Return (Lady of Toryn trilogy) (10 page)

"Ashlyn?" he questioned when she stayed silent.

"Huh?" She glanced at him, frowned as she followed his gaze to the Cosmea entrance. A man stood at the head of the stairs, staring at her with an unreadable expression on his face. "Oh, Gods. Yeah, I guess it is. I didn't think he'd be hanging out to keep an eye on me, for crying out loud."

"Is he a friend of yours?" The real question,
Who is he,
was underlying Drake's words, his manner of speaking bordering - but not quite - a monotone.

Yeah, some friend. She didn't even know his name. "Just a loyal fan. You know, thieves like me, we're famous."

Pointed look with those ruby eyes. "Toryn ladies like you can be famous as well."

"Well, yeah." Ashlyn shifted uncomfortably, glaring daggers at the stupid man for putting her through this conversation, for making her lie to Drake.
Drake,
of all people! The guy who really didn't give a crap about anything, and she was fibbing to him. "I just hope he doesn't figure it out. But what can I say to him? 'Hi, glad to meetcha, don't ask me to tell you my name.' It's hard to be subtle about that sort of thing."

"Yes, I would imagine so." He looked keenly at the man for a moment longer. "Perhaps I could explain to him that's it's . . . impolite to intrude on private conversations."

Yeah, that'd be just
super.
Ashlyn searched for something to say in response, and fell back on her inherent ditziness to save her.

"Aww, Drake! We're having a
private
conversation?" she blurted out desperately, choosing the only thing that she knew would scare the crap out of him. "That's one step up on the ladder of love. Next thing you know, I'll have you dancing with me at the Festival tonight." She put a hand on his arm, batting her eyelashes dramatically. "You will dance with me, won't you?"

He didn't react as violently as she'd expected. If Ashlyn had asked Drake to dance eight years ago, she would have gambled all her stanes that he'd leap to his feet and hightail it outta there faster than a top-ranked racehorse down the home stretch at the Silverbell Theme Park. Ashlyn would have been left in his dust, giggling stupidly and wondering how the hell he'd managed to move so fast without tripping over his pointy-toed silver boots, and wasn't that glove real heavy anyway, how could he run at all with that thing hanging on his arm?

But apparently Ashlyn wasn't the only one who had changed since the defeat of Lord Angelo.

This new, upgraded Drake met Ashlyn's eyes, showing absolutely no signs of hightailing anywhere, and she felt her breath catch in her throat as he stared at her. When she managed to suck in air again, she felt like she was out of control, breathing hard like she'd just jumped off Na Michico and
swam
to Cosmea. Drake's eyes were crimson like blood in the firelight and sunlight combined, only not half as disgusting, not even disgusting, and holy
crap
was she getting all hot and bothered over
Drake Lockhart?

She almost whispered his name, hand moving reflexively closer to his on the red earth beside her, but caught herself, suddenly realizing what she was doing.

Hastily, she tore her gaze from the red-eyed gunslinger's, staring instead at the flame in front of her, heart pounding noisily. "Oh, I forgot," she said dully, and even to her own ears her voice sounded strained, "you don't dance with anyone but Trace, do you."

Drake was silent for a moment longer, and then he stood. When Drake stood up it was never like the way anyone else stood up - Ashlyn clambered, Sky climbed, Restlyn rose gracefully. With Drake, one second he was on the ground, and the next he was standing, so smoothly and seamlessly that she was never sure if she'd seen him get up in the first place.

"If you'll excuse me," he said quietly.

Ashlyn nodded, not trusting herself to speak, listening to the muffled clicking of his boots against the dirt as he walked away from the Eternal Flame.

Ugh.

That
was an experience worth forgetting! Scrambling to her feet, Ashlyn stomped over to the man who had forced her to sacrifice her dignity and hit on Drake.

"What the hell are you doing?" she hissed in Toryn, shoving him up against one of the beams that supported the Cosmea sign. "Nice attempt at subtlety, moron. Why don't you just hang a sign around your neck that says, 'Spy for Toryn'? That is, if you don't think you're getting the
point
across well enough!" She eyed him suspiciously. "What's your name anyway, and what are you doing here?"

"I am Lysato Shak of the clan Shak, and I am ensuring your safety, Lady Li," he answered, averting his eyes from her angry glare. "Assassins are everywhere."

"I'm a ninja! Don't you think I can defend myself against a measly assassin or two?"

"Of course, Lady, but - "

"But nothing! If you hang around like this for the next three days, I'm going to have one heck of a time explaining it to the rest of FLD! Now scram!"

"Actually," a voice came from behind her, "I'd rather you stick around for a while."

Ashlyn turned on her heel and found herself staring at a black-vested chest. Gulping, she raised her eyes to see Skye staring down at her, his expression pinched and angry.

"I can explain," she said quickly, forgetting to switch to Merchant Tongue.

"You will. What happens in three days?" he asked, quiet rage in his voice.

It took Ashlyn a second or two to realize her mistake, and a split-second longer to realize that he'd responded.

Skye understood Toryn?

Oh, crap. What had she said when she'd walked in to find him shirtless?

Man, have I been missing out with this whole reclusive warrior gig.

He'd been smiling.

Oh, crap.

Oh,
crap.

"Well?" he said, folding his arms across his chest.

Ashlyn, still distraught over the shirt comment, promptly drew a blank. "Uh . . . "

She was pushed out of the way suddenly by Lysato. "Run, Lady! He means to harm you!"

"He means no such thing," she exclaimed, and squeaked as Lysato pulled out a weapon very similar to her crystal shuriken, striking a battle stance. "NO! Don't you dare - "

Before the sentence was even finished, he had lunged at Skye. The swordsman nimbly sidestepped and shoved Lysato backwards, then rushed the smaller man. Lysato tried to edge out of the way and cut down with the shuriken, but Skye moved much faster, catching the weapon and twisting it out of the ninja's hands before landing a solid blow to the other man's lower back, forcing him to his knees.

Skye knocked Lysato to the ground and placed a booted foot between his shoulder blades.

"Move and you'll regret it," he said in Amato-style Toryn, then directed his gaze at Ashlyn.

She was completely dumbfounded.

Skye
spoke
Toryn?

"You said you could explain," he growled.

"I can." Or, um,
not
. Ashlyn tried to think of an excuse - just when did Skye learn to speak Toryn? - that wouldn't make it sound like she'd been playing both sides. Which of course, she hadn't, but how to make it look that way to their fearless leader?

She felt her cheeks heating under his gaze. "Devlyn wants to make me co-Leader of Toryn," she said. "It could . . . mean the end of the war . . . maybe before it even really starts."

He raised an eyebrow. "And you were planning on letting us in on this fact . . . when?"

"Hey, I wasn't hiding anything from you," Ashlyn said defensively. "I just found out about it this morning. This guy walked in and told me that he would take me to Toryn in three days. I wasn't sure what to do, but I thought that maybe if I could just talk to Devlyn, we could work it out without, you know, violence and stuff."

"Why didn't you come to me in the first place?"

"Faithless infidel," Lysato spat, rather unexpectedly and totally randomly, prompting wary glances from both Skye and Ashlyn.

"Uh, I wasn't sure that you'd approve."

"Damn right I wouldn't have approved! You're our - stay still," he snapped at Lysato, who stopped struggling and glared at Skye with one eye, having to nearly twist his head entirely around just to see the people standing above him. "You're our only hope for some kind of resolution to this war, Ash. I thought you were a sure thing; I trusted you. Then Vargo tells me you visited the ninja we captured without telling me, and now I find you trading secrets with another Toryn. Tell me, what am I supposed to think? How am I supposed to trust you now?"

"I thought I could get some information out of Kou…um, the ninja," Ashlyn said. "But he didn't tell me enough to make it worth your time to hear. And Lysato - this guy - I don't think he means any harm, he just wants to take me back to Devlyn."

"To make you co-Leader," Skye said, and it was obvious that he didn't believe that was Devlyn's intention at all.

"Look, Skye, people are staring," Ashlyn told him self-consciously. "Can't we take this up to Aik's house or something?"

Wordlessly he reached down to grab Lysato's shoulder and haul the other man upright, handing the shuriken to Vargo, who had somehow materialized behind him.

Ashlyn glared at the red-haired Spartan. She should have known all that sensitive crap he'd spewed had been fake. How could she ever have trusted him to keep her visit to Kou a secret? Jerk. If she hadn't loathed him before, she would
really
detest him from now on.

To her infinite surprise Skye motioned for her to lead the way. She wondered why, and then realized stupidly that he probably didn't trust her to follow him. Like she'd just run away after being accused of spying? Please. She had a little more pride than that.

Grumbling, she trudged towards the staircase she'd only minutes before came skipping down. "This is such crap," she said loudly, momentarily forgetting her desire to keep their dispute secret. "I didn't even want to stick around. For eight frigging years I've been perfectly fine on my own, but then
you
-" She tossed a glare of what she hoped was absolute contempt over her shoulder at Vargo and Skye, " - show up and all of a sudden I can't exist without somebody hovering over my shoulder.

“As if that's not enough, now I've gotta defend myself for talking to one of my kinsmen. I suppose I should be mad that Drake is hanging out with Trace, then, huh? 'Cause last time I checked she was
so
on my enemy list! I suppose she's more trustworthy than me, right? I guess you trust a Spartan more than your own friend!"

"No, I don't," Skye said. He sounded tired. "But I do want to get this straightened out."

Lysato lunged forward suddenly, plowing into Ashlyn and sending them both tumbling to the ground. Ashlyn let out a yip as their tangled limbs added momentum to her forward motion.

"STOP!" she shrieked, seeing the rapidly approaching drop-off. She half-flipped and dug her heels into the landing in front of the stairs that led to the weapons shop, but they gained no purchase on the slick ground, scrabbling uselessly against the sandy rock.

Almost before she could comprehend what was happening, Ashlyn skidded off the edge of the landing and plummeted towards the ground below.

This was not good. In the space of a heartbeat, she'd already considered all possible methods of landing. If she took the fall on her shoulder, she might put too much of the weight on her neck and injure herself. If she landed on her feet, her inherently weak ankles probably wouldn't be able to take the strain and would collapse.