Free Air Apparent by Piers Anthony Page B

“I am Bathos Bat, returning to my niche.” The guard surely would not understand about the exchange of minds.
    “You’re too late,” the sentry retorted. “The cave is closed for the night.”
    “But I need to get back,” Hugo protested.
    “You should have returned on time. Now go away.”
    He was stuck. He couldn’t get back to exchange with Bathos. What was he going to do?
    He flew back to the forest and landed beside a deserted monument, because he was having trouble focusing on a solution while flying aimlessly.
    “What ho, bat!”
    Oops, it was a demon. The next-to-last thing he wanted was trouble with a demon. “If I trespassed on your territory, I’m sorry and I’ll move out immediately,” he said in bat talk.
    “Demons don’t have territories, dumbbell. I just happen to like tombs. What’s your excuse?”
    This seemed friendly enough, as demons went. “I’m Bathos Bat, or rather, a man borrowing this bat’s body. I’m trying to find a way out of a dungeon cell.”
    “And I’m DeCrypt. I decode things.”
    Hugo tried to smile, but the bat face wasn’t right for it. “Demoness Metria could use your help, because she’s always getting the wrong word.”
    “But she gets cross when you provide it,” DeCrypt said.
    “So you know her.”
    “Who doesn’t? She’s halfway crazy.”
    “She is,” Hugo agreed.
    “Now stop molesting my tomb.”
    So much for demons not having territories. He would have to find another place to roost until morning. When the bats cleared out by day, he would be able to reenter the cave.
    He flew to one side of the cave entrance and the other, seeking some suitable temporary niche, but there seemed to be none.
    Then another bat voice called to him. “What’s your problem, Batbrain?”
    Someone was contacting him! “I need a place for the night,” he said. “I stayed out too late, and the sentry won’t let me back in.”
    “I have a spare niche,” the bat said. “But it will cost you. What do you have that I want?”
    He realized as he approached that this bat was female. “I don’t know. What do you want?”
    “Fruit, of course.”
    Aha. “Let me join you, and I will tell you a story you may find hard to believe, but it can lead to all the fruit you want.”
    “What a line! But know, O stranger, that I am a warrior female and will rip your wings off if you make one false move. Come on in.”
    This did not seem entirely promising, but he seemed to lack options. He came to land beside her in her niche. Actually he caught hold of the niche ceiling with his clawed feet and swung to hang upside down beside her; his body did it automatically. “No false moves,” he agreed.
    “I am Brunhilda Bat, warrior and feminist galore. Who the hang are you?”
    “Well, I’m not exactly who I seem to be,” he said cautiously. “That’s part of my story.”
    “Then who are you really? You look like a bat to me.”
    “I am Hugo Human. I exchanged minds with Bathos Bat, which is who I seem to be.”
    “You’re right: I find this hard to believe. Tell me your whole story. Then I’ll decide how big a liar you are.”
    So Hugo told her the story, up to the present.
    “Well, you’re certainly a liar,” she said. “I know of that cell. It has been occupied by a human since before we colonized this cave. So you couldn’t have arrived here only two days ago. How do you explain that?”
    “I must have—” Suddenly a dim bulb flashed. “I must have exchanged bodies with the prisoner, just as later I exchanged minds with Bathos. So that person is now at the Good Magician’s Castle—” He broke off. “Oh, no!”
    “Oh, what?”
    “He may be chasing after my dear wife Wira. That’s a horrible thought.”
    “Not if she likes him better than you.”
    Hugo felt a surge of anger, before he realized she was teasing him. “She wouldn’t give him as much as a stink horn. But she must be really worried about me.”
    “Maybe so. You seem like a decent sort.”