The Lost Gate Part 18

"They get young-looking ones so I'll do something stupid. Come on, you think those kids have ever done any kind of job? Even if they're not cops, they're gonna get on some camera somewhere, or steal something with a radio transmitter or something."

"Then you better not mess them up too bad, Rico," said the clerk.

Rico. So much for his being an Arab.

"I know my business better than you."

"I like my job. How you gonna pay me, you in jail for a.s.sault? Or murder?"

"I won't kill them. Much."

"I'll just make them go away, Rico. I won't send them back to you."

"Do what you want, Mother, Mother," said Rico.

"Somebody's gotta watch out for you, keep you from doing something stupid."

"You're working as a store clerk, moron. What do you know from stupid?"

The clerk turned to go back out the door. Then he stopped and whirled back around so he could look up at the spot on the wall where Danny had his face pushed through the gate.

Danny backed out of the gate the moment he realized he had been seen. The expression on the clerk's face was memorable-horror, like he'd seen a decapitated baby or something. Though, come to think of it, what he'd seen was probably almost as horrible-a human face with working eyes, hanging on the wall without any head or body attached.

Danny sat down and laughed for a moment. He could imagine the clerk trying to explain to Rico the Fence what he had just seen on his office wall. No wonder so many mages couldn't resist playing pranks on drowthers-sending a misty clant to haunt a house, pretending to be a ghost. Making tiny clants out of leaves and petals, to flitter around a garden like fairies. Any mage who could handle their outself at all could make such apparitions at will.

Of course, Danny had no outself and therefore could make no clants. But he could make a gate and stick his face through, and that was sort of similar. He could get a taste of the fun. Considering how many mages played such pranks, it made no sense to Danny that gatemages had a reputation for being especially tricky and deceptive. Unless gatemages could do more stuff than Danny knew about, regular mages were all capable of more and cooler tricks.

He took a bite of his Payday bar and drank off the rest of the orange juice. Then, because he couldn't resist it, he made another tiny gate and pushed the empty orange juice bottle through it. When the clerk got back to the counter, he'd find it perched right in the middle. Then Danny unwrapped the Payday and pushed the wrapper through, as well. Let him freak out a little. Maybe Rico the Fence would think he'd gone crazy and fire him. It'd be the best thing ever happened to the clerk, to stop working for a creep like Rico.

Danny walked along the street until he'd finished the Payday and swallowed the last of it. Then he began to jog and then run all the way back to Stone's house. Gates were fine, but using his body at full speed still felt good, his legs loping along like an antelope's-or so it felt to him. Probably more like an ostrich.

If I were a beastmage, he thought as he ran, I'd want to have an ostrich or an emu as my heartbound. Two-legged, loping along on legs like stilts, faster than cars can go on these residential streets.

Of course, there weren't any ostriches or emus close by, except in zoos or on farms. He'd have to live in Africa or Australia for those to be convenient heartbeasts.

Maybe my heartbeast is a thirteen-year-old boy, thought Danny. No shortage of those those around. Maybe I'm somebody else's heartbound, and he's been riding me my whole life and I never knew it. around. Maybe I'm somebody else's heartbound, and he's been riding me my whole life and I never knew it.

But that would be manmagic, which was truly evil. To take possession of the mind and body of another human being? That would be slavery. Not that anybody would mind if one of the Family did such a thing to drowthers. But if you could turn a drowther into a heartbound, you could do it to a Westilian, and that's what made it an unspeakable crime.

Whatever magery such a Westilian had learned, the manmage could make use of it while possessing his body. So if a manmage had a stable of mages that he possessed and controlled, he'd have all their power. The most dangerous of mageries, manmagic was, to turn a Westilian into a slave. It might as well be cannibalism.

Being a gatemage carried a death penalty in all the Families right now, but it hadn't always been that way. There was nothing inherently evil about gatemagic. What if I had been born a manmage? What if I had taken possession of Gyish or Zog and made them do what I wanted? Danny felt a chill, even though his running had worked him into a sweat. Who'd want to be inside one of those nasty old coots, working the levers? But it would be fun to use their arms to beat Lem and Stem the way they used to beat Danny.

What kind of person am I becoming? thought Danny. I guess that once you do one forbidden kind of magic, the worse ones start looking better. They can only kill me once, after all. They might as well snap my neck for a goose as a duck.

Lana was waiting in the living room when Danny got home, sitting on the back of the couch with her feet on the cus.h.i.+ons. She looked over at him only long enough to register who he was, then went back to staring at the television. Only it wasn't on.

"What are you watching?" asked Danny.

"The only good program on TV," said Lana.

"It's my favorite, too," said Danny.

Lana looked at him coldly. "If you think I'm going to put out just cause you're being cute, you can forget it."

Danny was appalled. "Is that the only only thing you think about?" thing you think about?"

"It's the only thing you you think about." think about."

"You don't know what I think about."

"I think I settled that the first time you walked through that door."

Angry now, Danny could say things plainly that he would ordinarily have been too shy to talk about. "Oh, right, you're half-naked, you press yourself against me, breathe in my face, push me down to the floor, what else else can I think about? Why didn't you try a can I think about? Why didn't you try a conversation conversation?"

"You would have been thinking about boffing me the whole time," said Lana.

"Maybe I would," said Danny. "Maybe when all you're wearing is a white s.h.i.+rt that I can partly see through, maybe I sit there wondering how hard it would be to undo the b.u.t.tons. But right now? Dressed like a regular person?"

"Right now you're thinking about how I looked when you first saw me."

"You're such a piece of work," said Danny. "What I was was thinking when I came in just now was how cool it was that you were looking at a turned-off television and then had something funny to say about it, and I thought I was joining in the joke, and then thinking when I came in just now was how cool it was that you were looking at a turned-off television and then had something funny to say about it, and I thought I was joining in the joke, and then you you turned the conversation to 'putting out.' turned the conversation to 'putting out.' You're You're the one who can only think about one thing, and I don't care how hard a life you've had, you're still the creepiest girl I've ever known, and I've known some seriously creepy girls." the one who can only think about one thing, and I don't care how hard a life you've had, you're still the creepiest girl I've ever known, and I've known some seriously creepy girls."

"Creepy?" she said mockingly. "Oooh, I'm so creepy. creepy."

Danny suddenly darted toward her and threw himself on the couch, landing against the back of it and using his weight and momentum to rock it over backward. He had done that more than once with the even-heavier old couch on the back porch of the schoolhouse at home. He could tip it over with just one of his girl cousins sitting on it. If there was more than one, he'd have to coordinate the raid with one of the other boys, but they were always happy to do it. Finally the girls started getting up from the couch whenever they saw him running toward them, and that was fun, too.

Lana, however, was not prepared at all, so she toppled over backward with a scream. Danny was on top of her at once, tickling her mercilessly. She laughed until she cried.

"Stop it, I'm wetting myself! Stop it, you little b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

Danny stopped and knelt up to look down at her. "I'm thirteen years old, Lana," he said. "That's what I come up with to do with girls." Then he got up and walked to the kitchen. what I come up with to do with girls." Then he got up and walked to the kitchen.

Ced was sitting at the table, reading a thick book with tiny print. "Tickled her, eh?"

"She liked it," said Danny. "I could tell." He went to the fridge and decided that after the o.j. and Payday he wasn't hungry after all.

He heard the door swing open and Lana was there, braced against the doorframe.

"You made me wet myself, you stinking little brat!"

"That's just what I expect from a girl. girl. All that girls can think about is pee. 'I need to go to the bathroom.' 'I've got to take a potty break.' 'Who's coming with me to the little girls' room.' Girls make me want to All that girls can think about is pee. 'I need to go to the bathroom.' 'I've got to take a potty break.' 'Who's coming with me to the little girls' room.' Girls make me want to urinate. urinate."

She ran to the dishdrain and picked up a table knife. "I'm gonna kill you, you little p.r.i.c.k!"

"With that that knife?" said Danny. "All you can possibly do is spread me with mayo or something." knife?" said Danny. "All you can possibly do is spread me with mayo or something."

Ced was laughing now, and Lana whirled on him. "If you were any kind of husband, you'd protect me instead of laughing!"

"You're the one with the knife," said Ced.

"You know I hate being tickled!" Lana screamed in his face.

"Well, maybe the kid hates being half-raped," Ced answered mildly. "So now you're even."

"Now I have to change my pants!" she said.

"Bet he he did, too," said Ced. did, too," said Ced.

"I did not," said Danny.

"Oh, bad news, Babe," said Ced. "You're losing your touch."

Lana lunged at Ced with the knife, but he caught her wrist. It looked to Danny like she hadn't really been stabbing at him. Like she wanted him to stop her.

Ced dragged her down onto his lap and kissed her. Or, rather, kissed at at her, since she kept dodging her face out of the way. So he kissed her neck. her, since she kept dodging her face out of the way. So he kissed her neck.

"Stop s...o...b..ring on me!" she shouted.

"I'm going to go up to my room now," said Danny.

Ced picked her up and set her on the table in front of him, right on top of the book.

"If that's a library book, they're going to make you pay a fine," said Danny.

By now Lana and Ced were locked in a kiss so deep that Danny was surprised they weren't gagging on each other's teeth.

"Are you guys vampires?" asked Danny. "Trying to bite each other's necks from the inside?"

They paid no attention to him.

Danny went down the hall toward the stairs. "I'm never getting married!" he said loudly as he left. "It's just too sickening." But actually he was feeling kind of triumphant. He had gotten a little of his pride back, what with tickling her so she lost control of herself. Even steven now, he said silently.

Well, almost even. Because while he was tickling her, he enjoyed touching her body, even through her clothes. She kind of had a point about what boys think about. Apparently it never switched completely off, once he'd started thinking of her that way. He hadn't known that, what with the only girls he knew being his cousins who despised him.

Danny only made it to the top of the first flight of stairs. Stone was waiting in his doorway, brandis.h.i.+ng a piece of stationery-size paper. "I've got a name and address for you."

"Already have a name," said Danny, "and I was kind of hoping this was my address."

"A teacher," said Stone. "And a place you can live. None of the Families know about them. And you'll notice that I'm not saying their name out loud. Please do likewise."

Danny walked to him. "I don't know if I want to leave DC," he said. "I like this town."

"Or you don't want to leave Lana?" said Stone. "She's married."

"I know," said Danny. "I got that. But what I said was, 'I like this town.' Why should I go?"

"Suit yourself," said Stone. But he still folded the paper over and pushed it into Danny's pants pocket.

Danny backed away. "Put it in my hand," he said. "Keep your hands out of my pockets."

Stone rolled his eyes and handed it to him. "Not everyone in this house wants to molest you."

Danny unfolded the note and looked at it. "Marion and Leslie? Is either one of them a man?"

To Danny's shock, Stone slapped him across the face-hard. Danny staggered to the side and he couldn't help it that tears came to his eyes.

"You think it's all a joke?" said Stone. "How do you know somebody's outself isn't in this room, listening to what you say? These people are willing to take in and train a gatemage, even though it might bring the wrath of all the Families down on their heads, and you treat it as a joke joke?"

"If they could hear me," said Danny, "they could read your stupid note."

"You think I don't know how to keep their outselves away from me?"

"Then why do you think they're here to listen?"

"Because if you knew anything, you'd know they could be in the next room and still hear you, and I wouldn't know they were there."

"Still didn't give you the right to slap slap me." me."

"It's somebody else's life on the line, you selfish little pig," said Stone. "Get it through your head that other people matter besides yourself."

"I'm a Westilian," said Danny scornfully. "n.o.body matters as much as me." He had meant the words to be ironic, maybe even apologetically so, but they clearly hadn't sounded ironic to Stone.

"You're not a Westilian," said Stone. "Any more than all those Americans out there are Celts or Germans or Italians or Poles or Russians or wherever their family came from. It's been nearly fourteen centuries since any of your ancestors lived in Westil."

"I know," said Danny. "Look, I'm sorry I said their names. I honestly forgot that I wasn't supposed to say them."

"I just told you not to!" said Stone.

"Like I told Lana, I'm thirteen! I forget things as soon as you tell me. The Aunts always complained about it, but I wasn't the only one, you know."

"Being young and stupid doesn't excuse anything. If you get them killed or even hurt, I'll kill you myself. Get it?"

"I didn't say their address," said Danny. "I didn't say their last name."

Stone reached out and s.n.a.t.c.hed the note out of Danny's hand. "I take it back. I'm not sending you there. I'm not sending you anywhere, except back out on the street. You're too selfish and stupid to be worth helping."

"I'm a gatemage," said Danny, "so I matter to you and your Orphans even if you think I'm stupid."

"Maybe I'd rather we wait another millennium to get a smart one."

"I'm sorry," said Danny. "I'm really, truly sorry. I won't be careless like that again. I'll take it seriously. I take a lot of things seriously, you know. There's a reason I wasn't killed a long time ago."

"It seems to me that the only reason you're not dead is that your Family was too lazy to kill you."

"You have an ugly mean streak in you, Stone," said Danny.

Stone refolded the note and handed it back toward him.