The Lady of Toryn Anthology (Lady of Toryn trilogy) (20 page)

"Not
in Toryn." Kou motioned for her to take a seat on the circle of mats
arranged in the corner, and Ashlyn flopped down gracelessly, too irritated to
care about manners and etiquette.

"Okay.
I'm getting seriously pissed off here. I have questions, and you're the only
man that seems to know the answers,
Devlyn,
" she said, putting
emphasis on the name that he had kept hidden from her for the past several
days. "So here's how it works. I ask, you respond. Once I'm satisfied,
then we can get down to whatever it is you want from me. Not before. Got
it?"

He sat
in front of her, his face emotionless. "I understand."

Ashlyn
was about to spit out the angry retort that was on the edge of her tongue,
before she realized that he hadn't even tried to argue with her. Glancing at
Skye, who was staring at the huge cage in the center of the room. It wasn’t
Ashlyn’s- Kou must have put it there himself.

"Fine,"
she said to Kou, trying not to show how confused she was by this entire
scenario. "What should I call you? Devlyn?"

"My
friends call me Kou," he replied.

"Your
friends, huh. What's your name? Your
real
name."

"Koudai
Devlyn Lunai, of the clan Lunai," he answered promptly.

"That's
a mouthful," Skye muttered.

"Not
for a Toryn," Ashlyn told him. "I have eight names."

The
look the swordsman gave her said he really didn't care. Ashlyn rolled her eyes.

"What
did you mean earlier when you said I wasn't exposed?" she asked Kou.

There
was a pause.

"Uh,"
Kou said eloquently.

"We've
recently discovered that specific Toryn bloodlines are immune to the effects of
certain stanes," Tag said, leaning back against the door as he folded his
arms across his chest. "We haven’t tested this theory on you yet."

"Stanes?"
Ashlyn repeated. "Bloodlines? Wait- my dad- is he okay?"

"Yes,"
Tag said.

"No,"
Kou said at the same time.

"He
is exposed," Tag said firmly, glaring at Kou. "But be assured that he
is in good health- the exposure isn't fatal."

"
In
good health?
What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Ashlyn snapped.
"If my father is ill, I want to know about it."

"It's
not what you think, Ashlyn. Tag and I have been exposed to this magic as
well," Kou said. "And as you can see, we're perfectly fine. But we
won't be that way forever."

"This
is an exposure- more of an addiction- for which there is no cure," Tag
said. "We've brought you here because we hope you can help us find
one."

Ashlyn
narrowed her eyes. "Just tell me what you're talking about."

"I
can show you," Tag said, pushing away from the door. He suddenly looked
eager, excited. "Here, stand back against the wall. Kou?"

Tag let
himself into the cage, latching the door behind him. As Skye and Ashlyn
watched, Kou walked over and secured the bolt with a heavy padlock.

"Okay,
this is a little creepy," Ashlyn said, laughing nervously. "What are
you guys doing?"

"Apparently
Tag thinks it might be better for you to see this before you ask any more
questions," Kou said. He walked around the cage and stood beside Skye, his
mouth set in a grim line.

Tag
folded back the sleeve on his right arm, exposing a silver armband bearing a
single green stane. He braced his feet about shoulder-width apart and held out
his hands, taking a stance that Ashlyn guessed was meant for spell-casting.

"Stand
back," he said, grinning at her. In the flickering lamplight it looked
more like a sneer than a smile.

Suddenly
Tag’s entire body pulsed. He groaned and stumbled to the edge of the cage,
falling to his knees.

"Is
he okay?" Ashlyn demanded, taking a step forward. Kou reached over and
blocked her way with one arm, shaking his head at her and motioning for her to
move back again. She complied, giving him a confused look.

Tag
screamed and collapsed to the floor, spasms racking his body. The stane in his
armband glowed a blinding green, brighter than Skye's eyes, brighter even than
Lord Angelo's had been. Tag's skin began to ripple, changing in texture. As
Ashlyn looked on in shock, his thick hair began to expand, spreading to engulf
his entire head as he twisted and writhed on the stone floor. His clothes
strained against muscle, finally tearing at the seams as the pressure proved
too much.

"What
the
hell
?
" Skye said from beside her. "What the
hell
is going on?" The bulging muscles beneath Tag's clothes were also covered
in a wiry mat of hair. It was dark and coarse, like an animal's.

Tag
rolled over and over, banging into one side of the cage and then the other, and
Ashlyn could see now that his body wasn't the only thing changing. His mouth,
his chin was stretching out into a semblance of a…muzzle?

As she
stared, her jaw slack, Tag opened his eyes and looked at her. His eyes, so
mellow and dark before, were now the same burning color as the stane that
gleamed in his too-tight armband. The animal roared and lunged straight at her,
smashing into the bars of the cage with such an unbelievable force that the
entire room shuddered around them. Ashlyn started, feeling behind her for the
solidity of the wall, and swallowed hard. Now the beast was flinging itself up
against the bars, throwing its body mercilessly into the unyielding metal again
and again until she could see blood gleaming on its dark fur.

"Stop
it!" she yelled, stepping forward. "Tag, stop it! You're hurting
yourself!" She put her hand out to reassure him that she wasn't going to
hurt him, but all he did was snarl and lunge at her again, jaws snapping.

What
she was seeing wasn't plausible Ashlyn recoiled, appalled at the unbelievable
horror she was witnessing. Tag was completely unrecognizable now, the fur
covering his broad back rippling with muscles that just didn't exist in the
human anatomy, his slightly elongated mouth-muzzle curling its lips back in a
growl to reveal jagged teeth.

She'd
seen some transformation before- when Drake had nearly lost control in the
battle against Lord Angelo, and his fangs had alongated, his face twisting into
an animalistic snarl. But even as a vampire, Drake still appeared mostly human.
This
was nothing like that.

Never
before had Ashlyn seen the magic of a stane do what she was seeing now. Never
had she thought it possible.

She
turned to look at Skye, wanting some sort of comfort. His face was white as a
sheet. Ashlyn clutched numbly for his hand, not even caring that mere minutes
before she had sworn never to touch him again. Apparently he felt the same,
because his fingers laced through hers, holding so tightly that his knuckles
cracked. Ashlyn wished that the pressure could be comforting, but all it did
was increase the gravity of the situation. She wished that Skye would swallow
his fear, reassure her- pretend that watching this earnest Toryn man
shape-shift into a bear was not the scariest thing he'd ever seen.

The
Tag-creature focused on the both of them standing there, green eyes fierce. The
awful sounds he was making were so loud that Ashlyn could barely hear her own
thoughts. As much as she wanted to, as shocked and terrified as she was, she
couldn't rip her gaze away from his. Those blazing eyes seemed to tear right
through her.

She
swallowed hard. "Enough," she said, and her voice sounded pitiful
even to her own ears, "I've seen enough."

Kou was
leaning against the wall, hands braced behind him on the heavy oak. He was
staring at his feet, as if he were just as affected by the sight of Tag's
transformation as Ashlyn and Skye and didn't even want to watch. At her words,
he looked up and nodded. "Go," he said, and moved towards the doorway,
motioning for her to go first.

Ashlyn
brushed past him and ran up the stairs. She wanted to get as far away from that
snarling as she could. There were no footsteps behind her, but she couldn't
find the courage to look back and see if Skye was following. As she entered her
bedroom, Tag's cries faded some, but not entirely, and suddenly it wasn't
enough to be upstairs. Ashlyn turned to leave the house- and bumped into Skye.

"Hey,"
he said, steadying her with his hand on her shoulder. "Calm down. There's
a reason why he showed this to us-"

"What-"
Ashlyn choked on the word, and swallowed again, trying to ignore how dry the
inside of her mouth was. "What possible reason could he have for making me
watch something so terrible?" she cried, voice rasping. "He didn't have
to make me- he could have just
told
me-“

"I'm
sorry," Kou said from behind Skye. He was standing at the head of the
stairs, although she hadn't seen him ascend. "I should have warned you. I
think Tag thought it might be better for you to see it now, so you wouldn't be
so shocked if you encountered it…later."

Ashlyn
took a deep breath and stepped around Skye, ever-conscious of the weight of his
hand remaining on her shoulder as he turned with her. "Later?" she
repeated. "I don't ever want anyone to use that kind of magic again. You
think it's dangerous? Come
on,
that's the most potent dark magic I've
seen in my life, and I'm taking it to the North Triangle at the first
opportunity. I'm going to bury that stupid thing so freaking deep in the planet
that no one will
ever
find it again."

"That
won't help you," Kou answered. "Do you honestly think that’s the only
one?"

She
remained still for a long moment, trying to get a solid grip on the panic that
was ricocheting around in her mind. "What are you saying?"

Kou's
expression was bleak, impossible to draw any hope from. "This stane is not
the only one imbued with that kind of magic."

Silence.

"What
you're saying," Ashlyn said slowly, careful not to raise her voice,
"is that there's another one of those out there. A shape-shifting
stane."

"Who
has it?" Skye asked, suddenly all business. Ashlyn's tears had taken him
out of his element, but tracking a potential enemy was right up his alley.
"Just give me a name, the direction they went- anything. I'll find it and destroy
it."

Kou
shook his head. "The man who wields it is too powerful to be challenged by
a single soldier."

"Then
it's a man," Skye said. "Someone from Toryn?" He frowned,
staring at the floor and narrowing his eyes, as if he were making a mental
catalogue of attributes to file away for later use.

"Yes.
But I cannot you tell you anything more about this man until you have heard the
story from the beginning," said Kou. "You must understand how grave
our situation has become."

"I
understand that this magic could be dangerous if it has fallen into the wrong
hands," Skye answered.

He
moved away from Ashlyn and leaned against one of the support beams running
vertically up the wall. The pose he struck was a familiar one to Ashlyn,
deceiving in its feigned nonchalance. She'd seen it more than once during their
difficult battle with Lord Angelo.

"It's
powerful, even for its weakest users,” Skye continued. “It appears to render
the spell-caster incapable of human thought or memory. If someone managed to
get their hands on this magic- someone who didn't care who they hurt or what
they sacrificed- it could be lethal. But if there's only one other stane with
this kind of magic, then we can certainly capture the man who has it and
prevent it from ever reaching someone who might misuse its power."

"That's
not the half of it," Kou said. He seemed uncomfortable now, taken aback at
Skye's casual stance in the midst of this dramatic exposition. Ashlyn figured
that was probably Skye's intention. It had certainly worked in the past.

Kou
glanced around and finally took a seat on one of the mats scattered across the
floor, probably wanting to appear just as indifferent as the blond swordsman.
"You're correct in your assumption that the magic removes all humanity
from the spell-caster. The creatures created with
shift
retain animalistic instincts and almost nothing else. No
logic, and limited memories. All that’s left is rage…and inescapable
bloodlust." He paused and drew in a deep breath. "Perhaps you would
prefer to sit down for this, Ashlyn."

She
really didn't want to, but figured there was probably no harm in it. She sat,
abruptly and ungracefully, not bothering to smooth her kimono over her legs so
that her knees didn't show. "All right, I'm sitting. Spill."

Kou's
eyes were so sad when he looked at her that Ashlyn focused on his eyebrows
instead. No use twisting her heart around just to hear his story- and you know,
now that she actually thought about it, his eyebrows were way more animated
than she would have expected for such a stoic guy. Huh.

"Lord
Li discovered
shift
almost a year
ago," Kou began, "in a cave on Na Michico. I was told that he nearly
died during the climb. When he realized how weak he had become, he made the
decision to find someone to succeed him. But first…before he chose his
successor, he had to know that you were truly gone. He offered a reward for any
tips leading to your whereabouts." He met Ashlyn's eyes. "Or any
proof concerning your death."