he was out with his brother running errands. Legon would be safe for now. People in town would be slow to talk, and Legon didn’t venture into the town center often.
Sasha came out of a restless sleep. She had been waking up every few hours with lists of things to do rushing through her head and an eerie feeling that not all was well. She decided to get up and on with her day. The sun was coming up now and she wasn’t going to get any sleep anyway.
She rolled out of bed and began to get dressed. There was a lot that needed to get done. Late last night she came to the conclusion that her and Legon needed to be able to leave at the drop of a hat. After that, the lists had started to run constantly in her mind. The thing was, they weren’t just leaving to go camping for a few days, they were leaving for good, and if they were forced to leave quickly they would need to pack light. This was a problem because when it came down to it, they needed to take a lot or they would be unable to start a new life somewhere.
She paused for a moment to decide what she wanted to wear for the day. She settled on an earthy green skirt and white blouse. She inspected herself in the mirror. It wasn’t good. There were huge bags under her eyes and her face was pale and looked a little odd to her. She leaned closer to the little mirror above the vanity. As she looked she noticed a slight twitch beneath her left eye. “That’s odd, I wonder what it…” she began to think, but the thought stopped as she felt her body become rigid and her vision blur. There was the sound of something hitting the ground and she felt incredible pain all over her body. She was faintly aware of herself on the ground thrashing about, but the pain was so bad she couldn’t think anymore. She had to be dying. And then she thought and felt nothing as the episode shut down her conscious mind.
She awoke to the usual scene: Legon was holding her, her parents were fussing. A dull pain in her left hip told her where she hit the ground. She didn’t remember much about it and was still trying to get her bearings. It felt like her mind was disconnected until she heard Legon’s calming voice. As his voice came, most of her mind came back with it, like someone had uncovered a candle or removed a blindfold. This wasn’t uncommon. She had never told anyone in the family, but she noticed that if Legon was around after an episode her mind seemed to start up faster then if he wasn’t. Stranger still, she knew that even though the episodes made her unconscious, she sometimes had flickers of thought or images, but they were just flickers, and only when Legon was there.
“Sash, Sash, are you ok? Are you back?” he said concernedly.
“Ye… yeah I’m back. How long was I out?”
“Only for a moment, dear. We heard you hit the floor,” said her mother. Sasha tried to raise herself from the floor.
“No honey, just wait a minute before you try and get up,” came her father’s voice.
Sasha raised her hand to block the now dazzling light that was starting to come in through the window. Everyone was still in their bedclothes. Legon was on the floor beside her. He placed his hand on her shoulder and this seemed to give her strength. Having an episode in the house was the worst. Every time it happened she got a huge bruise from hitting the hard floor. At least when it happened outside the ground was softer. A dull throb on the side of her head confirmed this.
“I’m fine now, really I am. I’ll try to take it easy today. I just need to run an errand or two so it won’t be bad.”
“Don’t worry about going out, Sash. I can pick up whatever you need when I go over to visit Kovos. I don’t mind. I’m sure whatever you need is on my way.” Legon squeezed her shoulder a bit in a loving way, but also one that made it clear that there was not going to be any debate. It was things like this that made her love him so much. He had a lot on his plate, but still he was going out of his way for her.
Legon helped raise Sasha from the ground and walked her to her bed. He could tell that she was a bit tender on her left side. As he steered her along he also noticed a slight tremble. The bags under her eyes made it clear to him that she hadn’t gotten much sleep in the last few days, and for all he knew that may have been what had caused the episode. She lay down in bed and he got a list of the stuff she was planning on buying that day.
As he stood up, he could see that there was a lot more that was on Sasha’s to-do list than just getting a few odds and ends around town. He went to ask what was on her mind, but she used one of their hand gestures to tell him that they would discuss it later. This surprised him, since there was no reason not to trust their parents with anything she might be planning on doing. The thought came to him that if she did say what she had planned for the day then their mother would make sure she stayed in bed to rest, but if Sasha appeared to not be fighting it then she would leave her alone and Sasha could do whatever she needed.
“Ok, well I guess I’ll go. I’ll talk to you later Sash. I hope you feel better,” he said as he walked to the door.
He went to his room and finished getting ready. When Sasha had started her episode, Legon had put on only one sock and tossed the other aside. He reached under his bed to get the sock and put it on. Soon he was walking out into the warm morning. It felt good to be outside. He began to make his way to the town center. He would pick up the cloth Sasha needed on his way to see Kovos. As he was about halfway to the town center, he saw Kovos and Keither walking quickly toward him. It was obvious that Kovos was flustered, but Legon wasn’t sure if it was from having Keither with him or something else. He was almost dragging his brother along.
“You need to get out of here. There are soldiers looking for you,” Kovos panted as he closed the last few steps to Legon.
“What do mean there are…?” Legon began.
“Five soldiers stopped me this morning looking for a man around our age with a tattoo on his back. We need to get away from the town center-that’s where they are.” As Kovos spoke he looked over his shoulder, searching the crowded street for a threat.
Legon didn’t need to be told twice. A week ago this news would have surprised him, but now… They started to walk away from the town center when they heard a voice, one that was almost timid but full of glee. “That’s the boy there, the one I told you about, the one with the demon sister.” Moleth’s voice rang over the sound of passing people and horses.
Legon turned to look at the woman. Standing next to her were three men in leather armor all with the same symbol emblazoned on it-a silver many-pointed star with a green circle in the middle and a half circle in the same green around the star, and on the other side four five-pointed dark gold stars. These men were the queen’s royal guard, not the half-witted servants of Regent Kooth. These men were the real deal. The royal guard was the most highly trained human military unit in the empire. It was rumored that the royal guard was trained by Iumenta and that they had all sworn undying loyalty to the queen. Failure was not in their training, and Legon knew that three on two was not good odds. Kovos could fight, but Keither was more of a danger to himself than to others. As the soldiers got closer he could see from the way they were sizing them up that they too did not see Keither as a threat.
They all dressed alike. The one to the right of Moleth played with his long red beard, his blue eyes flashing everywhere. He looked to be around twenty-eight or thirty, but it was hard to tell. The one next to him walked like he was in charge, and Legon figured this man was the commander. He didn’t have a full beard but he did have about four days worth of stubble. His face was scarred. The last man was young and didn’t have a beard. He looked stupid, more like the trolls from stories than a man. In truth, at first glance Legon was a little surprised by how the men looked. They had more of the appearance of robbers than royal guard. Of course, Legon had never seen royal guard before, so this might be how all of them looked.
Moleth was bouncing around like an over-excited puppy. She was elated about helping the queen’s men, but she was obviously wearing on them. The one standing next to her placed his hand on the hilt of his sword in a longing sort of way.
When they reached them, the man who appeared to be the commander looked at Kovos. “You don’t know anyone, huh?” he said in a gruff voice.
The man turned his attention to Legon. “Take off your shirt and show us your back, boy.”
This was how the whole thing was going to end. He was going to be killed or taken by the queen’s men. There was no stopping it. Or was there? Moleth had decided to give her opinion on the matter one last time.
“Oh good, I have always disliked this one, he’s…” she was stopped by a command from the man in front of Legon.
“Shut up, woman. You have brought too much attention to us already. If you don’t be quiet on your own we
