Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (24 page)

“We need to get some supplies and I need to sell some
horses,” Arkin said to the guard as they approached.

“Then you’ll want to see Bear. Go to your left and
you can’t miss him, and if it’s traveling supplies you’re in need
of, there’s Peg’s shop next door that can help you out.”

“Thank you. Bear?” Arkin asked.

“That’s a nickname. The guy is fat and hairy and
looks like, well, a bear.”

“Does he like that name?”

The man laughed heartily. “Nope, not at all, but
he’ll tell you he loves it just to save face.”

“Thank you for your assistance,” Arkin said
graciously.

They entered the town and started to Bear’s shop. As
they went Legon noticed that unlike Salmont, Salkay was a planned
city. That meant that if you wanted to build in the town you first
needed to submit plans to the regent, and the building needed to
meet certain guidelines. This was for several reasons. First of
all, Salkay had a wall and a defensive plan, so if your building
hurt that plan or affected it you might not get approved. Also,
things like sanitation were taken into account.

They made their way through narrow streets. Most of
the shops along this way were travel-related and there weren’t a
lot of dwellings. Soon they came to a one-story building with a
large fenced in an area off to the right side with horses, donkeys,
and mules walking around. Attached to the building were
stables.

They all dismounted and followed Arkin through a
large door that horses could go through as well. The room was a
hall that had stalls going up either side. At the end of the hall
there was sunlight to the right, indicating the exit to the
fenced-in area. A short round man with black hair and beard came
out of a stall to their left, and sure enough he looked like a
black bear. The image was made stronger by his soot-covered
clothing that indicated he made his own horseshoes. Arkin diverted
his eyes, trying not to chuckle at the accuracy of Bear’s nickname.
Bear approached them with a large “I’m going to take your money”
smile on his face.

“Well hello there. What can I do for you today?” His
voice was energetic and happy. The perfect salesman.

“I am assuming you’re Bear,” Arkin said, extending
his hand. The man flinched for just a moment.

“Yes that’s me. They call me Bear because, well not
to sound like I have a big head, but I’m strong like a bear.” He
laughed in an exaggerated fashion. “Silly, really. I tell people
not to call me that, but you know how people are.”

“Yes I do. We are traveling and in need a few things.
Can you help us?”

“Well, I’m sure I can. By the looks of it you have
more than enough horses. I take it you need tack and things of that
nature?”

“Yes, and we would like to sell seven of these horses
as well.”

A look of incredulity crossed Bear’s wide face. “You
want to sell seven?”

“Yes. Can you buy them, or would you like us to try
someone else?”

“No, no, I can take them. Let me have a look. I hope
you’re not expecting a lot for them, I mean,” Bear said, walking up
to Calvin and Phantom.

“Not those ones. The ones that have stuff tied to
them. You can have whichever seven you want, it doesn’t matter to
me.” Bear inspected the horses that a few days ago had belonged the
queen. Legon wondered if Bear would figure it out.

“These are exceptional horses. You can tell just
looking at them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were military
grade. Say, how did you get them?” There was a suspicious look on
Bear’s face. He was going to figure it out. They must look guilty
bringing in this many horses to sell.

Arkin didn’t lose his cool and said in a calm voice,
“We killed ten royal guard and these were their horses.”

Legon looked at Arkin in disbelief. He wanted to say
something but his voice wasn’t working. Bear looked a little
uncomfortable; he looked them over, eyes lingering on Sasha and
Keither, and then gave a loud bark of laugher.

“Ok, ok, I get your point. I won’t go sticking my
nose into your business. Killed ten royal guards, eh? I like you,
buddy. Ok, so here’s what my thoughts are: there are five of you
and you are going to have eight horses, so my guess is that three
of them will be for pack. Now I don’t have the money to pay you for
all seven, but,” he said raising a finger,

“I will do this instead: I will take the seven and
will trade out the riding saddles for the three you keep with pack
saddles. Then I will shoe all your horses and make any repairs to
your current equipment.” Bear smiled widely, like he was going out
of his way. Arkin took a moment to answer.

“We’ll take that deal, plus four hundred shells.”
Legon did another double take. That was a good chunk of change, and
they didn’t need the money. What was Arkin doing?

Bear frowned. “Three hundred and I get help with the
shoes.”

Arkin looked at Kovos. “It’s your call—you’re the
smith.”

“Oh, you’re a smith?” Bear asked.

“Yeah, ok, deal,” Kovos said. “But one question: Why
don’t you go to the forge? Why do you need my help?”

“Ah, the forge. Well, that’s government-owned and you
can buy ingots from it, but as far as production it only does
government work.”

“Like what?” asked Keither.

Bear looked at the boy and smirked. “Looks like you
had a riding accident. If you like I would be happy to give you
some lessons while you’re here.”

“Thank you, but I’m not interested,” Keither replied.
“What does the forge make?”

“Oh, the forge. Well, anything for the government
really—armor, weapons, wheels, you name it.”

“So nothing for the town?”

“No, it doesn’t, that’s why we need a smith,
and…”

“We don’t want to take any more of your time. We need
to get a few other things while we’re here. How long with this take
you?” Arkin asked.

“You can leave sometime tomorrow afternoon, provided
your companion here knows what he’s doing.”

“I’ll have the shoes done tonight. If you can get the
tack and other stuff we can leave by morning. You guys go run your
errands. I’ll hook up with you later,” Kovos said, starting to
rummage through his bags. Bear gave them directions to a local inn
and shops they needed to go to. By nightfall they were done with
their shopping and were in Arkin’s room at the inn.

“Why did you tell Bear that we killed those men?”
Keither asked. Arkin looked at him with a wry smile.

“Because no one would admit that, and it’s hard to
believe. Sometimes the best way to hide something is to put it in
the open. No doubt your next question will be about why I asked
such a steep price for the horses when we have money. Well, that’s
also easy—if we look like we’re rich then we draw attention, but if
we look like we’re just bargaining then we won’t.”

Kovos came in the room filthy. “Ok they’re all done.
We can leave in the morning, and believe me, that will not be soon
enough. Bear is driving me crazy!”

Legon chuckled. “Why is that?”

“He will not shut up, and he keeps trying to sell me
stuff. He tried to get me to buy this old nag that looked like it
was ready to die. Told me it was a great ‘pre-owned horse.’
Honestly!” Kovos sat hard on the bed next to him and placed his
hands on his knees.

“Well he’s a used-horse salesman, what do you
expect?” Sasha said.

They continued to talk for a bit and then decided to
head off to bed. Arkin had his own room and Legon and Sasha were
sharing one. The place was nice, a lot like their home, but it felt
odd not to have his own room. Not that Sasha was a bother, but the
man at the front desk had asked about them being married and that
had made his skin crawl a bit. At the same time he wasn’t keen to
leave her side. He was in protection mode right now and he probably
wouldn’t sleep unless he knew she was fine.

It was nice sliding under the sheets and putting his
head on a somewhat soft pillow, almost like this was just any other
trip. Soon the ceiling he was looking at faded away as sleep took
over.

The ceiling was replaced by clouds. In his dream he
rolled on the ground.
“Great, another one of these,”
he
thought. He was on the field tonight, but to his left he saw dirt
and gravel, so he was somewhere in between the two… two… whatever
these were. To his left in the mist was the outline of the black
dragon, to his right just mist. This was such an odd dream. He
never saw the other dragon, just the one that he associated with
evil and bad things. He wondered… if he only saw the black dragon,
did that mean that he was a bad person? There was an overwhelming
feeling of confirmation, which somehow he knew was coming from the
black dragon. He was a bad person, but why was he moving toward the
field where perhaps the white dragon was?

The feeling came again, this time saying he couldn’t
make it. But there was a new feeling now, one that came from
somewhere else, one that felt good and hopeful. There was a grumble
from the black dragon; he needed to be paying more attention to it.
“No I don’t. Maybe I need to concentrate on the other
feeling,”
he thought, or did he say it? Could you think to
yourself in a dream? What did all this mean anyway? Did it mean
anything? He wasn’t sure.

He thought about this for awhile and then looked
down, noticing that he had gotten closer to the black dragon. Fear
came. He didn’t want to be closer to that one. Still lying on the
ground, he started to inch the other way but somehow he kept
getting closer to the dragon. He rolled around on his belly, facing
the field away from the dragon, crawling, straining to remember the
feeling of hope that he had felt. The more he thought about it the
more he moved away from the dragon. He wanted to turn back and look
but something made him keep his eyes ahead of him.

The mist was getting thick now and he couldn’t see
the ground, even on his belly. There was a thunderous THUD… THUD.
The second was softer and coming from behind him. The dragon was
leaving. THUD. He pawed the ground, wanting to keep moving away but
it was so hard to figure what way to go. THUD. His fingers closed
around a vine that was on the ground. He pulled himself along,
holding to the vine, hoping it led away from danger. THUD. Soft
now. Deep breathing from high above him. There was the fear again.
What if this was not the white dragon? What if this was just
another Iumenta? He looked up into a violent flash of bright
blue.

“
It has been said that love is the strongest power
for good in this world, and that if more people loved there would
be far less suffering. I would disagree with that theory; it is not
love itself, but what and how we love, for surely the tyrant loves
the suffering he causes just as much as the mother loves her
child.”

Legon’s eyes blinked open. He felt cold sweat
covering him and his breath was ragged. He stared up at the canvas
ceiling of the tent; he couldn’t hear Sasha’s breathing. He sat up
trying to wave off the grogginess.

“
Where is she?” he thought.

The dreams were always a bit better when she was
close, but she wasn’t in the tent. Then it came to him.

“The Jezeer,” he said.

Tonight Sasha was learning the Art of the Waking
Sleep, a form of meditation that allowed you to stay up for hours
with no sleep at all. You could put yourself in a state that was
almost as beneficial as sleep, only it took a tenth of the time.
Tonight was her night to learn. He had to admit she was doing well
with the training, but it still seemed as if they were missing
something.

In the two weeks following their departure from
Salkay, both of them had learned a lot but felt as though they
hadn’t. It was aggravating in many ways. That wasn’t going to
matter for long, though, since they were almost to Salez and then
maybe Legon would get some answers. Or maybe not—it was hard to
say. He wasn’t sure of who to talk to or what to do, and Arkin
wasn’t talking about what he needed to do there.

He lay back down, still exhausted. The dreams had
been going full tilt now, yet it was odd that they changed every
night. Some nights he was close to the black dragon and other
nights to that blue light. No matter what he did, he couldn’t
figure out what that light was supposed to be. Arkin had said that
dreams symbolize what was going on in the mind, but there was no
answer for these dreams. What was he supposed to be figuring out?
The way he felt when he went to bed seemed to have an effect on
what the dreams were like. If he was happy with himself and his
day, usually he was closer to the blue light, but if he was unhappy
he felt closer to the black dragon.

Legon realized it was going to be morning soon. He
needed to sleep. They had a big day tomorrow. They would be
entering Salez, and he was going to need his wits about him. As
soon as he closed his eyes, though, a noise outside made him start
and shoot straight up.
“What was that sound?”
It sounded
like a voice. It could be that he was just hearing things, but he
better be sure. He stuck his head out of the tent and saw Sasha
sitting next to the fire, eyes closed, trying to master the Waking
Sleep. Arkin looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

“Nothing,” said Legon. “Never mind, thought I heard
something.” He flopped back down; he hadn’t heard anything. It was
just in his head.

* * * * *

Sasha was vaguely aware of Legon saying something as
she was deep in concentration, trying to figure out the Waking
Sleep. In theory, once in the right state she would have waking
dreams but still hear her surroundings. It wasn’t going well. Her
mind was reaching a different state for sure. However, that state
was sleep. She kept drifting off and Arkin would catch her before
she slumped into the fire. She thought she had come close once, but
it turned out to be nothing.