First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts Read Online Free PDF

selkies and fewer humans might make a greener land and a bluer sea.”
    “Yann!” Rona said indignantly, “The Master doesn’t want more centaurs and selkies and fairies and phoenixes, he wants more of his own kind. He wants more minotaurs and basilisks and manticores . And he doesn’t want equilibrium, he wants empire. Worst of all, he wants to know all the answers at once, and that is simply not allowed.”
    Helen looked back at Yann, who was glowering at the ground.
    “So how will you find the Book?” she asked.
    He didn’t look at Helen but he did answer her question.
    “The Book left us a clue. We hope it wants to be found, but to find it we must answer its questions, as it has so often answered ours. We hope the Master doesn’t answer the questions first, or his minions will be ahead of us on the trail, not behind.”
    “And was it one of the Master’s creatures that bit you?”
    “I think so, yes. As I leapt over the wall of the garden, something bit me and when I kicked my leg free, my skin ripped. But I didn’t see what kind of animal it was. If I could see the teeth, I might be able to work it out.”
    “I’ll go and get the teeth for you.” Helen wanted a moment to think by herself.
    She opened the door, and was hit in the face by a flurry of feathers and claws. She slammed the door shut, but a heavy bird was already tangled in her hair.
    As she tried frantically to haul the bird off, she could feel its clawed feet scraping her scalp and hard feathers poking towards her eyes. Her fingers , reaching high above her, couldn’t get a grip on the flapping wings. She had her teeth gritted against the scream of panic that was growing in her chest.
    Rona was suddenly beside her, saying calmly, “He’s a friend, Helen, he’s a friend, stay still.”
    Helen lowered her hands, and stood still, her legs shaking and her shoulders crawling up toher ears. Rona and Lavender untangled the bird, and while Rona smoothed the bird’s feathers, Lavender sat on Helen’s shoulder and tidied her hair. Though Helen hadn’t made a noise, her eyes were watering.
    Yann walked quietly up and gave her a cloth from the workbench behind the car. “Wipe the sweat off your forehead,” he said, without looking at her face. She took the slightly dusty cloth, and muttered, “Thanks.” She wiped her face. Now she could look at the bird.
    He was much bigger than Lavender. The size of a large cockerel, or even a goose. His slightly ruffled feathers were copper, orange and gold, and as he took off from Rona’s hands, his long tail feathers flickered like flames. He could have been an exotic bird of paradise, or a very elegant cousin of the pheasants in the fields out the back.
    Yann wasn’t playing bad-tempered games now. He introduced the bird immediately. “This is Catesby. He’s a phoenix. Catesby, this is the healer’s child. Do you have news?”
    Catesby clearly did have news, but as he squawked and swooped round the garage, Helen didn’t have the faintest idea what it was. Yann and Rona were shocked into silence though and Lavender burst into tears.
    Then Catesby was quiet and Yann announced, “We must leave now. One of our friends is hurt and has been followed home by the Master’s creatures. We must go to her.”
    Helen asked, “Can I help?”
    “What?”
    “If one of your friends is hurt, can I help?”
    “How? You told me last night you have none of your mother’s healing skills and no interest in learning them.”
    Lavender flew into Yann’s face. “How’s your leg, Yann?”
    Yann swatted her away.
    Helen grinned. “All I need to help your friend tonight — like I helped you last night — is a first aid kit.”
    “What’s a first aid kit?”
    “The equipment most likely to be used out in the field. Swabs, dressings, basic medicines, needles and sutures. It can keep someone alive until the real healers get there. I can get a kit in a moment. What kind of … friend is hurt?”
    Yann just laughed.