The Gate Thief (Mither Mages) (12 page)

“Well
now
I am and thanks so much,” said Hal.

“I don’t have anything that isn’t hard and shiny,” said Sin.

“Your lip gloss,” said Pat.

Sin pulled a tiny canister out of her pocket. “It’s hard and shiny,” she said.

“The stuff inside is black and squishy,” said Pat.

“I can put the gate down inside,” said Danny.

“If you hide a gate in here I can’t use it and my lips will get pink,” said Sin.

Laurette pulled a stub of black licorice out of her purse. “Here, it’s black. And it’s squishy.”

Sin took the licorice and studied it. “What century was this made in?”

“It’s old, it’s black, and it’s gross,” said Laurette. “Nobody will be surprised that you have it in your pocket. Or does your mother wash your jeans?”

Sin gave a disdainful toss of her head. “Washing is so bourgeois.”

Ten minutes later, they all had something flexible with a tiny gatemouth inside it. Three tampons, a licorice stub, a condom package, and a lion-shaped eraser that Hal had in his pocket.

“Why a lion?” asked Sin.

Hal shrugged. “Got it as a prize at the dentist one time.”

“And you carry it with you,” said Sin.

“Lost a tooth, got a lion,” said Hal.

“It’s Aslan,” said Wheeler.

Hal looked really angry.

“Stop it,” said Danny. “Have some loyalty, Wheeler.”

“He told about my condom,” said Wheeler.

“So if one of us pisses off another one of us, then suddenly we’re all about getting even?” asked Pat. “Oh, that’ll work.”

“We don’t tell each other’s secrets,” said Laurette. “And we don’t make fun of each other.”

“Does that mean I can’t mention your cleavage,
ever
?” asked Danny.

“We don’t make fun of things that matter,” said Laurette. “Making fun of my cleavage is just another way of telling me that it’s working.”

“I think that’s a good rule,” said Danny.

“We all make fun of how Laurette shows her boobs?” asked Xena.

“We don’t make each other feel bad,” said Danny. “We don’t tell each other’s secrets to outsiders.”

The others agreed.

“All of your gates,” said Danny, “they’ll take you here. But there’s a chance one of the Families will find out about this place, so when you get here, if it’s an emergency, just reach out to this tree.” Danny showed them the one. “And here under this branch, there’ll be another gate. Can you all reach it?”

They all proved that they could, even Xena, whose arms weren’t all that long.

“Where will that gate take us?” asked Pat.

“Someplace far away. Someplace where I’ll put a stash of money and a weapon. You’ll never have to use it, but it’ll be there, in case somebody’s following you through the gate.”

“So you don’t have any idea yet where it’ll go,” said Pat.

“I’m thinking Disney World,” said Danny.

“A weapon in the Magic Kingdom?” asked Sin. “That’s just wrong.”

“I’ll find someplace safe, where I can stash a weapon and nobody will find it,” said Danny. “For now, though, I’ll make it lead to a place in DC. And then I’ll make another gate there and show you all where it is, so you can get back to Buena Vista but in a different place.”

“So we can try it out? It’ll just be sitting there and if we want to go to DC we can use it?” asked Wheeler.

Everybody looked at him. “Once,” said Danny. “You can try it once, to show that you know how to use it. But if you do it any other time, somebody might see you and then they’d know. It only works as an emergency escape if nobody knows, and that means you never use it. If you want to go to DC I’ll send you there.”

Wheeler laughed nervously. “This is really, like, serious and all.”

“I thought you already understood that,” said Danny. “If you stay friends with me, if you help me, you’re going to be in real danger. And you’ll need a real escape route. But if you want to beg off, then do it now. Let’s not go any farther. I can leave this school any time. Without me here, you’re safe. You haven’t been seen
doing
anything yet.”

“No,” said Xena.

“We’ll be good,” said Hal.

Only Wheeler said nothing.

They all waited.

“I feel like I’ve already totally screwed up and you won’t ever trust me no matter what I say,” said Wheeler miserably.

“I’ll trust you until you do something that shows me I shouldn’t,” said Danny.

“But I’m an idiot,” said Wheeler.

“I told you he knew it,” said Sin to Pat.

“I mean, I forget stuff. I blab stuff without thinking.”

“Well, don’t,” said Danny. “That’s all.”

Wheeler nodded miserably. Then he suddenly disappeared and there he was over by the tree. He put his finger up where the next gate was going to be.

“Wheeler,” said Danny. “You can’t get away from
me
that way. Every gate I make is a part of me. I know where they go, and I know when people go through them. I also haven’t put a gate in that tree yet.”

“I just wanted to see if you had taken away my gate,” said Wheeler.

“If I ever do,” said Danny, “I’ll tell you. Or I’ll take away the condom.” At the thought, he made a small gate that swallowed the condom even though it was in Wheeler’s hand. He made it plop onto the ground in the middle of the group.

“Wow,” said Wheeler. “You can take it right out of my hand?”

“No, I did that,” said Xena.

“Really?” asked Wheeler.

“He really is an idiot,” said Pat.

“Wheeler, I trust you,” said Danny. “Now trust me, too.” But in his heart, Danny knew that he would never really trust Wheeler. Would never send him out to deliver a message or run an errand more serious than buying sodas or picking up pizzas. Because his first instinct had been to use his gate carelessly. To test Danny. He doesn’t know how to keep a promise.

They’re all young. Maybe none of them do.

But he was in high school. These were the friends he had.

And it was cool that he could attach a gate to an object. I’ve made enchanted amulets, even if they are just tampons, licorice, a condom and a little-kid’s eraser. No magic writing on them, nothing but a tiny gate embedded in them. It made him feel clever and powerful.

And there was Xena’s hand on his arm again. He liked it there. He didn’t pull his arm away.

Then he remembered that he didn’t actually feel any attraction to Xena.

That was before she was attracted to
him
. Now she was very attractive.

I’m such a teenager myself, thought Danny. He remembered Lana, Ced’s wife back in DC. How she made him feel. Xena was much nicer than Lana, and a lot less crazy. What if Danny had a girlfriend for a while? Not somebody who would seduce him and mock him for succumbing. Not a
succubus
. An actual girlfriend.

Then he remembered the stories of Zeus raping women all over the Aegean. And Hermes—how many women did the old myths have Hermes seducing? There was no lock on a bedroom door that could keep him out.

Xena’s basically saying I can have her if I want. I could go into her bedroom tonight and sleep with her and her parents would never see me come in or go out. And she’d let me. She’d think it was cool.

Until we’d done it. Then she’d think we were together. And we would be. What if she got pregnant? What if she thought it made her cooler than the other girls and it caused a rift in the group?

Keep your pants zipped and your brain out of Xena’s bedroom, Danny told himself.

She leaned her head on his shoulder.

Danny turned his body to face Xena. She put a hand on his chest. He took the hand and held it between his. “We’re friends, Xena. And fellow soldiers in a war. Let’s see what happens when the war is over.”

Xena tossed her hand and stepped to Pat. “I told you he was gay.” Then she laughed as if it had been a joke. Which it was. Mostly. Maybe.

I have no business trying to lead a group of any kind. I should take back all these gates and leave right now and never come back. Everybody will be better off it I do that.

Everybody but me.

He’d been lonely his whole life. This was the first time he had friends. And he couldn’t give them up. He didn’t want to give them up, and he could do whatever he wanted, and so he was going to stay here with them. Because they thought he was cool. They liked that he was powerful. They weren’t trying to kill him. And they liked him before they knew he could do this thing with gates.

And he was going to be thinking about Xena in spite of the fact that he wasn’t attracted to her. Or to any of the girls. He was sixteen now, so any offer was going to make him obsess for a while. Knowing that it was just his hormones making him feel this way didn’t make the feelings go away. Might as well enjoy the feeling. As long as he didn’t
do
anything about it.

That night Danny went to DC and Stone agreed to let him put the tail of the emergency gate in his attic. “But no gun,” said Stone.

“What if someone’s coming after them?” asked Danny.

“Be creative,” said Stone.

What Danny came up with was a stack of pennies with gates on both sides. As long as you handled them by the edge, you didn’t go anywhere. But if you touched heads or tails, you found yourself someplace interesting and public. Just inside the gate of the White House. The middle of the Capitol rotunda. Lincoln’s lap. On the nose of the giant in the Awakening statue. If one of his friends was getting chased through the gates, they come to Stone’s attic closet, grab a penny, and throw it at whoever comes through the gate after them.

“Weaponized money,” said Stone. “But if one of your friends comes through just for fun, I get to throw a penny at them.”

“They’re nice,” said Danny. “I don’t want them getting treated badly just because they’re drowthers.”

“You know me better than that,” said Stone. “I’ll treat them badly because they’re teenagers.”

When Veevee and Hermia heard about the portable gates, they both demanded some of their own. Veevee had a charm bracelet, which she loaded up with rings, each one a gate leading to a useful place—her condo, the Silvermans’ farm, Danny’s house, Danny’s school, Stone’s bedroom. “I’m his wife, I don’t have to use the attic,” she said.

“What if somebody steals the bracelet?” said Danny. “I suppose if Hermia locks them for you and you only open them when you—”

“While you were playing with your little friends,” said Hermia, “we were working.”

“We can’t make gates,” said Veevee, “but now I can lock them and Hermia can unlock them. We both have lock and key now.”

“We’re working on moving gates,” said Hermia. “I think I moved one. Just the tail.”

“But she can’t do it again,” said Veevee.

“So then it doesn’t have to be a ring,” said Danny. “I can attach a gate to anything, and it only works when you want it to.”

Hermia handed him a euro. “Put a dozen or so gates on this,” she said. “I’ll only open the ones I need, when I need them.”

Her list of destinations was longer than Veevee’s, but she had to stay a jump ahead of her Family. Danny attached two dozen gates to the coin. At first he tried to arrange them in some orderly way, but Hermia just laughed. “Danny, I can see them all, I can tell them apart, I know where they go, and I can keep them all locked except the one I want to use. Go ahead and pile them on in a jumble.”

He gave her Paris, New York, Dubai, Singapore, Katmandu, Accra, Brisbane, São Paulo, a dozen other cities—not to mention the Greek Family’s office building in Athens, the North Family compound in Virginia, and the Library of Congress. “It’s practically the whole atlas,” said Veevee admiringly.

“I’ll add as many gates as you want,” said Danny.

“No, I’m not jealous, and I know you’ll open a gate to anywhere I want. What I’m worried about, Danny, is that there’s no gate that takes me to
you
.”

Hermia nodded. “We have all these gate
mouths
with us. But we need a gate whose tail always leads to wherever you are.”

“I can’t have you popping out of my pocket,” said Danny.

“I know,” said Veevee. “Have us come out of an old-fashioned oil lamp. We can be your genies.”

“Amusing as that sounds,” said Danny, “I don’t want you popping up when I’m on the john.”

“What if you need our help?” asked Hermia.

“I’ll always know where these gates are. If I need to, I can move the tail of one of your portable gates to a place near me.”

“Unless you’re unconscious,” said Veevee.

“I’ll think about this,” said Danny.

“You can lock it,” said Hermia. “And then unlock it if you need us. We aren’t going to intrude on your privacy.”

“We unlock it ourselves only if we think something is really wrong,” said Veevee.

“We peek through ahead of time,” said Hermia.

Danny hated the whole idea. It was one thing to give them the power to go anywhere by using their amulets. But to give someone constant access to
him
—that wasn’t going to happen. Even if they promised not to use it.

“I don’t think he sees a difference between peeking through a gate and coming through it,” said Veevee. “He doesn’t want to be spied on.”

“You have to trust us,” said Hermia.

“I said I’d think about it,” said Danny.

“Meaning the answer is no,” said Veevee.

“It’s really unfair,” said Hermia. “
You
can make a gate anytime you want, no matter what we’re doing. We can’t hide from you, but you don’t think we can be trusted not to spy on you or intrude when you’re kissing some girl.”

“We won’t take pictures,” said Veevee. “Or at least we won’t post them online.”

“I
said
…” Danny began.

“He’s getting testy now,” said Veevee.

“I don’t spy on you,” said Danny, “and I know you won’t spy on me. But that’s how power is—just because you have a power doesn’t mean you want other people to use their power on
you
. Fairness only seems reasonable when the other person is more powerful than you.”

“As it seems to us,” said Hermia.

“I hate to sound like one of the Family,” said Danny, “but … you’re just going to have to live with it till I get used to the idea. Maybe someday I’ll wish I had made gates that follow me around like puppies, so you can always find me. But right now I don’t know how to do that, and I don’t think I even want to, and so … I won’t.”