“Where is Kovos’ body?” he asked, not having time to feel emotion.
“There isn’t time,” Arkin said.
There was time. They weren’t going to leave him here to be eaten or who knows what else.
“No. We are not leaving without him.”
“We have to Legon, there’s no choice,” Sara begged.
Sasha tugged at his mind, and he looked at her. Her face was spattered with blood. Kovos had saved all of them. He gave his life so they could all live and have a chance. Legon wasn’t about to waste that sacrifice. He turned with them and they started to ride.
* * * * *
It wasn’t more than a few moments before Sasha heard the sound of pursuing horses. Maybe they should have stayed and died in the clearing with Kovos. No, that was stupid, but she was still unsure about how they were going to get away. Even if they somehow managed to put distance between them and their followers, what then? They had too much land to cover. She felt Legon entering her mind, accessing the logic portions of it. What was he doing? There wasn’t enough information to properly use the Mahann, was there? She became aware of all of their minds, even Keither’s and the horses. She needed to have Legon check her out when and if they stopped. Her head was still buzzing. Then she felt it—the magic. Something she had felt before, but not like this, not even when she had been connected with Legon. She couldn’t feel the magic before but she did now. Legon widened the connection and she felt a mind that was Legon’s, but now alien and vast. The power of the magic was so strong. She felt a deep well of it in him, and then the spell that stuck her and the rest of the group to their saddles, locking them in place.
Now he was fidgeting in all their heads, tapping every mental resource they had. She felt logic and spatial reasoning centers being activated. The sensory organs of the horses were being boosted and glands in their brains being manipulated to dump huge amounts of endorphins and adrenalin into their bodies. They could now run themselves to death and not feel it with the chemicals coursing through their veins. Now the magic was reinforcing their hooves and bones, making them stronger and more resistant to heat. What was he doing? She felt compelled to look ahead; he was using her to figure out speed.
The horses were going close to thirty-five miles an hour. That was dangerous on this kind of road. Then she remembered that they were altered by magic. Now he was shutting down organs saving energy. Even her own body was changing. The muscles in her hands clinched around the reins. The wind was building as the shouts of the men behind them were growing fainter.
Then the burst of energy came. Massive amounts of magical and physical energy ripped out of Legon and into the horses. They were starting to accelerate, and she felt herself being pulled back but being held by the sticking spell. The wind was strong at forty miles an hour. More and more energy poured from him. Now fifty, then sixty. The trees were starting to blur as they hit seventy miles an hour. A town was fast coming up, the Queen’s banner flying at the edge. But at seventy-five miles an hour, the town flew by them, the guards never having time to figure out what was going on.
Now eighty, and the acceleration finally leveled off. The sound from the hooves was just one continuous noise. After a bit they slowed back down to sixty, but still they kept going. The horses were tiring fast and so was Legon, but still he put more and more into them. Finally she sensed him losing consciousness and worry crept into her mind. If Legon passed out then the spells helping the horses would fail and the animals would be left running at sixty miles an hour. They would fall for sure. They slowed gradually at first and soon they were close to what they could do on their own. As they slowed to fifteen miles an hour, Legon passed out and Sasha unstuck from her saddle. The horses were not completely spent, and she knew that there were still plenty of chemicals in their blood to keep them going for a few more hours.
“Arkin, should we keep going?” she asked, knowing the answer.
“Yes.” He didn’t say any more and she was no longer able to connect with his mind. This worried her too. Kovos’ death was sad. She knew that it would hit her soon and then she would lose it, but Arkin took their safety as a matter of personal responsibility.
They trotted along the road with no one talking. She glanced at Keither, who was looking at the back of Pixy’s head and not making a sound. He had been like his brother today, fighting the way he did. She was proud of him. As she thought this, her eyes began to burn and she tried to focus on logic. There would be time to mourn later.
* * * * *
Keither knew that he should be crying, but he wasn’t. He just didn’t have it in him. And Kovos wouldn’t have wanted it that way. He wouldn’t want people sulking over his death. He tried to calm his cluttered mind but couldn’t. The last thing he said to his brother was that he was selfish, which was something Keither knew to be untrue. He knew what his brother had done for him over the years; kept him from getting hit with arrows, saved him from being trampled by animals. It was too hard to think of the number of times Kovos had saved him from harm if not death. But what had he done for Kovos? What had he done for anyone? There wasn’t much that was for sure. He always had great intentions of helping, but when it came time to do it he wasn’t there. It should have been him that had been killed by the Iumenta, should have been him that had made the ultimate sacrifice for the group. All of the others put in effort, but he was just along for the ride.
Wasn’t that the way that he lived his entire life? He never thought about a trade, never cared to learn his father’s, never tried to do well at anything. About a week into their journey he had turned fifteen. They would have celebrated, but that was right after their run-in with the Royal Guard and by the time he thought of it he didn’t care. Still, fifteen years and nothing to show for it. Yes, he was young, but that was no excuse. By this age most of men in Salmont had picked a trade and were actively engaged in it. What was he going to make of his life?
* * * * *
Arkin rode ahead of the others, trying to fight back emotion as he went. Yet again he had failed as a protector, first with Legon’s mother and now Kovos. He knew that the effect of his death would carry farther than anyone could ever understand. Most didn’t see the connections that all men have. Not only had Kovos’ life ended, but his brother, parents, and an innocent girl back in Salmont had been hurt as well.
“No, our actions are far reaching,” he said to himself. He kicked himself. He couldn’t afford to wallow in self-pity at the moment. There would be time for that later. Now he needed to get them all to safety and to the resistance. Legon had brought them to within a few days of the border. Never had he heard of someone using magic to that extent. Well, at least not a person. A dragon yes, but not a person. Still, a small part of him was happy. It must be true now that he was an Elf, wasn’t it?
The land that they were in now was far more barren than they had yet seen. Thankfully, the area was hilly so they could rest for the night. The sun was almost to the horizon when Arkin found an area for them to camp. Legon was still out cold on Phantom and Arkin instructed them to leave him in case they needed to leave in a hurry. Their camp was surrounded by trees but he still didn’t feel comfortable starting a fire or using magic to make light. It would be easy for scouts to see and infinitely worse, dragons.
No one was hungry or talking. Arkin walked to the edge of camp and knelt, projecting his consciousness out. After hours he finally felt something on the other end. It was a new person that he didn’t know, but he had the right passwords so he passed on his report. He didn’t leave anything out, but most important he told of Legon’s transfiguration. That one got his attention. The person on the other end was shocked; Arkin figured the man wasn’t high enough ranking to be in the loop on Legon. He was instructed to head straight south and to move fast. They would try to send help if they could, but it was doubtful. Arkin made it clear that he understood and broke the connection.
Something was nudging at his mind. It was Sasha. S
he was trying to reestablish the network. He allowed the connection, and the first thing she wanted was a damage report.
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 vie
w. 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.
Chapter Seventeen
Everser Vald
“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.”
-Teachings of the Restored Queen
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?”