Page 10 of Polar Fates
“Oh, I’m pretty sure they are,” she laughs brightly. “Just because only one of them is bound to you doesn’t mean the others don’t belong toyou.”
“How do you knowthat?”
“Isla sweetie, I know a lot more than you think. And feel free to voice your suspicion to the others. They can’t hear your thoughts like Ido.”
Stunned, I steel my mind, doing the same that I usually do when I try to keep outAlis.
“Not working,” the girl says cheerily and I glare ather.
“What suspicions?” Bertie asksquietly.
I sigh. “That she’s one of theFates.”
“Before you all faint from shock - no, I’m not one of the Fates,” the girl giggles. “I’m only their lowly messenger. Servant, if you like. Lover, occasionally. Have you figured it outyet?”
Dumbfounded, we all stare at her. I was right, she’s not a normal girl. She’s definitely not the age she seems to be. And probablydangerous.
“Have we figured what out, exactly?” I challenge her and Torben shoots me a proudglance.
“Why you’re on Inchbrach. Why this island isspecial.”
“I’m sure you’re going to tellus.”
She sighs. “Yes, but only because I have better things to do than babysit a horde of bears. The Ladies want to see you and Inchbrach is the place you’ll get to do that. There’s a portal somewhere... but telling you where wouldn’t be anyfun!”
She laughs brightly and runs off, leaving us without lookingback.
I’mstunned.
“What just happened?” Húnn asks, just as confused as Iam.
“Well, we either met a deluded young girl or a servant of the Fates. Take your pick,” Arnold says drily. “I never heard of them taking on servants. I always thought they workalone.”
“So you knew about them before this?” I ask, my mindspinning.
“They’re a legend, but so are werewolves and werebears. I tend to keep an open mind about it all, even if some of it doesn’t turn out to be true. There’s usually a grain of truth in every fairytale.”
“He’s very wise like that,” Bertie says lovingly and puts an arm around his partner’s waist. My heart warms at the sight of those two lovers. One day, I want to be like them. Except that I’ll have four bears to cuddle, not justone.
“So what do we do now? She spoke of a portal, any idea what she could mean?” Torben asks ourhosts.
“No clue. We’ve never noticed anything unusual while roaming the island. But then, we’ve not exactly been looking for portals. I didn’t know such a thingexists.”
Torben frowns. “From tomorrow, we’ll search the island. Arnold, Bertrand, do you have a map we can use to assign areas? And Isla, you should try and ask Alis if she knows anything about portals or even whether the Fates really haveservants.”
“There’s a map but it’s not very accurate. It’s from before the Drowning, but we’ve marked the current coastline on it.” Bertie sadly shakes his head. “I can’t believe this used to be a village far away from the sea. I’d never havethought...”
“None of us did,” Arnold comforts his partner. “I think people would have looked after our planet much better had they known what the Drowning woulddo.”
They had a portal back in Arcadia, but not for the Fates, just for the Gods. Most of them dwelled on Earth but sometimes they disappeared through the portal and wouldn’t say where theywent.
Alis is back and this time, her sadness doesn’t overwhelm me. I didn’t even notice that I’d let down my barriers. Maybe it was that girl with her strange mind-readingabilities.
“What did it look like?” I ask aloud before noticing that the men don’t know what I’m talking about. “Alis says she’s seen a portal before,” Iexplain.
A marble gate, two big columns with a shimmering ethereal fabric in between. Like silk, but magical. It was always guarded and us humans weren’t allowed to get close. But even from the distance it looked both beautiful anddangerous.
Whydangerous?
