Listen Carefully Part 4

The faerie disappeared in a plume of golden smoke.

Arabella ran her hands over her face. “Thirty burning broomsticks. What is that supposed to mean?”

But before Arabella could even try to answer her own question, Robyn shot off up the hill.

Perhaps Robyn was right and the egg was simply at the top of the peak, to be won by persistence and strength. But neither the faerie nor Mrs. Moon had said the dragon’s egg was up the hill; and Mrs. Moon had told them to use their brain.

That was when Mrs. Moon’s words came back to her – “Listen carefully.”

Hadn’t the faerie said that, too?

Arabella steadied her breathing and closed her eyes. For a moment, all she could hear was the sound of her own heartbeat in her ears, and then an anguished shriek from Robyn up the hill. But then, once she’d caught her breath, there was another sound, too. Something light and musical.

Water.

A stream meandered down from the peak and disappeared behind the back of the hill. From where she stood, Arabella could just see the tip of moss-covered rocks. A faint, orange glow encompassed them. As soon as she spied it, the sound of the stream grew louder in her ears, beckoning.

She smiled.

But that was when she noticed them – footprints, headed towards that stream. Somehow, someone was ahead of her… and judging by the jagged lines, whoever it was had been moving fast.

Oh, no.

Arabella set off into a run.

NEXT STOP: Part 5 Bank Gardens