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A tear rolled down her cheek, and as she wiped it with the cuff of her nightgown, I put my arm around her. She let me pull her close. Her shaking had eased a bit.

“I made a plan,” she said, “and got the others convinced to come with me. We almost escaped. Alfrun caught us a mile or so from the mountain. Because I had been the leader, because I had interfered as she called it, she cursed me to an eternity of apathy, of watching the world go by without being part of it. She had her master artisan make the doll, and she captured my soul inside the ash wood. The doll was sold and went from owner to owner, home to home, for decades. Maybe centuries. I’ve lived many places, gazed at so many lives.”

“But how are you here now?” Helena asked. “How are you free?”

Lilja blinked up at me. “I’m not sure, but I think when Selma united the necklace and the doll, I was freed from this… this curse of apathy.”

“Yes,” I said as my thoughts suddenly came together to something that made sense. “The day before you came to the store, I had hung the necklace around the doll’s neck because of the likeness of the symbols on both.”

Lilja nodded. “That makes sense. The necklace was sold or lost or who knows, but when it was brought back together with the doll, it was like a key in a lock. It released me.”

“But why did you come here?” Alma asked.

“I woke up in the woods just outside of Norstad. I walked around for a while, confused, but when I saw the sign in the window advertising the position, I felt such a strong need to walk inside. Like… like I was tied to something in here by a rope, and it was pulling me to it.” She nodded across the room to the bureau. “When I saw the doll, I understood why.”

“But you still belong to her? To Alfrun?” I asked, my heart feeling broken because I already knew the answer.

“I’m her prisoner,” Lilja said. “I knew she was searching for me. She’s been getting nearer for a while. The intricate frost flowers. The howl of the wolves. That was her.”

“But I saw her one night,” I said. “She had looked in the window, but she didn’t knock that time.”

“The magic radiates, but I suspect it wasn’t strong enough for her to be sure which house I was in until I put on the necklace. It became stronger then, the magic, only I was fool enough not to realize it.”

I pulled her closer. “You’re not a fool. She’s a monster.”

Alma placed a finger across her lips. “I looked like Alfrun tried to hurt Selma, but she couldn’t. Why?”

“The bracelet I made,” Lilja said. “It has protective runes.”

I held it up close to my face, studying the beads. I hadn’t noticed it before because the symbols were small and integrated into the general pattern, but I saw them now.

“That’s very clever. How do you know them?” I asked.

“My father. He was cruel, but I did learn things from him.”

“He was an artisan?” I asked because I remembered what she had said about him before.

“Yes. All elves love possessing beautiful things. My father made most of his own. He was very skilled. Many elves are. Alfrun has the very best carvers and smiths and painters. She stole some, bribed others to come to her court.”

It all made sense now—in a skewed sort of way, at least. The fine quality of the amber heart and the ash doll, the strange symbols, the mystery of where they had come from. The answers to those questions were all the same—they weren’t made by human hands.

Alma bit the side of her lip. She still had a decidedly skeptical set to her mouth. “I always thought elves were just in children’s tales.”

Helena shook her head. “No, they’re as real as us. All country folk know that. I’ve seen them dance at dawn.”

“They don’t like the sun,” Lilja said. “It’s too strong. It’s the only time they come out, dawn and dusk. Except when someone gets too close.”

“Does the light hurt them?” I asked.

“Yes. The way the sun burns a human, but only it happens much faster.”

“Does it hurt you?”

“No, because I’m a changeling. Not a true elf.”

“Can you ever be turned back?” Helena asked.

“I could but…” Lilja’s throat moved when she swallowed. “Only an elf can undo the curse, and elves don’t ever give up their possessions.”