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