RETURN
Book 1 in the Lady of Toryn trilogy
by Charity Santiago
http://charitysantiago.blogspot.com
cover art by Digital Donna
Copyright © 2011 by Charity Santiago. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author. Please do your part to discourage piracy, and purchase only authorized editions.
Prologue
For thousands of years, mystical beings known as Angels protected the Free Lands of Kresmir, offering their wisdom and guidance to the mortals who shared their world. Under the direction of the ethereal race, Kresmir blossomed. Besides sharing their knowledge of how to conserve Kresmir’s energy rather than squandering its resources needlessly, the Angels taught the mortals how to harness the planet’s natural magic in precious gems known as stanes. Kresmir was changed forever with this discovery.
The rise of Lord Angelo and his Spartan assassins, however, was a sudden and unexpected blow to the Angels, and to the people under their tutelage. Lord Angelo’s origins remained a mystery, but one thing was clear- his cruelty was unmatched in the once-peaceful Free Lands. After overthrowing the eastern continent and orchestrating a brutal attack on the Angels’ Heavenly City, Lord Angelo moved quickly towards world domination, even overthrowing the monarchy of the western continent, Toryn, and placing its people under tyrannical rule.
Lord Angelo’s reign lasted nearly two decades, marked firstly by the genocide of the Angels, and secondly by the crippling drain on the planet’s resources to create a superhuman army, helmed by Lord Angelo’s Division of Enhanced Military Operations Nano-engineering. The genetically enhanced, magic-wielding DEMON army was virtually unstoppable.
As Lord Angelo’s power plants continued to sap energy from the wounded planet and its dying sun, a DEMON soldier named Skye Damien formed a small rebellion against Lord Angelo. Despite the devastating loss of Jenn, the last known Angel in Kresmir, Skye Damien’s ragtag group of insurgents challenged Lord Angelo and ultimately defeated him, overthrowing the dictator and establishing an elected president over the newly-formed Free Lands Democracy.
After saving the world, their mission complete, the rebels scattered. Among their ranks was sixteen-year old Ashlyn Li, daughter of the reigning Lord of Toryn. Overwhelmed by her newfound celebrity, and feeling ill-prepared to face the responsibility of training for Ladyship of her kingdom, Ashlyn retreated into seclusion. For eight years, she traversed the Free Lands, avoiding human contact and trying to make some sense of her conflicted feelings towards her friends, the rebels who had helped her save the sun.
Chapter 1
In the Rain
Ashlyn hummed tunelessly as she picked her way carefully over the debris of what used to be the outskirts of Endro, stopping only when something of potential value flashed enough to catch her eye.
Most of it was junk, really. She'd noticed that on her first trip through, on her way to Jenn’s old house, where she'd been for the past six months. It was longer than she'd stayed in any one place in the past eight years. Long enough to remember that once upon a time, she'd been a social butterfly, and it was time to start fluttering again.
Anyway, she wasn't here to search for money, but if someone had decided to leave behind a diamond watch worth a couple hundred credits, damned if she wasn't going to pawn it. Eight years of solitude hadn't made her that boring.
Heh. She smiled as she tucked a tarnished locket into her pocket. There was probably a lot of people who would disagree with her on that. Aaron, for one. The old codger. She smiled humorlessly at the memory of her old friend. A good head and a half taller than her and more than willing to use his size to get what he wanted, the aging pilot was crass, uncouth and frickin' annoying at times. But it probably wouldn't be too awful to see him again, or any of the other people she‘d met on her adventures eight years ago. They were the last people Ashlyn had spent time with, cared about. The last people who had cared about her . . .
Oh, stupid girl!
Ashlyn shook her head and led her horse, Suki, around what looked like a bent piece of a metal door. She felt irritated at herself for remembering something that had taken place so long ago. Even now she knew her friends, remembered their faces, could still recall the feeling of warmth and acceptance she had experienced when she was with them. Not a day went by that she didn't think about them. And yet not one of those friends had made any attempt to contact her once their job was done.
How was that even possible? How could you spend an entire month living with someone, fighting by their side, and saving the world, and then just . . . forget about them?
Even Drake . . . damn him . . . the last time she'd seen the vampire gunslinger, he'd been ducking through the doorway at the inn at North Camp on the upper continent, a beautiful and familiar woman at his side. There had been a smile on his face. A smile. Ashlyn knew how rare Drake's smiles were. To see him offer one so easily to that pint-sized bratty Spartan, Trace, was more than Ashlyn could handle.
Ashlyn had fled silently, unwilling to conjure up anything resembling manners for the girl who seemed to have cracked Drake's impenetrable barrier.
She'd come here to find her adopted sister, Restlyn, after that. The older girl was half-Toryn, and the closest thing to a sister that Ashlyn had. The last time Ashlyn had seen Restlyn, the older girl was living in Jenn’s house. But apparently no one had thought to contact Ashlyn when the citizens of Endro had abandoned the dying city. No one had thought about including her.
Her friends had obviously moved on in the last eight years, but Ashlyn felt like she was running in circles, trapped between old memories and a scarily uncertain future. When she’d been in the thick of it, fighting against Lord Angelo, she’d never considered what to do afterwards- after Lord Angelo’s defeat, and after she and her friends parted ways. How could she return to Toryn, after everything she’d been through? It wasn't like you could put your life on hold to live and travel with a bunch of strangers for a month, get nearly killed about a gazillion times, save the world, and wake up the next morning ready for tea and leadership training in your hometown tourist attraction. Please.
Her father might have been disappointed in her when she'd left, but Ashlyn couldn’t bear the thought of continuing as if nothing had changed.
Nope, the world had bigger and better things for Ashlyn Li, and if she couldn't find it by wandering Kresmir aimlessly for the rest of her life, then at least she hadn't sat on her butt and waited for death to come knocking.
Okay, so maybe her plan had a few blurred lines and blank spots, but it had seemed like a darn good one eight years ago, when she'd been faced with the prospect of training to become Lady Li.
Still...she got lonely sometimes. You didn't get to be her age without craving a little human companionship at some point, particularly when you'd been traveling the world and fighting for the better part of a decade.
She ducked out the same way she'd gotten into Endro six months ago- through a tear in the thick outer walls that had no doubt been caused by some fiend. The heavy rain that had been falling all day had finally stopped, although the wind was still going strong. Ashlyn glanced at the setting sun. With the constant darkness inside those walls, she hadn't realized it was so late. No one wanted to be outside Endro at night. There were too many monsters roaming the hills surrounding the abandoned city.
Ashlyn turned Suki east. She hadn't been to the city of Storim in a long while. Four years at least. The last time, she had walked into a bar, thinking that the name- "Restlyn Place-” had sounded too coincidental to be true, and before she'd even gotten three steps in, some jerk had pinched her butt
. Naturally, by the time she was done kicking him in the face, she hadn't really been in the mood for a drink, and had stormed out without a backward glance. She'd been halfway to the southern continent before she realized her favorite bo shuriken was missing. She must have dropped it in her haste.
Damn that guy. She'd never been able to find another bo shuriken quite as balanced as the one she'd lost.
Ashlyn caught sight of her reflection in a puddle on the ground, and rolled her eyes. The guy probably hadn't had much taste to begin with, but he must have been really drunk. Four years ago she had still looked like a little kid. Now, at the ripe old age of twenty-three, Ashlyn was finally growing up. Gone was the stick-figured little thief with gangly limbs and googly eyes. In her place was a lithe, somber-faced warrior, still slender but graced with all the curves and features of a real woman. Ashlyn had resorted to hacking off her hair with a knife for the first few years, but had finally given up and let it grow after seeing the results in a mirror. Now it was long, nearly to her waist. Not quite as stunning as Restlyn's knee-length locks, but pretty impressive for a tomboy ninja.
The change hadn't affected the percentage of would-be admirers that weren't beating down Ashlyn's door, but maybe she was jinxing herself by keeping her hair severely pulled back all the time. She shook her head vehemently, feeling the tail of her braid brush the exposed skin between the waistband of her shorts and her shirt's hem. She wore a bandanna across her forehead to keep the shorter strands out of her eyes, never bothering to do more than drag a brush through them every now and then.
It was pointless anyway, really. She hadn't seen one single presentable man in all her years of traveling. Maybe she'd set her standards too high.
Hours later, she was barely able to see her hand in front of her face. There was a tiny sliver of a moon, hardly giving enough light for poor Suki to find her way.
When they finally reached the first lamp-post outside of the small city of Storim, Ashlyn relaxed.
Sometimes her own thoughts were so loud that she could hardly concentrate on anything else, and although she'd grown accustomed to the silence of solitude, tonight she was more than ready for the usual chaos of a town to put her mind at rest.
Suki’s hooves clicked against the cobblestones as they rode across the square and into the light coming from the livery's open doors. Ashlyn dismounted slowly, noting the slight differences in the town's layout since she'd last visited. Restlyn Place was still here, but most of the other shops had changed either hands or names, because she didn't recognize any of them.
Go figure, she thought wryly. You leave town for a couple years and expect everything to be the same when you get back, but it never is. She allowed herself a few moments to wonder briefly just how much Toryn had changed in her absence as she paid the livery owner and handed Suki off to the stable boy.
"Hey, where can I get something to eat around here?" she asked him, not particularly hungry, but hoping that maybe she could find some nice, respectable, family-owned restaurant to hide in.
"Restlyn Place is it," was his brief answer. "We ain't got no place else anymore...the town's not big enough to support 'em."
Ashlyn trudged across the square once more, noting with some disappointment that the rain had picked up again, and opened the door to Restlyn Place. The sight that greeted her was unexpected, if a little nostalgic, as she stepped into the doorway, one hand still on the well-polished doorknob as the wind tried to blow it shut.
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 fellow 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 finally. 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 death," 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!"
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