Page 11 of Crown of Ashes and Awe

“Aye,” Tearloch said. “Three brothers, one possessed by a sorcerer.” He pointed to the shorter version, whom I’d first accused. “This is Bain. This is Dower.” He nodded to the giant holding my wrist. “That is Sweetie. And this…” He gestured to the gap in our circle that was now filled with a short, pretty woman with blue-black hair and blue robes. “This is Minkin.”

Her brown skin glowed and sparkled in the firelight like dragonspice. Beneath sharply slanted eyebrows, her warm eyes took in my face, my clothes. She, too, seemed surprised by my hair and I wondered if it was sticking up on end. I knew it couldn’t be the color that disturbed her and Tearloch, the clear leader of their band, for many travelers through Redstone Canyon had hair as white as mine.

“And the one who killed my master?”

“Huxor,” she said. “He caught the power of a greedy sorcerer and…changed. And now we must chase him down.”

“To kill him?”

“No. To convince him to use the sorcerer’s power to change Sweetie back.” She nodded at my captor, then gave the big man a smile and a wink. And, as if softened by her attention, he released my wrist.

I ignored the bruised skin and went to my knees beside Demius’ body. “Then pray you find him,” I said, over my shoulder, “before I do.”

6

A PRAYER TO THE KIND GOD

Irested my hand on my master’s headless, bloody shoulder. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, “for wasting the day on the hill.” If I hadn’t, I could have been by his side when he needed me.

“Come,” Tearloch said. “Bring the woman.” When I looked up, he was already headed down the gully.

“I’m not leaving,” I said, to whomever was listening.

“Aye, you are,” said the giant, almost gently. “More villains will be coming. You’re not safe here.”

“I will not leave him like this.”

He grunted, whistled, then waved Tearloch back. Without ceremony, he bent and gathered Demius’ body and started for the door. “Bring his head,” he said to no one in particular.

“Sweetie, we need to hurry! He’s not far ahead!” Tearloch muttered other things as he stomped back to the fire, his frustration lit by the orange glow of dying embers. After a brief glare at his friend’s back, he took a cloth from his pocket, wrapped it around the head, and picked it up with glove-covered hands. “Anything of value, get it now.” He gestured toward the house with a nod.

“There should be a ceremony. A remembrance.”

“It will be up to you to remember him. And the shack will serve as his pyre.”

An invisible weight slammed into my chest. “My home!”And mylibrary!

“No protection at all. Not when so many will take this route to Sunbasin. Blue Dragon or no, someone will disregard the laws when they find you alone. Besides, do you truly wish to spend the last days of your short life mourning over his body?”

He was right. Death might come at any moment. So what use was a library?

He nodded at the fire behind us. “We’ll need a torch.”

With the aid of glow stones still awake in the house, the men had found the old man’s bed. Other than the cloth over his face and the blood on his robes, my master appeared to be whole again with his head resting in its favorite nest of pillows, back atop his shoulders. I thought of the key and remembered it was around my own neck. No need to extract it from the bloody folds.

The horned man stuffed one of the blankets beneath the bed and reached for my quick-made torch, but I pulled it beyond his reach. “I’ll do it.”

He nodded and stepped back. “Everfolk deserve better.”

There was much I had planned to say to Demius. Now, I’d never have the chance.

Tearloch sighed loudly. “Come, do your duty. We must go.”

Without waiting, they left me to it. I closed my eyes and pretended the old man could still hear me. “Thank you. I planned to tell you that, in the morning. To thank you for protecting me all these years. For teaching me…everything.” I thought about the blue dragon. “I suppose I will join you soon enough.” I apologized one last time, pushed the lit wood beneath the bed, and held it until the blanket caught. “May the Kind God make you whole.”

It was a phrase that always displeased the man, but he was beyond complaining now.

The key felt overly warm where it lay against my skin, and I wondered at the luck—that the first time the old man left it in my care happened to be the first time it wasn’t safe in his…

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