Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (19 page)

Surprisingly enough, the morons had managed to do
something right, Arkin had to admit. Their ambush was good, not as
good as one of his, but still good. He was up in a tree looking
down on them. One of the big ones was beating Keither. This made
him mad, but he needed to wait for the right moment before acting,
and maybe this would be good for the boy.

Now the one in command was talking to Sasha. He knew
where this was going, but he hoped he was wrong. He preferred that
most of the men be asleep during his ambush, but there was a line
he would not let the soldiers cross. Beating Keither was one thing.
Rape was another.

Anger and annoyance built as the soldier threw Sasha
down and start to get on top of her. That was it; it was time
whether he liked it or not. Sasha was putting up a fight, which in
a way made his job harder. He aimed, felt the weight of the
bowstring pulling back. Now the idiot couldn’t find his fly. This
was good; he made a perfect target. He let go of the string and as
usual the arrow hit right where he intended.

He lunged from the tree, drawing his blades and
landing next to Legon and Kovos. A quick flick of the wrists and
the ropes were cut, and now it was time to do what he did best. He
crossed the camp in a few steps, swinging the two blades as he
went. They were great for close-quarter fights. The Elves and
Iumenta could deflect arrows with them, but he couldn’t. Not that
it mattered; none of the idiots went for a bow. In fact they were
way under-armed. The undisciplined fools had put down weapons and
armor after they had started in on Keither and Sasha.

Unlike the broadswords most of them were using, his
weapons were nearly unbreakable and very sharp, so sharp that he
barely felt one of them cut through the soldier’s armor. They
passed in between the man’s ribs, slicing lungs and heart. They
flashed around him as another man went down, missing his head. He
saw Legon taking on two with that cleaver. It wasn’t meant to be a
weapon, but it seemed to be getting the job done. There was already
a man thrashing on the ground missing an arm.

Arkin turned to look at Kovos. As one of the pathetic
soldiers passed by, Kovos hit the man hard in between the shoulders
with the pommel of his sword, dropping him to the ground. He looked
paralyzed. The pommel had probably broken the man’s back. He’d live
for long enough to be interrogated.

Now Kovos was fighting the last man, the one that had
beaten Keither, the one that had killed Moleth. Kovos brought the
sword down, knocking the soldier’s sword out of his hand, but
instead of killing him Kovos threw down his own sword and shoved
the man against a tree, holding him by his throat. There was a
wild, hateful look in his eyes. He reached down to the soldier’s
belt, pulled out his dagger and raised it to his neck. He slashed
down, cutting veins and arteries. Then he cut the other side of the
neck. He continued to do this again and again until the man’s
gurgled scream stopped and he slipped from Kovos’ blood-soaked
hands. Kovos turned, letting the lifeless body hit the ground. He
looked at Arkin dead in the eyes. The surprise was instantaneous,
but was quickly replaced with a wide smile, like nothing had
happened.

“What took you?” he said.

Arkin weighed his options. Kovos may have snapped and
become unstable, but it appeared as though the killing rage had run
its course, at least for now. He was as close to normal as
possible,

“Laundry.”

Kovos nodded his head. Arkin spoke. “Are you ok?”

“Other than watching my brother get beaten to a pulp,
Sasha almost getting raped, and killing three men, I’m doing
great!” He smiled sarcastically at the end. Arkin could tell Kovos
wasn’t actually smiling and the gallows humor was a good thing.
Kovos was still with it.

“Ok. How did it feel?” he asked.

Kovos’ face darkened as he thought. “Not good. But
not bad either. They deserved it. I don’t know how I should
feel.”

“That’s a good sign, then. Go clean up Keither. He
should be waking up soon.”

He turned and saw Legon with Sasha. Her eyes looked
blank and out of focus. She was probably in shock. Legon was next
to her with his arms around her, talking into her ear. She was
rocking back and forth slightly. Her clothes were still covered in
blood, but it looked like Legon had wiped it from her face. She had
been through a lot, and Arkin hoped that she could keep it together
for just a few more days, and then she would be fine. He knelt down
and wiped his blades off on one of the dead men’s pants. He reached
back and re-sheathed them as he walked back to the tree he’d been
in to get his bow.

Legon looked up at him. “Thank you for coming when
you did. I know it wasn’t the most opportune time.”

Arkin walked to Sasha and bent over, placing his hand
on her cheek. “Are you ok?” he asked in a warm voice.

“I will be. I’m just shaken is all, I’ll be
fine.”

“Good. You just sit here for awhile, ok?”

She looked up and wrapped her arms around her knees.
There was a small groan and Arkin turned to look at the man Kovos
had paralyzed. “Sasha dear, on second thought, Keither is getting
up now. Will you take him to go get cleaned up? There’s a small
stream on the other side of the road.”

She got up without question and walked to Keither,
helping him out of the camp and out of ear shot. Arkin stood and
beckoned Legon and Kovos over as he walked to the man on the
ground. It appeared that he could still use his arms, which was
good. He looked scared, which was also good. As Arkin walked up to
him he pulled a small knife out of the sheath on his belt. He knelt
down next to the man, Kovos and Legon on either side of him.

* * * * *

Sasha was helping Keither along, or was he helping
her? He didn’t know what was going on. He was covered in blood and
there had been bodies in camp. Also, why was Arkin here? His head
was pounding and fuzzy. The last thing he remembered was getting
beaten.

They were crossing the road. There was the sound of
water running. Sasha’s lip was bleeding and she was shaking. He
remembered what the man had done when he tied her and he knew what
happened. All of a sudden the pain in his body didn’t seem to
matter, and he was suddenly thankful he was unconscious when they…
when they…. He wasn’t going to think it. He saw the stream, moving
fast in the mountain pass, the light playing on it, illuminating
the trees. He knelt down with her. She scooped up water, splashed
it over her face and then started wiping his. He needed to say
something to her, something supportive, but what? He had never been
able to talk to people, never. But Sasha, she was different. She
was nice to everyone, and everyone disliked her for something that
he knew wasn’t her fault.

Anger, sadness and hate coursed through him, but also
love. Love for someone that was kind to him, love for someone good.
That someone could do that to her, could hurt her…But maybe they
hadn’t. Maybe that’s what the fight was.

He placed his hand on her wrist. “They didn’t…?”

“No. Arkin came right before they were able to.” She
looked down. Shame and humiliation filled her expression and
voice.

He breathed a sigh of relief. She was standing now
and he stood shaky on his feet. She steadied him. She was helping
him, after what had just happened to her, after what she’d just
seen, she was helping the guy who was out for the whole thing. Who
would do that?

“Sasha.” She paused. “You’re a good person, the best
person. I don’t care what people say, you’re not a demon, you’re an
angel. You deserve better than how people treat you. I just thought
you should know.” That came out bad and awkward. She probably
thought he was crazy or something. Why had he talked?

He looked down at his feet. This was why he didn’t
talk to people. She placed both her soft hands under his chin,
raising it. Tears were forming in her eyes and her voice shook.
“Thank you.” The tears started rolling down her cheeks and he knew
she meant it. He wondered how many people had ever told her
that.

* * * * *

Arkin knelt down next to the paralyzed soldier and
spoke in a soft voice. “We require information from you,
information that we will get, and after that, we will kill
you.”

The man’s eyes bulged and he stuttered, “Why…why
should I talk then, if you’re going to kill me either way?”

Arkin didn’t like doing this, but the bastard had it
coming.

“I’m glad you asked that. Because it is going to be
up to you how long it takes me to kill you. One way is fast and
relatively painless. The other is… hmmm, well, messy.” The man
looked at Arkin intently for a minute.

“What do you want to know?” the man asked.

He wasn’t surprised to hear this. Of course he would
crack. This pathetic animal didn’t have any training, any backbone.
He was a blunt instrument, nothing more.

“What was your mission? And what did you know about
it?”

“That’s all you want to know?” the soldier groaned.
He was clearly in pain.

“That’s it. Now talk,” Arkin said, and gave the man a
slight shake. These royal guards were the easiest to interrogate.
No discipline, no honor.

Breathing hard from the pain of having his spine
broken, the man began. “Ok. We’re here looking for a man that’s a
smuggler. We didn’t know where he lived, just that it was in the
Salez territory and that he was around eighteen with a tattoo on
his back. We were told that he would be armed and dangerous. After
we caught him we were to take him back to the capital for
interrogation.”

“You needed ten armored men for a smuggler?”

“No. We went in two groups of five. This was just the
last town on the way.”

“So why did you set a trap?”

“We knew that whoever we were looking for must be
here, and the commander said that it would be good training for us.
Also, ten of us in a town would draw too much attention.”

“Very well. I believe you.” Arkin knew that these
people just took orders. They didn’t think. He reached down, and
before the man could say anything, he broke the soldier’s neck.

The sound of shuffling feet told him that Sasha and
Keither were returning. It was a good thing the soldier had talked
so quickly. He didn’t want either of them to have to see more
violence today.

As he got up, Legon looked him in the eyes. “I
appreciate what you have done, but we need answers, and…”

“You will get them, but first we need to move away
from here. Go and cut all the men’s purses. Take anything of
value.”

“You want us to rob them? We need to get out of here
before more men come! We need to run! We need to get as far away as
we can!” Sasha said, getting more and more frantic. Legon started
to pace.

“We need to leave and go to Salez. I have to find out
why I’m being hunted, how they found out about me. We can’t just
make it look like these men were robbed and hope for the best. We
need to get answers,” Legon said,

“Salez? Are you out of your mind? We just killed a
bunch of royal guard looking for you. If we go anywhere near that
city, we’re dead,” Kovos said.

“Yes. Salez is not a good idea. They’ll know about
you,” Sasha started.

“No. I have to go there and try and get some
answers.”

“You’re part Elf. Why not try and kill you? What more
reason do they need?” interjected Kovos.

“How did they know what part of the empire I lived
in?”

Arkin needed to get them moving. It was unlikely that
anyone would come by, but that didn’t mean it was smart to take the
chance, and he did need to go to Salez. Besides, it was on the way.
“I agree with Legon. We need to go to Salez, and I will come with
you. If anyone comes by here they need to think these men were
robbed and killed. Trash the place, but make sure to take anything
of value. Don’t argue now, just do it.”

Kovos looked as though he was going to protest more,
but stopped at a look from Arkin. He punched the air and began to
tend to the men. Keither looked woozy.

“Sasha, take care of Keither. Don’t worry about doing
this, we can handle it.”

They also needed to get out of here for all of their
sakes. Sasha was on the edge of losing it, and Kovos, well, he had
been downright scary. Sure, he had fought well, amazingly for that
matter. It wasn’t the total lack of caring that was the problem,
but more the situation. Legon and Kovos had every reason in the
world to fight and kill the way they did, which was good, because
now they could do it again. But at the end Kovos hadn’t just killed
that man like the others. He had butchered him, and it was only
then that he had calmed down and that his fear and anger had
subsided. He would have to watch Kovos to make sure he didn’t turn,
to make sure he stayed grounded.

* * * * *

Legon didn’t really see these men as people anyway,
and in truth they did need the money and supplies, so he didn’t
fight Arkin on it. The thing that had him going was that the
carpenter was here at all. And what were those swords that he was
using? They sliced the men without effort, even with the armor, and
the commander, how did he make that shot? As he thought about the
commander, he approached his body. Something seemed off in some
way. It was the arrow that was sticking out of him.

As Legon got closer he noticed something strange
about the end where feathers should be. He reached out and felt a
bristle-like fiber on the end of the arrow. The shaft was narrow
and as it led down it was covered in blood—a lot of blood. Way more
than should come from an arrow wound.

Sasha was over his shoulder staring at her dead
assailant. “Legon, why did he bleed so much? Does that always
happen?” she asked, curiosity apparently getting the best of
her.

He pulled on the shaft. As it came out he noticed
another oddity about the arrow. “Arkin, maybe we should get those
answers now.” Arkin looked up from the man he was robbing and a
frown crossed his face.