Neither Dead Nor Alive Read Online Free PDF

something. Bad trip, was it?”
    I ignore him. I’m shouting at Fiona, “Gawawl and the rest are real. I had real scabs and scratches... and the bellowing bull; we both heard that.”
    â€œI didn’t,” says Mark.
    Fiona ignores him too. “Mark’s an incomer,” she tells me.
    â€œSo am I,” I remind her. “I’m a Paisley Buddy.”
    â€œAre you really? I mean really, really?”
    I change the subject. “What was that about a charm?”
    â€œI don’t know yet. I’ll have to look through the Red Book again. But, you know, if The Morrigan prophesied that someone of the race of Finn would one day stop the whole terrible business, she must have made a way of getting him into the scene.”
    â€œThen how did I get back to today?”
    â€œI don’t know that either. Maybe the effect just wears off.”
    â€œSo, if you’re right, we know how I got into the past. That makes one thing sure.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI won’t be making the same mistake again.”
    â€œYou jerk.”
    I go ballistic. “You’ve not seen that Gawawl thing – he’s gross – or Fergus with the eye. All right for you. You just sit here nice and cosy and Daddy drives you around in his car... ”
    â€œShut up,” she interrupts. “Now listen to this.”
    She opens the book at another place she’s marked.
    â€œGet a load of this. `In the midst of so many imagined dangers from the unseen world, the sturdy peasant takes courage from the fact that iron is held to be a charm against almost all evil.
    `Reck you not the warlock, the kelpie or the troll
    For iron – cold iron – is master of them all`.”
    â€œSo what’s the big deal?”
    â€œYou said that Gawawl seemed afraid of you. You said he turned his face away. What were you doing at that moment?”
    â€œI dunno. Put my arm up…“ I raise my left hand.
    â€œWhat’s that made of?” she points.
    My steel watch bracelet is glinting on my wrist.
    â€œWhat’s the score then?” I ask. “It’s only a watch.”
    â€œFergus and Finn and all the rest of them lived in the Bronze Age,” she explains. “Those swords and knives you saw were made of bronze. The only iron they knew came from the stars.”
    â€œHow the stars?”
    â€œMeteors. Shooting stars. Sometimes a shooting star falls to the ground and people find iron. In the Bronze Age, before blacksmiths knew how to make iron in furnaces they thought it came from the gods. And it’s a lot harder than bronze, so they were scared of it.”
    â€œAll of them. Even Gawawl?”
    â€œAll of them except maybe The Morrigan. Something else – I know about your mum.”
    I’ve been waiting for this.
    â€œHer name’s Mrs. Hamilton. She used to live in Paisley,” I say, but I know it’s hopeless.
    â€œMy dad knew her when they were kids. She lived over there in Appin. Her name was Morag McAlpine.” She stops as if there’s no answer to that.
    â€œSo what?”
    â€œMcAlpine,” she repeats.
    â€œSo?”
    â€œDidn’t your mum ever tell you about the McAlpines?”
    â€œI just heard the name.”
    Fiona’s staring straight ahead now, not looking at Mark or me. It’s as if she’s reading from a book we can’t see.
    â€œThe McAlpines are descended from Kenneth, son of Alpine, the first king of all Scotland. He was the thirtieth successor of Fergus Mor, who drove the garrisons left by the Romans out of our country, and Fergus was the fortieth in direct line from Cormac, whose mother was the eldest daughter of Finn the Red. Now after Aidan died Cormac was the true heir so... ”
    â€œOK, skip the history lesson,” I cut her short.
    â€œYou are a McAlpine. You are of the race of Finn.”
    â€œYou don’t know that. You’re just making it