stories?”
”Nothing about gatemages,” said Danny. ”You can understand why.”
”Of course they didn't tell you. Even in my family, they gave me access to the records of the gatemages only because they wanted me to be able to recognize whatever gates I might see. Not that it helped-there were no gates in all of Europe and Africa and Asia! Your Last Loki was thorough. All the gates in the world were gone. Until we drove into the North fortress and I saw gates everywhere. It took me a while to realize that's what I was sensing, and to realize that the ones located behind buildings and inside trees were as plain to me as the ones out in the open.”
”So when you walked up to the wall where I was hiding...”
”I just wanted to see you. The only other gatemage I'd known of in my life. I could see the gates burning inside you-”
”What?”
”Your hearth.o.a.rd,” she said. ”Gatemages don't have the normal outself, because it's already fragmented, ready to be made into gates. In your case, it's divided into bits so fine they almost seem like dust to me. That's what I was looking at. A million possible gates, all contained in a single vivid point inside your body.”
”I've never felt that.”
”What did did you feel then, when you reached into me just a moment ago?” she said. you feel then, when you reached into me just a moment ago?” she said.
”No,” Danny said. ”It was you who reached out to me. me.”
”I had to persuade you somehow that you could trust me. So I touched you to lay myself bare to you. Not in body, but my hearth.o.a.rd. You could have stripped it away from me and added it to your own hearth.o.a.rd. Sometimes lesser gatemages do that, so that a Pathbrother or Gatefather can have enough in his hearth.o.a.rd to make a Great Gate. The lesser mage is left with nothing, but if the Great Gate is made, then it is deemed to be a worthy sacrifice.”
”I don't know anything,” said Danny. ”n.o.body I knew could teach me.”
”I had books,” said the Greek girl. ”n.o.body in my my Family actually knows anything, either.” Family actually knows anything, either.”
”Thank you for trusting me,” said Danny. ”I had no idea what was happening between us, when you reached into my viewport and I felt you.”
”You understood enough to trust me and come out and join me here.”
”I'm still afraid that it's all a lie,” said Danny. ”That some Gra.s.sbrother will make the lawn here swallow me up or something.”
She took his hand. ”Whatever happens to you will happen to me, I promise it. I will do whatever I can to protect you, when the time comes to make a Great Gate.”
”I don't want to use up your... heart...”
”Hearth.o.a.rd. Heart magazine, heart a.r.s.enal...”
”I don't want to take it away from you.”
She laughed. ”Don't you understand? I have never heard of a gatemage with a hearth.o.a.rd like yours.”
”You said it was only dust.”
”No, no,” she said. ”The hearth.o.a.rd is the same size size in everyone. The potential gates expand to fill the size, or shrink to fit within it. Mine has only a few coa.r.s.e granules. According to the books-well, in everyone. The potential gates expand to fill the size, or shrink to fit within it. Mine has only a few coa.r.s.e granules. According to the books-well, book, book, the only one that discussed the hearth.o.a.rd-the most powerful Gatefathers have so many gates inside that they are like grains of sand. But yours... yours are-” the only one that discussed the hearth.o.a.rd-the most powerful Gatefathers have so many gates inside that they are like grains of sand. But yours... yours are-”
”Dust,” said Danny.
”That's what I saw when you were hiding there in the wall. A gatemage with so much power...”
Danny sat there digesting this.
”And then you were twisting a Great Gate there in the school, all by yourself.”
”I had no idea what I was doing. I thought I was making a series of tiny gates to help my friend get to the top of a climbing rope in gym cla.s.s.”
She looked puzzled for a moment.