Page 72 of Tangled Power
“How are you handling being back here?” Luc asked.
“Fine.” She shrugged. The village of Bury loomed before them. She said she’d been ready for it but wasn’t sure that was true. It didn’t matter that she had saved the villagers of Compass Lake or helped save other villages in their travels. Her failure here lingered. If she tried to get more information from Luc at the market, would she have believed her weapons were vital to defending against the mist plague? Would it have helped Tara if she had one of Rose’s magical weapons with her?
She urged her horse forward into the mist that still hung over Bury. Luc still had a borrowed weapon, and everyone else had protection. There was no need to hesitate. Her gaze roamed down the path that led to the barn on the outskirts of town. That was where Tara had been waiting for Rose when the mist plague struck. She shook her head. Going to see her sleeping form would do her no good. It would only delay them.
She watched Luc open his mouth—likely to ask if she wanted to see Tara—and close it just as quickly as she’d resolved herself forward. Her shoulders straightened, and her gaze returned to the path before them.
“Carter, I wonder if I could ask something of you.” Arie’s voice spoke to the entire group as they trekked slowly out of the village and onto the crater trail.
His enthusiastic nod gave him away. The Vesten Point was far too eager for his patron’s attention. Rose stretched her neck from side to side as she considered what she was about to do.
“We’d like to test something. I’ll be honest: I don’t know what will happen, and it will be a considerable risk to you.”
Rose smiled. She shouldn’t have worried about Arie. Of course he would lay it all out for the Vesten Point. Arie wasn’t a power-hungry god or one who dismissed the needs of thosearound him. He wouldn’t try to use Carter to further his own power permanently. Arie would help them get the proof they needed to confirm Aterra’s plan—before sending Luc into the Lake of the Gods. Assuming he could even access it.
“I can do whatever you need, Lord Arctos,” Carter said.
“I think you should get all the facts before agreeing,” Rose said.
“She’s right,” Arie said. “We want to test the bond between Compass Point and patron god. From Juliette’s ritual with Zrak, we understand that blood has to be shared. If the test is successful, it will enhance my power. I, in turn, can pass that on to the Vesten fae, or I can keep it for myself.”
“That’s quite a hypothesis. We would prove whether all Compass Points and patrons have the connection Juliette described?”
“You weren’t aware of it, Arctos?” Juliette asked. She’d been listening intently. She seemed so sure it applied to everyone.
“We never discussed it. We went through many details before creating the fae and in the weeks after. Zrak, especially, prepared me for all manner of contingencies. I’m not sure how well you know him through your connection…” Arie paused as if waiting for the Osten Point to fill in his gap.
She didn’t.
“Well, he was—is,” Arie corrected, “a planner. He had plans for everything and told them to the god he thought most likely to need them. In most cases, that was me.” Arie ruffled his feathers. “I can’t imagine him leaving this loophole without telling us.”
“Maybe you don’t know the Osten god as well as you thought you did,” Juliette replied coolly.
Arie bristled again. “That may be true, which is why I propose this test.”
“Why are you so intent on testing this now?” Juliette’s eyes scanned Arie, Rose, and Luc. She noted as Rose’s gaze trailed to Luc.
Carter ignored Juliette’s question, asking one of his own. “So, you don’t know if it will work, but do you think it will?”
“I am not sure. I want to think it won’t—but I fear it will.”
“I’ll do it.”
“Are you sure?” Rose asked. “We don’t know what the outcome will be. Arie could become the next Aterra—seeking his own power and bringing further imbalance to the continent.”
“I—”
“Ahhh,” Juliette cut off Arie’s outrage. “You are testing this to see if this is what Aterra has planned for the Suden Point? You think...what? That he will take all of Luc’s power for himself?”
Rose bit her lip. They hadn’t told Juliette and Carter about Luc’s specific hypothesis. Rose told herself they didn’t need to share it until it was confirmed—it was still just suspicion. But with Juliette asking so blatantly about it, she couldn’t evade answering.
“I think it’s more than that, Juliette,” Luc said. “I think he made me precisely because of how power can transfer between god and Compass Point.”
Juliette sucked in a breath. “Made you…”
Rose saw the pieces slide into place, the time Aterra spent among the Suden that Kenna deemed inappropriate. Luc’s unexplained power and lack of paternal claim.
Luc nodded at Juliette’s unspoken conclusion. “We’ll be at the lake soon enough. If I am Aterra’s blood, I should be able to access it.” He paused. “But after that, I’d like to know what he could do with me before heading straight toward him.”
