The Lady of Toryn Anthology (Lady of Toryn trilogy) (14 page)

The first urge to open her eyes came as Ashlyn was
telling herself that Drake would be fine- a sword to the shoulder wouldn’t kill
a vampire. In fact, Ashlyn wasn’t quite sure
what,
if anything, would kill a vampire.

She resisted the abrupt desire to wake up, suddenly
scared of what she might find when she returned to the land of the not-snoring.
Worst-case scenario would be, obviously, that Kou was gone and she was stuck with
Vargo. If the Toryn man managed to make it back to their hometown to tell
Devlyn she was coming, the element of surprise would be nonexistent and Ashlyn
would pretty much be screwed.

The best scenario? Kou had given her some confidence
when he had chosen to side with her instead of Vargo. Maybe he'd be willing to
listen to her story.

That hope was squashed when she finally pried her eyes
open, and promptly realized that her hands and feet were bound. And her entire
body ached from the currents of electricity that Vargo had sent shooting
through it.

Great. So much for being optimistic.

Ashlyn, trying to be subtle about it, felt around with
numb fingers for the ropes that encircled her wrists. She knew something about
rope knots - it would be impossible not to with all the nifty traps and lures
she'd rigged up in her home back in Toryn.

She set to work on the knots. Kou had known what he
was doing, that was for sure. Her ankles and wrists were stretched out in front
of her, tied loosely on the other side of a sturdy stalagmite with a length of
thick, frayed rope. Glancing up, she noted that first of all, she was in a cave
(duh), and second of all, the stalagmite was way too tall to simply shimmy up
and sling her ropes over in an effort to free herself.

The fraying rope was the worst kind to try to untie,
because there were strings and tendrils all over the place, but the knot itself
was fairly simple- two half-hitches conveniently located within reach of her
fingers.

"About time you woke up," Vargo's voice broke
her concentration, and Ashlyn started. Glancing over to see him leaning against
the wall, with his hands tied behind his back and his bound legs stretched out
in front of him, she groaned. Worst-case scenario.

"Dude, what is your
problem
?" she
said tiredly. Her voice echoed in the empty cave. "Every time I turn
around, there you are. It's like you're attached to my hip or something. Did it
ever occur to you to maybe be a tiny bit more subtle about stalking me, you
moron?"

Vargo looked distinctly uncomfortable, and she had a
feeling that she'd hit upon at least one aspect of the truth.

"I'm tied up, just the same as you are,” he said
finally. “It's not like I can give you personal space when I've got three feet
of rope wrapped around my arms and legs."

"You know I'm not talking about right now!"

His eyes shifted from her to the floor in front of
him. "I can't help it if we happen to be in the same place at the same
time," he said lamely, and Ashlyn snorted.

"Sure. You couldn't help that you were there at the
stable in Storim, you couldn't help that you happened to be hanging around when
Skye and I got into the argument on the airship, you couldn't
help
that
you were the most convenient person to carry me up the stairs to Aik's house.
Not to mention your sudden appearances when I was fighting the ninjas
and
just
now, outside of Eastern City. We've been traveling together for less than a
week and I can't get rid of you. Frankly Vargo, it's starting to get
annoying."

His eyes glittered in the dim light - which, Ashlyn
noted in passing, was coming from a low-burning fire sitting to her left.
Judging from the darkness lingering outside the cave entrance just a few feet
further, she guessed it was still nightfall.

"You're just riled up because I told your ninja
friend who you really are," he accused, sounding as immaturely distraught
as a little kid who'd lost his candy bar.

She paused in her knot fiddling to give Vargo an
irritated look. "Sure," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"I know being ticked off at you is rather selfish of me. I mean, just
because you've blown my cover and any chance I had of
sneaking
into
Toryn, why should I be angry? I'm sure it was all in good fun." She
managed to loosen the first half-hitch and quickly pulled the rope ends apart,
struggling with the more extreme angle of the second knot.

"You're awfully arrogant for a traitor,"
Vargo snapped.

"And you're awfully stupid. Why don't you just
go, like, get a haircut or something and leave me alone?"

He growled something under his breath, then continued
loud enough for her to hear, "Seeing as how your plans seem to involve
joining Devlyn in taking over the world, I can't say that idea holds much
appeal."

"Yeah, you'd like to think you're so noble,
wouldn't you?" She bit her lip, cheek braced against stone as she worked
furiously at the ropes. "Darn it. Where's the rest of the gang? You'd
think they'd have the decency to come and free us once they found out you were
missing."

Vargo glared at her, obviously weighing the
satisfaction of lying to her against the embarrassment of having her figure out
the truth herself. Finally he looked away. "They're not here," he
said grudgingly. "They only dropped me off to keep watch."

Ashlyn guessed that Skye was probably planning on
posting at least one or two FLD members at each potential crossing point along
the coast. He'd more than likely considered Eastern City too dull for Ashlyn,
seeing as how she'd expressed her extreme dislike of the place on more than one
occasion. Ha. She
had
changed enough to surprise him.

The knot came loose at last, and she quickly untied
her feet before standing, wincing a bit as her joints protested the sudden use.

To his credit, Vargo didn't bother begging her to free
him; he probably knew that it'd be pretty useless to ask Ashlyn for any favors.
He also kept silent as she ventured out of the cave.

As she looked around, she suddenly wanted to kick
herself, realizing that if he had wanted to, Kou could have taken Suki with him
over to Toryn. The man better not have stolen her horse. If he had, there was
going to be some serious butt kicking headed his way.

She paused once beyond the reach of the firelight,
listening. Was that…footsteps she heard?

Ashlyn immediately dropped to the ground, belly-down,
mindful of the advancing intruder. Her eyes searched the darkness intently.

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

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,
"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 I’m glad 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." When she looked at Kou sheepishly, he
grinned, obviously enjoying her discomfort. For just a moment, 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 sword," 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 her sword was securely strapped into it.

She turned back to the draynor. They were big,
intimidating fiends, but fairly weak opponents. Two or three good hits with a
weapon- maybe just one with her sword- 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. There was also the nagging problem of his possible loyalty
to Devlyn, who- at least as far as Ashlyn knew- wanted her dead. But it
wouldn’t do her any good to worry about that now.

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 sliced the sword sideways, cutting cleanly through
the fiend's spine.

The monster dropped to the gray grass, convulsing.

Ashlyn straightened up, wrinkling her nose as she
backed away from the draynor’s death throes. “I’m glad that thing didn’t come
along while I was tied up,” she said. “Vargo and I would be history.”

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
slyly.

As appealing as the thought was, Ashlyn felt a slight
pang of apprehension. She didn't want Vargo to suffer, 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. Back before the Conservation Act, while Lord Angelo’s
power plants were still functioning, there had been plenty of gadgets that
would have helped her to contact the former DEMON soldier. But now, the only
way to get a message out was to send it by post, and since she didn’t know
where Skye was, even that wasn’t an option.

"Never mind that," she added before Kou
could say anything. "Dumb idea. But I can't leave him here to die."
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.