Free Hero's Song by Edith Pattou Page B

scald-crow.
    After a light breakfast of bilberries, hazelnuts, and water, they resumed their journey. The sun filtered through the branches, and for the first time they could see their surroundings.
    Everything, from the decayed leaves and pine needles at their feet to the wrinkled gray bark of the large tree trunks surrounding them, looked ancient, as though the forest had stood there since time began. It was also very quiet—unnaturally so. There were no birds calling to one another. There was only the soughing sound of a faint breeze stirring the leaves of the trees.
    When the companions spoke, their voices held a dull, muted tone that weighed heavy on the ear. Even Silien's musical voice sounded flat, and Talisen's usually merry laugh began to sound melancholy. They soon stopped talking entirely.
    The trees grew closer together the farther they traveled into the forest, and the denseness of the branches and trunks made the going difficult.
    It quickly became impossible to see the sky through the close-woven ceiling of branches, and without the sun as a guide, they had to rely solely on the path winding before them.
    The faint breeze died. The air was stagnant and
musty, as if it had been held in place by the canopy overhead for many hundreds of years. And perhaps because the air was so thick, they began to move more slowly. Their legs were heavier, and the packs they carried felt leaden.
    The Ellyl and his faol seemed to be less affected than the others.
    "We Elyllon breathe differently," Silien said when questioned by an irritated Talisen. "For example, we can stay underwater much longer than humans."
    Collun suddenly realized that was what it felt like—like trudging along underwater.
    "It was not so when I came through Eld before," Brie said in a puzzled voice.
    "Was it a different time of year?" suggested Talisen. "Perhaps it is the weather."
    Brie shook her head, unsatisfied.
    As night fell, the focus of Collun's unease shifted from the possible pursuit by scald-crows and Scathians to the forest itself. The path became more difficult to follow and the trees took on contorted, frightening shapes in the darkness.
    They called a halt and listlessly ate more bilberries and hazelnuts, washing them down with carefully apportioned swallows of water. They had not come across a stream since entering the forest. No one had the energy to speak, and for the first time during the journey, Talisen did not bring out his harp after the meal. They slept fitfully, and when they set out again, none felt rested.
    Brie continued to lead, carefully trying to hold them to the path even though it kept thinning out and
disappearing for stretches at a time. Collun began to feel the forest was conspiring to make them lose their way. He told himself he was being superstitious and irrational, but the silence and thick air made it hard to keep his thoughts clear.
    As they stumbled on, Collun saw trees he had never seen before. There was one with the silvery bark of a birch, but the leaves were wider than the palm of his hand and were shot through with red veins like the cro-olachan vine. He saw trees with double trunks and even one with three trunks that wound around each other, looking, for one horrible moment, like three giant snakes writhing upward. There were trees with long, evil-looking thorns growing out of their trunks and trees overgrown with lichen, creating grotesque shapes.
    They journeyed on in this way for two days, though to Collun it seemed he had been in the Forest of Eld for weeks, even months.
    During the afternoon of the third day, Silien stopped abruptly. He looked as if he was listening very intently to something, then shook his head with a puzzled expression and resumed walking.
    He did this several times, until Talisen asked in a querulous voice, "Just what is it you are listening to? The only sounds I can hear are the rumbling of my stomach and the crackling of my dry mouth."
    Silien turned his silver eyes on