Page 5 of Crown of Ashes and Awe

Demius took my hand and urged me back. We stood against the windows and watched the Semels set aside their panic to start packing. Viggo’s mother rushed about, snatching things off their shelves, then putting them back, as if she couldn’t decide what was important enough to take. Finally, she pulled a drawing from the wall—a drawing I’d made of the entire family years ago. She took it off its frame and stuffed it inside the folds of a large satchel. Her husband came out of a back room carrying two large sacks bulging with what had to be jewels—the universally acceptable currency of the past few centuries.

Viggo rushed toward us, grabbed my arm, and frowned at Demius. “You’re coming with us. There is room.”

I turned to the old man, sure that this time, he would have no choice but to agree. But he shook his head and pointed to Viggo’s hand. A small shock buzzed my skin, and Viggo let go. Anger flashed briefly across the younger man’s face, then he turned a wistful smile on me. “I’ll come back for you, Asper. I won’t forget you’re here. If you flee, let me know the direction, at least.”

Demius snorted. Viggo smirked, then slipped his fingers into my hair and pulled me close to place a kiss on my lips and another on my forehead. Then I was forgotten again.

I glanced around to make sure his family hadn’t noticed. Against my will, my feet carried me toward the door. Demius had a hold of my sleeve, tugging me along. Mother Semel stopped us. “Anything we leave behind is yours.”

My master inclined his head. “Be whole, Mother.”

“Be whole, sir. And you, Asper.” She drew close and lowered her voice. “Mind your disguise. Someone is always watching. Always.”

Numbly, I followed Demius out the door. We were well on our way down the incline when my shock wore off. “Sheknows?”

Demius said nothing as he marched on, picking his way through the rocks with his sturdy staff instead of taking the cleared road down the mountain that would require twice the time. I had no choice but to set my fears aside and concentrate on my footing. In the waning afternoon light, small shadows couldn’t be trusted.

* * *

For seven days,we watched a steady stream of Hestians flood down the canyon, fleeing past our home to the safety of the city. Few of them were of a mind to barter, but a handful knew of Demius’ reputation and stopped for his advice.

“How shall we die?”

“I cannot say.”

“Where should we go?”

“It will not matter.”

And for seven more days, Demius and I stayed put.

“The city walls,” he said, “are no protection.”

3

A VOW WITH SOME SIZZLE

Those seven days passed slowly. Considering Viggo’s news, I hadn’t pressed Demius about the permission he’d given for me to go to the city. At least, not yet.

We spoke very little, our attention turned inward. My short twenty-six years of life were all I was to have. Whatever I might have done outside the canyon mattered not at all. And each night, when I closed my eyes, I wondered if it was the last.

Most of my questions were the same as those people passing through the gully, so I never asked them; I didn’t expect I’d be given different answers. Once, I suggested we open the seal in the floor and consult the cavernous, secret library of priceless books. Surely one of them held the key to protecting ourselves from the prophesied doom of the blue dragon.

But my master refused.

It wasn’t my place to argue. They were his books, after all, collected through millennia of life. No doubt he already knew each page, each word. If there was important information stored below our feet, surely, he would know it and would tell me.

One night, Demius barred the windows and doors and headed to his bed. I stepped in front of him to demand his attention. His weary shoulders sagged, and he finally looked me in the eye.

“Mother Semel. How did she know I’m a woman?”

He sighed. “Because her son has been calling you “she” since the two of you were sixteen.”

I gasped. “Inever heard it!”

“She did.” He stepped around me, then stopped. “It would be best…if Viggo forgot you were here. And if…trouble comes, do not leave any hint of your direction, do you hear? I don’t know how the two of you have been communicating, but it ends now.” He turned further, to face me head on and lay his hands on my shoulders. “I will have you vow it.”

Where his hands rested, electricity buzzed lightly through my robe, warning that any vow I made to him now would be sealed and breaking it would render me violently ill.

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