Danny’s servants.
The shouting stopped, except the feeble struggles of the remaining prisoners that Loki had captured long ago. All of Loki’s own gates, the ones that were a part of Loki’s outself, fell silent. No, not silent at all. They turned attentive. Alert to Danny’s own will. As alert to him as Danny’s own gates were.
“I give them to you,” said Loki.
“What does that mean?” asked Danny.
“They’re yours to build with,” said Loki. “Yours to weave. If you use them, they won’t turn wild. They can’t.”
“You can’t give me something that’s a part of yourself.”
“Yes I can, and yes I did,” said Loki. “How else will you trust me?”
“But they’re still a part of you.”
“That’s true,” said Loki. “The ones that are still inside you will continue to show me what you think and remember, what you see and do. I can’t help that, it’s how the world works. But believe me, they’re yours now. I couldn’t take them back, unless you freely gave them back to me. Which I hope someday you will. But if you never do, they’re yours forever.”
“Or until I die,” said Danny.
“Or until the Belgod takes you, and it all belongs to him,” said Loki. “This is the only way that I can earn your trust. To show you how completely I trust you. The only reason I withhold the eight gates you left to me is because without them I can’t help Anonoei or Ced on Westil. I’m going there now, if you permit it. I’m taking her back there with me.”
Enopp had been listening, rapt, but now he looked worried and spoke up. “Taking her?”
“Yes,” said Anonoei. “And leaving you here in safety, if we can.”
“No!” shouted Enopp, jumping up, knocking his chair backward, though it didn’t fall. “You can’t leave me here!”
Then, to Danny’s surprise-to everyone’s surprise-Eluik’s hand shot out to rest firmly on Enopp’s shoulder and push him back and down into his chair. The older boy said nothing, but Enopp fell silent and looked at him. Then he burst into tears.
“He says I have to stay,” said Enopp. “And he does too.”
“He didn’t say a thing,” said Anonoei.
“It’s his outself,” said Loki. “I can see it now. Hiding inside Enopp. It’s where he went when I held them both in prison. He must have sent his outself to comfort his brother through their captivity. He’s been riding inside his brother all along.”
Leslie immediately stepped forward to put her hand on Eluik’s head. “I should have seen it, but it never occurred to me. Yes, he’s riding him like a heartbound.”
“So you can break the link?” asked Marion.
“I’ve never tried with a manmage,” said Leslie.
“He’s a manmage?” asked Anonoei.
“No,” said Loki. “Not necessarily. He’s too young to know what he is.”
“He’s too young to have sent his outself,” said Marion. “But he did.”
“He didn’t know what he was doing,” said Loki. “He couldn’t have. It isn’t magery, not with any kind of skill. And if you tear them apart, against his will-”
“How do we know what his will is?” demanded Anonoei. “He was taking care of his brother, but maybe he didn’t know how to get back.”
“Like an outself trapped in a bagged-up clant,” said Danny, remembering when he tied up some of the cousins.
“Exactly like that,” said Marion.
“This boy took such care of his brother,” said Leslie. “Completely forgetting himself. I never heard of such love.”
“You want us to take care of these boys,” said Marion.
Loki said nothing.
Danny understood now. “He wanted someone to take care of them. He and Anonoei have work to do, and they want the boys out of danger. But he didn’t know you existed.”
Loki looked at Anonoei. She buried her face in her hands. “I don’t want to leave them.”
“But you also don’t want them with you,” said Loki.
Danny looked from Marion to Leslie, the two of them now standing behind the boys. “You want them, don’t you?”
“They started doing magery far too young,” said Marion. “Who knows what that does to a child?”
“I did this to them,” said Loki. “I had no idea this could happen, but at the time I didn’t care. And now they’re still in prison.”
“Eluik’s fine,” said Enopp. “He says to leave him alone.”
“Nobody’s going to do anything to him,” said Marion.
“Not me, anyway,” said Leslie. “I think he has to learn how to bring home his own outself.” She looked to Loki. “He’s just lost, right?”
“No,” said Loki. “It’s not that simple. His outself and inself aren’t fully separable. He’s too young. He sent his outself before it was safe to send it. So it’s still bound to his inself. Both parts of him, the ka and the ba-he’s as much inside his brother as inside himself. It might kill him to separate him from his brother. His inself might also be lost.”
“He’s not lost,” said Enopp. “He’s right where he wants to be.”
“That’s because he’s young and stupid,” said Loki. “What he did was kind. No, it was noble. But his body can’t last like this. His ka has to come wholly back inside his body. As it is, he’s in very grave danger of losing his body. And then he would only live inside you, Enopp.”
“He can stay as long as he wants.”
“It doesn’t work that way. Right now the only reason he hasn’t taken you over is because he’s still partly connected to his own body. But if he ever lost that, then the two of you would fight for control of your body.”
“No we wouldn’t,” said Enopp.
“Right now, Enopp,” said Loki. “Who said that? Was it you, or was it Eluik talking through you?”
Enopp fell silent. Thinking.
“Exactly,” said Loki. “Eluik sent himself partly into you in order to protect you, to watch over you. But if he doesn’t get back inside his own body, then his body will die, sooner or later, one way or another. And when that happens, Eluik will become like the Belgod. A loose ka, attached to another person’s body.”
“You keep saying ‘ka’ and ‘ba,’” said Danny.
“If you trust me, I can teach you,” said Loki. “Meanwhile, these boys are bound together and they don’t want to change. For all we know, Enopp is silently begging his brother not to leave him. He might not even know he’s saying it.”
“I’m not,” said Enopp. “He can go if he wants, I’m not afraid anymore.”
“Eluik may not believe that,” said Loki. “Or he may not know how to leave you. Or he may be even more afraid than you ever were, Enopp. He might have been coming to you for comfort. I don’t know. You don’t know. He doesn’t know. But somehow he has to sort it out and get back entirely inside his own mind and outside of yours, or he will become something terrible.”
Enopp got a stubborn look on his face.
It was identical to the stubborn look on Eluik’s face. The only difference was that Enopp was looking at Loki, and Eluik wasn’t looking at anybody.
“Nobody’s going to force you to do anything,” said Loki. “Isn’t that right?” Loki looked at all the adults.
Anonoei showed grief and fear on her face. “I can’t leave them.”
“You aren’t with them,” said Loki. “Not as much as they’re with each other.” Loki spoke to Marion and Leslie. “Danny trusts you. He loves you. He has enough of me inside him that I can see how deep it goes. You’re good people, as far as he knows. Is he right? No absurd modesty here-you mean no harm to these children, right?”
“I would never let them come to harm,” said Leslie.
Marion nodded. But he looked worried.
Danny understood. “You can’t watch over the Wild Gate and these boys at the same time.”
“We can watch over anything here on our farm,” said Marion. “But I can foresee a circumstance when the things we have to do to keep other people away from the gate would be the opposite of what we would need to do to keep these boys safe.”
“You have to watch the gate,” said Loki.