“Rashid,” I replied. “Uh . . . we’re . . . they’re . . .”

The Gatekeeper’s smile turned a bit rueful. “Ah, yes,” he said. “They’re impressive the first time, I suppose. Welcome, Warden Dresden, to the Outer Gates.”

Chapter

Thirty-four

“The Outer Gates aren’t real,” I said numbly. “They’re a . . . They’re supposed to be a metaphor.”

Mother Summer smiled very faintly. “I’ll leave mortal business to mortals,” she said. “I’ll be nearby, young wizard.”

“Um,” I said. “Thank you.”

She nodded and walked away toward the wounded Sidhe.

“Well,” the Gatekeeper said to me. He seemed . . . if not precisely cheerful, it was something that lived on the same block—positive, confident, and strong. “You’ve managed to travel a very long way from home.”

“Mother Summer drove,” I said.

“Ah,” he said. “Still, I can’t recall the last time a wizard of your age managed the trip, however it was done. You take after your mother.”

I blinked. “You knew her?”

“Those of us who spend any amount of time walking the Ways tend to develop a certain amount of camaraderie. We would have dinner every so often, compare notes of our walks. And there were several of us who were friends of Ebenezar who . . . took it upon ourselves to watch over her.”

I nodded, keeping my face as blank as I could. It was not general knowledge that Maggie LeFey had been Ebenezar’s daughter. If Rashid knew, it was because my grandfather trusted him.

The fresh armored column of Sidhe began to move out, and as they did, horns began to call in the land beyond. Rashid turned his head toward them, listening as if to a spoken language, and the smile faded from his mouth.

“They’re massing again,” he said. “I have little time.” He reached up and did something I’d seen him do only once before.

The Gatekeeper lowered his hood.

He had short hair that was still thick and gleamed silver, but his features were weathered, as if from long years under harsh sunlight. His skin was paler now, but there was still something of the desert on his skin. His face was long, his brows still dark and full. He had a double scar on his left eyebrow and cheek, two long lines that went straight down, a lot like mine, only deeper and thicker and all the way to his jawline, and they were much softer with long years of healing. Maybe he hadn’t been as good at flinching as I was, because he’d lost the eye beneath the scar. One of his eyes was nearly black, it was so dark. The other had been replaced with . . .

I looked around me. Yes, definitely. The other eye had been replaced with the crystalline material that was identical to that which had been used to create the gates and the walls around them.

“Steel,” I said.

“Pardon?” he asked.

“Your, uh, other eye. It was steel before.”

“I’m sure it looked like steel,” he said. “The disguise is necessary when I’m not here.”

“Your job is so secret, your false eye gets a disguise?” I asked. “Guess I see why you miss Council meetings.”

He inclined his head and ruffled his fingers through mussed, tousled hood-hair. “It can be quiet for years here, sometimes. And others . . .” He spread his hands. “But they need a good eye here to be sure that the things that must remain outside do not slip in unnoticed.”

“Inside the wounded,” I guessed. “Or returning troops. Or medics.”

“You’ve become aware of the adversary,” he said, his tone one of firm approval. “Excellent. I was certain your particular pursuits would get you killed long before you got a chance to learn.”

“How can I help?” I asked him.

He leaned his head back and then a slow smile reasserted itself on his face. “I know something of the responsibilities you’ve chosen to take up,” he said, “to say nothing of the problems you’ve created for yourself that you haven’t found out about yet. And still, in the face of learning that our world spins out its days under siege, you offer to help me? I think you and I could be friends.”

“Wait,” I said. “What problems? I haven’t been trying to create problems.”

“Oh,” he said, waving a hand. “You’ve danced about in the shadows at the edge of life now, young man. That’s no small thing, to go into those shadows and come back again—you’ve no idea the kind of attention you’ve attracted.”

“Oh,” I said. “Good. Because the pace was starting to slow down so much that I was getting bored.”

At that, Rashid tilted his head back and laughed. “Would you be offended if I called you Harry?”

“No. Because it’s my name.”

“Exactly,” he said. “Harry, I know you have questions. I can field a very few before I go.”

I nodded, thinking. “Okay,” I said. “First, how do you know if the adversary has . . . infested someone?”

“Experience,” he said. “Decades of it. The Sight can help, but . . .” Rashid hesitated. I recognized it instantly, the hiccup in one’s thoughts when one stumbled over a truly hideous memory gained with the Sight, like I’d had with—

Ugh.

—the naagloshii.

“I don’t recommend making a regular practice of it,” he continued. “It’s an art, not a skill, and it takes time. Time, or a bit of questionable attention from the Fates and a ridiculously enormous tool.” He tapped a finger against his false eye.

I blinked, even though he didn’t, and looked up at the massive gates stretching overhead. “Hell’s bells. The gates . . . they’re . . . some kind of spiritual CAT scanner?”

“Among many other things,” he said. “But it’s one of their functions, yes. Mostly it means that the adversary cannot use such tactics effectively here. As long as the Gatekeeper is vigilant, it rarely tries.” The horns sounded again, and the muscles in his jaw tensed. “Next question.”

I hate trying to be smart under time pressure. “This,” I said, pointing up at the gates. “What the hell? How long has this attack been going on?”

“Always,” he said. “There are always Outsiders trying to tear their way in. There are always forces in place to stop them. In our age, it is the task of Winter to defend these boundaries, with the help of certain others to support them. Think of them as . . . an immune system for the mortal world.”

I felt my eyes get wide. “An immune system . . . What happens if it . . . you know, if it breaks down for a bit?”

“Pardon?” the Gatekeeper asked.

“Uh, it gets a glitch. Like, if somebody new took over or something and things had to reorganize around here . . .”

“Most years, it would pose no major difficulty,” he said.

“What about this year?”

“This year,” he said, “it could be problematic.”

“Problematic.”

“Rather severely so.” Rashid studied my face and then started to nod. “I see. There are things happening back in Winter. That’s why Mother Summer brought you here. To show you what was at stake.”