The Lost Gate Part 31

"It's the name of the school," said Marion. "But it's nowhere near Yellow Springs or I would have heard of it."

"It's in Buena Vista, Virginia," said Danny. "And yes, it's within twenty miles or so of the North Family compound. But the family never goes there-if they even come close, they go to Lexington. They have no business ever in Buena Vista."

"It's a needless risk," said Marion.

"If they're still looking for me-" Danny began.

"They are," said Marion.

"You've heard something?" asked Leslie sharply, suddenly worried.

"No, of course not, I'd have told you both," said Marion. "What would we we hear? Who would we hear it from? But they're looking for you, Danny, count on it." hear? Who would we hear it from? But they're looking for you, Danny, count on it."

"But they won't be looking in a town so close to home," said Danny. "Not after nearly three years. One town is as safe or dangerous as any other. We don't know where their spies are. But Thor, the one in charge of the spies, said that he doesn't want me dead."

"Which might just mean that he doesn't want you wary," said Marion. "But you're right. After all this time, they can't be expecting you to locate near them-nor to do something as bizarre as go to high school."

"What's so special about this Perry McDonald High School?" asked Leslie.

"Parry McCluer," said Danny, "and there's nothing special about the place except that when I was a kid and I first started gating out of the Family compound-though I didn't know I was gating then-I used to go up to the woods above the high school and watch them. Like I watch the kids here, only I wasn't just glancing as I ran by, I could sit there for a long time and kind of study them. They were all older than me then, I was just a kid, but I kept thinking, If only I could be one of them. Getting on their buses or into their cars. Girls getting into guys' cars, whole groups of them piling into one car and driving off yelling out the windows. Stuff like that."

"Girls getting into boys' cars, cars," Marion pointed out helpfully.

"What were they yelling?" asked Leslie suspiciously. "I don't like teenagers who yell out of car windows."

"That's not the point," said Marion. "He wants to be be one of the teenagers yelling out of car windows. He wants to find out why they yell what they yell." one of the teenagers yelling out of car windows. He wants to find out why they yell what they yell."

Danny nodded.

"How could you possibly go to high school there?" asked Leslie. "I hope you know we're not moving. And the school authorities will have drastic drastic questions about a boy who shows up with no parents, no birth certificate, no school records, no records of immunization-" questions about a boy who shows up with no parents, no birth certificate, no school records, no records of immunization-"

"I've kind of already planned that out," said Danny. "I haven't talked to anybody about it yet, because, well, I wanted to talk to you first. And this wasn't the day because I hadn't worked up the courage yet, only you brought up cars and dating and, you know."

"What's your plan?" asked Marion.

"Veevee has a lot of money, apparently," said Danny.

"We have a lot of money, too," said Leslie. "Just because we keep farming doesn't mean-"

"Veevee has enough money that she could rent a small house in Buena Vista. Within walking distance of the high school. It's way up a steep road and it isn't the city's best neighborhood, but it's the right place for me to live. Veevee will pretend to be my aunt, and when I need her to she'll dress in an appropriate costume and meet with any parents who visit. But I'll make gates between her condo in Florida and the rental house so she can really keep living at home."

Leslie held her tongue-but so painfully that it was obvious she had quite a bit to say about Veevee's involvement in the plan.

"I haven't asked Veevee any of this, but you know she loves to playact and there's no chance she'd turn me down. I'll also make gates between there and here, so I can come home on weekends and holidays and stuff." Danny could see that calling their house 'home' smoothed some of Leslie's ruffled feathers. "I'll even make a public gate between here and there, if you want to be able to drop in and check up on me."

"No public gates here," said Marion. "Not until you learn how to lock them."

"Yes," said Danny, "it would have been better if Veevee had been a Lockfriend instead of a Keyfriend. But then I probably would never have found her, or vice versa, and I'm learning a lot from her-mostly from all the research she's done over the years, but also because she can see what I'm doing and give me feedback and ideas. That's just a fact of life-something that n.o.body in the world right now except for her could have done. So she has to be part of my life. But Mom, Dad, you are the people I love like parents. This is the place where I was happy for the first time in my life. I'm not trying to get away from you. I'm just trying to learn how to live in the drowther world. I'm trying to find out how to be a normal human being. And I can't learn that here."

Danny had seen that Marion picked up on his calling him "dad" and that it meant perhaps more to him than "mom" had meant to Leslie. But Danny wasn't saying those things as a trick, even though he knew that, as a trick, they would absolutely work. He said them because they were true.

"Mama" and "Baba" had been t.i.tles of awe and fear more than love. Occasionally as a child he had referred to them that way as a claim to special status for himself, when he was young enough that his drekka status had not yet become clear. But "mom" and "dad" were words that had remained as empty placeholders in his mind and heart until he came to Yellow Springs and the Silvermans.

Danny had often wondered if Stone's choice of Leslie and Marion as his guardians and trainers didn't have more to do with the fact that they were such great parents than with any particular skill they would have at training him-though they had schooled him as much as possible in the disciplines of magery. What he learned from them was a lot more about being a decent human being and taking responsibility for his actions and treating people who were weaker than himself with decent respect. And not playing tricks on people just because he thought of them.

"What about a birth certificate?" asked Marion.

"I was thinking I'd go back to DC and ask Stone. He'll know how to get one made. Maybe find somebody who was born on the same day as me, but died young. Or maybe just buy a flat-out forgery. Or maybe I gate into some county's records office and fill out the forms myself and insert them into the records. We'll make it work."

"So you're back to criminal activities," said Leslie.

"Come on," said Danny. "I have to have a birth certificate. An ident.i.ty. There's no safe and and legal way for me to get one." legal way for me to get one."

"She knows that," said Marion. "And we both know that to get on in the drowther world you're going to have to have all that identification sooner or later. It sounds to me like you've thought this all through. Like you're exactly the careful, responsible, intelligent young man we thought was ready for a car. Only instead you're ready for something much bigger."

"He'll still need a car, even in Buena Vista," said Leslie.

"No, I won't," said Danny. "I'm going to show up there poor, not prosperous. No car. Walking to school. Of course I'll gate to the grocery store since the nearest decent one is miles miles away. But I don't want to come in there in a showy way, with money and a car and nice clothes. I want to be un.o.btrusive. Somebody that most people will pretty much ignore. It's fine if they think I'm weird-just not away. But I don't want to come in there in a showy way, with money and a car and nice clothes. I want to be un.o.btrusive. Somebody that most people will pretty much ignore. It's fine if they think I'm weird-just not legendary legendary weird. I think I'll make a better grade of friends and maybe get to know a better kind of girl than the ones who are impressed with guys for their cars and clothes and money." weird. I think I'll make a better grade of friends and maybe get to know a better kind of girl than the ones who are impressed with guys for their cars and clothes and money."

"You do remember that those young adult novels are fiction, fiction," said Leslie.

"But if they didn't get the details of the kids' lives right, the kids wouldn't read them," said Danny. "I was reading them as an anthropologist." was reading them as an anthropologist."

"You were reading them as a romantic young teenage boy," said Leslie. "And you bought into the endings where the poor-but-decent lonely boy ends up with the nicest, smartest girl."

"That too," said Danny with a grin.

"It's a true story," said Marion. "Don't you think, Leslie?"

Again the look between them, but this time it was saying an entirely different set of things that were really none of Danny's business.

IT WAS GOOD to see Stone again. The house hadn't changed, though Ced and Lana were long since divorced and gone-Ced to study windmagery with an old Galebreath in Oregon, and Lana to a business school where, as Stone said, she had a fair shot at learning how to be something that didn't involve prost.i.tution. "Though she'll probably become a secretary, seduce the boss, break up his family, and then make his life a living h.e.l.l till he divorces her," said Stone. "But if he can't keep his fly zipped, he's the natural prey of angry damaged women who are careless about underwear." to see Stone again. The house hadn't changed, though Ced and Lana were long since divorced and gone-Ced to study windmagery with an old Galebreath in Oregon, and Lana to a business school where, as Stone said, she had a fair shot at learning how to be something that didn't involve prost.i.tution. "Though she'll probably become a secretary, seduce the boss, break up his family, and then make his life a living h.e.l.l till he divorces her," said Stone. "But if he can't keep his fly zipped, he's the natural prey of angry damaged women who are careless about underwear."

And then, seeing Danny's rueful look, Stone said, "She was just practicing on you. Thirteen-year-olds are too easy to be sporting."

"I still dream about her," said Danny ruefully.

"And you probably always will," said Stone with a sigh.

Danny explained what he wanted.

"And you actually expect Victoria to be able to bring this off?" asked Stone.

"Why?" asked Danny. "You know her?"

Stone rolled his eyes. "You've been working with her for-how long?-and she's never mentioned me?"

"No. Not really. I don't think so."

"I'm her husband, Danny," said Stone. "My name is Von Roth. Peter Von Roth. She was Victoria Bland until she married me."

"Bland?" asked Danny. asked Danny.

"Really. Her parents' name. I think she's spent her whole life denying that name. Maybe she only married me because my last name was so Germanic and strong. Von Roth! Von Roth!" He gave it a strongly German p.r.o.nunciation. "Sounds like the anger of the G.o.ds, yes?"

"But... she talks about her alimony."

"She doesn't get alimony," said Stone-or Peter, apparently. "We're still married. But her father is still one of the top mucky-mucks in the Department of Agriculture-he's really a first-rate Sapkin-and her mother inherited her her father's land in northern Virginia, and sold off some nice chunks of it as they were building up Tysons Corner into a shopping mecca, so her family is awash in dough. Her 'alimony' is checks from mommy and daddy." father's land in northern Virginia, and sold off some nice chunks of it as they were building up Tysons Corner into a shopping mecca, so her family is awash in dough. Her 'alimony' is checks from mommy and daddy."

Danny had to laugh. "She really is is a trickster. I never had a clue." a trickster. I never had a clue."

"Well, I can tell you, our lives would have been very different if there had been any way to know that she was a gatemage instead of a drekka. She always said said she was, but how could anyone believe her? She was so showy and dramatic, we all believed it was part of a pose." she was, but how could anyone believe her? She was so showy and dramatic, we all believed it was part of a pose."

"But you married her."

"I always talked with her as if she were a gatemage. I joined her fantasy, as I supposed. And come on, Danny, until you came along it was was a fantasy. She had no more idea she was a gatemage than anyone else. We'd been married no more than a year when she realized that I didn't really believe that she was a gatemage. That I was sort of humoring her. I didn't mean to let on-I had always talked as if it were true, and I made no slip-but you know how gatemages are. You can read meanings in human speech or facial expressions that no else can see. Part of the language gift, maybe. Sometimes it makes me wonder if gatemagery isn't right next door to manmagery. Anyway, she realized that I was only playing along, and it really hurt her, and she began spending less and less time at home, until I realized she was... gone. I'm telling you more than I should. But if you're going to pin your whole plan on her being reliable..." a fantasy. She had no more idea she was a gatemage than anyone else. We'd been married no more than a year when she realized that I didn't really believe that she was a gatemage. That I was sort of humoring her. I didn't mean to let on-I had always talked as if it were true, and I made no slip-but you know how gatemages are. You can read meanings in human speech or facial expressions that no else can see. Part of the language gift, maybe. Sometimes it makes me wonder if gatemagery isn't right next door to manmagery. Anyway, she realized that I was only playing along, and it really hurt her, and she began spending less and less time at home, until I realized she was... gone. I'm telling you more than I should. But if you're going to pin your whole plan on her being reliable..."

Danny nodded. "I appreciate your concern. But remember, we gatemages are tricksters and con men, too. She'll bring off the only thing I really need her for-getting me enrolled in high school, setting me up in a cheap rented house with an allowance for necessities, and then popping in when I need to show off my flamboyant aunt."

Stone smiled. "Oh, you gatemages aren't the only tricksters."

"Really?" asked Danny.

"Here you were, a genuine gatemage. And there I was, the man who still loves that infuriating woman. I thought, Maybe she really is a gatemage. I could never have gotten her to come here here to see the gates you made-she now pretends to be allergic to the pollen of the plants I grow-but one day when she was visiting with her parents in Fairfax, I talked to her on the phone and reminisced a little about the restaurant Dona Flor, which used to be our favorite place to eat-they had risolli with a habanero sauce that could take the top of your head off-and she was as predictable as the tides. She drove off out Wisconsin where I knew you had some gates and..." to see the gates you made-she now pretends to be allergic to the pollen of the plants I grow-but one day when she was visiting with her parents in Fairfax, I talked to her on the phone and reminisced a little about the restaurant Dona Flor, which used to be our favorite place to eat-they had risolli with a habanero sauce that could take the top of your head off-and she was as predictable as the tides. She drove off out Wisconsin where I knew you had some gates and..."

"And she was a gatemage after all."

"The real thing. It's not as if I ever said she wasn't!" said Stone, as defensively as if Veevee were in the room. "And she'd have killed me if she'd known I planned it. 'Trying to trap me into revealing that I couldn't see a gate that you knew knew was there, is that it?'" was there, is that it?'"

His imitation of Veevee was dead on, and Danny laughed.

"But I wasn't testing her, I was giving her an opportunity. I wanted it to be true-I always did. I knew it was an affinity that couldn't be tested as long as there were no gates in the world, unless she was a Pathsister or Gatemother herself, which was hardly likely. You You are hardly likely, Danny. But I never said she are hardly likely, Danny. But I never said she couldn't couldn't be a gatemage." be a gatemage."

"You were agnostic."

"Agnostic but hopeful," said Stone. "Or maybe... wistful."

"And your wist came true," said Danny with a grin.

"Though I'll bet Leslie wasn't thrilled when Veevee showed up."

"I get the feeling that... well, to put it unkindly," said Danny, "you were second choice."

"She hadn't met me when she had her fling with Marion," said Stone. "And Marion flat out refused to accept her claim of gatemagery. He's a stonemage, for heaven's sake, and and a geologist. He's not going to willingly live inside someone else's dream. And how could Veevee ever love or live with a man who didn't at least try to believe? If only she didn't have such a keen eye for pretense herself," said Stone. "I'd still be happy to have her with me. But the final break was when she tested me. 'Come to Florida,' she said. 'If you love me, get out of this miserable town and come to Naples.' a geologist. He's not going to willingly live inside someone else's dream. And how could Veevee ever love or live with a man who didn't at least try to believe? If only she didn't have such a keen eye for pretense herself," said Stone. "I'd still be happy to have her with me. But the final break was when she tested me. 'Come to Florida,' she said. 'If you love me, get out of this miserable town and come to Naples.'

"But I couldn't leave my work here." Stone sighed. "America and a lot of the rest of the world come to DC. This is the place where my pollen can gather in the Orphan mages. The Families know about me, of course, but they don't care-to them Orphans are no better or more interesting than drowthers. I've found nearly a hundred mages since I've lived here. How many would I have found in Naples, Florida? At best, a handful of old coots who are way too old to train."

"You still love her."

"Everybody still loves her," said Stone. "Even the people who hate her-that's why she makes them so angry. I bet Marion still thinks of her."

"The way I think of Lana?"

"Well, no," said Stone. "Veevee's not that kind of woman, if you know what I mean. More like... Marion still wishes he could could have lived inside her dream. And now that it turns out it wasn't just a dream, she really have lived inside her dream. And now that it turns out it wasn't just a dream, she really is is a gatemage, you can imagine how that must make him wonder and regret-even though he loves Leslie like crazy. Might-have-beens are a b.i.t.c.h." a gatemage, you can imagine how that must make him wonder and regret-even though he loves Leslie like crazy. Might-have-beens are a b.i.t.c.h."

To Danny it was as if Stone had just unlocked everybody's diary and he felt like a sneak for knowing so much about Marion's and Leslie's and Veevee's past. And yet it was a relief to know.

"I'm glad you told me all this," said Danny.

"I always kind of thought you knew. That somebody would have explained. But now that I'm saying this, it's such a ridiculous idea. Which of them would ever see the need to explain any of this to you? Not one of them is proud of their behavior. Well, Veevee is, but she's not an explainer."

"She and I are doing our best to explain gatemagery."

"Oh, come on," said Stone. "She and you are trying to invent invent gatemagery. The best her research and yours can do is give you clues and hints and point you in interesting directions." gatemagery. The best her research and yours can do is give you clues and hints and point you in interesting directions."

"We've made some progress," said Danny.

"Know how to make a Great Gate yet?" asked Stone.

"Not a clue," said Danny.

"Keep it that way," said Stone. "I don't want the Gate Thief to strip you and make a drekka out of you."

"At least then I'd be safe from the Families," said Danny.

"Don't count on it," said Stone. "They'd a.s.sume it was a gatemage's trickery and kill you anyway, just to be sure."

"Yeah," said Danny ruefully. "They would."

"I'm not going to put you in touch with counterfeiters and crooks who sell fake i.d.s," said Stone. "In the end, those things can always be tracked down and then where would you be? But I've helped other fugitives from Families get more-or-less legitimate ident.i.ties, and a gatemage like you should be able to get one that's a lot realer than usual, without having to bribe half as many people."

After Stone explained the system and identified a likely county that hadn't fully computerized their old records, it took only an hour for Danny to learn the ins and outs of record keeping in West Jefferson, North Carolina, which Stone had chosen as his new birthplace. Inserting his birth into the records wasn't hard, so that when he and Veevee showed up asking for a duplicate, while Veevee shed a tear for her dear dead sister and brother-in-law, Danny's fict.i.tious parents, they got a copy of the birth certificate with no trouble.

Stone looked at the birth certificate and made a face. "Why didn't you use 'Silverman' as your last name?"

"In Ashe County, North Carolina? That's not going to be a believable name."

"But 'Danny Stone'? I'm flattered, but-"

"It's the one I thought of while I was in the records room," said Danny. "Since it's not really your name, I didn't think you'd mind. And since I didn't use 'Von Roth,' I figured Marion and Leslie would be fine with any other name I chose that would would be believable in Ashe County." be believable in Ashe County."

The Social Security number was a little trickier. There was a lot more information coded into the number than most people suspected. But Stone had a Westilian friend in the system who could pluck out whatever unused numbers met the paradigms-Social Security numbers of children who had died without ever having anything added to their records in the system. Attaching Danny's pertinent information to one of the numbers took very little time.

Then there was the matter of recording false childhood immunization records, but that was another job that a gatemage could do after hours in the office of a pediatrician who had been in the trade in the same town for a long time.

As for Danny's actual immunizations, Stone insisted that he owed it to the other children to actually get the shots and vaccinations.