Return (Lady of Toryn trilogy) (2 page)

Eight
pairs of eyes stared at her blankly, and Ashlyn cracked a smile, a little unsure where to start or why, exactly, all of her friends (and some people who weren't her friends at all) were gathered in what she assumed was Restlyn‘s tavern. They were all seated around a circular table in the center of the room, except for the wolf...
Aik,
she corrected herself absently,
his name is Aik
...who was sprawled across the top of the bar, staring at her with unnerving yellow eyes.

"Uh.
Hey," Ashlyn said. "Gang's all here. Guess I picked the right time to stop by."

It was
Restlyn who spoke first. "Ash?" she said, arching one perfect brow as she turned towards Ashlyn.

Ashlyn saw that her friend and fell
ow Toryn was wearing a leather armband, equipped with stanes, and something inside clicked. Not just a gathering of old friends, then.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm sorry
- maybe this isn't such a good time after all."

There was a long silence after she spoke, and eventually Ashlyn shut the door behind her, cutting off the howling wind. "Look, you're all acting like I just stole your stanes," she said uneasily. "What's the deal? I know I haven't seen you in a while, but I'm kinda feeling the chill of the Eastern Canyon here."

"We thought you were dead," Jackson spoke up fi
nally. He was the President of the Free Lands, elected by free citizens following the defeat of Lord Angelo eight years prior. He looked every bit the regal politician now, his dark hair slicked back and his suit immaculate. He had changed as much as Ashlyn had, if not more.

"Dead?"
Ashlyn repeated, a grin creeping onto her face. "Sheesh, a girl doesn't call for a few years and suddenly she's written off as deceased. I see how it is." She set her saddlebags down on the floor and ran a hand over her wet hair. "Well, you can all see I'm not dead, although I do sort of resemble a drowned rat. I just took leave from life for a bit. And I'm soaked, by the way. Is there anywhere I can change?"

"Ash!"
Restlyn exclaimed, throwing up her hands. "Do you have any idea what you've done? Nobody's seen you for eight years! Your father thought you'd been killed!"

"Dad just
...overreacts," Ashlyn said slowly, and put one hand on her hip. "Okay, somebody tell me what the hell is going on here. Why are you all carrying weaponry- and why did the Spartans get invited to this thing while I got left out in the rain?"

She eyed the
two Spartans suspiciously. Trace and Vargo were just two of the ten Spartans that had challenged FLD eight years ago. They had been Lord Angelo’s assassins, second only to the prestigious DEMON army. Maybe the Spartans had struck some kind of treaty with her friends in her absence, but that didn’t mean she trusted them, knowing the sordid things they had done under Lord Angelo’s reign.

"She told ya. We all been thinkin’ you was dead
," Aaron, the old pilot who had always been something like a grouchy uncle to her, growled. "So did yer father, an’ he gave up leadership to his son."

"What?
Dad would never...wait a minute, his son?" Ashlyn repeated. "I don't have any..."

"His adopted son," Aik spoke up. "Your father assumed you were dead
, and abdicated leadership of the kingdom to a man named Devlyn, who he had been training for the role since news of your death."

"Oh
. . . news of my death, huh?" Ashlyn stared at her sopping sneakers, taken aback by this new development. "Well, that . . . sucks. Kind of. I mean, I didn't want to be the Lady of Toryn anyway. Is this Devlyn guy cool?"

"Hell no!"
Aaron burst out, making them all jump- except for Drake, who might as well have been a lump of mud for all the response he gave. "He's a maniac who's set on takin’ over the Free Lands now that Lord Angelo’s outta the way!"

"What?"

"And you been takin’ leave from life while we been fightin' the good fight," Aaron continued angrily, standing up. He towered over everyone else in the room, which made his words that much more intimidating. "We been keepin' Toryn's army trapped on your island for three months now, and it ain't no thanks to you."

"Three months?" Ashlyn said in disbelief. "How did I not notice this? I'd have had to be living in a cave…" She trailed off, remembering too late that she had been secluded in Endro for the last six months. Of course she couldn't have known.

They stared at her, waiting for her excuses, and Ashlyn felt all the happiness she'd experienced at seeing her old friends slip away, leaving behind a cold void of blackness and guilt.

"I was...gone for a while," she said softly. "I wanted so badly to just disappear, and I guess I did. I'm so sorry." She paused, tears gathering in her eyes as she thought of her father. She'd left for too long this time. "I can't believe my dad would just think I was dead, I mean, he knows me better than that. I wouldn't kick it without a sweeping exit."

"Devlyn said he had seen your deat
h," Skye said, the first time the swordsman had spoken since she'd walked in. "Killed by a wolf in the Heavenly City. He presented your father with your shuriken as proof."

"My shuriken?"
Ashlyn screeched, then, remembering she was indoors, lowered her voice a smidgen. "Was it my bo shuriken? I lost that four years ago. In this tavern, actually, or at least in this town."

"You were here? I never saw you,"
Restlyn said curiously.

"I know, I came in here, and
. . . left before I could find out if it was your bar or not. I mean, last I'd heard you were still tending that hole in the wall in Endro, I had no idea you'd even left that place. Listen, guys, if I had known, there's no way I would have stayed out of the loop for so long. I swear I didn't know, and I didn't think that anybody would care if I disappeared. I'm just... I'm nobody, I mean, I was never that important…"

She swiped angrily at her eyes, frustrated with her tears.
This is ridiculous,
Ashlyn thought, blinking furiously. Five minutes ago she'd been totally void of all responsibility for anything, unburdened by obligations and worry. Now she might well have brought about the end of the world. That thought only made the tears come faster.

"Cryin’ ain’t gonna help nothin
‘," Aaron grumbled. "Stop actin’ like a baby."

"S
- sorry," Ashlyn muttered. "I didn't mean to…" She couldn't finish the sentence. What could she say? Leaving her saddlebags lying on the floor, she turned and pushed open the door again. The wind slammed it shut almost before she could squeeze out, scraping her fingers with the rough wood.

"I need my horse back," she told the livery owner tearfully.

"No early removals," he told her. "That's the policy."

"I don't
care
what your policy is!" she shrieked. "Just give me my horse! I can't stay here!"

He stared at her dubiously, then shrugged and tossed her credits back on the des
k as the stable boy led Suki back into view. "No skin off my nose. The kid hasn't untacked-”

"She won't
be needing that," Drake cut in. He reached down to grab Ashlyn's wrist as she picked up the credits, and she dropped them like they were on fire, cheeks flaming as she snatched her hand away.

"She'll be picking
the horse up in the morning to move to my stable," Skye added, placing a hand on Ashlyn’s shoulder.

"The hell I will!" Ashlyn snapped, trying to shrug off his hand. It didn't work. She glared at Drake. "Give me those credits."

"You can't go anywhere, Ashlyn," he said slowly, pushing the credits back over the desk to the other man. "Now that we know you're alive, we can overthrow Devlyn and establish you as the rightful leader of Toryn."

"Oh yeah, it'll really be that easy," she retorted. "Maybe he'll just step down when he realizes that stealing my shuriken didn't actually kill me.
I can tell when I’m not wanted. Aaron made it pretty darn clear.”

"Don't be stupid, Ash. Aaron didn't mean what he told you," Skye said from her other side. "We're all glad you're alive. He just didn't know how to respond."

"I guess a simple 'welcome back' was too much to ask," Ashlyn answered sarcastically. "Thanks, Skye, but no thanks. I'm not going to stick around for another verbal lashing at the hands of that jerk."

"You can't leave," Drake said, more firmly this time. "If Devlyn finds out you're alive
-“

"And with us," Skye added.

"- He'll do everything he can to kill you. You have to stay with us, Ashlyn. There's no other way."

Ashlyn gritted her teeth. "I've been on my own for twenty-three years," she told them angrily. "Eight
years ago, you spent a few weeks tolerating my presence and ignoring everything I said, and then you forgot I even existed as soon as you didn't need me anymore. You do
not
have the right to tell me what I can do with my life. Now let go of me!"

She jerked away from S
kye and snatched Suki's reins away from the stable boy. No sooner had she put her foot in the stirrup than she was suddenly grabbed from behind. Strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her back.

"I had hoped we wouldn't have to resort to this," Drake said, calmly deflecting her well-aimed kicks as he pinned her arms to her sides.

"Ew! Let go of me, you freak!" Ashlyn yelled. "Skye! Help me!"

"Keep the horse for the night
," Skye said to the stable boy. "Ashlyn won’t be needing it." Turning grim-faced to Drake, he motioned for the other man to follow him, and they strode out into the rain, Ashlyn still screaming her head off.

"You
...jerk!" she spat at Drake, struggling uselessly in his arms. "Let go of me, you lying, two-faced creep! You're- ow- you're hurting me!"

"Stop fighting," he replied, unfazed.

"Ashlyn, this is for your own good," Skye said. He pushed open the door to a nondescript, blue-shingled house and stood aside for Drake to pass.

"Like hell it is!" She threw her head back, trying to loose Drake's grip, and immediately saw stars as the back of her skull connected with the doorjamb. "Ohhh
..."

"Great," said Skye, a trace of irritability in his tone. "She'll be real easy to handle with a concussion."

"Would you prefer to carry her yourself?" Drake replied.

Ashlyn stopped struggling for a few moments, attempting to ignore the pain assaulting her senses and processing Drake's easy response to Skye's words. The Drake Lockhart she remembered wouldn't have said three words unless you forcibly dragged them from him, much les
s utter a sarcastic response.

"Where are you taking me?" she muttered, prying a hand loose of Drake's grip to rub her aching head.

Drake kicked open a door and set her down none too gently on the hardwood floor. "Your room," he said.

Ashlyn looked around.
Tacky wallpaper, vase of wildflowers, a single bed with a faded patchwork quilt and plain white sheets. All the comforts of prison.

"I'm not staying here," she announced. "You guys can lock me in or whatever, but I won't be here in the morning."

Skye and Drake exchanged a glance.

"Well, I guess we could always chain you to
Vargo for the night," Skye said after a moment.

Ashlyn paled.

"He
has
been complaining about how far removed his room is from the rest of ours," the ex-DEMON continued. "It might do him good to have some company."

"O
h, right. Like you’re seriously going to handcuff me to that pervert. Please," scoffed Ashlyn. She hoped she sounded a lot more confident than she felt. Vargo was a wise-cracking, smart-ass Spartan with a penchant for pretty girls - and a creepy obsession with her. "Nobody would be that cruel!”

"I guess you could stay here," Skye said innocently, dropping her saddlebags on the floor. Ashlyn hadn't even noticed he was carrying them.

She glared at him. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Skye
sighed and leaned against the doorframe, folding his arms across his chest. Drake remained motionless beside him. Ashlyn resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at the silent gunslinger. Damn him and all of his vampiric super-strength.

"Look, I know it's a lot to lay on you in one night," Skye said, "but what you don't understand is that we've been fighting this battle without hope. It was enough for now to keep Devlyn and his army isolated on the island, but we had no chance of permanently defeating him without wiping out Toryn completely. You know your
people, you know that they'll fight for what they believe in. Right now they believe that Devlyn is their leader, and they'll follow him to death, if that's what it takes. All we need to do is get you in there somehow, so you can do what you were born to do - take up leadership of Toryn and stop this meaningless war."

His aqua eyes
were so heartbreakingly earnest during his little speech that Ashlyn couldn't stand to look at them any longer. She plopped down on the bed, staring at her feet.