Chapter 12 - The Whispered Welcome

The forest hums with secrets deep,

Its roots entwined with silent lore.

Each oath you take, each vow you keep,

Shall open paths unknown before.

When they set off after a night’s rest at The Tuning Fork, Elanor had a feeling she was about to learn more of the darkness in Finn’s song. Raven had purchased her an extra dagger and two sheaths so she was more properly armed now.

She still kept the daggers sheathed beneath her outer robes, but they were always close at hand.

They talked about Amelia and Finn for a while. Raven told her stories of times long past, of brawls he’d been in with Finn at his back. Of nighttime missions with Amelia as his silent partner.

They always spoke in hushed whispers on the open road, whether others were around or not.

Raven told Elanor it was a good practice to keep her voice low at all times.

“There’s a certain power in speaking softly,” he taught her. “Forcing others to stop talking just to listen to you is a trick that will serve you well.”

She nodded, always eager to soak up Raven’s wisdom. She spoke barely above a whisper now, comforted by Raven’s incredible hearing.

“I guess it also benefits us on the road, so we don’t let secrets slip.”

He laughed and put his hand on her back, laughing very loudly. “Right! Haha!”

His sudden outburst cause a group of pilgrims to turn and look at them.

“Get ready…” Raven whispered without moving his mouth.

A smile still covered his face but Elanor felt his hand tense on her back, and she prepared to reach for her daggers.

All at once the group of five pilgrims dropped the bedrolls and travel sacks they were carrying and spun around, weapons drawn.

One lunged at Raven. Without missing a beat, he shoved Elanor forward with the same hand still resting on her back, launching her into the air as he drew his daggers and parried a blow from a battle axe.

In mid-air, she used her forward momentum to kick the next attacker in the face, riding his fall to the ground like a falling tree.

She withdrew her daggers before she landed on top of the man, and the look of surprise on his face made Elanor smile just a bit as she swiped the new dagger across his throat.

She immediately rolled to her right to avoid a downward swipe from a sword, and the strike landed in the center of the man’s chest she had just killed.

Elanor felt the pulse of combat already. She let the rhythm wash over her and she started to follow it.

Slash left, cut the Achilles tendon. Roll back. Dodge the strike, stab.

Two down.

She faced off with the third man, taking a low agile stance and waiting for him to attack first.

But Raven had just finished off his second attacker, leaving two against one. It didn’t take this one long to calculate those odds and run.

Raven calmly pulled the bow from his shoulder, nocked an arrow, and breathed.

He aimed and loosed the arrow, striking just left of the man’s spinal cord, and piercing his heart.

The fifth attacker dropped to the ground, his body now lost amid the tall brush.

Raven exhaled, shaking his head.

“Come. Help me move them from the road.”

A forest lined the path not far to the right, so one by one Elanor and Raven carried the men. She carried the feet while he took them by the arms.

Once they were lined up out of sight from passersby, Raven began methodically searching the bodies and belongings.

“Nothing,” he said, his shoulders slumping.

“What do you mean, nothing?” Elanor asked, watching him carry out the grim task from a few feet away.

Raven looked up at her. “I mean they carry not a single personal item. Nothing to identify themselves. No instructions.”

He kicked the body he’d just finished searching out of frustration.

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“Why would assassins carry identification?” Elanor asked.

The innocence in the expression on her face made Raven laugh again.

“Well… That’s actually a good point,” he said, still laughing at the flawless logic. “Anyway, why don’t you turn around. I’m going to strip them bare so the local wildlife won’t have to chew through clothing to get their next meal.”

Then he added, “And like I said. No need to lose all your innocence at once.”

And he got to work.

Over the next three days of travel, Raven and Elanor made good time. Thankfully, there were no further incidents or attacks. Each time they rested, he took extra time to spar with the girl, and found himself impressed at her quick improvement.

The sun was cresting over the horizon when they neared The Widow’s Shroud.

But as the name implied, it wasn’t like there was a building with a sign out front.

There was a method to entering such a place, and those who were unaware of that method were liable to end up in a bleeding pile on the ground.

First, they had to leave the main road at a time when nobody would spot them.

“Slow your pace just a bit,” he whispered to Elanor.

They let a group of merchants pass them by, and Raven stepped off the well-worn path. He started to adjust his equipment and fumble with it for a few minutes.

Elanor stood silently beside him, waiting until the merchants disappeared behind a hill to the south. She glanced the other way and saw nobody coming or going.

Raven stood and shouldered their travel bag, Elanor’s harp, and his bow. Then he turned to her.

“See those two tall pine trees?”

She nodded.

“We’re going to run as fast as we can straight through the woods and in between those trees.”

“Okay,” Elanor said, preparing to go.

“Don’t stop for anything, alright?” Raven said, his hand resting on her shoulder. “You’ll see and hear things all around, but just keep running at your top speed, straight for the pine trees and cross between them. Got it?”

Elanor nodded once again.

“Now, go!” Raven yelled. He let her get a head start and glanced around once more. Confirming they were alone on the road, he fell in behind her.

Visual illusions and auditory sensations were two very different things.

As Elanor ran, she saw all manner of things. Huge direwolves leapt at her from both sides. Arrows rained down toward her from the trees above. She even saw ghosts of elders from her old village of Willowmere.

She would have kept running anyway, because that’s what Raven had told her to do, and by now she knew better than to question anything he said.

But none of the illusions scared her, because the sounds were… off. The wolves growled and barked ever so slightly out of sync with their movements. Even the arrows gave off sound before they should have, their hiss arriving a half-second too early.

Amateurish, she thought, if you’re going to craft illusions, at least get the physics of sound right.

But then she almost lost her footing when the two towering pine trees came into sharp focus in front of her.

She was still running at full speed when a melody began playing. She heard it as if an entire orchestra was playing right next to her head. The crescendos were so loud, she staggered once and almost tripped over her own feet.

She reached up to cover her ears, but the music just kept going as if it were now playing inside her very head.

“Don’t stop for anything.”

That’s what Raven had told her, so she willed her legs to carry her ever forward.

The trees…

She was…

Almost…

There…

She reached her hands out. She was almost there.

The symphony blaring in her mind was so loud now that she could feel blood dripping from her ears. She clenched her jaw and ran harder, certain her skull would split in two at any moment.

She wasn’t sure she could take it anymore, when finally she crossed an invisible threshold between the two trees, and it all stopped.

She fell down, and Raven almost fell over her as he came through.

His cheeks were covered with blood that had been gushing out of his eyes.

“Damn, they’ve really stepped up their security measures,” he muttered, wiping his face with a towel.

He handed another to Elanor and she did the same.

After she finished, she went to hand it back to him, and then thought better of it. Who would want a towel drenched with her own blood?

She put it away in her sack and looked up at Raven, who was standing again.

“What was that?” she asked.

He held out a hand, helping her stand up.

“That, young one, was The Widow’s Shroud.”

Elanor cocked an eyebrow. “I thought the training academy was The Widow’s Shroud.”

“It is,” Raven said, chuckling. “The word shroud has a few meanings. A dead body is wrapped in a shroud for burial. But a shroud is also something that envelops or obscures.”

He looked at her as if that explanation was enough, but she still looked puzzled.

He put his hand on her shoulder as he led her forward down the darkened path.

“This is an ancient… sect, I guess. Of assassins. I have met a lot of old people, and one thing almost all of them share is a love of wit.”

She still looked confused.

“Uh,” Raven said, “when you can call something one word that contains multiple meanings, it’s just a bonus. Let’s leave it at that. You’ll come to appreciate it in time, I promise.”

Elanor looked around. They were in a dark forest now, following a path she could barely see. The tree cover high up obscured the moonlight—

“Ah, I see now,” she said, chuckling.

She stuck close to Raven and followed a winding path that led them down the side of a mountain and into a deep valley.

“You’ll be running these paths daily once they get you started.” He looked around and up at the trees.

“I consider these trees old friends. It’s been a long time…” He trailed off.

Elanor stopped in her tracks.

“Wait, you trained here?” she asked, tugging on his sleeve and looking up at him.

He laughed. “I did,” he said, smiling down at her. “In fact, I daresay all the best assassins in Evirond trained here. In this very valley.”

She looked around again in awe.

“If only these paths and trees could speak, they would…”

Suddenly she couldn’t hear him speak. The only thing she heard was a whisper on the wind. Like the rustling of leaves or the shifting of dirt on the forest floor.

“Chiiiiiild of sooooong. Weee welcome youuu to The Shroudddd…”