Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (15 page)

As he stood up, he could see that there was a lot
more that was on Sasha’s to-do list than just getting a few odds
and ends around town. He went to ask what was on her mind, but she
used one of their hand gestures to tell him that they would discuss
it later. This surprised him, since there was no reason not to
trust their parents with anything she might be planning on doing.
The thought came to him that if she did say what she had planned
for the day then their mother would make sure she stayed in bed to
rest, but if Sasha appeared to not be fighting it then she would
leave her alone and Sasha could do whatever she needed.

“Ok, well I guess I’ll go. I’ll talk to you later
Sash. I hope you feel better,” he said as he walked to the
door.

He went to his room and finished getting ready. When
Sasha had started her episode, Legon had put on only one sock and
tossed the other aside. He reached under his bed to get the sock
and put it on. Soon he was walking out into the warm morning. It
felt good to be outside. He began to make his way to the town
center. He would pick up the cloth Sasha needed on his way to see
Kovos. As he was about halfway to the town center, he saw Kovos and
Keither walking quickly toward him. It was obvious that Kovos was
flustered, but Legon wasn’t sure if it was from having Keither with
him or something else. He was almost dragging his brother
along.

“You need to get out of here. There are soldiers
looking for you,” Kovos panted as he closed the last few steps to
Legon.

“What do mean there are…?” Legon began.

“Five soldiers stopped me this morning looking for a
man around our age with a tattoo on his back. We need to get away
from the town center—that’s where they are.” As Kovos spoke he
looked over his shoulder, searching the crowded street for a
threat.

Legon didn’t need to be told twice. A week ago this
news would have surprised him, but now…. They started to walk away
from the town center when they heard a voice, one that was almost
timid but full of glee. “That’s the boy there, the one I told you
about, the one with the demon sister.” Moleth’s voice rang over the
sound of passing people and horses.

Legon turned to look at the woman. Standing next to
her were three men in leather armor all with the same symbol
emblazoned on it—a silver many-pointed star with a green circle in
the middle and a half circle in the same green around the star, and
on the other side four five-pointed dark gold stars. These men were
the queen’s royal guard, not the half-witted servants of Regent
Kooth. These men were the real deal. The royal guard was the most
highly trained human military unit in the empire. It was rumored
that the royal guard was trained by Iumenta and that they had all
sworn undying loyalty to the queen. Failure was not in their
training, and Legon knew that three on two was not good odds. Kovos
could fight, but Keither was more of a danger to himself than to
others. As the soldiers got closer he could see from the way they
were sizing them up that they too did not see Keither as a
threat.

They all dressed alike. The one to the right of
Moleth played with his long red beard, his blue eyes flashing
everywhere. He looked to be around twenty-eight or thirty, but it
was hard to tell. The one next to him walked like he was in charge,
and Legon figured this man was the commander. He didn’t have a full
beard but he did have about four days worth of stubble. His face
was scarred. The last man was young and didn’t have a beard. He
looked stupid, more like the trolls from stories than a man. In
truth, at first glance Legon was a little surprised by how the men
looked. They had more of the appearance of robbers than royal
guard. Of course, Legon had never seen royal guard before, so this
might be how all of them looked.

Moleth was bouncing around like an over-excited
puppy. She was elated about helping the queen’s men, but she was
obviously wearing on them. The one standing next to her placed his
hand on the hilt of his sword in a longing sort of way.

When they reached them, the man who appeared to be
the commander looked at Kovos. “You don’t know anyone, huh?” he
said in a gruff voice.

The man turned his attention to Legon. “Take off your
shirt and show us your back, boy.”

This was how the whole thing was going to end. He was
going to be killed or taken by the queen’s men. There was no
stopping it. Or was there? Moleth had decided to give her opinion
on the matter one last time.

“Oh good, I have always disliked this one, he’s…” she
was stopped by a command from the man in front of Legon.

“Shut up, woman. You have brought too much attention
to us already. If you don’t be quiet on your own we will silence
you,” the man said, and for once Legon hoped that Moleth would use
some sense and keep her mouth shut. This desire was not for his
well-being, but hers. Sadly, she didn’t have the sense.

“Now you wait just one moment—I helped you b…” she
started.

“Shut her up!” barked the commander. Legon watched in
horror as the man closest to Moleth moved behind her and in one
fluid movement unsheathed his dagger and brought it to her throat.
Moleth became quiet in an instant and a very real fear crossed her
face.

“This is what happens if you don’t cooperate with
us,” said the commander. As if on cue, the man holding Moleth
pressed the dagger hard and dragged the blade across her throat,
slicing the arteries in her neck.

A gurgled scream of pain and terror rose from Moleth.
Blood sprayed out of the wound, covering her front as she began to
pass out from the loss of blood. Her face washed white as blood
left her body, and she gave a slight twitch. The man let go of
Moleth and she swayed for what seemed like an eternity before
falling to the dirt.

Rage filled Legon. These men had slaughtered an
innocent woman to make a point. This was an injustice for which he
would not stand. He moved to his left toward the troll man. Kovos
followed his lead and they both engaged their respective targets.
His elbow came up to the man’s temple before he got a chance to
react, and Legon felt the satisfying feeling that comes with
knowing that your opponent has just been knocked unconscious. Kovos
went with a different tactic, kneeing the commander hard in the
stomach, dropping him to the ground and then kicking him hard
across the face. The last man, who up to this point had been
wearing a wicked grin, came at them, but Legon and Kovos didn’t get
their shot at this one. To everyone’s surprise, Keither screamed a
horrible, insane man’s scream. The three men turned to look at the
boy, who no longer looked like a boy at all. There was rage and
hatred in his eyes, pure and clear. Keither lunged for the man. He
was no match for a member of the royal guard, but the soldier was
taken by surprise, and Keither had a lot of weight behind him. The
boy slammed into the man, sending them both to the ground, Keither
on top punching every inch he could find. Each blow did almost no
damage and the soldier was getting his bearings again. As the scene
progressed, a clear thought came to Legon: “
Kovos said there
were five men, not three.”

“We need to get out of here now!” yelled Legon, and
together he and Kovos lifted Keither from the soldier. The man
stumbled up, and seeing his two comrades down backed away and drew
his sword. The man began to call out for help and the other two
soldiers were getting to their feet. Legon, Kovos, and Keither all
turned and sprinted toward the edge of town. As they ran they could
hear shouts from behind and the distant sound of hooves hitting the
ground. They turned up a side street, running into people as they
went. Keither tripped on a woman’s skirt and fell, cutting his
knee. The edge of town was right ahead, and just past that were the
thick woods that surrounded Salmont.

Legon looked back as they passed the buildings that
marked the end of the town. Panic took a firm hold of him as he saw
five men on horses, three with swords drawn and two with bows. The
two with the bows were pulling back their strings to fire.

“Arrows!” yelled Legon as he started to weave.

Kovos did likewise and the two of them pushed Keither
back and forth, almost like they were trying to knock him down, but
every time it looked like the boy would fall, Kovos or Legon
corrected his balance. As they entered the woods, Legon heard the
hiss of two arrows fly past and saw them embed themselves deep in a
tree. The soldiers were firing combat bows, so the arrows would be
moving incredibly fast and could kill from a long range. They
needed to get higher into the cover of the trees. More arrows flew
by accompanied by the sound of five horses crashing through
underbrush. Legon felt one of the arrows scratch his neck as it
passed.

They ran, weaving through the trees, jumping over
roots and logs—anything that might slow down or trip up the horses.
There was yelling coming from the queen’s men, but Legon couldn’t
tell what they were saying. All he heard was his own panting and
the strained breathing of the other two. His legs were on fire and
his body stung from hitting branch after branch. He could see
Kovos’ white shirt getting speckled with blood from the many
scratches.

Next to him, Keither slipped and Legon caught his
arm. He felt the weight on him for only a moment before the boy
continued on. He was worried. He knew that Keither had to have some
strength, if for no other reason than he was fat, but he knew the
boy couldn’t have too much in the way of endurance, and he had hit
his knee pretty hard when he fell.

The sound of the hooves stopped. The forest in this
part was too dense to ride in, so the men would be forced to go on
foot. This was to Legon’s advantage—this was his forest.

“Whoa, hold up guys, there’s no point running. We’ll
just be easy to track. You can’t hear in these woods and it’s too
dark in here to see very well. They will have to go slow, and if we
are quiet and hide our tracks they won’t find us,” Legon said in a
soft voice, placing his hand on Kovos’ shoulder. All three of them
were breathing hard and all were doing their best to calm down.

“You lead the way. I don’t have a clue what to do up
here,” Kovos said. Keither nodded in agreement. Legon was impressed
with the boy. He always thought that Keither would fall apart in a
bad situation, and maybe he would, but up to this point he had more
than exceeded Legon’s expectations.

He took a look around to see what kind of cover they
had. It wasn’t too bad. There was lots of growth along the bottom
of the trees and a thick wooly moss that they could pull over
themselves. He went to work, first hiding Keither. He instructed
him to rub dirt and mud on any exposed skin and then placed him at
the base of a bush and covered him in debris from the ground. When
Legon was done, Keither was just barely visible, and if he stayed
still the soldiers might not find him. He did the same with Kovos
and then hid himself in the wooly moss at the base of a tree. His
was the most exposed area, but if he didn’t move a muscle he would
be fine. The sound of boots tromping on twigs gave his trembling
body the willpower it needed to go still.

* * * * *

The dirt on Kovos’ face made it sting, and for the
first time he realized that his whole body was covered in little
cuts and scrapes from the trees. Thoughts rushed through his mind
as he tried to stay still and keep his body from shaking. This was
unbelievable. He had seen a woman get killed. Her body had hit the
ground right in front of him; he had stepped over her to get
away—stepped over the body of a person he knew. As the scene played
over and over again in his head he fought back the urge to vomit.
He tasted bile in his mouth and swallowed hard. He would
not
be found covered in his own vomit, dead in the woods.

Whenever he had thought about someone getting killed
it always seemed so different in his mind. He had never envisioned
all the blood. Sure, there was some, but not like in real life. In
real life there was a lot, more then he knew the body could hold. A
chill ran down his back as he remembered Moleth’s last attempt at a
scream and the look on her face. He tasted the bile again and tried
to stare forward. There was sound coming from up ahead.

* * * * *

This was bad—real bad. Sasha felt her stress levels
rising out of control, and a bead of sweet rolled down her back.
Her palms were covered in sweat, too, and her heart was someplace
around her chin. A few hours ago, townspeople had started coming to
the shop telling Edis that Legon, Kovos, and Keither had assaulted
three members of the royal guard after they witnessed the men kill
Moleth. They also said that the men were looking for Legon. It was
just too much. She couldn’t stand Moleth—the woman had been calling
for her to be run out of town for as long as she could remember—but
that didn’t mean that she wanted her dead. She was killed just to
make a point, just because they could. After the fight, Legon and
the other two had run into the woods to hide, and for all she knew
it had worked, because nobody had seen anyone come out.

Sasha knew that Legon was good in the forest and he
could probably evade them on his own, but with Kovos, and
especially with Keither, she wasn’t sure. She still wasn’t sure she
believed that Keither had tackled one of the soldiers. She felt so
bad for him. She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like
watching someone get killed. She felt for Legon and Kovos too, but
they had always been so tough and used to violence on a small
level. But Keither…He didn’t leave the house, much less see fights
or even watch an animal get killed. This must have been one of the
boy’s first tastes of the cruel world where they lived.

She needed to clear her head. She didn’t have time
for this right now. She needed to concentrate. Legon would be
coming out of the mountains at some point, and when he did they
needed to leave and leave fast. She had already packed two
backpacks with clothes and other essentials. Her father had
collected Legon’s knives and cleavers and her mother had put
together a package of medicine and food.