Following Magic by Kathleen Duey

Author:Kathleen Duey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2010-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter

6

The seed began to move slowly forward.

“Should we follow it?” Gavin whispered.

Alida nodded.

They started walking.

Gavin glanced at her. “It’s moving in the opposite direction of the wind, now.”

Alida smiled.

The dandelion seed led them across the wide meadow. Then, instead of going straight on, it turned.

Alida was looking upward, watching the dandelion, not Gavin, and she stumbled into him. He caught her hand so that she didn’t fall.

A few minutes later it happened again, but it was Gavin who stumbled.

“I wish it would go a little slower,” she said clearly, “and fly a little lower.”

And the instant she said it, the seed drifted back and forth, slowing, floating downward. It stopped at eye level and waited for them to catch up.

Once they were close, it started off again.

Slower.

Lower.

“Was that magic?” Gavin whispered. “Did it just grant your wish?”

Alida nodded, feeling strange and wonderful. “I think so. My mother can do all sorts of things with simple wishes.”

“If all your wishes will come true,” Gavin said, “maybe you should wish for the sun to come out.”

Alida looked at him. His cheeks were pink with cold. She shook her head, knowing that was exactly the kind of thing she shouldn’t wish for. It was one of the first things her mother had taught her.

“Small wishes are the kindest,” she said.

Gavin looked at her. “Why?”

“It’s the first thing faeries teach their children,” she said. “Small wishes are best because they cause the fewest problems.”

Gavin jumped over a fallen log, then walked beside her again. “Getting rid of a cold spring rain seems like a small wish,” he said.

Alida glanced at him. “But what if the farms and the flowers need rain?”

Gavin pulled her blanket close around his neck. “Oh. We would be warmer, but people and faeries might not have as much food stored for next winter.”

Alida nodded.

Gavin blew into his cupped hands to warm them.

“I wonder if any humans have ever learned to work magic.”

Alida shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Could they learn it?” he asked.

Alida didn’t answer him because she had no idea if humans could learn magic or not. But she was pretty sure that faeries would never teach them. “My father said humans weren’t careful enough to use magic.”

Gavin smiled. “Someone like Ruth Oakes would be. Or my grandmother.”

Alida knew he was right.

As they walked, she thought about it, and couldn’t remember any of the faeries ever teaching magic to humans.

Alida glanced at Gavin. He was staring at the floating dandelion seed. And he was still smiling.

“It’s changing direction a little,” he said, pointing.

Alida nodded.

With its puffy white cap still soaked with rain, the seed was drifting eastward. It was turning almost straight into the wind.

They followed it into a stand of trees.

“It’s probably impossible now,” Gavin said sadly, breaking the silence.

Alida looked at him. “What is?”

“No faerie would dare to teach a human magic,” he said. “Because of Dunraven’s law.”

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

Gavin looked at her. “It isn’t your fault. And maybe it’s impossible for people to learn magic anyway. I’ve never heard of it.

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