I gaped. “You aren’t a truth-reader. You . . . you can’t be. It is a passive power. There is no way you could have missed being a mage all these years. You’d have been reading everyone all the time.”
“I’m not a truth-reader,” Felix agreed. He looked over at the flames flickering back and forth. “But the node seems to have that power. I used it on Marc by accident last night.”
I shuffled over to my chair, suddenly needing to sit. “I suppose that explains my awareness of the node’s power. I thought it was just so damn powerful, and since it is tied to a truth magic, I had enough affinity to sense it. But if it is also tied to truth-reading, that makes more sense.”
Felix’s nose twitched. “That makes more sense to you? I’m still struggling with this discovery. A node can’t be locked to more than one power. Even if another of my ancestors with a blood-tie to the node had been a truth-reader, they wouldn’t have been able to infuse their power into the lock.”
“No. You’re right. Only one person can lock a node, and then its power is shaped.”
A passage from Demeret flashed into my memory. It had been a random anecdote I had stumbled across the night before. I had read the section several times, hoping there would be a detail that could confirm my theory that the first Duke of Truthhold had actually made the node itself into a truth-charm. The passage had centered on a Mriskan mage who needed to use both copper and rubies together to make his charms, a combination that would ruin most mage’s attempts to imbue power into the charm.
But while I had focused on the abnormal material, I had ignored the reason that the mage needed it.
“Dual power,” I whispered. “Duke Valois was a dual power mage.”
“That’s impossible.” Felix studied me, his tail twitching. “Isn’t it?”
“Rare is not the same as impossible. I read about a dual power mage in Demeret. He mentioned the fact that though both of the mage’s powers were inanimate, he somehow affected people with them. He theorized that the two powers amplified each other and created a new power, rather than just being distinct talents. Sounds a lot like what happens in Rose Castle, doesn’t it?”
How had I missed that? Truth magics were animate, yet the node sealed contracts and read written statements. It seemed so obvious now. Then again, if it were that obvious, Felix should have known. His family had been tied to the node for generations.
“How did you not know you could truth-read using the node before now?” I asked.
Seventeen
Felix
???
“Don’t look atme like that!” My tail puffed out. Isa looked at me like I had either been lying to her this whole time or I was the biggest idiot alive. I paced in front of the node. “No one in the family has known. Do you have any idea how many of my ancestor’s journals I’ve read in the past months? Not a single one has mentioned using the node for truth-reading, including Valois’s son.”
“Yet you did it accidentally last night.”
I stopped, facing her. “I was thinking about how much I wished I could have had your insights as I talked to Marc, and I pulled on the node power. I’m guessing most of my ancestors haven’t wished they could truth-read while at Rose Castle, since it mostly seems superfluous.”
“Why didn’t you just ask me to stay if you wanted my insights?”
Damn it. I didn’t want to tell her. Not when I still didn’t understand what it meant that Marc claimed Edwin hadn’t signed the contract. It was a truth, but it didn’t explain why Isa’s father left her trapped here.
I moved back to the chair facing Isa. “It doesn’t really matter now, does it? You weren’t there. Now I need help to interpret what I saw.”
“Then tell me what Marc said.”
“I need to understand the colors I saw, not go over his words.”
Isa’s brows came together. “It will be a lot easier if you tell me about the conversation. That way I have a feel for what sorts of misdirections he might have employed and can do the same thing while you truth-read me to test my theories. Why don’t you want to tell me about it? You know I can’t betray your secrets. Or does this have nothing to do with breaking the curse?”
I sighed. “Fine, but remember that I tried to spare you.”
“Just tell me already.”
“I sent Marc to Leort with a contract for your father to sign that would free you from helping me break the curse.”
Isa inhaled sharply, then let the breath out slowly, her shoulders dropping. “He refused to sign?”
“That’s what I’m trying to understand. Marc didn’t even mention that Edwin hadn’t signed when he dropped off the contracts I need to witness. The contract simply wasn’t there. So, after supper, I asked him about it. All he said was that your father didn’t sign and didn’t tell Marc why. But from what I saw, it wasn’t a fully true answer to my questions. I just don’t understand how he was misleading me.”
To my surprise, Isa let out a relieved breath. “At least there is still a chance my father isn’t as much of a bastard as it sounded like a moment ago.”
