At first glance, Castell looked to be little more than a small bundle of rags. Her long silver hair was rather wild-looking and knotted with leaves and twigs. Her features were pale and heavily wrinkled by time, and her hands claw-like and spotted with age.

She sat at a table pushed up against one of the five sturdy oak posts supporting the upper floors. Its song reverberated through the floorboards under my feet, and it was a joyous, welcoming sound. It wasn’t aimed at me, though, but rather the woman who leaned against it.

A woman who was as old as that post was, and who’d known it in its prime, when it was in truth a tree rather than a mere building support.

This woman wasn’t a hag.

She was a light elf. A very, very old light elf.

As I neared the table, her gaze snapped up to mine, and my steps briefly faltered. Her eyes were white. Completely white. There was no pupil or iris, just an unnatural milkiness that shone with luminous power.

A power that was almost godly.

I shivered but forced myself on. A smile tugged at her thin lips, and the corners of her unusual eyes crinkled. “I can taste your shock from here, young woman, and I admire your ability to keep it contained. Most folk don’t have such presence of mind or manners the first time they meet me. Who’s that with you?”

“My brother, Lugh.”

“Ah yes, the dead antiquarian’s partner. I’m told you rang last night, young man, but sadly, I was in no position to answer the call.” She cackled, and it was a decidedly wicked sound. “Had the arms of earth wrapped around me and was too lost in passion to be worried about such mundane things as phone calls. At my age, dearies, desire doesn’t come calling all too often, and you have to grab it while you can.”

I blinked, more than a little taken back. Such candor wasn’t what I’d expected from a light elf. While they were extremely promiscuous beings, even when married, they tended to be emotionally remote. It was very rare for them to share intimate sexual details with people they knew, let alone complete strangers.

“And now I’ve gone and shocked you both once more.” She cackled again and patted the table. “Come now, sit down, because I’ve a message that must be delivered and not all that much time left in which to do it.”

I pulled out the chair opposite her. Lugh sat next to me. “Why?” he said. “Because, if you’ll excuse my candor, you may be old but don’t look on death’s door to me.”

She laughed again. “And you’d be right, my lovely. But you two took your time getting here, and my driver is picking me up at eight thirty.” She raised her left hand. “Can’t exactly drive myself anywhere with claws like these.”

“Then why don’t you get them fixed? They can, you know,” I said.