Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (16 page)

There was one road in and out of the valley.
At the edge of the valley it split three ways. All they had to do
was make it to the crossroads and then the queen’s men would
be
hard-pressed to follow. From there she didn’t know what to do; they
could stay in the empire or they could make a run for the Elves,
but either way they would need to be careful. Sasha knew that Brack
and Margaret were doing the same thing for Kovos and Keither. They
all needed to leave the town for at least a few years, if not for
the rest of their lives. She knew that all of the citizens of
Salmont would be more than willing to help them leave; after all,
one of their own had been killed. She also knew that if the men
hadn’t been royal guards they would have probably been killed by
the townspeople, but they
were
royal guards. That meant you
didn’t do anything in the open because that was treason. That also
meant a whole lot more people would be killed. Sasha spent the
remainder of her day preparing to leave home for possibly the last
time in her life, and hoping beyond hope that Legon was safe.

* * * * *

Safe was not how Legon saw himself at the moment. He
found himself instead scared out of his mind and laying in mud. The
men had been in the forest for hours looking for them. They had
finally managed to track them to about ten feet from where Legon
lay in the mud. He was right to think they were easy to track; even
he hadn’t thought about what he was doing when he was running, so
he figured a blind man could see the tracks they’d left.

But the soldiers were having a bit of a hard time
now. They knew that the three fugitives were someplace in these
woods, but the tracks ended and so they’d been branching out
looking for them, and then returning to this place to start over
again. One man always stayed behind, giving the others a point of
reference. Legon was fine. He had spent many hours stalking deer
while out hunting, so his muscles wouldn’t cramp for a long time
yet. He knew how to move his weight without being seen.

However, he knew Kovos and Keither couldn’t do this,
so he had put them somewhere they could just lay and not have to
move. Legon was curled up in the roots of a tree and with the moss
he had on himself he just looked like another root. The only
problem was that this moss was full of bugs, one in particular that
was trying to burrow its way into his back. After a few hours of
this he didn’t know what was worse: the thought of being killed
like Moleth, or having this bug spend another few hours burrowing
into him. The more he thought about it and the more the irritation
and pain in his back grew, the nicer the knife looked.

The bug bit into something sensitive. Pain shot
through him and he gave an involuntary twitch… the soldier turned
and looked right where he was but he didn’t do anything. He could
see that the man was looking for whatever had made the noise, but
was confused at the lack of anything other than moss-covered roots.
Legon heard the sound of a bird landing on a branch above him.

The man relaxed and shook his head. Legon heard him
mutter something but couldn’t make it out. He couldn’t see much. He
needed to keep his head down, but after listening to the men he
figured out who everyone was. The man in their area now was the one
who had killed Moleth, which was something that the guard had spent
a lot of time laughing about. This made Legon want to stand and
fight the man, but he couldn’t. He needed to keep his head in this.
He had to get Kovos and Keither out of here and then he had to make
sure that his family was ok.

After a bit, the man started over to the tree and
Legon felt the fear of knowing that while he might look like a
root, if stepped on he wouldn’t feel like a root. The man’s feet
stopped on either side of his head. Legon had his body contorted to
look more random and sprawled out. He had most of his back against
the tree. He wasn’t in a good fighting position. He couldn’t look
up without giving away his location. He heard cloth being moved
above him… the man was fumbling around with his cloak. He wasn’t
making much noise, as if he were slowly and carefully getting
something. It had to be a dagger. Probably the same one that killed
Moleth.

He heard a soft chuckle. “There you are. You couldn’t
hide forever.”

Into the Night

“
Some say that when something ends, it’s
just the beginning. Does this mean that nothing ends? No. Sometimes
the end is just that—the end.”

-The River of Change

Arkin thought of the years of planning that had just
gone out the window. They were early, way too early. It was
probably the blasted star that had made them anxious. If only they
had waited just two more months, everything would be going
according to plan. At least one plan, anyway—he had three. He had
always planned for this day but had hoped it would never come.
Still, there was excitement coursing through him. The fact that
they were here meant the prophecy had to be true, and they weren’t
going to stop him, not after this long. All was fine for now. He
had time to pack and get ready, but first it was time to report
in.

* * * * *

Legon’s nose crinkled again at the pungent smell of
urine. He had thought he was a goner. One of those bastards had
been standing right above him fumbling around for something that
Legon had thought was a knife. But it wasn’t a knife, or anything
like a knife. He was only able to lie there motionless as the
soldier urinated on the tree he was hiding under. It was
humiliating. Nothing got on him, he thought, but still. In truth,
he would have laughed if it had happened to someone else, but not
him. This wasn’t funny.

He fought back his gag reflex and focused his mind
back on the present. They were in a better position than before.
The men were heading back down the mountain and would presumably
set up camp on the outskirts of town or get a room at the tavern.
The tavern was more likely. People in town would be looking to get
revenge for Moleth’s death, and a room at the tavern would be
easier to defend.

The sound of the men walking through underbrush was
getting faint, and Legon thought it would be safe to stand up soon.
Kovos and Keither were still motionless, waiting for Legon to make
the first move. As soon as the sound of tromping feet faded to
silence, he began to stand up. His muscles were reluctant to move
after spending the past few hours cramped and motionless. The sun
was all but gone and the moon was starting to rise overhead,
casting the forest floor in shifting light that made everything
blend into one speckled image.

“Get up quietly,” he said in a whisper.

There was the soft rustle of leaves and twigs as
Kovos and Keither emerged from their hiding places. Kovos seemed to
have developed a limp and was rubbing his leg.

“Leg fell asleep about a half hour in,” he said.

Keither also had a slight limp from the knee he fell
on. Legon motioned the boy over. “Come here, Keither. Let me take a
look at that knee.”

The boy came over and Legon bent to look. It was hard
to see in the dark. He felt the area around the knee gingerly,
telling Keither to lift his leg so Legon could move the joint. He
rolled Keither’s muddy pants up past the injured knee and began to
feel around the joint. He moved it in all directions and was amazed
at his knowledge of it. Having his mother as the town healer
helped, and being a butcher gave him a working knowledge of
anatomy, but the thing that seemed to tie it all together was
Arkin’s detailed lessons on anatomy and physiology.

Everything felt like it was in order. There was only
slight inflammation of the knee, which suggested that the ligaments
were intact. As he ran his fingers over the kneecap Keither started
a bit, but the bone felt fine. There was a small gash that would
take a few days to heal, but other than some bruising that was the
extent of the damage.

“Everything seems to be fine, just try not to hurt it
again in the next few days. That was a nasty fall, and you took it
like a man. You did well today, Keither.”

A look of pride and astonishment crossed Keither’s
face at the praise, and Legon realized that it was probably rare if
ever that the boy was told that he did something well. Perhaps
Keither was just in need of motivation.

“Do you have any other injuries?”

“No, no I’m fine I think… I don’t know,” said Keither
timidly.

“I know what you mean. I don’t know up from down
right now,” Legon said as he turned to Kovos, who held up his
hand.

“I’m good, I didn’t get hurt.”

Keither broke in with a bit of a frantic voice, “So
what the hell is going on? Why were those people after us?”

Kovos put his hands on his hips. “There’s a lot you
don’t know about Keither, and we’ll tell you all about it later,
but for the sake of this conversation I’d say it’s fair to guess
that the empire knows there’s someone of Elven descent in Salmont,
and the only way I can think that the empire would know that is if
someone is trying to finish something they started eighteen years
ago.” He let the last bit hang in the air.

Kovos had hit it right on the head. Somebody
was here finishing a cleanup job, but what was even more
frightening was that it was the queen who was cleaning up, not
some
no-name Iumenta. Legon didn’t know much about the queen, but from
what he did know, making mistakes was not in her nature. And if the
queen of The Cona Empire did make a mistake, he assumed she would
send in Iumenta to take care of it quietly, not the royal guard.
They were not quiet in the least bit. If she had made a mistake
then she wouldn’t want anyone in the empire, or out of the empire
for that matter, to know about it, so why send royal guard? She had
to know that her quarry was part Elf, and maybe full Elf. It didn’t
make sense.

Legon started to pace. It didn’t make sense unless
she didn’t know where to look in the empire. If that was the case,
then she would need to send agents out to large parts of the
empire. This helped explain part of the situation, but using humans
still didn’t seem to make much sense.

Kovos broke his concentration. “Talk to us! I hate it
when you pace.”

“Oh, sorry. Here’s what I’m thinking: the queen is
looking for someone who fits my description, someone who may be
part or full Elf. But she doesn’t know exactly where I am, because
if she did…”

“… then she would send Iumenta for an Elf, not
humans. I’m with you,” Kovos continued.

“Right. Now, because she doesn’t know where I am she
has to send her men out all over the place to find me, and probably
in small parties.”

“And she has to be counting on you not being full Elf
yet, or not having been trained in combat, if she sent out royal
guard. That’s perfect! The royal guard won’t attract too much
attention and would be able to handle an untrained human,” Kovos
said.

Both Kovos and Legon started when Keither broke in.
They had almost forgotten he was there.

“I bet the men don’t even know what they might be
dealing with, because if they did they would have used a little
caution when trying to bring you in.”

“That’s probably true, Keither. I bet they think I’m
some sort of a fugitive or something.” Legon said.

“Maybe. What about your back? I mean, do you think
they would suspect magic?” asked Kovos.

“What’s wrong with your back?” asked
Keither

“I have an Elven tattoo that was put there by magic,
and now it’s turned from green to purple,” Legon said. He was
caught off guard by the casual tone in his voice. Apparently his
mind had decided that magic tattoos were old news compared to the
current situation.

“A tattoo can be any color, and if the royal guard
had suspected magic, don’t you think they would bring magic users
themselves?” Keither asked.

Legon did a double take at this. Keither knew a lot
more than he let on, or maybe the pain and panic of the day had
jolted him into thinking. It was probably the latter. There are two
kinds of people: those who fold under pressure and those that
focus. Keither had to be the latter because not only was he
thinking, but the news of Legon’s tattoo didn’t faze him at all.
Keither had taken the news as just another piece of
information.

The question was, how much pressure could Keither
stand before he caved and lost control? Everyone had a limit, and
when they hit it they hit it hard. Keither would need to keep his
head for some time to come, because he was now in just as much
trouble as Legon and Kovos. He had not only run from the royal
guard, but he had also assaulted one, and that meant that he was
going to have to come with Legon, Kovos, and Sasha. Legon came to
this realization when he was hiding like a coward from the queen’s
men, sometime between becoming a bug’s new burrow and a rather
large and foul-smelling man almost urinating on him. The look on
Kovos’ face also said that he too knew for his younger brother to
be able to call Salmont home.

“We need to get back to town if we’re going to have a
chance at getting out of this alive,” said Kovos grimly, and he
nodded for Legon to lead the way.

* * * * *

Arkin’s senses were attuned to everything in his
surroundings, from the cooling breeze that let him know he was
almost to the top of the hill he was climbing, to the rustle of
leaves in the distance. The air told him that he had about a half
mile to go before he could find a way to get word out, and the
leaves, well—that was just rabbits. They were young by the sound
they made. If a predator didn’t pick them off in a few months they
would learn to make less noise. He, on the other hand, was silent
as he moved. The only sound anyone would be able to hear would
sound like nature, nothing out of its place. They wouldn’t even
know that an animal was there. A lifetime of training made sure
that no one could track him. Soon he would be at the top and could
report back in, and then hopefully he would get orders before
someone messed things up.