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as he said: “I couldn’t leave him behind. He knows too much.”

Chapter 4
    The Spider and the Bard
     
     
     
     
     
     
    As soon as Oakloft’s gates were out of sight, Kyleigh led them off the road and into the shelter of the woods. It wasn’t long before the Grandforest swallowed them up.
    Giant trees towered all around them. Many of their branches sat so heavily that they sagged to the ground. The thick shade cast by their hulking tops strangled most of the grass, leaving the ground to be taken over by dirt and moss.
    Dry whispers fluttered down occasionally — the far-off sound of a breeze that stirred the trees’ tops. But for the most part, the world beneath the branches was eerily quiet.
    Kael’s ears began to ring after a while, as if the pressure of the silence was every bit as painful as a sharp howl. His lungs burned and he realized that he’d been holding his breath. When he exhaled, the noise of his breathing was frustratingly loud.
    While he struggled not to make too much noise, Kyleigh traveled easily. She moved with the silence of the woods: her boots rose and fell, carrying her in a rolling walk across the shady ground. Her shoulders turned occasionally towards the trees. She would tilt her head to the side, slowing her pace a bit as she watched the branches.
    Kael thought she might be searching for something — or perhaps she was just unsettled by the quiet. In any case, she was beginning to make him nervous.
    “Are we in danger?” he finally hissed.
    “Hmm …? Oh, no. Not at all.”
    “Then why do you keep looking around?”
    She spun on her heels and walked backwards a few paces. He was relieved to see her smiling. “I was just listening to everybody. It’s been a while since my last walk through the forest.”
    “Listening to everybody?” Kael wondered if he’d missed something. He stopped to look — and the blind man collided with his back.
    “Have we arrived? Have we reached the mountains?”
    Kael had gotten so used to the tug of the blind man’s hands upon his pack that he’d actually forgotten he was there. “We haven’t even been traveling for a day! Of course we’re not at the mountains.”
    He stumbled back a step when the blind man’s grip tightened. “We’re still in the forest? Oh, then we must move on! I don’t like these trees — they’re treacherous.”
    Kyleigh clutched a hand to her lips — but didn’t quite cover the corners of her smile. “No, surely not! There’s nothing worse than a treacherous tree.”
    Kael didn’t think it was funny. He knew how hysterical the blind man could get, and he certainly didn’t want him to start yelling again. “You’re just imagining things. Trees can’t be treacherous.”
    “Oh, but they can!” the blind man insisted. “The trees see everything, but they say nothing. I wonder how many vipers hide amongst the leaves? How many cutthroats and thieves? They must’ve watched countless men be murdered, must’ve heard countless screams. Yes, they hear and they see, but they do nothing to stop it.” His knobby hand trembled as he swept it above them. “Think of the stories they might tell us … if only they would speak.”
    At that very moment, a gust of wind rattled through the branches. It stirred the leaves and carried their whispers downwards … well, Kael supposed it was the wind that had moved them. But though the trees swayed, the gust never quite reached the floor. He heard the wind, but couldn’t feel it.
    Little bumps rose unbidden across his arms as the leaves continued to whisper. Perhaps the helmsman had been right: perhaps there were spirits trapped in the trees.
    “Blazes,” Kyleigh murmured as the air went still. “You’re quite the storyteller, aren’t you?”
    “I was a bard, once. Many years ago,” the blind man said. He urged Kael forward. “Move, young man! We should put these woods to our heels.”
    Their pace quickened after that. Kyleigh talked to the blind man for the rest