Page 58 of Crossroads Magic
I hurried down the narrow verge beside the greenway, not daring to step onto the road itself, chasing after the group. The front of the group was nearly to the crossroads, now. I caught up with the back end of the group, as the first of them stepped onto the firm asphalt of the main road crossing the greenway.
I stopped at the corner, still not willing to move onto the roadway. Across the intersection, I could see Olivia and Wim standing on the sidewalk in front of their house. Olivia had her hands together, as if she was gripping them with an old-fashioned delight.
Wim moved out onto the middle of the road, his gaze upon the group. I couldn’t be sure from this distance, but I thought the shine in his eyes might be tears.
He stopped in the middle of the road, and bowed, almost exactly the way I had done.
The entire group stopped, turned to face Wim, and bowed in the same way.
When they straightened, some of them waved.
“Wim Linden, it pleases us to see you!” one of them called. Their voice was high and light, and I couldn’t tell if it was a man’s voice or a woman’s. For the first time, I thought to wonder if they were human at all.
That question made my heart hurt, so fast did it beat.
The group turned and once more began to walk. They stepped off the road and onto the greenway, and the same phenomenon began. Wherever they stepped, grass and plants grew upward at a rate that was…
…magical.
I pressed my hand to my chest, trying to ease it.
Now the intersection had cleared, I could see that Benedict had been standing on the sidewalk outside his house, too. And two houses farther on, Broch stood with his legs spread, his arms crossed.
And in front of the inn stood Hirom and Juda.
Olivia and Wim had moved to the corner and were watching the people walk along the greenway toward the bend that would hide them from view. Wim had his arm around Olivia’s waist. As I watched, she rested her head against his shoulder.
Benedict moved onto the road. He crossed the intersection and stopped in front of me.
“Who are they?” I whispered. I couldn’t lift my voice higher than that. Besides, it felt like Ishouldwhisper.
“Dryads, of the Last Northern Kingdom,” Benedict said. “They have honored you, today. They do not normally allow strangers to see them.”
It felt as though the ground was shifting, spinning. The disorientation made me clutch at my head. “Dryads…”
“People of the trees and the earth,” Benedict added.
“I know what dryads are.” I gave a choking laugh. “IthoughtI knew what dryads were. They’re nothing like….”
“Like?” Benedict asked. His tone was kindly. Interested.
“…like in the books,” I murmured, watching the very last of the dryads disappear around the bend in the greenway.
“Ah,” Benedict said. “Likely that is because those books’ authors have never met real dryads.”
I pressed my lips together, a hand over them. Then I made myself ask the question. “Magic is real?”
Benedict spread his hands a little. “Magic is such a difficult word to use. The way most people understand it, it is a way of speaking about something thatisn’treal.”
“I just watched plants grow where they…the…the dryads stepped!”
“Yes, the dryads have mastery over the earth and the trees. If that is what you mean by magic, then it is as real as…” He cast about for a second or two. “As your cooking.” His smile was small.
“They nodded and smiled at me.”
“Did they?” This seemed to surprise him.
“Back up the greenway, where I first saw them. The man…the dryad at the front, the tall one. He nodded at me. And the girl…dryad at the back end, she smiled at me. All the others behaved as if they couldn’t see me.”
