The Hekamon (20 page)

The room was a almost cave-like in appearance and large
enough to seat a dozen men, with a table and benches running either
side. Torches on the wall provided some much welcome light and heat
in the otherwise cold and dark room. As he walked in, Tregarron saw
that the two guardsmen on duty were casually picking over what was
left of their lunch. He startled them with his sudden entrance.

"Where is he?" he demanded.

"Who?" Holcroft asked warily.

"Croneygee."

"We haven't seen him," the man said, looking
to his fellow guardsman, Pearson, for confirmation. "Should we
have been expecting him?"

Taking a large key from a hook on the wall, Tregarron
turned and walked out, before continuing down the passage to the
large oak door at the end. Sliding the bolts and unlocking the east
gate, he opened it and looked out onto the dry moat below. With the
two guards following him, he stepped outside and started surveying as
much of the road that was visible from this location.

"We, er, didn't hear anyone," Pearson said,
flinching at the sideways glance he gave him, "And Mr. Croneygee
knows to bang on the gate loudly, and that's hard to miss."

The man had a point, the sound someone hammering on the
door would echo around the tunnels for some time. Could he have
missed the armorer again somehow?

He stepped away from the door and further along the path
that lead down to the dried out moat, to a place where he could see
across to the Briddlesford Bridge.

Moving out of the shadow of the
fort, he shielded his eyes from the sun. He could see a few
pedestrians on the bridge, impossible to make out who at this
distance, while the pathways of the old moat were empty. Turning back
towards the gate, a glint of something in the grass near his feet
caught his eye.

The object he could see was long, slender and dark bronze in
color. It looked like an adder, hidden in the grass. The soulless
creature seemed poised and ready to strike at an unsuspecting victim,
its sharp, curled fangs about to dispense their poison. But the
object was too still, even for a snake. It was inert. It had the
teeth but not the venom.

He reached down, picked it up and began to examine it. It was a small, finely crafted saw. Stepping off the
path and into the nearby bushes he found a pile of tools, while
further in and almost of sight, a bag. Tregarron could tell that the
tools were part of the consignment he had been expecting. The quantity and
variety of implements were exactly what the armorer had promised, and
since they hadn't arrived here by themselves, he started searching
the area with more urgency.

Looking around him, Tregarron could see specks of blood.
He saw blood on the path, on the bushes and even more on the grass.
He followed the trail further into the undergrowth, until he found,
lying in the long grass, the lifeless body of the master armorer.

When he pushed open the door, and saw the young
apprentice having the life squeezed out of him, he didn't hesitate.
He'd expected to see some kind of assault taking place. The sounds he'd heard from the room had been clear enough. Quietly spoken maybe,
but that was what aroused his suspicions in the first place. He knew
something was wrong just from the whispered conversation.

From what Hayden had seen in the short time he'd been
among the workshops of Serfacre, everyone shouted at each other. Almost every
conversation seemed to take place at full volume. A few people spoke
normally, it was true, but nobody whispered.

He responded to the situation in the manner he thought
most appropriate. And to any potential witnesses, it would have
seemed the most ordinary sight imaginable. So much so, that he didn't
even feel the need to look around to make sure he wasn't being watched.
To the people of Serfacre, a man raising a large hammer above his
head and bringing it down forcefully wasn't just a routine occurrence,
it was expected.

A few things were unusual though. The hammer was less a
metalworking type and more of the long handled military style. The
man wielding it didn't appear to be a workman but a visitor from the
south. And the sound the hammer made when striking its target was
less metallic clang and more of a dull thud.

The man crumpled, firstly onto the boy he had been
strangling, and then limply onto the coal dust covered floor. Freed
from the choking grasp, the apprentice rolled away from his attacker,
before turning to look at him in shock. His face a deep purple and
his eyes bulging, both with fear and the effects of being strangled.
Hayden looked at the unconscious man laying on the floor and then at
the young apprentice.

"A friend of yours?" he asked the young man
now gasping for breath, but even as he did, he felt a sense
of unease.

His
attempt at humor had been to disguise a feeling of growing dread. It
wasn't because he'd just hit a man over the head with a hammer, the
situation had called for it. Or because he thought Galvyn was hurt, he'd got there in time and the boy would be fine. His
feeling of disquiet was because there was something about the man
he'd just incapacitated. He knew this person.
He
could feel it
.

Hayden stepped inside the room and rolled the man onto
his back, and his sense of foreboding only increased. He could tell
from the tunic, the pugio dagger and the man's boots he was
Coralainian. The red focale scarf that covered his face was a further
indication, and before he'd even removed the mask he knew. There was
just something about him, something he recognized. Not only his
appearance but the raw anger and uncontrolled rage he had seen when
he'd pushed open door.

Removing the scarf only confirmed what he'd already
suspected, even so, he couldn't help but look at the man with a sense
of disbelief.

"You
won't believe this, but he's a friend of mine, or an acquaintance
anyway."
What's
he doing here?

"You know him?" Galvyn said, gasping for air,
while expressing equal bewilderment, "Who is he, what does he
want?" The young man spluttered between coughs.

"You tell me what he wants, it was you he was
after," he said, helping the apprentice to his feet and out of
the bunker. The air was thick with coal dust and it was not helping the boy
get his breath back.

"He was asking about something a merchant brought
in today, a necklace," Galvyn said, shaking and still
breathless, "I told him Tregarron had taken it to the fort,
it didn't seem to be the answer he wanted to hear."

Hayden considered this. Why would Decarius be this side
of the mountains looking for a necklace? And why risk attacking
someone here in Serfacre?

"I can't explain it but you're lucky I was here.
His name is Decarius, he's the Kentarch of Coralai and he's
dangerous, you don't want to get him angry—" a thought
suddenly occurring to him, he walked toward the doorway and looked
into the street outside, "and he's unlikely to be alone."

"There are more?" Galvyn asked nervously.

"If it's a personal matter, he might be on his own,
but you should expect there to be others," he said, stepping
away from the doorway.

He couldn't see anyone he recognized on the street
outside, and now he came to think about it, he wouldn't want to be
seen by them, either.

Galvyn moved to the window and looked out
apprehensively.

"What should we do? Should I get Tregarron?"

"Whoa, not so fast," Hayden had never met
Tregarron and want to keep it that way, "I can't be here, I
can't be questioned about battering someone with a hammer,"
Hayden said, before realizing he was still holding the weapon and
rested it against a wall.

"But you helped. I can tell the captain that you
defended me, you won't be in any trouble." The apprentice said,
brushing off coal dust and wiping away some tears.

"Won't be in any trouble?" he said, taking off
the chainmail vest he was wearing and putting his own tunic back on.
"I've just assaulted the kentarch. Imagine if you were in
Coralai and had just hit Tregarron over the head with a hammer. What
then?" He watched as Galvyn considered this.

"I would be as good as dead," the boy said,
and, after more thought added, "unless nobody knew I'd done it,
and it was Tregarron who was dead."

They both looked at each other.

Hayden walked back into the coal bunker and over to the
motionless body of Decarius, crouched beside the kentarch and took
a closer look.

He could see the man was still breathing and not
bleeding too heavily. Neither detail was surprising to him. He knew
he hadn't landed a fatal blow, nor had he intended to. He had tried
to stop the assault on the boy, not kill the man, and besides,
Decarius wasn't the type to die so easily.

"He's alive," he said, standing up.

"What are you going to do?" Galvyn asked.

Hayden
looked at the unconscious kentarch. "Leave, that's what. I was
planning on going to….north, and that's what I'll do. Only
now, instead of tomorrow."
I
told him my name
.

"Leave? But what should I do? And how can I repay
you for helping me?"

"You can repay me by not saying I was here,"
he put his hand on Galvyn's shoulder, "will you do that for me?"

"You helped me, so I will help you. You can trust
me not to mention you, if that's what you want. But how else I can
explain what happened here, what should I say?"

"Just say you were attacked and defended yourself,"
he realized the implausibility of it even as he said it. Galvyn could
not have overpowered Decarius. The boy could handle a lump hammer,
but not a war hammer.

"And what happens when he regains consciousness?"

That was a good question. Hayden thought for a moment,
while looking through the doorway at the street outside. It would be difficult to move Decarius out that way in his
current state without attracting suspicion, even if he was wrapped up
in blankets. Lifeless bodies had a habit of looking just that,
lifeless bodies, no matter what was done to disguise them.

"Is there a back way out of here?"

"Only the coalmine, we go out that way sometimes,
it can be a short-cut to the fort." The boy's shaking was
subsiding now and he had composed himself again.

"Is it an active mine? How do we reach it?" he
asked, putting his coat back on and making sure he had everything he
came in with. He wanted to leave no sign that he'd been here.

"It's mostly disused now, and we're not likely see
anyone. We get into it through the trapdoor your friend is lying
on."

"He's not my friend, believe me. Let's try that
way."

"Guards." Tregarron called.

In response, the two guardsmen standing at the east
gate, ran down the path and into the bushes to inspect the scene.

"What's happened here, captain?" Holcroft
asked, crouching by the side of Croneygee, determining the nature of
the armorer's injuries, "has the old man had a fall?"

Tregarron looked at the scattered tools, the empty bag
and a bloodied rock that lay near them, "Look for another body,"
he said, ignoring the guards question.

Pearson immediately started scouring the undergrowth,
while Tregarron looked again across the open ground of the dry moat
toward the opposite bank, watching for any sign of movement. As he
did so, a voice called to him.

"Captain, he's not dead," Holcroft said,
looking up from the injured man.

Walking over and into the long grass, he knelt next to
Croneygee and felt for a pulse. It was true. Pallid, unconscious and
hardly breathing, but the man was alive. Tregarron stepped out
of the bushes and looked up, craning his neck, "Hey," he
shouted.

There was the sound of a bolt sliding, followed by a
door opening and guard appeared in a gap on the bailey wall.

"Yes, Captain?" Groucutt shouted down.

"We need help down here. Send everyone who's
available."

"Yes, sir."

"And winch down a stretcher, too."

"Right away, Captain," The guard replied,
disappearing from view. There followed the sound of instructions
being shouted across the courtyard above.

With further help on its way, Tregarron turned his
attention back to the whereabouts of the second man, "Anything?"
he asked Pearson, who was searching the undergrowth near the
fort's rocky motte.

"No, sir. What makes you think there is a second
body?"

"Croneygee was with someone when he was last seen,
they may have both been attacked."

"You think it was an assault?"

"Yes."

"Well, if he was attacked, the motive wasn't
robbery," the guard attending to Croneygee said, "his money
belt wasn't taken."

Tregarron
looked first at Croneygee then at the upturned bag of tools, "It
might be that the assailants were disturbed."
Or
were looking for something else.

He started looking through the pile of tools. What could they have
hoped to find among these? And whatever it was, did they find it? He
went back to where the armorer lay and looked him over. Not only was
his money belt still in place but his keys were, too. He took
possession of both for safe keeping.

At that moment, he saw three guards come out of the east
gate. Seeing them arrive, Tregarron started to plan ahead, he was
going to have to organize a search. Whoever was responsible could not
have gotten far, and while he had a prime suspect in mind and the
direction he would have gone in, he needed to cover other
possibilities.

The most senior of the three guards was called Phelan,
and Tregarron knew him to be a dependable man, so put him in charge
of the most important search party.

"Phelan. I want you to take these two men to search
the Old Moat Road and the coalmine for anyone acting suspiciously.
Start now, move quickly and when you reach the mines, search them
thoroughly."