Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (22 page)

“Ok, I won’t worry too much then.”

Kovos nodded and placed the stave on the ground and
drew his real sword, holding it in the palm of his hand and
presenting her with the handle. She wasn’t expecting the weight.
Somehow, when he’d been using it with so much speed and accuracy,
she thought it must have been very light, but it wasn’t.

“Ok, you need to learn what everything is so that way
when we’re working you’ll know what the hell I’m talking about,
ok?”

“Isn’t this the blade, the handle and the pommel?”
she said, pointing at different parts of the sword.

“No, that’s not what it all is. You got parts right,
but that’s not just a blade,” he said, a little exasperated.

“It’s a long piece of metal that cuts things. How is
that not just a blade? Don’t get me wrong, it’s very pretty . . .”
she said, a little confused. Kovos looked scandalized.

“Just a blade?” He stood looking at her, mouth
gaping. How was she supposed to know what everything was called? It
cuts stuff, right? That was a blade to her.

“Sorry, I didn’t know there was more to it than
that.”

“And pretty?” he said.

Legon broke in, “But Kovos, it is pretty. I like the
flames a lot.”

Arkin joined in. “You put flames on your sword?” He
was starting to smile. Sasha knew the carpenter-spy or whatever was
about to lose his composure. “Like the ones you put on the staves
as a kid?” Arkin started to laugh hard at that.

“Oh yeah, laugh it up, real funny. I’m a trendsetter,
just you wait. In a few years everyone will have swords with flames
on them, and I will be rich and famous.” Arkin was on the ground,
having a hard time breathing, and it was this more than anything
else that made her start to laugh. It felt good. She put her hands
on her knees and could feel her eyes water. She could see Legon
pointing and laughing at Kovos, who was now starting to join in.
The scene must have been too much for Keither, who gave a small
chuckle and then put his hand on his side with a grunt. This
elicited more laughter from all of them.

“Stop making me laugh! Ouch! It hurts! It’s not funny
you guys,” Keither said.

It wasn’t that funny but the stress of the last few
days was finally breaking, and Sasha could feel her anxiety leave
as the fit stopped. Kovos was shaking his head, telling everyone
just how much he hated them all, and that they would regret making
fun of the flames and went back to teaching her.

“Oh my. Ok Sash, here’s what everything is named.
Just try and remember, ok? On the blade there are a few parts. This
first is the tip here, it’s called the Foible. Next is the
mid-blade, then the forte is the part closest to the handle. Got
that?”

“Foible, mid-blade, and forte. Got it.”

He pointed to the edges. “This edge, the one your
knuckles are on, is the leading edge of the blade, and the other
side is the false edge. The parts on either side are the
flats.”

“Ok.”

“Now this cross part here is the cross guard, then
the grip and the pommel. This whole part is the handle of the
blade. Got it?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Ok, good. Now we will go over how to hold the
sword.”

“Ok.” For the next hour she learned how to hold the
sword and the basic names of moves.

After that, Arkin brought a stop to it. She was
getting into it. For some reason this stuff was interesting to her,
and now she was beginning to understand a lot of the conversations
she had with Legon growing up. He was always talking about “parry”
this and “thrust” that, but she never really had known what he was
talking about. She just smiled and nodded to be nice. She didn’t
even remember hearing Arkin and Legon, who both were covered in
sweat.

* * * * *

Arkin stood across from Legon. He was going to start
learning better deflections so he could use his opponent’s momentum
against him. The staves were perfect for this kind of training.
They couldn’t take full blows without cracking, so this would force
him to deflect with one sword and then strike with the other. Arkin
came at him again and again, doing the same move until Legon would
deflect it correctly and then he would move on to a new one. He’d
been used to two-handed fighting before, but was never totally
comfortable with it. You didn’t have as much power with just one
hand, so someone could get an advantage with just pure strength,
but he also knew that people who did know how to fight well with
two swords usually won, so he would put in the time.

Arkin held one stave, and it was the same size of a
standard hand and a half broad sword. He swung at his side,
splitting the air with the sound of smacking wood, sending a
vibration up the stave to his hand. Legon turned, catching the
stave with one of his own and turning his back to it, using his
body to help it make its way up and over him. This exposed Arkin’s
side. As he did this he stabbed with the other hand, catching Arkin
in the side. It felt awkward but was still effective.

“Good job, Legon. Now again, but less sloppy. Make it
a more fluid movement.”

“Ok. Hey watch me do it on my own and tell me where
I’m sticking.”

They continued until he was getting very good with
the two-handed technique. He was good with one-sword combat, and in
truth you didn’t use both hands a lot of the time, as you were
constantly switching hands to help with endurance and to get your
opponent off guard. All you needed to do was add in a sword on the
other hand and for the most part you didn’t need to learn that many
new moves, so it didn’t take him long to get the hang of it.

After they were done, Arkin took Sasha and him aside
and began to teach them the Jezeer, which was basically learning
how to master each muscle in your body. The hard part was isolating
just one muscle. It seemed that you couldn’t move just one without
all the others joining in. This training would be hard. The way
they learned was with different poses, contorting their bodies to
stretch and isolate different groups of muscles. By the end Legon
knew that he wouldn’t be sore from fighting, but from the Jezeer.
He also realized that he wasn’t as flexible as maybe he once was.
Sasha was better at this part of this than him, but he still heard
the occasional groan from her straining herself.

“That’s good. Tomorrow we will do more, and you will
start to work with Sasha on basic hand-to-hand combat. Nothing
major, just enough to get her out of trouble—wristlocks and things
like that.”

The next day they made their final descent out of the
mountains and to the split in the road. They went south, heading
for the town of Salkay where they could sell the horses they didn’t
need and buy supplies. The land they were in was all rolling hills
with large fields and patches of trees. Closer to the mountains the
forest got thick, but otherwise they were in open spaces. Within a
two day’s ride they would reach the Kayloose River and the town of
Salkay. Spring had taken a much firmer hold on the lowlands than it
had in Salmont. The road was clear, but right off to the side the
grass in the field grew up to the horses’ bellies, and there was
the soft sound of birds singing and the occasional bug going by
their heads. The scent of wildflowers dominated everything. They
tried to figure what each cloud looked like and were having a good
time. Everyone was in high spirits by lunch. They sat in the shade
of a tree to eat and let the horses graze on their own. Keither
seemed to be out of his element. He was terrified of bees and other
insects. It was obvious that he didn’t spend much time outside.

* * * * *

Keither knew the others were crazy. How could they
possibly be enjoying themselves?
“There are bugs everywhere, and
the bees…”
he thought to himself. There was a reason he stayed
in the house all day, and this was it. What if one stung him? Could
he die from it? He didn’t know, but he heard one time that someone
had died from a bee sting. They stopped breathing and everything.
Did these morons not know that? He kept his head down all day and
he didn’t answer too many of the questions that Arkin would ask
Legon and Sasha, not that it mattered anyway. He spent most of his
time telling them to clear their heads and stuff like that. When
there was a question he almost always got it right, even if he
didn’t answer. They were easy really, all hypothetical questions,
not unlike the stuff he thought about on his own all the time. He
was amazed they didn’t know how to solve them. Didn’t everyone
think about this stuff? Not everything was bad though. Sasha was an
amazing cook. Even when she didn’t do anything to the food it was
better than home.

He reared back and swatted at a black flying thing.
“
Whoa that was close,”
he thought. His ribs hurt and he
wondered how long it would take them to feel better. His face hurt
too, but that was already starting to do better. He was still going
to look horrible in Salkay, but not that it mattered. He looked bad
anyway. He was fat and pale. People were always asking him if he
was sick. When he said no they asked if he was hurt, and if that’s
why he was so large.
“Jerks,”
he thought.
“Just because I
don’t spend my day pounding on metal or wood
…
”
He liked
to think of himself as the first scholar in Salmont, but now that
Arkin was revealing this other side, he thought he might be number
two. What was up with Arkin anyway? He sure played his part well,
but it didn’t make sense to not take Legon back to the Elves where
he belonged. No, there was more to this story, and the others
should be asking questions but they weren’t. They trusted the man
to the hilt.

They were riding again. Well the rest of them were,
but Pixie was still eating. “Come on, let’s go!” He clucked his
tongue. This worked for Sasha, why not for him? He tried to kick
Pixie’s side. She snorted.

Sasha was calling back to him. “Come on, Keither.
You’re in charge, not her. Kick her sides and she’ll go.”

No, she wouldn’t go. They had been going through this
exercise all day—he kicked, Pixie ate. And that name! What were
people going to think of him when they found out his horse’s name
was Pixie? Sasha was heading over now. She looked calm and he knew
she was patient, but he still knew this must be driving her
nuts.

She got off Murray. “Here Keither, ride Murray the
rest of the day. Pixie just needs to be trained, that’s all.”

He got off and remounted Murray, who seemed to be
much larger. Once again, the horse didn’t seem to want to respond
to him. Sasha got on Pixie and to his amazement, she turned Pixie
and started toward the others, clucking just like he had done but
this time the horse responded. He grabbed on hard to the saddle as
Murray started after Sasha. Clearly, Pixie was not the one in need
of training.

“
It always amazes me that people believe only that
which they want to, no matter how absurd. Of course, that being
said, people tend to be easy to lead for the same reason, and
provided their leader is just, even the truly wicked amongst us can
be made into good people.”

They made camp right outside of the town of Salkay.
Kovos couldn’t see it, but it was there just over the hill. He
could hear the sound of the Kayloose River, one of the largest
rivers in the area and the basis for Salkay’s rapid growth. Most
towns and villages were built near a body of water, be it a river,
stream, or lake. This was the case for Salkay. From what he
understood, there were mills in Salkay, and mills meant money.

It was cool this morning and he could see his breath
when he got out of the tent. He appeared to be the only one up
except for Arkin at the edge of camp, looking not toward the town
but back up the road where they’d come, sitting on his heels and
not moving a muscle. This must have been the Jeesie or Jezeer or
whatever it was called. Kovos didn’t know and frankly he didn’t
care. All that stuff was fine for Arkin but not for him.

He began to build a fire. He loved the mornings when
he was camping, or at least he loved them when he was sitting at a
fire eating. He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was small and soft.
His heart skipped a beat. Emma? No, not Emma. Sasha.

“Good morning. How are you today?” she said,
yawning.

He spoke more to the ground than to her. “I’m
fine.”

“Just fine?”

“Yeah I’m fine, really, I am.” She was giving him a
knowing look.

“You thought I was Emma, didn’t you?” she asked
softly.

“I’m sorry Sasha. How did you sleep?” And moreover,
how did she know what he was thinking?

She smiled at him. “Why are you sorry? I’m sure she
misses you too.”

“Do you think so? I mean, she said that she loved me,
but I don’t know. Now I’m gone and I bet she has her eye on others.
I don’t know.” He chuckled a bit. “Listen to me, I sound like a
moron. You don’t want to hear my sob story.”

She laughed, and this caught him off guard. “You
don’t know anything about women, do you?”

Now it was his turn to laugh. “Well no, I guess
not.”

“I don’t think you’re a moron, I’m happy for
you. It’s cute the…”

“Oh no, don’t start that ‘cute’ stuff. Emma says that
crap all the time when I get all soft,” he said pointing a finger
at her in a playful way.

“It is cute, and I’m sure she misses you a lot. She
even talked to me about you, so there’s a sign.”

That was definitely a sign. Emma didn’t talk to
Sasha; none of the girls in town did. They talked about her for
sure, but it wasn’t kind.

“She did? What did she say? What did you tell her?”
She had his attention now; he didn’t want Sasha to think he was
soft, but this was too good. She sat down opposite him and held her
hands out over the growing fire. They didn’t even notice Arkin
looking at them.