The Lady of Toryn Anthology (Lady of Toryn trilogy) (24 page)

One of
the things that she had always liked about Restlyn was that the half-Toryn
didn't question much. That was not to say that the look in her eyes wasn't
curious, but Restlyn was much too smart to ask what was going on in front of
Vargo. Instead she simply nodded and slipped inside, leaving Ashlyn and the
redheaded Spartan alone.

Well,
alone save for the several hundred soldiers that were watching Ashlyn's every
move. She suddenly had the intense urge to pick her nose or hock a loogie
across the bridge- anything to save her from being regarded as Toryn’s last
hope.

Ashlyn
leaned back against the wall of Heaven and stared at Vargo. "You have
something you want to say?" she asked, and was pleased with how calm and
level her voice sounded.

Vargo
smirked as he flicked the cigarette above the stone trash can to remove excess
ash. "I might," he replied. "You got something to say in
return?"

She was
silently running through her options before he had finished his sentence, and
it didn't take long for Ashlyn to decide that a good defense might be the best
offense. "Depends on what you're going to tell me," she responded.

"You
know what I'm going to say," Vargo retorted. "You kissed me,
princess, and whether or not it was to distract me long enough to get a solid
hit in or
not
, it was still a kiss and you know it."

She
shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "So?"

He
hesitated for the slightest fraction of an instant before saying, "You can
deny it all you want, but there was something there."

An
image of Drake flashed before her eyes, unbidden, followed almost immediately
by the still-painful memory of Tag's awful transformation into the
shift
monster. Ashlyn shuddered, closing
her eyes for just a second in an attempt to clear her mind.

The
people of Toryn were counting on her. FLD was counting on her. She couldn't
handle this right now. Not from Vargo, at least. She liked Vargo- well, a lot
more than she had a week ago, anyway- but she didn't need to be dealing with
his romantic advances right now.

"If
by 'something,''" Ashlyn said slowly, "you mean revulsion, you're
absolutely right."

The
red-haired man smiled, accustomed to the insults she so casually flung at him.
"Is that so," he drawled, taking a step closer.

Ashlyn
met his eyes. "Yes," she said. "That's so."

For a
torturous moment there was a tension that reverberated between them, singeing
Ashlyn's skin with its electricity and forcing her to acknowledge the brutality
of her remark. She'd never said anything so openly cruel to him before, and the
shock in his eyes was obvious as her meaning sank in. Vargo stared at her for a
long, long time before he looked away, swallowing as he regained his composure,
and a heart-wrenching coldness settled over his face like a mask.

"My
mistake," he said softly.

Ashlyn
clenched her fists beside her, pursing her lips to keep herself from taking it
back. It was strange. Before, she'd had no qualms about insulting Vargo. Now,
she was so ashamed that she could hardly stand to look him in the eye.

He
looked as though he wanted to say something more.
She
wanted him to say
something more. She wanted him to laugh it off and smirk at her in that
completely
irritating
way that he always did; she wanted him to grab her
and kiss her senseless. She wanted him to drag her out of this place and away
from this war.

She
wanted to forget everything and go back to being a nobody, wandering the world
for another three years until once again, everyone thought she was dead. When
you were dead, you didn't have any responsibilities.

But she
wasn’t dead, and running away wasn’t an option.

Ashlyn
brushed past Vargo and pushed open the door to Heaven, hit with a sudden blast
of warm, sake-tinged air from inside the bar. She didn't look back at Vargo,
but she could feel his eyes upon her until the door swung shut behind her,
effectively cutting her off from the world outside.

As her
eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of the bar, she began to realize that Skye
must have set the place up for their headquarters. There were no other Toryn in
sight, and the tables were cleared of their usual jugs and teacups. Various
members of FLD were scattered throughout the room, striking poses that were
oddly similar to what they'd been doing the night Ashlyn had come in from the
rain at Restlyn Place.

That
was so
long
ago, Ashlyn thought suddenly, when she’d faced off against
her assailants on that dark night outside of Storim, and Drake and Skye had
arrived just in the nick of time.

No one
had even looked up at her when she walked through the door, and Ashlyn
hesitated, her heart in her throat as she stared at Drake. He was seated in the
corner, wearing his same leather coat, now with a gash in the shoulder where
the sword had embedded itself.

"Ash,"
Skye said, appearing in front of her. "Are you feeling better?"

She
looked up at Skye, at his dark, dark eyes, and silently offered an apology for
how she’d treated him earlier. “I am,” she said softly. “You know that we’re
under attack, right?”

He
nodded silently.

She bit
her lip. "Kou just sprang this on me, and as of right now I’m still trying
to figure out what to do. They could drop right in on us and I have literally
no plan whatsoever except to run like hell."

"Don't
underestimate running like hell," Vargo said from behind her. "It's
saved my life a couple of times."

Ashlyn
turned to look over her shoulder. He stood leaning against the door as though
he'd always been there- and she hadn't even heard him come in. "Oh
really?" she said, surprised he was even talking to her.

He gave
her a tight smile. "Well, it kept FLD from kicking my ass three years ago,
didn't it?"

"Running
isn't going to help the people of Toryn," Restlyn spoke up. "This is
their home. What we need is a plan of defense."

"I
know," Ashlyn said. She looked around the room, watching the expression of
each person closely in an attempt to see if anybody was trying to glare daggers
at her- she had just caused FLD a big ol' headache by running off with Kou,
after all. But they were all stone-faced, waiting for her orders.
Her
orders.

She
moved to the bar and ran a hand along the heavy wood edge, trying to draw some
confidence from its solidity. "I'm thinking we should split the Toryn army
into sections and post them at every possible entrance," she announced
shakily. "The most likely point of attack will be either at the front
gate…or at the path to Na Michico." That sounded reasonable so far. She went
on, "If possible, I'd like to move all the citizens out of my father's
house and get them underground. There's a ton of basements in this city, and
they're much more defensible locations than any of these paper-walled
houses."

She
paused for breath, surprised at how easily the words had come.

Skye
nodded thoughtfully.

"Who
are ya assigning as captain of each section?" Aaron asked. “I ain’t got
much know-how for the layout of this place.”

“No
problem. I'll assign each of you to a specific area and you'll just patrol that
area, nowhere else. We've got enough people, it shouldn't be too
difficult." Ashlyn chewed for a second on her lower lip. "Okay,
Vargo, Ellis, Trace- I'm going to send Kou with you to my father's house. Do
your best to keep the families together, but split everyone up into three
groups, and try to get all the small children into just one group. Take the
kids and hide them in the basement at my house, and watch your step. There's
enough traps in that place to stop an-" She halted just short of saying
army
,
which was exactly what the traps would have to stop, if it came to that.
"Kou will tell you where to take the rest of them. I'll send a small troop
of soldiers with each of you. That's your assignment-
protect the innocents.
I don't think it'll get that far, you probably won't need to defend
yourselves, but if you do…" She trailed off, unsure of what to say next.

Ellis
stood up from his place at a table to her left. "We can handle it,"
he said gruffly, nodding to her.

"All
right." She was gaining confidence with every word, which felt darn good
after three years of nothingness and a week of sheer guilt. "Restlyn,
Skye, Aik, Aaron- I need you to be my captains. While I take the Spartans to my
father's house, you need to sit down and figure out all possible entry points
for the enemy, and go about setting up a web of defense to block them out. The
Toryn army isn't big enough to establish a complete perimeter defense, but if
we space ourselves accordingly, we should be able to set up decent enough cover
for the city." Ashlyn took a deep breath. "Do you understand?"

"We'll
get right on it," Skye said. He seemed perfectly happy to take orders from
her- another surprise.

"Does
that cover everything?" Ashlyn asked.

"What
about Drake?" Restlyn said softly. "You didn't mention him at
all."

Ashlyn
glanced over at Drake, who was
still
in his corner, and found that he
was staring right back at her, burning through her with those intense crimson
eyes. "I didn't expect him to be well enough to fight yet," she said.
"How are you feeling, Drake?"

He
stood and walked to the table in front of Ashlyn, pausing by Restlyn's side and
causing Ashlyn some intense unbidden jealousy. "I am well enough to carry
out any orders you might have for me, Lady Li," he said, and although the
new name sounded strange on his lips, there was no humor in his tone.

"You
heal fast," Ashlyn said, and almost slapped herself for saying something
so incredibly
dumb.

Drake
merely inclined his head, waiting for her to go on. Ashlyn continued, very
calmly, slowly and deliberately, "If you’re feeling up to it, I'll assign
you to a post as captain on the perimeter defense, and take Aaron with me.”

The
vampire nodded in agreement.

"Okay,"
Ashlyn said. "There's…just…one more thing…"
My dad is the enemy
that we're about to fight. If you see him, try not to kill him, okay? I'd like
him around a bit longer on the off chance that I might someday get married and
need someone to give me away.

"What
is it?" Restlyn asked. The older girl always had the most amazing intuition;
she could tell when something big was coming up.

 
"If you happen to encounter the general
of this, um, army- you know, the enemy- try to capture him. Alive, preferably,
because dead he's not much good to me."

"Someone
you know?" Trace said with a smile, leaning back against the table and
folding her arms across her chest.

You
have no idea
.

"Okay,"
Ashlyn said, "is everybody clear? Captains, meet me at the main gate.
Spartans- and Aaron- follow me. Let's move out."

She
turned on her heel and walked out the door before realizing that she probably
should have checked to see if the Spartans actually
were
following.
Turning again, she reached for the door handle but missed it as the door opened
and Ellis walked straight into her.

"Ow,"
Ashlyn said, even though it hadn't hurt, and then Vargo bumped into her on his
way past and she nearly fell over.

Ellis
steadied her with a hand on her shoulder. "Don't fall. It'll make you look
weak," he said, deadpan.

"Oh,
very funny." She straightened and shrugged his hands off.
"Follow-"

The
door opened again, knocking into Ellis and sending him careening into her.
Ashlyn stumbled backwards into Vargo, grasping frantically for anything to stop
her descent as they both fell to the ground.

"Nice
catch," she muttered, squiggling off of him. "Could you be any more
klutzy?"

"You're
one to talk," he retorted, and stood up, brushing off his jeans.
"Falling all over the place every time Lockhart walks into a room. Fix
your shirt."

She
pulled the hem of her too-small tank top down over her midriff, which really
didn't help because the movement only exposed more of her cleavage, and the
bindings couldn't hide everything that had developed over the last three years.
"You know what, Vargo, this is not going to work if you can't respect
me."

"I
respect you just fine," he snapped, and shrugged out of his suit jacket,
slinging it across the stone waste can beside them before he began unbuttoning
his dress shirt. "There are a million reasons why I'd
want
to ogle
you in that top, Ash, but I can think of one good reason right now why I can't
afford to." He took off the shirt, wearing just the t-shirt now, and held
it out to her. "Put this on."

"You're
a grown man," Ashlyn groused as she took the shirt from him and put it on,
tying it up in a knot at the hem of her shorts. She began to roll up the
sleeves, which were much too long for her. "You should be able to at least
control your hormones by now."