Never Trust a Dead Man by Vivian Vande Velde Read Free Book Online Page B

for good."
    Farold didn't take amiss what sounded, Selwyn thought, much like a threat.
    Still, even then, leaving wasn't easy. Farold, in the bat's body, had as much trouble flying as he had had trying to stand upright.
    "Let the bat's mind take over," Elswyth recommended. "
It
knows how to fly."
    "
It
doesn't have a mind to speak of," Farold said. "
It
only wants to go outside to eat bugs with the rest of the swarm."
    '"Swarm'?"
Elswyth repeated contemptuously.
    "Flock, herd, whatever a gaggle of bats is called."
    "Colony," Elswyth said. "A group of bats is called a colony. I was about to say you're thinking too much, but never mind."
    "Eat bugs and leave droppings," Farold scoffed. "Big thinkers."
    "Hang upside down by their toes," Elswyth added, making a lunge for him.
    Apparently the malice in her tone and the sudden movement frightened Farold enough that the bat's mind was able to take over. He fluttered up to Selwyn's shoulder, leaving—as he had said—bat droppings along the way.
    Selwyn didn't protest. He was in no humor for anything that would delay just getting out of the cave. "You can practice once we get outside," he told Farold. And, to Elswyth, "It's all right, I'll carry him."
    "You'll carry the pack, too," she reminded.
    Selwyn reached down to pick up the pack, which was heavier than he had anticipated, and bulky. He needed a moment to swing it across his back and adjust the ropes across his shoulders—which made Farold grumble at the inconvenience of having to move to his other shoulder—and by then Elswyth had started without him.
    "Don't lose her," Farold complained. Everything Farold said came out sounding like a complaint.
    "Oh," Selwyn said, as though the thought had never occurred to him. "All right then."
    Farold missed the sarcasm and just muttered, "Dumb twit."
    Elswyth led them deeper into the cave, the light above her head bobbing with her quick sure steps. The awful smell lessened, for the bodies this far in had rested here a very long time and were mostly dust The way narrowed and became even more twisty.
    And then Elswyth ducked her head and stepped sideways through a crack, and her magic light winked out.
    "Now you've done it," Farold told him.
    There's nothing worse than a traitor, except a traitor with a bat's night vision: Farold lifted off his shoulder and abandoned Selwyn to the dark.
    Selwyn hurled himself at the crack. He could feel it with his fingers, but even when he turned sideways as Elswyth had done, he couldn't fit through.
    The pack, he realized; it was the pack that was bumping against the wall, blocking him. He swung it off his back and held it in his right hand, edging his left shoulder into the crack. He scuttled sideways, feeling rock at his back and his front. There was no time to delay for panic at the prospect of getting wedged between immovable rock: He was sure Elswyth would never have the patience to come back for him. Two shuffling steps. Three. And then the walls of rock were gone, both the one his back was scraping against, and the one before his face.
    He was still in darkness, but he could make out shadows, and darker shadows, which meant more light than there had been before. Best of all, the air was crisp and clean, smelling of fallen leaves and apples. He tipped his face upward and saw pinpricks of light.
    He was outside, looking at the night sky.
    Elswyth smacked him on the back of the head. "Are you going to stand there all night gawking at the stars?"
    She couldn't ruin his mood.
He was outside.
He wasn't going to die after all. Or at least not within the next day or so. Or at least not that he knew of. And, anyway, it wouldn't be all alone in the dark, surrounded by those who had gone before him.
    He was outside.
    And even the fact that there was no sign of Farold couldn't diminish that. He trusted that Farold would have the sense not to wander far.
    "This is very inconvenient, you know," Elswyth told him, taking the pack, as though she hadn't carried