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"Merton knew you hadcorrectly "All along?" It couldn't have been all along

"He was the one who found it," Farold said "You dropped it that day everybody was helping Snell's ith the hay rass after we'd finished eating, and we thought it would be a good joke, after you'd been showing off with it, as usual - "

"I," Selwyn protested, interrupting But he couldn't deny it He was proud of the knife his father had brought back from the wars He did have a tendency to take it out whenever he had an excuse to show off the elaborate handle, the finely wrought blade of high-quality steel that honed to a ers' common blades Instead, he asked, "Did Raedan know, too?"

Farold shrugged "I didn't tell hi about it," he finished "I said I'd keep it because we both knew if Merton had it, he'd never be able to keep a straight face once you started asking But I would have given it back"

"Did he knohere you kept it?" Merton? he thought Merton, and s "I don't think I ever specifically said," he told Selwyn "But it was in h to find"

"I don't think ahi for a weapon"

"Why would Merton co me?" Farold asked

"Why else would he coh not to wake you?"

"We don't know that he did" Farold was raising his voice, just as Selas "I thought you said it was Linton who killed me"

"I don't know," Selwyn shouted at hiht be Linton Maybe it was Merton Maybe it was so murdered: You were" It was hard to think of Merton as a murderer, but then it was hard to think of hi to let the trick go on even as Selas being left in the cave to die

"Well, don't take your bad tes than take this abuse" He fluttered off into the night, leaving Selwyn truly alone

Chapter Ten

When Seloke after a few hours of fitful sleep, he was surprised to find Farold had returned and was once ht, he wouldn't have been surprised to find himself abandoned

Selwyn drank from the river and found a few more handsful of berries, but the season was nearly over and most of the berries ithered and brown and did little to satisfy his hunger And in all this while, Farold hadn't budged "Farold," he called

Farold continued to hang, his wings wrapped around hio"

No reaction

Maybe he had decided to return to the afterlife, as he had threatened Or maybe the bat body itself had died Where would that leave Farold?

Alarmed, Selwyn poked at the tiny for it was alive, anyway "Go away," Farold mumbled sleepily

Selwyn leaned in closer, so that he could simultaneously poke a second time and yell into the bat's enormous ears: "Farold, you lazy lout! Wake up!"

The bat snarled at hi an incredible number of tiny but very sharp teeth

Selwyn jue It once "

"I know," Farold said, never opening his eyes "Bats are nocturnal"

"You're not a bat," Selwyn tried to reason with him "Not really"

"Tell ht"

"So was I"

"Maybe some fool has turned you into a bat, too," Farold said "Maybe you better check"

Selwyn shook Farold's branch Farold's tiny clawed feet held on He opened one eye to glare at Selwyn "Go away," Farold told hi to waste a whole day waiting for you" A whole hard-earned day

"Then go without me," Farold said "You were the one who had to have a nap last night when it was a sensible tireed," Selwyn said, which they hadn't - not exactly - "that it was no good going at night The villagers would have run us off"

"You can't fight instinct," Farold said froht not be able to find Penryth on his own Last night, at the beginning, he hadn't known that bats can't stand; he had barely been able to ly different for soth long and traveling by air But how did one transport a bat asn't up to transporting itself? Elswyth hadn't given hiriht He certainly didn't want to carry Farold in his hand all the way Looking around, he saw the straw hat Elswyth hadFarold in the crown of the hat would be onlyFarold in the pal on to that branch, could you just as well hang on to the brim of my hat?"

Farold once more opened one sleepy eye "That would look silly," he pointed out

"Do you have a better idea?"

Farold sighed Selwyn put on the hat Farold let go of the branch and fluttered to take hold of the back edge He was hardly any weight at all, dangling back there "I told you to have her ," he said

Selwyn circled around Penryth to go first to his own home He had no idea hoould explain what had happened and convince his family that he was really hiining hi