Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (34 page)

He returned to them. With Legon out it was going to
be up to him to heal any wounds. He’d enhanced their bodies during
the conflict only enough to stop major injuries, so only Sasha and
Sara were spared from minor cuts and bruises. The cuts he would
heal to prevent them from infection, but he couldn’t waste energy
on the bruises in case there was another attack.

* * * * *

Sara was cleaning up Keither. He hadn’t been hurt all
that bad in the fight, but the tree had left a nice cut on his
head. Even with Legon healing it there was blood caked in his hair
and on his face.

“Sara, I can do this you know,” Keither
protested

“I know that, but you don’t have a mirror and you
don’t want to miss any.”

She wasn’t just doing it to make him look more
presentable for the horses, but more because she was worried about
him. His brother just died, and Keither had killed for the first
time as well, but there was no emotion in his eyes. Shouldn’t he be
wailing or something? She would have been if it were her brother.
Or was he in shock? That was more likely. She was having a hard
time looking at him the way she did before. He was always a
harmless boy, but now he wasn’t. He was like his brother in some
ways, especially in the way that enabled him to go out of his mind
with rage and kill. That trait was one that she didn’t like. Or did
he kill indiscriminately? He didn’t hurt them when they had pulled
him back to leave. Phantom snorted off to her right and she chanced
a glance at the Everser Vald. As she looked, she felt warmth bloom
in her chest.

* * * * *

Sasha looked intently at her friend. She was staring
at Legon in an odd sort of way. Not in a bad way, but almost
lovingly.

“Sara,” she said.

Sara looked at her and she saw longing in her vibrant
green eyes. “We should get Legon down and clean him up, and look
for injuries,” Sara said in a timid voice.

That timidity was odd for her. Sasha studied Sara
carefully, looking at her in the ways of the Jezeer, trying to
place her sudden change.

“I suppose so, but I don’t think that he is hurt,”
Arkin said.

How would he know? Legon and the Iumenta had moved so
fast that they wouldn’t have noticed him getting cut or something.
Yes, Sara was right. She started toward Legon. When Keither passed
her walking to Phantom, the horse shied away from him. The constant
mental contact affected the horses, and she wouldn’t say that they
were smarter but they knew a thing or two about their riders. This
was made apparent in towns and co-ops. Their horses responded to
people as their riders generally felt, even if they didn’t show it.
Ghost, for example, had no reason to fear men; she never acted
oddly around them until they started networking their minds. Arkin
told them that making a connection with your horse was a good thing
to do so that they would understand each other better. It wasn’t
possible for them to communicate the way people did to each other
or even the way they did to one another, but emotions could cross
the rift. Arkin facilitated most of the links so that the horses
could come to know their riders. After about of month of this,
Ghost had become increasingly apprehensive of large men. Not
necessarily fat ones but ones with big muscles. Sasha hadn’t
figured out why until she felt Sara’s emotions one day in a town.
It wasn’t that Ghost was frightened of the men, but rather that
Sara was, and Ghost picked up on it.

Now Phantom was shying away from Keither because
Legon thought of the boy as clumsy. Sasha tended to agree, but this
wasn’t the time to ostracize him. She sent calming thoughts to
Phantom, who stopped moving. Keither came up to his side and patted
him lightly.

“It’s ok, Phantom. I wouldn’t drop him. Remember,
there is muscle under this fat. How do you think I walk
around?”

He worked himself under Legon and began to hoist.
Sasha looked at Arkin, who should have at least offered to help.
What was wrong with him?

“So, you need help?” she asked, now giving Arkin a
stern look. Keither answered with surprise.

“No, I don’t. He can’t weigh more than either of
you,” he said, and then corrected, “Not that you’re heavy. You’re
not at all. Legon should be close to two hundred pounds but he
can’t weigh more than one ten. Arkin, are you doing anything to
me?”

“No, I’m not. He is an Elf now, and they are made of
different stuff than the rest of us.” He paused but forestalled
questions. “We will wait until he is awake before I explain.
Forgive me, but I don’t want to repeat myself.”

Keither had Legon off the horse and was carrying him
over his shoulder to the center of camp. He placed him down on the
ground. He still resembled his old self but was clearly different.
Even with his eyes closed, Sasha could see that they were larger
and almond shaped. His face looked more slanted with higher cheek
bones. It almost resembled a sculpture, as if someone had taken a
masterpiece and then superimposed Legon’s characteristics on it.
The result was wondrous. He still had the same short brown hair but
now his ears tapered at the top. His skin seamed to almost glow,
but she knew it wasn’t; it was just healthy and without blemish,
like a baby’s. His figure was the exact same as it was before. He
was still large with plenty of muscle, far more than the Iumenta
had. She wondered if he would thin out over time. Overall, she had
to admit she had never seen anything so…beautiful in her life.
Though she would be sure to tell Legon that he was handsome and
leave out the beautiful part.

She knelt down and inspected his body for injury.
There was none. She knew he had been hurt before he had changed,
but the injuries were gone now. All that was left was dirt and
blood from the battle. His clothes were torn in a few spots. If she
hadn’t been able to see his chest move she would have thought he
wasn’t breathing.

“Arkin, is it common for Elves to have low breathing
like this?”

“Yes, very. They are much quieter than we are.”

“Why is that?” Keither asked. Sasha was happy to see
him getting his mind off the day and back to thinking.

“They can hear your heartbeat across a room. Now,
that being said, loud sounds don’t hurt them as much as they do for
us. But when you can hear a pin drop you tend to notice just how
noisy we all are and walk a little softer.”

It made sense to her, so she didn’t worry about the
breathing. In fact he probably wouldn’t snore anymore. That would
have been nice when they were sharing a tent. She pushed this
trivial thought from her mind to focus on her unconscious brother.
Sara had knelt down on the other side of him. She brought a rag to
her mouth, wetting it and beginning to wipe the dirt off his
perfect face.

Sasha watched. Never had she seen Sara clean someone
with such care and love. She would occasionally wet the rag and
keep going, like a mother would a child or a sick loved one.

“Sara?” she said.

Sara looked up at her. “We can’t have him all dirty
now can we?”

Sara went back to her cleaning and tears began
rolling down her cheeks. They fell off her chin onto Legon. Sara
noticed this and it seemed to make them come faster, but she didn’t
look sad. She was starting to hum gently, a tune Sasha had never
heard. Arkin was standing over them now. She heard him pick up the
tune and saw tears in his eyes as well, once again not tears of
sorrow but of happiness. Sasha looked at Keither, who looked just
as confused as she was. She scratched the back of her head to get
rid of an itch.

Sara was smiling warmly at Legon and started to talk
below her breath. “My whole life around you and I didn’t know. I am
so ungrateful. This whole time I have been upset with my lot and
yet, here I was the first.”

“You were the first what?” Sasha was concerned.

“You will find out, Sasha, when he wakes. Won’t they,
Arkin?” She looked up at him and he nodded without question.

The buzzing in Sasha’s head was driving her nuts. Her
breath caught and she excused herself. Walking away from the group
still intently looking at Legon, she walked out of their clearing
and past the trees that blocked them from view. She stood alone
looking at the blank hilly landscape. Trembling, with her head
still buzzing, she held her hand out, palm up. She looked at it,
never having done this before, not wanting to do it, but she had
to…

“Flamma.”

As she spoke a plume of ruby flame blossomed in her
hand. She closed it, stopping the flame in an instant. She looked
out at the field not truly seeing it, shaking and covered in a cold
sweat.

“
A fulfilled fate is a great and terrible thing.
Great in that the thing we hoped for has come to pass and all of
the things that come with it, but terrible in that the thing we
hoped for has come to pass and we must see our own faults because
of it.”

Sara looked down at Legon, numb to anything in the
world other than who she was kneeling by. Sasha came up to her,
tugging on her sleeve. Sara looked at her. Sasha looked worried and
excited all at the same time.

“What is it?” she asked, not really wanting to be
interrupted from her reverie.

“Come with me.” Sasha was not asking; she was telling
her to come. She pulled at her arm again.

“Ok, ok.”

Arkin gave them an inquisitive look. “Is everything
all right?”

“Fine. Don’t worry Arkin,” Sasha said, smiling
dismissively at him.

Sasha led Sara outside of camp and to the other side
of the trees, turning to face her.

“What is it?” Sara asked, a little worried at the
sudden change in her friend’s behavior.

“Wh- when we were connected, or when I tried to break
the connection with Legon, did you feel anything?”

Sara paused. “I don’t know, like what?”

“From the connection,” Sasha asked frantically.

“I don’t know, I guess,” she said. “Yeah, it was kind
of a tingly feeling in the back of my head. Was I not supposed to
feel that?” Great, what had happened now? Had something in her head
broken?

“No, you weren’t. Do you feel it now?”

Now that Sasha was talking about it, she did feel
something in her head, but that was no surprise. That always
happened. If someone asked you if you were tired, you’d yawn. This
was probably no different.

“Yes, I guess so. What’s the problem, Sasha? What’s
gotten into you?”

“You’ve felt it when Legon has used magic,
right?”

“Yeah, of course. Arkin wanted us to feel it so we
would know what was going on in a fight, but I don’t see how
that…”

“Try it,” Sasha said

“What?”

“Try it… magic, try to do it.”

“But Sasha…”

As she spoke Sasha held out her hand. “Flamma.”

Sara stepped back, gasping. “You…”

“I think you can too. Try.”

She thought about it, but the idea was ludicrous to
her. Sasha had lived around Legon her whole life, so maybe this was
part of their connection.

“Sasha, I can’t.”

“Neither could I until he turned,” Sasha responded.
“Now do it.”

“Fine, give me a sec, ok?”

Sasha nodded and stepped back. Sara concentrated just
like Legon did, but he had done it so fast. She raised her hand.
“Flamma.”

The feeling shot down her arm to her hand, but
nothing happened. Sasha looked disappointed but undeterred.

“Try again. I’ll help you.”

Sara felt Sasha’s mind join hers and again she
tried.

“Flamma.” A spark! This time Sasha didn’t help.
“Flamma!” A flicker of silver flame popped in her hand and then
went out. Again and again she tried until a small silver fire
burned in her hand. She was a Venefica, a real Venefica. Never had
she dreamed of being one. Sasha looked relieved and dismayed all at
once.

They heard Keither’s voice through the trees. “Hey, I
think he’s waking up.” They rushed back to the camp.

* * * * *

Legon lay with his eyes closed. His head was pounding
and he felt something digging into his back. Had he fallen off the
horse? He decided to find out and opened his eyes. At first there
was just a blur of color and he blinked to bring the world back
into focus. Sasha, Sara, Keither, and Arkin were all huddled over
him looking terrified, sad, and happy. He noticed how big the pores
on Arkin’s nose were. What an odd thing to notice. His head was
swimming. He knew he’d been on a horse but wasn’t sure about the
rest. He did remember a horrible dream though. Kovos had been
killed by an Iumenta and then he had turned into an Elf.

“
I wonder what Arkin will read into that,”
he
thought. But at the same time, where was Kovos? Sasha’s lips were
moving. She was so close he could see little specks of brown and
hazel in her eyes. He knew everyone had little flecks of color in
their eyes, but you needed to be really close to see them. She
needed to back off. The sound coming from her lips was just
murmuring. He tried to read them. He thought she was asking if he
could hear her. Arkin’s lips moved, saying something to the effect
of “His brain is coming back up one piece at a time. Give it a
moment.” What did he mean his brain was coming back up?

What was that smell? It was Sara. She smelled like
blood, sweat, and dirt, but there was a hint of something sweet,
too. What was it? He smelled the others too; maybe this was a
dream. You can’t smell people like that, can you? Then, finally,
sound clicked back in— a lot of sound. Not only could he hear those
around him, but also birds, flies, and a bunch of little things he
was sure were in the ground.

“Are you back? Can you hear me?” Sasha asked, placing
her hand on him. He could feel her pulse through her hand even with
his shirt on. It wasn’t a dream. He was an Elf. He sat bolt
upright.