Jedediah''s father walked out of his life forty years ago. Now he''s back. He won''t apologise, he doesn''t explain - and, impossibly, he hasn''t aged a day.
If you asked the folks of Gyrford, they''d tell you Jedediah Smith looked up to his father. After all, Corbie Mackem was the Sarsen Shepherd: the man who saved the Smith clan from Ab, the terrifyingly well-meaning fey who blighted a whole generation with unwanted gifts.
Corbie was a good fairy-smith. And if he wasn''t a good father, well, that isn''t something Jedediah likes to talk about. Especially since no one knows where Corbie''s body lies: the day of his son''s wedding, forty-odd years ago, he set off to travel and was never seen again.
These days Jedediah is a respectable elder, more concerned with his wayward grandson John than with his long-buried past, and he has other problems on his mind. There''s the preparations for Saint Clement''s Day, and the odd fact that birds all over the county
