The Lady of Toryn Anthology (Lady of Toryn trilogy) (70 page)

“Is Aaron back yet?” Ashlyn asked quietly as Restlyn
tied her sneakers for her.

“Not yet. That’s a long trip, Ash. I don’t think
he’s gonna make it in time.”

It was fate then, wasn’t it? If Aik didn’t get here
with the proof, there was no way the Toryn people would accept Restlyn as the
new Elder Heir. Ashlyn closed her eyes briefly, every fiber of her being telling
her to go through with coronation, to claim the birthright she’d fought so hard
to keep.

Her gaze was blurred with tears when she stepped
outside, the sun bright on her face, giving her an excuse to lower her chin and
avoid meeting the gaze of the people lining the path to the pagoda.

Restlyn followed, keeping at Ashlyn’s left and just
a few steps behind, carrying the book of naming. It was required for the
ceremony and its presence was nothing out of the ordinary, but Ashlyn was
suddenly terrified that Restlyn would open it and see what Lord Li’s name had
been before his coronation.

She lifted her eyes briefly as they approached the
pagoda, seeing an unknown Toryn man standing there beneath the gazebo in the
courtyard. There were no lesser lords available for coronation, and Lord Li had
already passed on, so presumably Restlyn had found a descendant of a lesser
lord to complete the ceremony. Ashlyn had no idea. She had done none of the
planning, taken on none of the responsibilities of leadership over the last
several weeks.

He took her hand as she approached, and bowed low,
addressing her in Amato-style Toryn as he helped her up onto the small
platform. Normally Ashlyn had no problems translating the slight differences in
dialect between the various clans, but today she struggled to focus. As he
began speaking to the people, his words ran together until it was a ceaseless
droning in her ears, rattling around in her brain and making her want to
scream.

A month ago, when FLD had told her that Lord Li had
selected Devlyn as his successor, she’d felt…relief? Definitely not
disappointment. Over the years she’d convinced herself that becoming Lady of
Toryn wasn’t something she was interested in. But the last month had made her
realize just how badly she’d wanted to be
that
girl, the girl who was capable of leading her people, who put others before
herself.

Ashlyn looked around, seeing Restlyn, Skye, the
people of Toryn- all watching her. Expecting her to be a capable leader, to
bring Toryn back after Kou had run it into the ground.

The words being recited now were the words that
she’d always known she would hear sooner or later. As much as she’d dreaded
these words and even gone to great lengths to avoid them, there had been a
place in her heart where she’d kept them, memorized them, looked forward to
hearing them- when she was ready to become Lady of Toryn.

But it was a lie. She would be living a lie.

I
would hate to see your spirit broken by the burden of deception.

“Wait,” she said softly, then repeated it again,
louder this time. “Wait.”

The word escaped her lips almost of its own accord.
Almost immediately, there was a steady rumble of engines in the distance.
Ashlyn’s throat tightened. Aaron had made it back in time after all.

The man who was speaking, the man she’d never seen
before in her life, stopped talking and gave her a confused look. “Lady Li, is
something wrong?”

She blinked furiously, trying to keep the tears from
falling. “Yes, something is wrong.”

The engines grew louder, and she glanced over as the
dust just inside the gate began to stir. The airship was landing. Slowly it
descended, turning slightly as it touched down, the hatch facing her. The
engines cut off.

Ashlyn’s gaze met Restlyn’s. The older girl’s eyes
were the color of polished copper, a combination of bronze and ebony. Cosmean
and Toryn. Right now those eyes were wide with confusion.

“I’m not your Elder Heir,” Ashlyn said, cold fingers
clenching around her heart as she spoke. She turned to look out at her people,
all gathered to watch her coronation. “I’m not even a Li.”

“Ashlyn,” Skye said urgently, standing up and moving
closer. He extended a hand. “Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else.”

She ignored him. “My father is Lord Li, that much is
true. He accepted me as his daughter and raised me accordingly. But his
marriage to my mother, Susyn, was a deception. It was not legally binding. It
was a lie.” A tear slipped down her cheek, and she paused, looking out at her
people. Their expressions were a combination of frustration and wariness. The
last thing she wanted to do was let them down, but this
was
the right thing to do- the only thing to do.

Aik was descending the ramp from the airship, the
black case dangling from his mouth. Ashlyn cleared her throat, and continued,
her voice clear and unwavering. “It was a lie because my father was already
married. He’d been married for several years to the Chief of Cosmea, Abinitio
Redhorse.”

Restlyn was standing now, her skin pale, her hands
twisting the front of her dress nervously.

“What do you mean?” the Toryn man beside Ashlyn
asked. “There is no Elder Heir?”

Ashlyn shook her head. “No, there is an Elder Heir.
Restlyn Li, my adopted sister, is the daughter of that union. Her mother was
Abinitio Redhorse, and her father was Lord Li. She is the Elder Heir, and the
rightful Lady of Toryn.”

The Toryn people exploded into a frenzy of shouting
and wailing.

“She’s an abomination!” someone yelled out. “Only
half-Toryn!”

“There is no proof!” someone else screamed.

Aik leaped up onto the platform and set the case
down beside Ashlyn. “I have it,” he said breathlessly. “I have everything. It
was in the basement, just like you said it would be.”

The rumbling of the people’s protests had reached a
fever pitch now, and Ashlyn hurriedly knelt, pushing her sleeves up so she
could open the case. “I have proof!” she exclaimed, reaching in and pulling out
the sheaf of parchment. “I have proof to show you that she is the Elder Heir!”

The commotion quieted somewhat, and Ashlyn looked at
the first document. It was a marriage certificate.

“In the book of naming,” she said loudly, trying to
keep her voice calm and level, “my father’s birth name is shown.” She stepped
over the case, nearly tripping over the folds of her kimono, and took the book
of naming from the Toryn man who was standing on the platform with her. She
tilted it open awkwardly, flipping through the pages.

“Here it is!” She held up the book. “Lord Li’s name,
right above mine. Restyn Asheron Hiroyuki Li, known only as Lord Li upon his
ascension. And here-“ she held up the stack of papers- “is the marriage
certificate for Restyn Li and Abinitio Redhorse, dated twenty-five years ago.
They were married in Cosmea.” She handed the book back to the confused Toryn
beside her, and shuffled through the papers, pulling out Restlyn’s birth
certificate- her
original
birth
certificate, the one with Lord Li’s name on it. “This is the record of
Restlyn’s birth! You will see that Lord Li’s name is clearly indicated as her father.”

An eerie silence settled over the crowd, and Ashlyn
took a deep breath, wondering if she’d convinced them. Perhaps they were simply
as reluctant to believe it as she had been.

Restlyn had gone completely white, and was standing
silently beside Skye, who was (as usual) oblivious to her emotional turmoil,
focusing only on Ashlyn.

The silence stretched on. Ashlyn swallowed hard.
“This means,” she said, and her voice wasn’t so confident anymore, “that
Restlyn is the one who should ascend the pagoda today. Not me. I’m…” She met
Restlyn’s eyes, and looked away, unable to bear the pity that she saw there.
“I’m not a Li.”

Still, there was silence.

“Those documents could have been forged,” the Toryn
man beside her said finally. “It would take some time to review them.”

“For who to review them?” Ashlyn responded
incredulously. “I am the Elder Heir- or…I was, until I realized that position
was Restlyn’s. Regardless, there is no one who is in authority over the Elder
Heir, and it’s either Restlyn or me, no matter how you look at it. She has been
serving as interim Lady of Toryn for weeks now, and no one had any complaints
about that! What else could I possibly show you to prove…” She stopped,
realizing something, and began to yank at the obi around her waist. “Wait a
minute. I know how to prove it, once and for all.”

The elaborate sash stubbornly refused to give,
however, and Ashlyn’s breath hissed out between her teeth.

“Hang on,” Skye said beside her, and he produced a
dagger, slicing deftly through the sash so that it fell in heavy ribbons around
her feet. Ashlyn didn’t stop to consider that he’d just ruined a garment that
had been in her family for generations- she was scrambling to reach into the
pocket of her shorts.

She produced the green
shift
stane. “This!” she crowed victoriously, holding it aloft.
“This is the last
shift
stane in
existence. Now you all know very well that only someone whose veins flow with
the blood of the Li clan is able to wield
shift.
”
She motioned to Restlyn, holding out her hand to help the older girl onto the
platform. “Turn around, Restlyn.”

“You’ve all seen the marks, the scarred veins that
come as a side effect of injecting with Li blood and using the magic,” she
shouted, grabbing Restlyn’s right arm and holding it up. “Look at her arms!
They’re clean!”

“Ash,” Restlyn whispered, a warning in her soft tone
as she turned to face the other girl. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

Ashlyn pressed
shift
into Restlyn’s hand. “I know exactly what I’m doing,” she said, looking
into her sister’s eyes. “Use it, Restlyn. You’re always telling me everything
happens for a reason. Maybe
shift
is
here to prove that you’re the Lady of Toryn.”

Restlyn looked down at the green gem. “I don’t
know…”

“Do it,” Ashlyn said firmly, and stepped back, nearly
tripping over the too-long kimono in her haste.

Restlyn took a deep breath. She looked at Ashlyn,
then over at Skye before closing her eyes. The stane began to glow in her hand.

In a split-second, faster than Ashlyn had ever seen
anyone
shift
before, Restlyn was
changing into a wolf, her blue dress ripping to expose coarse, silvery fur, her
beautiful face morphing into a long muzzle with razor sharp teeth.

There was a collective gasp from the people of
Toryn, and some of them drew back in fear.

Wolf-Restlyn looked up at Ashlyn, and there was
unmistakable sorrow in her yellow eyes. She knew what this admission had cost
Ashlyn.

“You’ve seen it now,” Ashlyn said loudly, and her
voice cracked. She cleared her throat. “She is Li. I have shown the documents
proving that she is Elder Heir, and she has now quieted all lingering doubts
that she may not share Li blood.” Ashlyn shrugged out of the kimono and walked
to the wolf, laying it gently over Restlyn’s furry shoulders, and straightened
up to face the people. “Restlyn Li will be Lady of Toryn.”

Restlyn changed back in the blink of an eye, her
hair hanging in her eyes as she crouched on the ground. After a long moment,
she pushed her arms through the sleeves of the kimono, concealing her nakedness
as she climbed to her feet.

Ashlyn turned to the Toryn man who had been
officiating. He stood there slack-jawed, completely dumbfounded by what he’d
seen. “You will proceed with the coronation, then?”

He glanced at Ashlyn, and his expression changed
slightly. There was a leering gleam in his eyes. “I will,” he said, speaking
low enough so that only she could hear. “Drago forgive me if I’d allowed an
illegitimate to ascend.”

Skye put a hand on Ashlyn’s shoulder, turning her
towards him as he fixed the shorter man with a stare. “Would you care to repeat
that, sir?”

The Toryn man said nothing as he glared at the
swordsman. Restlyn cut in between them, one hand clutching her kimono shut, and
held out the
shift
stane. “I want it
destroyed,” she said. “It’s the last one. I want it gone- I want this magic
erased forever.”

Skye took it from her, and stepped off the platform.
He motioned to the Toryn people to step back.

Ashlyn picked up several pieces of the sliced obi
from the ground and approached Restlyn. “Here,” she said, knotting two pieces
together. “It won’t look great, but at least I can help you keep your kimono
shut.”

She kept her head down, silently swallowing her sobs
and remaining firmly focused on the sash as Skye struck the stane with the hilt
of his sword, crushing the gem with the force of his blow.

Chapter
Nine

Return
to Me

The early evening air was fresh and crisp, the chill
turning Ashlyn’s cheeks pink as she trudged up the hill towards Cosmea. Suki
followed placidly behind her, pausing occasionally to lip up a rare bit of
sparse yellowed grass from the otherwise barren landscape.

The sun was just beginning to sink behind the
horizon, changing the sky into a stunning flurry of color, pinks and golds and
deep reds that perfectly matched the surrounding mountains. Sunset in Cosmea
was unmatched anywhere else in Kresmir. Ashlyn paused to admire the view,
absently taking off her thick winter gloves and stuffing them into her pockets.
She was cold, and her feet were tired, but it felt good to be traveling,
unhurried and with no particular destination in mind.