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.