At first all he saw was a patch of blue sky framed by the branches of two large oaks, but then, as he stared, it seemed to shimmer and glisten, becoming half-solid, shining like glass or water, with the merest hint of rainbow. For a moment he thought he glimpsed a spectral shape, winged and vaguely human, but then it vanished again, and there was only air.
'That— What—' Kellen gasped inelegantly. 'I saw something… didn't I?'
'A sylph,' Shalkan confirmed. 'A creature of the winds. They ride the currents of the air, and with their help, you can influence the weather. She's not the only creature out here that you've never seen before—and that wouldn't ever go near the City walls. But come along—I know where there are some nice juicy apples.'
'It's too early for apples,' Kellen protested automatically.
'Come and see,' the unicorn said with a wise and amused glance. 'You just saw a sylph, are you going to disbelieve in my apples?'
Well, when Shalkan put it that way…
To Kellen's surprise, Shalkan led him to a wild apple orchard, where the trees were indeed heavy with ripe red fruit. Kellen started forward, hefting his basket, but Shalkan immediately stepped across his path, blocking his way to the trees.
'You might want to ask the owners if they're willing to part with some first,' Shalkan said gently.
Kellen looked around, wondering if he'd missed seeing a hut or cabin concealed in the undergrowth.
'Look harder. Look at the trees. Remember the sylph,' Shalkan said, giving Kellen a warning nudge with his shoulder.
Kellen did as he was bid, and suddenly he could see them—women, sitting in the trees, looking down at him with amusement. Their skin was pale green, like new leaves, their long hair the emerald of the leaves of high summer. They were crowned with apple blossoms, and every single one of them was quite naked. They appeared to be perfectly comfortable in that state, and for a moment, Kellen had the disoriented feeling it was he that was the one who was foolish for being clothed.
'Oh… no,' Kellen whispered, appalled.
'Apple-dryads,' Shalkan said matter-of-factly. 'Tree-spirits, tree-guardians. Not all trees have them, of course, or we'd be up to our hocks in dryads; no, only a few select trees are inhabited by dryads, though they do a certain amount of tending of all the trees in their domain. This is their grove. And their apples, of course.'
The dryads came down from their trees; not so much climbing as gliding, and began pacing deliberately toward him. Their long hair swirled around them with a life of its own, now concealing their bodies, now revealing them, a breast here, a thigh there. Kellen would have turned to run, but now Shalkan backed around him, blocking his retreat. They clustered around Kellen, plucking at his clothes as if in perplexity, and giggling at his horrified embarrassment.
'I—I—I didn't know,' Kellen stammered, blushing hotly. To his horror, he was surrounded by naked grove- maidens and not quite sure where to look. 'I'm sorry.' The head of the tallest of them barely came up to his shoulder, and their pale green skin had the hard glossy sheen of a polished, unripened apple. Unlike the sylph, which he hadn't been quite certain he was seeing, the apple-dryads seemed as solid and real as Idalia.
'Ladies, this is Kellen,' Shalkan said, and Kellen would have been willing to swear the unicorn was smiling. 'He's new here; he's Wildmage Idalia's brother—and he's under a vow of chastity, so have pity on him.'
The apple-dryads drew back a little, regarding Kellen and Shalkan gravely out of dark eyes the color of apple- tree bark. Kellen had recovered his composure enough to realize that they weren't quite naked—or rather that they were, but that they weren't quite human; their slender nakedness, while giving the strong impression of femininity, was the featureless androgyny of a sculpture, or a doll. Vaguely, he supposed that only made sense. After all, they only looked human. He cleared his throat, awkwardly.
'I'm sorry I was going to steal your apples,' he said. 'I mean, I wasn't going to steal them. I was just going to take some, and I didn't realize that they were yours. I mean, Shalkan brought me here, and I figured he wanted some, and I knew my sister would like them…'
One of the dryads—she seemed to be the leader, though Kellen couldn't quite say how he got that impression—spoke. Her voice was like rustling leaves, and contained no human words, though Kellen felt that his apology was accepted.
*A gift for you, human child, and for your sister, on whom be honor.* This time he heard the words clearly inside his head, as though she were making an effort to be sure he understood her.
Suddenly the dryads whirled and went sprinting away, each to her own tree. There was a wild rustling of leaves and a great deal of giggling that sounded more like bubbling water than girlish laughter, and a few moments later several of them returned, carrying apples, which they reached out and placed into his basket amid much jostling and amusement. Before he could even begin to stammer out his thanks, the dryads had dashed away again, leaving him staring down at their gift—not as many apples as he might have gathered for himself, but all of them gleaming and juicy and without flaw.
