"It does indeed sound like a beast, my lady, and these forests are filled with them. I would ask that you retreat into the cave while I investigate."
"And if it circles past you and comes into the cave?"
He hesitated.
"I will accompany you," she said. "Let me pull on my boots and cloak."
"I truly ought to--"
"Abandon me?"
He paused again, and she said, "Give me but a moment."
ELEVEN
The other caves were silent. There were perhaps four of them, in addition to the one with the dragon skull. The settlement was hardly a village--simply caves in the mountainside big enough for temporary lodgings, which meant they were spaced far enough apart that Ashyn could not even see the other entrances. A cry would bring Edwyn and the others, she'd presumed, but the cry they'd heard had not. Did that mean they could not hear well enough, sleeping in their caves? Or that they'd heard and recognized the sound as a harmless animal? The high probability of the latter is what kept her from suggesting they call for aid. They would investigate first.
The night had gone quiet. Unnaturally quiet, she realized when both she and Tarquin stopped simultaneously, and without their footfalls she could not hear anything. Goose bumps prickled along her arms, and when Tarquin resumed walking, she stayed where she was, surveying the silent forest.
It ought not to be silent.
She'd encountered such a quiet wilderness once before. The Forest of the Dead.
Tarquin turned. "My lady?"
"It's too quiet," she said.
He looked about and frowned. "It is night, my lady."
"And it is always this silent at night? It was this silent earlier?"
He tilted his head as if listening. "I can hear water, my lady. And the creak of trees in the wind."
"But beasts? Birds?"
"I saw an owl at dusk. Perhaps that is what made the cry. I heard one a few nights ago, and it was a terrible shrieking sound. The owls in the North are very different. As is the silence. You've not heard quiet until you've been out on the ice, my lady."
It was too silent. But Tarquin didn't realize that, just as none of the villagers of Edgewood had thought the Forest of the Dead unnaturally silent. It was Ashyn. She sensed . . .
What do I sense? Spirits?
She continued after Tarquin as she sent up a silent and polite query to the spirits, in case that was what she sensed. They did not answer. Beside her, Tova was looking about and walking so close his fur brushed her cloak. He sensed it as well.
She recalled the trip from the imperial city, when they'd discovered mummified monks possessed by spirits. She'd detected something then, too. Was it the same? In a way, yes. A disturbance in the second world. She'd felt it even before the possessed monks, when she'd first encountered the shadow stalkers. This was the same . . . and
yet not the same. Interesting.
Another manifestation of Alvar's magics? Or was she overly quick to jump to that conclusion?
"May I take the torch, Tarquin?" she asked. "So you may be ready with your sword?"
He handed the torch over wordlessly, and Ashyn lifted it high as she walked, peering into the dark forest for signs of shadow stalkers or anything else. When a bat flitted overhead, she ducked with a yelp and Tarquin spun so fast she was nearly impaled on the tip of his sword. They both stumbled to apologize, and then laughed, softly.
"Continue," she said. "I will be more careful."
"As will I, my lady."
Tova harrumphed and glanced back toward the caves, as if wishing they'd brought someone more experienced on this excursion. Ashyn made a face at him. She'd relaxed now, seeing the bat, proof that the forest was simply quiet, perhaps from the lateness of the day. She knew from her reading that many supposedly nocturnal creatures were actually crepuscular, most active at twilight and dawn, so the deep night would be quieter.