time taking things at face value. Most people and things are so much more than what they seem. The question is, do you want to see what they are, and how do you know you’re seeing the correct thing?”
- Conversations in the Garden
Legon couldn’t believe what he was hearing. There was no way that this was happening, no way that Arkin was telling the truth, but he knew he was.
“You’re an Elven agent and I am your mission?” he asked, just to confirm. Arkin looked put out. This probably wasn’t how he had planned on breaking the news to him.
“Yes, Legon, I am. You want to ask a lot of questions, but not now. Right now we need to move camp for the night. I promise you will have lots of time to ask questions. You have that right, and I won’t stop you.”
Time was not moving all that fast right now, and Legon’s brain was not working at the moment. It was done for the day and it wasn’t going to take anymore. He turned and looked at Sasha. She was still covered in blood, her face pale, mouth open. She looked at him, looked him right in the eyes. Never had she looked like that. She was defeated, hurt, humiliated, and her life was turned upside down. She hated violence, and yet all she’d gotten today was that and a lot of it. There was a pleading look in her eyes, and it was this that brought clarity.
His problems could wait. He’d been in the dark his whole life, but Sasha and Keither needed to get out of this place. He and Kovos probably did too, but they would have an easier time keeping it together. After all, they had been the ones to end the situation and in a way this gave them at least some closure. He didn’t want to sleep here in the blood and gore of the day, and the pressure of the situation was going to get to him eventually. He needed to move and sleep. Then, maybe, he would be fine.
“Ok, let’s finish up here and get moving. Let’s take their horses. We can sell them or use them for pack. I don’t think it would be good to let them wander off.” He let the pressure shape his thoughts, let it make the important decisions.
This was something that came naturally to him. Pressure focused him, made things clear, and presented the best and sometimes only options. Maybe that’s why he was a good fighter. Most people lost their heads in a fight, like the soldiers today, but you couldn’t do that, not if you wanted to win.
“I agree. We will be able to sell them easily and we can keep a couple for pack so we can move faster,” Arkin said, walking over to a tent and knocking it down. He began kicking it about, breaking random things.
Kovos was still gaping at Arkin. Legon jerked his head at Keither and Sasha, which brought Kovos back. Soon the campsite was trashed and the men robbed, so he didn’t think anyone could tell it was staged, maybe because they had actually robbed the men, but he wasn’t thinking about that right now.
He began moving toward the horses. The ones the queen’s men rode looked fine, a few with specks of blood on them but they hadn’t minded the violence. Their horses weren’t used to it, so they were jittery. Phantom was doing better than Murray but not by much. Both animals backed away from them. Kovos’ horse Calvin was fine; in fact, Legon wasn’t sure it had even known what was going on. The clanging of metal probably didn’t bother blacksmith’s horses, but Keither’s, well, Margaret’s their mothers, horse Pixy was freaking out. Pixy was young and Margaret hadn’t worked with her too much yet. She was a good horse and he thought that she would be good for Keither. Sasha was the one in the end that got them calmed down. She loved horses. She had trained both Phantom and Murray, and both were great. Calvin wasn’t too bad but she would have to help Keither with Pixy. “This was probably a good thing,” Legon thought—she needed something to take her mind off of what was going on.
Kovos collected the soldier’s horses and was tying their “earnings” to them. For some reason this made Legon feel self-conscious, like he had done something wrong, but he hadn’t. The men needed to look like