Chloë by Marcus LaGrone Page B

south
for an hour and a half or two and then take the Gate back north.”
    “So
what is with these gatehouses?” Chloë was now completely lost.
    Heather
knitted her brow, “Um, seriously, you’ve never heard about the Highland
Gatehouses?  Maybe you are used to them being called the barbicans…”
    Chloë’s
blank look spoke volumes.
    “Oh!”
replied Heather, actually mildly embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I figured you would
have heard of them; they are one of the Highland’s unique features.”
    Chloë
shook her head and laughed, “Sorry, no.  It’s only by accident that I even
learned your language.  Back on Bervik III, the Highlands only ever came
up from a historical perspective.”
    “Bervik
III?” asked Heather suddenly.  “That is where you are from?”
    Chloë
nodded, “I didn’t really want it to get around, but you know so much about me
already.  So you’ve heard of it before?”
    Heather
had an evil grin but was busting her gut to maintain control; she didn’t make
it and broke out laughing, “Oh, I wonder if Dad knows that…”  She then
broke into a laughing fit so hard she started to cry and hyperventilate both.
    “Calm
down girl!  It’s not that big of a deal,” Chloë offered as she tried to
help stabilize Heather.
    “Oh…
I’m sorry about that,” gasped Heather.  “Where were we before I lost it?”
    “Gatehouses?”
replied Chloë suddenly slightly worried about Heather’s emotional stability.
    “Right,
Gatehouses,” replied Heather as she calmed her breathing.  “The Gatehouses
have portals that connect from one to another.  The science types refer to
them as stabilized wormholes.”
    “Wormholes? 
As in like what starships use?”  gasped Chloë as she started to understand
the utility and uniqueness of the situation.  “So we just go from one gate
house and instantly pop out of the other a hundred miles away?”
    “Pretty
much.  What is really awesome is watching them pull these barges and small
boats out of the water, put them on rollers and then run them through the
wormholes.  Those same craft are always flowing downstream between
those two towns.”
    “Well
that certainly beats having to drag them backwards upstream or just throwing
them away.”
    “Exactly. 
So, now does it all make good sense?” asked Heather with a broad grin.
    “Yep,
float south, take the wormhole-gate thingy north, and we’re there!”
    “Exactly!”
beamed Heather.
    “So
what was the whole thing about Bervik III?” asked Chloë carefully.
    Heather
broke into a fit of laughing, “Oh… my… um, just ask me on another day.”
    Chloë
shrugged with some resignation, “Okay, I’ll ask later.  Don’t think I’ll
forget!”
    “Gotcha! 
Come on, let’s fill up and head out!”
    “Girls?”
called Ivy from the hall.
    “Yes,
First Mother?” replied Heather as she poked her head into the hall. 
“What’s up?  Need us to hang around for a few more days?”
    Ivy
laughed, “No.  I think Maria’s plan is wonderful.  I just thought
you’d like to know that April and May will be joining you in the evening two
days from now.  They’ve been asked to play at a wedding reception.”
    Heather
grinned, “And I know what that means!”
    “What?”
asked Chloë.
    “Dancing!”
beamed Heather.
    Chloë
laughed, “You do like your dancing don’t you.”
    “Doesn’t
everyone?”

10        
     
     
     
    It
was a pleasant enough walk.  Heaven knows Chloë had walked further just a
few days earlier in the cold and biting rain, but walking the sylvan path with
Heather was a wonderful change from that earlier traveling.  Her pack full
of clothes and just a light snack was fairly heavy.  Well, not really that heavy, but it was the heaviest thing she had ever had to carry such a
distance.  Always before, someone else, a servant, would have carried such
a heavy thing for her.  But Chloë enjoyed the honest work of doing things
for herself.  The entire concept of