The Lady of Toryn Anthology (Lady of Toryn trilogy)

by Charity Santiago

  Restlyn said nothing, waiting for Ashlyn to continue.

  “Gosh, Restlyn, do you really want every detail of my love life? I don’t remember you being this nosy.”

  “Excuse me for wanting some romance in my life!” Restlyn exclaimed. “Particularly considering just how incredibly non-existent my own love life is.”

  “You should tell Skye how you feel,” Ashlyn said, pulling her shirt back on. “He’s an idiot. Maybe he just needs a kick in the pants.”

  “Believe me, he knows how I feel,” Restlyn said, scowling. She leaned down to sweep the loose hair into a dustpan. “But that still doesn’t explain what happened with Vargo. He saved your life, Ash. I know Drake’s letter is a big deal, but- well, attacking a bear with nothing but your fists to save the woman you love is a big deal, too.”

  “I don’t love Vargo,” Ashlyn said. She paused, and shook her head. “No, that’s not right. I do love Vargo. Just not like that. He’s my best friend. When he kisses me, it’s not like it is with Drake. I-“

  “He kissed you?” Restlyn’s voice climbed an octave with each word. “When were you planning on telling me this?”

  The blatant jealousy in Restlyn’s tone made Ashlyn smile. “Three times,” she said, holding up three fingers and wagging them in Restlyn’s face. “Not that I was counting.”

  “There is no justice in this world,” Restlyn said disgustedly. “I haven’t gotten so much as a peck on the cheek from a guy in years, and here you are being pursued by two gorgeous men. It’s not fair.”

  “You can have Vargo. He’s a great guy. Just not for me.” She thought back to that goodbye kiss, and bit her lower lip. Active love life or no, there was a lot of heartbreak that went with caring about people. And honestly, would she be okay, seeing Vargo with someone else? She didn’t even want to consider it.

  “What’s this about you having a non-existent love life, anyway?” she said, following Restlyn as the other girl headed down the hallway. “Skye may be a complete and total moron, but there are plenty of guys out there who would kill for a chance to win your heart. I’m sure you meet a lot of guys at the tavern.”

  Restlyn gave the younger girl a withering look. “Do you honestly think I want to be courted by the kind of guys who hang out in the tavern? And I hate to say it, because at this point I’m actually angry with Skye, but…” She broke off, and shook her head. “The heart wants what the heart wants. And my heart apparently has some kind of death wish, for all the agony it causes me.” She went to the closet and pulled out two robes, tossing one to Ashlyn.

  Ashlyn caught it over her wrist. “I don’t really have to go through the purification process for my coronation, do I?” she whined. “I hate the hot springs.”

  Restlyn’s upper half was concealed inside the closet, her voice muffled. “Don’t complain to me. I didn’t make the rules.”

  “But you could just lie and say that I did it, even if I didn’t.”

  “Ash, you’re not going to start off your reign as Lady of Toryn with lies.” Restlyn emerged from the closet, holding a bottle of lavender oil and a sanding stone. “Here we go.”

  Ashlyn tagged along obediently as Restlyn led her down the corridor to the enclosed hot springs at the end of the house. By Toryn law, the Lord (or Lady) of Toryn was supposed to go through a purification process before coronation, along with one of the lesser lords. There were no lesser lords now, and Restlyn was about as close as it was going to get.

  “Can I call you my lady-in-waiting?” Ashlyn asked as she padded barefoot into the steamy room.

  Restlyn leaned down and pulled a lever, opening the spout that allowed the naturally heated water from the springs to fill the tub. “No.”

  Ashlyn would have pouted, but Restlyn wasn’t paying attention anyway. It suddenly occurred to Ashlyn that if she didn’t find the courage to talk to Restlyn about her mother’s relationship with Lord Li, the coronation would happen, whether Ashlyn was the rightful Elder Heir or not. It was especially crucial for her to get more information from Restlyn now, because Aik had been unable to locate a marriage certificate for Lord Li and Abinitio Redhorse.

  “Restlyn, I need to talk to you,” she blurted out.

  The older girl stripped her shirt over her head and looked over her shoulder at Ashlyn. “What have we been doing?”

  “I mean, like, talk about serious stuff.” Ashlyn hopped on one foot, loosening the laces of her sneaker. “Stuff that doesn’t involve my love life.”

  “Sure.” Restlyn continued to undress, which didn’t serve to make the situation any less awkward.

  “Do you know who your dad was?” Ashlyn asked. She took off her other sneaker and peeled off her socks, then her shirt.

  “Nanka Grulich,” Restlyn replied. “He actually spent most of his adult life here in Toryn, trying to get adopted into a clan.” She grinned at Ashlyn. “He wasn’t so successful, but at least he made an honest effort.”

  “So he wasn’t Toryn?”

  “Nope.”

  “But you’re Toryn.”

  Restlyn paused in the middle of braiding her long hair. “My biological dad was Toryn, but I never met him.”

  “Do you know who he was?”

  Restlyn’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “Is it really that important?”

  Ashlyn finished undressing and stepped into the tub, sucking in a breath between her teeth as the hot water enveloped her legs. “I…” How was she going to explain this? “I really need to know. I…well, I guess it sounds kind of stupid.”

  Restlyn sat down in the tub, letting the hot water cover her to her chin. “You’re not thinking about that again, are you, Ash? It was always a rumor but there was never any truth to it.”

  “You mean that you’re actually my real sister?” Ashlyn sat down too, barely managing to keep from shrieking at the heat of the water. She knew she’d adjust to it eventually, but she’d never really liked the hot springs, or understood why people enjoyed it so much.

  “That I’m Lord Li’s illegitimate daughter.” Restlyn shook her head, and the motion caused her long braid, which until then had been floating on the water’s surface, to pull underwater. “It doesn’t matter anyway, does it? Toryns don’t acknowledge illegitimate children.”

  “It matters to me,” Ashlyn said.

  Restlyn grabbed the sanding stone and motioned for Ashlyn to turn around. “My mom told me that my father was an ambassador from Toryn. They had a brief affair. He was apparently a good friend of your dad’s, but he died young. I had no one else. That’s why Lord Li took me in. No other reason.”

  An ambassador from Toryn. Ashlyn took a deep breath, letting the steamy air fill her lungs, and reminded herself that there was a reason why she wanted to know. A good reason. “Your mom never told you his name?”

  The older girl scrubbed Ashlyn’s shoulders with the stone. “She did. I was named after him. His name was Restyn.”

  Ashlyn turned and offered her hands to Restlyn for scrubbing. “I hope this doesn’t freak you out,” she said slowly, “but…while I was in Cosmea, Aik and I went looking through the public records. We found your birth certificate, and Nanka Grulich was listed as your dad.”

  Restlyn nodded, not looking up from Ashlyn’s hands. “When he adopted me, they changed my birth certificate to show his name. I think it’s the same with all adoptions.”

  “We didn’t find your original birth certificate, though.”

  “My mom kept most of those documents in a big trunk in her basement. Actually, they might still be there. Aik told me most of the original stuff was still in the house when he moved in,” Restlyn said, and handed the sanding stone to Ashlyn. “You can do the rest…I’m not that much of a stickler for tradition!”

  Ashlyn grinned and starting scrubbing her feet. “So you think there’s no chance whatsoever that we might be sisters?” she asked. “Wouldn’t it be fun if we were?”

  “We’re already sisters,” Restlyn said, and splashed Ashlyn. “I couldn’t g
et rid of you if I tried.”

  They bathed in silence for a while, until Ashlyn broke the silence again. “One last thing,” she said.

  Restlyn feigned exasperation. “What now?”

  “Your mom’s name was Abinitio, right?”

  “Right.”

  “But she didn’t go by that name, did she? She had a nickname?”

  Restlyn offered Ashlyn an incredulous smile. “You really did do your homework, didn’t you? No, she found that a lot of people had trouble either pronouncing or remembering her name. Since Abinitio means ‘beginning,’ she decided to pick another name that meant almost the same thing. Actually, your dad let me take it as my middle name when he adopted me into the Li clan, since I didn’t come with any middle names and most Toryns have at least three.”

  “What was it?”

  Restlyn tugged her braid out from under Ashlyn’s feet. “Stop stepping on that! Most people called her G, but the name she went by was Genesis. It means ‘beginning,’ too.”

  Chapter Seven

  There at the End

  Ashlyn lay awake, listening to the sound of Restlyn’s even breathing next to her. There was a cricket chirping somewhere, surprising to hear this late in the year and so close to the dead of winter. Supposedly crickets were good luck.

  She turned onto her side, trying to get comfortable, but her mind refused to quiet itself, insisting loudly that she still had something very important to do before she went to sleep.

  Her mind was right, but that didn’t mean Ashlyn was happy about it, or that she wanted to take its unsolicited advice.

  There was one way to prove, at least to herself, that Restlyn was her sister. Ashlyn didn’t know her dad’s first name, and as far as she knew no other living Toryn did either. But his birth would have been recorded in the Li generational tome, which was kept in the gong library. All Ashlyn had to do was walk in, look up his birth and see what his given name had been before he’d been known as simply “Lord Li.”

  But if she did that, there was no coming back from her discovery. If his name was something besides Restyn, then her decision would be made, because there would be no way to track down the true Elder Heir of Toryn, and Ashlyn would have little choice but to take over leadership for the good of the kingdom.

  If his name was Restyn, then her situation became infinitely more complicated.

  And therein lay Ashlyn’s moral dilemma.

  A month ago, leadership of Toryn had been the last thing on Ashlyn’s mind. She was more concerned with hunting stanes, pursuing adventure, and enjoying the free-spirited life of a traveler, with no responsibilities and nothing to tie her down. But over the last few weeks, something had changed. Although she’d initially agreed to challenge Devlyn to a Leadership Duel just so she could take leadership and then appoint someone else in her place, she had changed. No longer was she willing to leave the fate and well-being of her kingdom in the hands of someone else.

  Even if that someone else was Restlyn.

  Ashlyn knew she’d made mistakes since the beginning of this journey. She’d run off with Kou and failed to stop the younger Toryn when he had attacked Drake Lockhart just outside of Cosmea, seriously wounding the vampire. She’d sneaked away a second time to meet the shift army, and had run off a third time at North Camp after Kou had killed her father. All three times she’d risked her life, and all three times FLD had come to her aid.

  But she’d learned from those mistakes. No way in hell was she ever going to run off alone again. Never again would she take her friends for granted, or unnecessarily risk her own life, or base her reaction to situations on pure emotion.

  Okay, maybe not never again. But Ashlyn was (sort of) older and (mostly) wiser now. More importantly, she had confidence in herself, and she knew she could do a good job as Lady of Toryn. It was what she’d been born to do.

  If Restlyn really was her sister, though, assuming leadership of Toryn would be an outright lie.

  Ashlyn scowled and rolled onto her back again. Why did she have to suffer with a conscience? Why couldn’t she just flip a switch and turn the guilt off? There wasn’t even a guarantee that Restlyn was really her sister, and nobody knew for sure at this point anyway. Ashlyn knew she should just take Aik’s advice and keep her mouth shut.

  She remembered her dad’s words, in her dream.

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

  Frustrated, Ashlyn sat up, flinging the covers aside with such vigor that Restlyn stirred in her sleep.

  Ashlyn left the room silently, pausing in the front hallway to put on her coat and a pair of fur-lined boots. She was reaching for the door handle when a chill ran down her spine, and she paused, feeling that same unease, the same certainty that Kou would eventually track her here. She grabbed a sheathed machete from her father’s display case and buckled the strap loosely around her waist.

  When she stepped outside, the cold night air hit her like a block of ice against her skin, and she shivered, turning to close the door quickly and keep the cold from entering the house.

  “What are you doing?”

  She jumped at the sound of Skye’s voice. “Geez!” she exclaimed, turning, her fingers splayed across her chest. “You scared the heck out of me, Skye!”

  He stepped out into the faint light from the lantern on the porch, and she could see that he was still fully dressed, his sword strapped to his back. “What are you doing?” he repeated.

  “Going for hot cocoa,” she retorted sarcastically, and descended the porch steps. “What are you doing? It’s way too cold for you to be hanging out here all night.”

  “I’m keeping an eye on you,” he said. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  When she realized he was casing the house to see if she would run again, Ashlyn felt a brief spurt of anger- which died just as quickly when she remembered that he had good reason to be worried that she might run.

  “I’m going to the gong library,” she said. “See? Just across the way there.”

  “At this hour?”

  “It’s not that late. And I’m not tired.”

  “Ashlyn.” His voice held a warning.

  She took a deep breath, trying to keep a handle on her temper. “Skye, I’ve got a lot on my mind right now. I really do need to get to the library and look something up. You can come with me if you want, or you can go back to lurking in the shadows. I don’t care. Either way, I’m not going back inside that house until I get what I want. And what I want is in the library.” She purposefully started walking, leaving Skye to either physically stop her or follow.

  Thankfully, he chose to follow. “One of these days,” he grumbled, falling into step beside her, and Ashlyn smiled.

  “I’ve done enough running for a lifetime,” she told him. “I have no plans to do it again, now or ever.”

  “I think you might have said that last time,” he replied humorlessly.

  Ashlyn paused at the top of the stairs to the gong library. Skye stopped beside her.

  “Are you seriously going to follow me in there?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “Is that the plan for the rest of my life? You follow me around making sure I don’t screw up?”

  “No,” he said. “Just until your coronation.”

  “So…” She scuffed at the top stair with her boot. “You’re leaving tomorrow, then?”

  “Maybe not tomorrow. But soon. I’ve got to get back to Cosmea and see if Jackson needs any help with that Spirit.”

  “Oh yeah.” She’d already almost forgotten about the Spirit of the Caverns, and felt a stab of guilt. Poor Aik had helped her out by researching her issue when he could have been researching his. She still had no idea how they were going to activate the Stane of Nine Thousand, if they could even find one. After the coronation tomorrow, she’d probably be stuck in Toryn for months, trying to figure out how to run a kingdom.

  She walked down the stairs. “I feel so bad for Aik. He must be stre
ssing out something fierce right now. Do you think-” She was cut off in mid-sentence as something latched onto her arm at the bottom of the steps, and with a hard yank suddenly she was airborne, flying across the library and smashing into a bookcase against the opposite wall.

  She heard Skye call out to her, but the slamming of a door and a ground-shaking thud drowned him out.

  In a flash, Ashlyn was on her feet, a little dizzy from the impact but uninjured. She was completely unsurprised to see Kou standing in the corner of the room. Beside him was a massive bookcase lying on its side, with books scattered everywhere. The huge piece of furniture was blocking the door, wedging it shut, and Skye was pounding on it from the other side.

  “I wondered when you’d show your face,” Ashlyn said, unsnapping the buttoned flap that held the machete in its sheath. A deathly calm settled over her, stilling her shaking hands, slowing her frantically beating heart. She would win this time. She would avenge her father.

  Kou stepped out into the light. He was shirtless, with a bandage on one shoulder and a long, fresh scar slashing across his abdomen. He brandished a katana languidly, completely unhurried despite the growing commotion on the other side of the library door.

  “Guess I heal a bit faster than you,” Ashlyn said smugly. “Why are you here, Kou? There’s no way you’re getting out of here alive.”

  “I could say the same for you, Scorned Elder,” he responded in a low voice. “There’s only one reason why I’m here. To end your miserable life, and avenge Tag.”

  “I killed him in self-defense!” she snapped, refusing to feel an ounce of guilt about it. “You spent months keeping my father at death’s door before you murdered him in cold blood. Who’s the one who should be seeking revenge here?” She drew the machete and dropped into a fighting stance, one foot braced in front of her, one hand outstretched, the machete poised above her head.

  A deep breath. A heartbeat.

  Kou smiled grimly- and leapt at her, giving no warning. Ashlyn was a step ahead of him, and spun out of the way, slashing the machete towards his stomach. He flipped the katana and blocked her blow, then jabbed with his off hand, catching the corner of her ribs as she was moving back.