Page 6 (1/2)

He set the body - with its arms now folded properly across its chest - back into the wall niche, which he thought meant they would be ready to leave the cave

Apparently not

"What?" Farold dehed - loudly - but waited

Selwyn gave Farold what his uncle Derian had spoken at the cave ood boy, with a lot of years ahead of him"

"That's it?"

Selas ready to cope with annoyance But Farold sounded so dejected, Selwyn didn't have the heart to point out that he'd done a fairly good imitation of Derian Nor did he think it appropriate to say: "Here lies Farold He wasn't as bad as a skunk dying under the porch" Instead, he said only, "It's distracting, with you standing there listening"

"I'll be happy to help," Elswyth offered, "e set you down for good"

Farold didn't take aht,wasn't easy Farold, in the bat's body, had as ht

"Let the bat's mind take over," Elswyth recommended "It kno to fly"

"It doesn't have a o outside to eat bugs with the rest of the swarm"

'"Swarm'?" Elswyth repeated contele of bats is called"

"Colony," Elswyth said "A group of bats is called a colony I was about to say you're thinking too s," Farold scoffed "Big thinkers"

"Hang upside down by their toes," Elswyth added, e for him

Apparently the htened 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 hu 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 ait across his back and adjust the ropes across his shoulders - whichto move to his other shoulder - and by then Elswyth had started without hi Farold said ca like a coht had never occurred to hiht then"

Farold missed the sarcasm and just muttered, "Duht 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 ht winked out

"Now you've done it," Farold told hi 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 hiers, 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 bu 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 tied between immovable rock: He was sure Elsould never have the patience to co 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 ht than there had been before Best of all, the air was crisp and clean, s of fallen leaves and apples He tipped his face upward and saw pinpricks of light

He was outside, looking at the night sky

Elswyth s to stand there all night gawking at the stars?"

She couldn't ruin histo 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 hin 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 hih she hadn't carried it all the way here without hi it herself before she er she traced a circle on his forehead "Seven days before the circle closes," she said, using the voice that he already recognized as her voice of power She walked around hi so that shearound his head, froht ear, around the back, over his left ear, back to his forehead "Seven days, then you will be drawn to er down, over nose, lips, chin, and neck, then off to the left, where she made a circle over his heart "Seven days, and you will have to come to me" She laid her palm over his heart

Selwyn felt the beat alter, the rhyth how he knew - to match hers

She withdrew her hand, adjusted the backpack, and started walking

"Wait," Selwyn called after her He'd never been here before, on the far slope of the hill that held the burial cave; he'd never heard of this second entrance But he could get his bearings by the tall hill that was called the Grandfather because it somewhat resembled the profile of an old man with a beard "Penryth is that way"

"Go that way," Elswyth called, without even looking back "Coet hiet hiuessed that "But I don't knohere you live" Selwyn took several steps to keep her within hearing "Beyond the wood, did you say?" Not that that helped: The whole area was heavily wooded The only witch he had ever heard of nearby was in the village of Woldhanoood eye Elswyth, though white haired and wrinkled, stood tall and straight, and he hadn't noticed that either of her eyes was cloudy

"In the wood," Elswyth corrected She turned then to look at hiestured toward hiainst her own heart Selwyn's heart did an odd, almost-painful flutter "In seven days, you will be drawn tome"

She let her hand drop, and Selwyn's heart stopped its frantic racing, his head cleared of the buzzing that had suddenly filled it, the , and he could catch his breath