The Hekamon (36 page)

"Was he in a hurry would you say?"

"Well he paid for two nights in advance, but
cleared his stuff out and left just a few minutes ago, so yes, you
could say that."

"A few minutes ago?"

"Yes. Ten, maybe fifteen minutes at the most."

Tregarron
went back out into the now empty street. The few people who'd been
there when he'd arrived where gone. He considered his options. Should
he have his men search door to door?
Fifteen
minutes at the most,
they could not have got far.

He looked to his right. It was possible to see a good
way down Tivitay Street in the direction of the Rhavenbrook Bridge,
but there was no sign of anyone. Nor could he see anyone to his left,
although his view up the Regis Highway was more limited.

"What do you think, Captain?" Phelan asked, as
he and Collis left the inn and joined him.

"The
fact he left in a hurry, means that he is more than likely our man. He
either found what he was looking for," Tregarron felt the
necklace in his pocket,
Galvyn
knew he had it,
"or
decided it was not be
so easily attainable."

"If we go now, we might be able to reach the pass
before he does," Phelan suggested.

"Hmm," Tregarron mused, noncommittally. "If
he has just assaulted Enyon Croneygee, why would he tell the
innkeeper where he was going next."

"Could have been a mistake on his part."

Or misdirection, he thought to himself, something else
occurred to him, too, "The innkeeper said that the man left by
the back way. Let's see if the guards I sent into the glades have
found anything."

Galvyn was paralyzed with fear. Next to him, Alyssa
jumped to her feet and grabbed his arm, "Move," she said,
and dragged him further into the forest and towards a nearby tree.

They moved quickly and quietly, looking at the three
guards as they did so. Galvyn could see the men were not looking
in their direction but were huddled and talking between themselves.

With the guards attention not on them, they took their chance, and
within seconds were behind the large tree and pressed against it.

"Did they see us? he asked, hardly able to breathe.

"I don't think so," Alyssa replied, peering
around, before drawing back again.

"What should we do?"

"Maybe I should make a run for it."

"What?"

"I will be seen by them if I do," Alyssa said,
in a hushed voice, "but at least I will have a head start, and
if I take these boots off and run fast, I will make it to the bridge
before they can catch me."

"But I'm not fast."

"I wasn't thinking of taking you with me."

"Oh."

"I will distract them, draw them away so you can go in
a different direction."

"Where would I go? I can't go back to Tivitay now,"
he said, whispering as loudly as he dared.

"I
don't know, maybe you
should
go back, you will have to at some point, maybe now is a good time."

"What should I say if I did? I need more time to
think."

"You can blame me. Say a Fennrean thief held a
knife to your throat and threatened you, it's not far from the truth,
they will believe you."

"But you're not a thief and I promised not to
mention you."

"If I run, then I will be seen, and my presence
here will be known anyway," she gave a deep sigh, "and then
Tregarron will know enough already, he will be able to figure it out,
my mother's necklace will be lost forever, I'll never get it back."

"Then don't leave, stay with me, I can help you.
Don't leave me to face the guards by myself," he said looking
into Alyssa's eyes, pleading with her. The Fennrean girl looked back,
her dark brown eyes showed her fear but compassion, too.

"Okay, I won't leave you, we will stay together and
help each other."

"Yes," he said, relieved not to be left
alone.

"We need to keep quiet," Alyssa said, in a
barely audible whisper.

"How close are the guards? Are they about to find
us?" he asked, as Alyssa looked again.

"No, not yet but they are searching," Alyssa
was pressed next to the tree beside him, "They are moving this
way," she drew back into cover, "this tree's not wide
enough to conceal us both."

Galvyn had his back to the tree and Alyssa moved closer
to him, facing him and whispering in his ear. Galvyn, there's a
chance we are going to get caught, we need to think quickly."

"What should we do?" he asked,

"I have another idea."

"What?"

"I think you need to step out and make yourself
known."

"What!"
he asked in disbelief. Was she serious? He might have preferred her
previous plan. It was him
the guards were looking for
.
He would be in trouble, only this time without a Fennrean to blame,
"Maybe you
should
run."

"Galvyn, they are too close now," she
whispered, "I won't have enough of a head start, and these boots
make me too slow. Please don't let them catch me here, I'll be taken
to the fort. You can talk to them. You can do it, I trust you."

"But what would I say?" he whispered, he could
hear the guards talking to each other, they were getting closer.

"Let me think," Alyssa pressed against him, he
could feel her heart beating as fast as his own. "Tell them
Hayden gave you the necklace to repair, say he threatened you,"
she looked into his eyes imploringly. "Say, he told you that
he'd attacked a merchant and he would do the same to you."

"I can't, Hayden didn't threaten me, he helped me,"
he said. She wanted him to take the risks? To blame Hayden? He
promised Hayden he wouldn't tell the guards about him.

"You only need to say it, it won't matter, Hayden
has already gone, they won't follow him into the marshes. We can let
him take the blame," Alyssa said, whispering even more quietly
now.

The rustle of leaves could be heard, the guards had
stopped speaking but their movement was clear, and one was very close
now, less than twenty feet.

Galvyn thought about Alyssa's idea, and as he did, they
held each other tightly, her anxiety at getting caught all to
apparent. She was shaking, they both were. Her fear was contagious
and her thinking was, too. Maybe she was right. Maybe he did need to
find someone to take the blame, and he could see how it might work.

But why Hayden? The man who had saved from being
strangled by Decarius. The man who, in return, he had promised to
help. If Galvyn was determined about anything, it was that he would
not betray Hayden, not if he could help it. Not to get himself out of
trouble.

At the thought of his attacker, another idea came to
him.

Maybe he could say everything Alyssa suggested, only naming
Decarius instead. He could even show where the man was dumped in the
mine to back up his story. That man was almost certainly responsible
for the attack on his boss, Galvyn realized that now, and Tregarron
would think so as well.

The captain would not let the kentarch go back to
Coralai, not now, not after attacking Croneygee.

Hayden would be in
the clear, in every sense. He would not be known about, nor would he
be pursued by Decarius.

This would be better, yet still there was a
problem. It was like Alyssa had said, Tansley complicated things.

Alyssa had encountered Tansley, and from what Galvyn could
understand, had maybe even attacked him. Either way, it sounded like
the man had been tied up for the guards to find. If so, he would tell
Tregarron a version of events that would contradict his own. Tansley
would that say that it was he who had given him the necklace to
repair.

He might also speak of a Fennrean girl. If she had been to
his trading post, then he would know about her. So it would be hard for
him to mislead Tregarron about what had happened. Alyssa was right,
Tregarron would figure it out.

If Galvyn was to say anything, it had to be the truth,
otherwise Tregarron would catch him in a lie. Then he would ask what
else might he have lied about, who was he trying to protect and why.
Suddenly Galvyn asked himself the same question. Who was this girl?
Why was he helping her?

"Galvyn," Alyssa said, her voice fearful,
"please."

He held her tight. Alyssa's plan wouldn't work, not
quite, it just needed some small adjustments. A version of events
that would alleviate all of his problems and maybe even bring him
praise. It only required him to do something he found easy and
admirable.

One shout, that was all he needed to do. A call to the
guards. If he held her, she couldn't run. He would not just have
caught Croneygee's attacker but Tansley's, too. And he would have
brought the rightful owner of the necklace to Tregarron. His earlier
mistake of lying to the captain would be forgiven and he would have
apprehended the violent intruders.

The guards were now within ten feet, they would be able
to see them behind the tree at any moment. He shouldn't wait to be
discovered, he should call to them, it would be better that way.

At that moment he heard a familiar voice. The deep and
unmistakable growl, that reverberated off the surrounding trees, much
as if the man had taken a swing with an ax. It was Tregarron, he was here.

The oaks and elms north of Tivitay, gave way to black
poplars and ash, but Hayden barely noticed as he hurried by them with
ever increasing haste. He wanted to spend as little time as possible
in the glades, even here, at the very fringes of it.

As he strode across the carpet of yellow leaves, the
boggy a ground beneath his feet gave a clear indication he was
approaching the swamp. While all around him, the forest of tall
poplars rose like serrated spear tips, piercing the land and emerging
above.

Hayden stayed amid the trees for at least a mile, before
moving back onto the road. The cambered surface was surer underfoot,
and, more importantly, well out of sight of the village he was
leaving behind.

Ahead of him, the bridge loomed.

The Rhavenbrook Bridge was substantial wooden structure,
constructed of large posts driven into the swamp, held together with
joists and shored up with ropes and nails.

Hayden had crossed the
bridge a few times but not for many years. When he'd encountered it
before, he'd thought it'd seemed ageless. The peat soil, in which the
bridge rested, didn't rot the wood but instead served to preserve it.
And while the Fennreans might claim possession of the bridge, he
doubted they'd built it. It seemed to have been here centuries.

Hayden stepped onto the wooden timbers that spanned the
fifteen foot wide walkway, eyes drawn to the
intricate carvings that lined the sides.

All of the support posts had
them. Supposedly carved by the ferguths, the enforcers of the
marshes, who manned the river crossing during the bewailings.

It
was a plausible explanation. The bridge was in an important strategic
position and had been guarded by the ferguths for years.
Hayden could well believe their skills in woodcraft may have produced
the shapes and reliefs intricately carved on every timber. Yet he was
never entirely convinced by that explanation. The wooden carvings
looked old but felt
ancient
.
They must surely have pre-dated the Fennrean arrival in the swamp.
But if they didn't carve them, then who did? That he didn't know.

Halfway across the bridge, he stopped and placed his
hand on one of the figures. It was the face of a stoical looking man.
The carving was so life-like, that, if carved in the likeness of a
real person, it would have been recognizable to anyone who once knew
him. The face was staring out of the wood and back at the mountains,
maybe even directly at the highest peak itself.

In Demedelei they called the highest peak, the Hekamon.
With the rich seams of minerals they mined out of the rock the basis
of their economy, society and identity. Their lives spent in the
mines, devouring the mountain, or being devoured by it.

While for Fennreans, the Hekamon was the immense
reservoir of water that lay beneath the mountains. The vast, and
seemingly limitless supply of which, was the driving force of the
marshes. The water was something the people here had an insatiable
thirst for. It sustained certain plants that they considered
sacred, with the resultant swamp the price they must have thought
worth paying.

Hayden knew that they were both wrong. In Coralai they
knew what the Hekamon really was and, just as importantly, how it
could be controlled. They also knew that whoever did control the
Hekamon could wield considerable influence. The very land itself
could be shaped and reformed, along with the people who lived there.

He moved to another of the carved figures. Some of the
faces were human, some animal and others were an unearthly mixture,
but all looked in the same direction. He felt the structure had a
purpose beyond being a river crossing. And despite his need to move
on, he waited a while, lost in his thoughts.

Maybe it was the fading light, or the mist that
perpetuated the land here, but Hayden felt as ill at ease as was
possible to, in an otherwise tranquil setting.

Just then, the
distinctive croak of a raven broke his reverie, and he started walking
to the other side. The bridge creaking in places,
bleating like a distressed lamb calling for its mother. The mournful
sound greeted only with silence.

Walking through the alleyway beside the inn, Tregarron
moved into the area behind the houses. He could see a thirty yard
wide ribbon of open land, between the back of the buildings of
Tivitay and the beginning of the forest. He could see the three men
he'd sent to search there, spreading out and already some
way into the woods. He walked briskly to catch them up, and once he
was within ten yards of the first guard, he called out to him.