Bronze Pen (9781439156650) Read Free

moved even closer and, once again, reached out to touch her hand with its bill.
    After that brief moment of contact the duck raised its head, started away, and stopped to look back with a sharp nod that left Audrey absolutely certain that she was supposed to follow—and she did. To follow a duck who, like Lily in her grandmother’s stories, knew how to lead people to places they should go. In Lily’s case it had often been to where a person could make herself useful by turning over a stone or brick to uncover a tasty bunch of worms and sow bugs.
    â€œAll right. I’m coming,” Audrey said. “I’m following you. Where are the worms?” And she did follow, only a few steps behind, as the duck waddled with awkward dignity across the high terrace and through the grove of saplings on the far edge of her family’s property—and kept on going. Kept going past several rocky places where there might be goodworm hunting and continued on, even when Audrey tried to tempt it by turning over a flat rock and a chunk of tree bark.
    The duck’s shuffling gait was not swift, but it seemed to cover ground with surprising efficiency. Skirting trees and bushes, on paths that were still damp from the recent rain, it paused to look back now and then before continuing on up the slope that led toward the foothills. Paused, and then, when Audrey was lagging too far behind, flapped its wings and nodded its head in a way that clearly meant for her to hurry. No longer bothering to detour around the muddiest places, Audrey made an effort to keep up, but as she slid and skidded on the narrow path, she thought, more than once, that the duck seemed not only confident, but also strangely demanding for a common barnyard fowl. A barnyard fowl, but on the other hand, perhaps something much more.
    They’d crossed the first shallow gully and started up the next steep rise before Audrey began to guess where they were going. Guessed, and then wondered why. Why would a duck be going to such a place? Ducks, as far as she knew, were not cave dwellers.
    But her guess proved to be a good one. The duck continued to follow the secret trail that Audrey remembered very well from the days of the Mayberry pirates. It wasn’t long before it reached the bottom of an almost vertical cliff, and the entrance to the forbidden cave.
    CHAPTER 3
    J UST AS SHE REMEMBERED, THE HILLSIDE was almost covered by a thick growth of ivy that cascaded down the slope in long leafy coils. She remembered the ivy, but there was much more of it now, so thickly overgrown that the entrance to the cave was almost hidden. Audrey stopped and watched as the duck headed directly toward a narrow opening in the heavy curtain of vine. It stopped one more time to look back before disappearing.
    After pausing doubtfully for only a second, Audrey was about to follow when she was startled by a flurry of sound and motion, as if the whole hill had suddenly come to life. All across the hillside green leaves quivered and shook as dozens of small dark birds erupted from the ivy, chirping frantically.
    Audrey staggered back, throwing up her hands to protect her head as the blackbirds surrounded her, their fluttering wings brushing her face and hair before they tookoff to disappear into a nearby grove of trees. Blackbirds living in the ivy? She didn’t remember them. No birds when she was there before, not even one. She was quite certain of that.
    She was still staring, first at the now limp and silent vines and then off toward the trees, when the duck reappeared. But only briefly, to nod at her impatiently, before it disappeared back through the ivy curtain. A flicker of memory reminded Audrey of something she had just written. The part about how Heather had risked her life by following an animal into a dark alley. And then she was allowing herself to be led into a secret and sinister cave.
    Once inside, it was surprisingly dark. Much darker than she remembered from