Theuli looked at her sharply, and Deborah saw that she was mistaken about the look in the Elf woman’s eyes: it was not anger, but worry.
‘Us?’
Deborah nodded. ‘There was a woman . . . she came up to the wagon and was looking right at me. And then she left, and I shouted at her to stop, but nobody woke up. I followed her down to the water, and we walked right past the guards, but they didn’t even look up at us. There were more women like her in the water.’
Theuli remained thoughtful for some time. At last, Deborah heard Malina’s voice.
‘Was it the Naiadi, do you think?’
‘It was undoubtedly the Naiadi,’ Theuli replied, ‘though why they would trouble themselves with a Human girl, and in such a manner, defies understanding.’
‘What are the Naiadi?’ Deborah asked.
Theuli’s answer was guarded. ‘They are fresh-water Nymphs, sometimes known to inhabit such places as that which we left yesterday morning. They are perilous, if only because they are puissant, and blithe of scruple in their dealings with lesser folk. At a whim, they might benefit or threaten the lives of the unwary who wander into their demesne, though never before have I heard it said of them that they might prey on young women. The old tales speak only of the threat to menfolk . . . but I wonder now if that was their true intent.’