Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (48 page)

Sara was a medic, and most of those were busy at the
moment, but she only knew how to fix things with magic and even
then only minor wounds. She would learn more over time, but for
this battle she was going to be most useful at the end when men
returned with scratches and other small injuries.

He reconnected with the rest of command. The problem
was dragons. They were evenly set, but with the somewhat tight air
space they were being forced to fight in, only about half could
engage at any given time while the others circled over their
sections of the army, strengthening wards. It was rare for dragons
to die in battle, but often they would get hurt and have to
retreat. This wasn’t a problem in this fight; all they had to do
was get close to being truly hurt and then fly back away from the
fight and rest.

Sara interrupted him. “The lights from the magic are
something else, aren’t they?”

He nodded his agreement.

* * * * *

Sara knew she shouldn’t be bothering Keither, but she
needed to get her mind off the battle. It was so gruesome and Sasha
would have been no help since she was too busy helping Legon. The
Elves’ chief medical officer was next to her and she was feeling a
little uncomfortable. She couldn’t remember his name but he had
remembered hers, of course.

He spoke to her. “Are you ok? You look a little
nauseated.”

“Oh, I’m fine, thank you. It’s just the flashing
light from the fight, and the blood, and the flying colored things
in the air. Ok, well, I guess everything.”

He nodded grimly. “It has the ability to turn one’s
stomach. The light especially. They can make epileptics have
seizures just by looking at them.”

“They can? That’s horrible.” She was trying to
remember what that was. She knew it was important. She vaguely
remembered learning about it not too long ago.

She pushed it from her mind and stood for another few
minutes before the thought buzzed back in her head. She decided to
go and access Sasha’s mind to see if she remembered. The girl was a
store of information. When she connected with her Sasha was still
in a Mahann state, but not like she should be. There was something
else that was going on, and Sara noticed that she was having issues
with her connection to Legon. Sasha’s body had a slight tremble to
it and she kept closing her eyes and trying to steady herself…

“You said the light can cause seizures?” Sara
asked.

“Yes, why? You’re not epileptic, right?. The only one
I can think of here who-”

He broke off and they both bolted down to where Sasha
was supposed to be stationed. He outstripped her with ease, moving
faster than a horse, but she made it to Sasha faster than she
thought possible.

Sasha was on her knees, violent tremors jolting her
body, but she was awake.

“How is she awake?” Sara asked.

“It’s the store. Its energy must be keeping her here,
that’s the only way.” the medic said.

Sasha broke in. “Please take it off me. I can’t
connect to Legon. Please…”

“But what if you have an episode by taking it off?”
Sara responded.

Sasha’s eyes blanked out for a moment and Iselin’s
voice rang in their heads.

“Take the store off of her now! Legon is out of
energy and is getting cut to ribbons by another Venefica. Do it
now!”

Sara didn’t need that voice twice. She wrenched the
store off Sasha and threw it on herself noticing as she did that
Sasha was now slipping into a full seizure. She found Legon’s mind
with ease. He was panicked about Sasha and his men. She needed to
connect fully with him. For Sasha she could just partially connect
and send the energy needed, but Sara wasn’t advanced enough and had
to force to connect all the way. As she did, she felt burning
strips of pain along her left arm. She gasped and clutched it as
the pain grew. His bicep was almost cut in half. It must have been
a cutting spell that did it. She accessed the store and started
dumping copious amounts of energy across their connection. This too
hurt. She couldn’t handle it, but she poured more and more, feeling
her body shudder under the pain.

She felt a cold hand against her skin, and then
Sasha’s mind joined hers. She was still weak, but determined. She
altered their connection with Legon and the pain vanished in an
instant. Sasha forced the connection with Sara and then accessed
the store and directed Legon’s healing wards, targeting the bicep
and healing it in a moment. Moreover, Sara felt seething anger
emanating from Sasha at her lapse in composure. Sara had never
really thought about how Sasha felt about her episodes, but anger
made sense; anger she understood.

* * * * *

Legon felt Sasha’s mind firmly reconnect with his and
with it came an instantaneous stream of energy from the store. His
arm knitted together instantly; the Iumenta looked worried, as he
should be. Legon shot forward, swinging with the fenrra, changing
his style every few blows. Soon the Iumenta was receiving small
injuries, unable to use magic effectively under the constant
assault. Legon saw fear in his yellow eyes, saw the Iumenta tasting
mortality for the first time in his pitiful existence, saw the pain
that it caused. He did not enjoy cruelty, so he decided to put this
poor animal out of its misery.

He feinted to his left, and in his fear and fatigue
the Iumenta took the bait. Legon crouched and brought the sword up,
hitting the Iumenta square in the leg. Most of the Iumenta’s weight
was on that leg and he crashed down, clutching at the gushing
stump. He was screaming in pain. Legon walked to stand over him.
The terrified eyes locked on him and the scarlet fenrra he held in
his hand. The Iumenta seemed begging for life in Elfish. Legon
wasn’t sure; he didn’t know much of the language yet, but the look
on the Iumenta’s face was unmistakable. The man wanted something
from him. That was obvious. Legon pulled the blade back, ready to
thrust it into the thing lying on the ground, and the Iumenta
closed his eyes serenely.

Legon stopped. This man wanted to die. He wanted the
pain to stop. He didn’t want the humiliation of having to go home
disfigured, and most of all he didn’t want the shame of being
spared by an Elf. Legon was going to kill him anyway. It was fine
that he wanted it, really, but then he remembered the co-op and
Sara and the boy that Barnin had told him about.

“Tell the queen hi for me,” Legon said coldly.
“Curatias Crurim!” he barked, holding out his palm.

A bolt of lavender shot from his hand to the
Iumenta’s stump, stopping the bleeding and cauterizing the wound.
Then he kicked him in the head, knocking him out, and gave the
order to leave him for his own medics.

Two massive thuds shook him as something hit the
ground. He turned to see Iselin fighting the gray dragon. She was
covered in cuts and bite marks. It only took him a second to
realize that the gray dragon was far more powerful than Iselin. She
was going to lose. He left his guard, sprinting toward the two
dragons thrashing on the ground. Iselin’s front leg was torn up bad
and so was her shoulder. She was bleeding a lot, even for a dragon.
To his horror, two Iumenta appeared behind her. One jumped onto
Iselin’s back. The Iumenta steadied itself, aiming his fenrra at an
open place in her armor. Legon wasn’t going to make it.

He reached deep into the store, sending magic to his
legs and shooting himself forward. He jumped, bringing the fenrra
up above his head. The Iumenta turned and faced Legon, the look of
triumph melting off his face as the fenrra made contact with his
lower hip. The blade slid through him like butter, cutting his
abdomen and ribcage and catching just a bit as it went through his
shoulder blade. Legon landed on the other side of Iselin, winded
from the loss of energy. She had no idea he was there. The other
Iumenta was coming down at him, blade raised. He couldn’t stop
it.

A flash of yellow struck the Iumenta, and Legon
rolled to see Feena on top of him, slashing wildly with his claws,
ripping off armor and flesh. He sunk his dagger-like teeth in the
left side of the Iumenta’s ribcage and thrashed him around like a
dog playing with a rag doll. There were muffled screams and a
ripping sound as his ribs and shoulder pulled away from the rest of
him. Then he stopped screaming and his body separated, one large
chunk in Feena’s jaws, the other flung limply to the ground.

Legon heard the rocks under Iselin crunching and he
leapt just in time to avoid getting crushed. She fell on her side,
the gray dragon tearing viciously at her. Logic and reason told him
to run, that she was lost, but he couldn’t leave her. Despite his
constant dismissal of Sasha trying to set them up, he did feel
something for her. It was probably a crush—nothing worth dying
over. The fight would be done soon and the dragon might turn its
attention to him, and then not even Feena could save him. He
thought of what Sydin said about making it count. He would. Iselin
would be angry with him putting himself in this situation, but he
would make it count.

He knelt down, as did Feena, taking his lead. It was
like the dragon was a deer and he a mountain lion. He moved, not
wanting to attract its attention. Feena suddenly leapt at the
dragon, who moved to bite at him. When the dragon moved he turned
his head to Legon’s right, exposing himself. As Legon jumped at the
gray dragon, he activated cutting spells and brought the blade down
over his head, aiming for where the head met the neck, but the
dragon was fast. It saw him and began to turn its head. The fenrra
hit the lower part of the dragon’s jaw, stopping just short of
going all the way through.

Legon hung from the bottom of the dragon’s mouth,
clutching the fenna tightly. He knew claws would be coming soon,
but without the fenna he was done for. He twisted his body and
kicked hard off the lower tip of the dragon’s mouth, using his body
to try and leverage the blade. There was a crack as the bone gave
way and the fenna came loose, sending him plummeting to the ground.
He hit hard and a congealed liquid splashed his face.

He heard the dragon roar in pain and the overwhelming
thud of its wings as it took off. He opened his eyes without
thinking. The sky was crimson. He wiped the dragon’s marrow away,
returning the sky to gray. The dragon was above him now and he saw
gray light from the broken jaw. The dragon’s magic would heal it
soon, and his sword was spent. Iselin jumped into the air,
thrusting her wings down in a torrent of wind. She flew up and
clamped her teeth on the dragon’s throat at the base of its head
and neck. It gurgled a roar and she twisted her body in the air
like a corkscrew. There was a loud report as the dragon-sized
vertebrae broke, and the lifeless body started its descent. Iselin
pulled back, ripping a chunk of the Iumenta dragon’s throat out and
sent it sailing to Parkas’ command tent, followed by a river of
fire.

* * * * *

Sasha felt her jaw drop as she watched Iselin throw
the dragon flesh at the enemy. The next moment she clapped her
hands to her ears as all of the Elven dragons roared in
celebration, causing a deafening din to fill the air.

Everything sped up then. There was a gray flick in
the center of the Empire’s lines as the dragon’s spells failed. At
once, the resistance and Elven forces surged forward, all of the
Venefica dumping energy into the forward group. They split the
enemy line in a moment and the dragons all rushed forward, taking
the stunned Iumenta off guard. The Iumenta dragons tried to block
them, but it was too late. Rivers of fire rained down on the
Empire’s men, scorching them in an instant.

Sydin had said that the empire would retreat if they
lost the advantage, that they weren’t ready to truly try their
luck, and he was right. They sounded retreat. All of their dragons
pulled back and their men ran, their hopes crushed with the slain
dragon. Sasha heard over the mental network that Arkin was hurt,
but that he was stable. As the men continued forward to secure the
Sentinels, she felt Legon walking amongst the dead and wounded. She
ran down to him, almost knocking him over.

He smiled at her. “Hey.”

“You’re an idiot!” she said, feeling the tears fill
her eyes.

He smiled weakly and she heard a groan. She looked
down. There was a man at their feet, dying. He was mumbling
something about his wife and son. She didn’t know whose side he was
on and it didn’t matter. They had no strength left to heal him.
Legon knelt down and held the man’s head up off the stone.

“Who’s going to take care of them?” he was gasping.
“M- my boy is too young and it will break her heart. What if they
don’t-”

“They know that you love them,” Legon said in a
soothing voice.

She felt him in the man’s mind. He was bring forward
all of his happy memories, and with a gentle flick he forgot about
his cares. Grateful happy tears filled the man’s eyes.

“Tha- thank y- you,” he said.

After a minute he passed. Then she heard the waling
and the crying from the other wounded. Legon went to as many as he
could. He took their pain away. He made it so they didn’t have to
die alone, so that someone was there, comforting. Finally, he was
too weak to stand and she helped him across the field back to camp,
the whole way biting back bile from what the day had cost.

“
Our journeys never seem to end. That is what
makes life enjoyable, or at least that’s what I tell myself when
I’m camped out in a rain-soaked tent. If I thought of that more on
the sunny days, maybe I wouldn’t need to journey for
happiness.”

Legon’s feet were sore as he made it over the lip of
the dome. He had his arm around Sasha, supporting her and also not
wanting her to be too far away from him. After what he’d seen and
done he wasn’t going to let her out of his sight. As they entered
the dome Iselin flew overhead, just a little closer than was
strictly necessary. He knew he was in for it. Ankle nearly rolled
out of the way.