Keither had Legon off the horse and was carrying him over his shoulder to the center of camp. He placed him down on the ground. He still resembled his old self but was clearly different. Even with his eyes closed, Sasha could see that they were larger and almond shaped. His face looked more slanted with higher cheek bones. It almost resembled a sculpture, as if someone had taken a masterpiece and then superimposed Legon’s characteristics on it. The result was wondrous. He still had the same short brown hair but now his ears tapered at the top. His skin seamed to almost glow, but she knew it wasn’t; it was just healthy and without blemish, like a baby’s. His figure was the exact same as it was before. He was still large with plenty of muscle, far more than the Iumenta had. She wondered if he would thin out over time. Overall, she had to admit she had never seen anything so…beautiful in her life. Though she would be sure to tell Legon that he was handsome and leave out the beautiful part.
She knelt down and inspected his body for injury. There was none. She knew he had been hurt before he had changed, but the injuries were gone now. All that was left was dirt and blood from the battle. His clothes were torn in a few spots. If she hadn’t been able to see his chest move she would have thought he wasn’t breathing.
“Arkin, is it common for Elves to have low breathing like this?”
“Yes, very. They are much quieter than we are.”
“Why is that?” Keither asked. Sasha was happy to see him getting his mind off the day and back to thinking.
“They can hear your heartbeat across a room. Now, that being said, loud sounds don’t hurt them as much as they do for us. But when you can hear a pin drop you tend to notice just how noisy we all are and walk a little softer.”
It made sense to her, so she didn’t worry about the breathing. In fact he probably wouldn’t snore anymore. That would have been nice when they were sharing a tent. She pushed this trivial thought from her mind to focus on her unconscious brother. Sara had knelt down on the other side of him. She brought a rag to her mouth, wetting it and beginning to wipe the dirt off his perfect face.
Sasha watched. Never had she seen Sara clean someone with such care and love. She would occasionally wet the rag and keep going, like a mother would a child or a sick loved one.
“Sara?” she said.
Sara looked up at her. “We can’t have him all dirty now can we?”
Sara went back to her cleaning and tears began rolling down her cheeks. They fell off her chin onto Legon. Sara noticed this and it seemed to make them come faster, but she didn’t look sad. She was starting to hum gently, a tune Sasha had never heard. Arkin was standing over them now. She heard him pick up the tune and saw tears in his eyes as well, once again not tears of sorrow but of happiness. Sasha looked at Keither, who looked just as confused as she was. She scratched the back of her head to get rid of an itch.
Sara was smiling warmly at Legon and started to talk below her breath. “My whole life around you and I didn’t know. I am so ungrateful. This whole time I have been upset with my lot and yet, here I was the first.”
“You were the first what?” Sasha was concerned.
“You will find out, Sasha, when he wakes. Won’t they, Arkin?” She looked up at him and he nodded without question.
The buzzing in Sasha’s head was driving her nuts. Her breath caught and she excused herself. Walking away from the group still intently looking at Legon, she walked out of their clearing and past the trees that blocked them from view. She stood alone looking at the blank hilly landscape. Trembling, with her head still buzzing, she held her hand out, palm up. She looked at it, never having done this before, not wanting to do it, but she had to…
“Flamma.”
As she spoke a plume of ruby flame blossomed in her hand. She closed it, stopping the flame in an instant. She looked out at the field not truly seeing it, shaking and covered in a cold sweat.
Chapter Seventeen
“A fulfilled fate is a great and terrible thing. Great in that the thing we hoped for has come to pass and all of the things that come with it, but terrible in that the thing we hoped for has come to pass and we must see our own faults because of it.”
Sara looked down at Legon, numb to anything in the world other than who she was kneeling by. Sasha came up to her, tugging on her sleeve. Sara looked at her. Sasha looked worried and excited all at the same time.
“What is it?” she asked, not really wanting to be interrupted from her reverie.
“Come with me.” Sasha was not asking; she was telling her to come. She pulled at her arm again.
“Ok, ok.”
Arkin gave them an inquisitive look. “Is everything all right?”
“Fine. Don’t worry Arkin,” Sasha said, smiling dismissively at him.
Sasha led Sara outside of camp and to the other side of the trees, turning to face her.
“What is it?” Sara asked, a little worried at the sudden change in her friend’s behavior.
“Wh- when we were connected, or when I tried to break the connection with Legon, did you feel anything?”
Sara paused. “I don’t know, like what?”
“From the connection,” Sasha asked frantically.
“I don’t know, I guess,” she said. “Yeah, it was kind of a tingly feeling in the back of my head. Was I not supposed to feel that?” Great, what had happened now? Had something in her head broken?
“No, you weren’t. Do you feel it now?”
Now that Sasha was talking about it, she did feel something in her head, but that was no surprise. That always happened. If someone asked you if you were tired, you’d yawn. This was probably no different.
“Yes, I guess so. What’s the problem, Sasha? What’s gotten into you?”
“You’ve felt it when Legon has used magic, right?”
“Yeah, of course. Arkin wanted us to feel it so we would know what was going on in a fight, but I don’t see how that…”
“Try it,” Sasha said
“What?”
“Try it… magic, try to do it.”
“But Sasha…”
As she spoke Sasha held out her hand. “Flamma.”
Sara stepped back, gasping. “You…”
“I think you can too. Try.”
She thought about it, but the idea was ludicrous to her. Sasha had lived around Legon her whole life, so maybe this was part of their connection.
“Sasha, I can’t.”
“Neither could I until he turned,” Sasha responded. “Now do it.”
“Fine, give me a sec, ok?”
Sasha nodded and stepped back. Sara concentrated just like Legon did, but he had done it so fast. She raised her hand. “Flamma.”
The feeling shot down her arm to her hand, but nothing happened. Sasha looked disappointed but undeterred.
“Try again. I’ll help you.”
Sara felt Sasha’s mind join hers and again she tried.
“Flamma.” A spark! This time Sasha didn’t help. “Flamma!” A flicker of silver flame popped in her hand and then went out. Again and again she tried until a small silver fire burned in her hand. She was a Venefica, a real Venefica. Never had she dreamed of being one. Sasha looked relieved and dismayed all at once.
They heard Keither’s voice through the trees. “Hey, I think he’s waking up.” They rushed back to the camp.
Legon lay with his eyes closed. His head was pounding and he felt something digging into his back. Had he fallen off the horse? He decided to find out and opened his eyes. At first there was just a blur of color and he blinked to bring the world back into focus. Sasha, Sara, Keither, and Arkin were all huddled over him looking terrified, sad, and happy. He noticed how big the pores on Arkin’s nose were. What an odd thing to notice. His head was swimming. He knew he’d been on a horse but wasn’t sure about the rest. He did remember a horrible dream though. Kovos had been killed by an Iumenta and then he had turned into an Elf.