“It’s been a long time,” said Cathal, “and I’m not accustomed to being idle. I’ve worked on certain skills of which I had only the rudiments before.” He had his hands on the table before him; his first finger moved slightly, pointing toward the mirror. “One scarcely needs them in this place, but one must do something to fill in the time. I hope, one day, to make some kind of important discovery; something new to the craft of magic. But my progress is slow. My father finds that frustrating.”

“Cathal,” I said, and put my arms around him from behind, laying my head on his shoulder.

I felt his body tense, but he said nothing.

“Please,” I said. “Please lie with me, just this once, just this one night, that’s all I’m asking. If we can’t be together as man and wife in the human world, at least I will have this to remember. I love you. I want you. You must know that.” And as I spoke, although it was a game, although it was a deception, I meant those words with every part of my being. My body ached for him; my heart longed for him. I heard how my desire throbbed in my voice.

Cathal shook me off, getting to his feet. “No!” he said. “I won’t listen to you. You do a good job of imitating her; so good you almost fooled me for a moment. But I know you are not Clodagh. You can’t be. If she were here I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off her. I would hold her so close she’d beg me to let her breathe. I’d kiss her so hard she’d plead for mercy. I’d unfasten her clothing and lie with her on that hard bed, and what was between us would be as far above the ordinary congress between man and woman as the stars are above their pale reflections in the lake below. I know you’re not Clodagh because when you touch me I feel nothing, you understand, nothing at all. You might as well be a creature made of twigs and leaves like that wretched changeling she so doted on. I want you to go now. For the love of all the gods, leave me alone.”

If he was acting he was doing a fine job of it. His words made me sick with anguish. He had moved into the shadows by the wall again, his arms wrapped around himself, his eyes bright with pain.

“I see,” I said, and my own voice was shaking with a hurt that was entirely real. “Well, that makes your position pretty clear. But I’m not going. The agreement is that I can stay until dawn, and that’s what I’ll be doing. So it looks as if I’ll sit on one side of the chamber and you’ll sit on the other, and we’ll ignore each other until it’s time for me to leave. That should be a fascinating way to pass the night. When he said you wouldn’t be capable I didn’t believe him for a moment. But it seems it’s true. Being here has unmanned you. And it’s blinded you. It’s as if he’s set a wall between you and what’s in front of you, a barrier you can’t see through to the truth.”