B008P7JX7Q EBOK by Usman Ijaz

the twin of that gun
on his other side.  
    “Do all Legionnaires have guns like that?”
Connor asked.
    “Yes,” Alexis said, biting into his hard bread.
    “Is it hard to use?”
    “Not once you learn how to use it,” answered
Alexis.
    They were soon on the move again, crossing miles
yet seeming to stay in the same region. They passed through several little
towns during the afternoon, and always the Legionnaires made sure that their
guns were concealed beneath their coats. They seemed ready to reach for them at
a moment’s notice, however. It was not uncommon to see a man with guns, but
even bad guns were costly and only the wealthy could afford them, thus many of
the commoners wore swords at their waists. Guns drew too much attention and
such men were remembered in people’s minds, Alexis explained..  
     It wasn’t until the sun was setting that Hamar
let them stop. They were in a small town, with most of the buildings
constructed of wood and the streets of hard-packed dirt. They took up rooms at
an inn. Hamar and Owain shared one room, and the rest were forced to share the
other.
    They ate dinner in the common room, listening to
a woman playing a bittern while another danced atop a table. The maids that
came to serve them smiled among themselves as they glanced at Alexis, who
seemed oblivious of everything until Owain threw up his hands in disgust.
    “These girls will fall for any fool with long
hair,” he cried. “And the idiot doesn’t even notice them.”
    “What are you talking about?” Alexis asked.
    Owain grunted. “Look around you, boy, they’re
all practically throwing themselves at your feet.”
    Alexis looked around the common room and at the
maids that kept glancing towards their table. “I don’t think so.”
    “He’s addled in the brain,” Owain said to Hamar,
and they both laughed. “If I wasn’t married, I’d grow my hair out as well, and
then you’d be left all alone.”
    The three men enjoyed a small laugh. Adrian
didn’t pay much attention to them. He had ears only for the soft music that
rang throughout the room.
    The party ate in near silence, and afterwards
Hamar and Owain lit their pipes and they all sat listening to the music. Adrian
attempted to make conversation with Connor by asking him if he liked the music,
but Connor only stared towards the singer, deaf to anything he had to say.
    At last they retired to their rooms. The room
that Adrian shared with Alexis and Connor was small, made smaller by the
addition of another bed. Alexis hung his gun belt on his headboard where it was
close at hand before lying down, the guns gleaming in the moonlight filtering
through the shuttered windows. They were all soon asleep, tired from the day’s
endless traveling.
     
    3
     
    Adrian rose early the next morning with the rest
of the small party, while most of the inn was still asleep and even the cooks
were just waking. They breakfasted on goat cheese and fresh baked bread in the
empty common room. Hamar paid their fares, and they were on the move once more.
They left the small rural town behind and joined the Great Road, due east once
more. Adrian looked at the town they left behind, realizing that he had never
been this far from home. They’d sometimes gone a ways north to visit Connor’s
mother’s family, but they had never gone this far east. It made him think the
world ahead was to be unlike anything he expected. But he quickly learned that
wasn’t the case. Farms of the sort they had passed the previous morning stood
besides fields of wheat and barley, and sometimes the land still held that
barren look. Nothing looked different.
     “How do you become a Legionnaire?” Connor asked
Alexis, who rode beside the boys.
    “Through hard training,” Hamar grunted from the
front.
    Connor wanted to know how long it took.
    Alexis answered. “A long time.”
    “How long? Years? Months?”
    “Keep your damn chatter up and I’ll drag you
back to Grandal to be used as target