Salt in the Lungs

The court called it tradition. His mother called it necessary. He had learned, young, that the two words were often worn by the same ugly thing when it wanted to be let into a room. "The people need the rite," she said, not unkindly, fastening the drowning-cloak at his throat. "The people," Aedric said, "have never been asked if they would settle for a living king instead. I thought today I might ask them."