Lord Marius leaned against his motorbike looking at Steve with mocking eyes. "Are you sure you want to trade with the elfen?"

"I've done some trading already over the last months," Steve said with false assurance. "It's an obvious step."

"It's a dangerous step," Lord Marius smiled lazily. "I am happy I am here to watch. Lord Haron does not do much business outside his realm. Why him?"

"I know he has a feast coming up, and I know he has a hoard of snake stones. We can do business." Steve took a deep breath. "Is this where we enter?" He looked down to the pool of water beside the country road. "I can't see a gate."

Lord Marius could taste the uncertainty in Steve and savoured it. "Let me tell you of this pool. There are legends in this area about Wicked Jenny. I was here when they started, years ago." Lord Marius loosened his leather jacket. "It must have been at the time of the legions, before there were paladins to protect the people. This pool was covered in waterweed, thick and clinging. I watched a child struggle and nearly drown here."

"You watched a child struggling in the water?" Steve asked incredulously.

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"You see us elfen quite tamed and trammelled," Lord Marius sighed. "You have protectors now but then was different..." He trailed off at the sight of Steve's face. "In the end, the child escaped the pool. I told the locals that a monster with huge green teeth had come and pulled the child beneath the water. They believed me, of course, and their children were warned against the water. They even left offerings to keep Wicked Jenny from stealing more children. The fear and intense belief attracted one of the nature spirits and the legend became a useful fact." Lord Marius waved a hand and an apparition rose from the water. Steve took several involuntary steps back and stared at the awful, weed draped shape with crooked, algae covered teeth that seemed to shamble onto the land.

"Lord Marius, I did not realise that you had company," it hissed. The monster shimmered and in its place was a young girl, about seventeen with an innocent smile and wearing cut-off shorts with a skimpy top. "I nearly got three teenagers last month, " she told Lord Marius. "Such a shame I must behave these days, just keep the gate to Lord Haron's realm."

" Jenny, this is Steve Adderson who wishes to trade with the elfen."

"A brave man," Jenny commented "And what do you bring to trade?"

Steve waved a hand at his car. "Fourteen kilos of white sugar, ten kilos of California raisins, seven litres of rose water and this." He shook a small pot and Jenny and Lord Marius were both suddenly transfixed. "Edible glitter. You may make food that sparkles!"

Without taking her eyes from the jar of green glitter, Jenny nodded. "That is great treasure indeed. I am sure Lord Haron will be glad to see you."