Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (26 page)

“What are you
doing
here?”
Monson asked.

“Not happy to see me?”

“It’s not that, but from what I’ve heard, your charge
is a wanted man.”

“He is. We took out ten royal guards and are on the
run headed south. What can you tell me? How did they find out?”

“Ten royal guards? They really are pathetic, aren’t
they?”

Arkin smiled. This is why he liked Monson. He was his
dad from his mannerisms down to his attitude. Long black hair
obscured much of Monson’s scarred face, a permanent reminder of the
fire six years ago. The same fire had killed his father. It was
amazing the young boy still lived. Arkin didn’t know much about
what had happened, but from all accounts there had been foul play.
Monson’s mother had taken it hard and dedicated herself to fighting
the Iumenta. As soon as he was old enough, her son joined her.
Monson was great at gathering information; because he was so young,
people didn’t suspect him.

Monson continued on. “Well, from what I can tell this
is being kept quiet. The Queen’s Senashow is in charge. It looks
like he just sent out a wide sweep for his first attempt at
locating you. But that doesn’t mean that he was planning on his
pawns bringing your boy in.”

“What do you mean? And the boy’s name is Legon.”

“Well, here’s the way I see it: They have to know
that your charge has some sort of protection, and the royal guard
is great at beating things out.”

Arkin gave Monson a wry smile. “I thought you said
they were pathetic.”

“Ha! I did and they are, but the Senashow is not.
Look at what his planning accomplished. You were flushed right out
into the open and now you’re scampering around the Cona Empire
without a plan.”

He was probably right. They would need to move fast.
By now the empire would have figured out that they were missing
soldiers. He kicked himself. It had been dumb to come to Salez, but
he needed to figure out how much the Iumenta knew.

“Ok, what else do you know?”

“Nothing. Do you think you’re the first to ask? The
Iumenta seem to actually care this time. You need to get south, but
be careful. The army has been shipping supplies down that way for a
while now.”

“What do you mean? They can’t have everything blocked
off.”

“No, but I don’t know what they’re up to. It’s
platoons of the main army, so it’s not the Senashow’s doing. But if
you’re on a wanted list you’d still better avoid the area.”

Monson turned at a sound down the dark ally. He
looked at the end where light was making an attempt to penetrate
the dark space. Monson turned back to him. “We need to leave. Just
get your people out. Take the long way back to avoid large cities
and rivers. If I find out more I will send word.”

And with that Monson Grey walked to the other side of
the alley and disappeared. Arkin hurried back to the inn and found
his four companions sitting in the tavern with . . . Sara?

* * * * *

Arkin walked to the table, surprise on his face.
Legon noticed that the surprise was part hesitation as well.

“Arkin? What are you doing here? In fact, what are
all of you doing here?” Sara asked.

There was silence as they all sat, waiting for
someone to talk. He reached up and scratched at the back of his
head, which was now tingling. Sasha gave him a stern look.

“Where do you live?” Sasha asked Sara, trying to
change the subject.

“In my owner’s business. We work at night, mostly,
but it’s really whenever a customer comes in or when we’re shipped
off to the army for a week or two.”

“They do
what
?” Kovos said, all signs of
sympathy replaced with anger.

“We go to the barracks sometimes when business is
slow, or when we first get here as part of our orientation.”

“Orientation?” Legon said with his head now
positively buzzing.

“When we get here, if we aren’t willing to work then
we get
oriented
to our new life.”

“What is involved in this orientation?” Keither
asked, looking scared.

“A lot of stuff. Usually we are beaten and then given
to a large group of people. They’re told to show us the ropes for a
few weeks, but not to do any permanent damage to us physically.
Even after they break us we stay in orientation until new girls
arrive.” Her face was now very pale. “Mine was three weeks,” she
said in a whisper.

There was a pit in Legon’s stomach. He felt for this
girl. She had gone through a lot in the last few months and he
could see that she was hurting. He wished there were some way to
make it better, to take away her pain. He reached out to place his
hand sympathetically on her forearm, but as his hand touched her,
the feeling in his head shot down his arm. Images, scents, sounds,
and feelings flashed in front of his eyes. He was a terrified girl
being dragged along. Now he was being whipped. He could feel each
lash as it burned across his back, splitting the skin. He gasped as
he saw the lash marks heal without a scar. He realized that the
whip was enchanted.

The fear was so strong now. He was in a room filled
with men, all smiling and calling out. They were on her now,
ripping off clothes, hitting and kicking. Then the violation, the
humiliation tore through him. The memories of the day he broke,
letting them do what they wanted, doing to them what they wanted.
Then images of client after client ran through his mind. Each time
he felt all the emotions, all the pain—everything. It was too
much.

He pulled his hand off her arm, breathing hard. Sara
yelped and clapped her hand to her neck. Sasha was up in a
heartbeat, scrambling around Sara and lifting her hand from her
neck.

“It’s gone,” she said with a gasp.

“What’s gone?” Legon asked.

“The tattoo.” Sasha looked at him. There was an awed
and frightened look on her face.

Sara looked at him with new tears in her eyes, but
this time they were tears of gratitude. “I felt all of my pain
leave me. I felt your compassion and love and now my tattoo is
gone.” She looked at him intently, looked into his eyes.

“You’re a Venefica.”

“A wha…” he started.

“Silence,” snapped Arkin. ”Sara, don’t say another
word, not here. You know what could happen. You lot clear your
minds.”

“But . . .” Kovos said.

“Do it now,” Arkin barked as people from around the
tavern looked at them.

“Sara, you cannot go back to your owner. You know as
well as I do that they will find out what happened. And we all need
to leave now. Sasha, give Sara some clothes so she will look normal
walking out of the city, and the rest of you get ready. We’re
leaving. Now.”

“Arkin, what about getting…” Keither started.

“We have answers, now go.”

They all stood, but Sara looked apprehensive. She was
obviously torn between the possibility of newfound freedom and the
fear of her owner. Legon had taken her pain into himself for just a
moment, but in that moment he had gained an understanding that
would have taken years to learn, if not a lifetime. To feel what
someone else was dealing with, how they thought and felt during a
situation… He wondered what kind of person he would be if he had
this knowledge his whole life.

The sensation in his head was gone now. He should
have felt scared about what he’d just done, but he didn’t. After
all, he did what he had wanted to do. He wanted to set Sara free
and to take away her pain. Was it magic? It had to be, there was no
other way to explain it.

Sara moved along slowly with the others and Arkin
showed them out the door and down the street. The streets were
clogged with people and the going was slow, but Legon wasn’t paying
attention to that. He kept rolling the thought of magic around in
his head. What had Sara called him?
“Venefica,”
he thought.
What did that mean, and how did she know about it? He also wondered
what Arkin had learned that made him want to rush out of town so
fast. They reached the stables next to the entrance of Salez.

“Sara, do you have a horse?” Arkin asked. He noticed
Sara was now in one of Sasha’s dresses. It fit well, but when did
that happen? He needed to get his head in the game.

“Ah, no, I don’t.”

“We’ll buy one then.”

* * * * *

Sasha walked close to her friend. She couldn’t
believe that Sara was here, but at the same time Sasha felt sad to
see her. When Sara had been taken into the queen’s care Sasha had
always just hoped that she would be made a common servant of some
sort, but that obviously hadn’t happened. Sara looked like she was
shell shocked and obviously scared about what could happen to
her.

Arkin left to buy Sara a new horse. Legon and Kovos
took to walking around the group in wide, meandering circles. Over
the last few days Arkin had started to teach them defensive
techniques that they now were employing.

“You guys have been through a lot, haven’t you?” Sara
asked. Sasha started a bit.

“You could say that. I will tell you more on the
road, but yes, we’ve had a hard run so far. Are you ok?”

“I’m fine, just nervous is all.”

“I can see that. Are you worried about getting
caught?”

“Yes. If the mark on my neck is gone I should be ok,
but still.”

Arkin came back shortly with a new horse in tow. He
was also accompanied by a group of children leading the other
horses along. He handed the reins of the new one to Sara. She took
them and they all began to exit the city. Two soldiers stood guard
at the city gate. One was young looking with shaggy, sandy hair and
a long nose. It appeared that he was new because he was eyeing
every passerby with interest. The other was older looking with a
short, scruffy beard and a look of extreme boredom on his face. As
they passed, the younger guard stopped them.

“Hold up. You know you can’t leave,” he said,
directing his voice at Sara.

“And why can’t she leave?” Arkin asked in a
challenging voice.

“Because she belongs to the brothel up the way,
that’s why.”

“
In all my research I have yet to truly understand
the depth of the journey that the Everser Vald made, but I think
that if we narrow our focus we can find individual events within
that journey and learn from them. Maybe if we understand we can
recreate greatness, but perhaps not.”

Kovos knew that they needed to act fast before the
situation got out of hand. He walked up to the man.

“What do you mean the brothel?” He tried to put as
much menace in his tone as he could.

“She’s a whore. I have her at least once a week.
Isn’t that right, sweetheart?” The man smiled at Sara, who was
looking terrified.

Kovos wasn’t sure if it was a good idea, but it was
worth a shot. He dropped his horse’s reins and lunged forward,
hitting the man hard in the mouth and sending him sprawling back.
His companion leaped up and stood between them, sword drawn and
leveled at Kovos. People were walking away quickly, not wanting to
be a part of whatever was going to happen.

“What do you think you’re doing? That’s a…,” the
older soldier started.

“I’ll have a go at anyone that calls my fiancée a
whore!” Kovos roared at the men.

The soldier on the ground was getting up and
spluttering. “She’s a whore, I know she is!” the younger one
said.

Arkin turned Sara around and lifted the back of her
hair, showing her unblemished neck. “Are you sure?” he said.

The older man stretched his neck to look and then
turned to his companion and hit him in the gut.

“You imbecile! She’s not marked! And to think I was
going to defend your worthless hide.” He turned back to Kovos and
Sara. “I’m sorry, he’s new. I would still warn you, however, not to
hit a soldier, but in this case I understand. I would have done the
same. Just move along.” He eyed his downed companion with
distaste.

Kovos walked up to Sara and placed his hand gently on
hers. “Come on, dear. I’m sorry about this.” There was no way that
had worked. He thought for sure the men would figure it out. He and
Sara hadn’t even been standing close to each other. They mounted
their horses and started south away from Salez.

After they had some distance behind them, Arkin rode
in close to him. “That was some fast thinking on your part.”

“Is that a good thing? I took a big risk.”

“Perhaps, but shocking the men was about the only way
to get out of that, I’m afraid.”

It was good Arkin agreed. The guy knew what he was
doing, so if he said it was a good job then that’s what it was. And
what the hell had Legon done to Sara back at the tavern? It kind of
gave Kovos the creeps. Not that what Legon had done was bad; it was
good that Sara was free now. Still, the thought of his friend being
able to use magic was odd. How did he do it? Salez was moving
farther away and they would set up camp in the next hour or so.
Then maybe he would find out what was going on.

* * * * *

Legon looked down at his hands, still trying to
figure out what he had done back at the tavern. The scariest thing
was that he hadn’t really done anything. He had just wanted it to
happen and it did. He was having a hard time looking over at Sara.
In a way he felt like he’d violated her by taking on memories that
weren’t his. At the same time he felt for her and cared for her in
a way he never had before. He was also confused because she didn’t
seem to be mad at him for delving into her mind. Maybe it was
because he had freed her and now she felt obligated. At any rate,
he needed to apologize for what he had done. He steered Phantom up
next to her.

“Sara?”

She looked over at him.

“I’m sor- sorry for going into your head like that. I
shouldn’t have.”