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

you home, but that’s where the truth ends.”
    Trepidation began seeping into him, as she went
on.
    “He was in the woods when he heard a baby crying. He
was with Brack and Arkin. They moved to the sound and found a
cottage, or at least that’s what your father thought it was. He
said it seemed more like a tree, but I’m not sure about all of
that, he was upset when he got home and I don’t think that he was
in his right mind. When they came to the cottage they could see
that it was horribly damaged…”
    At this she paused and he could see fresh tears
filling her blue eyes again.
    “When they entered the house they found a woman. She
was dead. Your father has never said much about her. I think that
what he saw frightened him. Apparently the inside had been
ransacked, but it appeared that nothing had been taken. They found
you in the house in a hidden space under the hearth.”
    Legon interrupted. “They found me in the fire!” It
was a statement, not a question.
    “No, dear, there wasn’t a fire burning and I don’t
think there had been in a long time. I think that your mother put
you in a very safe hiding place.”
    “ My mother,” he thought. His birth mother
hadn’t forgotten him or left in a hurry, running away from robbers.
She had been murdered and had most likely spent her last few
moments alive hiding him, in a place apparently prepared for just
that. This also meant that she had at least planned for the
possible day that she would have to hide her son from people who
wanted to hurt him. The fact that the house had been searched was
disturbing as well, because nothing was taken, or at least nothing
obvious had been taken. That probably meant that whoever had
attacked was there for reasons other than financial gain. Before
Legon had time to fully comprehend what he just been told, his
adopted mother pushed on, almost as if by saying this she was free
of some burden.
    “After they found you they took you home. You know
the rest. We adopted you and now you are our son, and we love you
like you are our own.” She placed her hand on his at this last
statement.
    Legon felt every emotion coursing through him. On the
one hand he was mad that he hadn’t been told this, but on the other
he knew his parents were just trying to protect him. He understood
the desire to protect the ones you love; when he thought about it,
he didn’t know if could have handled this news when he was younger.
Still, something didn’t seem right. Where had his birth father been
in this whole affair? He had to know about the hiding place and had
to know that his son was missing… unless he was killed too, and
Edis, Brack, and Arkin hadn’t found the body.
    And what had they been looking for in the first
place? A thought came to him then that bothered him: if Edis hadn’t
been willing to share all the details of what he saw with his wife,
then what he had seen must have been pretty bad. Also, the house
had been secluded, and so his mother must have been hiding from
something. She may have had or at least known something that
whoever did this wanted, and it was possible that they had
interrogated her before killing her. That made sense; it also
explained why Edis had been unwilling to talk to his wife about it.
If his birth mother was interrogated, that meant that they had
probably tortured her, and Legon could understand why Edis didn’t
want to relive the sight in his head. A thought bubbled up.
    “Mom, it’s going to take some time for what you just
said to… well, sink in, but I still don’t understand why you got so
upset about my tattoo. Isn’t it possible that my birth mother did
magic and that’s why it’s there?”
    She paused. He could tell she was trying to figure
out what to say.
    “Your tattoo was put there by magic. I’m sure of that
now, but the thing that has me so upset is that your tattoo is,
well… I’m not sure how to explain this. Arkin knows more about this
kind of thing than me. The tattoo is