Flying Children - Part 2
by Orson Scott Card
(Excerpted from The Gate Thief)
. . . continued from issue 30 . . .
4
By the time Danny got to the farm in Yellow Springs, Marion had already suspended a rope over
the central beam of the cowbarn. "Ladder work?" asked Danny.
"I'm a cobblefriend," said Marion. "I can't fly, nor can my clants, such as they are."
"Then why didn't you wait for me to make a gate and carry the rope up there?" asked Danny.
"Hard for you to believe, I know, Danny, but before you ever came to this farm, I was able to
wipe my butt all by myself."
Danny grinned. "Are you suggesting that you want me to install a rectal gate? Outbound only, I
promise."
Marion made as if to smack Danny, though he never had and never would. But then he stopped.
"Could you?" he asked. "Not rectal, but a gate that's attached to a person instead of to a place?"
"When Hermia gets here," said Danny.
"Hermia. Veevee. They'll only know what's in books."
"And I only know what I've tried," said Danny. "All those years I tried to figure out how to lock
gates and how to take them back inside myself, and I couldn't figure any of it out until I saw it
done."
"Somebody had to be the first gatemage," said Marion. "And from what Hermia says -- if you
can trust a Greek --"
"It's only a problem if they're bearing gifts," said Danny. "And she's Pelasgian."
