“No, but I was the only one able to save your life.” She shook her head. “Did you not listen to the warning Castell brought to you?”

I raised my eyebrows. “You know about that?”

She waved a hand. “She mentioned it. Matter of professional courtesy.”

And maybe a desire to avoid annoying the old goddess who had a vested interest in me. Thunder cracked overhead, and the building shivered under its force. It was almost as if the sky had heard and agreed with that silent thought.

“Her warning didn’t make a whole lot of sense. I mean, who the hell is ‘she that stands with her head in the clouds at the junction of earth and sky’? How am I even supposed to find something like that?”

She tsked. “Are you not aware there is something called Google these days?”

“And such an undefined search is likely to bring up nothing more than books and all manner of random facts on the horizon.”

Another tsk. “I can see Castell will have to advise your father to speak plainer in future messages.”

My eyebrows rose again. “Do you think there will be future messages?”

She shrugged. “Who knows? He’s obviously beavering away in the background to help you, but what his intentions are overall, I cannot say. And it’s not like he or his fellow curmudgeons have revealed themselves to us. Not for centuries.”

“Then what am I missing? I take it you do understand what my father meant?”

She sighed. It was a very put-upon sound. “I suspect he meant Beinn Nibheis—or Ben Nevis, as it is more commonly called these days. It’s a mountain in Scotland and the highest in the UK. Over the centuries it has been called many things, including the mountain of immortality, the mountain with its head in the clouds, and even mountain of heaven.”

“And someone lives at the top of it?”

“No.”

“Then why am I being told to seek she who does?”

Beira hesitated. “I can’t explain, because I can’t even be sure anything will happen, despite your father’s demand you go there. The junctions of heaven and earth don’t often open to those who are human.”

“Which I’m not.”

She waved a hand and said crossly, “Figure of speech, as you’re well aware.”

A smile tugged at my lips. “Does that mean this junction is some kind of portal? Is it the place old gods go to move on?”

“No. It’s more a... confluence.”

“Well, that makes total sense.”

“It will when you get there.” She handed me a glass of rather murky-looking water. “Drink that. It’ll help with the lingering aches.”

I tentatively accepted it. “What’s in it?”

“Herbs and crap. Stop being juvenile about it, and just drink it.”

I quickly did so. It tasted as murky and horrible as it looked. I half gagged but managed to keep the wretched stuff down. I handed her the glass and then said, “Why were you the only one who could save my life? Darby’s a healer—”