Regardless, I had no choice, and I reluctantly handed G a change of clothes, noticing with some relief that her lower lip was no longer trembling and she had wiped away the tears from her eyes. “I will turn around,” I said when she took the clothing from me. It probably would have been more gentlemanly to step outside, but I was in no hurry to experience the icy cold again.
I moved to the front of the cargo bay, just behind the cockpit, and braced my hands against the seats. Chief Redhorse had said nothing about the kiss. I could only hope that he would be half as understanding regarding this new development.
The feeling of cold fingers on the back of my neck made me jump, and I whirled, stumbling backwards in my haste. I was shocked to see G standing there, wearing- well, not much at all.
“What are you doing?” I yelped, frantically trying to look anywhere but at her.
She looked at me like I was a stupid child in need of specific instructions. “This may be the only time we have alone.”
“I, uh…” I stood up and edged past her, covering the side of my face so I would not see her. “For pity’s sake, G, we barely know each other. I am not about to take advantage of the daughter of the Chief of Cosmea, no matter how-“ I squeaked again when she tugged my jacket down around my elbows. I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “You were distraught and crying moments ago! You are obviously not thinking clearly!” I struggled with my jacket, which was now effectively binding my arms at my sides.
She grabbed my face in her cold hands, and lifted my chin so that I had no choice but to look her in the eye. “I am thinking very clearly right now. And if I’m not mistaken, I’m the one taking advantage of you. Not the other way around.” She pushed me towards her bed roll, and I followed her directions weakly, still fighting with my accursed jacket.
“Hey,” she said suddenly, and I paused in my struggling, looking up at her.
She bit her lip, her confident façade wavering. She looked very young in that moment, and I realized that no matter how aggressive she was acting, it was very obvious from the expression on her face that she was nervous.
The jacket dropped at my feet, and I reached for her hands, threading my fingers through hers.
She looked down at our joined hands, then up at me. “You feel this too, right?”
I nodded, and she grinned widely before pulling me down to her for our second- and third, and fourth- kiss.
In the span of just three days, my life has been completely, irrevocably changed by a beautiful girl with bronze-colored eyes and a firm hold on my heart. My father would laugh at my impulsivity, at my stupidity, at my childish notion of love at first sight. I cannot find it in myself to care.
The airship was cold despite the warming glow of the fire stane, and I will forever be grateful for that, because G and I were both fully clothed and in our respective bed rolls- although no longer on opposite sides of the cargo hold- when Delail opened the hatch this morning and woke us. She was not alone. The third Angel, the one who had smiled at me, was with her.
“I’m glad to see you two survived that snowstorm last night,” Delail said, shaking her furry head. “I felt terrible about leaving you out here, but Lucius is in no mood to be trifled with.”
“We were fine,” G said, yawning as she stretched her arms above her head. “Thank the gods for shared body heat, though.”
I blanched at G’s words, desperately worried that Chief Redhorse would have my head on a pike the moment we touched down in Cosmea. But Delail appeared not to notice.
“Good, good,” she said. “This is Loritta. She’ll be accompanying us to Cosmea. Will the two of you be ready to leave soon?”
“Yes,” I muttered, and grabbed my knapsack. When I straightened up, Loritta was standing in front of me, a smile playing on her lips, and Delail had already retreated outside.
“You are definitely not a diplomat,” Loritta said. Her quiet alto held the same sweet musicality as Lucius’s.
“So I have been told,” I answered, trying not to meet her eyes.
She looked me up and down, then glanced over at G. Slowly she nodded. “It will be a girl,” she said, and turned to head for the hatch.
“A what?” G’s voice was shrill.
Oh, Drago. What have I gotten myself into?
***
Ashlyn closed her eyes, struggling to keep her emotions under control. The Angel was Loritta- the woman Drake had loved so long ago. Ashlyn harbored no ill will towards the deceased Angel, but she certainly wasn’t feeling too chummy towards the girl who had kept Drake’s heart firmly locked up for the better part of two decades.
Not to mention, all jealousy towards Drake’s former lover aside, Ashlyn felt vaguely dirty at reading her father’s private journals. She had to admit that the story was intriguing, but she wasn’t all that keen on reading about Lord Li shacking up with anyone.
She skimmed the next few pages, noting that much of it was filled with Lord Li’s incessant rambling about honor and propriety. Judging from the old-fashioned morals he was so adamantly defending in these pages, if Lord Li had known the sleeping arrangements during her adventures with FLD three years ago, it would have sent him into an apoplectic fit. Ashlyn had never done anything technically inappropriate, but she did remember one morning where she woke up nose to nose with Skye after tossing and turning all night.
“Aik,” she said, and the wolf looked up from his own reading.
“Yes?”
“Where is the Chief of Cosmea now?”
“There isn’t one.”
“Oh, I know- but I mean the last one, before Lord Angelo took over.”
Aik tilted his head to the side, looking pensive. “That was before I came to Cosmea. But I believe the last Chief was killed by Lord Angelo.”
“Hmm.” She rubbed a hand across the back of her neck, feeling awkward and…well, a little disgusted. She didn’t particularly want to know about her dad’s sexual exploits, and clearly he’d never intended for her to read them, either.
“Did you find something?” Vargo asked. He had finished organizing the remaining journals and was idly playing with an unlit cigarette.
“I…I guess. It’s…” Ashlyn trailed off, distinctly uncomfortable. “Um, in this one my dad talks about his diplomatic mission to Cosmea before he became Lord of Toryn. He…met a girl while he was here.”
Vargo grinned widely, obviously catching what she wasn’t saying. “I don’t envy you, princess. I wouldn’t want to read about my parents, either.”
“It’s not my mom,” Ashlyn said, and Vargo’s smile faded. “It’s the chief’s daughter. That’s why I was asking.”
“Your father had an affair with the chief’s daughter?” Aik repeated. “On a diplomatic mission?”
“He was a pretty terrible diplomat,” Ashlyn admitted. “He even says so in his journal. Several times.” She fidgeted with the corner of a page. “And…well, that’s not the worst part. I guess she got pregnant.”
“What?” Aik and Vargo spoke in unison.
“That’s what an Angel told them.”
Aik shook his head slowly, processing the information. “When was the baby born?”
“I don’t know. I just got to the part where they find out she’s pregnant. I don’t…I mean, I want to keep reading, but…this is just a lot to swallow.”
“Why don’t you take a break?” Vargo suggested. “Go get some air. There’s no rush.”
“I just want to get through this,” Ashlyn said, shaking her head.
“I could read it,” said Aik. “I could save you the emotional turmoil. This journal I’m reading now is discussing your father’s time spent training as a ninja. He was very young, younger than you were when we met. It’s fascinating, but…” He glanced down at the book, then looked up at Ashlyn, a lopsided grin on his wolf face.
Did she want to read about what happened next with Lord Li and G? She wanted to know how their story ended, but…Aik was right. It was wrecking her, emot
ionally. Ashlyn stood, the legs of her chair scraping on the floor as she pushed it back. She leaned over and put the journal in front of Aik.
“I’ll be back,” she said, then added, “Thanks,” even though she felt like a coward for ducking out instead of finishing the journal. She had no concerns over secrecy- Aik was as trusted a friend as she’d ever had.
Vargo was another story. But as the Spartan stood to accompany her outside, Ashlyn figured she should probably give him the benefit of the doubt, too.
When she stepped outside into the sunlight, the warmth on her skin was a welcome relief. Vargo offered her his hand when she made to climb down onto the ladder leading to the second platform, but Ashlyn shook her head, smiling faintly at him.
“You know,” he said as she gingerly found her footing on the top ladder rung, “I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen Aik go down this thing. How does he do it?”
“Very carefully.” She descended to the bottom and stepped off, shielding her eyes from the sun as she looked up at the red-haired man. “What’s the matter, Spartan? Scared of heights?”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” he said as he reluctantly put one foot on the ladder and turned, edging his way down slowly. “It’d be one more thing you could hold over my head.”
“I don’t hold things over your head!”
“One more thing you can add to your mental list of my shortcomings, then.”
“I don’t…” She trailed off. The worst part was, of course, that he was right. Besides Vargo being a Spartan, he was an annoying wise-ass, with freckles to boot, and Ashlyn had never truly let herself forget that he’d once been a part of the team of assassins who had wiped out the Angels on Lord Angelo’s orders.
“Don’t be silly,” she said, trying to sound light-hearted. “If there’s no such thing as redemption, I’m kind of screwed, aren’t I?”
He stepped off the last rung, rolling his eyes as he brushed red dust from the bandages on his left arm. “What have you ever done in your life to need redemption?”
She raised her eyebrows at him as she fell into step beside him, descending the stairs towards the weapon shop. “Besides skipping out on my birthright and causing a war? I can’t imagine.”
“If you want to compare transgressions, I’m pretty sure I’ve got a longer list than you, Ash.” His tone was bleak, but in the next moment he threaded his fingers through hers, holding her hand, and Ashlyn was too startled to respond.
Drake’s letter was in her pocket. She’d read it so many times that the paper was already beginning to tear at the folds. Whether Vargo liked it or not, Ashlyn’s heart had already made the decision for her- and she wasn’t feeling indecisive anymore. But over the last few days, Vargo had been a good friend to her, and his innuendo and lewd behavior had been curiously absent. She still wasn’t entirely comfortable holding hands with him, and wasn’t sure how Drake would feel about it, either…but she didn’t really want to let go.
She supposed holding the hand of a friend wasn’t such a horrible thing.
Just keep telling yourself that, a tiny voice in the back of her head whispered, and Ashlyn scowled. She didn’t need any nagging reminders from her conscience right now.
They stopped at the base of the stairs, within view of the Eternal Flame, and Ashlyn carefully withdrew her hand from Vargo’s before sitting on the bottom step.
“What do you think Aik will find in my dad’s journal?” she asked. It was a stupid question, but she wasn’t sure what else to say.
Vargo sank down on the step beside her, propping his arms on his knees. “No idea.”
“What if…what if the chief’s daughter really did have my father’s baby?”
Vargo ran a hand through his hair and leaned back on the steps, bracing himself with his elbows. “What if she did? They weren’t married. You would still be Elder Heir.”
“But I might have a sister out there somewhere. Maybe I’ve even met her and just didn’t know who she was.”
“Maybe you did.” Vargo glanced at her sideways. “You really think you wouldn’t know who she was?”
Ashlyn flushed. The look in his eyes was intense and deliberate. “My dad would have told me,” she said, purposely avoiding confirming what she knew he was implying.
“He adopted her, Ash. I’d say that’s a pretty clear sign.”
Vargo was talking about Restlyn, of course, who was almost twenty-four, half-Cosmean, half-Toryn and whose father had remained anonymous even after Lord Li had adopted her. Ashlyn supposed she’d suspected for a while- maybe as early as when Restlyn took on duties as interm Lady of Toryn and turned out to be such a natural at it.
“I guess we won’t know for sure until Aik is finished reading,” she replied, wondering how she should feel about the possibility of Restlyn being related to her by blood. When Kou had told her that Lord Li was his father, Ashlyn had been so furious that she’d scratched off her clan tattoo from her left ankle. But now she didn’t feel angry…she felt strangely hollow. Restlyn was already her sister, albeit an adopted sister. The last possibility Ashlyn could ever have wanted was that Restlyn was actually Lord Li’s illegitimate child.
“Don’t think about it too much,” Vargo advised, smacking her shoulder lightly. “No use worrying about what we don’t know and can’t control.”
“I guess.” Ashlyn’s stomach grumbled, for once speaking up at exactly the right moment, and she immediately brightened. “I didn’t eat breakfast. Let’s go see if they have any pancakes left.”
“You’re a bottomless pit,” he grumbled, but he obediently followed her towards the tavern.
Chapter Four
Sullied
The tavern was where Aik found them an hour later. Ashlyn had stupidly drunk more than her fair share of Cosmean mead, but was still teetering on the edge of sobriety, giggling over Vargo’s terrible jokes and munching contentedly on a strip of draynor jerky.
Ashlyn saw Aik the moment he stepped through the door, and sat up straighter, waving furiously as though he could somehow miss her in the otherwise empty tavern. The wolf padded silently over to the table and climbed into a chair, carefully placing two of Lord Li’s journals on the table in front of him. He raised a furry brow at Vargo, who just shook his head and made a tipping motion towards his own mouth.
“Did you finish reading?” Ashlyn asked. “What happened to the baby?”
“It wasn’t…clarified.”
She frowned. “Well, what happened between my dad and G?”
Aik glanced around. “Would you rather discuss this in a more private place?”
Ashlyn followed his gaze, smiling wryly. “It’s past the breakfast rush, Aik. The barkeep went home to get some rest before lunch. I don’t think we’re gonna get any more private than this.”
“If you’re certain.” Aik straightened in the chair, his tail curled neatly around his legs. “After G discovered she was pregnant, Lord Li made a proposal of marriage.”
That wasn’t unexpected, Ashlyn thought. At least her dad did the honorable thing. “Did she accept?”
“Yes.”
“Did they get married?”
Aik nodded, and Ashlyn blew out a breath. She’d had no idea that her father’s marriage to Susyn hadn’t been his first union. “Nobody ever knew he was married before. It must have been a private ceremony. What happened to her, then?” She chewed ambitiously on her jerky, then paused as a thought occurred to her. “Oh no, did she die in childbirth?” It was a horrible prospect, but it would at least make sense as to why G wasn’t still around, and why her father had been free to remarry.
“No.” Aik looked distinctly uncomfortable, and Ashlyn swallowed, recognizing his hesitance.
“Hey,” she said, putting her jerky down. “I may be tipsy, and I may be a little crazy, but I’m not going to kill you for being the unlucky bearer of bad news. Spill. What happened after they got married?”
“Your father sent a messenger to Toryn explaining the situatio
n. He told the reigning Lord of Toryn that he would accept his birthright only if G was permitted to become Lady of Toryn, and if their unborn child could become Elder Heir.”
“What did my grandfather say?”
“The reigning Lord was in poor health, and in no position to negotiate. He agreed, and composed an order signed by the lesser lords, that allowed your father to pass the new laws shortly after his coronation.”
“That would explain why my dad changed those laws, but nothing else during his entire reign,” Ashlyn said, nodding thoughtfully. “My grandfather put the wheels in motion. Remember what we talked about on the airship on the way to…” She trailed off. On that particular day, she and Aik had been on their way to North Camp to see her father, who had only just been rescued from the shift army. Ashlyn had fallen asleep that night in Lord Li’s room, and awoken to find that Kou had murdered her father in cold blood.
“Um…” She laughed hoarsely, rubbing at her forehead. “What happened after that?”
“Lord Li, Chief Redhorse and Loritta entered the Caverns with the intention of re-trapping the Spirit,” Aik said. “Unfortunately, there were complications. The stane took longer than expected to take effect. Lord Li, Redhorse and the Cosmean soldiers were able to fight the Spirit, and provide Loritta with enough time to activate the magic. But not all of them were able to remove themselves from the area of effect quickly enough.”
Ashlyn’s eyes widened. “Was G trapped in time?”
“No. G did not enter the Caverns. But Chief Redhorse was trapped. A Cosmean soldier attempted to rescue him, and was frozen himself.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Vargo announced, and Aik and Ashlyn both looked at him, suddenly remembering that Vargo had neither read the journal or been updated on the entirety of its contents.
The Lady of Toryn Anthology (Lady of Toryn trilogy) Page 42
