Never Trust a Dead Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

sniffed again. She told Selwyn, "
You
smell terrible.
He
most definitely smells dead."
    Which didn't ease Selwyn's fear at all.
    Seeing his face, Elswyth snapped impatiently, "He's not moving."
    "I don't mean now." Selwyn wasn't willing to come any closer. The magic light that hovered over Elswyth's head was bright enough to leave hardly any shadows, which was both fortunate and not. "But..." He pointed first at the body, shrouded in one blanket, then at the arm, which had a separate wrapping, for Farold had already begun to stiffen before the village women prepared him for burial. It was one of the last things Selwyn had seen, as the torches were being carried away: Farold bundled into the niche in the wall, his arm sticking straight out But now it hung down, still wrapped, the edge nearly brushing the floor.
    Did I break his arm?
Selwyn thought, horrified, recalling how he had walked into Farold's body in the dark. Would Farold's spirit be restless because of it?
    Would Farold's spirit be
angry
because of it?
    Surely not as angry as it would be at whoever had killed him, Selwyn assured himself. Surely a man who had gone through murder wouldn't hold the accidental breaking of an arm against someone.
    Elswyth shook her head at him, as though all his thoughts were written on his face. If she had been standing close enough, she probably would have smacked him yet again. Pressing the cloth of her cloak even tighter against her nose, she used her knife to cut open the seam the village women had sewn to close Farold into the blanket She wrinkled her face on seeing the two-day-old corpse, which made Selwyn think better of her. Then she picked up the dangling arm and folded it over Farold's chest, as if she, too, believed in decorum. "Dead bodies go stiff," she told Selwyn. She wiggled the loose arm. "And then they relax again. There's nothing to fret about here, except that in another day the body will start leaking, and we'll want to be away by then."
    And except, Selwyn thought squeamishly, that she seemed to have more experience than anyone should with dead bodies.
    She leaned over and cut off a lock of Farold's light brown hair, then wrapped it in another piece of unbleached wool cloth from her pack. Finished, she tucked the blanket back under Farold's body as carefully as a mother tucking in a sleeping child.
    "I'm finished here," she told Selwyn, "unless you wanted to steal some of the knives or rings or other possessions these people were buried with."
    "No," Selwyn assured her hotly. But then, for the first time, he considered that perhaps not all her suggestions were meant to be taken seriously. "No," he repeated more calmly.
    And she did smile.
    "Come." She swept the light from its place a handspan above her head so that it once more rested not quite in her palm. "Your service to me begins now. You will start by carrying my pack."
    "Elswyth," he called. It seemed overfamiliar, considering the vast difference in their ages, considering the power she had. But he wasn't sure how one addressed a witch. Obviously not
My lady. Your Unholiness?
But she had given the name Elswyth, whether or not that was truly her name.
    She turned back to look at him, with an expression that didn't seem annoyed with his familiarity but that warned she was prepared for—and willing to deal harshly with—any nonsense he might be planning.
    He spoke quickly. "I'm worried about my family."
    She glanced around the burial cavern. "Are they here?" But her tone was suspicious.
    "No," he said hurriedly, before she became too distrustful of anything he said. "But they know I was put here."
    Elswyth obviously didn't see the connection. She gestured for him to continue speaking, motioning with the hand that the light followed, which was dizzying to watch.
    "They won't realize that you've..." He hesitated, then said, "rescued," and she snorted. He took a deep breath. "They won't realize that you've rescued me." He drifted off, unsettled.
    "Then they'll have