He looked around, but now, no matter how hard he stared, once more the orchard was only an orchard, with no dryads to be seen. He looked at Shalkan, doing his best to make sense of what had just happened. Without the apples in his basket, it would have been easy to dismiss the last few minutes as an especially vivid waking dream, an aftermath of his injuries.
'What can I do in return?' he asked. Gifts required gifts in return— that was the first lesson both of magic and good manners.
'Bring them water in a dry year,' Shalkan answered approvingly, as though Kellen were an especially apt pupil. 'Not this year—the rains have been good. But always respect the forest.'
'I will,' Kellen answered humbly. Humility seemed in order; and so did a lot more consideration than he had been giving to his surroundings! Things weren't what they seemed here—and he'd certainly never look at an apple the same way again!
AFTER that, the two of them moved onward, deeper into the forest. Now that he was getting used to looking, Kellen realized that the forest was not the empty unoccupied place it had first seemed to be. In fact, the creatures that were only hinted at in his High Magick lessons seemed to be everywhere, and Kellen was sure that he and Shalkan were constantly being watched. Gathering cress by the bank of a stream at Shalkan's direction, Kellen looked down into the water and found more than his reflection looking back. Something that could only be an undine stared into Kellen's eyes for a long moment before flitting away.
Undines and sylphs… that's two of the four Elemental Powers that I remember from my lessons in the High Magick. The other two are salamanders — fire —and gnomes— earth. He wondered where dryads fitted into the scheme of things. I'm not sure I'd want to meet a salamander in a forest, but I wonder what gnomes look like? I would have paid more attention to my lessons if Anigrel had ever said the Powers were real live creatures… but the High Magick always taught that they were abstract concepts, symbols of the elemental forces of Creation that Mages work with, not… real. It's like Idalia said. The Mages take everything and squeeze the life out of it, turn it into entries in a ledger. No wonder the High Magick is so bloodless and boring!
But it still works. Kellen remembered the Hound-golems and shuddered.
While gathering mushrooms—holding each one up for Shalkan's approval before adding it to his basket— Kellen came across a door in the base of an oak tree. It was only six inches high, but aside from that, it looked just like any other door that Kellen had ever seen. He straightened up and turned to Shalkan.
'How did they get here? What are they all doing here?' he demanded, making a sweeping gesture that took in the door, the dryads, the sylph, and everything else he'd seen in the forest.
'Your folk don't own the world,' Shalkan replied reprovingly. 'They just claim they do, sometimes.' He shook his head. 'Creatures of Magery are far more vulnerable to Magery's effects than humanfolk are. They're here because they were driven outside the bounds of City lands by spells, some of them. Your—ah, pardon me, not your —the High Mages don't care for creatures that they can't control, and they don't care for things that might remind their citizens that they don't own and rule the world of nature or the world of spirits, and that they share the world with creatures that don't abide by their rules. Most of the Otherfolk here in the Wildwood were chased out by Hounds. None care to remain where they aren't welcome.'
Kellen looked back at the minuscule door, wondering which of the half-mythical creatures from his neglected studies lay behind it. Something tiny that built doors just like human doors, at any rate. Maybe someday he'd get to meet it.
Reluctantly, he turned and followed Shalkan.
He'd thought that by escaping the Outlaw Hunt and leaving City lands he'd be outside the influence of the City, but it didn't look like that was the case. If the City had pushed these creatures out of their homes by claiming so much land, then that was an influence, too, one that could be felt far beyond the bounds of the City. What if the City kept claiming more land? Where would they all go?
It wasn't fair.
IT was midday when they reached Shalkan's goal; an immense clearing in the center of the forest, filled with a vast welter of thornbushes that bore a suspicious similarity, to Kellen's eyes, to those Shalkan had charged through so many times during their escape. He regarded it dubiously.
'What's that?'
'Blackberries,' the unicorn answered happily. 'Oh, come now, City-child. Where do you think black-cap jam comes from? It doesn't grow on trees in little pots. It comes from bushes like these—well, not quite like these. This particular patch is special. It bears fruit out of season, and the most delicious fruit in the whole Wild-woods, I'll wager. Come along. There's plenty for everyone.'
'There aren't going to be any more dryads, are there?' Kellen asked suspiciously, still holding back.
'No,' Shalkan answered. 'Only brambles—but that's why you're wearing all that leather. And a few scratches are a small price to pay for blackberry jam. And blackberry pie. And blackberry griddle cakes. And—'
'Okay, okay—I get the idea,' Kellen said, laughing. He was starting to suspect Shalkan of having a sweet tooth, and even Kellen could smell the sugary scent of the fruit from where he was standing. Unlike some of the things he'd gathered today—including what Shalkan said were truffles, which Kellen couldn't imagine anyone
