keep her body from hurting itself. The energy involved was great and he couldn’t stop all of her convulsions, but she no longer sustained injuries and didn’t need hours to recover after them. She still lost visible consciousness, but she was awake and active in his mind. That was, unfortunately, the bad part. Now Sasha was aware of each episode and, more important, the pain of them. Before she hadn’t been awake and had no recollection, but now she was keenly aware of her body fighting itself, and Legon felt all of it.
He dipped a rag in the stream next to their camp. The water was cool and refreshing as it ran over his fingers. They were still heading south in a meandering path. Summer was in full force and this part of the empire was hot and, to his distaste, humid. The wet heat was oppressing, the air seemed to weigh down their lungs and they were always covered in sweat. The land was flat now, but they were in a dense forest and the scent of moss and earth became more apparent.
There weren’t a lot of major waterways in this area, so towns and villages were sparse. On occasion, there would be large clearings or they would approach a co-op farming community. The co-ops usually had no town center and the people in the area tried to support one another. They were seldom bothered by bands of robbers because the people really only had the food they grew and tried to sell. Because of their meager belongings, these people fought hard for their property. At any rate, many robbers at some point in time, usually when they hit bottom, had worked for one of these people. All in all, Legon liked most of the people in the co-ops. They were usually kind and they banded together.
It was also rare for people to go into the Queen’s care from these communities. The empire was in control of these areas, but just barely. The openness of everything gave people places to hide anything, like family members. In addition, the cost of harassing the people in remote places like this was too high, thus they were left alone for the most part.
Legon pulled the rag out and wiped down his face, neck, and upper body. He felt a week’s worth of trail debris and filth rub from him. They had been passing creeks for the last week, but none of them were clean so they weren’t able to bathe at all. This was one of the major discomforts of the road. Back home, working with his father as a butcher, and Sasha working with his mother as a healer, there had been strict laws about cleanliness. Breaking those laws was expensive, so every day they cleaned everything, from their workspaces to themselves. He normally did this at the end of the day as a means of washing off the death of his job, but still he washed his hands before work and after lunch. On the other hand, as healers, Sasha and Laura washed after every patient. Kovos also had grown into the habit of regular bathing, not due to any laws but rather the desire to not look like he was constantly rolling around in soot. Keither, on the other hand, hated it, and Arkin had to force him to do it. It was as if the boy thought that by getting rid of the grime from the road he was somehow more susceptible to the elements.
Keither slipped on some moss and landed on his side. Legon looked up at him.
“Are you ok?” he asked.
“I cut my elbow! Dang it! I look like a moron,” Keither said, exasperated.
He understood what Keither meant; it hadn’t taken a genius to notice that Keither harbored feelings for Sara. This was actually good. He wanted to prove himself and so he tried harder with everything to impress her.
“Here, let me look at it.” Legon said.
“Oh, you don’t have to. I mean, it’s not that bad.”
Legon chuckled. “I know you’re tough, but Arkin wants me to fix everything with magic so I get better.”
* * * * *
Across camp, Sasha paused for a moment as she felt Legon accessing information in her mind. This wasn’t uncommon for either of them to do. Arkin wanted Legon to use magic to check every injury and then heal it. While he had a detailed knowledge of anatomy, he didn’t have knowledge of the healing arts like Sasha did.