Free Forest of Ruin by Kelley Armstrong

accounting of it. For Moria, there is no war between mind and body. They both want . . .” She felt her cheeks heat then, realizing what she was saying in her haste to defend her sister. “The same thing.”
    â€œAh.”
    â€œMy sister is not shy about such matters. She made it clearto me that nothing occurred.” She paced across the cave, Tova at her side, her hand on his head. “I’m sorry if this agitates me, but I’ll speak on it no more. My sister is innocent. My sister is in trouble. Whatever else you need me to do, first I must find her, and hopefully Tyrus and Daigo as well. They search for her, too.”
    â€œThat is a lot to do, Ashyn.”
    She straightened and turned to him. “It is. If you can help me, I would appreciate it. If not, then I’ll take my leave, and you can tell me how to contact you once I’ve found them.”
    â€œI would not let you undertake anything so dangerous without help, child. Let me bring dinner and then we will discuss how to best handle the search.”
    To help Ashyn understand what they faced beyond the safety of this mountainside, Edwyn explained what had been happening in the empire. It was, unfortunately, what Ashyn feared. Alvar might be banging the drums of war, but he seemed to have no immediate plan to actually appear on a battlefield. While he continued to muster and train troops and to sway warlords to his side, his primary tactics seemed to be lies and treachery and fear-mongering, which suited the clan of the Kitsune, the nine-tailed trickster fox.
    Ashyn and Ronan had witnessed this in a tiny, nameless outpost—an inn on the road with a small community grown up around it. Alvar’s men had tempted the locals into joining them. Then they’d pretended instead to be imperial guards and beheaded every “traitor” in front of their friends and family, before mounting the heads on pikes. In an empire thathad outlawed capital punishment, that had been an unimaginable insult and cruelty to hitherto loyal citizens, and it was not the only such “punishment” visited on similar communities that night. By morning, word was out that the emperor had apparently become the tyrant that Alvar Kitsune’s men claimed he was.
    â€œSo that is how he’s winning troops among the commoners,” Ashyn said when Edwyn told her more of Alvar’s treacherous deeds.
    â€œNo, that is how he’s inciting sedition. Alvar Kitsune might have been the empire’s marshal, but he was never its greatest warrior. That distinction goes to Jiro Tatsu, and Alvar knows it. Do not expect to see war anytime soon. If at all.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œThere are ways to break an emperor without engaging him on a battlefield. Ways to divide an empire without ripping it asunder in war.”
    â€œDoes Emperor Tatsu know this? He’s preparing for war, and if that’s not . . .” She remembered what the emperor had said, when he first discovered Alvar Kitsune lived.
    Prepare for a war unlike any the empire has known.
    To Ashyn, that had meant war on a grand and unimaginable scale. But that was not what the emperor had meant at all. He knew what kind of war this enemy would fight.
    â€œThe emperor must rally his troops and prepare for battle,” Edwyn said. “If he does not, then that is the moment Alvar would indeed strike. Emperor Tatsu must be ready for war, and yet prepare himself to fight a very different battle on much less familiar terrain. I do not envy him the task. I only trust he is up to it.”
    As do I.
    After that, Edwyn explained his plan for them. Moria would have fought it tooth and nail, because it involved sitting and doing little while others took action. But in the end, Ashyn recognized her limits. She was no warrior. Tova would protect her with his life, but he was not a battle dog or a tracking hound. She had no idea where to begin hunting for Moria. Ashyn herself was