Return (Lady of Toryn trilogy) (17 page)

"I see you managed to free yourself," Kou said from behind her.

Aw,
man.

She rolled over and stared up at the Toryn ninja, feeling incredibly dumb when he extended a hand to help her up. "How did you…" she began, glancing from the cave entrance to where he stood, behind her, but trailed off. It really didn't matter. "Thanks," she muttered, accepting his hand and standing, brushing bits of grass and dirt off her shorts.

He held out a package wrapped with brown paper and thick twine. At Ashlyn's wary glance, he smiled apologetically. "I bought you clothes," he said.

After a moment of hesitation, Ashlyn took the bundle, staring at her kinsman skeptically. When he said nothing, she cocked an eyebrow. "You bought me clothes? That's it?"

Kou glanced at the cave entrance, where Vargo was quite obviously watching them with rapt attention. Lowering his voice, he said in Toryn, "I only restrained you to keep you from fleeing if, by some chance, you woke while I was in the Eastern City." Giving her a purposeful look, he continued, "I see that my efforts were in vain, but fortunately I returned in time."

She propped one hand on her hip, slapping the package against her opposite thigh. "So I guess now that you know who I am, you want to drag me back to Toryn so Devlyn can chop my head off, is that it?"

His brows knitted. "Of course not, Lady Li. We will return to Toryn, as planned. You will have your audience with Lord Devlyn, and we will see what can be done about this war." At her incredulous expression, he couldn't help but look slightly offended. "Don't act so surprised. I knew all along that you had deceived me about your name. There was never any question about that."

"What? Why the heck not?" Personally, she thought she'd done a fantastic job of coming up with a false identity right on the spot.

He rolled his eyes. "Yasu is a
samurai
clan."

Those five words spoke volumes. Ashlyn suddenly felt immensely stupid. The shinobi and samurai, while not exactly hostile towards each other, had kept their distance for centuries. That was probably why she'd remembered the name Yasu - she had more than likely read somewhere in her studies. At any rate, it didn't matter where she'd heard about it. A ninja claiming to be from a samurai clan was utterly ridiculous.

"Oh." Not the most intelligent reply, but what else was there to say?

When she looked at Kou sheepishly, he grinned, obviously aware - and enjoying - her discomfort. For just a moment there (and yes, it was a brief, never-happen-again, blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but
still
), the sober propriety and heaviness of his attitude disappeared, and he reminded her of herself at the same age.

Ashlyn sighed. She probably owed him some sort of explanation for the deception. "I didn't … think you'd help me if you knew who I was," she said, stepping past him and glaring at Vargo, who was still unabashedly trying his best to eavesdrop. "And knowing my identity might have put you in danger. It might
still
put you in danger, but it's not like I can shove those words back into Vargo's big ol’ mouth now."

She turned to face Kou, and a flicker of movement over his left shoulder caught her attention. Her eyes narrowed. It wasn't small enough to be a man.

The creature stalked into the light, and she took a step back, automatically shifting her feet shoulder-width apart, bringing one hand up in front of her in a defensive motion - as if
that
could stop the huge, drooling monster that now stood before her. She recognized it as a draynor, one of the two-legged dinosaur fiends that prowled the Eastern Mountains.

"My shuriken is in my saddlebag," she said calmly, allowing herself a moment of elation at how wonderfully mature she sounded as she stepped to the side, away from Kou. "Bring it to me."

Kou quickly unbuckled the harness that was slung across his chest. "Here," he said, tossing it to her. She caught the leather contraption, noting that the crystal shuriken was securely strapped into it, and realized that he'd taken it into town with him. The nerve!

"We're going to have some serious problems if you can't stay away from my shuriken. Nobody uses them but me," she told the other ninja, but he merely grinned and stepped back, motioning for her to continue on the offensive.

Ashlyn turned back to the draynor. They were big, intimidating fiends, but were on average fairly weak opponents. Two or three good hits with a weapon- maybe just one with her crystal shuriken- and even a full-grown draynor would be down for the count.

She circled the beast slowly, noting the hungry look in its eyes. This would be a good opportunity to prove herself to Kou. He'd seen her in action before, but Ashlyn knew that the younger ninja wasn't completely won over to her side. His loyalty was still with Devlyn.

It didn't take long for the draynor to charge.

Ashlyn waited, bouncing from one foot to the other as she anticipated its attack. She forced herself to stay in one place, focus, focus-

When the draynor was within a foot of her, snarling, jaws dripping with saliva, Ashlyn sprang up. Her feet danced nimbly along the draynor's upper back as she swooped the shuriken sideways, slicing cleanly through the fiend's spine.

The monster dropped to the gray grass, convulsing.

"Damn, I'm good," Ashlyn pronounced, crouching in the grass to wipe her weapon clean. "If I were you, I'd be in love with me." She straightened and grinned cockily at Kou. “You have to admit, I'm handy to have in a battle."

"Unless your adversary happens to be carrying an electric baton," the Toryn man said mildly.

Ashlyn scowled as she stepped around the body of the draynor. He just
had
to bring that up. "It's not my fault I have an aversion to electricity," she muttered. "Speaking of, what are we going to do with him?"

Kou glanced backwards into the cave, where Vargo was still staring at them, unsubtly craning his neck in an attempt to make out their conversation. "We could leave him here to starve," he suggested, then with a particularly mischievous light in his eyes, continued, "Or to be devoured by another one of those monsters. Are they particularly common around Eastern City?"

As appealing as the thought was, Ashlyn felt a slight pang of apprehension. She didn't want Vargo to die, as despicable as he was sometimes. Besides, he was one of the few guys on the planet who found her somewhat attractive. (Well, he
did;
even if the way he showed it was entirely disgusting and irritating, Ashlyn was still kind of flattered.) The numbers of
that
type were meager enough that she wanted to preserve what she could of them.

"I could get a message to Skye, let him know where Vargo is," she said. "That would make me feel better about leaving him here …tied up and alone." Even as she spoke the words, she knew it wouldn't work. Skye would know their position and where they were heading. As of now he was probably only guessing that she and Kou were traveling to Toryn, but he didn't know at what point they were planning to cross the ocean separating the two continents. If she clued him into their position now, there was a good chance he could stop them.

"Never mind that," she added before Kou could say anything. "Dumb idea. But I can't leave him here to die. He's … well … not my friend, really, but …" At a loss, she glanced over at the redheaded Spartan, remembering the sudden flash of insight she'd had when he was binding up her scraped hand. He wasn't her friend, but she did care about him. Sort of.

Kou sighed. "We could take him with us," he said wearily, rubbing his hand across his forehead.

"You'd do that?" Ashlyn asked, surprised.

"What other option do we have? We cannot leave him for dead. Enough people have suffered in this war. I have no wish to contribute to the demise of another."

She liked that answer. "We need a boat. Maybe we could find a captain here who’d be willing to sell."

"Do you have credits?"

"Yeah." She didn't mind parting with the credits, but it was a good thing he hadn't suggested pawning her stanes.

Kou returned from town an hour later with a docile old gelding. "No ship owners here," he said tersely at Ashlyn's questioning look. "We'll have to try again at Industry."

He looked at Vargo. The Spartan was now leaning back against the cave wall and humming languidly to himself through his gag.

"I'm assuming you wanted him quiet for a reason," Kou said.

"He wouldn't shut up," Ashlyn answered, and that was all the explanation she offered.

They left at first light, Ashlyn riding with Vargo on Suki. She made sure to adjust the crystal shuriken lower on her back so that it would cut Vargo if he tried to move too close.

He kept a respectable distance all day.

Chapter 9

Deliberation Face

Industry.

Ashlyn didn't frequent the place. Years ago, she'd made the decision to avoid it because the people of Industry (hmm…Industrians?
Industrialists? What
was
the correct term? And what exactly were the villagers called before Lord Angelo built the power plant here? And why was it
still
called Industry even though the power plant was long gone?) were exceptionally star-struck, or maybe just
FLD-
struck, because every time Ashlyn set foot in the place, she was immediately swamped by old men wanting to recount their own moments of bravery, little kids requesting autographs, and rolly-polly grandmother types who always pinched her arm and demanded that she "put some meat on your bones! I could see
through
you if I had a mind to!"

Ashlyn highly doubted that. She was by no means a large person, but what there was of her was pretty darn dense. She didn't think she was in any danger of becoming transparent.

The last time, less than a year after the sun was saved, Ashlyn had sworn that she would never return to Industry. At least not without some kind of disguise to avoid the chaos that came with being billed as a savior of the world.

They were just outside the town now- more of a village, really, barely big enough to earn a dot on the map- hidden behind a large outcropping of rock about fifty feet out. Ashlyn was staring at the brown-shingled houses and debating how she was going to get inside without being recognized.

Kou had already gotten himself a room at the inn, returning for only a few brief moments to inform them that no one of FLD fame was in the town and also that the only boat available for sale was large enough for two.

Ashlyn leaned against the boulder behind her and pulled her tank top over her head, debating what to do with it before she finally just dropped it on the ground.

"Anybody coming?" she asked Vargo, who was sitting with his back to her, still bound at his wrists but minus the gag.

"I can't see a damn thing," he said cheerfully. "Not that I would tell you if I could."

His mood had improved considerably since she'd removed the gag. He now seemed to be regarding this whole kidnapping scenario with childish delight rather than irritation- a big switch from his attitude when she'd first come to after their short-lived battle.

Of course, it could have something to do with the fact that he was trying to ogle her out of the corner of his eye, but Ashlyn didn't mind…too much. Her underwear covered almost as much of her as her regular clothes did anyway. But she wasn't about to let him know that.

She kicked her shorts off in his direction. One of her sneakers went with them. "Pervert."

The sneaker hit him in the shoulder. "OW! Give me a break here! I'm not the one stripping in plain view. You could always walk around the other side of the rock."

She didn't want to admit that he was right. "But then I'd be letting you out of my sight, and I still don't buy that you're as helpless with those knots as you seem to be."