Dragonfire Read Free Page B

change themselves into birds and animals, you see. If anyone appeared suddenly, they would merge into whatever animal was nearby — a sheep or rabbit or anything. Even a bird. They could still talk to us, though.”
    “It’s true, Dad!” Neil nodded. “They can do magic!”
    His father heaved a sigh. “You don’t have to convince me,” he said quietly. “I know all about the MacArthurs.”
    “You know
what?
” His wife looked utterly flabbergasted. “Don’t be ridiculous, John! We’ve lived here for years! How on earth can there be people living in the hill that I don’t know about?”
    The Park Ranger sighed. “You remember that bad winter we had a few months before Neil was born?”
    “Of course I remember it! You nearly died rescuing some sheep on the hill! Do you think I’ll ever forget it? You fell down a cliff!”
    “I should have told you at the time but I … well, quite frankly, I thought that if I told you there were faeries living in Arthur’s Seat you’d have thought that the bang I got on my head had scrambled my brains!”
    “Faeries? Neil didn’t say anything about faeries!”
    “It’s what my father used to call them. He was Park Ranger before me, remember? He told me about them. According to him, they’ve always lived in Arthur’s Seat.”
    “You’ve known about them all along, Dad?” Clara sat up, her eyes accusing. “And you never told
us!
”
    “Well, I didn’t know that you had anything to do with them, did I? And if I’d started talking about faeries living in Arthur’s Seat, you’d probably have thought I’d gone crazy!”
    “What happened, Dad?” asked Neil curiously.
    “They saved my life, that’s what happened. I slipped and fell down a cliff when I was bringing in some sheep. It was pitch black and there was a blizzard. I more or less knocked myself out when I fell and I’d have died in a snow drift if they hadn’trescued me. I only came round when I was half way home and after what my father had said … well, I just knew it was them. Your mother thought I’d made my own way back but the truth is that they carried me.”
    “You should have told me, John,” his wife said sharply. “When I opened the door that night I thought I saw some people on the road outside. They had sheepskin jackets on, I remember, but I was so upset at finding you the way I did that all I could think of was getting you to the hospital.”
    “They must have been MacArthurs, then,” Clara nodded. “That’s what they wear — sheepskin jackets over leggings and tunics.”
    “All this, though,” interrupted her father, “doesn’t explain why you had to leave the house tonight and go up to the well!”
    “It was my fault, Dad. Clara didn’t want to come.”
    “But why, Neil? Why go in the first place?”
    “I told you. It was because of the MacArthurs. They’ve stopped coming out onto the hill and … well, I don’t know how to explain it, but there’s a strange atmosphere up there just now.”
    His father nodded. “I’ve noticed it too,” he admitted. “The animals are jumpy, the geese and swans have left the lochs and now there are those weird noises …”
    “Not only from the well,” asserted Neil, “but from other places too. Something’s going on inside the hill, Dad, and I’m worried about them.”
    “I don’t know whether to believe you or not,” muttered his mother, running her hands through her hair.
    “I’m sure they’re in trouble, Mum. I thought they might be coming out of the hill in the dark instead of the daylight. That’s why we went to the well!”
    “Tell me about the bird now,” said his father.
    “It was a horrible thing, Dad,” interrupted Clara. “It was as big as an eagle and had a beak like an eagle, but it was more like a vulture with horrible droopy feathers. And its claws!” sheshuddered. “It would have attacked me if Neil hadn’t grabbed it!”
    “I think,” interrupted Neil, “that it got as much of a fright as