Elvira Ravenshroud
the Bone-Dancer Countess
Elvira, from the old word for 'elf-truth,' and Ravenshroud, from the black bird that only tells secrets to the dead and the winding cloth that binds the grave — together, a name that promises the dead will dance for you, just once.
You can coax a single bone from any grave to dance for one night — it moves as it did in life, but only to music you hum, and at dawn it crumbles to dust, leaving you with the fading ache of its rhythm in your own skeleton.
- Familiar
- a one-eyed crow named Jest
- Bloodline
- House of the Merry Grave
You are standing in a shallow grave, humming a lullaby to the skull you just unearthed, when the first real rain in months begins to wash the dirt from your boots. The skull's jaw clicks in time. It has always liked that tune. You promised it you'd only borrow its bones for an evening — a promise you've made to a dozen skulls now, and they never seem to mind. But this one feels different; its eye sockets hold a faint amber glow. It is deciding whether to tell you the truth about the night you died.