Song Magick by Elisabeth Hamill

tried to match Mithrais’ near-silent stride. He noticed, and
grinned as she shrugged apologetically.
    At the end of the rows of tethered vines,
they turned down slope toward the road and crossed it casually,
entering the barley fields. The new shoots were only inches high;
pale, satiny leaves glistened under the moonlight and whispered
against the passage of their feet. Clouds were beginning to scud
across the glittering night sky from behind the mountains, veiling
the moon, and Mithrais lifted his head, scenting the air.
    “Rain is coming. I welcome the cloud cover,
but it will make traveling a bit more difficult. We’ll reach the
first Tauron outpost long before dawn, and you can sleep for a few
hours there. We’ll start again at first light.”
    “Do you never sleep?” Telyn asked softly.
    “I shall have to, very soon. It’s been three
days since I last closed my eyes. I don’t wish to be so weary that
I become careless.”
    They walked in silence for a few minutes,
still hand in hand, the black shape ahead becoming individual trees
as they came nearer. Telyn could no longer see the torches in the
fields west of them as their path began to slope downward toward
the Wood.
    The trees were at last directly ahead, and
Telyn winced at the sound of her leather boots crunching through
the litter of last winter’s dry leaves. She couldn’t help but look
about her nervously, although her eyes were incapable of making out
anything more than the separation of earth and sky, and the dim
shapes of nearer objects. Mithrais squeezed her hand encouragingly,
and he led her through the darkness into the Wood.
    As they passed beyond the border of the
trees, a welcoming stillness seemed to surround them. The Wood was
hushed, the tranquility broken only by the faint cry of some
nocturnal creature, and the sound of Telyn’s footsteps. Mithrais
released Telyn’s hand and heaved a sigh. She could see that he was
relieved to be in his own element again. Telyn looked about her,
willing her eyes to adjust to the profound shadows while Mithrais
drew his weapons from the cloak and slung them within easy
reach.
    “Stay close behind me. I will warn you if
there is something in our path.”
    “How will you contact Aric?” Telyn asked, her
voice little more than a whisper as they walked, falling into a
steady pace to the northeast.
    “We’ll have to go farther in to accomplish
that,” Mithrais told her. “I don’t believe that we were followed. I
saw no one in the fields but a few of Riordan’s townsfolk. They
were...uninterested in our passage. Here—there’s a fallen tree in
front of you.” He turned and offered his hand, helping her step
over the horizontal obstacle.
    Telyn kept her eyes on the dim crescent of
Mithrais’ bow as she followed him through the trunks of the trees,
stumbling slightly in the darkness. She became more sure-footed as
her trust in his guidance grew, and her eyes adjusted to the
peculiar grey-green light that seeped through the Wood from
above.
    They had walked for nearly an hour before
Mithrais stopped, his head bowed briefly in an attitude of
concentration, then he strode to their right with a purpose. Telyn
followed him into a group of large trees, and Mithrais turned to
face her thoughtfully, his eyes glittering in the darkness.
    “Can you tell which of these trees is
different from the others?”
    Puzzled, Telyn looked at the black trunks,
and up at the sparse new leaves covering the branches overhead.
“They all look like normal trees to me, at least in the dark.”
    “So they will appear by day, as well. The
only telling features of the tree we seek are smooth, white-barked
upper branches, but there are other trees which possess similar
markings. There’s but one way to be sure, and that’s by touch.
Press the palm of your hand against the trunk.”
    Telyn hesitated a moment before moving to
stand beside the nearest tree, gingerly placing her hand against
the trunk. It was cool, the bark