The Lady of Toryn Anthology (Lady of Toryn trilogy) (11 page)

Ashlyn's confidence wavered, fear prickling at her
heart, but she smiled anyway, determined not to let him get to her.
"Please. There's no way you could have taken Drake," she said,
"Or Skye, for that matter. Dream on! You'd be sliced to ribbons if you had
even thought about walking into his room."

His head cocked to the side in the dim light.
"You hold your traveling companions in such high regard, and yet reserve
no trust for your kinsmen," he said. "It is no wonder that you make
claim to be Scorned."

There was a handful of heartbeats as she processed
what he had said, where their breaths intermingled so closely that Ashlyn would
have felt uncomfortable had she not been so shocked.

"
Kou?"
she hissed at last. "What
the heck are you doing here?" Her thoughts were consumed with anger and
fear; if this man was no longer captive on the airship, then what had he done
with her friends?

"I might ask the same of you, Scorned
Elder."

Ashlyn contemplated for a long moment. Finally she
said, "All right then. What say we call a truce, at least temporarily,
until you're satisfied with my story and I figure out why the heck you decided
to break out of the airship and try to kidnap
me,
of all people."

"Kidnap you?" He sounded amused. "Do
not flatter yourself. I needed a guide and this was the first room I
found."

She breathed a sigh of relief at his careless
admittance the rest of FLD was safe, at least so long as none of them had tried
to stop his escape. "Okay," she said, and released the sword.

His foot came off of her arm, carefully-
yeah, like
the damage isn't already done, you moron,
Ashlyn thought irritably at his
belated manners, and he let go of her wrist.

Slowly they both climbed to their feet,
 
Ashlyn rubbing her sore arm, Kou holding a
hand to his stomach- where, she suddenly remembered, he had sustained some
cracked ribs from their battle on the airship. Well, fine. After stomping on
her arm like it was a Rode Doom Bug, he deserved some pain.

"Why do you travel with FLD?" he asked.

Ashlyn stared at him for a second, eyes adjusting
somewhat in the dim light. His thick hair was mussed from their struggle, some
of it escaping from the ponytail at the back of his head. "First tell me
if you've hurt any of them."

He sighed. "This is a waste of our time."

"No. Tell me if you've hurt them."

"They have suffered no harm by my hand," he
said impatiently. "The man who guarded my cell has taken my place inside
it; he is unconscious but will recover with the proper treatment. Now tell me,
why do you travel with them when you are kin to me?"

"They are my friends," Ashlyn said, trying
not to think of the poor crew member, locked up and wounded in a cell of the
airship. "Loyalty to friends can sometimes run deeper than the blood of
kin."

"Do you take up arms against Lord Devlyn?"

"Not yet," she answered truthfully. "I
had no idea even of Devlyn's existence until a few days ago. I had hoped to
come to some sort of treaty with him to prevent a war."

"A treaty," Kou echoed. She could hear his
smile. "You, a worthy ninja and eager combatant- you wish to strike a
treaty."

"Yes." She refused to acknowledge his
mocking tone.

In the silence that followed, a plan began to form in
her head. She was the only one who could fight the Leadership Duel. Skye and
the rest of FLD could help her as much as they wanted to in actually reaching
the island of Toryn, but the rest was up to her.

It would mean betraying Skye's trust again, but if she
left now, if she asked Kou to take her back to Toryn, then the only life
endangered would be her own. There was no need to tell Kou of her heritage.
Only that she wished to return to her people. It was a much safer option than
going with Lysato, who may or may not have been sent to win her trust and kill
her. Kou didn’t even know who she was. If she could sneak into Toryn, she could
fight the Leadership Duel alone and maybe avoid a war entirely.

That would ensure the safety of her friends, if
nothing else.

"Will you take me to Toryn?" she blurted out.
"Will you take me to meet Devlyn?"

Even in the darkness she could see his surprise.
"You say you are Scorned," he answered. "Why would I have any
desire to take a woman of no people with me to my home?"

"Because I can help you get out of here,"
she said, thinking quickly. "I have a horse and plenty of credits, and
I've made the trip dozens of times. Hundreds of times."

He did not answer, and Ashlyn frowned.

"You can't expect to be able to make the trip
without a horse or any credits," she said pointedly.

"I could steal as easily as take you with
me," he countered.

Hmmph. "But then you'd have to get past me
now," she said, sidestepping swiftly in a half-circle around him to place
herself between him and the door.

He followed the motion, facing the light from the
slightly-ajar door. It illuminated the planes of his face and enhanced the
shadows, making his features more angular and ominous. Ashlyn made a conscious
effort to guess his age this time; he looked about seventeen or so, but
infinitely more world-weary than she had been at that age.

"Why are you so eager to leave your
friends?" he asked at length. "'Loyalty to friends runs deeper than
the blood of kin.' Those were your words. Why, then, do you wish to leave them
now?"

Ugh. When Ashlyn's little plan had formulated in her
head, she hadn't figured on this guy questioning her motives. She'd pretty much
figured he'd go along with it and she'd find Devlyn and they'd do the
Leadership Duel, and that'd be the end of it.

Well, no such luck.

"Gosh, you're a suspicious freaking person,"
she muttered. "I told you I want to make peace with Devlyn. Why
wouldn't
I want to go alone, if it meant keeping my friends out of harm's way?"

He took a step towards her, and she automatically
balanced her weight, raising her fists to defend herself.

Chuckling, he leaned down to pick up the machete.
Ashlyn noted in passing that he seemed comfortable holding the weapon, even if
it wasn’t a traditional katana. He must have found it on the airship during his
escape.

"I accept your offer, Scorned Elder," Kou
said, inclining his head, "with one condition."

"Sure," Ashlyn said, without pausing to
consider what he might ask for.

"Your name, or the name that was yours before you
became Scorned."

Okay, she had the distinct feeling that if she blurted
out,
"Oh, I'm Ashlyn Li, nice to meetcha,"
he wouldn't take it
so well.

"My name is Tomiko," she said. It wasn't
really a lie; Tomiko was one of her middle names, though she didn't much care
for it.

"And your clan?" he pressed.

Eh. Um, crap.

"Tomiko Yasu, of the clan Yasu," Ashlyn
fabricated quickly. She'd heard the name somewhere before but couldn't remember
the details. However, she was reasonably sure that it was a western clan, far
enough away from Lunai that Kou would not question her.

"I have heard of that clan," he said.
"They are honorable people."

It just
figured
.

"As are the clansmen of Lunai," Ashlyn
answered. "Shall we stand around and stroke egos for a little longer, or
do you want to get the heck out of here before my friends find out you're gone
and come looking for us?"

He raised the sword above his head, sliding it easily
into the sheath on his back. "If you lead, I will follow, Tomiko
Yasu."

She nodded and, moving swiftly, ducked under his elbow
to grab her sneakers, hopping on one foot and then the other to pull the grimy
shoes on before grabbing her shuriken and sword and strapping them on.
Snatching up her saddlebags and hauling them over her shoulder, Ashlyn motioned
for him to stay behind her.

She stepped out into the corridor a little uneasily;
it was strange that their scuffle hadn't woken anyone else in FLD, but she
figured that maybe the stone walls of the inn were solid enough to be
soundproof.

They needed to get to the airship to get Suki, and the
airship was docked just west of Cosmea. Ashlyn had considered stabling Suki in
Cosmea but had decided against unloading her from the airship just yet- she
didn't want to have to coax and argue the scared horse into the ship if there was
any need to leave unexpectedly.

Kou stayed close behind her as she moved down the
corridor- close enough that she could feel the warmth radiating off of his
body, and for a moment Ashlyn felt uneasy. She didn't want to betray Skye’s
trust again, particularly not if she had to gamble the risk on a complete
stranger like Kou. But if she didn't, and any of her friends- Restlyn, Aik,
Aaron, anyone- were hurt in the effort to gain access to Toryn, she'd never be
able to forgive herself.

She eased down the stairs slowly, making sure that
there were no after-hours tenants running around the tavern. This late at
night, it was ridiculously easy to sneak outside, which both bothered and
relieved her.

On one hand, she didn't particularly want Skye to
catch them and have to go through another round of trying to explain
why
she was doing what she was doing.

On the other, it irritated her that it was so simple
to get in and out of the inn, especially when sleeping members of FLD lay
helpless in their beds. They were all lucky that she was the first person Kou
had found- who knew what he would have done if it had been anybody else?

As she stepped through the tavern door, Ashlyn paused,
trying to get her bearings. Kou bumped into her from behind, and steadied
himself with a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off.

"Not so close," she whispered to him
impatiently, and glanced around, straining to see if there was anyone lingering
in the darkness before she took off for the Cosmea entrance.

Her sneakers made no noise on the hard-packed dirt;
her breathing was low, even and almost inaudible. The creaking of her
saddlebags was the only sound in the still night.

She heard a sharp intake of breath behind her, and
then the sudden jolt of something plowing into her. "Wha-?" she started,
but the wind was knocked from her as she was propelled forward by a hundred and
sixty pounds of determined ninja. There was a deafening clap, like thunder, and
Ashlyn yelped as a sudden heat singed the backs of her legs. Kou rolled over,
dragging her with him, away from the fire spell that had nearly struck them
both.

This was bad.
Very
bad, Ashlyn amended, feeling
silly for thinking something so absurdly obvious while they were under attack.
Their assailant was either a fellow FLD member or a Toryn assassin, and she
wasn't sure which option was less appealing. If they were caught by FLD, Skye
would surely not trust her ever again and the opportunity to sneak into Toryn
would be lost. If a Toryn assassin got to them…even if they did by some chance
recognize Kou and decide not to kill them, Ashlyn's cover would be blown.

She craned her neck around to see who had cast the
spell, but the blackness was like a cloak over Cosmea. How the attacker had
managed to see them well enough to use a
fire
stane was completely
beyond her.

Kou leaped to his feet, pulling her up with him.
"Run."

He didn't have to tell her twice. Ashlyn descended the
steps three at a time and hit the ground at a sprint, Kou a solid shadow at her
back. This place was familiar to her, comfortable, and although it had changed
some in the past few years it was still the terrain that she had hiked numerous
times in her quest for stanes. That should give them the upper hand for a
while, at least.

She skidded down an incline and hopped over a giant
boulder, making a hasty leap sideways as an ice spell nipped at her left leg.
Whoever this was wasn't intent on taking prisoners; they were seriously trying
to injure her. It couldn't be anyone from FLD…could it?

The airship came into view as they turned around a
craggy bluff, its running lights providing a perfect circle of illumination in
the darkness, and Ashlyn ran for it, mind racing. If they boarded the ship to
get Suki, they would be trapped. As far as she knew, Kou didn't have any
stanes, and fighting a stane-armed enemy with a sword alone was next to
impossible.

She slid to a stop at where the exit ramp was supposed
to open, and groaned. It was shut,
of course,
because it wasn't like
Aaron wanted any old fiend to wander in uninvited. She stared up at the deck
for a split second longer than she could afford, contemplating the distance,
noting the jutting cliff next to the airship and its approximate height in
relation to the deck.

"I can hear their footsteps," Kou hissed
from behind her.

So could Ashlyn. She spun on her heel, yanking the
hammered steel shuriken from her back as she did so. With careful precision and
hair-splitting accuracy, she hurled the weapon in an even arc, the flashing
shuriken curving off to her right before disappearing into the darkness.