jmatt explained why you are having trouble with the second parameter, essentially its a list and not a number like the '+' function is expecting. You could write your macro this way to expand the rest list into individual parameters to the '+' function:
(mac meta (x . y)
`(+ ,x ,@y))
I think this macro works a bit more like you are expecting it to.
Everything returns a value in arc, at least nil, or any other value. When you evaluate something through the REPL, the result is displayed. When you call 'pr, all the args are displayed, then the first arg is returned (then, displayed by the REPL).
If you type, say
(for i 1 10 (pr 1 2 3 4 5))
You will not see the 1 repeated on each iteration. It will print nil, though : that's the value returned by 'for.