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get a message through to the real Danny, who was surely listening very closely. “I love you. That’s not going to change. But like you said, we’re not married, and so we’re not going there. I didn’t like it at the time, but I agree with you now. And you should remember what I said about personal space and being touched without me inviting it.”
    â€œOf course,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
    But he didn’t sound all that sorry. It was just words. The real Danny would really have been sorry. In fact, the real Danny would never have tried to cop a feel right out of the blue like that.
    â€œUntil we’re in a position to make something real out of this,” said Pat, “out of whatever it is we feel for each other, then physically we’re just friends. That’s what you wanted, right?”
    â€œIt’s what I wanted then ,” said Danny’s mouth.
    â€œOh, and just walking up behind me in the woods, suddenly you were overwhelmed with passion?” She laughed.
    After a moment—too long a moment—he laughed, too.
    The Belmage might have had a lot of practice, but he still wasn’t good at this—pretending to be the original person so other people didn’t notice the change.
    â€œIf you knew we were up here,” said Pat, “why didn’t you come along?”
    â€œBecause you didn’t stay here,” said Danny.
    Pat wanted to laugh at how dumb the Belmage was. Danny North wouldn’t need them to stay long enough for him to walk up the hill to join them. He would just gate to them—or gate to wherever they went from here.
    â€œWell,” she said, “it’s a good thing you didn’t, because that would have spoiled everything.”
    â€œSpoiled what?”
    â€œIt’s hard thinking of a Christmas gift for somebody who can go anywhere and get anything he wants,” said Pat. “And no, we’re not planning some big stupid group gift, we just wanted to share ideas and make sure we didn’t all get you the same thing.”
    â€œThe same thing lots of times over can be very nice,” said Danny. His face didn’t really go well with the leer it was wearing as he said that.
    â€œBut not very individual,” said Pat.
    â€œSo do it as a group,” he said. “Or make me a video.” There was that grin again.
    â€œIn your dreams,” said Pat. She got up and started walking down the hill. Despite their effort to come and go without making a path that other people could follow, the ground sort of forced them into a couple of routes, and paths were forming. Some random hiker might find this place and already be here when one of them showed up by gate. But if they used the amulets all the time in order not to make a path, somebody was going to see one of them disappear.
    He didn’t call after her. He didn’t follow her.
    Danny would have. But the Belmage, caring nothing for the relationship, and apparently believing that “no” meant “no,” didn’t bother.

 
    2
    It was hard for Wad to find a time to visit Bexoi’s inert body, for he did not want to let anyone else see him, and King Prayard made sure that she was almost never left unattended. Nor could he constantly watch through a viewport; he had other things to do. But now and then he thought of her, the Queen whose life he had saved, who had taken him as a lover, who had borne him a child, who then murdered that child and then burned to death his friend Anonoei.
    Bexoi, the woman whom he hated above all other human beings, yet whose life he was going to protect until she bore King Prayard’s baby.
    One night he saw that both the doctor and the young servant girl who attended her had fallen asleep, and King Prayard was gone. So he made a gate and came in person to sit on the floor beside the bed where she lay in a coma, responding to no word, never opening her eyes, but able to