Welcome back to the fourth day of our book club read-along for OwlCrate's September book, Lakesedge by Lyndall Clipstone!
Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for Chapters 13 - 16 of Lakesedge, so make sure you read are finished this section before continuing.
Discussion questions are listed below, and anyone who participates in the comments will be entered to win a free OwlCrate box!
The story continues...
After dinner they go into the yard for observance and Leta decides it’s time to tell the truth. She reveals that when she was a child her parents died of winter fever and the lord of the town was burning all the buildings where the fever lived. Taking baby Arien with her, Leta fled into the foods, getting lost along the way. A figure appeared, who she now knows was the Lord Under, and in exchange for saving them he took her magic. She doesn’t know why it seems to be coming back now. Curious, Clover tries to get her to recreate what she did with Arien earlier that day, but it fails. Having an idea she gets Leta to practice drawing the sigil for a spell for focus, but Leta has had very little experience writing and is struggling to get it right. Rowan, clearly having heard her confession, comes to help and in the end she ends up inking the sigil on her skin. She asks Arien to teach her how to cast the spell.
Afterwards, Rowan approaches Leta and tugs the key she took from his room out from under her dress. He’s not angry, however, and says he wants to show her something. He takes Leta to a garden that he locked up after Elan had died because he wanted to forget. Inside Rowan thinks the garden is dead, but Leta shows him otherwise, using her magic to grow just a little bit of life. She decides to reveal that there was more to the story of how her magic was taken away. On the night the Lord Under came it was Arien’s life he wanted, and after Leta bargained her magic away in exchange for his life, Arien’s magic became what it now was. Dark. Rowan insists it’s not her fault, and promises he won’t tell Arien what happened. They have a tender moment but Rowan pulls away as the Corruption starts creeping in. He reveals that the bargain he made with the Lord Under in exchange for his life was “Anything.” Before Leta can respond to this revelation Rowan says the garden now belongs to her. He wants her to have it.
The night of the ritual they perform it without trouble, everything going well and the darkness recedes, the mud turning back to sand and the water clearing. But when they’re finished the darkness creeps back in and a fissure opens in the ground, releasing dark, shadowed creatures. They overtake Arien and pull him under and in desperation Leta calls to the Lord Under, he helps get Arien back but warns Leta that it will hurt. Arien's arms are numb and very injured but Leta leaves him in Clover’s care to try to help Rowan, who has plunged both his bleeding arms into the earth. She can’t help, but the creatures that appeared feed from his arms and slowly disappear back into the darkness. When Rowan comes back to himself he says this is the last time that they will do this. No one else will get hurt. He stumbles back away from the lake with the help of Florence.
Back at the house Leta goes into Rowan’s room to find answers. She needs to know exactly what happened when Rowan was with the Lord Under. Waking him from a nightmare, she helps him rebandage him arms. He asks her to sit and tells her about how he came to be the way he is. After his encounter with the Lord Under during which he promised him “anything” to save his life, life went on as normal. But after his thirteenth birthday party, the Lord Under returned, telling Rowan that he had been granted his childhood but the rest of his life belonged to him. Rowan refused to go with him, and the next day his dad was found drowned in the lake. Shortly after this his mother started hearing the voice of the Lord Under which also ended up with her death, and knowing Elan would be next, Rowan was desperate to find a way to save him. When offering blood to the darkness he noticed it would start to go inside him, and in this way he thought he would be saving Elan. Sadly one night Elan saw Rowan giving the tithe and tried to stop him, but when he stepped on the lake edge he became entranced, walking into the water. The darkness in Rowan had a hold on him and wouldn't let him stop Elan, and in the end he just watched him drown, while the poisoned part of Rowan felt almost pleased. Leta comforts Rowan as he cries, suspecting that no one has comforted him in this way before. She vows to find a way to fix this.
Questions:
- Why do you think Leta is able to use hints of her magic now after he bargain with the Lord Under?
- Why do you think the ritual failed after it appeared to have worked?
- After the failed ritual what do you think Leta is going to try next? Do you think she'll accept the Lord Under's offer to help?
- We're over halfway through the book! Do you have any other creepy/dark book recommendations?
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