The dirt on Kovos’ face made it sting, and for the first time he realized that his whole body was covered in little cuts and scrapes from the trees. Thoughts rushed through his mind as he tried to stay still and keep his body from shaking. This was unbelievable. He had seen a woman get killed. Her body had hit the ground right in front of him; he had stepped over her to get away-stepped over the body of a person he knew. As the scene played over and over again in his head he fought back the urge to vomit. He tasted bile in his mouth and swallowed hard. He would not be found covered in his own vomit, dead in the woods.
Whenever he had thought about someone getting killed it always seemed so different in his mind. He had never envisioned all the blood. Sure, there was some, but not like in real life. In real life there was a lot, more then he knew the body could hold. A chill ran down his back as he remembered Moleth’s last attempt at a scream and the look on her face. He tasted the bile again and tried to stare forward. There was sound coming from up ahead.
This was bad-real bad. Sasha felt her stress levels rising out of control, and a bead of sweet rolled down her back. Her palms were covered in sweat, too, and her heart was someplace around her chin. A few hours ago, townspeople had started coming to the shop telling Edis that Legon, Kovos, and Keither had assaulted three members of the royal guard after they witnessed the men kill Moleth. They also said that the men were looking for Legon. It was just too much. She couldn’t stand Moleth-the woman had been calling for her to be run out of town for as long as she could remember-but that didn’t mean that she wanted her dead. She was killed just to make a point, just because they could. After the fight, Legon and the other two had run into the woods to hide, and for all she knew it had worked, because nobody had seen anyone come out.
Sasha knew that Legon was good in the forest and he could probably evade them on his own, but with Kovos, and especially with Keither, she wasn’t sure. She still wasn’t sure she believed that Keither had tackled one of the soldiers. She felt so bad for him. She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like watching someone get killed. She felt for Legon and Kovos too, but they had always been so tough and used to violence on a small level. But Keither…He didn’t leave the house, much less see fights or even watch an animal get killed. This must have been one of the boy’s first tastes of the cruel world where they lived.
She needed to clear her head. She didn’t have time for this right now. She needed to concentrate. Legon would be coming out of the mountains at some point, and when he did they needed to leave and leave fast. She had already packed two backpacks with clothes and other essentials. Her father had collected Legon’s knives and cleavers and her mother had put together a package of medicine and food.
There was one road in and out of the valley. At the edge of the valley it split three ways. All they had to do was make it to the crossroads and then the queen’s men would be hard-pressed to follow. From there she didn’t know what to do; they could stay in the empire or they could make a run for the Elves, but either way they would need to be careful. Sasha knew that Brack and Margaret were doing the same thing for Kovos and Keither. They all needed to leave the town for at least a few years, if not for the rest of their lives. She knew that all of the citizens of Salmont would be more than willing to help them leave; after all, one of their own had been killed. She also knew that if the men hadn’t been royal guards they would have probably been killed by the townspeople, but they were royal guards. That meant you didn’t do anything in the open because that was treason. That also meant a whole lot more people would be killed. Sasha spent the remainder of her day preparing to leave home for possibly the last time in her life, and hoping beyond hope that Legon was safe.
Safe was not how Legon saw himself at the moment. He found himself instead scared out of his mind and laying in mud. The men had been in the forest for hours looking for them. They had finally managed to track them to about ten feet from where Legon lay in the mud. He was right to think they were easy to track; even he hadn’t thought about what he was doing when he was running, so he figured a blind man could see the tracks they’d left.
But the soldiers were having a bit of a hard time now. They knew that the three fugitives were someplace in these woods, but the tracks ended and so they’d been branching out looking for them, and then returning to this place to start over again. One man always stayed behind, giving the others a point of reference. Legon was fine. He had spent many hours stalking deer while out hunting, so his muscles wouldn’t cramp for a long time yet. He knew how to move his weight without being seen.
However, he knew Kovos and Keither couldn’t do this, so he had put them somewhere they could just lay and not have to move. Legon was curled up in the roots of a tree and with the moss he had on himself he just looked like another root. The only problem was that this moss was full of bugs, one in particular that was trying to burrow its way into his back. After a few hours of this he didn’t know what was worse: the thought of being killed like Moleth, or having this bug spend another few hours burrowing into him. The more he thought about it and the more the irritation and pain in his back grew, the nicer the knife looked.
The bug bit into something sensitive. Pain shot through him and he gave an involuntary twitch… the soldier turned and looked right where he was but he didn’t do anything. He could see that the man was looking for whatever had made the noise, but was confused at the lack of anything other than moss-covered roots. Legon heard the sound of a bird landing on a branch above him.
The man relaxed and shook his head. Legon heard him mutter something but couldn’t make it out. He couldn’t see much. He needed to keep his head down, but after listening to the men he figured out who everyone was. The man in their area now was the one who had killed Moleth, which was something that the guard had spent a lot of time laughing about. This made Legon want to stand and fight the man, but he couldn’t. He needed to keep his head in this. He had to get Kovos and Keither out of here and then he had to make sure that his family was ok.
After a bit, the man started over to the tree and Legon felt the fear of knowing that while he might look like a root, if stepped on he wouldn’t feel like a root. The man’s feet stopped on either side of his head. Legon had his body contorted to look more random and sprawled out. He had most of his back against the tree. He wasn’t in a good fighting position. He couldn’t look up without giving away his location. He heard cloth being moved above him… the man was fumbling around with his cloak. He wasn’t making much noise, as if he were slowly and carefully getting something. It had to be a dagger. Probably the same one that killed Moleth.
He heard a soft chuckle. “There you are. You couldn’t hide forever.”
Chapter Eight
“Some say that when something ends, it’s just the beginning. Does this mean that nothing ends? No. Sometimes the end is just that-the end.”
Arkin thought of the years of planning that had just gone out the window. They were early, way too early. It was probably the blasted star that had made them anxious. If only they had waited just two more months, everything would be going according to plan. At least one plan, anyway-he had three. He had always planned for this day but had hoped it would never come. Still, there was excitement coursing through him. The fact that they were here meant the prophecy had to be true, and they weren’t going to stop him, not after this long. All was fine for now. He had time to pack and get ready, but first it was time to report in.