Liri Dewglow of Quillwood's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

Liri ran the western path until the sound drained out of the world. One moment, leaves rattled overhead and her boots crunched moss. The next, nothing. No birds. No wind. Even her own breath felt muffled, as if the forest had stuffed its ears against what was coming. She slowed at the hammock grove. The pixies' woven cradles hung between two trees, flowers limp on their cords, no small wings flitting between them. This was the marker. Quillwood's voice stopped here. Beyond this spot, the forest had pulled itself inward and left the path bare. A small shape crouched on a low branch — a winged squirrel, bushy tail wrapped tight, eyes too wide. It did not chitter. It did not flee. It only stared past her, down the silent path, and trembled. Liri touched its head once. "I know," she whispered. "Go." It did not move. Even flight had abandoned it. She set her trap at the foot of the hammock trees. From her pack she drew a coiled length of cord knotted with bone charms, and at its center, a small carved figure of a winged hound — fire-marked, teeth bared. A summoning token. She drove a gnarled staff into the earth beside it, the wood twisted and old, its top notched with spirals. Madrigal's staff. Borrowed long ago, never returned. Liri pressed her palm to the grip and felt the wood warm. "You shouldn't be holding that here." The voice came soft behind her. Liri did not turn. She knew the chill of it. The ghost stood between two birches, pale and small, hands folded. "The silence isn't fear," Madrigal said. "The forest has pulled back because something below is listening. It does not want to be heard answering you." A pause. "He is closer than you think. Less than a hundred paces." Liri gripped the staff and stepped onto the dead path. Behind her, the hammocks swayed without wind. Ahead, between two trunks, a figure stopped walking and looked straight at her. The trap was set. The forest would not help her now. She had crossed into the quiet, and whatever happened next, she would face alone.