Page 99 of Crown of Ashes and Awe

Whoever it was, he was bold to remain on the throne with the King of Hestia in the room.

“Of course it’s Demius!” Moire seemed incapable of anything but a shriek. “You stole my grandchild!”

Rowena went to her mother and tried to calm her, led her to a seat but failed to get her to sit. The woman couldn’t take her eyes off the usurper of the king’s throne. If he didn’t have the blood of the king in his veins, he should have been dead already.

The changeling split his attention between me and Aristaeus. Patient as Demius, amused as he ever was when he would watch me trying to work out a problem on my own. But I knew I couldn’t make sense of a man returning afterfaybowse, so I shook my head and surrendered.

“I saw Demius murdered. I lit the fire that burned his body. You cannot be Demius.” I resisted the urge to pull the drawing from my boot to compare.

He nodded. “I am, and I am not. Just as you are Asper…and you are not.”

Moire crept up to stand next to me. “Do you realize you are mortal now, old man? So much easier to kill.”

He closed his eyes as if praying for patience and shook his head. “You and your prophecies. If anyone stole that pretty child, it was you, when you took her from her mother, to save her for your own machinations. You are the thief, not I.”

Moire stuck her nose in the air. “And what about the library,thief?”

He waved her words away. “An afterthought. You were unworthy to protect our history when you couldn’t be trusted with the child. I should have stripped you of your visions when you interfered the first time.”

She gasped. “Stripped me of—” Her voice fell an octave. “Who do you think you are?”

“He’s Agrios.” The king’s voice was weak, as if he could barely find the energy to interrupt.

“Agrios.” A dozen people whispered the name of the Severe God. And while we watched, my old master’s countenance changed. His ragged robes turned to something fine and untouchable. His face lost a thousand years of wrinkles and imperfections.

Agrios had made Hestians immortal when Aristaeus begged him to save his people. And now that contract was broken?

I asked, “What now?”

Agrios looked at me. There was mirth there. “You do not fear me? You do not bow before your god?”

I rolled my eyes. “You taught me that bowing is only for patronizing. But if you’d like me to…”

I started to bend, but stopped when he laughed, and I laughed too.

“You see?” Moire was back to preening. “I was right. My prophecyiscoming true! I was right to usegevri?—”

“Fool!” Agrios’ patience was wearing thin.

She would be better not to draw his attention. Demius in a sour mood was a reason to disappear.

“Your prophecy was fulfilled the moment she and I left here together. She is the reason I will not punish you for bringing back your husband. She is the reason…you still live.”

I didn’t understand, and he recognized it.

“You would have wanted to meet her, to know why she did what she did. You wouldn’t have wanted to hear it from me. It didn’t sound reasonable. You would have doubted.”

He was right. But… “You did lie to me about a lot of things.”

“Like the distance to Sunbasin?”

“Like the Prospectors.”

“A half-truth is not a lie.”

“Yes. It is. Also, I wasn’t left on your stoop.”

He balked. “You were left in a hole in the ground. The point was, you were left.” He looked kindly at Rowena. “I should have told her that her mother loved her.”

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