Regret (Lady of Toryn Trilogy) (7 page)

At first he shook his
head, but then he hesitated. “What do you think?” he said at last, and it became
obvious to Ashlyn that he was trying to let her be the leader.

She glanced around
the rock, noting that the last of the troops were nearly out of sight, and
frowned. “Let’s follow them for now,” she said. “I guess if there’s a need
later, we can warn the city. I’d like to get to my father before an attack on
the city even becomes a possibility.”

Skye nodded, waiting
for her to continue.

“We’ll…move up the
line until we find my dad,” she said, a little uncertainly. “He’s the most
important thing right now. Even if I see Kou, I don’t want to stop searching
until I find my dad. Then we can regroup and…figure out what to do next.”

When they began
moving again, Ashlyn made a conscious effort to take a path further east,
allowing some space between herself and the army as she and Skye drew up
alongside the marching soldiers.

She noted that her
father’s army was in no particular formation, with some soldiers lagging behind
and a few clustered together in tight groups. None of the soldiers appeared
particularly lively or energetic, which might have been encouraging- except that
she was exhausted, too. A few of them were lighting torches, perhaps preparing
to march through the night.

One particular
soldier caught her eye, and she slowed, recognizing Kou’s naked face amidst the
sea of masked ninjas. He was riding a horse, one of just a few dozen mounted
soldiers in the entire army, and his long hair was pulled back loosely, his
features set in a scowl. Clearly he wasn’t happy with the day’s developments
thus far.

Ashlyn crept closer,
trying to see if one of the mounted ninjas was Lord Li. Even though their faces
were mostly covered, she figured she could probably recognize her dad’s eyes.
She could really only make out the eyes of those who were riding closest to
her, and none of them seemed familiar, but that still left fifteen or so who
were just too far away to identify.

One horse tossed its
head and trotted a few steps, bumping into the horse in front of it and causing
the second horse to pin back its ears and swish its tail angrily. The chain
reaction ended there, but Ashlyn’s attention was focused on the lead rope in
Kou’s hand- a lead that had previously been obscured by a horse. He was leading
the horse of another ninja, but why?

She was momentarily
distracted by a large fallen tree in her way, and hastily followed the trunk until
she found a place she could duck under. When she glanced over her shoulder, she
noted that Skye was following at a distance, close enough that she could signal
him if she needed to. For being such a blockhead over romance, his intuition on
the battlefield was surprisingly sharp, and right now she was grateful for it.

Ashlyn sprinted up ahead,
trying to get a lead on Kou, then slowly edged closer to get a better look.
When Kou drew near, she confirmed her suspicions- the masked ninja on horseback
was definitely her father. She’d recognize those dark eyes anywhere.

He was slumped
exhaustedly in the saddle, barely staying upright. The war was clearly taking
its toll on him. Even more surprising was the slightness of his figure, the
tunic doing nothing to disguise the angular cut of his shoulders and the
thinness of his arms. Her eyes followed the lines of his torso down to his
lower half, noting that his legs were particularly skinny. His knee-high boots
swallowed up his calves with room to spare.

Her gaze lingered at
his thighs, where ropes cut across his flesh tightly. Ashlyn frowned. Ropes?
Was he tied to the saddle? Perhaps he’d been giving so much blood to the
soldiers that he was too weak to sit in the saddle on his own strength.

Suddenly Lord Li fell forward,
and he did nothing to stop his descent, simply falling against the neck of his horse.
The horse didn’t falter, seemingly accustomed to the motion. After a long
moment, Lord Li’s hands came up, weakly pushing at the horse’s neck in an
attempt to lift himself, and Ashlyn saw with a shock that his hands were tied
as well.

Her father was a
prisoner!

Ashlyn’s hand flew to her sword,
ready to yank it free and unleash on these monsters who would dare to imprison
the Lord of Toryn, but Skye suddenly appeared next to her, his hand against
hers. He shook his head and put a finger to his lips.

She trembled, staring at the
swordsman furiously, wanting nothing more at that moment than to rescue her
father from the clutches of the most evil man she’d ever known. How long had
Kou been keeping him like this? Was this army extracting her father’s blood
against his will? How sick was he? Ashlyn felt ill when she thought about all
the time she’d wasted researching a Leadership Duel and arguing with herself
over her responsibilities as Lady of Toryn, when all the while her father had
been held prisoner, growing weaker every day.

With effort, Ashlyn lowered her
hand, leaving the sword strapped on her back. In front of them, the soldiers
marched, their footsteps drumming a rhythm into her conscious that served to
slow the frantic beat of her heart.

 
She nodded at Skye to follow her, and then
began retreating. Abandoning her father was the last thing she wanted to do
right then, especially when her first urge was run to him and throw her arms
around him- and then kill every single one of the monsters who had imprisoned
him all this time. But she needed to regroup with her comrades and figure out a
plan of action.

She and Skye reached Drake
quickly, and each of them mounted their horses so they could keep pace with the
army.

“My father is a prisoner,” Ashlyn
hissed as Skye drew even with her.

“A prisoner?” In the
near-darkness, Skye’s expression was almost unreadable, but his eyes were
glittering. “Are you sure?”

“
Yes.
I saw him- he’s tied to a horse and Kou is leading him. Skye,
my dad is so weak he can hardly sit up. They’re draining him dry!” Despite the
gravity of the situation, Ashlyn felt a sudden and profound sense of relief at
the knowledge that her dad wasn’t the bad guy after all. There would be no
Leadership Duel. Kou seemed to be the only enemy now.

“If we wait until they stop and
make camp,” Drake spoke up from behind her, “it’s possible we could stage a
rescue.”

There was a pause.

“It’s possible,” Skye said at
last. “Not easy, but not impossible either. They might not stop to make camp,
though. They could march on through the night.”

“Either way, we’ve got to get my
father out of there. If we can get him and head straight back to Toryn, I think
we’d be able to hold off my dad’s- Kou’s- army,” Ashlyn said. “Maybe if we got
my dad on the airship and off the island, it would discourage them from
attacking further.”

“You have the same blood,” Drake
pointed out. “The only way that theory would work would be if you evacuated
with your father.”

“I could do that,” Ashlyn said
reluctantly. “I’d prefer not to. I don’t want to abandon the city.”

“You may not have to,” said Skye.
“But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. They’re slowing down.”

All three of them turned to look
at the Toryn army, only visible by the lights of the torches they carried. It
was obvious that the army was stopping. If it was to make camp, Ashlyn
realized, this might be their chance.

“Let’s wait,” she said. “We can
get closer once they’re settled and work out what we’re going to do.”

She halted her horse, who stood
placidly and strangely content, despite the fact that they’d been riding most
of the day.

“Has it occurred to you that this
might be a ploy?” Drake asked. “Devlyn must know that we’re tracking him. He
might have bound your father so that you would assume Lord Li is innocent and attempt
a rescue.”

“I don’t think so,” Skye replied
before Ashlyn could speak up. “You and I could be tracking him, but he has no
reason to think that Ashlyn would. The wounds that she sustained would have
been life-threatening in any other situation. It was only thanks to you that
she’s all right.”

“Skye is right. No one but you
could have possibly healed my ribs without killing me,” Ashlyn said, “and Kou
has no idea how skilled you are with magic, so he probably thinks I’m
still…incapacitated or whatever. Actually…that might be why he’s moving now.
Maybe he’s hoping to attack Toryn before I get there.”

The three of them sat silently in
darkness for a long while, as the torches of the army continued to mill around
erratically. Ashlyn supposed it was fortunate that these soldiers weren’t very
well-organized, but she wished they’d hurry and set up camp.

Her mind wandered, her thoughts
straying to the tattoo she had removed from her ankle. Sometimes rash behavior
was gratifying, but right now she felt pretty dumb. Her father was clearly not
leading this rebellion, and Kou and Tag were clearly not her brothers. For all
she knew, every member of the Li bloodline was still rigidly documented inside
the scrolls in the gong library, and she’d scrubbed that tattoo off for
nothing.

Leaving on her own was a poor
decision, too, but in the heat of the moment, with Drake’s rejection still
ringing in her ears, it had seemed like the right choice. Maybe if she’d stuck
to the original plan and left Toryn with Skye and Drake in tow, she would have
already rescued her father and reached the city by now. She felt stupid and
foolish, but it was too late to change anything.

A tingle ran down her spine, and
Ashlyn glanced up to see Drake watching her, his eyes glowing faintly in the darkness.

“They’ve settled,” Skye said
before Ashlyn could react. “Ash, let’s you and me move in and assess the
situation.”

She obediently dismounted her
horse, handing the reins to Drake again. This time she met his eyes boldly,
daring him to continue their earlier conversation.

“Be careful,” was all he said.

She followed Skye closely,
keeping low to the ground as she inched forward. The darkness was a convenient
cloak to their movements, but the army was unusually quiet, and Ashlyn had to
take great care to keep silent.

The soldiers had camped as they
marched, strung out in a thin ribbon along the path on which they had marched
rather than grouping together. It would be more to Ashlyn’s advantage than
Kou’s, because the soldiers would have difficulty making their way to the
source of the battle if she, Skye and Drake were using magic to put barriers in
their path.

Ashlyn and Skye had to move
further up the line to find Kou again, but he was easily identified, removing
his horse’s tack as other ninjas worked to erect small tents in the area around
him. His movements were smooth and unhurried. Ashlyn found herself clenching
her fists, angry at his casual attitude. She wanted nothing more than to
inflict the same kind of pain and suffering on this man as he had on her
father.

As she watched, two soldiers
untied Lord Li and eased him down off the horse. His arms and legs were
trembling fiercely, fingers curled like claws as he clutched his hands to his
chest. Ashlyn’s throat tightened as she watched. She’d never seen her dad
helpless like this before. The dread and pity that welled in her heart were
nearly overwhelming.

The soldiers were not ungentle as
they set her father on his knees, but they did nothing to help him as he fell
forward weakly. The Lord of Toryn, face-down in the dirt, and these men were doing
nothing to aid him. Ashlyn blinked furiously, trying her damnedest not to cry,
and tapped Skye on the shoulder. He glanced back at her, and she motioned to
him to follow as she retreated.

“What’s wrong?” Skye asked when
they reached Drake, and Ashlyn shook her head mutely. She couldn’t speak,
couldn’t think, couldn’t see anything except for her father, near death and
being discarded on the ground like a piece of trash.

She took several steps away from
Skye, facing the darkness of the night, and took one deep breath, then another.
Acting on impulse was what had gotten her into this mess in the first place.
She would not let her dad down this time, not when so much depended on her
ability to stay calm.

Determinedly, she turned and
walked to Skye and Drake. “Okay,” she said. “I’m no tactical genius, but it
shouldn’t be impossible to run in and get them stirred up to the point where
they don’t know who to chase after I’ve rescued my father. I’m not even going
to worry about Kou. Kill him if you can, but the objective here is to get my
dad out. I’m going to run in and use
lightning
to fry as many of them as I can reach. Drake can stick with me as I go in
and use whatever he has to keep the soldiers at a distance, then help get my
dad up on the horse with me. We’re just not going to have time to tie him to
his own horse so I’ll have to carry him with me. Skye, if there is any way you
could open up- I don’t know, a ditch or something, maybe right behind us as
we’re running, that would slow them down in a big way?”

“I think I can help before that,”
Skye said, “using
earth
to create a
protected path towards your father.”

She knew what he meant- raising a
wall of soil on either side of her as she ran- but had never seen him use the
magic that precisely before. “That sounds like a good plan,” she said. “If you
think you can do it, I mean. I don’t want to ask you to be a superhuman here.”