Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (5 page)

Legon’s face contorted and rage filled his body,
tearing through him like a wild animal. All rational thought left
his mind, replaced with an overwhelming bloodlust. The arm that was
holding the cleaver jerked up of its own accord. Edis seized
Legon’s arm hard, all the man’s strength holding him back. With his
other hand Edis threw the packages at Moleth, who stepped back with
the sudden weight of the packages, and barked “Get out!”

Moleth looked perplexed and angry. Her voice was
rough and irritated as she spoke.

“What, what’s the matter with you?” She was oblivious
to how rude and dangerous her comments had been.

“I think it’s time you leave, Moleth. Legon and I
have a lot of work to do.” This time Edis’s voice was calm and
controlled, but he still had a look of murder on his face. Moleth
looked at them both reproachfully and left the shop muttering about
rude people under her breath.

After that the morning went by quickly. Legon was
still fuming, and the hard work was good for him. For once in his
life he was happy about the prospect of a long and difficult day.
He and Edis brought in a cow carcass and hung it from the ceiling.
He felt the rage in his heart dissipate as he heaved the cow. Work
had a way of clearing his mind. He looked back on the morning and
felt a twinge of shame. If Sasha had known that he was planning on
hurting, if not killing, Moleth, she would have been very
disappointed with him.

Sasha knew what people said about her, and Legon knew
that it hurt and bothered her, but that didn’t mean that she would
be ok with him attacking a woman in cold blood. Sasha was a kind
person and couldn’t stomach violence or cruelty in any form. She
had always been a compass for him; she made him a good person.
Sasha was sweet and innocent, kind to everyone, and would do
anything to help. It tore at him watching her do kind things for
people in town who, as soon as her back was turned, said things
like, “Don’t think that will buy you any grace with me freak.”

“
How could people think so poorly of someone so
good?”
he thought. Legon turned his attention back to the
bloody carcass in front of him. He now understood his father’s
approach to Moleth—it was better not to acknowledge her rather than
do something rash.

“Thanks dad, I’ll split it and then I’ll need your
help again to put one half in the ice box until I’m ready for
it.”

“Sounds good. I’m going to get started on that deer
that we got the other day.”

Legon smiled at Edis and said with a playful taunting
voice, “The deer
we
got?”

Edis looked confused for a moment and then said
sarcastically, “Oh, forgive my mistake, o mighty hunter, the deer
you
got.” As he said this he gave Legon a slight bow.

“Very good, peasant, you may go back to your work
now.” Legon tried to make his voice sound pompous and
important.

Edis laughed and shook his head. “You should respect
your elders.”

Before Legon could retort, Edis walked to the ice box
to get the deer. Legon walked back to the wall and grabbed a large
cleaver. This one boasted a three foot handle and a blade that was
about a foot and half long and six inches wide. They used this one
for splitting carcasses. He walked to the cow hanging from the
ceiling, raised the cleaver high above his head, and brought it
down on the center of the cow’s back. His aim was perfect; the
cleaver cut right against the vertebrae about two feet down the
back. Legon pulled the cleaver out and repeated the cut, and within
a few minutes the cow was split in two. Legon and Edis took one
half to the ice box and then placed the other half on a counter in
the back of the shop. He spent the rest of the morning cutting up
the piece of meat.

They didn’t break for lunch until two. When Legon
walked into the house he saw Sasha sitting in the kitchen looking
put-out and talking to their Mother.

“Mom, I’m okay now. Everything is fine. Let me help
you,” she said.

“No no, dear, I can do it myself. I have been making
meals without your assistance for some time now and I can do it
today. Besides, you need to rest,” protested Laura, waving her arms
and hands in a dismissive manner.

“Hey Sash, how do you feel?” Legon asked sitting next
to her at the table.

“I’m feeling fine. I can help mom, but you know how
she is,” she said, shooting a look at her mother and folding her
arms.

He chuckled. Laura placed a plate of food in front of
him. She’d made chicken and some flatbread for lunch. He began to
eat his food with delight. He was very hungry from the day’s work,
and they ate fast since they didn’t have much time.

“Ey ash ii,” he began with food in his mouth.

“Swallow,” Sasha said flatly, shaking her head and
rolling her eyes. “
Boys they can be such animals,”
she
thought.

Legon swallowed and began, “Sorry Sash, but if you’re
feeling a bit useless you can always get me some water. You know,
if it will make you feel better.”

“Put the food back in your mouth. I liked it better
that way,” she said, giving him a stern look, but she got up and
brought him some water. Legon nodded in thanks.

“Are you going to go over to Kovos’ today?” she
asked.

He began to talk with food in his mouth again but he
realized what he was doing, swallowed, and began again. “Sorry, no.
We have too much to do. You know how it is— either we are bored to
tears or there’s not enough time in the day.”

“I’m sorry I made you late this morning.” She sounded
mournful.

“Don’t ever say that, it’s not your fault.” He was
serious. He hated her thinking that things like this were her
doing.

“It’s not you, its dad, because he’s such a slave
driver!” Legon said in an elevated voice to Edis.

Edis gave him a wicked grin. “Ha! Wait until this
afternoon!”

“I love you too, dad.” At this, Edis nodded his head
and took another bite.

It was a hard afternoon, but it wasn’t the work that
weighed on Legon. The work was nothing to him; he was in good shape
and his dad had been training him to be a butcher from the time he
could hold a knife. In fact, Legon would be setting off in a few
months to start his own shop. He was turning eighteen this year,
which meant that he would be a man. His family would keep him
around for a while since he was a help to them in the shop, but the
problem was taxes.

In The Cona Empire, the queen had decreed that all
should be taxed fairly. This meant that families who pooled their
resources together were treated as though they were trying to put
themselves above their fellow men, or at least this was the queen’s
public stance on the matter. Therefore, a house consisted of two
adults and however many underage children they had. If a child grew
to be eighteen and still lived at home, you had to pay considerably
more on your taxes, and if you could not pay that amount, the
member of the family that was the cause of the increase went into
the queen’s care. The queen’s care was slavery; people could rent
you for a price from the empire, or you were sold to Iumenta for
their own uses. This exact thing happened just a few months ago to
Sasha’s friend when her family couldn’t afford her. When it was
time to pay the annual taxes, the queen’s tax collectors took her
into the queen’s care and she had not been seen since.

The problem now was not Legon; he made the family a
good sum of money and his mother, who was the town healer, did
decently enough. The problem was that Sasha was overage already and
the family would have to pay a lot for her again this year. Because
the townspeople didn’t care for her, she had a hard time making any
money, and her condition prevented her from becoming a certified
healer. This coming January when the collectors came, the family
would now have to pay for both Sasha and Legon, and they could not
do it. In fact, Legon was going to be forced to leave solely due to
the fact that the town was not big enough for two butchers. The
family’s best hope was for Legon to make as much as he could and
bring it to his family to continue paying the taxes for Sasha, but
he couldn’t see how it could be done. “
I will not allow them to
take her
,” he said to himself. He could feel his face flush
with anger as he thought of Moleth’s comment that morning.

Something of his thoughts must have shown on his
face, because Edis said, “Son, we’ll find a way. We won’t let her
go.”

“I hope so.”

As if in answer to their conversation, the door
tinkled again. Legon turned to look at the newcomers and he felt
his heart drop just a bit. Because of the type of work their family
did, they were subject to quarterly tax appraisals and inspections.
These were, in short, a chance for the government to come in and
make sure Edis and Laura were fulfilling their requirements as a
healer and a butcher. The inspections and appraisals weren’t
pleasant, but not that bad either.

The two men stood side by side, and Legon could tell
who was who right away. The one on the right had greasy hair and a
bent nose that looked to have been broken on several occasions.
This man was the collector; it was his job to secure payment. His
deep blue robes were slightly disheveled, showing the slightly
physical part of his job. The other man’s robes looked brand new.
He was shorter than the first and had a round face. It looked like
he took the time to part each hair on its own every morning. This
man was the appraiser. The collector spoke first. His voice also
sounded greasy and unclean.

“Edis I take it? We are here for your quarterly
appraisal.”

Edis spoke. “Oh, I wasn’t expecting you for a
week or so…”

The appraiser cut across him calmly. “Sorry, do
forgive us, we are running a bit ahead of schedule. If you are not
ready for us we could come by tomorrow.” There could not be more of
a difference in the two men, as Legon knew. He liked the appraisers
for the most part; they had the personality of bricks, but they
were a lot more polite.

The collector looked scandalized. “I have things to
do, Harper. This is only a quarterly, anyhow. Do you really need to
look at their books and all that stuff?”

Harper looked irritated. “Fine, but we have more to
cover this time than normal.” He pulled a piece of parchment from a
shoulder bag. “This says here that you have a son coming of age
this year?”

“Yes, my boy Legon here,” he said as he patted
Legon’s arm.

Harper went on. “Very well. We have a bit of
paperwork then. May we sit down somewhere?”

Edis took them into the house and with the rest of
the family sat at the table. Laura looked flustered at the
unexpected visit.

“I have records of treatments, if you would like. It
shouldn’t take me long to get them.”

The collector, who still hadn’t introduced himself,
spoke. “Won’t be necessary. Harper here has agreed to the short
version.”

Harper took out a large stack of paper. “In years
past there has been no denying your ability to pay for your
daughter…,” he paused, looking at the sheets, “…Sasha. This year it
is unlikely that you will be able to pay for her and your son, so I
have some paperwork to do with her.”

A very unnatural silence filled the room and the
appraiser looked up at Sasha. “May I ask you a few questions?”

“What for?” she asked

“Because you are going into the queen’s care girl,
that’s why,” said the collector, taking Sasha in with hungry
eyes.

“But I … I thought we had until….”

Harper interrupted. “You are not going now, and your
family may have enough for you this year. This paperwork is just a
precaution so that when you go into the care, or I should say if
you do, it saves time.”

Without another word Harper started in on the
paperwork, asking Sasha everything from how tall she was to what
she could do. During the entire interview Laura and Edis sat in
stunned silence. Finally the interview was done.

“Thank you, miss.”

“So what does this mean?” Sasha asked.

The collector spoke. “What do you mean? You say here
that you have been turned down for an apprentice healer’s license
because of your affliction, and being a good cook isn’t much of a
skill now is it? You will most likely go into a service field.”

“Service?” asked Edis for the first time.

“Maid, cook, farmhand, escort, things of that
nature,” said the collector coldly.

Sasha blanched at the last one on the list. Edis’s
face glowed with sweat.

“Well, we have taken up a lot of your time today.
Thank you for the help, and we will see you in January,” Harper
spoke, and he got up.

The collector followed him but turned back to face
Sasha at the door. “Dear, I would not think to leave if I were you.
We will find you if you try, and I can promise you, you will not
like that. I will be the one to collect in January, and I look
forward…” he paused as his eyes looked Sasha over again, “…look
forward to getting better acquainted at that time.” The door
clicked shut.

There wasn’t much talking after that, and Sasha went
up to her room. Legon followed, wanting to see if she was ok. He
poked his head in the doorway. Sasha was sitting on the bed with
her arms around her knees, a solemn look on her face. Legon knew
that she hated not doing anything all day and that she felt like
she was a burden on the family, and today’s visit must have only
confirmed those feelings. He walked into the room and sat at the
foot on her bed.

“How was your day?” he asked as he leaned back on the
wall. He knew that neither of them would want to talk about the
appraisal, but he didn’t want her to be alone.

“It was fine. I just watched mom all day. She
wouldn’t let me do anything. I know she means well, but it’s still
annoying.”

“Yeah, I can see that. Hey, I’m going to pick up that
cleaver from Kovos tomorrow. Do you want to come?” He hoped she
would say yes. It would be good for her to get out of the
house.