Return (Lady of Toryn trilogy) (18 page)

He raised his hands above his head, still soundly tied together with the frayed rope. "I'm completely at your mercy, I swear."

"Don't sound so happy about it. I've got to figure out a disguise to get into this damn town without anybody noticing me."

"Let's hope he brought a burlap sack for you to wear, then," said Vargo. "That's the only way you're going to be able to hide."

"Thanks for the advice, but I'm fresh out of burlap sacks." She held up the outfit that Kou had bought for her the day before. Yeah, she expected something like this to come out of Eastern City. "I thought about cutting off my hair, but I had short hair before, so that probably wouldn't help at all."

"Nothin's gonna help, babe. Believe me."

She chose to ignore the babe comment, and pulled the white cotton petticoat over her head. "Don't be such a pessimist."

"Hey, I'm the hostage here. I'm allowed to be a buzzkill if I want to."

"Gag," she threatened.

"Panties?" he returned hopefully.

"Oh, GROSSNESS! You're…disgusting!" She threw her other shoe at him. "That's the grossest thing I've ever heard.
Ever
. Okay, you are officially the most revolting-"

"Geez, relax," he said, raising his hands to rub at his sore shoulder. "I was just trying to rile you up. I wouldn't let you gag me with your underwear if you were the last virgin princess on the planet."

"I am
not-"

"A princess?"

He was thoroughly enjoying this, she could see.

Ashlyn gritted her teeth as she struggled to fasten her corset. Vargo had annoyed her eight years ago, but at least then she could justify beating him up. Now that they were kind of on the same side, it was more difficult to figure out how to channel her aggravation.

She shoved her feet into the plain brown boots, grimaced as she stared down at them. "I look like an old housewife," she muttered.

Vargo squirmed around until he could see her, swinging his feet around for balance and propping himself against the rock as he looked her over. "No, you don't," he said. "You look like Ashlyn Li in a dress."

"Coming from you, I imagine that's an insult. I hate long skirts."

"That's probably why your friend bought it," he said. "Nobody thought you'd ever wear one. Lose the headband."

"What?" Was he
helping
her?

"Your bandanna. Off," Vargo said impatiently. "And let your hair down. Everyone's expecting to see you with your hair like you always wear it."

She opened her mouth to protest, but realized he was right. She never wore her hair down. Pulling the bandanna off her head, she flipped her braid over her shoulder and untied the cord that secured the end.

Vargo nodded with approval as she unbraided and finger combed the waist-length mass of waves. "Nice."

She couldn't stop the instinctive warmth that spread within her, but she covered it up quickly, and scoffed. "Good to know I meet the Vargo standards for passable women. Walking? Check. Talking? Check. Gee, that was hard."

Vargo's face darkened. "I'm beginning to rethink that talking qualifier," he growled.

"You know…" she began, and stopped. He wasn't worth it. She picked up his electric baton from the grass. "Go away."

He rolled his eyes. "Do I even have to dignify that with a response?"

"Here's the deal," she said, plopping down cross-legged in front of him, only moderately hindered by her skirt. "You're going to be carrying the clothes and stuff. Keep your hands hidden the entire time that we're in town, and don't even think about escaping. I've got your baton."

"I quiver in fear," he said sarcastically.

"Well, don't quiver too much. You'll give yourself rope burns." Ashlyn paused. "I wish you'd believe me. We're on the same side here. I'm just trying to keep anyone from getting hurt."

"Yes, I can see that," he said, raising his hands to massage his sore shoulder pointedly. "Poor little ninja princess, all alone for eight years, and now no one will believe that she's trying to save the world." His eyes narrowed. The change in him was astounding, from playful and teasing to cruel and accusing in a few short moments. "I
should
believe you. You've only slipped up once or twice- the first time with your assassin friends, the second with Lockhart. Was that your plan? To take us out one by one?"

Ashlyn slapped him. Hard.

"OW!" he squawked, rubbing his cheek. "What the hell?" An imprint of her hand was already rising on his cheek, cherry-red in the lantern-light.

"I would
never
hurt Drake," Ashlyn spat, furious. "I tried to save him. Do you hear me, you heartless bastard?
I tried to save Drake.
I would have jumped in front of the sword if I could have. I would have stayed if Kou had let me. I would have…" She stopped short, the words dying on her lips as she realized what he'd said.

Take us out one by one.

She was suddenly scared.

Ashlyn grabbed Vargo by the rope around his wrists and hauled him upright, finding a bizarre strength inside her she hadn't known was possible. "He's alive," she hissed, slamming the Spartan up against the rock and pinning his hands against his chest. The electric baton was at his throat. "Tell me Drake is
alive
." She'd seen the vampire suffer worse wounds than the one he'd sustained; she'd seen him walk away from certain death a dozen times. He was Drake, after all.

Vargo's face was an unreadable mask. "What do you care?"

Fury welled up within her. "You son of a bitch,
don't you dare-
"

Lightning split the sky. Ashlyn stopped.

No fury. Calm. Calm was good.

She took a deep,
calming
breath, clutching Vargo’s hands earnestly to her collarbone, the tan of her fingers splayed across the whiteness of his. She let the hand with the baton fall to her side. "Don't play with me, Vargo. That sword would have hit Drake in his heart, but it didn't. I deflected it. A shoulder wound is nothing to him.
Nothing
." Her voice broke, and she looked down, defeated. "Just tell me," she whispered, tears choking her voice. "Tell me if he's all right."

There was a long silence, punctuated by Ashlyn's gulping breaths and the steady
hum
of Vargo‘s baton.

Vargo finally sighed. "I don't know if he's all right," he admitted. "When I left, the Cosmea healers were with him. He'd lost a lot of blood."

Ashlyn drew in a shuddering breath. Then another. A tear dripped down her cheek and landed on their joined hands.

So much was happening so quickly. A week ago Ashlyn had been carefree, traveling on her own merit, without a single responsibility to weigh her down. Now it felt like the entire world was crumbling around her.

And
Drake…

"I'm sorry," Vargo said suddenly, his hands moving to clasp over hers. "I didn't…I didn't mean what I said. I know you wouldn't intentionally hurt him."

She looked up at Vargo, at the straight, even features she'd only recently noticed were so balanced, at his wild red hair and playful green eyes, except that right now his eyes were bright with the lantern-light and somehow more serious than she'd ever seen them.

He swallowed, looking as uncertain as she did. "Ash," he murmured, and she'd never heard her name sound so revered, so…
delicate
. His hands drifted to her face, cradling it within his palms and gazing at her like he'd never seen her before, or maybe like he'd
seen
her but never really
noticed
until now.

Yeah, she knew the feeling.

But he didn't believe her, Ashlyn reminded herself unsteadily. He thought she was a traitor to FLD.

"We have to get into town before Kou starts worrying," she muttered, taking a shaky step backwards. "And I- I have to get to Toryn before anyone else is hurt." She collected up her sneakers and clothes and shoved them into the extra satchel Kou had brought her.

Vargo watched her, still leaning against the rock. "So what's your plan? Put me in the room and leave me?"

Ashlyn hesitated as she closed the satchel, glancing at him. "I'm going to request an in-room dinner for tomorrow evening, and they'll find you then. By that time Kou and I should be well on our way."

He studied her for a long moment. "And I'll just sit there, tied up and gagged, for an entire day."

"Yup." She switched the baton and the lantern to one hand while she picked up the satchel with the other.

"Huh." He offered a smirk that didn't reach his eyes. "You don't trust me not to find Skye and tell him where you are?"

Ha. Right. "That would be a negative."

"Glad to know you've got so much faith in me. We did save the world together and all."

"Oh please. The last time I actually talked to you before this week was on the metro tracks in Endro eight years ago. And the closest you got to saving the world was to decide fighting us wasn't worth it."

He scuffed his toe in the grass. "Guess I forgot we didn't- didn't have much to do with each other the last few times I saw FLD. The tracks in Endro, huh? Long time ago, wasn't it? We were just kids then."

"I was sixteen. I'm surprised I can remember being that young."

"I was twenty. I remember it pretty damn clearly." He laughed, and there was bitterness in his voice. "But then, getting your ass kicked on a daily basis isn't something that just slips your mind."

"Poor Vargo." Unsympathetic, she shoved the satchel into his hands. "Move."

He stumbled out from behind the rock and started walking. "So we're checking into the inn now?" he asked.

"That's the plan. Why?" She followed him into the city, glancing around warily.

"Just wondering when we're going to eat."

"I'll find you something when we get there." Ashlyn nudged him towards the inn.

"Wait!" Kou suddenly jumped out beside them and dragged them both into the narrow alley between the inn and the saloon. "I was wrong," he said to Ashlyn in Toryn. "FLD is here. I've only just seen them."

"FLD?" Ashlyn repeated, stunned. "They're here?"

"Oh goody," Vargo said dryly, obviously recognizing the name of the former rebel group, which was the same in either language. "Just when I'm about to get something to eat, I get rescued."

"You're not rescued yet," Ashlyn told him in Merchant Tongue. She turned to Kou. "What are we going to do? Are the horses still at the livery?"

"Yes, and we're going to leave them there. I paid a considerable amount of your credits to keep them out of sight."

"My credits. Great. So- what? We just wait around here till FLD leaves?"

"I'm hungry," Vargo announced.

"Shut up," Ashlyn said.

"There's a side entrance to the inn. We'll enter there and wait for FLD to turn in. I overheard your friends saying that they have plans to scour the plains come morning."

"By then you and I will be halfway across the ocean," said Ashlyn.

"What about me?" Vargo demanded.