Gatefather (26 page)

“Eloquently said,” Eluik replied. “That's why I never minded having you speak for me. You always said things better than I could have myself.”

“I'm sorry I didn't understand that I was the one keeping you silent.”

“That was the hundredth apology,” said Eluik.

“Oh, is that my limit?”

“All apologies after the hundredth have to come in the form of money.”

“I don't have any money.”

“Then that was your limit.”

Eluik went back to looking out the window, and when the plane gently touched the runway and then slowed down with great suddenness, Eluik marveled as so often before: These machines the drowthers make here in Mittlegard—why didn't anybody in Westil learn how to make airplanes?

Different worlds, different ways.

Colonel Diamond was waiting at the gate for them. He had already shown them his identification, apparently, because he thanked the flight attendant and introduced himself to Eluik and Enopp and that was it, they were racing to keep up with him as he strode through the terminal toward the exit.

Hermia was standing at the curb when they came outside, as if she were waiting for a ride. Eluik pretended not to know her, and she pretended not to know him. He just hoped she didn't think it would be funny to pop into the back seat of Colonel Diamond's car on the way to his farm. He didn't know how much Diamond already knew about Mithermages. Eluik certainly didn't want to have to explain people popping into existence and then disappearing again.

“Can't wait for you to get out to Persimmon Knob,” said Diamond.

Eluik gave Enopp a little half-smile. If he really couldn't wait, they could go there instantly. But of course that was just an expression. An idiom. Eluik didn't have to be a gatemage to understand
that
.

The scenery was trees and hills and blacktop, just like in Ohio. And nothing like Iceway. Eluik looked out the window the whole way. He decided that he didn't miss the bare-stone craggy cliffs and tors of Iceway. This softer landscape of deep deciduous forest alternating with meadows, pastures, and cultivated fields gave him a greater sense of peace.

Does this mean that I'm a treemage? That I have some affinity with vegetation, so that in a stony, icy place I feel tense and bereft? Or is it simply an echo of the simple reality that in Iceway, I was always in danger and suffered terrible things, while here in Mittlegard, in America, in Ohio and now Kentucky, I really am more safe?

Though with that weird Greek woman able to pop in and spy on me whenever she wants—or kill me, if that idea appealed to her—maybe I'm not all that safe after all.

“What kind of mage are you?” Enopp asked Colonel Diamond.

Diamond hesitated. Perhaps it took a moment for him even to make sense of the question. Drowthers in Mittlegard weren't used to the idea of mages, or so the Silvermans had warned them.

“I don't think I'm a mage at all,” said Diamond. “Not even interested in being one, to tell the truth. I think what people like you can do is cool, in a potentially destructive kind of way. I've been hearing that some of the Great Families have been getting involved with our military and some of my friends are scared. But I guess we'll all just have to get used to a world with these strange abilities in it. Doesn't mean I want to have any myself, though.”

Eluik thought that Diamond's answer showed that he had clearly given the matter some thought. And when he said that he didn't want any powers himself, Eluik figured that meant that he really wished he had them, but knew it was never going to happen, and therefore kept himself happy by pretending not to care.

“Maybe if you went through a Great Gate,” said Enopp, “you'd find out that you had powers you never thought you had. Like what happened to Danny's girlfriend, Pat.”

“Maybe,” said Diamond, not revealing any particular interest.

“There aren't any Great Gates in the world right now,” said Eluik to Enopp.

“I know,” said Enopp. “But there
could
be.”

“You planning to make one?” asked Eluik. “Because the Gate Thief is still very much alive, and lots more powerful than you are.”

“I know he's alive, but he's also Mother's friend, and I don't think he'd do that to me.”

“He did it to Danny.”

“Before he even knew who Danny was,” said Enopp.

“It doesn't matter to
me
,” said Diamond. “I didn't think you'd believe me when I said I didn't want any magery, but I really don't. Besides, what if I turned out to have some really dangerous power. Or an annoying one. Who wants the ability to summon mosquitoes? Or make somebody's hair fall out?”

Enopp laughed. “There's no magery for that.”

“That you've heard of,” said Diamond. “I'm probably the first.”

“If you're not interested in magery,” said Eluik, “I wonder why you're taking us in?”

“Stone told me he had a couple of kids from another country who had already suffered a lot and still needed to be kept out of sight. We don't have a lot of security at the farm, but we have plenty of obscurity, and Stone was pretty sure that would be enough.”

“One of the Great Families already has a spy watching to see where we go,” said Eluik. “And don't bother with evasive maneuvers. She doesn't use cars.”

Diamond chuckled. “Stone said that Hermia would probably find you no matter what we did. His wife apparently has a low opinion of her. But they both agreed that she probably wouldn't cause you any harm.”

“Probably not,” said Eluik.

“How do you know Stone?” asked Enopp. “We don't know him all that well, we mostly just know the Silvermans. And Danny.”

“I've never met any of them,” said Diamond. “Unless you count the phone calls setting up your flight. I know Stone because I met him when I was stationed at the Pentagon. One of the times I was stationed there.”

“So you were an important guy in the Air Force?” asked Enopp.

“I was a colonel when I retired,” said Diamond. “‘Important' starts with a general's stars.”

“You were important,” said Eluik. “Stone said that you know everybody.”

“I know everybody that I know,” said Diamond. “Still a few billion short of ‘everybody.' I collect friends, and help them share information and ideas with each other. A few generals in that group, a couple of civilian leaders, some scientists. And now a couple of mages. Pretty eclectic group.”

“So you'll be sharing information about us?” asked Eluik.

“Not about you in particular. But mages in general? ‘Westilians' or whatever you call yourselves? That's a pretty hot topic. What to make of these planes and tanks that run without friction and gather their own fuel from the air. How to maintain security when every hawk or eagle or crow might be a spy. Whether there's any chance of drowthers like us remaining in control of our own government and military. Little things like that.”

“So you'll study us,” said Eluik.

“I may ask you questions, if it seems pertinent, but no, I'm not studying you. I'm sheltering you. You can ask me questions, too. I don't want to make you my subjects of study, I hope to make you my friends.”

“Because it would be useful to have friends among the mages,” said Eluik.

Diamond laughed. “I guess you'll just have to get to know me and reach your own conclusion about my motives. But yes, it's useful to have friends. It also makes me happy. And I'm happier when I have friends drawn from many different groups and classes and nations and ethnic groups. You're definitely not from any ethnic group I already knew. And
nobody
could look at you and decide what race you are.”

“Human race,” said Enopp. “Pretty much.”

“Close, anyway,” said Eluik.

Diamond chuckled. “Oh, you're fully human, all right.”

“And you have as much of the blood of the Mithermages as anyone else on Mittlegard,” said Eluik. “So don't rule out the possibility that you have an affinity for some branch of magery.”

“My first rule of intellectual inquiry: Don't rule anything out till you have no choice.”

“Good rule,” said Enopp. “But in this case, the only way to rule it out is to go through a Great Gate and see what happens.”

“Shouldn't my affinity, if I have one, show itself before I actually go through the gate?” asked Diamond.

“If you had been trained from childhood, then probably, unless you're a gatemage,” said Eluik. “That doesn't show up.”

“Stone told me that gatemages were always killed,” said Diamond. “If everybody needs gates, that seems counterproductive.”

“It wasn't always that way. Gatemages are rare, but their gates can last for centuries,” said Enopp. “So every Family on Westil and here on Mittlegard had access to lots of gates, whether they had a gatemage or not. But then Loki stole all the gates. Suddenly nobody had gates. So whoever got a gatemage first would have a huge advantage.”

“Still doesn't explain why any Family would kill their own gatemage.”

“The only Family that everybody monitored was the Norths,” said Eluik, “because Loki was theirs. The others probably all cheated when they thought they could get away with it. But any gatemages who tried a Great Gate ran into the Gate Thief and lost all their gates, and that was the end.”

“Till Danny North,” said Diamond.

“He got away from his Family in time—with some help, I understand,” said Enopp.

“And he was stronger than the Gate Thief,” said Eluik. “He stole the Gate Thief's gates.”

“You sound happy about that,” said Diamond.

“The Gate Thief was the one who kept us imprisoned,” said Enopp. “He's sorry now. And he's also the one who saved our lives when the Queen tried to have us killed.”

“Sort of like Stalin,” said Diamond. “Started out as a very bad enemy, until an even worse enemy attacked him, and then he was our ally.”

“I don't know about that,” said Enopp dismissively. “What's the point of our learning Mittlegard history? We're not going to stay here forever.”

“When will it be safe for you to go back?” asked Diamond.

“I don't know,” said Enopp. “But Mother is free now, and so it's only a matter of time.”

Eluik shook his head. “She may never be able to bring us back,” he said. “She's in the other body. She has to pretend to be her.”

“She's still our mother,” said Enopp.

“In our enemy's body,” said Eluik.

“Your mother has changed bodies?” asked Diamond.

Eluik realized at once that he had said too much. Why? He and Enopp were very good at keeping secrets. Their lives had always depended on it.

There was something about Diamond that made Eluik let down his guard. To trust him.

And then it became clear. “I know what your affinity is,” said Eluik.

“Really? What?”

“You're a manmage, if you're any kind of mage at all. And I think you are. A strong one.”

“Now you're just trying to flatter me,” said Diamond.

“Enopp and I never tell secrets,” said Eluik. “We're
never
lulled into talking freely. Until now, with you.”

“Well, I'm glad you trusted me. Your secret is safe. I'll never tell.”

“Our secret is only safe if nobody else knows it,” said Eluik, “and we never tell. Only we told you.”

“And that makes me a manmage? Isn't that the other kind of mage that the Families all killed?”

“And they weren't joking about it, either,” said Enopp. “The manmages of Dapnu Dap ruled all of Westil for a while. They were impossible to fight.”

“But you fought them and won,” said Diamond.

“Not
us
,” said Eluik. “It was five thousand years ago. And we only defeated them because some of the most powerful manmages changed sides and worked with us. Afterwards, when all the other manmages were dead, the ones who helped us killed themselves. The law was: No manmage could ever be allowed to live.”

“So calling me a manmage wasn't nice,” said Diamond.

“Mother is a manmage,” said Enopp. “We think killing manmages is a bad idea. Because some manmages are good.”

“What Stone told me,” said Diamond, “is that manmages ride other people the way a … blood brother? No, Clawbrother, the way they ride inside animals.”

“Or a Bloodfather,” said Enopp. “And yes, the most powerful ones can. But Mother never did that.”

“Yes, she did,” said Eluik. “But you have to remember how riding a heartbeast works. A Clawbrother can't get inside a hawk or a bear and make it act like something other than a hawk or a bear. The creature is still itself. The Clawbrother can guide it, but it can't change its nature.”

“So people are still themselves,” said Diamond, “even if a manmage is riding them?”

“Yes,” said Enopp.

“No,” said Eluik. “It depends on what you mean by being yourself.”

“As if you know,” said Enopp.

“Mother told me years ago, when she first told me what she was,” said Eluik. “You only become a manmage the way you become any other kind of mage. By truly loving and serving your affinity. Sandmages serve the dry sand, Tempesters feed the storm, Trunkfathers love trees.”

“So manmages love people,” said Diamond.

“Like you,” said Eluik. “You collect people. A huge network of intellectuals and decision-makers all around the world. You don't rule them, you don't try to organize them, you just know when one of them needs to meet with one of the others to exchange ideas. Did I remember that right? Did the Silvermans get it straight?”

“I never thought of it that way, but yes, I'm pretty good at networking.”

Eluik laughed. “That's a nice way of putting it. So you love those people, right? You care about them. You try to get them what they need.”