Gatefather (42 page)

“They're bound. Bond and free—always treated as opposites,” said Pat.

“But that's about slavery. About people, not prets. Look, a pret that's part of the natural universe—a blade of grass. Part of a rock. Those prets have a place, they have a
job
. They're
something
. The Sutahites aren't part of anything. As far as the universe is concerned, they're nothing. Utterly powerless to
act
.”

“It's not like a pret that's part of a rock is particularly powerful,” said Pat.

“Yes, it is,” said Danny. “It has work to do. When gravity calls, and nothing blocks it, it rushes toward the center of the Earth. Joined with all the other prets in the rock. They move together. Somebody throws the rock, it hits a jackal, and the prets of the rock all interact with the prets of the jackal's skin and skull and brain according to the rules. Together, the prets of that rock can be powerful. They can kill a jackal.”

“If somebody throws the rock,” said Pat.

“Right. And the prets in my ba can become gates, taking people from one place to another, from one world to another—but somebody has to make them into a gate. Me. They only do it when I command it. The way my hand only touches yours when I want it to.” He demonstrated.

She kissed his hand.

“So you're thinking, they'd rather be a part of your ba than continue to be unattached. And that will make them nice.”

“The only thing
like
a bond that gave them any purpose in life was obeying Set. Were they evil? I don't think so. Maybe they were, but what would the second most evil pret in Duat have done when Set was expelled? Does he
follow
Set into exile? Or does he figure, OK, Set just proved that rebellion doesn't work. So I'll play along, I'll be born, I'll have a body, I'll have whatever powers come with it. Maybe the second most evil was, like, Hitler. Or Stalin. Or Tamerlane. Or just some hideous child-abusing mother or father. But all the strong, ambitious, fearless ones like Set—they wouldn't follow
him
. They'd come to Mittlegard and get themselves born.”

“So the Sutahites aren't ambitious enough to be evil—”

“They're the ones who saw Set as powerful, a protector, a leader. They attached to him and then found out that it didn't get them anywhere. He let them down. Thousands of years of disappointment. Some of them might be pissed off. But Pat, they aren't people, they aren't
part
of anybody. They're not even part of Set. They're lonely, unattached. They don't have to attach to somebody evil. They just have to attach to somebody
strong
.”

“I'm not all that strong,” said Pat.

“You can't see your own pret,” said Danny. “You're strong enough. But different from me. Strong in a different way. So are the others. If we
all
invite Sutahites to join us, and
if
Thoth allows bonds to form, then they become part of the ba of a Mithermage, and
we
get stronger. For all I know, that's exactly what happens when a mage passes through a Great Gate—maybe as we leap from one spot in the universe to another, we pass through the unorganized place where prets come from. Maybe prets attach themselves to our ba as we go.”

“And maybe not.”

“Somehow we get stronger,” said Danny. “But I don't think we can invite them to join us so
we
can gather more power. I think we have to offer them a place. A promise that we'll use them wisely and well. Remember how Bexoi's body rejected her? The prets of her body hated what she had used them to do.”

“And when Enopp's ka left Eluik, and Enopp was going to leave his body behind and
die
,” said Pat, “Eluik's body called to him. Not with a voice or anything, but it was a call. A hunger. An invitation. That's what you want us to do. Give that invitation to the Sutahites.”

“And maybe none of them come,” said Danny. “Or they want to, but the bond can't form. Or maybe it
can
form, but only five or six out of all these billions actually do it.”

“We'd be no worse off than we are,” said Pat.

“Maybe they come and maybe they bond, only they're not completely reliable. Maybe they still want to subvert the organized universe,” said Danny. “Maybe they really are as evil as Set.”

“If that's what they want, I'll bet that Thoth won't let them bond to us. Because they wouldn't actually mean it, and Thoth would know.”

“We're putting a lot of trust in Thoth, considering he didn't actually tell us to do this.”

“We've got to do something,” said Pat. “And this is better than taking Set inside yourself and then relocating to the center of the sun.”

“Prets can't be destroyed by fusion and they can't be trapped by gravity. I'd die, but my pret would return to Duat. And Set is already nothing but a naked pret. So he'd just relocate back to Earth. Nothing accomplished.”

“Even if we can gather up all the Sutahites,” said Pat, “there's no chance
Set
would join with somebody else in a subservient role.”

“Which is why I'm not inviting Hermia,” said Danny.

“She'll see that we've gathered,” said Pat, “and she'll show up.”

“I'll deal with that when it happens,” said Danny.

“Or I should say,
Set
will see that we've gathered, and
he'll
show up, wearing Hermia.”

“Let's get this started and see what happens.”

“You mean now? This second?”

“What will we gain by delaying?” Even as he spoke, Danny had already begun. He knew where all the others were, the ones who had become aware of the prets. He didn't use words, he just … wanted them to come to him. Invited them.

It'll be like this with the Sutahites, he thought. And as they each winked into existence around the bench by the shingle oak, he showed them what he meant to do. As I invited you, you can invite the Sutahites. Only not just to come near you. To come into you. To become part of you. To become part of your outself. Instruments of your will. A permanent place, as part of the power of a mage.

“Let them see what kinds of magery you do, if you know,” said Danny. “Let them see what they'd be a part of.”

Loki was the last to arrive. “You already
have
them,” he said. “Why are you weakening your hold on them?”

“I don't have them,” said Danny. “They don't have anything, and nothing has them. Unless they come to us. Look at how bright and powerful you are, Loki. See how they long to be part of you.”

Then Danny realized that as he freed the Sutahites to make their choice, he was also freeing his own ba. It only existed in Loki's hearthoard, because he had given his gates to Loki. But now some of them chose to be, not on loan to Loki, but truly part of him. Truly his.

Danny felt a stab of regret, but then he remembered what he had learned on Duat. These prets came with me freely. Not as slaves, but because they wanted to share my life forever. The prets of the ba are the highest and strongest, only just short of being human. Now I'm setting these prets free, and some of them have come to love and admire Loki. Of course they choose to stay.

Then, in a rush, all the rest of them streamed back to Danny. To his hearthoard. He hadn't taken them back from Loki. He had only given them their freedom, and they respected and affirmed their bond to Danny. They came home.

But these were the prets that had already been attuned to Danny all his life. Of course they understood his invitation and of course most of them heeded it. What were the Sutahites seeing? What sense could they make of his invitation?

He felt the first one after only a few minutes. But those minutes were long, and it was only one.

Then another. And one of the Sutahites went to Loki. And three to Pat. And five to Veevee. And ten to Anonoei and a hundred to Enopp and ten thousand to Eluik and a million to Loki this time and now ten million to Pat and billions to Danny North. He felt them gathering in his hearthoard, settling among the prets that had served him, had been a part of him since birth. Perhaps learning their work, understanding their lives by sharing memory with Danny's longtime prets.

All the Sutahites were gone. Yet none were loose in the world, and none had returned to Set. They had all been incorporated into someone's outself. And every one of the Mithermages gathered at the shingle oak was now far more powerful than if they had passed through ten Great Gates.

Is the bond real? Danny had no way of knowing, except to see what would happen.

He made a gate. Veevee opened it. Closed it. Moved it. Locked and unlocked it.

Then Veevee made a gate. For the first time in her life, she was a full-fledged Pathsister, at least, if not a Gatemother. She could make gates and make them public and they would persist in time and space. She wept.

Danny felt a momentary pang at not having included the Silvermans in this, or Stone. But then he thought of his parents and aunts and uncles, and imagined what this vast increase in power would have changed them into, and he was content that it was only this group.

“So now you have to decide how you're going to use this new part of yourself,” said Danny aloud. “Because it matters to the prets how you use them. Let it be a joy to them, to be part of your life and all your actions. Not a burden or a shame.”

“Thanks for saying that,” said Loki. “I've now changed completely from bad to good.”

“Don't be such a brat,” said Anonoei. “You've always been good.”

“I had odd ways of showing it,” said Loki.

“Time for self-analysis later,” said Danny. “All of you should go back where you were, please. Because Hermia's coming.”

“How do you know?” asked Pat.

“Because I've been sending her away the instant she appeared.”

“How long has that been going on?” asked Loki.

“Since I first started calling you to come to me,” said Danny. “But now it's time to see what Set has to say.”

“Then let us stay,” said Pat.

“And give him more options of people to jump into?” asked Danny.

“We're so much stronger now,” said Enopp.

“Stronger than Set?” asked Danny.

Enopp shrugged.

“Are you stronger than me?” asked Danny. “Because he
was
stronger than me. And stronger than Hermia. Please go, all of you.”

“But Hermia can follow any of us.”

“Set won't follow anyone but me,” said Danny, “because I have nine-tenths of his kingdom inside me now, as part of myself. I'm not going to give it back. Nor are you going to give back your share. Go, please.”

They all left, except Pat and Loki.

“So you think you're immune?” asked Danny.

“No,” said Pat. “I just don't mind dying, if I might help you somehow.”

“I do mind dying,” said Loki, “but if I don't watch, I'm not sure I'll know what actually happened.”

 

21

Hermia appeared in front of the bench almost at once. She glanced from Danny to Pat and smiled. “How judicial. The judges sit on the bench.”

Danny didn't bother answering, and Pat was already skilled in saying less than she was thinking.

“I'm not causing any harm, you notice,” said Hermia. “Having Set inside me hasn't changed my character at all.”

Pat laughed a little.

“Set, we're not interested in hearing your lies,” said Danny. “I brought you here to talk to Hermia.”

“It's really just a means of transportation. Like owning a new car.” Hermia sniffed. “Still has the new-car smell.”

“Hermia's not struggling,” said Pat. “Maybe this really is her talking.”

“It isn't,” said Danny. “Because I can hear her inward screaming.”

“Then maybe Set sounds so much like her because he's found a compatible host,” said Pat.

“Hermia was wrong and she was arrogant and she was ignorant. Now the only way to set her free is to get Set to jump to someone else.”

“Is either of you volunteering?” said Hermia.

“Been there, done that,” said Danny.

Hermia turned to Pat and grinned. “I really like being female better.”

“You've never
been
anything at all,” said Pat.

“Hermia,” said Danny, “I know you can hear me, because when he ruled over me, I heard and saw everything.”

“Of course I can hear you,” said Hermia. “Just because you and Set didn't get along doesn't mean he and I can't hit it off.”

“So I'm going to strike a bargain with you. Of course, you have no way to signal agreement in advance. You'll simply do what I suggest, or not. I'm simply going to tell you. Duat is actually a good place. It's a place of justice and mercy. It's also a place without bodies, and I won't lie to you. I missed my body when I was there. You miss hearing and speaking and seeing and touching and smelling. All the bodily functions are beautiful and precious as soon as you don't have them. Yet it's still better there than being a slave to Set.”

“You know that killing me will only cause him to jump to someone else,” said Hermia.

“As long as Set remains unconnected to a human body, then he hasn't yet lived, and so he can't die and return to Duat. I spent a couple of months with him in control of my body. I know exactly how boring it can be.”

“Set isn't in the body of a boring teenage boy,” said Hermia. “He's in
me
. He is not bored.”

“
So
bored,” said Danny. “Every person you've taken over, Set, is too much like all the ones before. You've committed all the crimes, you've achieved vast power and infinite fame and made millions of people miserable. What is there left for you to do in Hermia's corpse?”