his fingers a jet of green flame shot up about six inches.
Legon reared back. “What kind of…”
“The color is different for every Venefica, but the more magic is infused in the flame, the stronger the color will appear. We’ll talk more after we set up camp somewhere.” Arkin didn’t seem surprised by this development in the least bit. If anything, it seemed to be what he’d expected.
The sun was still relatively high in the sky. They had a few hours before dark, plenty of time to move away from Salez, which was good. Sooner or later Sara’s former owner would realize that he was a person short. There was a lot to worry about, but nothing that Legon could do at the moment so there was no point dwelling on it. In his mind Legon recited a script that Arkin taught him.
Fear is the blinder. I am the light and master of sight. I will master my fear and never again see night.
As he repeated the script, he took deep breaths through his nose, each time letting tension out of his body. As he calmed, more things brought themselves to his attention. He focused on his sense of smell. With each breath he inhaled the scent of grass and trees. Next to his ears was the sound of the horses, Sasha and Sara talking, the creak of leather, and the buzz of a fly. Now he concentrated on touch, feeling the soft breeze as it cooled, telling him the sun was on its way down. The northern breeze was moist and dense. It would rain tonight. He had better take extra care setting up his tent.
* * * * *
“What the hell was going on? Legon could do magic?” Keither wondered what he had gotten himself into. He shifted himself in Murray’s Saddle. Kovos slowed his horse and fell back in step with him.
“What do you think?” Kovos asked.
“I don’t know. We’re in over our heads, I’ll tell you that much,” replied Keither.
“Why is that? What do you know about magic?”
The others couldn’t hear him, but he still kept quiet. People who used magic were rare, and magic itself was treated with respect and care. People were also scared of it because, frankly, not that much was known about it—at least not by the common person.
“I don’t know much about it, but it may explain why Arkin was able to hide in Salmont without detection,” Keither answered.
“Do we need to worry about getting taken over or something?”
This was an odd turn of the tables. Kovos was coming to him asking for advice. He never did that. Kovos had always treated him like a helpless little boy, but not now.
“Well, if Arkin wanted to hurt us he could have done it a long time ago. And I don’t think that magic users can take you over, but I’m not sure.”
“Ok, thanks.”
Kovos righted himself in his saddle and resumed a normal pace. Keither should probably be worrying about magic right now, but that wasn’t what was on his mind. Sara was on his mind, and also what he thought of the empire and the queen which, just hours before, he had thought weren’t that bad.
In general, the whole of society was well taken care of, but at what cost? What Sara had gone through was appalling, but it sounded like it wasn’t common. Sara was a prostitute, sure, but not everyone had to be that, most were probably labor of some sort. A chill ran down his back. How many luxuries did he have due to slavery?
Arkin was right. The queen was evil. That was the only word for it. How much of what Arkin told them was true? Also, how much of the propaganda about the resistance was true? There were a lot of questions running through his mind, and a lot of his previous views were changing rapidly. If Kovos had asked him a week ago about magic users, he would have said that they were bad news unless controlled by the government, but after what Legon did… “Maybe having people who know magic free of the government’s control is a good thing,” he thought.
Then it dawned on him. This whole thing was about magic and controlling it. What Legon had done was proof that if enough people in the empire knew about magic then the government could be held in check. Or could it? People knew magic and yet they still allowed horrible things to happen.