Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series by Nicholas Taylor Page B

red hair bouncing in time with her strides, holding two
large bundles under her arms. They waved at her as she moved along
and she nodded her greeting. They made their way down the streets
of the town until they reached Arkin’s shop.
    Up to this point they hadn’t spoken. As they
approached the shop Sasha tugged on his arm. He turned to look at
her; she looked apprehensive. He noticed the dark blue dress she
was wearing seemed to make her eyes look pale and somber, and she
held his gaze for a moment before speaking. “I don’t think you
should tell Arkin about your dream.”
    He looked surprised. “Why not?”
    “Because there is a lot that we and our parents
haven’t been told, and I know Arkin is a good person, but still, we
don’t really know who we can trust.” As she spoke he could see fear
in her eyes. It was obvious that she was planning on taking every
precaution. The look also told him what had been on her mind for
the last few days. He suspected that she had considered every
possibility she could come up with.
    “And how will we know if we can trust him?” For some
reason he didn’t question her unwillingness to trust others. Sasha
was good at reading people and he trusted her judgment.
    He also still had the conversation from the other day
in his mind, the day when Arkin seemed unwilling to disclose
information about his hunting trip. He also knew there had to be
something up with the carpenter because of his mother going over to
tend to him. Arkin didn’t make mistakes. He never got hurt, not a
scratch. There was something going on with him—that was for sure.
It could be innocent or it could be bad, but either way it was wise
to not divulge information that wasn’t necessary.
    “Good thinking Sash. I’ll follow your lead.”
    She smiled a bit and walked to the door. Once again
Legon was shocked by the lack of sawdust in the air. It was after
noon! It should be hard to breathe in the place by now. He also
noticed the table that was there from the day before hadn’t been
touched. The shop looked exactly the same as it had the last time
they were there.
    “Arkin? Arkin, are you here?” called Sasha, raising
her voice.
    “Oh, hello you two. How are you? I suppose you’re
here for the tea I promised,” Arkin said, walking into the shop
from the back alley.
    He smiled tightly at them. He clearly wasn’t happy
they were there.
    * * * * *
    Sasha noted the lack of dust in his hair and face.
His clothes and apron would always have dust in them from the
previous day’s work, but the lack of it on his face and hair showed
that he hadn’t been working at all today. She found this odd. Arkin
was a hard worker and he had said the other day that he was busy
and needed to get stuff done, but he didn’t look like a carpenter
that had been hard at work.
    “Yes, we came for tea,” she said. She figured that he
would ask them to come back another day but she wanted to play this
smoothly.
    “Ah… you guys are going to be disappointed, but this
is a bad time. Perhaps next week?”
    She broke in. “We know about Legon’s mother.” She
tried to keep her voice conversational.
    “You know… Edis and Laura told you then?” he
sputtered.
    “We know you were there and we know that you are
busy, but we need to talk to you Arkin. What’s wrong? It’s obvious
that you haven’t been working in the last few days. The air in the
shop and your face are free of dust.” As she spoke she gestured
around the room.
    Legon was surprised by the tone in her voice and how
she went from being sweet and nice to formal without skipping a
beat. He could see that she had taken Arkin off guard. He would
have to give in to her requests or face interrogation about
whatever he was up to.
    “Ok, ok I’ll talk about how we found you. Let me
close the shop,” Arkin said with resignation. He walked over the
main door and clicked the lock and pulled some blinds down over the
windows.
    “Thank you Arkin. What kind of tea do you