Page 32 of Crown of Ashes and Awe

Confusion. “Yora?” Then his brow smoothed, his voice fell to a whisper. “I am definitely not thinking of Yora.”

My heart nearly burst as he leaned toward me.

At the sound of running feet, he froze, then stepped back and let go of my hands. I turned to find the rest of my “servants” hurrying to catch up. Just behind them, the guards and Morrow slowed to a stop, realizing there was nothing amiss. After he and Tearloch exchanged a nod, implying the latter could see to my protection for the time being, he and his men headed back.

While everyone caught their breath, Sweetie looked pointedly around the circle. “While we have a private moment, perhaps Princess Asper might want to make a few confessions.”

“Hah! Confessions? I don’t know what you mean.” If any of them suspected what Tearloch and I had been doing, they showed no signs of it.

“I mean when last we saw you, you sported an apprentice’s robes with naught in your pockets but a sack of bug spice and a handful of leaves.”

I looked at the faces around me to see if anyone else understood the significance of those two things. To a man, they all seemed equally ignorant.

I sighed. “No. Not spice and leaves. Ingredients.” Still, nothing registered. “Dragonspice and the leaves of memory trees are both components of the most popular hallucinogens in Hestia. In the right part of the city—or rather, the wrong part of the city—they are considered quite valuable.”

Tearloch snorted. “Someone turned you into a princess and gave you an escort in exchange for that small bag of sand and a few handfuls?—”

Minkin interrupted with a laugh. “Not just handfuls. I saw her stuff her satchel and her pockets full of them.”

Sweetie scoffed. “We didn’t see that.”

She just smiled. “My eyes are closer to pocket-level, aren’t they?”

Tearloch was still doubtful. “Still, I can’t imagine any of that was worth a fortune.”

“But the location of an unlimited supply of dragonspice was.”

Now they were starting to believe.

“So,” Tearloch folded his arms. “I’ll ask again. Just what sort of industry were you apprentice to?”

I bit my lips together for just a moment. I’d sworn not to disclose the existence of Demius’ library to anyone. It had been an easy promise to make back when Demius was the only one with whom I interacted regularly. And I had trusted no one except for the one demanding that promise.

But now there were actual people in my life whom I was beginning to trust, however slightly. And I’d already confessed to having read a number of books. More importantly, Demius was gone. If others were to find out about his library, he could hardly be punished for it.

Finally, I decided to trust myself and the only people in Hestia who stood between me and complete solitude.

“My master was not a dealer of hallucinogens. He kept a library.”

Tearloch blinked at me. “A library?” His eyes widened slightly. “You’re telling me we burned books?”

Even though reading was strongly discouraged, the regard in which books were held was equal to holy relics and destroying them was nothing less than a tragedy. But laws change. Every century has its quirks. For a while, eating meat was discouraged, but no one suggested eliminating Hestia’s bovines. And one day, Demius was certain that reading would be encouraged again. So, until that day, the histories were to be protected.

“We did not burn any books,” I said. “The library is safe. It’s sealed. Even if someone found the entrance, they couldn’t access it.” My hand lifted unconsciously to my chest where the dragon key lay beneath my purple gown. Sweetie noticed, and when I dropped my hand again, his eyes searched mine. I only smiled.

“So,” Tearloch said, “you gave this Lady Edeen everything you had of value for a dragon ride to Ristat.”

“Yes.”

Sweetie lifted his heavy head. “You’re hoping to see the blue dragon before you die? Or are we after something else?”

“We?”

“Yes, well, our quarry got away.” He glanced at Tearloch, who gave tacit permission to go on. “Traded that steed for a dragon. We have no idea where he’s gone now. So we may as well help you, if you need us.”

They valued Huxor too much to give up the chase just to find out what I was up to. It had to be true that they had lost his trail.

“I’m going to find a way to stop the prophecy.”

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