Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (38 page)

As the gap between the two racing groups closed,
Legon sent Keither a message to lead the group. All he had to do
was keep them going in their current direction. Off in the
distance, the peaks of the Cornis mountains were coming into view,
their best hope for safety. The gap between the forces was closing
rapidly and soon their pursuers would be in range. Legon faded
back, placing himself at the rear of the group. Undoubtedly they
knew more magic than him, but he was stronger and he had the
assistance of Arkin, Sasha, and Sara, so not all was lost—just
mostly lost.

Arkin had instructed them in the basics of magical
combat, so it was no surprise when Legon saw a bolt of blue fly
from the horsemen. It was a large ball of energy. It hit a wall of
purple about five feet away from him with a deafening crack. This
spell was not attacking them directly; it was designed to hit wards
and weaken them.

Legon felt a small tug on his energy at this, and
countered with a spell of his own. He only knew of a few breaking
spells, as they were called, but he sent one their way. It smacked
into a wall of yellow, causing a crack like thunder to rent the
air, and at once a flash of orange came at him, this time hitting
him directly. He felt his fire ward activate, stopping the flame
curse. He knew what they were doing now. The Venefica with the
yellow magic was protecting the group as a whole. There would be
wards by the others as well, but this person would take the brunt
of the attack, then the blue would try and take out their shield
and the orange would take shots at holes in their armor. As if to
enforce this point he saw another bolt of blue collide with his
wards, and this time he felt the mind and energy behind it. The
first had been a test. Now the Venefica was attempting to break the
wards. He pushed with magic and his mind, reinforcing the shield.
Legon felt it begin to buckle and he poured more into it, but he
couldn’t hold them too long. He wasn’t good with wards yet and,
powerful or not, it didn’t matter.

He sent commands to Sasha and Sara, telling them to
attack only when he ordered. He wasn’t about to have them waste
what little energy they had. He sent another breaking spell their
way, and this time when it made contact he held it, changing it,
working it around as if he were trying to extract a splinter. He
felt a hole open in their shield and sent the command to Sara and
Sasha.

They sent simple spells at the enemy. Red and silver
bolts shot by, hitting their intended targets, one hitting blue,
the other orange. He told them to focus on the blue, and again he
hit the yellow ward and again they sent spells at one of the men
covered by the blue Venefica. The man looked terrified, and as the
two spells hit, the ward around him failed and his head wrenched
back, breaking his neck.

There was now magic flying back and forth between the
groups at an incredible speed, but they were winning, Legon was too
strong, and even when the blue Venefica broke his initial wards the
orange spells were stopped by Arkin’s and his others.

“Help is on the way,” Arkin said across the
network.

“Good, you take command.”

Arkin acknowledged this with commands. “Legon, attack
with everything you have. Don’t worry about their wards, simply
overpower them. Sasha, go for random people but don’t use much
power. Sara, use yours sparingly and only target those whose wards
flicker and fade. Legon, when I tell you, hit their lead horse’s
brain.”

Legon started to send spell after spell at them. With
every hit one or two men went down; his attacks were too strong for
the other Venefica to counter. He sent a fire spell at a rider in
the lead, causing the man’s head to burst into flames. The rider
immediately rolled on his horse, disrupting the others. Sasha took
advantage of the situation by sending a burst of pure light at
them; it wouldn’t hurt anyone but it continued to sow mayhem,
causing two more men to fall off their horses.

Then suddenly the message from Arkin came and he sent
his spell at the lead horse, ceasing its brain activity. The animal
dropped. The other horses running close behind tripped, sending
riders and horses all over the place and a gap began to open
between them.

That’s when he heard it. He looked up to the gray sky
and heard it again, a soft
thud
. No. Not another Dragon,
they couldn’t take the twenty or so men left and a Dragon. THUD. It
was overhead now, almost as if it were going to drop on them. THUD.
Or behind them?

In the distance a figure dropped from the clouds and
his heart skipped as the long body fell, a thin line in the sky
with its wings folded close to its body. He squinted ahead, trying
to ascertain the appearance of their foe. He knew that Dragons came
in every shade and color but he was having a hard time believing
his eyes. He felt Sasha’s confusion and then her question.

“Is that Dragon pink?”

It was a vivid shade of pink, but there was more to
it than that; its horns were white and its scales glittered in the
sun, but there was no direct light hitting it. The Dragon seemed to
be producing the light and he felt his heart leap again; it was an
Elf! The pink Dragon’s wings snapped open just before the ground
and it rushed at them. The men pursuing them scrambled to get out
of the way, but too late. It was on them all now.

Legon saw the flicker of pink indicating wards that
the other Venefica would not be able to break. He wondered what
type of magic it was going to use. He did feel a little
apprehension when he saw the huge mouth opening to revel white
teeth, then he closed his eyes right before a torrent of pink
flames erupted from the mouth.

The fire swept around them; any amusement or doubt
caused by the Dragon’s bright color disappeared at the sound of
screaming from behind, but he only felt a warm tickling sensation.
He opened his eyes, to see a world of total pink. He couldn’t see
anything in front of him; he was in the fire, but his wards were
not being tested. Why not? Then he remembered what Arkin had said
about magical fire: the brighter the color, the more magic is in
it. This Dragon was using pure magic, so the flame would burn only
what it wanted.

* * * * *

Keither looked frantically at the pink flame that
surrounded him, trying to figure how long it would be until he was
burned to death, but then it passed and he heard a great
whoosh
from above and looked up to see a giant pink Dragon.
He didn’t feel the regular fear he would with other Dragons. This
was in part due to the whoops and yells coming from the others, but
also when it passed overhead he saw white claws, not black. This
Dragon was producing light around itself as well. The Iumenta
dragons seemed to leach light out of the sky and their scales
refused to sparkle in the sun. This was not the case for this
Dragon; there was a slight glow around it and its scales twinkled
even with no direct light.

As it passed, the Dragon turned its head, and for the
second time in a few days Keither locked eyes with one of these
creatures. The Iumenta Dragon’s eyes were the same color as their
scales, with yellow instead of white surrounding the colored part
of the eye. With this Elven Dragon the eye was pink but the
sounding area was white as snow. It blinked at him… or was it a
wink? He felt a rush of air as the Dragon’s large, powerful wings
swept it away and off into the distance.

He chanced a look behind him to see the look of awe
on all but Arkin’s face, which had a wide smile on it. He waved to
him, which was an odd sort of thing to do, but he waved back. They
weren’t being pursued any more, or rather there weren’t people on
the horses behind them, who looked to be relevantly unharmed. There
were, however, blackened and charred corpses on the horses, burned
to the bone. He shuddered at the sight. It had been a display of
power when the Iumenta Dragon had burned a town in a breath, and
that display would stay with him forever. So would this one. They
had all been covered in fire, but only their pursuers had been
killed, not their animals, not those they pursued, and not even the
grass of the field. It was a targeted attack, executed with
terrifying surgical precision.

Ahead, the large rocky peaks of the Cornis Mountains
were fast approaching. They were incredibly intimidating mountains,
barren except for scrub brush and goats. Because the main road was
two days away, they were taking the hard way into the Precipice, a
narrow goat trail bordered by large cliffs and canyons. No force
would be able to go through it as it was a single track most of the
time. Keither hated heights, but he hated getting beat up and
attacked by the militia more, so the treacherous land it was.

* * * * *

Arkin rode, smiling at the land of his birth. He had
been raised in this area and was looking forward to seeing people
and places he knew again. There was a tug at his mind. She was
leaving, and he just saw her as a dot on the horizon. Why did they
send her?
“She probably asked for it,”
he thought. He was
happy it was her in a way, the same part of him that was happy
about not being dead or hurt by a misplaced spell, burning them to
ashes and not the enemy. He was going to get it when they arrived,
there was no doubt about it, and he could already hear the taunts
about having to bail him out of babysitting duty. She respected him
greatly, but even as kids she had given him a hard time. He smiled.
Legon would like her, and he thought that she would like him as
well.

He could feel Sasha in all their minds, checking pain
centers for injury. He smiled again. For sure she would like
Sasha.

“
History repeats itself, or so I’ve been told. One
could then ask the question, ‘If I have a perfect understanding of
the past, can I see what lies ahead?’ I would be inclined to say
yes, yet after all this time the future never fails to surprise
me.”

Sasha looked disquietedly at the looming mountains
before them. There was a reason the Cornis Mountains had held back
the Empire for years. They were known to be dangerous and easy to
get lost in. At their base was brown grass and sage dotted with
large rocks and yucca plants. The mountains rose steeply then,
forced upwards by millennia of pressure. The land looked tortured
as it gave way to the razor-like gray stone peaks. It would have
been fitting to see vultures and ravens in the air, but there were
none. There were, however, white figures dotting the side of the
mountains. She stretched her neck to get a better view. Legon
flashed the image from his eyes to her mind and she saw mountain
goats as if they were no more than fifty yards away. They spoke to
each other in their heads.

“That’s incredible,” she remarked.

“I know it is. Here, you can look around if you
want.”

She felt an odd sensation as her mind not only joined
his but took over much of the control of his body. Conversely, he
was controlling hers. She felt what he was doing in her body but it
was a separated feeling, almost like when you touch your arm after
it falls asleep. The feeling of remoteness soon dissipated as she
took in her surroundings through Legon’s eyes.

She could see the world in much more detail than she
normally could. She saw the peaks in a new light. They were gray
rock, yes, but they were also covered in lichen and there were
birds flying high above them. She heard the goats too, jumping from
rock to rock in the far distance. She was inundated with smells and
feelings as well. His mind spoke to hers.

“Look, if I concentrate on an area my eyes will zoom
closer to it, like a seeing glass.”

As he spoke he focused on the goats and her view
rushed forward until she was viewing them as if like they were no
more than a few feet away. Before, his field of vision had been
much like hers, albeit more clear and detailed. Now she understood
the true depth of his sight. He could focus on something and bring
it closer. Perhaps this was something that she could do as well.
She asked him to do it a few more times, paying close attention to
what he was doing. He was using his mind to magnify the image, so
in theory she could do the same.

She realized that she had done it before, as had all
of them. Whenever you worked on something small, you got tunnel
vision and the object took up your entire field of view. But could
she do it consciously? She tried returning to her body. She focused
on an area just ahead of them where the hill rose and the single
path began. She focused her mind on it like Legon did, but it was
natural for him. Her vision became a blur and he tried to help her.
He took control and after a moment her sight narrowed but was still
unfocused. He tried something closer and it worked.

“I wonder why it didn’t work as well in my head.”
Sasha said

Legon replied, “I don’t know. Let’s see if Arkin
knows anything about it.”

They broadened their connection to the rest of the
group and told them of their attempts.

“Wow, you can do that?” Keither said aloud.

“I knew Iumenta and Elves could see well, but this is
amazing,” Sara said after seeing the view from Legon’s eyes.

None of the rest of them could connect as deeply as
Legon and Sasha could to each other, so they were not able to take
control of his body, but they could still view the world through
him.

“Arkin, you have incredible aim with the bow. Do you
do anything?” Keither asked.

“Yes, I do, but I am using magic most of the time to
make my eyes better. However, I do know what you are talking about.
When you focus on something that’s close to you, your eyes are
already taking in all of the detail that you see through Legon’s
eyes. Your mind just discards stuff as it takes in the
information.”