The Hekamon (37 page)

"Hackett," he shouted, "anything to
report?"

"Nothing yet, Captain," the guard replied, and
on hearing the exchange, his two companions indicated likewise.

Tregarron stopped where he was and looked into the
forest ahead.

It was part of the glades. From the mountains in the
south to the river in the north, the glades extended east from where
he was standing for several miles.

If the assailants had gone into
the forest, they would take some finding. With the few men he had at his
disposal and with the light starting to fade it would be difficult,
if not impossible, to find anyone.

"Men, stop your search," he called to the
three guards, who immediately complied with the order.

With all of his men now standing in silence, Tregarron
stared into the trees, and listened for any sign of life from the
forest before him. A broken branch, a disturbed bird, maybe a cry for
help, especially if Galvyn was being coerced and in need of
assistance.

He could hear nothing, except…there was
something. Now he put his mind to it and listened, really listened, he heard a
noise he'd never noticed before. A rhythmic beating sound that seemed
to emanate from the ground itself and out of the very wood of the
trees.

He tried to place where the sound was coming from and determine
what it could be. After a moments contemplation, he realized that it
could be only one thing, the sounds of the industrious Serfacre mines
and workshops on the other side of the village.

The noise murmuring
through the earth, and emerging, like a heartbeat in the wood, and a whisper in the branches.

Once he'd tuned out that sound, there was nothing but a deathly
silence. Yet the silence wasn't an absence of information, it told
him something. It told him that there wasn't a soul nearby. He turned
to his trusted guardsman.

"Phelan, what do you think?"

"If the Coralainian has come this way and is trying
to avoid detection, he would likely head for the mountains and the
tunnels there, instead of the pass," Phelan replied.

"If he has, we've lost him. And what about Galvyn,
you know him better than I?"

"If he can, then he will return by nightfall, I'm
sure of it."

Tregarron nodded in agreement and turned to the three
guards who'd been searching the area.

"I want you three to
remain on guard at the Willard house. I'll send the night watch to
replace you later," he then turned to back to Phelan.

"A Fennrean necklace has come into my possession,
it's an important find and I need to show it to Lord Jephson. I can't
put it off any longer, so I want you to do something for me. I would
do it myself and don't give this order lightly."

"What's the order, sir?"

"Come with me, you too, Collis."

Walking through an alleyway that separated two
neighboring buildings, Tregarron reached Tivitay street again. He was
deep in thought. It seemed the Coralainian and the young
apprentice had managed to elude him. He was going to have to conduct
a wider search and was thinking of the best way to do it with the few
men he had.

Just then, and from the Demedelei Road, there came a
sound of boots on cobblestones. It was a sound which meant he
could conduct the search he wanted to. The footsteps grew louder and
several guards came into view.

"Good, Teague is here. We need every man we have."

Teague approached, along with the six men he had brought
from the fort. Those men had carried the injured trio from the
trading post, and Tregarron could see they were out of breath from
their exertions. They were about to get even more so.

"Teague, I want you to take two of these men up the
Regis Highway, to the High Gate and, if necessary, all the way to the
pass," he said, and gave Teague a description of the man they
were looking for, before sending him and two of the fitter of the
guards on their way.

Tregarron reasoned, that if the Coralainian
who had been seen with Galvyn was innocent, then he would most likely
have told the innkeeper the truth about his destination. The man
would not risk bumping into Fennreans in the glades and would keep to
the roads. He didn't give much credence to the idea the man was
innocent, but he needed to be sure, so sent Teague to look. He then turned
to the other four guards.

"I want you men to check the other properties here
in Tivitay, you're looking for a serfacre apprentice called Galvyn.
He might be somewhere in the village other than his lodgings, ask
around. When you've done that return to the fort."

That left him with two men. He now gave Phelan the order
he had been reluctant to give.

"Phelan I want you and Collis to go to the
Rhavenbrook Bridge."

"The bridge? But night is falling," Phelan
said, understandably unhappy at been sent into the swamp.

"Don't cross into Fennrean territory, just be sure
he hasn't gone that way. You can see some distance along the
Fennelbek Way from the bridge."

"Do you think it's likely that he's going that way,
sir?"

"There's a Fennrean connection, that much I'm sure
of, I just don't know what it is yet. Go now, I will be back at the
fort, report to me anything you find."

With that, Phelan and Collis, with admirably little
complaint, moved down the street and toward the swamp. While they did, Tregarron started walking back to the fort.

Firstly, he would need to update Lord Jephson on what
was going on. Then he had some prisoners to interrogate. He would
certainly be getting some answers from them. He had his methods, and
if necessary, he would use them.

Hayden thought that he would feel better when he reached the
far bank but he didn't. The bridge was a comparatively fair haven
compared to what lay ahead. He walked on anyway, his mind was made
up.

A few dozen yards along from the bridge, the road forked.
The way here was wide. The confluence of three roads made for
something resembling a clearing forty yards across. Hayden stood at
the center. In years gone by, this location would have been a staging
post for Fennreans preparing for a raid into Demedelei territory, but
it was eerily silent now.

The fork to his right, Ochre Way, headed
toward the heart of the swamp and ultimately to Ochre Hill, the
Fennreans main settlement. The fork to the left, the Fennelbek Way,
skirted the edge of the marshes before entering the dense forests
beyond.

He looked in the direction of Ochre
Hill, a place to be avoided at all costs, before turning left onto
the Fennelbek Way and walking briskly once more. He'd allowed
himself a minute or two of contemplation, here and on the bridge, but
that was all he could spare.

Hayden
had only gone a short distance, when the way started to narrow. The
trees closed in from both sides and the ambient light diminished. It
wasn't dark yet, but it wouldn't be long now, and he could see that
he was going to be breaking one of the few hard-and-fast rules of
this land.
Don't
travel the Fennelbek Way at night
.

He
stopped. He had gone one hundred yards beyond the bridge.
Was
this wise?

He dropped his bag.

If there was a second rule of the marshes it would
probably be; don't travel alone. And the third might go something
like; don't be a Coralainian, or someone who could be mistaken for
one.

He was caught between a rock and a hard place and
weighed up his options.

If he could get a move on, he might be able to make it
through the swamp in a few hours. There would still be the forests
beyond to navigate, though, and it would mean doing all his traveling
at night. While if he went back, there was potentially trouble
waiting for him. In many guises.

His
mind turned to the apprentice armorer he'd met. There would certainly
be trouble in store for that young man and not just with the guards.
There was a chance Galvyn was going to be taking the blame for
assaulting Decarius. Did the boy know what he would be holding
himself accountable for there? He would have no idea. Hayden felt a
dread creeping over him and a nagging thought recurring.
What
was Decarius doing?

It couldn't have been a coincidence. Decarius had no
business in Serfacre, or anywhere else this side of the pass for that
matter, and yet the kentarch had traveled here at practically the
same time he had. There must be something more. A necklace?
Trinkets were never Decarius's style. Unless it belonged to the
saceress that is, but it seemed it belonged to the Fennrean girl.

Decarius was a military man, pure and simple. He was
breaking into an armory and he was looking for something. Something
he was prepared to kill for and take some big risks in the process.
Hayden knew the man was reckless and prone to rage fueled outbursts
of violence, but this seemed extreme, even for him.

Something else now occurred to him. In
his haste to leave he had not given enough consideration to what the
Fennrean girl had said. It sounded like Decarius had attacked another
man, a man called Croneygee, and left him in a bad way. That had been
an important detail, it changed everything and he had been slow to
realize it. It must have been why the guards entered the mine. They
were investigating an assault and were on the kentarch's tail.

When it seemed that Decarius had done nothing wrong,
besides choking the boy and coming off worse. It was unlikely they
would have held him at the fort for long. The man was devious and
would have talked his way out of it by claiming that he was the
victim. But what if he had left someone badly wounded? What if
briefly strangling the boy had been the least of his crimes? In that
event, there is no way Tregarron would let him off so lightly, the
captain might even relish the chance to get his hands on the Kentarch
of Coralai.

Perhaps they should do it Galvyn's way after all. Or at
the very least, not do it this way.

Hayden couldn't leave, that much was becoming apparent,
he needed to know what was going on. He would go back to forest east
of Tivitay and, if necessary, Galvyn's lodgings. At least he knew
where the young man lived, so should be able to find him. He
wouldn't let the apprentice take the blame, he would confront
the kentarch himself.

He had spent years trying to avoid Decarius, the man who
thought him a traitor and who resented his closeness to Volusia. He
would find the man in the mine, bring him round and find out what he
was up to. There would be risks of course, since there had been
guards in the mine, but if anything he would now be on their side.

With Galvyn's help he would work with the Demedelites. The war was a
long time ago and they were not his enemy anymore. Besides, anything
would be safer than the night time journey that he was currently
faced with.

Hayden now realized that his first instinct, to leave
and let others sort it out, had been wrong. This was something he
needed to deal with himself. With his mind made up, he picked up his
bag and turned back.

Alyssa stood perfectly still, listening to the sounds of
the guards retreating, her heart was racing and her mind, too.
Her chest pounded from the anxiety of nearly getting caught, while
her thoughts were consumed by what she had heard. She took some deep
breathes to calm herself and felt Galvyn do the same.

They were
still holding each other for support and reassurance. The boy
had been squeezing her especially tightly as the guards had neared,
and even more so when Tregarron had arrived.

She looked at him, his eyes closed and body shaking. He
didn't seem all that brave and appeared to be holding back tears. Now
she came to think of it, he'd been cowardly. He could have handled
the situation if he'd tried. Once she was certain the guards had
left, she would take him to task about it.

Hearing no more noises, Alyssa peered around the tree,
"They've gone," she said calmly, before becoming angry,
"Why didn't you do it? You could have gone to the guards and
told them, just like I said."

"I…it felt wrong." Galvyn said, opening
his eyes and looking at her.

"You don't always need to tell the truth you know,
you should have been braver."

"I gave my word."

"You could have broken it, Hayden would have
understood," she said, staring at Galvyn, but he remained quiet.
"A small lie can sometimes get you out of trouble, I do it all
the time," she continued, irritated by Galvyn's weakness.

"Well, I did lie to Tregarron earlier. I tried to
protect your necklace from his interest and that didn't work out too
well."

"I guess not," she said, deciding not to be to
critical of him. Neither of them had known what to do, and in the end
it had worked out okay. They hadn't been caught anyway. "Let's
move away from this tree," she added, and the two of the started
to walk further into the forest.

They walked in silence, and while they did, Alyssa thought
more about what she had heard.

Tregarron's words had confirmed her worst fears; he has
the Ettinshel, knows it's important and is taking it to Lord
Jephson. Something else bothered her, too. From the way he had
spoken, it sounded like the necklace was on his person.

Had it been the whole time? If only she'd known, she
could have…what? Taken it from him? Ambushed
him and the fat guard he was with on the highway, darting out from
the trees with dagger in hand. Okay, that probably would have got her
captured, or more likely killed.

Maybe she could have picked his pocket amid the bustle
in the streets of serfacre. That would certainly have stood a better
chance of success, if she was any good picking pockets that is, she'd
never tried before.

Still, anything would have been easier than getting it
out of the fort. To do that she would need help from a
Demedelite. It would be difficult if not impossible for her to do it
alone. Who did she know who could help her?