Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (44 page)

“We need to go over this message. It’s from Parkas.
My guess is he’s telling you that he is going to invade.”

An Elf with black specks in his eyes that he knew to
be called Sydin spoke. “We will go inside to discuss this. Barnin,
thank you for your diligence. If you would follow us, please.”

Barnin followed them into the dome, not talking much.
They went into a small room with a table and five other Elves
already waiting. He, Sara, and Keither were told to wait outside.
Sydin took the message and Legon and Sasha followed him inside.

“Why can’t we go in?” Keither asked as soon as the
door was closed.

“Because that was a message for the Elves, not us,”
Barnin said.

“But Legon and Sasha…” Keither started.

Barnin cut him off. “Legon and Sasha are heads of a
great house. They are nobility, regardless of how we know
them.”

* * * * *

Legon entered the room close behind Sydin and Iselin.
There were five other Elves there that he had met already. They
nodded to him and Sasha. Sydin opened the message and read it
aloud.

“
Greetings to the great and Noble Pawdin Empire.
We write you this epistle to inform you that we will be invading
the renegade province of the Cornis Mountains. Our forces will not
be attacking any members of the Pawdin Empire. We apologize for any
casualties that we may unintentionally inflict upon you. We ask
that in order to avoid this undesirable outcome you evacuate your
forces to within the Pawdin Empire’s borders. If you choose to
uphold your alliance with the human faction in this section of the
land, your people will be treated as hostile.”

“So what was that for? They’re letting us know that
they’re going to attack?” Sasha asked. Legon shared her confusion.
Why would you tell your enemy that you were coming?

Iselin responded. “There are a lot of formalities
between our two countries. But also, in this way the Iumenta can
say that they warned us to leave, and therefore our government
can’t get angry when they kill us.”

Sydin placed the message on the table. “They have six
human legions along the border. We are outnumbered. Defeat is
inevitable unless we are able to match their strength. Let us
connect.” Legon knew that Elves and Iumenta ran their governments
through mental networking, but it was still an odd feeling to join
the minds of those that were thousands of years old.

After examining the situation, it appeared that
virtually every angle was blocked to them, except one possible
route. Normally, the commanding officer would return the message,
saying that the Elves were going to uphold their alliance with the
humans. But if Legon stated that he and House Evindass were in full
support of humanity, then…

He broke the connection. “I don’t get it. I am more
than willing to tell the Iumenta that I plan to fight them, but how
will that affect this fight?”

Sydin spoke. “Because you are the head of a great
house and you are coming out in opposition to Hoelaria and her
control of the Cona Empire for the first time, if they hit with
their full forces and you die, then the rest of the great houses
may declare open war with the Cona Empire and the Iumenta
country—the Impa Empire.”

“But isn’t that what all of us want?” Sasha
asked.

“They want it, but on their terms. If they send in a
small force then the great houses won’t be as apt to go to war,”
Sydin stated.

Legon thought about it and decided it was worth a
shot. They prepared a reply and at the end he signed it, adding
that the House Evindass supported humanity. They gave it to
Barnin.

“What do you think will happen?” Legon asked
Iselin.

she smiled. “I suspect that they will not attack us
with their full army, but I don’t know.”

Legon smiled in return. “So I guess we get to
wait.”

She placed her hand on his shoulder and smiled
again.

* * * * *

Barnin rode toward the Iumenta envoy. He glanced up
at the gray sky. It was rainy this time of year, leaving the sky in
a state of perpetual gray. Oftentimes it would rain or drizzle all
day, but today was just cloudy. That meant that there could be
someone of importance waiting for him. He squinted, looking into
the distance at six figures on horseback.

“
Iumenta,”
he thought. He was thankful that
even the Iumenta adhered to the “don’t–kill-the-messenger” code of
conduct, but he still didn’t want to talk to them. He didn’t see
the army. They would be kept far back from the border so as to not
interfere with negotiations. That wouldn’t stop them from
slaughtering innocents with small bands of soldiers, though.
“But hey, who’s counting?”
he thought.

A chill ran down his spine as he reached the Iumenta.
The one with long silver hair was Parkas, Hoelaria’s chief warlord.
Not a good sign. Next to him was a man with black hair. His clothes
had Hoelaria’s crest on it. Barnin wasn’t positive, but he was
pretty sure that this was her Senashow—also bad. He raised his
mental shields; you never knew what they might do.

He was the most nervous about the Senashow. A boy and
his brother, former servants of the queen, had joined the
resistance not too long ago. The boy had delivered the queen’s
dinner late, and the Senashow was there at the time. The boy had
dropped the plate and was missing a tooth as a result. After that
the Senashow had blinded his brother as punishment. The boy had
been there when he did it, with the Senashow laughing the whole
time and calling them apes.

“
Focus Barnin,” he thought.

“I come bearing a message from the Pawdin Empire,”
Barnin said.

“They send a dog to deliver the message?” the
Senashow said coldly. Legon had given him permission to speak his
mind. Indeed, the Iumenta would make a lot of assumptions about
Legon from this encounter. He needed to be rude. They needed to
think House Evindass unstable and reckless. He was good at being
rude, but he didn’t care to get killed. Still, you don’t kill the
messenger, right?

“Did you think of that all on your own? Here is the
message. Should I read it for you, or do you think you can handle
it?” Barnin taunted.

Iumenta didn’t flush, but if they did he was sure
they would have now. “What did you say to me you worthless little
ape?” the Senashow asked.

“I thought I was a dog? Ok, I’ll read it to you. It’s
ok.” He unrolled a scroll that had the message. He didn’t want to
look at them anymore. He could feel the Senashow’s anger.

Parkas spoke. “Do not get angry, old friend. He is a
messenger, and one that is terrified. No doubt he was told to be
rude. Give me the message, I can read it.”

He got off Poison and walked to Parkas, handing him
the message. He tried not to walk back to his horse too quickly.
When he got back on he saw Parkas looking concerned.

“House Evindass has no head.”

“Yes, it does. His name is Legon,” Barnin said with
pride.

“There is no heir to Evindass. He was killed in
Salmont,” the Senashow responded.

“No, he wasn’t. And he wasn’t killed by any of your
men over the last few months either. Now which one of you was
that?” he said, looking the two over and pointing a finger.

Parkas glared at the Senashow. Barnin pointed at him.
Now was the time to deliver his real message.

“It was you? Tsk, that won’t go over well. Could have
taken out the Everser Vald before he was an Elf. That’s rough. Oh
well, do you have a response?”

The Senashow started to talk but Parkas held up a
hand. He could tell that Parkas was now just as mad as the
Senashow, but not at Barnin.

“We will continue our campaign. Tell Legon that I
look forward to discussing his surrender in the gardens of Manton,
if he lives that long,” Parkas said.

With that they turned and rode off. It had worked. He
knew it. Parkas would not send his full force without finding out
more about Legon. He relaxed and started back to the Precipice. He
had just insulted two of the most powerful people in Airmelia. He
didn’t drink, but he might start tonight.

“
There are two halves to every coin, and
together they make one whole that is capable of doing something. If
you were to find a way to separate that coin, to take the two
halves and set them on their own, you would destroy the worth of
both. It is this that I need, but it is also what I fear.”

Sasha followed Legon and Iselin into a room deep
inside the dome that was called the preparation room. Along its
walls was an assortment of weapons. There were several doorways
leading from this room into practice areas, including an indoor
archery range.

“Legon, now that you are an Elf, you need a new bow.
Your old combat one will not do,” Iselin said.

She handed him a bow that appeared to be plain oak
with a simple clear coat. No intricate leaf work ran along its
length. It was a simple and uncomplicated design; indeed, it was
its simplicity that made it a beautiful weapon. It oozed a refined
power. Legon balanced it lightly in his hand.

They walked into the adjoining archery range. The
room was a hall that didn’t seem to end, with targets placed at
different distances. Each archer stood at a marker indicating the
range he or she was shooting at. Sasha saw Elves firing rounds at
speeds she never before thought possible. She didn’t even see the
arrows fly down the range. In one instant an Elf was drawing the
bow and in the next the arrow was somewhere far down range,
sticking out of a target.

Legon was standing in front of a sign that read “One
hundred yards.” he knocked an arrow and drew back, then hesitated
and spoke.

“Iselin, is this the right bow? I can shoot a 200
pounder, I promise.”

She chuckled. “I would hope so. Remember, you’re
stronger now and I’ve been doing research on humans that translates
into Elves.”

“What have you found out?” Sasha asked. She was
curious; there were only a few documented cases in history of
humans becoming Elves.

“Well there’s not a lot, but one thing that I have
figured out is that your translation continues for a few weeks,”
Iselin said.

“What do you mean?” Legon asked, dropping the bow to
his side.

“Well, when you first changed, Keither said he picked
you up and you were around 110 pounds, which is average for Elves.
We just don’t need the muscle mass humans do.”

“Ok…”

“But here’s the thing: you are much, much larger than
most, if not all, Elves,” Iselin went on.

“I don’t know. I seem to be pretty average,” Legon
said.

“Your height is average, but not your muscle mass.
you see, the only documented people who have changed said that they
kept all their muscle mass but they weighed less. This doesn’t make
any sense.”

Sasha thought she knew where this was going.

“These people reported that they continued to gain
weight after they changed until they were closer to their old
weight,” Iselin explained.

“But Arkin said that you Elves were made of different
stuff than humans,” Sasha remarked.

“We are, and it is more lightweight, but Legon was
very large before and it’s safe to assume that his weight will go
up to 160 or 170 before long, and his strength should follow close
behind.”

“160 isn’t that heavy for me,” Legon said.

“But it is for an Elf. you will be able to overpower
any Elves and Iumenta you fight. They may be faster, but you will
always be stronger, which is a big help in magic.”

“How big?” Legon asked.

“Big enough that you may never test your strength
enough to ascend,” Iselin said.

Legon shook his head. “Ok, I don’t want to think
about this now. Can I get a real bow please?”

Sasha started when she heard Sydin start to talk. She
hadn’t even noticed him enter the room. He sounded amused. “Legon,
she’s saying you’re stronger now. That bow is close to seven
hundred pounds. It just doesn’t feel that way. you don’t know your
strength yet.”

“It’s what?” Legon said

“Here, give it to Sasha. If it’s a hunting bow then
she will be able to fire it without issue,” Sydin said.

Legon gave her the bow. If Legon said it was a
hunting bow then that’s what it was. It was light. There was no way
it was 700 pounds. She knocked an arrow and tried to pull back. The
string didn’t move. She pulled harder. Nothing. It
was
700
pounds. She felt her jaw drop.

“So, Sasha?” Iselin asked, smiling.

Sasha handed Legon the bow. “It’s 700 pounds.”

Sydin spoke to Legon. “Come, Un Prosa. I wish to test
you myself. Iselin, if you will, Sasha.”

“Of course. Sasha, come with me; we will need to
change before we begin,” Iselin said, gesturing her to follow.

Sasha felt trepidation at this but followed Iselin
anyway. They changed into pants and regular shoes. Iselin took her
to a large room which she had requested be stocked with weapons.
Iselin asked Sasha if she remembered to bring her Faloon.

“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t know I needed it,” Sasha
said.

“That’s fine, we have others.” Iselin walked to a
bench and picked up two swords, handing one to Sasha.

“Ise, there’s no way I can beat you. I’m terrible at
this.” Sasha felt embarrassed. She saw Iselin as a friend and she
didn’t want to look like a fool in front of her. She saw how fast
Legon was, and even with magic she was no match.

Iselin spoke gently. “Sash, I’m not trying to
embarrass you. This is just to see where you are at. Don’t try and
use magic; it won’t help you.”

* * * * *

Iselin took in Sasha’s stance, studying her and
feeling bad. This one was so kind and gentle; the last few months
must have been horrible for her.